68 replies to this topic

[IraqiWalker]

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:24 AM, said:

GREAT community and setup. SURE some things are over priced. (1000 per color to color your mech) is a bit much when the 1200 currency is 695 (so about 5.00 per color) really? How about a set of 6 colors at that price.

Glad you're having fun.

The colors can be pricey, but they are on sale almost every weekend. That's something we should have probably told you early on. Save your cash for weekend, and Mondays. Those are usually the days when we get sales on all kinds of stuff.

Colors are also for all mechs. So when you unlock red, it's permanently unlocked for your account.

Camos on the other hand are not.

If you purchase the phranken camo for your commandos, it's only for your commandos.

However, camos come in two varieties:

1- Permanent unlock: Permanently unlocks this camo pattern for the chassis (all commandos, present and future)

2- One shot: You put it on the one variant, and it stays on it until you change it to something else. (this is the one I use most, since I don't keep every variant, of every chassis I play)

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

oh heck this is such a good thread, let me ask here.

1. when waiting to drop - there is a list of players. I started always being near the bottom. Recently I see I'm appearing mid way down (or up) and wondered if there is some significance to this? (placement in the "READY TO DROP" roster?)

Not really. This is just your location in your lance. The team commander can actually move you around if they want.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

2. Is there a way to toggle off the 2 long distance servers? I don't have fast internet (and can no get it here at any price).
so I find my best pings are in north America. (go figure) Pings so so at around 120 average. When on the other servers I can see 400+ pings. ODDLY it's still playable with some occasional studders. SO can we set something to allow only the one server?

Next to the quick play button there should be an arrow pointing down. Click it, and deselect the servers you don't want to play on.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

3. Being a old mech warrior player (I actually was beta tester for activision back then). Does MMO have DEATH FROM ABOVE? I wondered last night when I came down off a high spot on a enemy mechs head. Didn't appear to do anything.

No, it sadly does not. However, when you do jump on an enemy mech, they do receive damage, and you receive damage to your legs, too.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

4. While on that topic, what about splash damage? Often I'm doomed with my arms blown off and about to die. Should I run up and HUG the mech that's pounding me? On the other end - I was tight up against a mech the other day so he couldn't turn and I was pounding him in the back - I wondered - was I being damaged by my weapons fire on him? I could have looked at my damage but in the heat of battle it's hard to remember to look away from what matters most. = )

Splash damage has been removed from the game. There was a time when SRMs and LRMs were dealing ludicrous amounts of damage because splash was multiplying.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

5. Speaking of Mechs - good and bad. I bought the marauder pack because I could get it right away and I liked the look. I remembered using it long ago. I haven't had the best results with it. I thought I just sucked, but I recently picked up a enforcer (that I don't like the looks of) but often enjoy them (SPEED AND AGILITY) mostly - when spectating... and bought one. (C) for the 30% extra c bills. I tend to spend them as fast as I earn them... rarely having more than 8 million max. ANYWAY this mech is a blast - I tend to survive more hits, also can move faster and torso twists are quick. I've just added "V" zoom to the one I purchased and it's become a favorite of all I've tested so far.

The Marauder has a problem with it's huge side profile, it makes ripping your side torsos very easy. I have seen only one hitbox layout that I cannot confirm yet, but it's Side torsos are huge from the front as well, so you might want to consider running standard engines.

Spoiler

Also, try and abuse your advantage. The MAD is one of the best "Hull down" mechs in the game. You have very high mounted ballistic hardpoints, try and maneuver to where you can use them on your enemy without giving them the chance to fire back.

I would also suggest that you try and stick to being a second line mech, don't take the charge in a Marauder. Especially if you don't have full elites on it.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

6. after being dropped - incoming drop ships were SHOOTING and damaged me? how is that possible?

If that was CW, they have guns on those drop ships. 12 ERLLs that fire at the same speed and burn duration of MLs, if I am not mistaken.

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

7. The guys told me to get teamspeak. I did and we use that. IS this separate from the built in VOC? like must I run both? or can I just use the VOC in game? Is team speak better? else why do they recommend it?
My concern is a separate program that is built for voice quality - likely uses more of my limited internet bandwidth which can reduce my ping in the game. Whats the differences?

