Unfortunately, to paraphrase Mr. McCroskey, 'looks like I picked the wrong weekend to start a new game'. Friday night was taken up with the download, the tutorial, and watching these 'How to MechWarrior' videos:
Later today we will be heading into actual battle, but first, impressions on the startup process:
(apologies for the text wall, not sure how to do Spoiler boxes here)
Entering tutorial - splash screen, grainy Hunchback on a smudgey dull brownish screen. Gritty, but could be better.
Voiceover intro video was decent, nice bit of background.
At the startup/login screen, I believe I had an OPTIONS/SETTINGS choice, but didn't know what to set at that time. Display mode defaulted to a small-screen windowed mode, and I had no options to maximize it while the first few stages of intro and tutorial worked through. Might want to change that.
Once I got into the tutorial, and it allowed me to get into the Field Guide Manual and look at the HUD, eventually a press of (I think) ESC key brought up the settings/options menu in lower left, and I maximized the window. Also, it appeared that Throttle Decay stayed on during the tutorial whether I checked the box or not.
Tutorial was good, clear, easy. A couple small details, when I hit 'Firing weapons' stage, I didn't see any obvious targets to shoot at, it basically just gave a checklist of weapons to fire. (I shot the small trucks, and probably could have just discharged them into the sky, but it seemed a bit odd) Also the requirement to fire some weapons with Arm Lock on/off took a while to figure out.
Once into the next stage of the tutorial, I thought things went very smooth, clear, good practice. Nice touch that you can repeat the stages on-the-spot for higher rewards or more practice, as opposed to needing to re-enter the tutorial later.
I did notice in Settings that my mouse sensitivity was defaulted at 1.0 and this was much too high. I needed to crank it down to about 0.4 to get decent control of the cursor, some mention of this option might be useful.
Last note was that, while in the 2nd (main) part of Academy, where there is a Scroll-list on the upper right of the C D E G F H challenges (whatever the order was), I couldn't seen the whole list (just the first 4 and part of the 5th), but I also couldn't find any way to scroll the list. Probably something obvious I missed, I just walked around until I had tried all the areas.
Wrapped up the Academy session, and moved on to the game interface. Guess it's the Mechbay? Doesn't really seem intuitive but I will check all the sections, I guess it will become clear after a while.
Next up: Selecting a Trial mech. Likely start with something that has only 2 or maybe 3 weapon groups. I only have a 2-button mouse so 2 fire groups on the mouse and maybe 1 on the keyboard is all I can easily work with.
(Edit: I was going to reserve a few posts for 'early battles' feedback, but if I post new to this topic it just appends it to the bottom of this post. Oh well)
Edited by GotShotALot, 30 January 2016 - 06:52 AM.
You still need to do your first 25 battles so you do not have free range of the forums yet, but may I suggest that when you do you'll repost this bit about the Academy here?: http://mwomercs.com/...ademy-tutorial/
It's a quite well monitored forum so I expect your comments to be taken seriously.
GotShotALot, on 14 December 2015 - 10:51 AM, said:
(Edit: I was going to reserve a few posts for 'early battles' feedback, but if I post new to this topic it just appends it to the bottom of this post. Oh well)
yes, until recently the forum was quite slow and you could accidentally post 3+ times without realizing, so they made it so that multiple posts in sequence by the same person would just continue the origination, also sorry but it is against the code of conduct to make blank posts or reserve posts.
when you want to post more just edit the original post with the update.
it is good to see a record of the new player experience, until about 2 months ago, with the introduction of that tutorial, the new player experience was a lot less nice than it is now.
Edited by Rogue Jedi, 14 December 2015 - 11:49 AM.
Selecting a Trial Mech:
As a new player, here is how selecting trial mechs to run my first 25 battles went:
Forum input and how-to guides say, Play Them All, learn what works for you and what doesn't. I don't think I will play them all (for reasons outlined) so chose them like this:
(Maybe not the best choices but having played a ton of old BT/MW titles, World of Tanks, and other combat games I have sort of a feel for what will likely work best for me. These choices are not a reliable guide for other new players, most likely.)
I want to play all the weight classes. Trying roughly 6 matches in each, so I will pick 2 mechs per class and do 3 games each.
Light: Raven 3L (2 ERLL) and Jenner F (6 ML) are in because simple weapon systems while I am learning to pilot. Would have tried a clan one but Cheetah has 6 Small laser, very short range, and Adder has 2 ER PPC which I am not encouraged by reading the descriptions (for me, I mean - I am not so hot with ballistic style shooting)
Medium: StormCrowPR (5 MPULS) and Enforcer (AC10, 5 MLAS) are in for same reason, Hunchback (8ML) was tempting but probably too hot for me (I overheated a fair bit during the Academy combat tests) and ShadowCat 2ERML and 1 Gauss sounds good but I read a lot about the Gauss needing practice, so bye-bye Miss Pryde!
Heavy: Thunderbolt 9SE (3 LPL) and TimberWolf (2 LPL, 3 ERML) are in because, Thunderbolt and Timberwolf! (Kidding, simple weapons with good range). Catapult with only LRMs and SRMs is out because missiles, and Ebon Jag because it has too much mix of weapons (2 SRM, 2 LRM, 2 AC2). When I am busy deciding who's going to GetShotALot, I can't be wondering which weapon to choose next.
