19 replies to this topic

[Vermin]

how much has changed?

[Dirk Le Daring]

A lot has changed, the game is a lot better, but the mercenary is extinct.

[Joanna Conners]

Vermin, on 15 December 2014 - 09:49 PM, said:

how much has changed?

A lot. And Mercs are stronger than ever, dunno what the other guy is talking about.

[Void Angel]

A lot - welcome to Community Warfare! It's really a lot to take in at once; much of what's different will show up in subtle ways while you play. The most important things I'd say to remember are:

• The Clans. Clan weapons are burst-fire, with two exceptions (PPCs and Gauss,) and have longer beam durations than their Inner Sphere counterparts. They are also insanely light, but typically cannot sustain fire as long as the Inner Sphere, even with their smaller double heat sinks. Their Battlemechs are also roughly equal in speed and take heat penalties instead of destruction from an XL side-core. The Clans are designed to be roughly equal to the Inner Sphere in terms of power, but currently they boast some of the most powerful BattleMech chassis; do not get into a staring contest with the Adjective Animals - you have been warned.
  
• Massive tuning changes. Some of the changes have been minor but important, others have been more drastic. Projectile speeds, beam durations, maximum ranges for nearly all ballistics, Heat scale penalties and groups... a ton has changed in the last year. Check out Smurfy's Amazing Reference Site and at least glance over the weapon stats. SRM hit registration is another important change - while some bugs do occur, a major issue with explosive weapons has been fixed.
  
• Quirk System! Many obsolete Battlemechs have been revitalized with the additions of chassis-specific quirks. You can see the quirks for Battlemechs you own by mousing over them in the UI's Mechlab, or on Smurfy's Awesome Reference Page, as well as The Original PGI List.
  
• To get the best out of Community Warfare, it's usually best to connect with an in-game "Unit," be they house regulars or Mercenaries in the service of one faction or another. The recruiting threads in the Community Warfare section of the forums are a good place to start.

[Vermin]

Lol I remember smurfy's. where are the quirks listed?

Edited by Vermin, 15 December 2014 - 10:29 PM.

[Threat Doc]

Dirk le Daring is mostly correct about mercenaries. At the end of each contract, you have to align yourself with another house; you cannot be your own mercenary unit, for the time being. PGI could give two shits about faction, except for Inner Sphere vs Clan, but have allowed us to have worlds to fight over between borders anyway. The command and control functions we were told were going to be part of the game are barely extant... we get to assign ranks, invite or kick people as we see fit, and there are coffers in which your buddies can throw money, but there are no other command and control functions.

<<< Take a look at my symbol of allegiance (12/15/2014 at 10:45pm PDT)... does that look like a merc image, at all? Nope, House Steiner.

There is no real contracting system, the existing one is garbage. In CW, the Match Maker doesn't exist, it's first-come first-served, but hey, you get to fight on a planet, right? There is no objective-based warfare, though it looks like PGI might be experimenting with such, because now you get to destroy generators to open big-nasty gates, and another one to allow you to destroy a big-nasty orbital gun platform. If you're on defense, all you have to do is kill a lot of 'Mechs to stop their attack, while if you're on attack, all you have to do is murder ball your way to the big-nasty orbital gun platform and destroy it to win. There is no strategy, and barely any tactics to speak of, but hey CW Phase Two was put out a week ahead of time, so Merry Christmas, right?

The drop system for CW is limited to 140-240 tons, but if you face off Clans vs. Inner Sphere -and I have yet to play an Inner Sphere vs. Inner Sphere drop, yet-, the Clans are so overpowering it's usually a loss, unless you have absolutely superior coordination and amazing shot-callers. A force of dumb Clan players can overwhelm anything else pretty easily. I would love to wait around for Phase Three, but I'm not sure how much longer even I can hang on, and I've been a hardcore player since the tabletop in '84.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 15 December 2014 - 10:46 PM.

[Vermin]

i noticed the link and got carried away and am only getting back to say thanks now.

and yeah i grew up with battletech as well, didnt get into the table top until the late 90's tho. I am acrually grabbing a used copy of the 25th anniversary edition for 30$ on friday (my 4th edition rules stuff is getting shoddy)

Edited by Vermin, 15 December 2014 - 10:56 PM.

[Vermin]

Anyway, on topic here. Last time I was playing certain mechs were over common (raven) how has the game balanced out? I imagine with the clan mechs direwolves/timberwolves would be fairly popular.

I am excited that the Mad Dog is here. does it have 360 torso twist?

Edited by Vermin, 15 December 2014 - 11:03 PM.

[SnagaDance]

No 360 degrees torso twist for the Mad Dog no. Timberwolves might be the best mech in the game and Dires are extremely deadly for anyone trying to out stare them. They are also slow lumbering behemoths (no, I don't mean Stone Rhinos) so a little catching one alone should murder it. While some mechs have been overly popular the aforementioned quirk system has brought all kinds of mechs out of hiding. I mean, you actually see mechs like Dragons, Quickdraws and Trebuchets, 'nough said eh?

[Vermin]

I was looking through the quirks, I currently own a raven 3L an awesome 8R and a Splat-Cat. I am kinda glad that they may not be totally useless.

I'm sure despite what look like nerfs the 3L is still viable, and has ECM been nerfed?

The other two I just find fun.

Edited by Vermin, 16 December 2014 - 01:38 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Vermin, on 15 December 2014 - 10:28 PM, said:

Lol I remember smurfy's. where are the quirks listed?

go to the "Battlemechs" section, then the "Mech Quirks" section, pick the relevent section it is split by Clan/IS and weight class

Vermin, on 15 December 2014 - 11:02 PM, said:

Anyway, on topic here. Last time I was playing certain mechs were over common (raven) how has the game balanced out? I imagine with the clan mechs direwolves/timberwolves would be fairly popular.