Teamspeak uses minimal bandwidth, and in this case, your own TS3 client is running independently from the in-game VOIP, but it won't interfere with it.

The in-game voip is only active during drops. While your own TS3 client will be persistent through your entire game session. I also think that PGI is actually using Teamspeak for their in-game VOIP.

The difference here is that you will be able to talk with your group even when not in a match.

We use TS3 heavily in group drops. Because that allows us to discuss plans without clogging the in-game VOIP channels with our voices, and once we have something formulated, we have one of us use the Push-to-talk feature of the in-game VOIP to pass the information on to the rest of the team.

[Kalamity27]

Lupis Volk, on 18 December 2015 - 01:14 AM, said:

i'm 77 hours into MWO from steam launch. I have 19/21 mech bays used with 10 mediums, 6 lights and 3 heavies. I now have 16mil and with my crippling fear of wasting my Cbills i've been stock piling it and am too afraid to buy any mechs or experiment with builds.

Anyone have anything to help me get past this?

Watch for events like the stocking stuffer one going on now. They are an easy way to earn extra cash.

Glad to have you! See you on the battlefield!

[M0rdresh]

Been playing for a week myself, and loving it.

The game's community is one of the best I experienced as a new player, both on the forums and in-game.
Everyday playing it feels like a celebration of my long-lasting memories of Mechwarrior 2 LAN sessions in the nineties.

I never expected such a deep and enjoyable experience.
Before I looked down on it, fearing another "......." Online cheap-cash-in-game, I was wrong.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Danth Reduviid, on 19 December 2015 - 02:32 PM, said:

Really the only time you will spend money for nothing is if you equip Artemis and remove it or buy ferro for a mech and later find you need the critical spots and have to remove it.

Two small bits of advice on that...

1.) SMURFY! It's THE source! BEFORE YOU BUILD, YOU SMURFY. That should really be one of the first rules of Mech Lab. (The first rule of Mech Lab is, you actually DO talk about Mech Lab...) Considering whether you even CAN fit Ferro, Endo, DHS, and all the gear you want, on that shiny new mech? Try it out in Smurfy first. If it fits, THEN you can blow the cash to do it in the live Mech Lab. If not, then figure out what compromises you CAN make in Smurfy, BEFORE you pay for upgrades that you can't use. BEST. TOOL. EVER.

2.) Artemis IV? It's good to have on missile mechs that fire LRMs in packs of 15-20 (maybe even 10, depending on the mechwarrior), and SRMs in 4 or 6. It also supposedly helps with Streak SRMs. That said, it costs 250,000 CB and increases the prices of launchers and ammo. So, it's not something you just go throwing around on your mechs when money's tight. SO, my advice? Have ONE Artemis IV equipped mech of any chassis that has a reasonable missile variant. FOR INSTANCE, I have four Ebon Jaguars. I keep Artemis IV FCS on ONE of them. Three TBRs, ONE with Artemis. Three SHCs, ONE with Artemis. And so on. At least with Clan omnimechs, I can move omnipods around chassis-to-chassis (I think they fixed that issue that charged you to de-Artemis pods that WERE installed on Artemis omnimechs) to reconfigure anyhow. With IS mechs, it's a little more fixed. Artemis goes on any mechs that you intend to make missile carriers, even if that's not THE primary weapon system, unless you really just can't afford the extra tonnage and space. But get used to building your variants that way, ESPECIALLY with Clan omnimechs, and you'll be fine.

Those two things SHOULD help a lot with minimizing the erroneous spending on installing/removing upgrades.

And yeah, there are maybe TWO variants among all the battlemechs in the game that DON'T benefit from DHS. All the others? DOUBLE HEAT SINKS. (LCT-1V is one exception, except for VERY non-standard builds, and I don't remember the other. Still doesn't hurt anything to go ahead and DHS them.)

