57 replies to this topic

[Transient Knight]

Tutorial, horrid. Instructions for building mechs equally so. This game is a nightmare for a new player. How do you expect someone to grasp the basics of this game? Seriously....

[Appogee]

You ask us, and we help you.

What would you like to know?

FWIW, the layers of complexity - particularly, building Mechs with unique combinations of equipment, which also influence how you pilot and fight in the Mechs - are also what makes the game rewarding in the longer term.

So, sure, it's not as simple as COD. But it also has staying power beyond COD for that reason.

Edited by Appogee, 16 October 2014 - 03:41 PM.

[HammerMaster]

Sorry to say that this is true bud. I will say the community is MUCH MORE HELPFUL. Get teamspeak 3. Get into the COMSTAR servers. Make friends. Learn. Profit.

http://mwomercs.com/...e-chat-servers/

Edited by HammerMaster, 16 October 2014 - 03:46 PM.

[TercieI]

Arcanum Pax, on 16 October 2014 - 03:34 PM, said:

Tutorial, horrid. Instructions for building mechs equally so. This game is a nightmare for a new player. How do you expect someone to grasp the basics of this game? Seriously....

Appogee, on 16 October 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

You ask us, and we help you.

What would you like to know?

Both of these things. Yes, it's brutal to start, but there are a number of us who are more than happy to help you out. Ask anything.

My #1 tip, given to me on my first day in MWO (~18 months ago): Forget the in-game mechlab, only use it for final assembly, do everything else on this website: Smurfy.

Edited by Terciel1976, 16 October 2014 - 03:42 PM.

[Flak Kannon]

Hi.

Ive been playing for 2 years, and still have issues with the UI... and it's UI 2.0 for your information.. this is supposed to be the better version...

If anyone didnt mention, there is a third party website that most of us use to prebuild our mechs before we buy or build anything in the mech lab.

Its called smurfy...

hers the link..

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab


Smurfy isnt easy either..

If you like this game, learning it is a bit of a grind.. sorry for that. But once you get the basics down, please, please come back here and ask us questions. You'll get answers within 5 minutes..

And when you drop into a match, introduce yourself as new, and some will friend you, so you can chat in real time within the client if you have questions on where to click for this, that or the other...


Feel free to add Flak Kannon if you'd like. My play times are mostly mid-morning, MST, Mondays through-Thursdays..

Grind it out, and good luck!

[IllCaesar]

Mechwarrior, as a series, is easily one of the most unintuitive shooters out there, even without any problems like a poor tutorial or that the only way to learn is by getting your butt kicked by more experienced players with better mechs. However, its also one of the most rewarding shooters out there because all of these layers of complexity are quite meaningful.

A few tips. Use smurfy instead of the in-game mechlab. Read the tutorials made by forumites here on these forums, because they're very much in depth. Ask questions if you have them. Wait until buying a mech with that Cadet Bonus until you've got an idea of what you want. Three of the most important skills to learn, which are best learned early on so you develop the habit, is to spread damage, manage heat, and spot. Only theb33f kills theb33f.

[Bigbacon]

if you have played a previous MW game, it isn't that bad.

if you haven't...then I can see where this is a problem.

[TercieI]

Bigbacon, on 16 October 2014 - 03:55 PM, said:

if you have played a previous MW game, it isn't that bad.

if you haven't...then I can see where this is a problem.

I hadn't. With a little help, it's manageable.

[990Dreams]

Arcanum Pax, on 16 October 2014 - 03:34 PM, said:

Tutorial, horrid. Instructions for building mechs equally so. This game is a nightmare for a new player. How do you expect someone to grasp the basics of this game? Seriously....

Tutorial is pretty bad. Besides that, they're working on it. Sort of.

You need to elaborate more if you want any actual help here on the forums. Otherwise you'll end up being a white noise whiner. And there's enough of that as it is.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

A lot of us have experience with the mechlab from other games in the Mechwarrior series or from the experience with the Battletech table top game. It can be confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it.

Appogee, on 16 October 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

You ask us, and we help you.

What would you like to know?

This subforum is pretty much the welcoming party to the game for new players so don't hesitate to ask for help.

[Darth Futuza]

Arcanum Pax, on 16 October 2014 - 03:34 PM, said:

Tutorial, horrid. Instructions for building mechs equally so. This game is a nightmare for a new player. How do you expect someone to grasp the basics of this game? Seriously....

Just curious, what kind of games do you think are the most intuitive? (For science.)

