46 replies to this topic

[Nightmare1]

HlynkaCG, on 03 December 2014 - 04:18 PM, said:

[/size]

NP

Had fun dropping with you today, and hope see you around. Enjoy the Hunchbacks

That's probably one of the best purchases you could make in this game. I love my HBKs!

Btw, I got your PM and replied to it. I'll be in-game quite a bit this weekend after I finish some finals I've got.

[Virgil Greyson]

Nightmare1, on 04 December 2014 - 08:44 AM, said:

That's probably one of the best purchases you could make in this game. I love my HBKs!

Btw, I got your PM and replied to it. I'll be in-game quite a bit this weekend after I finish some finals I've got.

Yep I messaged you. Looking forward to this weekend.

[Koniving]

Mott, on 04 December 2014 - 06:07 AM, said:

But work is work, right Kon?

It is. And I do get paid. Besides, college is for getting better careers.

[luxebo]

Satan n stuff, on 04 December 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

I've actually found a very decent build for it which uses most of the available hardpoints, and is unique to the Grid Iron.
Here it is, it has an AC/20 with 2.5 tons of ammo, an SRM2 with 0.5 tons of ammo, 3 medium pulse lasers and a standard 200 engine with 2 double heat sinks. Armor values are smurfy default minus a bit of leg armor, they are not indicative of my own armor distribution.
It has a lot ( for a medium ) of fairly accurate close range firepower, approximating the pinpoint damage output of an AC/40 Jagermech at much lower cost, however since it uses a 200 engine it's as slow as any stock Hunchback.
The SRM launcher increases the size of the left torso which helps shield the AC/20 and it is remarkably easy to spread damage with this build.

If only they made GI a zombie with AC20 + 2ASRM6s that would make the mech just as powerful if not more than the build mentioned. However GI is more support than anything. Not enough missiles/lasers to blow someone a new one compared to the 4G or 4P. This is the reason why.

[Virgil Greyson]

luxebo, on 04 December 2014 - 05:11 PM, said:

If only they made GI a zombie with AC20 + 2ASRM6s that would make the mech just as powerful if not more than the build mentioned. However GI is more support than anything. Not enough missiles/lasers to blow someone a new one compared to the 4G or 4P. This is the reason why.

I can't even figure out what to really do with my GI, I just don't like it. I tried a few things suggested but it seems odd. I went ahead and bought the regular 4G and I'm using a build from the hunchback guide thread, enjoying that much more.

Someone suggested to build the grid iron like the 4g, but I don't see the point. The bonuses on the 4g favor the AC 20 much more. I guess its good for making money at least.

The 4P is my favorite though, I just like the ability to saw someone in half and be gone before they even know what hit them.

The 4SP is fun, but I am not a big fan of the missiles. I just like the laser precision the 4p offers.

Edited by Virgil Greyson, 04 December 2014 - 05:26 PM.

[Macksheen]

I actually went with an XL engine, Gauss + MPLs. It took me a while, but now I kinda really like the Gauss. The XL+Gauss kinda forces the reminder that you're in the back tossing the Hail Mary's and not to brawl until things get up close and personal - and then you're likely to get sacked like Kozar - but it works for me.

[Virgil Greyson]

XL Looked a little to rich for me at the moment, but I will revisit it once I'm rolling in e-dollars.

[Saketai]

I just gave up and squeezed in all the UAC/5 on my waffle iron. (Such squeeze, wow.) It's indeed an "odd" Hunchback, that tends to end up playing fire support, like luxebo said. It's not awful at it; the left torso is XL-less and expendable, all the guns are mounted high, and it moves at a decent pace.

But, of course, it still doesn't play like a normal Hunchback. If that's what you're looking for, I suspect your waffle iron may gather a lot of dust.

[Macksheen]

Virgil Greyson, on 04 December 2014 - 08:54 PM, said:

XL Looked a little to rich for me at the moment, but I will revisit it once I'm rolling in e-dollars.

One thing that is really nice about the HBK is that while they are all very similar, there is really a ton of variability. Lasers, AC20, SRMs, LRMs and even an AC10 option and the Grid Iron - all supported by some sort of unique quirks (Grid Iron of course in a quirk limbo right now). You can, within that one chassis, get a taste for how to run many of the basic / common weapon systems. The 4J may be my favorite LRM mech at this point, I really enjoyed my Guass Grid Iron, the 4P teaches quite a lot about ghost heat and the 4G is just such a fun beasty. Compare this to some other chassis where all the mechs are (essentially) the same - the HBK is a great teacher with broad scope. Plus, they are all pretty solid.