Assault: King Crab - 3 ML and 4 AC5? YEAH BABY! Next choice is tougher, but I think it's gonna have to be the Atlas RS with AC20, 4 ML and 2 SRM6. I am very tempted by the DireWolf with 2LPL, 2 Gauss, 3 ERML but reading about speed, chargeup, guass nerfs - I think I will be a sitting duck really. And the Executioner has a dog's breakfast of weapon systems, SmallPulse, MedPuls, ERSmall, LargePuls, SRM6; I wouldn't know which end things were going to shoot out of next.
So there we have it, Raven, Jenner, Enforcer, StormCrow, Thunderbolt, TimberWolf, Atlas and King Crab. Shame the clanners got mostly left out, but everyone knows their cockpits smell funny anyway...
Edited by GotShotALot, 14 December 2015 - 01:41 PM.
Wow.. wish I'd been so methodical when I started a few months back...
Mine was more like - the Zeus was free for buying the Marauder and Warhammer collections, similar how I ended up with my Wolverine... so I c-billed the other variants to master them. The Jenner beat out the Raven because it doesn't get much love in the forums it seems, and it looked cool....
.. man, I sound like a terrible pilot now that I look back.
However, I love my chosen chassis, do decent in them and heck with metas
You, sir, I admire and look forward to reading more of your journey!
Starting with Enforcer 4R. 5 Medium Lasers and an AC/10 OF DOOM!
Battle 1 - River City Night, Assault.
1 minute matchmaking, 20 second voting, 30 seconds load time, 40 secs in Drop Prep screen. 6 minute battle. 3-9 loss by base cap.
Cadet Bonus 1: 800,000 Cbills. Match payout, uncertain but small.
Impressions:
Spoiler
-Enter game, several voice chatters saying "Welcome, good luck, have fun" type stuff. Map was dark, voice chatters said
how to use Night Vision (tutorial covered Thermal I think). Night vision decent.
-I have no clue about any of these maps, so play 'follow the big mechs'. Not far from spawn, shots start hitting me. Nothing spotted on map, no red markers, nothing shows up on Night or Thermal or normal vision, another shot hits me. Right arm and leg yellow.
-Take cover behind a building, chatters saying getting shot, must be here or there, I have no idea what these map coords are. Hit M, no map. Fortunately someone else mentions it is B (??), try it, see nothing red.
-That B map is really intrusive, screen blocking, seems kinda useless actually (at this point, maybe I will like it more later).
-People still getting shot, I move around a building corner to try to spot something, as I move out, a DireWolf across the
river also moves into view. I shoot, he shoots, I turn red, he doesn't even register damage. Out of range or I missed.
-I try to back up, something stops me, not sure what since I just walked straight ahead with no obstructions, but maybe corner of
building or the little fence I just stepped over.
-Direwolf shoots second time, torso gone, I'm dead. Lasted 3 minutes, did zero damage.
-I am disappoint.
-Was trying to make notes on battle screen results, however it blinked off while I was grabbing notepad, no way to look back and see how people did.
Battle 2 - Frozen City Night, Skirmish.
15 second matchmaking, 20 vote, 1 minute loading, 50 seconds Drop Prep screen. 5:26 battle. 12-7 win.
Cadet Bonus 2: 775k C-bill. +150K from Achievements, 165K match, 1,860 XP.
Spoiler
-Much more workable map for me, regular vision was fine even though night, the cold was a bonus. Both teams moved to mid-range, then started brawling around buildings and hills. Much more fun than River City invisi-sniping.
-I really liked the Enforcers mobility (on this map) and the AC/10 + 5 ML combo. Got good use out of the mech.
-I KILLED AN ATLAS! (although other people shot it to heck first of course)
-875 damage dealt, 564 match score, I was feeling pretty puffy.
-Took my match notes much faster but still screen disapeared just as I was writing down the basics.
-no communication by voice or type was seen during this match.
Battle 3 - Canyon, Assault.
<15 second matchmaking, 20 voting, 40 load time, just under 40 Drop Prep screen. 9:37 battle time. 6-12 loss.
Cadet Bonus 3: 750k C-bills. +88K match, 320 XP, no achieves.
Spoiler
-Discovered my Enforcer had jump jets quite by accident. Very handy here!
-T (chat type) key too close to R (target) key, lost movement control twice by hitting T when going for R.
-Looked good at 6-3 for us, I was doing some decent peek-and-shoot, jump-and-shoot, getting some good licks in.
-I KILLED A KING CRAB! (again, shot to heck by others)
-Overheated and shut down twice, guess the environment was too target-rich for me.
-Second shutdown, a sneaky pulse-laser light dropped behind me and shot out my back, dead me.
-After I died, we quickly went from 6-3 to 6-8, 6-10, then 6-12 loss.
-1 kill, 436 damage for me.
-Again, no voice or type comms that I recall.
Switch to StormCrow Prime - 5 MPL
Battle 4 - Alpine, Skirmish.
Matchmaking instant, 20 sec vote, 30 second load time, under 30 Drop Prep. 11:43 battle. 5-12 loss.
