41 replies to this topic

[Jonny Slam]

Late Thursday night I got a be in my bonnet about the the Cicada CDA-C3, and it's sweet ERPPC quirks and combining them with that wicked speed. Before I knew it, and without real consideration I was burning through C-bills on a sparkly new C3 and two other variants. Cue lost hours to mastering them all, and spending the C-bills to fully upgrade them all on the way, because once you played a upgraded mech it's sooo hard to go back.

Okay final result: fully loaded and unlocked CDA-C3, and.....uh.....uh.... hmmmmm I like this fire rate but... it's only one PPC. Hmmmmm I can get everywhere crazy fast ..... and shoot at them with my one PPC...... where did all those C-bills go?!


All I am saying is really think about it before going on a mastery rampage, make sure that your looking at a mech that will really be fun for your play style, before burning bucks and hours only to find that while it's a good rig, it's just not that into you.

Granted the three Cicadas wont go to waste and they are all good rigs, but where in the past I was happy to grind out Bots, well with the CW running It was driving me nuts to be spending the time in single drops grinding when I could have been doing CW and winning planets. Before you ask, yes I did bring the Cicadas into some CW rounds, but there was two problems with that, 1) unlocked they were really behind the curve in many matches, 2) much faster xp in the straight single drops.

So there it is, Jonny's advice for anyone about to make a impulse chassis choice.

Edited by Jonny Slam, 05 January 2015 - 03:14 PM.

[Deathlike]

Plan ahead?

That is rule #1 for grinding. It'll be boring, but it would suck less for everyone's sake.

Preplan with smurfys... above all else.

Edited by Deathlike, 05 January 2015 - 03:17 PM.

[TercieI]

Solid advice. Pretty much the opposite of my experience. I find CW so dull, I'm finally leveling tons of mechs.

[Jonny Slam]

Deathlike, on 05 January 2015 - 03:16 PM, said:

Plan ahead?

That is rule #1 for grinding. It'll be boring, but it would suck less for everyone's sake.

Preplan with smurfys... above all else.

Funniest part? I worked up what would be my final machine in smurfy, and I was so jazzed by what I saw on paper (well, screen..) that I jumped right in!

I guess a the take-away being, good on paper does not necessarily mean fun to play, you always have to think about your play style.

Maybe this would have been a better post for the New players section.

Edited by Jonny Slam, 05 January 2015 - 03:36 PM.

[LT. HARDCASE]

Yeah your experience is exactly why I haven't jumped in on buying, upgrading, outfitting, and leveling 3 Thunderbolts.

Well hopefully you at least bought the 2B, because it's a killer with 5x MPLs.

[hybrid black]

Jonny Slam, on 05 January 2015 - 03:13 PM, said:

Late Thursday night I got a be in my bonnet about the the Cicada CDA-C3, and it's sweet ERPPC quirks and combining them with that wicked speed. Before I knew it, and without real consideration I was burning through C-bills on a sparkly new C3 and two other variants. Cue lost hours to mastering them all, and spending the C-bills to fully upgrade them all on the way, because once you played a upgraded mech it's sooo hard to go back.

Okay final result: fully loaded and unlocked CDA-C3, and.....uh.....uh.... hmmmmm I like this fire rate but... it's only one PPC. Hmmmmm I can get everywhere crazy fast ..... and shoot at them with my one PPC...... where did all those C-bills go?!


All I am saying is really think about it before going on a mastery rampage, make sure that your looking at a mech that will really be fun for your play style, before burning bucks and hours only to find that while it's a good rig, it's just not that into you.

Granted the three Cicadas wont go to waste and they are all good rigs, but where in the past I was happy to grind out Bots, well with the CW running It was driving me nuts to be spending the time in single drops grinding when I could have been doing CW and winning planets. Before you ask, yes I did bring the Cicadas into some CW rounds, but there was two problems with that, 1) unlocked they were really behind the curve in many matches, 2) much faster xp in the straight single drops.

So there it is, Jonny's advice for anyone about to make a impulse chassis choice.

XP is split for what ever mechs figt in a cw match you can bring 3 mechs decked out carry hard then drop in what you want to lvl and go land one hit and it makes 5-6k xp

Edited by hybrid black, 05 January 2015 - 03:51 PM.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Ah, solid advice, Jonny.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 05 January 2015 - 03:55 PM.

[Lily from animove]

Deathlike, on 05 January 2015 - 03:16 PM, said:

Plan ahead?

That is rule #1 for grinding. It'll be boring, but it would suck less for everyone's sake.

Preplan with smurfys... above all else.

or don't grind, i have so many untouched and non mastered clanners, and I see no intention to ever master them because what they offer as loadout already looks boring. I really tried the summoner but nothing i cna make out of it looks even fun on paper. And then plying this is even less fun. But iS mechs, yeah with their hardpoits and the need to level 3 of them, its partially annoying.

I ven were putting big lrm rigs in my CTF arms, because that was at leats somehow fun to play. even if less efficient. But fun makes the grind feel less horrible and therefore overall let it fell less grindy.

Edited by Lily from animove, 05 January 2015 - 03:58 PM.

[Roadkill]

hybrid black, on 05 January 2015 - 03:51 PM, said:

XP is split for what ever mechs figt in a cw match you can bring 3 mechs decked out carry hard then drop in what you want to lvl and go land one hit and it makes 5-6k xp

Did that change? I haven't played CW since the first couple of days, but when I played xp was awarded to the Mechs that earned it. You're even told (or were) which Mech earned how many xps on the game end screens.

