52 replies to this topic

[Icepick]

If you want to get a taste of what you are in for and familiarize yourself with the mechs/weapons, run over to MekTek and download the Mechwarrior 4 game. It's legal, free, and will (at least partially) satisfy your cravings until next month

Just be prepared to hear the voice of Duncan Fisher in your dreams.

[Despaxas]

I will be honest, Threads like this with a very supportive helpful tone. Is part of what has gotten me really excited about this game.

[Incunabulum]

Dab, on 28 June 2012 - 09:42 AM, said:

I am really looking forward to this game. However, the last time I dabbled in a Mechwarrior game was back in the 90's with MW2. I never knew much about optimizing loadouts, the "best" configurations, where to allocate equipment, which mech is best at what, etc.

Its like Eve Online - get in with a corp that's willing to teach newbies, there's a surprising number of people willing to put out the effort.

[Dab]

Ok, this all makes me feel much better. Now to find a team of casual players in my timezone that have the patience for me.

[Death Mallet]

Sadly we are not on the same faction. Thus. . . yes I will be forced to obliterate you in miliseconds. . . despite the fact that I haven't played a mech game in years.

[Dab]

Icepick, on 28 June 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:

If you want to get a taste of what you are in for and familiarize yourself with the mechs/weapons, run over to MekTek and download the Mechwarrior 4 game. It's legal, free, and will (at least partially) satisfy your cravings until next month

Just be prepared to hear the voice of Duncan Fisher in your dreams.

Tried - the link to dl the game no longer seems to work.

[AkuPyro]

Dab, I would just google MekTek and it should point you in the right spot. There will be a downloader and updates. May take a while to download, but it will help a little bit with basic weapon configs. Best advice I can give, try the stock config, and tweak as you go based on what you like and what you don't like. I am not going to worry about what I can and cannot do now as it can all be subject to change. GLHF

[Belorion]

Dab, on 28 June 2012 - 09:42 AM, said:

<snip>
On this board, and in other discussions, I see a lot of mention and knowledge about the above, and I am truly worried that I will get left in the dust, and lose interest in a matter of hours after constant losses. It seems just about everyone here knows so much more about this stuff than I do. I wish I had time to spend hours and hours reading source material, dev blogs and posts, but working two jobs, a mortgage, the kids, etc. leaves me barely any time to play a game, let alone study for one.
<snip>

If you go into it expecting to be destroyed you will be. Any game, sport, hobby past time, is easier the longer you do it. The people that play MWO the most often will become the best at it (assuming they apply themselves). That doesn't mean you should get frustrated if you lose your first couple of matches.

Get voip (mumble/vent/teamspeak).
Work as a team with lancemates.
Maintain situational awairness.
Learn from your mistakes.
If you don't have time to research strategies team up with others who do.
Eat your spinach...

[Chunkymonkey]

Dab, on 28 June 2012 - 09:42 AM, said:

I am really looking forward to this game. However, the last time I dabbled in a Mechwarrior game was back in the 90's with MW2. I never knew much about optimizing loadouts, the "best" configurations, where to allocate equipment, which mech is best at what, etc.

On this board, and in other discussions, I see a lot of mention and knowledge about the above, and I am truly worried that I will get left in the dust, and lose interest in a matter of hours after constant losses. It seems just about everyone here knows so much more about this stuff than I do. I wish I had time to spend hours and hours reading source material, dev blogs and posts, but working two jobs, a mortgage, the kids, etc. leaves me barely any time to play a game, let alone study for one.

Is there a match-maker that is somewhat skill- or experience-based in participant selection or something? Will the game offer guidance/tutorials, etc.? Will it be forgiving to complete newbies like me? Or am I basically on my own to find a guild ? Sorry, that's a Lance, isn't it? I realize these questions are many, and I was only able to find a few points in anser with my crappy forum search-fu. So any help is much appreciated, and please accept my thanks in advance.

Hey, at least you got a founders package, im going to be hunted down, tortured, and then eaten alive.

[MrMasakari]

I wouldn't worry so much. Play, get blown up, learn, then adapt. Noones gonna join and instantly be a god. With a F2P game too people won't really care as much Just make sure you learn from your mistakes and you'll be absolutley fine. If you struggle, get a buddy and play together. See how you get on with a buddy, maybe hit him up on skype and you might kick Butt!

Just expect to learn things, rather than instantly be awesome. Thats the biggest pitfall in my eyes

Edited by Artaire, 28 June 2012 - 02:30 PM.

[Ricama]

Finding your way in this sort of game just involves some honesty with yourself, which by starting this thread you are already starting to show. It starts out with asking yourself what style you want to play: fast flanker or slow engine of destruction. After that you ask yourself what role you want to play: keeping the enemy detected, keeping them blind, long ranged/indirect support or big scary anchor that takes all the fire and dishes out the punishment.

The next step requires the personal honesty: which role am actually I good at? A lot of people will anti-cast themselves to get away from what they do all the time because they think it's more fun. Trust me, success in what you're good at is way more fun than gritting your teeth and pretending you're having fun, you just need a little more practice to get everything down.

After that, you can start looking at your mech, what weapons hit the most, what weapons don't get used that often, what you keep wishing you had a counter for, and then you can tune your mech to what complements your style the most. A lot of the people with experience here have played the other versions and have a good idea what they're good at and have in mind a good starting point but getting it perfect takes a very long time.

The actual blasting mechs away is easy, knowing how you fit in the battle line is the hard part, and you are well on your way to figuring that out. Oh, and Paul is right, target fixation kills. What he doesn't mention is sometimes it's still the best option. Killing the lrm boat behind a hill supported by mediums that's picking your team apart might be more important to your team winning than you surviving 2 seconds longer.

[Icepick]

Hey Dab, Start here:

http://www.mektek.ne...-play-mw4mercs/

This should get you up and running in under an hour. The only complication is you need a Torrent client to download the files, I use uTorrent (link is on the page, I think)

GL

Edit: Use the MTX Patcher, its way faster

Edited by Icepick, 29 June 2012 - 04:53 AM.

[Dab]

Thanks again to everyone for the pointers, and the links.