[Koniving]

FreebirthToad18999, on 19 December 2015 - 01:53 AM, said:

All I can say is that I have never ever been so frustrated to be in tier 5

If it helps, those who haven't played for a while before the "PSR" thing came into the game seem to have been defaulted to the lowest tier at the time. When I rejoined I was shoved in tier 4, lowest at the time. Tier 5 is now the lowest. Meanwhile, i sank a bit trying to use new mechs with no skill trees and I'm working my way back up.

Side note I'm having the time of my life. Nothing like seeing an armada of enemies and allies line up to face off...and being the one guy in a Quickdraw (often labelled as a horrible mech), going behind enemy lines at max speed of 64.8 kph (going slow in a 60 ton mech is considered to be digging your own grave, recommendation commonly seen is 80+ for 60 ton mechs, preferably 90+). And bringing my twin AC/10s (considered to be horrible autocannons) and a large laser (a single LL is considered to not be worth taking)... and coming through with craploads of kills as I steadily march forward without a care in the world.

So much fun.
"How did you kill me?! I jumped above you!!! Airborne!"
"I turned armlock off and tracked you with left CTRL."

"What the **** just happened?"
"I shot you, then I waved to your partner here while reloading and shot him, and one sec... pardon me, do you have any grey poupon?"

(Old video of mine, but I've been known for grey poupon parodies for a while.)

[Morggo]

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:24 AM, said:

Thanks for a awesome gaming experience. I bought a new PC for this (I was playnig on a Mac with bootcamp) and it played wonderfully at med options. Now with Alienware box I can run max res and max options. My wife's not liking it though. (added headphones and mic and I don't respond to her any longer. = )

Side topic... Not sure if your wife is any sort of gamer in general (mine definitely is) but I found that I started including her by chatting about recent awesome matches and kills and such... she isn't interested in playing per se but she did get interested in watching matches. So much so that I got a splitter for the audio and she can now watch and hear the game/matches). Thought I'd toss that idea out there if it helps on the homefront!

Ron Kramer, on 20 December 2015 - 10:36 AM, said:

7. The guys told me to get teamspeak. I did and we use that. IS this separate from the built in VOC? like must I run both? or can I just use the VOC in game? Is team speak better? else why do they recommend it?
My concern is a separate program that is built for voice quality - likely uses more of my limited internet bandwidth which can reduce my ping in the game. Whats the differences?

One thing I learned from the experienced guys here... put your TeamSpeak on voice activated, then put the push-to-MUTE hotkey on the same in game hot key for push-to-TALK. That way you can be chatting on TS but still hear and talk to the in game if needed. Works a treat for me.

Edited by Morggo, 22 December 2015 - 06:44 AM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Morggo, on 22 December 2015 - 06:43 AM, said:

One thing I learned from the experienced guys here... put your TeamSpeak on voice activated, then put the push-to-MUTE hotkey on the same in game hot key for push-to-TALK. That way you can be chatting on TS but still hear and talk to the in game if needed. Works a treat for me.

See, I was hoping to find a good solution to that problem. Hadn't thought of that. Beats having two separate PTT keys. THANKS!

[AlmightyAeng]

TheRAbbi, on 22 December 2015 - 07:01 AM, said:

See, I was hoping to find a good solution to that problem. Hadn't thought of that. Beats having two separate PTT keys. THANKS!

I use voice-activation in teamspeak. If I need to talk to the group, my TS group hears me and knows what I've told our PUG buddies...they mostly have in-game turned off lol.

[Czarr]

CW needs a tutorial

we have people trying to kill gamma in counterattack when they don't have the lead in kill counts. I don't know if new players don't know how to read or what, if PGI needs to make "destroy gamma AND have the higher kill count" under objectives a little more understable....but apparently a lot of forced losses because new players don't know what to do

Edited by Czarr, 22 December 2015 - 09:33 PM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Czarr, on 22 December 2015 - 09:30 PM, said:

CW needs a tutorial

Yes. Yes, it does.

Honestly, ALL of the game modes need tutorials. But CW/FW more so. "You are on a 12-mech team, facing an enemy 12-mech team. Get 12 kills to win. GO!" Easy enough to understand Skirmish, and that's what Assault and Conquest usually turn into. Fine and dandy.

