10 replies to this topic

[Taradele]

Just around 3 days ago, and while I have the hang of how to pilot the 'Mechs and use the weapons systems, I am still unsure as to how you would go about using things such as the UAV ad artilleryair strikes whilst in the battle map?
And despite knowing how to use my 'Mech weapons, the slight trouble I seem to always have is hitting the 'f' key or 'x' key whenever I want to turn or revers (but those will work themselves out in time, once I get mre used to the control).
What I would really like is if anyone around would not mind showing me the ropes of a few battle working together in a lance or team or something, tell me what exactly I am doing wrong while everyone else gets more kills and I only a few.

Cheers for your time,
Office of the Secretary General's office,
Chancellor Liao's Home Palace,
Sian.

(By the way, I know my name is Taradele, but feel free to call me Moat - A rather cool nickname I think.

Sorry, as a quit edit, I would like to say that instead of the 'w, 's' , 'a' , 'd' and 'f keys, the keyboard arrows might make piloting a heck of a lot easier, at least for me, since I do nothavae a joystick yet.
and ecxuse the spelling please.

Edited by Taradele, 23 February 2015 - 06:05 PM.

[Tarogato]

Because I don't know how much you know or don't know, I'll just start at the beginning.

To use UAVs and air/artillery strikes, you need to first unlock them using GXP in the Pilot Skills.
After that, you can equip them to your mech in the Modules tab. They cost 40k C-Bills every time you use them, so be careful you're not using both of them every single match - it will cut into your earnings significantly if you do.

These consumables are not activated on the battlemap. When you press your UAV key with a UAV equipped, it launches above your head (unless there's something above you that would block it). Artillery strikes activate exactly where your crosshair is pointing and envelope the area with basically mortars. Airstrikes when activated start where your crosshair is pointed, but the bombs are dropped in a straight line that continues forward, away from you.

Check your settings in game to set the keybindings for these consumables however you like. I like having them so they don't interrupt my ability to navigate using WASD, because having to stand completely still for a second to line up and activate a strike could spell disaster if the enemy spots you.

[Taradele]

"[color=#959595]Check your settings in game to set the keybindings for these consumables however you like. I like having them so they don't interrupt my ability to navigate using WASD, because having to stand completely still for a second to line up and activate a strike could spell disaster if the enemy spots you. "[/color]

[color=#959595]believe you me, I know how that feels.[/color]

[PirLanTota]

Personally, anything that needs to happen quickly, you want to map under a mouse button. I have my art/air strike on the scroll wheel and AUV launch under the 4th mouse button. This way, your left hand can focus on moving, while you right can focus on firing, torso twisting and deploying strikes.

[SnagaDance]

Tarogato, on 23 February 2015 - 05:34 PM, said:

To use UAVs and air/artillery strikes, you need to first unlock them using GXP in the Pilot Skills.
After that, you can equip them to your mech in the Modules tab.

Actually you do not need to unlock the skills with GXP. You can just equip them for 40k like Tarogato said. What the skills do however is that they upgrade the Artillery/Airstrike/UAV to be equal in effectiveness to the versions you can buy for MC. Tighter spread, longer duration, just read the descriptions in the Pilot Skills tab if you're interested. Me I 've been playing for 2 years and have found myself spending my GXP on a lot of other Pilot Skills, but I'm sure the consumables will follow in due time (I do not use them very often).

[Rogue Jedi]

Tarogato offered some great advise but this section is incorrect

Tarogato, on 23 February 2015 - 05:34 PM, said:

To use UAVs and air/artillery strikes, you need to first unlock them using GXP in the Pilot Skills.

all the consumables are already unlocked, however you can unlock an upgrade to each consumable with GXP.
I do not remember which button it is to activate them as I remapped them to 1 & 2 (my mouse has all 6 fire groups mapped to it) so I could easily reach them with my left hand while piloting the Mech.

if you want help I would advise sending a friend request ingame to anyone who answers here, to send a friend request in game look in the bottom to the right of centre while in Mechlab or home screen, you will see a icon with 3 head and shoulders outlines, click on it then click add friend, ingame names are the same as forum names.

when you see someone on your freind list online double click them and you can then send them a message.

Alternatavely just send a PM on the forums, many people who post in New Player Help will be happy to offer you training.

I am usualy on MWO 2-3 evenings a week (GMT timezone, times between 6PM and 10:30pm) and random times at weekends. I would be happy to do a few drops with you on teamspeek so I can help you learn the basics.
If those times are conveniant for you, just PM me to suggest a time (including timezone to avoid confusion).

