84 replies to this topic

[Angel of Annihilation]

Well first you should probably always load up at least a few energy weapons just in case but probably the best thing you can do is be a distraction and/or soak up damage that would otherwise be directed at your teammate.

A prime example was the other night when it was down to two enemy and one on my team. One of the enemy was only armed with SRMs and LRMs but was fairly fresh on armor, the other had all kinds of ACs and lasers but was badly damaged. Both of them stuck together and hunter our one lone survivor who was pretty damaged himself. Every time he tried to poke out and fire at the damaged mech, the undamaged one would threaten him from another angle and back him off while the damaged one kept slowly pinking away. Eventually my teammate finally got a good angle on the undamaged mech and laid into him only to realize about 10 seconds later that apparently the undamaged mech had been out of ammo the whole time. Of course by the time he realized this the damage enemy managed to get him into his sights and finish him off.

[Dawnstealer]

I have rammed off the leg of a light before when my LAZORBEAMS were taken out by a freak hit, but I try really hard not to get a mech that's solely ammunition-based (looking at you, Oxide). Especially with the large-caliber weapons, you almost never end a long match with ammo left over, so it's a good idea to ALWAYS have backup energy weapons, even if they're just SLs.

Otherwise? An eject button (or sequence) would be a thing this game needs anyways. Shoot me into the sky rather than a weird, 3rd person rotating view around the carcass of my mech. Hell, let me run around as a pilot and shoot ineffectively at mechs with my pistol or something. At least it would justify the "dead man talking" thing that goes on.

And if you get stepped on? No more team/all chat. You just have to watch. With the annnngels....[insert rousing music here]

[Bilbo]

I wonder how many more people will ignore the fact that the OP stated he had his laser forcefully removed from his person.

[Bregor Edain]

AH Keira_NZ, on 07 October 2014 - 09:37 AM, said:

The Star Colonel is using contractions in his speech which, as I understand it, is sacrilege to true born Clan society. Further to that, only a freebirth would speak in such a way and freeborns do not rise as high as Star Colonel in any Clan.

Khan Phelan Kell? Or perhaps saKhan Ragnar Magnussson? Then there is Star Colonel Diana Pryde.

[Roland]

Nicolai Kabrinsky, on 07 October 2014 - 08:49 AM, said:

TL;DR - What the **** am I supposed to do when my mech runs out of ammo and I have no more weapons?

You're supposed to reflect upon the fact that your mech's loadout is poorly conceived and that you should have brought backup weaponry.

Hell, certain mechs like the Awesome, even in Lore, were largely energy based specifically so that they could operate for extended periods without ammo supply issues.

[Kiyoshi Amaya]

If the rest of your team has to wait eight minutes for the match to end, make them wait. Shame on them for not playing smarter and getting themselves killed so soon. As long as your mech is still up and running, you carry on playing your way. They can always hit that escape button, or get a drink, etc. You're not wasting anyone's time. They're wasting their own.

[C E Dwyer]

brilliant OP.

yeah lol, timers suck.

If people are that bothered they can disco themselves, once dead.

I guess you could limp back to base, and disco, as you climb down the mechs ladder, to hide under a rock..

Ohh no you can't as a deliberate disco is bad..but hiding in a shut down mech thats damaged having used up all its ammo isn't, just don't look at the screen until the music stops

yeah victors suck when the canon and the srms are gone and some selfish sod has shot the arm off you had your lasers in

Edited by Cathy, 07 October 2014 - 10:06 AM.

[Tristan Winter]

Bishop Steiner, on 07 October 2014 - 09:42 AM, said:

While I agree with the end point, having a "concede" feature of some sort, I really would worry about all the lily livered people using it before they were the last man standing in such a situation.

If you have no weapons, I don't see how it could be abused, really. I guess people could empty all their ammo in order to eject, but... so what?

Bishop Steiner, on 07 October 2014 - 09:42 AM, said:

To me...why would I, as the sole survivor, disarmed, want to stare at my base for 8 minutes? I got better things to do, myself. If there is ANY chance of pulling a win (like the enemy are down to 2-3 extremely damaged units that seem dumb enough to push on my base defenses), then sure, I'll fight til the bitter end.
But seriously, are you that concerned about your stats that you won't just finish it off? Because there certainly isn't any other reason for dragging it out like that.

Well, it depends on the mech. For some mechs, I'll try to watch my KDR, just because it's a kind of a personal challenge and the achievement system in this game really doesn't work like it should. But beyond that, I think it really messes with immersion when you can't play the way you want, because you have to worry about wasting other people's time. Like, if there was a way to end match if all remaining mechs are disarmed, but have returned safely to their base, then it would feel more like a real scenario.

