35 replies to this topic

[bar10jim]

First, welcome to the game!

Second, when thinking up/tinkering with builds, use Smurfy.

Third, for build ideas check out MechSpecs (for all kinds of builds), or MetaMechs for the current meta builds.

[Dino Might]

Comfy Wedgie, on 23 July 2015 - 02:44 PM, said:

Thank you, I really appreciate this. I need some competent people to play with. I have a Cataphract with ECM, I try to tell other players how it works and what to expect because I think a lot of people don't really understand ECM but it just seems that so many players don't care. They run off from under it's cover, I try to encourage heavies / assaults to flank with me being escort so they're invisible and I'm ignored.

Some groups are just so terrible to be in that nothing you do and no amount of talking and explaining helps. Plus, I am sure I would benefit immensely from being with more experienced players...

If you're around tonight, at 9PM EST, CI is running training. Usually this amounts to us getting together and doing group queue games, but we also do private matches and run specific scenarios/match setups if people want to do that.

Our channel is on na1.mech-connect.net. You're more than welcome to come on in - if I'm not there, tell them you are Dino's replacement. They'll probably be better off with you than me anyways.

Also...I don't disagree with your points. It sucks that there seems to be a need to research a lot before you buy, AND even then, you can totally end up with something that just doesn't mesh well with your style. I tend to cut PGI a lot of slack because this game is based on a very complex and very unbalanced tabletop game in the first place, and they've done a decent enough job (certainly better than I could) so far.

As far as the Puma goes - I love it. A TON of people hate it and think it sucks. It's certainly not the best mech in my stable, and it is outperformed by many others, but I still like running it. At the end of the day, I'd pick mechs for the aesthetics you like and the lore, because the gameplay of each can/will change everytime they redo quirks and may not be exactly what you expect.

[IraqiWalker]

Comfy Wedgie, on 23 July 2015 - 03:47 PM, said:

That said, I do look forward to my Puma pack.

Also, thank you VERY much for the tips, I am reading them more than once. In the end, the better I am, if you're stuck with me in a PUG, the better the chance we all end up with more C-bills..

I like your attitude.

However, here's a word of warning:

You've picked the two most difficult classes to play, so far.

Assaults, and lights stand out as being exceptionally hard to do well in. Now, the Heavy Metal is an assault mech that I love, and have seen people put up scary numbers in, and do very well. It's a matter of practice, and learning the mech's pros, and cons.

That means that you will need at least 30 or so matches in a mech, before you can figure out how it's working, properly. At least as a new player. I started out that way, and now I just need to look at the stats, do a couple of matches, and I can have the mech figured out.


The Puma is not only a light mech, it's a fire support light mech. Which means that it's in a specific niche that can make it sub-standard to other lights.

I like the Puma, and I immediately recommend you try out these loadouts:

2xERLLs. 2x ERPPCs. 4xSRM4s. 4xLRM10s. 2xUAC2s (my personal favorite on the Kitfox)

[bad arcade kitty]

assaults are the backbone of the team... playing assaults bad you hurt your team and winrate the most than any other type of the mechs

[Wintersdark]

For the Heavy Metal, I like : HEAVY METAL

It's simple, and not particularly shiny. 2 AC5's, 3 Large Lasers. Reasonable heat efficiency, reasonable range, reasonably tanky. Engage from 400-600m and have a grand old time; but don't push in close early on, and be aware of when you're not trading effectively (that is, you're taking more damage than you're dealing).


Of course, as others have said, while assaults can take more damage what happens more often than not is newer players tend to over expose themselves, and being quite slow are unable to recover from their mistake before focus fire takes them down.

Sure, one on one, an assault has a lot more armor than a medium, but once 2-3 mechs are firing at you the extra 10-20 armor in a facing doesn't make a lick of difference.

This is why I said assaults are so hard to play. They are totally unforgiving of mistakes.

[InspectorG]

Comfy Wedgie, on 23 July 2015 - 03:47 PM, said:

For your own edification, you may want to consider this. And I swear, this is not a criticism to you; I respond in the same vain as how you responded to me, and I hope you are able to see a differing side to this situation.

That said, I do look forward to my Puma pack.

Also, thank you VERY much for the tips, I am reading them more than once. In the end, the better I am, if you're stuck with me in a PUG, the better the chance we all end up with more C-bills..

No problem, no criticism taken.

But as far as your perspective on business:

Now im not trying to vilify PGI, as a small business owner myself, i know limits on what i would like to do with my organization compared to what my resources allow me. So i view PGI as a small likely undermanned/underskilled company trying meet the players high expectations.

MWO is not my life but it is the only game im currently playing. I play for fun but 'try-hard' just to maximize efficiency vs time spent. So i roll meta because i dont have time to screw around with clueless or 'maybe' builds.
I look for 'expert' advice, weight it, and 'buy in' if it works/fits me.

IMO, putting all the onus on the business to make the product perfect is usually unfeasible and rare when it happens.

