68 replies to this topic

[Venom Turtle]

I am having trouble building up the courage to play a real match.

I know this may sound silly, but I generally do not play competitive games. I really like the look and feel of this one though, and I was a big battletech fan when I was much younger.

I did the tutorial, and spent a few hours running around the testing grounds practicing shooting with all the trial mechs. I am just really having trouble psyching myself up to jump into a match with other players, I am worried I will ruin things for my team, or do something else horribly wrong.

Are there any resources out there that might show me what to expect, where to go, who to follow? Just so I am not going in totally blind, it would really help my anxiety. The vast choice of trial mechs is really daunting as well, no idea what I should pick to play.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this seems like an odd post.

Edit: Missed the sticky with the videos, watching some of those now. Guess I will leave this here in case anyone has some unlisted resources for me to look at.

Edited by Venom Turtle, 23 September 2015 - 12:02 PM.

[TercieI]

Don't worry about ruining things for your team. You can only learn by doing. I had 5 kills in my first 100 games. Now I'm on a high level competitive team. Get in, get rekt, get better!

Welcome to MWO. Feel free to ask any questions you have.

Edited by Terciel1976, 23 September 2015 - 12:07 PM.

[Anunknownlurker]

There are plenty of resources available to the new player. Just check Youtube for any MWO related material.

If you are interested in watching live streams from players of varying skill try searching Twitch - any NGNGTV streamers are worth watching as they are all pretty experienced streamers - and you can learn a lot from both watching and asking questions.

Regarding the trial mechs, unfortunately most of them are suboptimal but will give you an idea of the various strengths and weaknesses of each class - imho the Raven 3L and Stormcrow are probably the best and closest to how these mechs are actually played in game.

You have showed you are better than most new players already, you have posted here and asked questions! It's also worth asking in game, on the whole the players are pretty helpful and friendly (there some unpleasant players of course but in general we are a decent bunch).

Good hunting and welcome to the game!

[TercieI]

Jimmy DiGriz, on 23 September 2015 - 12:07 PM, said:

Regarding the trial mechs, unfortunately most of them are suboptimal but will give you an idea of the various strengths and weaknesses of each class - imho the Raven 3L and Stormcrow are probably the best and closest to how these mechs are actually played in game.

I think the IS ones are all pretty decent now. The TDR-9SE is a stone axe, but it hits hard, cools well and is fairly tough, while still going heavy speed. It would be my clear pick for a new player, largely because it can run one fire group and allow you to concentrate on other things. The BNC-3M is also very good, but managing an assault before knowing the maps can be daunting. For an experienced player with a second account, I think it's the easy winner.

The clan ones are still stock variants and pretty awful.

[Spleenslitta]

Make certain you get a hang of shooting accuratly while your moving. It one of the most important things you can learn at the testing grounds.
Edit: Oh yeah....remember that moving your torso while shooting is fine keep yourself on target.
But if you got a laser on target and move your legs instead the laser will go waaay off target really quick.

Edited by Spleenslitta, 23 September 2015 - 12:23 PM.

[jss78]

Hi OP,

It's not really an odd question. I remember I felt about the same before my first game. Before MWO I hadn't really played a player-vs-player online game for almost 15 years, and I really don't like competitive gaming. If there was a single-player mode in MWO, I'd probably be playing that only. But there isn't, and I was totally sucked in by Youtube videos of MWO, so player-vs-player it was, although it really made me feel anxious at first.

It's a great idea to spend quite a bit of time in the Testing Grounds first. Get the hang of the basic mech controls, set and learn the fire groups, and learn roughly how much heat your fire groups generate.

But apart from that, I encourage you just take the leap and try your first game. I recommend you follow some of the biggest and meanest looking mechs in your own team. Shoot at what they shoot. When you can, try and pay attention to the minimap at centre bottom -- try not to get separated. As long as you're with your team's main group, you'll be safer, survive longer, and have more opportunities to learn.

You'll find that it's a kind of a tough game, and it'll take some time to find your feet in actual player-vs-player battle. I remember that for me it took at least around a hundred games before I handled the basic controls and movement so well that I could really focus on the enemies alone.