"You are 4 mechs in a 48-mech team, that fights with not more than 12 mechs at a time, against an enemy with the same composition. There are turrets and generators and Omegas, OH MY! You have to do things in a certain order AND kill more of them than they do of you. Oh, and dropships are JERKS with their doggone laser beams. GO!" Yeah, the Call of DutyField folks might need a little more guidance.

Now, SOME will say that it's on the more experienced players, who are usually in there with them, to herd the cats properly. May be true, even. Honestly, that would be a lot easier and less necessary if they at least had access to a practical walkthrough.

[Kjudoon]

My impressions so far. Yes I stuck my nose into the voting mode to get some easy goodies. blech!

1. Too many people don't understand friendly fire kills. Maybe not by you but the damage will get them killed when they could have... SHOULD have survived.

2. Stick together is an alien concept. If you have rambotardia and go off on your own... unless you're a fast mech and hopefully with ECM, you're going to die.

3. Conquest is not long walks on the map with your Dire Whale time. Lights get cap superiority with other fast mechs. Everyone else sticks together and defends, or forcibly takes a cap point and slows down the enemy.

4. If someone's willing to lead them, the new people will respond positively to those who will help them be better. Teach them to call targets by example for instance. Tell them what you're doing to help them. It works most matches I tried. Yes I know how much I hate VOIP, but I was testing it out.

5. If you hit a group of PUGs in CW who have little idea what they're doing, don't club them, get some points, then HELP them learn. Shut down or let your weaker members learn how to play the game better and give them a fighting chance. Observe, advise and encourage. It's your only chance to get real practice in. This is not condescension, this is just living up to the commonly espoused statement of "we want challenges" from the hardcore l33ts facerolling everything and whining about it. TEACH them with positive, helpful chat. DOn't have to throw matches or anything or be stupid, but be honorable.

Yeah, I know, surprise that these statements were made by me.

Edited by Kjudoon, 23 December 2015 - 04:04 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

M0rdresh, on 22 December 2015 - 04:11 AM, said:

Been playing for a week myself, and loving it.

The game's community is one of the best I experienced as a new player, both on the forums and in-game.
Everyday playing it feels like a celebration of my long-lasting memories of Mechwarrior 2 LAN sessions in the nineties.

I never expected such a deep and enjoyable experience.
Before I looked down on it, fearing another "......." Online cheap-cash-in-game, I was wrong.

I'm glad you're enjoying it, and having such a good experience. Feel free to post any questions you have, and we'll be happy to help.

[Anachronda]

Lupis Volk, on 17 December 2015 - 03:15 PM, said:

1. Community. I'll admit my first taste for the community was the toxic element that was on Steam. Working hard to scare anyone away while hold grudges that appear to be years old. Once i came to the official forum though it was a completely different environment. People went out of their way to help beginners instead of spewing nonsense about "p2w" or "developer is bad" Also Shout out to all the Units who went to Steam to try and support new players.

...

4. F2P or P2W? I do laugh when people say hero mechs are P2W since they cost MC. I've killed my fair share of heros and been killed while in them. I do think there's no P2W element. However i do think the mechs you can pre-order could be considered somewhat P2W since they are launched unbalanced. No i don't mean their OP, i mean they haven't gone through all the balancing hoops yet when they are sold for irl money. By the time their out for MC or Cbills, yeah sure.

well that's my thoughts so far for MWO. Overall it's a fun game with a helping community in the right places.

I think your thoughts are quite reasonable. Welcome to MWO, BTW.

As far as Steam community goes, I have found most games have some helpful things in the community forums. I have not checked the one for this game, but I have noticed that pretty much every game has haters and people who dislike the developers or something. So MWO is not a standout there. It doesn't mean those people are right or even serious - for the games I have played I have totally disagreed with the haters in every case and didn't let them get in the way of my enjoyment. You shouldn't either and it sounds like you aren't - good on you for that!

As you can see the environment here isn't toxic at all. I have had so much help from patient experienced players it's just incredible. People try and act as good sports, saluting at the beginning and saying good game at the end. Obviously humans vary and people do have strong opinions, but overall people are helpful here. Even those who tend to be more forceful in their arguments often have their heart in the right place - they're actually trying to help in their own way, it's just the way they present that may seem more aggressive.