I am excited that the Mad Dog is here. does it have 360 torso twist?

there are still some mechs which are seen more oftern than others (e.g. Timber Wolf, Stormcrow, Dire Wolf, Shadow Hawk, Firestarter) but thanks to the recent IS Quirk pass (giving most IS mechs boosts to specific weapons making most of the weeker chassis much stronger) all IS chassis are now played frequently, but there are a few Clan Chassis that are rairly seen.

[Rogue Jedi]

Vermin, on 16 December 2014 - 01:37 AM, said:

I'm sure despite what look like nerfs the 3L is still viable, and has ECM been nerfed?

ECM has not been nerfed, however BAP (and Clan Active Probe) has recived a buff to its counter ECM trait, it currently counters ECM at (I think) 350m, I suppose this is an indirect nerf to ECM.

counters for ECM these days are:
NARC (if you hit the ECM Mech with a NARC it turns the ECM off as long as the NARC is active),
TAG (while you are holding the laser on the ECM mech its ECM is deactivated)
PPC (a PPC hit shuts down ECM for 4 seconds)
BAP counters ECM inside 350m
UAV counters any ECM within range
ECM set to counter (counters ECM within range)

[Vermin]

im thinking of putting PPCs or large lasers on my 3L. I didnt enjoy the cookie cutter build that was popular. I am honestly looking foreward to this installer finishing. I just got the internet back after aspan and I cannot believe how much i missed this game.

Edited by Vermin, 16 December 2014 - 02:09 AM.

[TheCaptainJZ]

I think they brought the range of bap's counter down to 270 or so now.

2 er llas is the cookie cutter build now.
streaks are a lot weaker than they use to be.

and the lagshield is largely gone

[Vermin]

on my end thats good news for so many reasons.

there were air strikes just about to be added before I left. I know this is going to be a complicated answer,how do they work?

1 ER-PPC, 2 SSRM2, and 1 medium laser, with ECM and AMS. thats what i used to run

Edited by Vermin, 16 December 2014 - 02:18 AM.

[Iothil]

For quirks I suggest this site, however, better overview.
http://snafets.de/mwo/quirks.htm

Vermin, on 16 December 2014 - 02:17 AM, said:

on my end thats good news for so many reasons.

there were air strikes just about to be added before I left. I know this is going to be a complicated answer,how do they work?

1 ER-PPC, 2 SSRM2, and 1 medium laser, with ECM and AMS. thats what i used to run

You aim to where you want them to hit, then press the configured button, flare shows up, after a few secs hell breaks loose. Artillery hits a circular area around the flare, Airstrike hits a linear area behind the flare (behind at the point when the flare was placed). For the actual numbers (dmg, delay, areas) see smurfy.

[HlynkaCG]

Vermin, on 15 December 2014 - 10:28 PM, said:

Lol I remember smurfy's. where are the quirks listed?

On smurfy's and in the mechlab on the mechs stat card

[Redshift2k5]

Vermin, on 16 December 2014 - 02:17 AM, said:

on my end thats good news for so many reasons.

there were air strikes just about to be added before I left. I know this is going to be a complicated answer,how do they work?

1 ER-PPC, 2 SSRM2, and 1 medium laser, with ECM and AMS. thats what i used to run

airstrikes, artillery, UAV, and coollant flush are consumables. You can buy them for MC or c-bills. The C-bill versions start out weaker than the MC version, but you can buy an upgrade with GXP, this upgrade makes the C-bill version identical to the MC version. (so the MC version is never pay to win, you just get a bitmore convenience)

you can bring up to 2 consumables per mech, but only one of either artillery or airstrike. you can choose to auto-refill consumables by using a checkbox in the mechlab.

There are default keybindings for consumable slot 1 and consumable slot 2, and many non-default keybindings you can customize for consumables as well (if you want a specific key for a specific consumable instead of which slot). Coolant flush activates immediately, UAV flies straight UP from your current position, artillery/airstrike drops smoke where your reticule is aimed.

[Threat Doc]

Vermin, on 16 December 2014 - 01:37 AM, said:

I'm sure despite what look like nerfs the 3L is still viable, and has ECM been nerfed?

No, and it's use is pretty rampant and battlefield-owning.

Rogue Jedi, on 16 December 2014 - 01:46 AM, said:

ECM has not been nerfed, however BAP (and Clan Active Probe) has recived a buff to its counter ECM trait, it currently counters ECM at (I think) 350m, I suppose this is an indirect nerf to ECM.

Yeah, this was recently reduced to 240m. Even as an LRM guy I have to admit the 350m was too much, and the 240m works well enough.

As for 'Mechs, PGI have done an amazing job making all 'Mechs useful, though the usefulness of each is predicated on what each player feels could be useful; for example, there is nothing I can do with Thunderbolts, regardless of how much I loved the 'Mech on the tabletop, while others can make them dance and sing. Likewise, a lot of folks are hard-pressed to use Catapults to effect, now, but I generally do fairly well. In fairness, CW has changed some things, forcing people to re-evaluate the 'Mechs they have in their bays for CW, and what they can only use in PUG drops.

[Mechavellian Warrior]

I'm with you bro. I haven't been on since the begining. Trying to find my way back around the game. Was having troubles getting on, turned out to be a mod I ran on WOT that kept this game from starting. Would like to find a group to teach this old dog new tricks so to speak. lol.