29 replies to this topic

[The Mech behind you]

Man ...I have been there a thousand times. I also head to the location where I expect the fight or a flanking attempt.

Sometimes I try to face the ememy asap right after the start, given it's the right map and there is some cover at that place, just to put the other team under pressure to force them to make mistakes. Sometimes I get a team that is eager to fight and everyone is going straight to the fight. But most of the times there's only 1-2 mechs that join me while the rest is heading in E.X.A.C.T.L.Y the opposite direction (away from the fight). Makes me think 'why are these guys playing a game about big fights when they're scared of a fight'.

So yeah I die alot. That's PUG life
Also funny (in a tragic way), when I get a team of 'pacifists' and after me and those 1-2 teammates that joined me in the fight finally died because we were outnumbered, the rest of my 'team' fail so fast that my chin drops, well ...they're all dead before my chin even hits the floor

Edited by Norman Kosh, 31 May 2015 - 01:12 PM.

[ScarecrowES]

Ultimately, the situation you're describing... where a team refuses or is unable to move into a fight... is ingrained into the very nature of the game.

Rookies in poorly-built mechs are afraid to engage in a battle they know they'll get eaten alive in. Stat-padders want to preserve their K/D ratio. Lots of players who will consider themselves "good" will fold their hands across their chests and wait til all the "bad" players die before engaging, then swoop in like heroes when all the enemies are cored and waiting for that last laser to the chest. And then of course there's the "meta."

There's always a meta. And every meta is built around one core set of mechanics: Step 1) Build a mech that min/maxxes immediate alpha damage according to the latest balancing pass. Step 2) Hide around a corner, waiting for the enemy to get bored and engage. Step 3) Pop out of hiding, alpha your weapons, and pop back into cover. Step 4) Repeat as necessary. In order to reap the benefits of the meta, a few guidelines must be followed: Never expose yourself to enemy fire or otherwise endanger the safety of your own mech - even to shift to the location of the current battle, support teammates in that battle, press a tactical advantage, or to deal with other situational issues that frequently crop up.

Many players learn early on that playing the meta is the fastest way to reap the best rewards the game can offer irrespective of build or tactical intelligence or skill, and the meta NEVER rewards a standup fight as equally. Many of those guys sitting back and watching you engage the enemy by yourself? They're waiting behind cover, hoping the enemy will soon be in range of their laser-vomit. Those guys are convinced that there's only one correct way to play. The forums and spreadsheets tell them so.

You can't say it's all cowardice. Certainly some of it is. For many it's an intentional choice to not get involved - they don't want the risk because there is no reward.

Thing is... conservative play can work in some situations. Getting into a good fighting position and holding it while forcing your enemy to fight in a disadvantageous position can work (Trapping an enemy team in the canyons in Tourmaline or holding the Caldera on Therma, for example). But truthfully, the vast majority of the time if a team is aggressive in pushing on an enemy with poor positioning it will win. Being the aggressor rarely fails in pug drops unless you're aggressing on a well-positioned team. Also, playing the objective usually keeps the enemy on the back-foot, so that always helps even if you end up running those game types as skirmishes anyway.

Also, on a counter point... Never do a Jeroy Jenkins. If you're the first to the enemy, don't engage. Coordinate the team. Pull back and communicate. If you can find a compelling reason for the team to shift, some of them will. The stubborn pacifists will be forced to move too, or risk being overrun. You can't overcome every players' unwillingness to engage, but you can influence it.

[Templar Dane]

I'm convinced that rather than put you in a game with players of your own skill level, the matchmaker looks at your elo and then ignores it.......puts you with 9 ******* and for every ****** you get, the enemy team gets a heimdelight.

Match starts.

The atlas pilot demands you hold locks.

The light mechs hide behind the slowest mech. which turns out to be a 34kph hunchback armed with a tag and 2x lrm 5s

The whale pilot stops for two minutes, then says "don't leave the assaults behind" because he has no arms, only a nose to type with. Then immediately falls off a cliff.