Anyway, I say this because starting out one thing that helped me was really trying not to expand too quickly. I still don't own all the mechs I want and getting CBills simply takes time at the keyboard - which for most of us is a limited resource. So, what I generally did early-on is I to really run each mech up to mastery. By the time I had mastered three in a chassis, I generally had enough CBills to start on another chassis. This helped both control my own pace of spending, plus it kinda kept me focused a bit so I didn't jump to wildly different mechs back and forth - I do think it helped me learn bits and pieces of the game ... and build CBills so I could buy the things I wanted.

Edited by Macksheen, 05 December 2014 - 05:59 AM.

[Remarius]

Virgil Greyson, on 04 December 2014 - 08:34 AM, said:

Yeah its been rough, but learning a lot facing more experienced pilots. I did a few solo matches and my opponents where much easier, I'm assuming its putting me in lower brackets.

Yeah MWO has a harsh learning experience but you made the right choice of starting by talking to people here so at least you have a "support community".

Grid Iron is getting its quirks redone to a gauss anyway but unless they are great I'm not convinced... I did use to run mine with an AC20 tbh so anything with less firepower seems weak.

And... Welcome to MWO hope to see you around in battle or on Comstar NA if our TZ/comms match up.

Edited by Remarius, 05 December 2014 - 06:35 AM.

[Kjudoon]

Virgil Greyson, on 03 December 2014 - 10:18 AM, said:

Are there any programs out there for mentoring new pilots? I noticed the Comstar teamspeak in the stickied thread, but the tutoring channels seem to be fairly empty.

Looking to try and meet some people and play a few rounds as a group, and maybe learn a thing or two.

The Seraphim run our Free World League Techincal Institute for member pilots which focuses in three different courses: Brawling, Support and Recon. They're 3:1 instructor to student ratio and have really gone a long way to improve many a player game and are taught by some of the best players we have in our unit, and possibly in the game right now. Unfortunately it is open only to Seraphim members as far as I know.

So, if you're looking for a unit like ours, we do scholastic style mentoring as well as many veterans taking players under their wings impromptu to teach them how to do better. That's just the Seraphim way.

www.seekhim.com to see what we're all about.

Edited by Kjudoon, 05 December 2014 - 07:13 AM.

[Virgil Greyson]

Saketai, on 05 December 2014 - 01:48 AM, said:

I just gave up and squeezed in all the UAC/5 on my waffle iron. (Such squeeze, wow.) It's indeed an "odd" Hunchback, that tends to end up playing fire support, like luxebo said. It's not awful at it; the left torso is XL-less and expendable, all the guns are mounted high, and it moves at a decent pace.

But, of course, it still doesn't play like a normal Hunchback. If that's what you're looking for, I suspect your waffle iron may gather a lot of dust.

It is an odd cookie. For something that is obviously sport or football themed, it really can not get in close and tackle anything really, and if you build it to do so, the other chassis have the perks that do it better. Maybe its just pilot error.

I might try some sort of Gauss setup, throw some spiral passes at the enemies cockpit from 100 yards away or something.

Macksheen, on 05 December 2014 - 05:58 AM, said:

One thing that is really nice about the HBK is that while they are all very similar, there is really a ton of variability. Lasers, AC20, SRMs, LRMs and even an AC10 option and the Grid Iron - all supported by some sort of unique quirks (Grid Iron of course in a quirk limbo right now). You can, within that one chassis, get a taste for how to run many of the basic / common weapon systems. The 4J may be my favorite LRM mech at this point, I really enjoyed my Guass Grid Iron, the 4P teaches quite a lot about ghost heat and the 4G is just such a fun beasty. Compare this to some other chassis where all the mechs are (essentially) the same - the HBK is a great teacher with broad scope. Plus, they are all pretty solid.

Anyway, I say this because starting out one thing that helped me was really trying not to expand too quickly. I still don't own all the mechs I want and getting CBills simply takes time at the keyboard - which for most of us is a limited resource. So, what I generally did early-on is I to really run each mech up to mastery. By the time I had mastered three in a chassis, I generally had enough CBills to start on another chassis. This helped both control my own pace of spending, plus it kinda kept me focused a bit so I didn't jump to wildly different mechs back and forth - I do think it helped me learn bits and pieces of the game ... and build CBills so I could buy the things I wanted.

I am doing just that, focusing on the hunchback full time. I have unlocked elite tier and am going to get all those done before I think about trying another mech. I am eyeing the Thunderbolt as my next goal, some of the folks I have been playing with tell me its just an up sized hunchback, so I can translate some lessons I've learned over to it pretty easily. I also want to try the Griffin.

Again I'd really like to try a gauss setup for the Grid Iron, if anyone has any ideas let me know. Would be nice if I could build it around either a 200 Standard or 250 standard, the engines get expensive and those are the only two I have laying around at the moment. I'll try messing around in the smurfy lab and post here and maybe we can compare notes.