Caveat Emptor is some of Life's best advice. And not just for buying things with money. Time, emotional investment, perception/etc etc etc...

Think about those Goldman Sachs customers who trusted their well paid advisers regarding the "Sh*tty Deals". Wasnt it in Goldman's best interest to fix the situation? No, they have legal license to fraud. Investing with them handles not only the risk of the So-Called-Market but also if they will steal your money.

Small business suffers from people not buying. Niche product Monopolies(where else can you play MWO?) and companies that cay buy policy have differing rules to play by.

PGI gave you a refund, which i agree with, and you bought the Puma package, which is far better than a Highlander. So stuff should work better for you this time around.

For future reference, what i use and has worked for me: www.metamechs.com and www.reddit.com/r/OutreachHPG/
Is where i 'research'. Five minutes at a coffee break and you can keep your finger on the 'pulse' of MWO. Unfortunately...these forums arent quite as efficient at getting to the brass tacks of issues related to MWO. Not to sound elitist but these Forums are rife with 'casuals'...lets call them. And i have no delusions about being anything other than a casual myself...i just try to get better by following the footsteps of others more qualified.

So, other words, in an imperfect World where all the actors are acting on incomplete information, 'measure twice, cut once'.

I usually drop at 10-12pm EST. If you see me in my Cicada, run for your life, lols. Any other mech and im not all that...decent.
Enjoy the Puma package!
That DireWhale! Such firepower! Such slowness!!!!

[Timicon]

Alright, I am not new, but do kind of have a question about UAVs which I have tried searching for on the forums and found no real response I was hoping to find...

I know that normal UAVs (the C-Bill ones) have a radius of 240 meters and the advanced UAVs (MC bought ones) have twice that and last roughly spend an extra 30 seconds or so before deactivating (if I am not mistaken) but my question is this:

When is it the most opportune time to launch a UAV in battle? Obviously somewhere where it is difficult for the enemy to shoot it down), but should it be around where your team is, or closer to the enemy lines so you and your team mates can gain locks better?

It seems to me that wherever I launch my UAVs, they never detect the enemy like they should even if I had launch it just meters away from a gate I knew they were all hiding behind.

[Rhavin]

Word of advice: If you like the nova and kit fox go that far and stop. The summoner is for most people a disappointment. Has great speed and maneuverability at the cost of firepower. Wave 2 mech, while the Hellbringer is a nice mech , the light and medium included with it are disapointing and are seldom played. You see novas, kit foxes, and hellbringer often, you might even see a summoner pilot that plays the mech like a champ, but I know no one who plays the toaster or the .....yeah can't even remember it's name though I own 3 i ground to elite. Anyways, wave 3 is the most satisfaction I have had out of 120 bucks since I bought my founders package, and I think most players would agree with me on that. The cheetah is a solid little beast, the shadowcat whike not mindblowing is an excellent and fun medium and the ebon jag is assault powerful. The only disappointment I have is I didn't buy it soon enough to get the 4th variant for the executioner so it is lackluster for me at the moment. Friend me and we can drop together sometime or field a q/a session for you.

[Wintersdark]

Leif Tanner, on 23 July 2015 - 05:26 PM, said:

Alright, I am not new, but do kind of have a question about UAVs which I have tried searching for on the forums and found no real response I was hoping to find...

I know that normal UAVs (the C-Bill ones) have a radius of 240 meters and the advanced UAVs (MC bought ones) have twice that and last roughly spend an extra 30 seconds or so before deactivating (if I am not mistaken) but my question is this:

When is it the most opportune time to launch a UAV in battle? Obviously somewhere where it is difficult for the enemy to shoot it down), but should it be around where your team is, or closer to the enemy lines so you and your team mates can gain locks better?

It seems to me that wherever I launch my UAVs, they never detect the enemy like they should even if I had launch it just meters away from a gate I knew they were all hiding behind.

The UAV can only detect what it can draw line of sight to. So, if launched near a gate, but they're pressed up against the gate, it's quite likely the UAV won't actually be able to see them.

In my personal opinion, you launch UAV's for a couple reasons:

1) You know you have a lot of LRM boats, and want to light up a good target. That is, a known-good target, not "I think there's someone behind this hill". Probably the least important, but worthwhile if you've got enough on your team.

2) You've run into a group of enemy mechs that are not on your team's radar. You can't type anything, because OMG DON'T DIE, but you can pop a UAV on top of them and this will alert your team to their presence. Even if you die, this simple action can easily be the difference between victory and defeat overall - preventing a flanking force from arriving undetected is extremely valuable.

3) Enemy ECM in the area is being a PITA.

4) To organize your team. As per #2 above; you've found the enemy forces, pop a UAV to show your team where (and how many) there are. A well popped UAV this way is a fantastic way to motivate a team to advance and engage. What's more, as it shows them all on radar, incoming players can round corners secure in the knowledge that they're not running directly into guns.

It's my opinion that point 4 (and 2, as it's very similar) is probably the biggest deal with UAV's and is the reason I have UAV's on every single mech I have. That's over 4 million cbills in UAV's equipped right now.