Cadet Bonus 4: 725K. +62K match, 270 XP. No achieves.
Spoiler
-Not a good map for first StormCrow run. Apparently the other team starts on or near a very high plateau/hill. I follow the mechs I drop with (we are quite spread out) but they run into a large flat area exposed to that hill, and long range fire cuts them up. My Crow has decent speed, I back off and circle around a long loooong way to join survivors. 2 mechs down.
-Game started with some voice chats, Hellos etc. One fellow starts calling where to go but obviously a number of us have no clue what those coords are. Try my B map but hard to navigate with it up, and hard to not get misdirected with it off. Sucky map.
-Most of our mechs lack the range to shoot back at their hill mechs, and we are quite exposed to LRM also. They hill-hump for cover.
-I notice a couple things: on the map, I have no idea where our assaults, meds or lights, or whatever are. WoT and other games have clear symbols so you can tell at a glance what forces are where. MWO just has arrows for everyone.
-Also notice that I can hear people, but have no idea who is talking (an assault? A scout? Who?) I assume this is being shown and I am just missing it since speech is brief and my attention is on my surroundings.
-I join our remaining mechs, and take out a light that is trying to flank/spot them (again, finishing a wounded mech).
-I get focused by LRMs and a Dire, and poof I R dead.
-1 kill, 174 damage.
-Much better map for my mobile StormCrow. People were slow to move out so I took lead, They mostly followed even though I had no clue where to go. Once enemy spotted, I backed off and circled around for some flanking. Crow mobility nice.
-Lots of obstructions, things to go around, hard to get a clear shot. Trying to shoot and duck, at least there's lots of cover. My medium-short range weapons seem ok here, though I wish for longer at times.
-A couple voice chats, very little, nothing typed.
-We are falling behind, 5-8, things look bad. They have taken high ground in places, and have longer weapons than ours.
-But then, the spirit of Kerensky enters me!
-(No, not like that, you perv.)
-Even though my targeting is wonky (so much cover, LOS broken, I keep re-acquiring targets and losing them before mech info shows up), I start finding exposed targets. They must be getting overconfident. Or I look like an easy kill. Or something.
-I kill a Mad-Dog in a duel around a tree.
-I kill a Cheetah trying to drop behind us from a plateau.
-I kill an Atlas trying to hide in a big empty shell thing.
-I kill something trying to run away from me, forget what it was, but it was SCARED! (big medium or small heavy)
-I kill a Centurion who thinks he can flank me and shoot my back.
-TAKE THAT, FOUL MISCREANTS! Now 11-9, and my 2 remaining teammates spot an AFK back on their base and finish it for the win.
-Crazy luck, plus the fact that these mechs were shot to heck by my team. As stated, I didn't get a lot of 'targeting info' so couldn't go for 'weak spots', I just took whatever the best shot I had and those 5 MPL did the rest. (Although I lost an arm after the first or 2nd kill, and was down to 3MPL)
-Either due to the loss of 2MPL, or because the match was shoot-run-shoot, I didn't overheat once.
-5 kills, 653 damage.
-Grim looking map, but good fit for the StormCrow 5MPL except for the heat. Overheated a fair bit.
-Both teams moved off to east side of volcano rim, hill-humped, circled around another hill farther out, flanked. One of ours did a base run for capping, got driven off.
-Good mix of weaponry used, lots of lasers, PPCs, LRMs, ballistics. The fairly open nature of the map made for good view of a slugging-match type battle. Enjoyed it.
-Really got mangled a couple times by stepping into a ballistic King Crab, Timber or Dire Wolfs firing arc, but dodged fast.
-By flanking and maneuver, I managed to take out a TimberWolf and a Kit Fox, and face-tanked a Dragon Slayer that was also taking LRM fire. He stayed put to fight me, and died to the MPL/LRM combo fire.
-I died when I got tag-teamed from behind by another Timber and something else, never saw the 'something else' but it killed me.
-No voice chat or typing comms that I noticed, but I was pretty keyed on the fighting in front of me and may have missed some.
-3 kills, 494 damage.
Overall Impressions
Well, the only mech that died as easy as the Academy mechs was me. Real mechs are much tougher. I also realize that the MatchMaker is putting me in matches with all the other new guys, so I am getting an easy run so far. Probably my previous BT/MW/combat gaming and the videos etc (and extra practice in academy, almost 2 hours in there) are giving me an edge in these first few. I don't expect things to continue to go this smoothly.
Comms: Voice comms seem to work fine, though few use them (unfortunately I don't either). Very few use typing (I do a little), I can see how it is easy to miss in battle so not very useful.
Total after 6 battles: 10,494,000 C-Bills, 4,039 GXP.
3 losses, 3 wins. Overall I think my teams got mangled a bit harder than the other teams but it wasn't too uneven. Small sample size, we'll see what happens later this week when we move on to... THE HEAVIES!
Edited by GotShotALot, 14 December 2015 - 05:48 PM.
I think what happened in your first match with the Enforcer is either ECM, or enemies shooting from beyond 800 meters. Most mechs have a detection range of 800 meters. ECM at those ranges will actually hide a mech from being detected by sensors, and thermal vision doesn't extend that far sadly.