The good news is that as long as you put an honest effort, it's not really necessary to worry about possibly being bad, at first.

The way the MWO "match maker" works, you'll be placed at the second-lowest of the five player-skill tiers (=Tier 4). This means that most of the players you'll be facing will be below average. Although they'll still be better than a complete novice, you won't be facing the really tough and competitive crowd at all. It's basically quite a relaxed and casual crowd which you'll be starting with. You'll find that most players are really nice.

So just go on and play, give your honest best effort. It'll be tough at first, but will get easier quite quickly.

[Spleenslitta]

What jss78 says is true. Staying with your teammates works best for most players. There are ways to be effective on the enemies flank but that's something you should only concider trying when you've played loooooads of matches.
Situational awareness is key if you decide to go flanking or deep into enemy territory alone.

Also....mechs going slower than 80-90 kph unlikely to succeed going alone or flanking for that matter.
Unless a whole lance (4 mechs is called a lance) does it. I constantly go flanking alone in my Kit Fox and succeed reasonably well.
But that's because i've been around long enough to know which areas of each map is popular and which routes are most often traveled when going from one place to another.

In short.....Stay with your team, build your experience and ability to know the situation through not only through your sensors but your intuition as well.
Situational awareness through intuition is a skill you will find highly usefull no matter what kinda mech or tactics you decide to use.
If you know which routes the enemy is likely to take from A to B you can set up an ambush.

[Void Angel]

Venom Turtle, on 23 September 2015 - 12:01 PM, said:

I am having trouble building up the courage to play a real match.

I know this may sound silly, but I generally do not play competitive games. I really like the look and feel of this one though, and I was a big battletech fan when I was much younger.

I did the tutorial, and spent a few hours running around the testing grounds practicing shooting with all the trial mechs. I am just really having trouble psyching myself up to jump into a match with other players, I am worried I will ruin things for my team, or do something else horribly wrong.

Are there any resources out there that might show me what to expect, where to go, who to follow? Just so I am not going in totally blind, it would really help my anxiety. The vast choice of trial mechs is really daunting as well, no idea what I should pick to play.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this seems like an odd post.

Edit: Missed the sticky with the videos, watching some of those now. Guess I will leave this here in case anyone has some unlisted resources for me to look at.

As others before me have told you, just play! Everyone was new once, and you're not going to ruin any matches - particularly since you're going to be matched against other newer players as well. You have the moral right to play this game, provided you're not deliberately damaging other players' experience. Be confident in that.

Not everyone likes competitive games - for me, the rush when I was first matching myself against other players (back in The Day, long before MWO) was nearly overpowering. I loved it, but some personalities don't like the stress; it takes all kinds. Play, keep things in perspective in your head, and have fun!

If you have any questions, keep on asking us here - I've got a couple of guides in my signature, and there's tons of us who'll answer any specific questions you have.

[Amsro]

Only way to practice hitting moving targets is to drop into a match.

You will be mid tier 4, try a bunch of trials to see what weight class you feel most comfortable with and save up for 3 variants.

Once you master a chassis you will have a much better grasp of the game.

Good Luck, Have Fun!

[Papapeshu]

Hey Venom.
Welcome to the game!
Bless you for going through the academy & training grounds. Academy is a new feature but it's surprising how many jump straight in.
You will find you're probably better equipped now than a lot of "instant action" players out there having learnt about heat/ammo management etc.

I too many moons back thought as you and spent a few days in the testing grounds improving my aim and learning to control my mech with the KB/Mouse combo!
TOP TIP: Turn off your mouse acceleration & smoothing in the options (Makes aiming a LOT easier IMO )

In short, we all get rolled 12-0 at times and abuse and accusations fly from only our most "special" players.
the rest will offer advice or just be quiet.
If/when you die, just spectate a teammate with as similar a mech as you can find.
Stick with us and ignore any abuse. Lotsa fun awaits on the battlefields!

[Skarlock]

Venom Turtle, on 23 September 2015 - 12:01 PM, said:

I am having trouble building up the courage to play a real match.

I know this may sound silly, but I generally do not play competitive games. I really like the look and feel of this one though, and I was a big battletech fan when I was much younger.

