29 replies to this topic

[Agent 0 Fortune]

I used to think I had a sixth sense, a common sense, about where the battle was going to inevitably unfold on a given map, and I would unerringly move to that location and take up a defensible position. This ultimately concluded with a lonely face-off against the first wave of enemy mechs as my compatriots continued to casually move away from the front-line. Initially I thought that maybe I was just smarter than the rest of my teammates, which while likely, didn’t add up statistically, at least one of them should have accidentally found the front-line.

Instead I thought maybe it was the game mode, players opting for secondary objectives. So I switched to Skirmish mode, where the ONLY objective was to find and engage the enemy in a battle of wits and skill. And still my fellow players continued to move away from the battle-front, despite repeated notification and recriminations for doing so.

Ultimately, I was faced with the ugly truth, that my allies were not the zombified half-wits I had hoped, but merely cowards unable to face their own mortality with the dignity and mettle necessary to play and win a video game.

[cSand]

But hey man, I paid 75 MC for that ballin paintjob


you think I'm gonna go out there and get that sh*t dinged up?

[Zaccheus]

So many threads about how bad other players are. Whats the common denominator? The people your randomly dropped with or perhaps you? Maybe communicate with your team instead of calling them cowards after you over extended your self got killed and put your team at a disadvantage.

[Joseph Mallan]

Fight or flight reaction is not nurture. Its nature. Most people tend to move out of a fight in progress, I dive in and try to break it up.

Is everyone else a coward?

I don't think so.

[Pariah Devalis]

Because showing the enemy your ass cheeks is the best way to win. NASCAR simulator is amazing! /s

[MerryIguana]

Using your instincts and playing tactically is the biggest mistake in the pug queue. You cant rely on the herd to make proper snap judgements.

If your spidey sense registers a flank (really any manuevre beyond deathball) you should never intercept without taking the herd into account. Learned that a long time ago.

Pug life.

[Johny Rocket]

Define frontline, 1 mech does not a line make.

[Deathlike]

PUG Life is tragic, but real.

Organized teams are more likely to fight (or at least pick their preferred location to fight) instead of going straight flight that most PUGs do (since most of them don't trust the other to do the right thing™).

[Mystere]

MerryIguana, on 31 May 2015 - 10:30 AM, said:

Using your instincts and playing tactically is the biggest mistake in the pug queue. You cant rely on the herd to make proper snap judgements.

If your spidey sense registers a flank (really any manuevre beyond deathball) you should never intercept without taking the herd into account. Learned that a long time ago.

Pug life.

Lucky for me, I use the herd as bait. <maniacal >

Edited by Mystere, 31 May 2015 - 10:38 AM.

[Tyler Valentine]

They'e not cowards, they've just played enough to know that if you go running out front by yourself you'll die (really it should have only taken you a few matches to figure this out, but no worries man). Stick with your group and work together...even if they're slow. Play the hand you're delt. If you get a bunch of noobs in your drop who scatter everywhere, find the biggest group, join them and patiently try to get everyone to form up. Most people, especially new players, want to be led (remember Kai Griffith's words "DO SOMETHING") but you have to have tact and be polite or no one will listen to you. gl hf!

[MerryIguana]

Mystere, on 31 May 2015 - 10:38 AM, said:

Lucky for me, I use the herd as bait. <maniacal >

Good for padding scores, bad for winning. I do it too sometimes.

[Alistair Winter]

As someone who regularly uses UAV, as long as I'm not grinding to buy a new XL engine or the like, I have to say that using a UAV is a fairly risky endeavour which can easily backfire.

Let's say you have 2 Red Doritos visible on the mini-map, fighting against 2 of your teammates. You pop a UAV and you strike gold, it shows the location of the remaining 10 Red Doritos. Mission accomplished! Well done!

Except... now your pug teammates go into fight or flight mode!. And guess what? They're not going to attack those 10 Red Doritos at all. They're going to go for the 2 isolated targets, the path of least resistance, and they're going to retreat from the cluster of 10 Red Doritos, leaving you in a very exposed position and basically just tearing down your whole team's defense in the process. Predictably, those 10 Red Doritos notice that your defenses suddenly disappeared, so they rush and your team's position is overrun.

I've lost count of all the times I've launched a UAV, only to see my team either freeze in terror behind cover or just straight up retreat at the sight of all the red blips on their minimap. And they weren't even outnumbered!

[Deathlike]

Alistair Winter, on 31 May 2015 - 10:59 AM, said:

As someone who regularly uses UAV, as long as I'm not grinding to buy a new XL engine or the like, I have to say that using a UAV is a fairly risky endeavour which can easily backfire.

Let's say you have 2 Red Doritos visible on the mini-map, fighting against 2 of your teammates. You pop a UAV and you strike gold, it shows the location of the remaining 10 Red Doritos. Mission accomplished! Well done!

Except... now your pug teammates go into fight or flight mode!. And guess what? They're not going to attack those 10 Red Doritos at all. They're going to go for the 2 isolated targets, the path of least resistance, and they're going to retreat from the cluster of 10 Red Doritos, leaving you in a very exposed position and basically just tearing down your whole team's defense in the process. Predictably, those 10 Red Doritos notice that your defenses suddenly disappeared, so they rush and your team's position is overrun.

I've lost count of all the times I've launched a UAV, only to see my team either freeze in terror behind cover or just straight up retreat at the sight of all the red blips on their minimap. And they weren't even outnumbered!

Combine with Seismic. You'll have more productive UAV deployments.

[Alistair Winter]

Deathlike, on 31 May 2015 - 11:01 AM, said:

Combine with Seismic. You'll have more productive UAV deployments.

I'm not sure how that helps. I'm talking about a pug team's tendency to retreat at first sight of the enemy team.

[Deathlike]

Alistair Winter, on 31 May 2015 - 11:05 AM, said:

I'm not sure how that helps. I'm talking about a pug team's tendency to retreat at first sight of the enemy team.

I was talking about figuring out when to deploy the UAV. Minimize wasteful deployments with it in use...

Simply "Embrace the Doritos".

It's still hard for many people to follow and understand that mantra, but it is greatly necessary to make good decisions.

It should always be followed by "Stop Chasing the Squirrels", but there's always a time and place to learn all these things...

[627]

maybe OP is not that smart at all. Being the meathield for the rest if the team is a brave move but in the end you're part of the first red chat message.

[Mystere]

MerryIguana, on 31 May 2015 - 10:53 AM, said:

Good for padding scores, bad for winning. I do it too sometimes.

My W/L says otherwise.

[Xetelian]

PUG life.

[Flutterguy]

I think OP has a point. I mean, who would you rather be; Leeroy Jenkins or the schmucks who get killed because of Leeroy Jenkins?

Edited by Flutterguy, 31 May 2015 - 11:27 AM.

[Johnny Z]

This situation will improve with future additions to the game. When dropping have to watch yourself. Newbies are most bothered by this, but later its just have to watch your own back and sometimes you get a good team and sometimes not. Want to operate independantly more, run a light mech.

Running an assault and being flanked? Start backing up and stay cool and keep firing.

Cover is the best armor in the game. Cross open ground like its the last thing that mech may do.

Getting circled by a light put the mechs back to a wall if possible and if not, throw it in reverse.

Played a few matches today as a matter of fact in my King Crab that is mastered and fully outfitted, 57 kph. Managed to get at least 1 mech before going down each time except once and managed to get 5 in one match even.

One match was even a 12 to 1 loss fixed match. I got the 1 for my team. If they would have been honourable and come at me one at a time it would have been a closer match. Ammo permiting.

Edited by Johnny Z, 31 May 2015 - 12:05 PM.