As for the Direwolf, I think it might be a case of range difference. Your Medium Lasers only reach as far as 540 meters (where they deal 0 damage). Up to 270 metes, they deal full damage (4), beyond 270 to 540 the damage starts to fall off, until it hits 0 at 540. The AC 10 deals 10 damage up to 450 meters, and declines in damage until it zeros out at 900 meters.
So that one was probably a bit of ECM, and not being used to weapon ranges yet.
One thing I still am working on as well is knowing the maps.
Several of your battle reports mention the same thing I think even now and that is unfamiliarity with some aspect of the maps.
I need to take more forum advice and spend time on the training area, hop in a fast light and tour the maps more. You are definitely a better study than I am, so I'd figure you'd have the maps darn well memorized and all those little "secret paths" found once you do more of that too.
Keep it coming, enjoy the reports. Oh, and I keep watching for you in matches... judging by your performance so far I'll getshotalot.. but it'll be fun throwing down
GotShotALot, on 14 December 2015 - 05:43 PM, said:
First 6 Battles- MEDIUM
Starting with Enforcer 4R. 5 Medium Lasers and an AC/10 OF DOOM!
Battle 1 - River City Night, Assault.
1 minute matchmaking, 20 second voting, 30 seconds load time, 40 secs in Drop Prep screen. 6 minute battle. 3-9 loss by base cap.
Cadet Bonus 1: 800,000 Cbills. Match payout, uncertain but small.
Impressions:
Spoiler
-Enter game, several voice chatters saying "Welcome, good luck, have fun" type stuff. Map was dark, voice chatters said
how to use Night Vision (tutorial covered Thermal I think). Night vision decent.
-I have no clue about any of these maps, so play 'follow the big mechs'. Not far from spawn, shots start hitting me. Nothing spotted on map, no red markers, nothing shows up on Night or Thermal or normal vision, another shot hits me. Right arm and leg yellow.
-Take cover behind a building, chatters saying getting shot, must be here or there, I have no idea what these map coords are. Hit M, no map. Fortunately someone else mentions it is B (??), try it, see nothing red.
-That B map is really intrusive, screen blocking, seems kinda useless actually (at this point, maybe I will like it more later).
-People still getting shot, I move around a building corner to try to spot something, as I move out, a DireWolf across the
river also moves into view. I shoot, he shoots, I turn red, he doesn't even register damage. Out of range or I missed.
-I try to back up, something stops me, not sure what since I just walked straight ahead with no obstructions, but maybe corner of
building or the little fence I just stepped over.
-Direwolf shoots second time, torso gone, I'm dead. Lasted 3 minutes, did zero damage.
-I am disappoint.
-Was trying to make notes on battle screen results, however it blinked off while I was grabbing notepad, no way to look back and see how people did.
Battle 2 - Frozen City Night, Skirmish.
15 second matchmaking, 20 vote, 1 minute loading, 50 seconds Drop Prep screen. 5:26 battle. 12-7 win.
Cadet Bonus 2: 775k C-bill. +150K from Achievements, 165K match, 1,860 XP.
Spoiler
-Much more workable map for me, regular vision was fine even though night, the cold was a bonus. Both teams moved to mid-range, then started brawling around buildings and hills. Much more fun than River City invisi-sniping.
-I really liked the Enforcers mobility (on this map) and the AC/10 + 5 ML combo. Got good use out of the mech.
-I KILLED AN ATLAS! (although other people shot it to heck first of course)
-875 damage dealt, 564 match score, I was feeling pretty puffy.
-Took my match notes much faster but still screen disapeared just as I was writing down the basics.
-no communication by voice or type was seen during this match.
Battle 3 - Canyon, Assault.
<15 second matchmaking, 20 voting, 40 load time, just under 40 Drop Prep screen. 9:37 battle time. 6-12 loss.
Cadet Bonus 3: 750k C-bills. +88K match, 320 XP, no achieves.
Spoiler
-Discovered my Enforcer had jump jets quite by accident. Very handy here!
-T (chat type) key too close to R (target) key, lost movement control twice by hitting T when going for R.
-Looked good at 6-3 for us, I was doing some decent peek-and-shoot, jump-and-shoot, getting some good licks in.
-I KILLED A KING CRAB! (again, shot to heck by others)
-Overheated and shut down twice, guess the environment was too target-rich for me.
-Second shutdown, a sneaky pulse-laser light dropped behind me and shot out my back, dead me.
-After I died, we quickly went from 6-3 to 6-8, 6-10, then 6-12 loss.
-1 kill, 436 damage for me.
-Again, no voice or type comms that I recall.
Switch to StormCrow Prime - 5 MPL
Battle 4 - Alpine, Skirmish.
Matchmaking instant, 20 sec vote, 30 second load time, under 30 Drop Prep. 11:43 battle. 5-12 loss.
Cadet Bonus 4: 725K. +62K match, 270 XP. No achieves.
Spoiler
-Not a good map for first StormCrow run. Apparently the other team starts on or near a very high plateau/hill. I follow the mechs I drop with (we are quite spread out) but they run into a large flat area exposed to that hill, and long range fire cuts them up. My Crow has decent speed, I back off and circle around a long loooong way to join survivors. 2 mechs down.