UAV's win matches, because knowledge is power.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Comfy Wedgie, on 23 July 2015 - 02:47 PM, said:

I did want to update that support has said that even though they don't normally do this that they will give me a refund on the mech.

So I am very happy and very grateful to those that suggested I contact support!!

And very grateful to support as well. I am glad that all this is resolved.

I am a budget-y kind of person and will have the money put aside for the Clan puma pack (the $150) one very soon so that has me quite excited and optimistic.

Support has, last I heard, a "one-time free fix" policy for anything you might purchase with MC or real $$ (no help if your problem involves just cbills or xp).

Also, you could paint your mech a different color, but you would have to buy a color (which would have been permanently available for all mechs you will ever own. The camo pattern you cannot change on a Hero mech and those are not permanent across all mechs just fyi if you ever think of buying one, ask for details first).

[Comfy Wedgie]

Just wanted to clarify guys, it's not the Puma mech, it's the puma pack.

https://mwomercs.com/clans

It's the $150 pack that comes with: 3 Adders, 3 Dire Wolves, 3 Summoners, 3 Novas and 3 Kit Foxes.

And thank you so much for the kind invitations, I look forward to meeting up with you guys online.

[Ursh]

Big problem with assaults is that they generally have effectively lower heat dissipation and staying power than a medium or heavy.

What I mean is that, for IS assaults especially, you quickly run out of room to pack in more heat sinks, so you often end up having only 1-2 more than medium mechs that are packing some fairly heavy firepower. The difference is that they can often disengage to cool down, which is much more problematic for an assault to do, particularly if you're set up for brawling.

What you'll find a lot is assaults set up for mid to long range trading, where they have space to back behind a corner to cool down, because once you enter a brawl, you only leave by winning, or dying. PLaying solo, it will usually be the latter, because your lighter teammates usually won't support you, or will abandon you the first time someone sprays them with a small laser.

[Ursh]

Comfy Wedgie, on 24 July 2015 - 04:45 AM, said:

Just wanted to clarify guys, it's not the Puma mech, it's the puma pack.

https://mwomercs.com/clans

It's the $150 pack that comes with: 3 Adders, 3 Dire Wolves, 3 Summoners, 3 Novas and 3 Kit Foxes.

And thank you so much for the kind invitations, I look forward to meeting up with you guys online.

Wave 3 has arguably better mechs. A solid heavy, good medium, and great light, along with an assault that can maneuver.

With the wave 1 pack you're looking at, you're probably going to be disappointed in both the adders and the novas, possibly the kit foxes and summoners as well. *Summoners and Kit Foxes are great for me, but even I think the wave 3 light probably outclasses the kit fox*

If you really want a good mix, you could buy the dire wolf ala carte, if it's the assault you're looking for, and then buy Ebon Jaguar level of the Wave 3 pack. Total would come out to $145.

[Nick Makiaveli]

Comfy Wedgie, on 23 July 2015 - 11:44 AM, said:

What does the dev team have to say or do about this then? Is this really how I should expect to be treated. I am trying to support them financially and yet this purchase is making me not want to pay for anything again.

If I could get a refund on this I'd be perfectly happy, but as it stands now, more so after your reply, I feel like I have been swindled / robbed...

Robbed because you didn't do research? No one forced you to buy it. Man up and learn to play it. Maybe buy two others so you can at least Elite it. If you are really saving up for a clan pack, I find it hard to believe you're whining about a single mech purchase. I think you made an impulse buy without knowing what you were doing, and now you think spouting off on the forums about how much more you plan to spend will get you your money back. File a report with customer service and see if they will. But almost hope they don't and you leave.

[Comfy Wedgie]

Quote

Robbed because you didn't do research? No one forced you to buy it. Man up and learn to play it. Maybe buy two others so you can at least Elite it. If you are really saving up for a clan pack, I find it hard to believe you're whining about a single mech purchase. I think you made an impulse buy without knowing what you were doing, and now you think spouting off on the forums about how much more you plan to spend will get you your money back. File a report with customer service and see if they will. But almost hope they don't and you leave.

You might want to seek help regarding your anger issues and lack of empathy. You probably won't but it's the best advice that I have for you.

And as for your expert opinion about my finances you will have to try so very hard to believe (your words, not mine) because I went and bought the Clan pack that I was talking about.

Oh, and you're rather late to the party, I've already updated this thread saying that my refund has been issued.

Other than that I hope your display of bravado talking down to the horrid person I am gave you the thrill that you were looking for.

As for your "hope" it is yours and only yours, I'd safely argue that the company that makes the game would rather more people play and ultimately pay and that toxic users like you that harass their customer base are the ones that need to leave.

[Ace Selin]

Didn't read all replies but just wanted to say, did you optimize the Highlander Heavy Metal, ie maximize & front load its armour, fill up on heats sinks and add an optimal engine to your loud out and play style? Because these things help a lot for all mechs ..