It's kind of like strategy games like X-Com, where some missions just fail, and you have to pull your troops out of there. If you play Ironman mode, you can't quicksave or quickload, so you just have to retreat. If your troops are dying, sometimes you just have to retreat and make it back to the dropship, to minimize your losses. You don't just send them running towards the enemy to kill them off.

Immersion still matters to me, dammit. It would be nice with a little bit more realism, since we don't really have much in the way of realistic scenarios yet. It's pretty much just team deathmatch, with a bit of "stand on the square". Invasion / dropship mode will give us a bit more immersion, make it feel a bit more like real warfare, but... there's plenty of room for improvement.

[Bishop Steiner]

Bilbo, on 07 October 2014 - 09:44 AM, said:

It is not his responsibility to die so the match can end. It is the enemies responsibility to hunt him down and destroy him. No freebies. You have to work for it.

did I say it was his responsibility?

*Rereads post.*

Nope.


I DID, however ask why he would want to draw out the inevitable, if it was indeed, as his OP suggested, inevitable, anyhow? We don't have pilot death, and at that point what is left to be gained, aside from protecting stats (whoopty doo?)?

So I did ask, why he was so averse to simply having a video game death, and getting onto his own, next and hopefully better ending match?

[Necromonger Commander]

A medium laser weighs a ton and can easily swing a battle. The only mech that cannot add a back up laser is the Catapult A.

If you think your build is so great that it can't drop a ton for ml or a 1/2 ton for a small laser you are probably not as smart as you think you are.

[Bilbo]

Bishop Steiner, on 07 October 2014 - 10:06 AM, said:

did I say it was his responsibility?

*Rereads post.*

Nope.


I DID, however ask why he would want to draw out the inevitable, if it was indeed, as his OP suggested, inevitable, anyhow? We don't have pilot death, and at that point what is left to be gained, aside from protecting stats (whoopty doo?)?

So I did ask, why he was so averse to simply having a video game death, and getting onto his own, next and hopefully better ending match?

There are some who enjoy the whole escape and evasion exercise.

[Bishop Steiner]

Viktor Drake, on 07 October 2014 - 09:52 AM, said:

Well first you should probably always load up at least a few energy weapons just in case but probably the best thing you can do is be a distraction and/or soak up damage that would otherwise be directed at your teammate.

A prime example was the other night when it was down to two enemy and one on my team. One of the enemy was only armed with SRMs and LRMs but was fairly fresh on armor, the other had all kinds of ACs and lasers but was badly damaged. Both of them stuck together and hunter our one lone survivor who was pretty damaged himself. Every time he tried to poke out and fire at the damaged mech, the undamaged one would threaten him from another angle and back him off while the damaged one kept slowly pinking away. Eventually my teammate finally got a good angle on the undamaged mech and laid into him only to realize about 10 seconds later that apparently the undamaged mech had been out of ammo the whole time. Of course by the time he realized this the damage enemy managed to get him into his sights and finish him off.

i think a lot of people miss the part where he said his VTRs laser arm was shot off? (Maybe he should bold, underline, italicize and increase the font size (preferably change it to comic sans for "teh effectz")on that in the OP?)

Of course, he could spend IRL money and get a Dragonslayer, and have torso lasers, but really, if the answer is "you have to run only mechs with reserve torso energy slots" then there is a problem, IMO.

I have had my mech totally neutered too. No allies left to spot for (or they were too dumb to take advantage of it) no one left to be walking armor for. There really isn't anything left to do.

I just don't see the appeal of hunkering down for the next 8 minutes. I'd personally, rather get on to the next match, myself, at that point.

But that's just me.

Bilbo, on 07 October 2014 - 10:08 AM, said:

There are some who enjoy the whole escape and evasion exercise.

Not sure how shutting down in a VTR really qualifies as that. A spider leading the pack on a merry chase? Yeah, a bit douchey, but especially if my team or the opfor was acting like buttholes, I can see the appeal. Otherwise? Check please.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 07 October 2014 - 10:11 AM.

[Tristan Winter]

Corbon Zackery, on 07 October 2014 - 09:43 AM, said:

Step one would be to buy a laser.

nitra, on 07 October 2014 - 09:50 AM, said:

if their uac5 boat is so critical im sure they could spare 1 ton of ammo for a laser .. if thats just to much than half it and equip a small laser ...