-Game started with some voice chats, Hellos etc. One fellow starts calling where to go but obviously a number of us have no clue what those coords are. Try my B map but hard to navigate with it up, and hard to not get misdirected with it off. Sucky map.
-Most of our mechs lack the range to shoot back at their hill mechs, and we are quite exposed to LRM also. They hill-hump for cover.
-I notice a couple things: on the map, I have no idea where our assaults, meds or lights, or whatever are. WoT and other games have clear symbols so you can tell at a glance what forces are where. MWO just has arrows for everyone.
-Also notice that I can hear people, but have no idea who is talking (an assault? A scout? Who?) I assume this is being shown and I am just missing it since speech is brief and my attention is on my surroundings.
-I join our remaining mechs, and take out a light that is trying to flank/spot them (again, finishing a wounded mech).
-I get focused by LRMs and a Dire, and poof I R dead.
-1 kill, 174 damage.
-Much better map for my mobile StormCrow. People were slow to move out so I took lead, They mostly followed even though I had no clue where to go. Once enemy spotted, I backed off and circled around for some flanking. Crow mobility nice.
-Lots of obstructions, things to go around, hard to get a clear shot. Trying to shoot and duck, at least there's lots of cover. My medium-short range weapons seem ok here, though I wish for longer at times.
-A couple voice chats, very little, nothing typed.
-We are falling behind, 5-8, things look bad. They have taken high ground in places, and have longer weapons than ours.
-But then, the spirit of Kerensky enters me!
-(No, not like that, you perv.)
-Even though my targeting is wonky (so much cover, LOS broken, I keep re-acquiring targets and losing them before mech info shows up), I start finding exposed targets. They must be getting overconfident. Or I look like an easy kill. Or something.
-I kill a Mad-Dog in a duel around a tree.
-I kill a Cheetah trying to drop behind us from a plateau.
-I kill an Atlas trying to hide in a big empty shell thing.
-I kill something trying to run away from me, forget what it was, but it was SCARED! (big medium or small heavy)
-I kill a Centurion who thinks he can flank me and shoot my back.
-TAKE THAT, FOUL MISCREANTS! Now 11-9, and my 2 remaining teammates spot an AFK back on their base and finish it for the win.
-Crazy luck, plus the fact that these mechs were shot to heck by my team. As stated, I didn't get a lot of 'targeting info' so couldn't go for 'weak spots', I just took whatever the best shot I had and those 5 MPL did the rest. (Although I lost an arm after the first or 2nd kill, and was down to 3MPL)
-Either due to the loss of 2MPL, or because the match was shoot-run-shoot, I didn't overheat once.
-5 kills, 653 damage.
-Grim looking map, but good fit for the StormCrow 5MPL except for the heat. Overheated a fair bit.
-Both teams moved off to east side of volcano rim, hill-humped, circled around another hill farther out, flanked. One of ours did a base run for capping, got driven off.
-Good mix of weaponry used, lots of lasers, PPCs, LRMs, ballistics. The fairly open nature of the map made for good view of a slugging-match type battle. Enjoyed it.
-Really got mangled a couple times by stepping into a ballistic King Crab, Timber or Dire Wolfs firing arc, but dodged fast.
-By flanking and maneuver, I managed to take out a TimberWolf and a Kit Fox, and face-tanked a Dragon Slayer that was also taking LRM fire. He stayed put to fight me, and died to the MPL/LRM combo fire.
-I died when I got tag-teamed from behind by another Timber and something else, never saw the 'something else' but it killed me.
-No voice chat or typing comms that I noticed, but I was pretty keyed on the fighting in front of me and may have missed some.
-3 kills, 494 damage.
Overall Impressions
Well, the only mech that died as easy as the Academy mechs was me. Real mechs are much tougher. I also realize that the MatchMaker is putting me in matches with all the other new guys, so I am getting an easy run so far. Probably my previous BT/MW/combat gaming and the videos etc (and extra practice in academy, almost 2 hours in there) are giving me an edge in these first few. I don't expect things to continue to go this smoothly.
Comms: Voice comms seem to work fine, though few use them (unfortunately I don't either). Very few use typing (I do a little), I can see how it is easy to miss in battle so not very useful.
Total after 6 battles: 10,494,000 C-Bills, 4,039 GXP.
3 losses, 3 wins. Overall I think my teams got mangled a bit harder than the other teams but it wasn't too uneven. Small sample size, we'll see what happens later this week when we move on to... THE HEAVIES!
You'll find as you move up in tiers those comms get used a lot more often. From about tier 3 up you'll deal with more veteran and top level players and coordinated teams and/or drop callers for units.
Morggo, on 15 December 2015 - 05:31 AM, said:
One thing I still am working on as well is knowing the maps.
Several of your battle reports mention the same thing I think even now and that is unfamiliarity with some aspect of the maps.
I need to take more forum advice and spend time on the training area, hop in a fast light and tour the maps more. You are definitely a better study than I am, so I'd figure you'd have the maps darn well memorized and all those little "secret paths" found once you do more of that too.