Pay to win: Every free game has people who might claim P2W and this is no exception, except maybe a smaller number of people claiming it. Some games are totally that way; I remember a free to play game I once played where you would get to a certain point and unless you had a weapon which cost real money or you literally could not progress. Some games give paying players a huge advantage which makes the game so unfair it's totally obvious. I don't feel this is the case in MWO.

I think you are basically right on the money in your observation here as it is true every mech gets tweaked after awhile of gathering data and feedback. Personally I feel like a lot of this is myth and hype. People kind of expect a mech to be OP or something when first introduced. I think one of the mechs which got the most grief recently was the Arctic Cheetah (now available for cbills), which is definitely a nice mech. But even though on day one I initially saw them as kind of hard to kill, eventually people figured it out and they fall just like every mech. Every mech has weaknesses - clan mechs suffer from weaker legs. The Cheetah was nerfed later, but it is still a good mech much as the Firestarter (a mech it is often compared to) is also good. As well remember that for the most part any mech which is available only for money or mc will be eventually available for cbills. The only exception there is heroes, champions, and some loyalty variants.

I think this is one of those games where they've hit on the best use of a free to play game which takes real money. Spending money doesn't really give you an unfair advantage over players who spend less or not at all, it simply serves the purpose of paying for time. You can get most of the same stuff over time through grinding, events, or just plain waiting. You're mostly making a trade where rather than spending that time you get the mechs or whatever more or less instantly. That works for people who for instance have a lot more work than time to play, somewhat balancing against that, and this is the function in most of the good F2P games I have encountered. Another thing you can pay for is cosmetic stuff like camos, colors, cockpit items, etc. That's not a bad thing and it does nothing to balance. It just gives you something else nice to look forward to.

Hero mechs are nice. I would say if you buy them buy a mastery pack instead since they are way better value and give you enough mechs to master that chassis. If you buy just the hero, or any mech for mc, you don't even get a bay for it - something I learned the hard way. Mastery packs give you mechbays, premium time, and from what I have seen the mechs alone are cheaper still. The main benefit of hero mechs and premium time, especially when used together, is having a bonus to cbills (and in the latter case XP), making your grind less. But there again you are paying for time saved, not to win. I'd consider the fact heroes have different hardpoints, sometimes unique within that chassis, another benefit. People will use them because they like the build they can make. But often you can do something similar with the cbill variants, and it's really more a matter of taste IMHO.

In conclusion, you really don't have to spend a dime on this game to progress or win. Mechbays can be won by Community Warfare and in events like some of the ones we just had in the past few months. You can win MC, too, which you can spend on mechbays. Personally, I have been in need of more mechbays for awhile, but I have amassed a lot of MC from the tournaments and stuff over the past several months. I'm waiting for a 50% off sale on mechbays because that happens pretty often. At present I have enough to get about 25 mechbays I think, at last calculation, and I didn't really have to try that hard or play so many days. That's not counting this event. I know plenty of people who are hardcore about never spending money here to see what they can do without that. This is a common challenge in F2P games. They are doing just fine because in the end it is skill and teamwork that wins games. It's not even the mechs.

[Kjudoon]

Word of caution.

Do not confuse "Pay 2 Win" with "Pay 4 Impatience".

The only way "P4I" become "P2W" is if they nerf the mech when released for MC and again for CBills.

Then you had a limited P2W.

Thankfully this has only been a recent and disturbing trend that they better knock off.

[Kali Rinpoche]

TL:DR so I apologize if I rehash something. One good piece of advice is to be very careful when buying XL engines. As a rule of thumb, you want to stick to sizes that can benefit you across your mech garage.
You can't go wrong with these:
XL 245 I meant XL235 useful for Blackjack builds.
XL 250
XL 275
XL 280
XL 300

They can and will be used across your fleet for very long time.

Most importantly, never sell and engine XL or standard under 175. I regretted lot of engines I had to rebuy when I started after selling them.