I did the tutorial, and spent a few hours running around the testing grounds practicing shooting with all the trial mechs. I am just really having trouble psyching myself up to jump into a match with other players, I am worried I will ruin things for my team, or do something else horribly wrong.

Are there any resources out there that might show me what to expect, where to go, who to follow? Just so I am not going in totally blind, it would really help my anxiety. The vast choice of trial mechs is really daunting as well, no idea what I should pick to play.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this seems like an odd post.

Edit: Missed the sticky with the videos, watching some of those now. Guess I will leave this here in case anyone has some unlisted resources for me to look at.

When you first start, be assured, it's rough. Everyone who says you are being matched with new players is pretty much a liar. You start at tier 4 and will get farmed by tier 2 players when you run into them for quite a while until you get used to the game. However, it's like any game you join where the player base has been playing the game for a while and you are fairly new. Understand that yeah, sometimes you'll make a big mistake and die early. Sometimes people will criticize your builds. All that crap happens, sure. Just ignore it though. It takes time to get good at this game, you can't jump in and have unrealistic expectations. Just accept that it's rough starting out but you'll get better and soon enough you'll be much more comfortable and having a lot of fun.

[Chados]

Think of the other players as AI

You're going to have a lot of bad matches til you start picking it up. The learning curve is nonexistent, it's vertical. At one point early on my kill/death ratio was 0.01. It's still less than one, about 0.25 now but it's consistently going up now that I'm closing in on 1000 drops and I've got better. I'm about ten weeks into the game and low Tier 5, so guru I am not but I know how it feels to be brand new. I'm still green.

The only way to improve is to play. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube and I spectated a lot...and it wasn't much help, frankly. The best way simply is to do. I've got better at seeing enemy 'mechs from a distance than I used to, and using what little zoom we have, and when I am in a 'mech with multiple 'mech module slots I take advanced zoom...big help. I have a radar deprivation module I swap from 'mech to 'mech and that is a huge help, it is like personal ECM when you break line of sight from the enemy.

As for the trial 'mechs, I'd try the Trebuchet first, and do some LRMing. You can lock a target from behind cover. I like the Quickdraw and Thunderbolt too, I run the trial QKD still, from time to time. The trial assaults are hard to learn, I found the Banshee clunky and it took a long time before I felt good in the Victor-I had fully mastered five Catapults before I really started having fun in the assaults. I have three Victors now and two are built like the trial 'mech, very similar.

All the trial units are different. The Mechwarrior Academy can give you a chance to run the gauntlet or the piloting course a few times and get a feel for a lot of the most popular IS 'mechs in the game. And when you complete the basic training course you can drop into the Academy with your own currently equipped 'mech and run the training simulations with it-I've done it with the Victors and my Jester, and I'll keep doing it to polish my skills.

Edited by Chados, 23 September 2015 - 02:21 PM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

The best resource is experience. You gain experience by doing. Go forth, then, and do.

Don't worry about letting anyone down. It's a GAME. Find the fun in it, focus on that.

Advice: Grab a mic and use the VOIP feature. At least enable it. Better yet, jump on the TeamSpeak public server and find a group. Let 'em know you're new and trying to learn to be a contributor. You'd be surprised how many good people play this game.

[Wolf486]

I suggest for a while you turn off chat and Voip until you feel comfortable. If you aren't laying the way some people think you should you will be attacked by those sad individuals and it could ruin your experience. Best of luck!!

[IraqiWalker]

Venom Turtle, on 23 September 2015 - 12:01 PM, said:

I am having trouble building up the courage to play a real match.

I know this may sound silly, but I generally do not play competitive games. I really like the look and feel of this one though, and I was a big battletech fan when I was much younger.

I did the tutorial, and spent a few hours running around the testing grounds practicing shooting with all the trial mechs. I am just really having trouble psyching myself up to jump into a match with other players, I am worried I will ruin things for my team, or do something else horribly wrong.

Are there any resources out there that might show me what to expect, where to go, who to follow? Just so I am not going in totally blind, it would really help my anxiety. The vast choice of trial mechs is really daunting as well, no idea what I should pick to play.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this seems like an odd post.