Edited by Virgil Greyson, 05 December 2014 - 08:30 AM.

[Virgil Greyson]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...13179c9fb9f0de3

Heres what I came up with for a long range back field Gauss support.

XL Version?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ef0149ac5184106

Edited by Virgil Greyson, 05 December 2014 - 08:18 AM.

[Macksheen]

Virgil Greyson, on 05 December 2014 - 08:14 AM, said:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...13179c9fb9f0de3

Heres what I came up with for a long range back field Gauss support.

XL Version?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ef0149ac5184106

On the XL, use a 255. It's a common engine used by lots of things at a nice breakpoint - you'll leverage it on other mechs plenty - the 260 not as much.

The reason is that XL engines sometimes go up a rank, but have the same weight - the XL250 and 255 are the same weight, as is the XL275 and 280 - so unless you're capped at a hard engine size, the 280 is always better than the 275 (Centurious, FWIW, are capped at 275 mostly).

Engines are expensive, as you know, so even someone like me who's amassed some CBills tries to avoid buying ones that are only useful in one chassis - hence my suggestion to use the 255. You'll use a 255 in tons of places eventually.

So for the XL, I'd drop to a 255 and up-armor. I'd also move more rear armor to the front on the left side - maybe 6 in the back left and 8 in the back center. One thing you'll find is as you play more and more, you can take the rear armor down as your situational and map awareness improves. Beyond that, yeah that's about what I run.

Another note on engines

Many people swap engines. As we get more stuff, we swap less but I honestly still need to hunt from engines and remove from one mech to put in another pretty regularly. I prefer not to, because it's slow and painful, but I still do it. Predominantly I (and others) do it because engines are expensive and somewhat easy to swap in and out. My HBK-4J I run like this:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...f14e42b8335b30f

Note the engine - same as the Grid Iron uses. The rest of mine all pretty much I use a 250STD on (my 4P may be a 275). This means two things for me:
- I can use two engines and run all the HBKs, saving me money
- I can go into inventory and sell the 200s and 260s I'm not planning on using

[Saketai]

You may want to just run regular medium lasers and a 250 Standard, basically a 4G with a Gauss instead of an AC/20. Given that you'll be much further away, MPLs won't really be worth it, especially since you're either giving up a lot of speed or a lot of cash for an XL to carry them.

[Macksheen]

Saketai, on 05 December 2014 - 08:56 AM, said:

You may want to just run regular medium lasers and a 250 Standard, basically a 4G with a Gauss instead of an AC/20. Given that you'll be much further away, MPLs won't really be worth it, especially since you're either giving up a lot of speed or a lot of cash for an XL to carry them.

This certainly works as well in the short term, though you may find yourself a bit tonnage-challenged.

[Virgil Greyson]

Saketai, on 05 December 2014 - 08:56 AM, said:

You may want to just run regular medium lasers and a 250 Standard, basically a 4G with a Gauss instead of an AC/20. Given that you'll be much further away, MPLs won't really be worth it, especially since you're either giving up a lot of speed or a lot of cash for an XL to carry them.

Having trouble fitting the 250 on there without sacrificing the head laser and some armor. I guess two mediums are decent enough?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...4de87ce590b4e6d

[Saketai]

Up to you. I'll echo the bit above about being tonnage-challenged for this; it's pretty much an exercise in cutting as many corners as you can get away with.

Roll it out for a bit and see if you can live without, say, five Gauss rounds and a bit of arm armor, which would be enough for a third laser. That being said, people still shoot the arms on my Iron, even though I don't have any lasers in them at all. (???)

[Sam Slade]

Kjudoon, on 05 December 2014 - 07:13 AM, said:

The Seraphim run our Free World League Techincal Institute for member pilots which focuses in three different courses: Brawling, Support and Recon. They're 3:1 instructor to student ratio and have really gone a long way to improve many a player game and are taught by some of the best players we have in our unit, and possibly in the game right now. Unfortunately it is open only to Seraphim members as far as I know.

So, if you're looking for a unit like ours, we do scholastic style mentoring as well as many veterans taking players under their wings impromptu to teach them how to do better. That's just the Seraphim way.

www.seekhim.com to see what we're all about.

Hail the Spaghetti Monster...

DON'T JOIN ANY ONE UNIT AND EXPECT A SOLID INSIGHT!

Make sure you also try to hold your own in the PUG life underhive... nothing teachers battlefield awareness like having to watch your own back.

[Alienized]

if people need a friendly slap in the face while driving...
im always up for teaching newer pilots (with an evil grin in my face)
PUG is hell but its a nice training ground too. so many fails to learn from *drool*