91 replies to this topic

[CodeDragon5]

Very useful. My wife has little experience with the BattleTech franchise (she really didn't get into gaming until she met me some 9 years ago), but is now interested in MWO. This will get her up to speed on the basic history.

Keep up the great work.

[Idzuna]

Would be awesome to have 2 primers. A BattleTech Primer and a MW:O primer, that way you have a separation of game mechanics and lore.

[Astaroth]

I agree that a separate BattleTech primer would be useful, but I think I may have already seen a sort of newbie's guide to BattleTech floating around somewhere. I may not be the best person to do one strictly for BattleTech, anyway. I have played the tabletop game a few times, but not enough to be any kind of expert.

On another topic, I did not end up working on the wiki conversion at all this weekend. My schedule for this week is in flux, so I can't at this point predict when I will be able to start on it, but I would like to get it done sooner rather than later.

[FragInc]

Don't get me wrong, I applaud the effort but agree with the others... your effort would be much more useful to the community by integrating your work into the established WIKI for this game. Reason being is that this effort is akin to all the other useful information posted in forum, in that, it'll simply get lost. There is a reason a WIKI gets used a lot; its a single repository for a lot of information and its usually well laid out which makes for ease of navigation through the abundant information presented.

Just my 2¢.

[Pernumbra]

Astaroth, on 05 July 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:

Updated again, this time with an explanation of how crit slots work.

It looks like I'm going to have to find a more permanent hosting solution for the file since file hosting services and Google Docs actually change the URL every time I update and re-upload the file.

Make a Google Sites page and put the Google Doc/PDF download link on that, then you can use the site link everywhere as that will not change (that is if you want to keep it all free).

EDIT = D'oh - already mentioned - should have read the entire thread before posting a reply to a post mid way...

Edited by Pernumbra, 09 July 2012 - 09:22 AM.

[Schtirlitz]

Great thank you for your efforts!

[NVranya]

Thanks! Great to get back into it again (and learn some new things as well).

For completely new users you might want to put the abbreviations up front though or link all of them, which is probably a lot of work.
Or else state in the beginning that they can be found in the appendices (if you did and I missed that, apologies).

[ThunderThumb]

Hmm good resources. Perhaps this will be pinned! Thanks

[Lorchan]

This is a great success. We have several new members of our unit that have never played any of the Battle Tech or MechWarrior games and this will Help quite a bit.

Thanks

[employee24601]

Thank you Astaroth!

00seven said:

Mods - Another request to stickify this

Seriously, please do the forum (and every newcomer) a favour and sticky this thread please!

Seth, on 05 July 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

Feel free to upload the file to MWOwiki site (upload link on the left hand side). Once you do that, you will have a link on that page to constantly upload new versions of it. Alternatively, having a new player guide section on the front page where all this content is in a page instead of a .pdf document would be something I would like to have on there and editing a page instead of re-uploading a .pdf for every update might be easier for you too.

Astaroth, on 05 July 2012 - 08:04 PM, said:

On the morrow I'm going to add a little more history to the primer since it was requested, then upload it to the MWO wiki as a PDF. Over the weekend I will work at creating a new version of it specifically for the MWO wiki.

Astaroth, on 06 July 2012 - 10:29 AM, said:

Look for the wiki version to go up over the weekend. The conversion will take a little time, but should be worthwhile for everyone.

Transferring to the Wiki is a great idea (I check the MWO Wiki frequently), but I'd like to throw in my 2c and request that it still be available as a .pdf if at all possible. I don't want to have to always be online to read it. Wikis have their place, but so do docs for 'offline' use

Edited by employee24601, 10 July 2012 - 08:23 AM.

[Astaroth]

Noted. Maintaining the PDF is easy as pie for me, so I can easily continue that trend.

[Acer Lerxt]

good read.

bonus points for google docs version.

has my vote for a sticky.

[MntRunner]

Thanks so much for creating this! For the newbie like me (only decided to get into this game about a week ago) it is a big help for figuring things out. I also prefer this over the wiki. I've looked at the http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page wiki and don't have a clue on where to start reading. I think that wiki actually makes things more confusing for a newbie like me. The wiki is much better for someone who already knows a little bit about the game background and wants to learn more.

[employee24601]

Astaroth, on 10 July 2012 - 09:28 AM, said:

Noted. Maintaining the PDF is easy as pie for me, so I can easily continue that trend.

Thanks again!

[Seth]

MntRunner, on 10 July 2012 - 11:26 AM, said:

Thanks so much for creating this! For the newbie like me (only decided to get into this game about a week ago) it is a big help for figuring things out. I also prefer this over the wiki. I've looked at the http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page wiki and don't have a clue on where to start reading. I think that wiki actually makes things more confusing for a newbie like me. The wiki is much better for someone who already knows a little bit about the game background and wants to learn more.

That's a different wiki for Battletech. This one is specific to MechWarrior: Online. I think a Founder's program section would be good to have in there too to explain what it is and which 'Mechs you get. A pretty common question is which model do you get when you choose either the Elite or Veteran package.

Edited by Seth, 10 July 2012 - 08:30 PM.

[Sirous]

Thanks for this has been a great help.

[MntRunner]

Seth, on 10 July 2012 - 08:27 PM, said:

That's a different wiki for Battletech. This one is specific to MechWarrior: Online. I think a Founder's program section would be good to have in there too to explain what it is and which 'Mechs you get. A pretty common question is which model do you get when you choose either the Elite or Veteran package.

Thanks that wiki is better than the one I listed, but I still find the primer a good overview and the wiki a source for additional information. Also a good point on the Founders packages. I had to ask my WOT clan members a million questions about MWO to figure out what package I should get and what mech I would like the most.

The biggest problem I see with MWO right now is it's hard to find information about the game without doing a lot of digging. That's why I like this primer so much, most of the information a newbie needs is in it.

[William Thor]

Respect to you Astaroth. This is excellent!

[employee24601]

*Bump for sticky!

[Astaroth]

I'm still taking suggestions for additional content if anybody has any.