Edit: Missed the sticky with the videos, watching some of those now. Guess I will leave this here in case anyone has some unlisted resources for me to look at.

These forums are a great resource for you, since we pretty much have everything covered.

By the way, we all started being VERY sucky. I did NOT break 100 damage until maybe my 50th match (I was running a near stock COM-2D, but still)

So ask any questions you want. Only stupid question is the one not asked.

Also, check out http://www.mwo.smurfy-net.de this website has an amazing online mechlab for you to use to tweak your builds, or theory craft them. It's quite helpful, and the "Equipment" section has a LOT of info for you.

It's approved, and even liked by the developers, and uses in-game files, so everything there is accurate.

This is also a guide I made specifically to help new players get the hang of mech construction in MWO.

http://mwomercs.com/...-mech-building/


Follow these few steps, and you'll never be a handicap for your team:

1- Stick with the group

2- When your teammates try to peak out of a corner, give them some room to back pedal behind cover, in case there are 6 enemy mechs around the corner shooting at them. (You'd be surprised how rarely this rule is followed)

3- Your first 25 matches, you will earn increased income, totaling somewhere between 9-11 million C-Bills. It's called a "Cadet Bonus". You'll know you burned through your 25 matches, through the achievement system which tracks that, and you will get a title "Knight Errant"

4- Save EVERY. SINGLE. CBill you make during that period, until you're ready to buy your first mech. Whether you know what mech to buy, or don't, come here and ask around. If you have your heart set on a specific mech, or role, we'll help you with designing good builds that work for you, and advise you on how to best pilot the thing, and what advantages, and disadvantages it has.

5- Do not be demoralized when you lose, because by all that is BBQ'd you'll lose a lot. This game has a learning curve akin to the West Side of Mount Thor (Picture in the spoiler)

Spoiler

Thankfully the Academy is helping mitigate a lot of that, but this thing has been online for all of one day now.

6- Remember that we ALL started sucky, and improved over time, so practice helps, and experience will teach you a lot.

7- Have fun. If you're not having fun, or enjoying the game/challenge, what's the point?

Edited by IraqiWalker, 23 September 2015 - 03:32 PM.

[Venom Turtle]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

Tried to 'like' them all but apparently I ran out of allowances.

Going to read all this and take it on board, and hopefully dive in tonight or tomorrow and just give live play a shot. I guess I'll post results and any further questions when that happens if people don't mind!

Thanks again!

[Spike Brave]

Here is my youtube channel https://www.youtube....tNUCKmcC0Q7pKJQ

I focus on helping new players. NEVER, EVER worry about "ruining" match. You are new and the game has a steep learning curve. You'll make some mistakes and it's okay. That's how you learn. Welcome to the game and I really hope to see you in a match. Also I think it took a lot of courage to post on the forums saying that you are worried. Getting up in front of strangers and
asking for help is tough. You'll be fine in a match and you will learn and improve. Just use the courage you've already shown to click that ready button.

[MechWarrior3671771]

"I generally do not play competitive games."

Don't worry about that. There is a significant portion of the player base that doesn't care about winning, they just want to have fun shooting stuff.

You might encounter a few jerks who take it too seriously, but just ignore them.

[Venom Turtle]

Spike Brave, on 23 September 2015 - 05:49 PM, said:

Here is my youtube channel https://www.youtube....tNUCKmcC0Q7pKJQ

I focus on helping new players. NEVER, EVER worry about "ruining" match. You are new and the game has a steep learning curve. You'll make some mistakes and it's okay. That's how you learn. Welcome to the game and I really hope to see you in a match. Also I think it took a lot of courage to post on the forums saying that you are worried. Getting up in front of strangers and
asking for help is tough. You'll be fine in a match and you will learn and improve. Just use the courage you've already shown to click that ready button.

These are great, surprised these don't have more views. thank you for sharing. Lots to watch now.

[Stormie]

When you do get in and give it a go, I'd mention to your team that you are new and that if they die early you'd appreciate if they watch you and give you pointers. instant feedback is awesome.