[Spike Brave]

Please check out my youtube channel. Got a bunch of stuff to help out the new players. Welcome aboard and if you need help, please just ask. We got your back.

https://www.youtube....tNUCKmcC0Q7pKJQ

[Redshift2k5]

I can understand your frustration.

If you're willing to give it another shot, please feel free to ask us if you have any questions, and we can either provide you some in depth responses, point you to excellent tutorials, or both.

[Koniving]

With the exception of "Autopilot" and the specific keys... this Tutorial might teach you quite a bit.


If you haven't got time, well here's a sampler for the lols.

"You have successfully displayed the ability to do what I tell you to do. I like that. My dog does what I tell it to. I like my dog. I should introduce you two."
He's quite the character.

Good luck, and Spike Brave here has some really good tutorials for just about everything on his youtube videos.

Edited by Koniving, 16 October 2014 - 05:23 PM.

[990Dreams]

Koniving, on 16 October 2014 - 05:14 PM, said:

With the exception of "Autopilot" and the specific keys... this Tutorial might teach you quite a bit.
[scissor noises]

If you haven't got time, well here's a sampler for the lols.
[all your videos are belong to us]

He's quite the character.

Good luck, and Spike Brave here has some really good tutorials for just about everything on his youtube videos.

Minus the fact that it is possible to instantly kill things in the videos, sure, why not.

Edited by DavidHurricane, 16 October 2014 - 05:18 PM.

[Koniving]

DavidHurricane, on 16 October 2014 - 05:17 PM, said:

Minus the fact that it is possible to instantly kill things in the videos, sure, why not.

It's far easier to do that in this game. Twin AC/20s + anything's cockpit = instant kill.

[Darth Futuza]

Koniving, on 16 October 2014 - 05:14 PM, said:

He's quite the character.

LOL. Truer words were never spoken. I always legged him with my splas before finishing the mission, I was his greatest scrub.

Koniving, on 16 October 2014 - 05:25 PM, said:

It's far easier to do that in this game. Twin AC/20s + anything's cockpit = instant kill.

I always liked putting 10 machine guns on something and watching it die.

[Koniving]

Darth Futuza, on 16 October 2014 - 05:33 PM, said:

LOL. Truer words were never spoken. I always legged him with my splas before finishing the mission, I was his greatest scrub.

I always liked putting 10 machine guns on something and watching it die.

That's an on-going issue with taking the tabletop rules out of context from a summary of a unit of time and taking them as a per shot gospel with artificially inflated firing speeds. For example you notice how the small pulse lasers fired like machine guns but generated the full 2 heat per laser per shot (they were nasty hot for its 40 threshold)? Yeah. O.o; Though for some reason MGs always get inflated damage. It was possible to do 82 damage per second with MGs on MW2 due to a combination of stacking them + the inflated damage.

Spoiler

(An example of taking TT out of context. The ruleset for an AC/20 being 20 damage, 5 uses, and 7 heat per use isn't 20 damage per shot with 5 shots per ton and 7 heat per shot. It's per 'rating', with a rating being a unit of time [typically between 5 and 10 seconds].

'20' is a damage rating of the weapon, with variants ranging from 100 shots [Victor's Pontiac 100] to 4 shots on the Chemjet Gun for the IS to get it. Picture MWO's IS AC/20 firing a bit faster to squeeze off 4 rounds in 6 seconds instead of 3 in 8 seconds, but at 5 damage per shot and then a 4 or so second 'cassette (ammunition magazine) change' and there's your Chemjet Gun, doing 5 damage per shot and 20 damage in 10 seconds.

But while it's always been depicted as a burst or auto fire weapon of many shots in every single Mechwarrior in history... MWO made it a one shot weapon. That's taking TT out of context.)

(was sleepy, edited and made a fix.)

Edited by Koniving, 17 October 2014 - 07:04 AM.

[Khaze]

Complexity and accessiblity need not be mutually exclusive. This game is complex, but it definitely isn't accessible.

Sadly, for now anyway, you're stuck with persevering what you're given, or go home. The community will help you with your problems, and joining a group ought to help you along immensely, but you're still going to be looking at a lot of painful matches and even more painful aftermaths when you realise you simply have no XP to unlock your mech's potential and no C-Bills to buy better equipment, much less more mechs.

But it gets better. Once you get your first fully upgraded mech with some decent loadout, buying and leveling new mechs gets easier, as you'll always have a steady income of C-bills with the good mech, and you don't have to re-buy everything, just shuffle your equipment around your mechs.

[TheCaptainJZ]

The learning curve is quite steep, but getting that first kill is very satisfying as a result.

That should be an acheivement