6 replies to this topic

[Dathamar]

I was playing World of Tanks and it just dawned on me how much I liked the various MechWarrior games and such, why don't I try MWO?

Well, I made an account awhile back during the beta but didn't play much at the time. First of all, you allowed me to select a name that was later half censored with no word to me which left me with a stupid incomplete name. So thanks for that.

I load up, do the tutorials and mess around with the testing area. It all feels natural, I've played pretty much all the MechWarrior games and it's quite similar. But after that everything was completely alien. I don't see my money anywhere. I don't seem to have my own mech, even some basic starter one, and all I have is some trial mechs which I can't modify. Many of which I really don't that much experience piloting.

The loadouts are familiar but part of every single mechwarrior game ever has been about making your own loadouts and experiement and locking down some variants that work for you. I have nothing like that and I don't even know where my currency, I couldn't find it. Then I pick a faction? Okay? What does this mean exactly? What are the populations of each faction? Does it really matter if you don't have a clan? I have no information other than what I know about the clan/house/whatever from the games. So I chose Clan Ghost Bear, I've always liked their way of doing things. I see I get bonus LP, but I don't even know what that is. I don't see tooltips.

Okay, whatever - no problem. I'll learn.

I see all these worlds. Scores of worlds with empty queues. I had no idea where to go or what to do. Nothing if obvious or apparent to a completely new player. I finally get into my first battle after a bit of a wait. The mission, get the most kills and destroy the base.

What base? Where? The minimap is tiny, and I don't see a control for a bigger map. I don't know where my objective is. Oh well, I'll stay with the group. From there, I was hit with nothing but disappointment. THe entire match was nothing but corner sniping. Someone would peak out for a moment, shoot, and run back. There was no other aspect to the combat than that. And I think I know why. ECM. I don't remember ECM in any other games being this effective. You can't target a mech you can see with your own eyes half the time. We even had something that came around the corner behind us that looked like a Commando. It got close enough to shoot me with short range weaponry and it wasn't being targeted until I put my crosshair on him. I fired and he ran, the instant a rock get between us he's untargeted and vanished.

So, is this typical of many or most matches? A cloak of invisibilty reducing the game series, which always had a nice combination of long range sniping and some fun close quarter brawling, to a game of mostly long range weapons corner sniping? I had just recently played through some of the older Battletech games and I was really hoping this will satisfy the need for more.. But my first day of playing was quite disappointing.

Edited by CaptainKick, 07 February 2015 - 01:47 PM.

[Tim East]

Ok, let's start at the beginning.

It's entirely possible that their naming conventions changed between when you took that name and when you returned. It might even have been some kind of automated function. A lot has happened over the course of the game's life, so I really couldn't say.

You play unmodifiable trial mechs until you can afford to buy your own with c-bills. C-bills are tracked in the bottom right corner of your mechbay screen, right next to MC, which is PGI's version of gold.

Community Warfare probably isn't the best place to start, since there are only so many trial mechs available at any given time and using four of them with tonnage limits tends to leave you with only a few combat options in comparison to using your own mechs. Also, it's cool that you like Ghost Bear; a lot of people do, but you probably shouldn't make a permanent contract until you know for sure whether or not you are going to join a unit, since your contract must be identical to theirs.

B key will give you a bigger map.

Sniping is the meta, since so many weapons, especially inner sphere ones do pin-point front-loaded damage (PPFLD) that hits one location all at once for all their damage immediately. It's powerful, so you're going to see a lot of it, and there isn't really a lot I can tell you to help with that.

ECM, while significantly better than it traditionally was, is actually countered by a ton of things, most notably being near a beagle active probe. Which is a little ironic given how that used to be backwards in TT. It's also stopped by being marked with a TAG laser, hit with a PPC, or being in range of another ECM set to counter. I think NARC stops it as well, but only if the mech it hits is the ECM mech, like PPCs.

Press R to target, and if your target has radar deprivation and leaves your line of sight (LoS) you'll lose target on it. Sorry, that's just how that module works.

I think that covers everything you mentioned, and if you have further questions about these or any other topics, don't hesitate to ask. Lots of people here like to help newbies get into the game, especially Koniving, so somebody will respond.