Keep it coming, enjoy the reports. Oh, and I keep watching for you in matches... judging by your performance so far I'll getshotalot.. but it'll be fun throwing down
use the training grounds to get to know the maps. Just choose a fast light mech and float through the maps. It will help you immensely.
Love your reports GetShotALot! Here's to hoping we drop in a match together someday.
And you already had a 5 kills match??? Man, I believe that took me a year until I got 5 kills in one match (best is still 7 kills).
Btw, you can screenshot your end of game screen (or any time in MWO really). They'll be auto-saved to: C:\Users\*YourUserNameHere*\Saved Games\MechWarrior Online\ScreenShots
(Logging in after the patch, received a nice 1 Day Premium time bonus, which will affect c-Bill and XP awards I guess)
During the day I did a little more googling, forum scanning, and video watching. Picked up 2 pointers I hadn't really noticed about weapons/grouping.
The ARM mounted weapons are denoted by the CIRCLE icon in your weapons list. The TORSO mounted weapons by the large + crosshair. Arm weapons have a separate cursor (small circle) which on some mechs, has more range of motion than the torso cursor (the large + crosshair). The ARM LOCK we saw in Tutorial can lock your arm weapons to same cursor as your torso, or free them for more motion.
Getting ready to fire up my ThunderBolt 9SE, I noticed it had all 3 large pulse lasers on the torso, BUT that one of them was noticeably higher than the other two. I went into the Testing Grounds, fired all my lasers, found out the first one was the high one. Made that weapon group 1, the two low ones weapon group 2. This allows me to split my fire for lower heat generation, AND to have at least 1 weapon with a higher firing angle for shooting over obstacles (like that medium that keeps standing in front of you).
You could also do a left/right split as well. The F3 key took my viewpoint out of the cockpit which was helpful in seeing which weapon was firing.
I set up my Weapon Groups, exited to MechBay, and hit the BATTLE! button. (Which is what all my other combat games call it, MWO calls it the 'Quick Play' button. Kind of wimpy if you ask me.)
Battles 7-9, ThunderBolt 9SE, 3 Large Pulse Laser
Battle 7 - Frozen City, Assault
28 seconds matchmaking, 20 voting, 38 map load, 80 sec in Drop Prep screen. 8:18 battle time. 11-5 win by base cap.
Cadet Bonus 7: 650k C-bills, +237K match, 2,820 XP, 2 achieves (GXP).
(Small difference here, for the first time I voted in the vote screen. Assuming my 3 LPL were going to run hot, I voted for Frozen City and got it.)
Impressions:
Spoiler
-Unfortunately, my fancy work with the Weapon Groups in testing grounds reset to default. Fortunately I remembered which laser was high one and reset them while walking forward with the group.
-Map had blinding snow, Night vision was also kinda blinding, Thermal worked pretty good.
-I ignored the large B map this time, but watched my mini-map to see where the pack was and was headed (pointed by arrows).
-Watched mini-map for stragglers/outlying/exposed mechs, and also kept an eye to make sure I wasn't a straggler.
-Our team mostly stuck together and headed for just east of the crashed dropship. Other team appeared to split up, some on each flank, a couple hung back, some tried to circle west.
-Enemy team got chopped up separately by our larger group. I was held back somewhat by being slower/less maneuverable, but after the mid-point of battle I managed to catch 3 heavily wounded mechs out of position, 3 kills in fairly shortly order.
-My high/low weapon split came in handy several times, both for shooting over obstructions and also getting some shots in over top of friendly mechs between me and target.
-No voice or typed comms (until the base cap), none needed here though.
-3 kills, 470 dmg.
Battle 8 - River City, Assault
22 seconds matchmaking, 20 voting, 57 second load maps, 37 Drop Prep screen. 8:49 battle. 12-4 win.
Cadet Bonus 8: 625k C-bills, +251k match, 4,156 XP, 1 Achievement (1,000 GXP)
Spoiler
-River City again, seemed more like dusk than dark this time, regular vision OK here.
-This time my weapon group assignment stuck, so maybe it saves in real battle but not Testing Grounds.
-A strat was typed early "form up around base, they will get impatient and come at us" - people followed it, worked well.
-Lots of buildings and mechs bumping about, the high/low weapon split was handy again.
-Couple scouts moved up, LRMs started coming in, then we spotted several of them and the firing began.
-They came in a couple at a time, got shot up by focused fire.
-The ThunderBolt's 3 LPL heated up less than I expected them to, although I was pacing my shots.
-Got a lot of good shots in by moving out, shooting between 2 buildings, moving back into cover.
-Killed 1 Catapult who had been taking long-range fire for a while then moved in; he didn't seem to realize his SRMs weren't reaching me.
-Headed for enemy, went down a tunnel towards them, unfortunately a Dire Wolf stepped into the end of the tunnel and very quickly blew off my left torso. Turns out, all 3 LPL are in my left torso. Weaponless, I turned and ran; barely survived while teammates took their last 3 mechs down.
-1 kill, 459 damage.
-Bog again. Kind of annoying to move around in, but on the other hand, plenty of cover to duck into!
-Had trouble getting shots at start, friendly mechs clumped up in front of me, enemy using cover and high ground, Thunderbolt a bit slow for running to a good position.