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 24 December 2015 - 04:04 PM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Kali Rinpoche, on 23 December 2015 - 10:28 PM, said:

TL:DR so I apologize if I rehash something. One good piece of advice is to be very careful when buying XL engines. As a rule of thumb, you want to stick to sizes that can benefit you across your mech garage. You can't go wrong with these: XL 245 XL 250 XL 275 XL 280 XL 300 They can and will be used across your fleet for very long time. Most importantly, never sell and engine XL or standard under 175. I regretted lot of engines I had to rebuy when I started after selling them.

not sure about the XL 245, as a rule if a Mech can take a 250 or larger engine it usualy should, for the full 10 in engine true double heatsinks ^{(heatsinks outside the engine or above the first 10 in engine only disipate 1.4 times as much heat as standard heatsinks while the first 10 in engine doubles dissipate twice as much heat, you save half a ton by using an XL245 over an XL255, for that you are slower and run hotter)}, also the XL255 is superior to the 250, the only time to take an XL250 is if the Mech cannot fit a 255, or if you have spare XL250s, the XL275 and XL280 again are the same weight but there are some Mechs with an engine cap of 275

many Mechs do not benefit from an XL engine, so the standard engines 250, 275, 300 and 325 are quite useful to have for the non XL friendly Medium, Heavy and Assault Mechs

the post has been fixed, it makes sense now I know you meant 235, that is the max engine for some Blackjacks and Vindicators

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 25 December 2015 - 02:30 AM.

[Kali Rinpoche]

Rogue Jedi, on 24 December 2015 - 01:51 AM, said:

not sure about the XL 245, as a rule if a Mech can take a 250 or larger engine it usualy should, for the full 10 in engine true double heatsinks ^{(heatsinks outside the engine or above the first 10 in engine only disipate 1.4 times as much heat as standard heatsinks while the first 10 in engine doubles dissipate twice as much heat, you save half a ton by using an XL245 over an XL255, for that you are slower and run hotter)}, also the XL255 is superior to the 250, the only time to take an XL250 is if the Mech cannot fit a 255, or if you have spare XL250s, the XL275 and XL280 again are the same weight but there are some Mechs with an engine cap of 275

many Mechs do not benefit from an XL engine, so the standard engines 250, 275, 300 and 325 are quite useful to have for the non XL friendly Medium, Heavy and Assault Mechs

Doh, I meant XL235 for use with Blackjacks, commando's, and some Panther builds.

The XL 250 b/c some mech's have a 250 Cap an the 1-3 mph not critical.

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 24 December 2015 - 04:06 PM.

[MadFrenchie]

Haha as a Steam noob, I've made some iffy buying decisions. I currently have a Jenner F and D and a Swayback bought. Haven't spent a dime of real money yet. But I'm thinking I might buy premium time. I'm enjoying the game, but I do think if I'm going to play long-term I'll need a solid crew to play with on the regular. Too many games as a Jenner where I look up and the score is 2 kills to 11 for the enemy. I /facepalm and try to do what I can before I get cored haha


EDIT- Noob question: I can't equip the same engine to two different mechs like I'm able to with all other equipment? My Mechlab is telling me I have to buy ANOTHER 295 engine for my Jenner F even though I already bought one to go into my Jenner D...

Edited by MadFrenchie, 24 December 2015 - 04:24 PM.

[Leone]

You gotta pull it from the Jenner D, save the Jenner D without an engine, (Or with some other engine) and then can place it within the Jenner F. This is an easy way to level multipule mechs whilest conserving the cbills.

I still have engines that've been passed on from Shadowhawk, to Firestarter, all the way upto Hunchback IIC.

~Leone.

[MadFrenchie]

Leone, on 24 December 2015 - 04:34 PM, said:

You gotta pull it from the Jenner D, save the Jenner D without an engine, (Or with some other engine) and then can place it within the Jenner F. This is an easy way to level multipule mechs whilest conserving the cbills.

I still have engines that've been passed on from Shadowhawk, to Firestarter, all the way upto Hunchback IIC.

~Leone.

Thanks for the tip good sir!