At least that's what I remember from those 3 games (which took 4 hours).

[hybrid black]

Roadkill, on 05 January 2015 - 04:02 PM, said:

Did that change? I haven't played CW since the first couple of days, but when I played xp was awarded to the Mechs that earned it. You're even told (or were) which Mech earned how many xps on the game end screens.

At least that's what I remember from those 3 games (which took 4 hours).

umm when i see my end screen all mechs earn the same XP

[Wintersdark]

I far prefer leveling IS mech to clan mechs. In essentially every case, all the clan variants of a chassis are essentially the same. Sure, SOME have a single hard point different in the CT but that's rarely relevant beyond "this one variant is marginally better, but still essentially identical.

At least with IS mechs, particularly post quirkening, each variant feels like a totally different mech.

Nothing like levelling a Mist Lynx, just to have to level exactly the same terrible mist Lynx again... And again. It's horrible. Even with the couple good clan mechs, you're just paying millions of cbill to do exactly the same thing over and over. Wee.

[Wintersdark]

As to the OP, yeah. I got experimental feeling due to a LRM boating speed test thread, so I bought and levelled an AWS8R. It's and obscene missile boat, but... It's still an Awesome.

Had lots of fun in smurfy's, some good times putting builds together and doing time trials, then realised I'd burnt 15m or so cbill to master a mech I'll probably never be able to use... Or be particularly motivated to use it even if I were IS, because LRM's are only very rarely a thing at all (in the matches I play, at least)

[CycKath]

The Grind, be it C-Bills or XP, is the game for me. Putting in the hard yards, a goal to work towards.

[Deathlike]

Jonny Slam, on 05 January 2015 - 03:37 PM, said:

Funniest part? I worked up what would be my final machine in smurfy, and I was so jazzed by what I saw on paper (well, screen..) that I jumped right in!

I guess a the take-away being, good on paper does not necessarily mean fun to play, you always have to think about your play style.

Maybe this would have been a better post for the New players section.

Well, part of the other issue is actually taking a serious look at the location of the hardpoints.... you need to see where they are, and at least see someone else using it to understand it.

You kinda need to build an IS mech with the possibility that the engine is going to be used later on, even if you fail on the initial try. The money sink on engines is pretty significant you need to be VERY calculated on what you do with them.

[CocoaJin]

I only invert in upgraded if I like the chassis. That's usually after the 1st Tier of skills, or well into the 2nd tired. I also try to do upgrades that will benefit other builds I'm interested in on other chassises...they aren't a total lose if I don't stick with that mech.

Edited by CocoaJin, 05 January 2015 - 04:37 PM.

[Jonny Slam]

What can I say? it was a mad spending spree!

Hopefully other may benefit from my boneheadedness.

[TercieI]

Wintersdark, on 05 January 2015 - 04:05 PM, said:

I far prefer leveling IS mech to clan mechs. In essentially every case, all the clan variants of a chassis are essentially the same. Sure, SOME have a single hard point different in the CT but that's rarely relevant beyond "this one variant is marginally better, but still essentially identical.

At least with IS mechs, particularly post quirkening, each variant feels like a totally different mech.

Nothing like levelling a Mist Lynx, just to have to level exactly the same terrible mist Lynx again... And again. It's horrible. Even with the couple good clan mechs, you're just paying millions of cbill to do exactly the same thing over and over. Wee.

Yep. This is why I tend to level IS mechs in parallel and clan mechs in sequence.

[JC Daxion]

I feel ya... I want to build 3 commandos,, But i also want, 3 modules, Hill climb, SRM2 recharge, and LBX-10 recharge... should only cost me around 20 mill..... I got just over 6m.. *sigh.....

I'm thinking i should just get the SRM2 module, and then start buying the Commando's.. Leave the hill climb and LBX for my cent for later.. Only one of them can i use if before grinding to master.. then of course, i also need an SRM 6 module as well!


BTW, Cicada's are wonderful mechs!


the of course after that i am going to be saving for a whole bunch of radar Dep, modules.. at the fine price of 6m each...

Edited by JC Daxion, 05 January 2015 - 05:18 PM.

[Xenon Codex]

So after all that buying, upgrading, and level grinding...did you end up with more or less C-bills than you started with? Just curious.

[Deathlike]

Wintersdark, on 05 January 2015 - 04:05 PM, said:

I far prefer leveling IS mech to clan mechs. In essentially every case, all the clan variants of a chassis are essentially the same. Sure, SOME have a single hard point different in the CT but that's rarely relevant beyond "this one variant is marginally better, but still essentially identical.

At least with IS mechs, particularly post quirkening, each variant feels like a totally different mech.

Nothing like levelling a Mist Lynx, just to have to level exactly the same terrible mist Lynx again... And again. It's horrible. Even with the couple good clan mechs, you're just paying millions of cbill to do exactly the same thing over and over. Wee.

In fairness, I prefer to put 3 different builds up and determine whether they are decent enough. I think the Mist Lynx was an exception in my case due to being terrible. I tried some builds for testing a theory, but they all ended up subpar.

Edited by Deathlike, 05 January 2015 - 05:47 PM.