-Finally other team spread out a bit and I could move out, shoot, move back. Paced shots and again, the 3 LPL's heated less than I expected, so I could do a full alpha whenever I got a decent target.
-They had a DC from start, not sure what it was, but hurt their chances.
-Had some choice thoughts for the 'friendly' TimberWolf who kept following me and firing at my targets while somehow not noticing it was my back he was shooting. Managed not to type them though.
-Once the field cleared out a little, I moved to flank and once again, got nice targets already pre-shot-up by my team.
-Killed an Atlas being focused, then walked around a corner... damn another Dire Wolf! Are these things around EVERY corner?
-Fortunately he was at 43% and I was low heat. First alpha took off his arm, second alpha killed him. Cost me an arm.
-Match screen says I got 3 kills, no idea what the 3rd one might have been.
-No comms used.
-3 kills, 527 dmg.
Overall, matchmaking times were considerably longer for the heavy than the mediums. I really liked the simple, effective 3 LPL setup on the Thunderbolt. Less impressed by all 3 not only torso mounted but all in the SAME torso. Enjoyed the mech anyway.
Also noticed that some matches get 2X XP for first win of the day or something? I have no idea which of these matches may have gotten it. The C-Bill and XP bonuses from Premium time were quite nice.
3 drops, 3 wins for the Thunderbolt. Am I liking the Thunderbolt? Why yes, yes I am. (Although prob just random luck.) Currently at 13,099,341 C-Bills, 8.073 GXP.
Next up, the mighty TIMBERWOLF! Arrroooooo!
Edited by GotShotALot, 15 December 2015 - 06:02 PM.
GotShotALot, on 15 December 2015 - 05:41 PM, said:
Overall, matchmaking times were considerably longer for the heavy than the mediums. I really liked the simple, effective 3 LPL setup on the Thunderbolt. Less impressed by all 3 not only torso mounted but all in the SAME torso. Enjoyed the mech anyway.
Also noticed that some matches get 2X XP for first win of the day or something? I have no idea which of these matches may have gotten it. The C-Bill and XP bonuses from Premium time were quite nice.
3 drops, 3 wins for the Thunderbolt. Am I liking the Thunderbolt? Why yes, yes I am. (Although prob just random luck.) Currently at 13,099,341 C-Bills, 8.073 GXP.
Next up, the mighty TIMBERWOLF! Arrroooooo!
when you move your mouse over the play button it gives you information on the queue, the higher % a weight class has the longer the wait time is likely to be, heavy is the most popular weight class and almost always the highest wait time, with assaults or mediums usually in second place, and lights almost always have the shortest wait times.
you have all 3 LPL in the same torso so you can shield with the other side of the Mech, and that TDR has a STD engine so you can literally loose both arms, 1 leg and 1 torso but still have all your weapons.
the 2x XP is for the first win in each individual Mech.
Edited by Rogue Jedi, 16 December 2015 - 03:14 AM.
It is not a must to restrict yourself playing with trials in the first 25 or so matches. I used to play new trials from time to time, until i ended up with too many mechs.
Another tip, you say you have a 2-button mouse, but usually the scroll wheel itself is clickable as well, so you can assign 3 weapon groups to the mouse.
(I personally have group 1 L-button, group 2 R-button and group 3 Scroll button)
Battles 10-12 take place in the TimberWolf-C, Clan Mech, 2 Large Pulse Laser and 3 ER Medium Laser. Also just noticed this version has jump jets, which should come in handy!
Battle 10 - River City, Skirmish
6 seconds matchmaking, 20 voting, 61 map load, 20 sec in Drop Prep screen. 12:38 battle time. 8-12 loss.
Cadet Bonus 10: 575k C-bills, +199K match, 1,605 XP.
Impressions:
Spoiler
-Daytime. Team moved out as a group, sort of clustered around center, our side.
-Over 2 minutes, nothing spotted. Some LRMs seen. Not seeing anyone move out to scout.
-I head up that tunnel north by the drop ship, spot a full assault lance starting to cross the bridge. Type warning 'assault lance north bridge'.
-Team seems somewhat slow to respond, I am backing into the tunnel (while taking fire), wait a bit, pop out, lock a mech, fire an alpha, back up again. I take some LRM and laser fire but keeping them from crossing the bridge.
-Team finally starts to get some flanking shots into them from downriver, but they take a LOT of LRM fire back.
-I keep moving out of tunnel, spotting, alpha'ing, moving back. A 'friendly' Crab walks right up behind me and prevents me backing up, take some heavy LRM fire before I can get around him.
-Long period of peek-and-shoot, finally they lose enough mechs to even us up, and start to back off. We move forward, the JumpJets come in pretty handy maneuvering here.
-Heat buildup has been OK, mostly because I had to hide between shots. Now that we are moving into a brawl, I heat up a lot faster.
-Both teams playing pretty cagey all match, unfortunately their survivors are tougher than ours, and our last mechs go down.
-Loss, but I felt the Timberwolf held up pretty good here.
-1 kill, 678 dmg.
-New map, pretty big, lots of huge crystal outcrops to go around. Try to use the B map to head for other lances (we start very far apart) but can't steer worth a damn with it up. Off it goes. (Sucky map.)