Viktor Drake, on 07 October 2014 - 09:52 AM, said:

Well first you should probably always load up at least a few energy weapons just in case

Roland, on 07 October 2014 - 09:58 AM, said:

You're supposed to reflect upon the fact that your mech's loadout is poorly conceived and that you should have brought backup weaponry.

Sometimes you bring energy weapons, but they get destroyed. I have now put this point in bold in the OP, to make it easier for everyone.

Necromonger Commander, on 07 October 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

A medium laser weighs a ton and can easily swing a battle. The only mech that cannot add a back up laser is the Catapult A.
If you think your build is so great that it can't drop a ton for ml or a 1/2 ton for a small laser you are probably not as smart as you think you are.

EDIT: Aaaaand another one.

Edited by Nicolai Kabrinsky, 07 October 2014 - 10:27 AM.

[mountainlion]

Why does it have to be a eject button? Why not a kamikaze suicide button? Last man gets the chance to overload his mechs powerplant.

[Davers]

I don't see the purpose of an eject button other than trying to save your stats. If being stripped of all your weapons and running out of ammo is a constant problem for you then play Conquest where you can still contribute to the team when neutered.

[Bregor Edain]

Necromonger Commander, on 07 October 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

A medium laser weighs a ton and can easily swing a battle. The only mech that cannot add a back up laser is the Catapult A.

If you think your build is so great that it can't drop a ton for ml or a 1/2 ton for a small laser you are probably not as smart as you think you are.

Neither are you if you for that matter. There are situations where you lose ALL weapons and are a stick.

[Bilbo]

Bishop Steiner, on 07 October 2014 - 10:11 AM, said:

i think a lot of people miss the part where he said his VTRs laser arm was shot off? (Maybe he should bold, underline, italicize and increase the font size (preferably change it to comic sans for "teh effectz")on that in the OP?)

Of course, he could spend IRL money and get a Dragonslayer, and have torso lasers, but really, if the answer is "you have to run only mechs with reserve torso energy slots" then there is a problem, IMO.

I have had my mech totally neutered too. No allies left to spot for (or they were too dumb to take advantage of it) no one left to be walking armor for. There really isn't anything left to do.

I just don't see the appeal of hunkering down for the next 8 minutes. I'd personally, rather get on to the next match, myself, at that point.

But that's just me.


Not sure how shutting down in a VTR really qualifies as that. A spider leading the pack on a merry chase? Yeah, a bit douchey, but especially if my team or the opfor was acting like buttholes, I can see the appeal. Otherwise? Check please.

Personally, I don't bother with it. I also don't generally wait for matches to end before I start a new one unless it's clearly going to be over pretty quickly. The benefits of having more than one of the mechs I enjoy running.

Edited by Bilbo, 07 October 2014 - 10:16 AM.

[Gorgo7]

Fut, on 07 October 2014 - 09:33 AM, said:

My suggestion would be to stop building Mechs that are 100% dependent on ammunition.
There's a reason why Mechs designed for long engagements carried lots of lasers.

FUT try reading the post.
He had a laser but it was shot away.

[Bishop Steiner]

Nicolai Kabrinsky, on 07 October 2014 - 10:05 AM, said:

If you have no weapons, I don't see how it could be abused, really. I guess people could empty all their ammo in order to eject, but... so what?

Several things:

1) You would need a lengthy set of "conditions" to allow for it. (When is it allowed? Without parameters, you would get people seeing Terra Theram, or LORDS on the other team, or a bunch of Trial Mechs on theirs, and simply ejecting to find a more favorable match. So what limiters are on it to prevent griefign the team that way?)

2) If you have no guns, but teammates, you can still act as a shield, possibly salvage the match. Good teams do it all the time. I even see good PUGs do it, though much less frequently. I already too frequently see (especially certain comp players) shut down hiding in a corner end of match "because they have no guns/ammo), but could still actually be helping the team. You better believe I got no issue giving away their bloody position at that point. Screw their stats and epeen.

[Tristan Winter]

Davers, on 07 October 2014 - 10:12 AM, said:

I don't see the purpose of an eject button other than trying to save your stats. If being stripped of all your weapons and running out of ammo is a constant problem for you then play Conquest where you can still contribute to the team when neutered.

And on the other hand, I don't see the purpose of letting the enemy team go kill an unarmed mech, to stroke their ego. Where's the challenge? No more resistance, the match is over. Eject. ggclose. If people like killing mechs that don't fire back, they can visit training grounds. If I disconnect, I get reported.

Also, I wouldn't play Conquest even if PGI paid me to do so. You can't really contribute much if you have to stand on a square for 3 minutes for something to happen. While broadcasting your position to the enemy.