When the fight begins, everyone hides behind a rock. Your team peeks from time to time but never fires back, they're just peeking to see if the enemy firing squad that was there 5 seconds ago is still there. They are.

One enemy centurion keeps your team suppressed with an LRM 5.

A raven with cherry red internals all the way around figure-eights through the rest of your team, you are body blocked by three mechs. Nobody hits it and it takes out an entire lance single-handledly with a small laser.

You pull off a brilliant maneuver, corralling the bulk of the enemy team into a choke point. The other 7 members left on your team don't use the advantage to kill the armless LRM 5 centurion because the raven with cherry red internals and a small laser might kill them.

Heimdelight finishes his bagel, then murders you. The match ends, 0-12. You did 2200 damage in a commando. Your team, minus friendly fire damage, totals up to negative 112 damage.

[Mudhutwarrior]

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!

I agree, in pugs its best to pop that bird then screw yourself out of the line of fire. Seems like it takes a good 20 50 sec before there is a reaction from teammates. UAVs don't pay well in pugs unless your lucky.

[omessiaho]

You're kinda ****** either way. Join a unit and you get Lt.General Tryhard barking orders at you every three seconds, go pug and you have kittens without arms backing you up. PGI needs to make a competent but cool mode.

[Eboli]

This may sound crazy but I find PUG play is much better during the week and on weekends it is just more frustrating.

Ok, time to let off some steam...

I mainly play Assaults and on weekends I find it is much more likely to either:

• Get left behind in the NASCAR race around the map.
  
• See the rest of the team fade away as you are left doing a slow reverse walk covering their asses as your truly gets whooped.
  
• Be part of a firing line which just disappears on you.
  
• The obligatory shot in the back as people test their weapons at the start of the game.
  
• Go partly deaf (I wear good headphones) as a friendly blasts the PPC alpha at the start of the game.
  
• While having numerical superiority against a couple of enemy players see 4 friendlies hide behind cover because they take a little damage to scare them off. They may pop out to get the kill shot.
  
• To see 75% of the team go off and chase a squirrel while the "smart" players defend the front line as the enemy blob comes around the corner/hill.
  
• Get Alpine 4 times in a row when deciding to Master that last Atlas of mine

Last night I really had to laugh when on River City 2 of our lances landed in the Citadel area and our Lance (Assault) got placed on the other side near the cargo ship. Even after stating that defend D4 ( ie Citadel) is the best option the team then proceeded to do NASCAR only to then find the enemy digging in at the Citadel itself... Another name I recognised also agreed on the defence option but in the end we had to go with the mass or die earlier... Didn't end well.

Anyhow, that it PUG life for you but yeah, week night play is much better in my opinion.

It is going to be very interesting when we get an influx of new players coming in when MWO is launched on Steam.

Maybe I need to Group up more via LFG.

All above said in jest with a dose of seriousness.

Eboli.

[Kiiyor]

Agent 0 Fortune, on 31 May 2015 - 10:02 AM, said:

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.

But... but... robots get SHOT at the front line!

I like to sit at the rear in my Gauss Yager, and steal the kills from hardworking fellows such as yourself, from up to 2.5km away.

I'm the robot equivalent of a cook back in a-echelon.

[El Bandito]

The nail that sticks out the most gets hammered down.


You do not want to be that nail, if you wish to enjoy the game for longer than 2 minutes.

[Nightmare1]

@OP: Or maybe you're the only one foolish enough to leave the group?

Rather than call it a sixth sense, I'd say it's more like stupidity. If the entire team goes right, you shouldn't move left.

[ArchAngelWC]

See the solution is to play maxrange clanner...and let your puggles get engaged...then start coring/otherwise kill all their ecm mechs and start picking off the assualts....
alternatively...play shortrange clanner...and try to stay in max cover till after the intial engagement then yell, "Kerensky wills it!!" and go Yolo on/into their flank...If you have enough burst damage and a good enough aim you might do some amusing stuff...

Note: IF you are a surat....please stand still..I really need to develop my headshotting skills..