Also, check out the short question short answer thread. It's long, I know, but there is a wealth of information in it.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

You are dropping into the middle of Community Warfare.

What you want to do is drop into Solo matches first, to build up your Cadet Bonus.

I think you can also redeem Premium Time, but I need to look up how that is working currently.

I recommend starting with the Stormcrow Trial mech, so select the mech and then click on the button circled in the image below.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

CaptainKick, on 07 February 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

What base? Where? The minimap is tiny, and I don't see a control for a bigger map. I don't know where my objective is. Oh well, I'll stay with the group. From there, I was hit with nothing but disappointment. THe entire match was nothing but corner sniping. Someone would peak out for a moment, shoot, and run back. There was no other aspect to the combat than that. And I think I know why. ECM. I don't remember ECM in any other games being this effective. You can't target a mech you can see with your own eyes half the time. We even had something that came around the corner behind us that looked like a Commando. It got close enough to shoot me with short range weaponry and it wasn't being targeted until I put my crosshair on him. I fired and he ran, the instant a rock get between us he's untargeted and vanished.

So, is this typical of many or most matches? A cloak of invisibilty reducing the game series, which always had a nice combination of long range sniping and some fun close quarter brawling, to a game of mostly long range weapons corner sniping? I had just recently played through some of the older Battletech games and I was really hoping this will satisfy the need for more.. But my first day of playing was quite disappointing.

Oh, well compared to previous MechWarrior games, weapons in MWO are very deadly, so you will often see players use that tactic.

So as long as the current balance stays in place, the best we can do is adapt to what we've been given. So sticking close to cover and firing in and out of cover, while also twisting to avoid damage.

Also there are some pieces of Equipment that are working differently than in other BT games and we also have Modules that further modify different variables. ECM does much more than it should and we also have a Module called Radar Deprivation that makes Targeting disappear instantly or very fast when the Target move out of Line of Sight.

The Learning Curve is high, but we have a great community that is willing to aid you as best we can.

---

Smurfy's Site is a great resource to look at Mechs, Equipment, Maps and so on.

There is also MechSpecs.com and a few other resources you can read about builds once you purchase your first mech.

[Rogue Jedi]

first if you are not happy with your name I would suggest ether starting a new account or sending an email to: support@mwomercs.com
explaining why you want a different name, I know a few players who have got there name changed by doing that, but it may take a while for support to respond.

it has already been mentioned but the Trial Mechs are for you to use until you can afford your own Mechs, besr in mind you will likely want to upgrade the Mech or change its weapons so test build the Mechs on the http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab that tells you the cost in cbills of the Mech including all upgrades, equipment, weapons and omnipods you use.

as others have said Community Warfare is not a good place to start, CW was specifically designed to be "hardcore mode", it heavily favors large teams and has no matchmaker so someone with little experience who owns no Mechs could be put up against a team entirely consisting of elite players with there own fully optimized Mechs. also as you have chosen Clan Ghost Bear you can only use Clan Mechs in CW.

Clan Mechs are expensive, mostly because they come with large fixed XL engines and have all the upgrades that model can get already fitted.
Many IS Mechs have a low purchase cost but may need more than the purchase cost of the Mech spent to get it upgraded to a competitive state after you buy it.

the solo queue is a far better place to start, the matchmaker works reasonably well so you will have a better experience against players closer to your skill level, there are more Trial Mechs available because you can use the IS Mechs.

[Koniving]

CaptainKick, on 07 February 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

What base? Where? The minimap is tiny, and I don't see a control for a bigger map. I don't know where my objective is. Oh well, I'll stay with the group. From there, I was hit with nothing but disappointment.

To help out... From the beginning to learn the battlegrid.

6 minutes in to see the battlegrid being used during gameplay. Brawling and hit-and-run gameplay there, so to speak.

I'd offer more, but getting up at 3:30 AM each morning for a few days and I'm tired.

[dragnier1]

tell you what.

i search youtube " spike brave" and found his channel

Take time out to watch his tutorials. There's too many things in mwo to explain in words.