[The Massive]

I'm a T G F H guy. More options for your little finger.


Thats all I got.

[Tarogato]

Good catch about the lack of need to unlock strikes/UAVs in the skill tree to use them. It's been a while since I was a new player. Woups. =]

[_____]

Welcome to the Confederation!

In order to do interactive 1v1 training, you and your trainer will have to buy premium time and set up a private lobby, or have 2 other people with premium time set up a private lobby for you. Head on over to the House Liao recruitment forums, and there you'll find various Capellan units/teams with different flavors that can suit your play style. Read about them, head to their Teamspeak servers to sign up. After you've signed up with a unit or team, you'll find a lot of players are willing to train new pilots using the lobby system described above.

To answer one of your questions though, the reason why most people use WSAD is because they're close to other keys and you'll need a lot more than these 4 keys once you get more experience in MWO. You'll probably eventually get used to not hitting these other keys when you're moving.

[Koniving]

Taradele, on 23 February 2015 - 05:20 PM, said:

Sorry, as a quit edit, I would like to say that instead of the 'w, 's' , 'a' , 'd' and 'f keys, the keyboard arrows might make piloting a heck of a lot easier, at least for me, since I do nothavae a joystick yet.
and ecxuse the spelling please.

That's pretty non-standard for first person shooters on the PC. The WSAD controls are literally the standard on every single computer game that involves movement, and have been since the advent of 3D games took off in 1995. It is usually only left-handed players that use the arrow keys in place of the WSAD keys nowadays.

If you are right handed, that would make for a very awkward set of controls that restrict you from easy access to many controls. (Under the assumption you had the arrow keys as your movement, your options for jump are right CTRL, Numpad 0, possibly shift or enter or the Home/End section of keys. This is very convoluted and awkward to try to control, you would have to release controls that you shouldn't be releasing in order to access other controls).

That said, you can change the controls over but you may find the process to not be worth doing. (Even Mechwarriors 2 and 3 had A/D turning).

Alternatively, as you also mentioned you can try a joystick. I specifically recommend a Throttle control.

The left-hand side of this contraption is what I use. The flight stick isn't zero order control so it's not suited for this type of game (and zero order controls that aren't styled like PS or Xbox controllers are super expensive; this guy was only 40 bucks).


The throttlestick handles throttle, turning, power, override, Armlock (hold), Next Target, Jump, zoom, and free look (arm-aim).
My mouse handles 4 firing groups, my push to talk, and naturally torso.

It's kinda nice that the controller can be split in half. I just wish I could completely detach the joystick. I've noticed the throttle control can be sold separately so you can acquire just that if you wanted.

[Ano]

Taradele, on 23 February 2015 - 05:20 PM, said:

I am still unsure as to how you would go about using things such as the UAV ad artilleryair strikes whilst in the battle map?

Other people have responded to the "how to use" part but I'll just emphasis and extend Tarogate and suggest that, for the moment at least, you forget about consumables. They're expensive, and while you're still a new player, you a) probably won't be earning that many C-bills per match, and will probably need those C-bills for outfitting any mechs you might have bought, or to save up for new ones. Let the players who've been playing for a while and who aren't desperate for cbills pop the UAVs and the artillery strikes for now...

Koniving, on 24 February 2015 - 04:05 AM, said:

The WSAD controls are literally the standard on every single computer game that involves movement, and have been since the advent of 3D games took off in 1995. It is usually only left-handed players that use the arrow keys in place of the WSAD keys nowadays.

I'm a lefty, and I'm not sure that the arrow keys would be that much better for left-handers either. Back in the early 90s there were a few games which came with the arrow keys mapped for movement by default (or as an alternative) and I used them at first, but as games required more controls I eventually shifted to WASD as (depending on your keyboard layout) the distance between the arrow keys and the numpad means you can't reach many of the numpad keys without shifting your hand position -- plus you can't reach the spacebar so there's not the same "can always hit that" button.

If I'd been thinking about it carefully at the time, I would have switched to something like ESDF or RDFG for my movement keys, to give me the maximum flexibility for additional controls. That said, WASD is not that difficult as a lefty -- it just requires more desk space (to offset your keyboardl) or for you to play with your hands closer together than right-handers do. One advantage for lefties is that you can hit keys to the right of WASD without taking your other three fingers off the movement keys, which can be very handy, and you can use your thumb for bottom-row modifier keys and space pretty easily. When I played WoW, I remapped the windows key to another keystroke to make it useful, but the games I'm playing at the moment don't require so many different actions to have mapped keystrokes.