-Our team was a bit too spread apart I felt.
-Had a hard time reaching engagements - map is sort of open, but so many huge terrain features to go around/down in/up over.
-I get a few shots in but it is easy for them to take cover, not going to chase around such large obstructions.
-I notice what looks like a straggler fighting one of ours off to the north. Head that way to help. Straggler runs. I follow - right around a corner and into a Dire Wolf/King Crab pair. Get shot to hell in the seconds it takes me to reverse and get cover.
-Get out of there, head to other side of battle - a Jenner comes in from a flank, I take a few more shots. Then a Hunchback comes around some wreckage on the other side, 2 shots at me (SRMs + something, not sure what) and my CT was gone. Was trying twist to shield it but think it sticks out pretty far.
-0 kill, 203 dmg. Dead in 5 minutes.
-Should have done better but we got outmaneuvered, outflanked, out-LRMed. Had an ECM Raven but he stood way off to the side and sniped in a couple kills with his ERLL. Then ran away and basically hid til 14:30, then popped out, did some damage, and died right at the 15:00 mark.
-Back to the snowy peaks. Again, team started out wide apart, I typed that we needed to group up and push together, meet E8 (or something, forget the coord but central to our 3 lances)
-Couple people typed 'roger' and headed that way, but one mech sat on spawn, one ran way out to the east edge of map, one headed far north, one tried to circle the large hill/mountain thing.
-Again, other team got the high central hill first, LRM and long range fire coming down on us as we passed below it and tried to head around north.
-A bit of good brawling as we rounded some low hills to the north, but we were too spread out, they were higher and more grouped up (but had moved off the big hill by then to come to us).
-Put up a good fight but our mechs lost one by one as they focused.
-1 kill, 523 dmg, survived 7:46. Our mechs fell pretty fast after I went down.
Well, 3 matches and 3 losses for the TimberWolf-C. That'll teach me for feeling so perky in the Thunderbolt, I guess. I did like the Timberwolf but overall, these 3 matches felt like the other team had their game on and we were kinda directionless.
Also, pretty big variation in the XP from these battles... low of 225, others over 1,000? Gonna have to start paying more attention to what gives XP and what doesn't, I guess.
Totals: 15,164,000 C-Bills, 8,233 GXP.
(PS: I do pay attention to and appreciate the tips on mouse buttons, UI, etc. I just have limited posts per day so don't do separate replies, but thank you!)
Edited by GotShotALot, 16 December 2015 - 03:38 PM.
Another tip, you say you have a 2-button mouse, but usually the scroll wheel itself is clickable as well, so you can assign 3 weapon groups to the mouse.
(I personally have group 1 L-button, group 2 R-button and group 3 Scroll button)
My personal setup has the scroll "button" my targeting so I don't have to reach for 'r'. I find I can get faster targets in the heat of battle with that, moved weapon group 3 to my thumb button.
GotShotALot, on 16 December 2015 - 03:37 PM, said:
(PS: I do pay attention to and appreciate the tips on mouse buttons, UI, etc. I just have limited posts per day so don't do separate replies, but thank you!)
after you have finished your first 25 games those limits on posting go away, and from the fact that you show as a rookie not a recruit you should no longer be limited
Pretty sure this thread will be helpful to folks. I'm returning after a second several month break...and, looks like 20-ish more folks I know will be joining - folks I know on steam; and more from another site where MWO is getting some positive reenforcement from those of us who have played in the past and currently.
Two things about that. 1.) Some of the others that are joining you at Tier 4 early in their careers, probably aren't quite that good yet. 2.) You'll probably be well into Tier 3 by the time you get out of cadet status, and that will be considerably better.
I say that the higher tier will be better, because you're less likely to have your fellow new players there, and more folks there will pretty much know how to play. I still say that it's no place for anyone that doesn't have about a dozen drops on each and every map so far, but that's another discussion entirely. NOT the OP's fault, at any rate.
Let me take a moment to say this to GotShotALot: You're doing REALLY well so far, judging by what you've shared here. KEEP THAT UP!
The TBR is the game's top mech for a reason. That said, even though it's among the best mechs for carrying a team, it still takes top-tier pilots to be able to carry in it. From the sound of it, your three TBR drops have all suffered from poor scouting (NOT the TBR's role) and less-than-stellar team coordination (NOT the cadet's role). That you felt compelled to take charge and direct your team on one drop already, only a dozen drops into your career, is saying something about the quality of players currently populating Tier 4.
Advice: If you find yourself taking charge again in the future, try to remember what mechs you have on your team. Which lance has the fast ones, which the slow ones. Don't, I mean DO NOT, be afraid to start calling out a particular lance or player to do something. Friendly, of course. But telling Alpha Lance to stay close to the team at E8, or TheRAbbi to go his noob @$$ out to scout for enemies in the area of such-and-such, is fine and dandy. And if you come across having the LEAST confidence at all, folks will generally get with the program.
They'll also expect you to continue performing as the drop caller, so be prepared for that too.
At least on larger maps, I feel the scout role is terribly underutilized. You'll know a good scout when you have one; we won't shut the F up about enemy locations and conditions and so on.
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