21 replies to this topic

[ErinaceusSwe]

I havn't played this game for very long, but feel I'm making progress.
I understand the mechlab, and shake my head in disbelief that I in the beginning didn't understand why I couldn't fit an AC on my mech's arm (no hardpoint, duh).
I now usually manage to stay alive long enough to deal damage, my ability to do so slightly hindered by my tendency to try and protect my teammates flanks all the time (because otherwise we all die in a torrent of flying metal and lasers, this way only I die), or trying to stop full lances moving towards our base all by myself (because no one else is trying to stop them and we are too far from their base to outcap them).
The next area I wanted to increase my understanding of was the community warfare. I read some guides, like Kin3eticX's stickied guide in this forum and talked in Public matches with people who seemed to have alot of playtime. They discouraged me quoting the need for a group, but I'm the kind of person who tries anyway. The worst that can happen is that I get owned so hard that shockwaves from it ruin the town I live in.

But I just don't get it.

I just. Don't. Get It.

I joined up with a faction, FRR, because I'm swedish and the Kungsarmé seemed comfortably homely to try my first steps in CW with.
But then what? No guide I've seen has explained to me how to enter a match. Talking in the faction chat I came to realise that the planet Beta 7 was were it was happening. Saw some people queued in there for what I think was attacking, but how do I join them? The only hint I saw was under the heading 'Contract' were it said that there were currently no contracts available. People in the chat called out for more players to join in Beta 7. I had previously been told that the forums had all the info I needed to get started, so I was looking through page after page of forum posts. But still, how do I join the Beta 7 fun?
People in the chat, obviously preoocupied, tried to help but little of what they said conformed with what I saw. "Pick a planet in the list to the upper right, red is for attack blue for defense." Found the list. But nothing neither red nor blue there.
While I'm writing this I see more callouts to join Beta 7, I see beta 7 regions changing from blue to red and maybe back again. I see people queueing for beta 7 but don't get how they do it. My interface also tells me there is neither an attack nor a defense going on there, yet someone in chat just said that they were looking for people, 'queue up for beta 7 people' but how? Asking people invariably led to a lack of red or blue planets to click.
I soon understand that we are attacking beta 7. The two blue tags in the Defend queue means there are two units waiting for us to attack them and the yellow pips over 'Groups in queue' are people waiting for more members before they can begin the attack. So why is my interface continuing to insist that Beta 7 has nothing going on?

What am I missing? Maybe I'm just having another 'Needs hardpoints, duh'-moment, maybe I need to spend more hours shooting things in quick play.

Reading thorugh forum posts have taught me that I shouldn't shoot at the gate but instead go for generators, something I'd probably learn just from trying it once. I've learned about drop decks, although I don't get it now it'sprobably something I'd pick up really fast just trying it for myself. But nowhere does it say how you join a match. A step by step guide seems to be what I need, made in MS paint with big red arrows.

I'd like to be enlightened. That said, I don't need answers along the line of "you shouldn't solo for CW". In cases like these I try things for myself before deciciding if it's for me or not.


Thanks in advance.

[mp00]

After clicking on a planet there should be a option in the bottom right of the "Contract Information" (this is where you would have seen 'contract') window that pops up. The option will be either attack or defend depending on which planet you have chosen.

[sycocys]

Click on a planet. Then in the box that pops up there will be I believe a blue button that says either attack/defend or join queue.

Just logged off or I'd tell you for sure what it says, but I'm sure someone will be able to post a screenshot with an arrow to it.

[Strykewolf]

It can be a bit daunting.

When you are on the CW page, on the upper right you will see red and blue highlighted planet names. Those are what is available to attack (red) or, defend (blue). Now, teams are groups of 12...something to keep in mind.

The planets that are available for attack are faction specific; those available for defense are not. Thus, when attacking - you will be dropping with other FRR (in your case) pilots....when defending, you will be dropping with pilots from various factions.

Now...what the numbers mean: Say your attacking planet X...the numbers you see are 9/24. That means there are currently 9 pilots cued to attack, and 24 cued to defend. If you click on the planet, set up your drop deck, and click the attack button, you will become number 10 in the attack column. You still need a couple more folks to show up to make a 12 man drop. Could take a few seconds, could take a few minutes. The numbers beside the planet name (upper right) are listed as attackers/defenders.

Same idea for choosing to defend a planet.

That help at all?

[Jenovah]

http://imgur.com/i46ovgd

Main Screen once you hit faction play

http://imgur.com/wp0OEfo

Top right box, "planet search" select the planet. This bring up the box you see on the left- drop deck and your attack button to enter the que.

http://imgur.com/GQIsnt2

This will then populate while you wait for other pilots/mechs to join your drop against the planet.

Edited by Jenovah, 12 January 2016 - 08:58 AM.

[ErinaceusSwe]

Speedy replies, a mark of a healthy community.
These replies, while appreciated, are just like the ones I got in chat which do not match up with what I'm seeing.

Anyone see anything odd? Can't be seen in this screenshot, but Beta 7 is grey too in the upper right planet list.

I'm starting to believe that either I'm missing something so basic none of you have thought of it, or my UI is bugged/broken/whatever. Looking at Jenovah's screens makes this suspicion stronger.
Tried restarting the game etc but no change there.

Thanks for the answers

Edited by ErinaceusSwe, 12 January 2016 - 09:10 AM.

[p4r4g0n]

Just out of curiousity, how many matches have you played so far?

Not sure if you need to finish your first 25 matches to join CW but that might be it?

P.S. When you say you restarted the game, did you log out and shut down the game entirely or just log out and re-log back in? Usually, you need to shut it down entirely for some updates to take.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 12 January 2016 - 09:52 AM.

[mp00]

Got me stumped atm.. I can see from your screen you have faction chat therefore it cannot be your contract with FRR has run out..
and you are probably right something basic we are missing..

[Ssamout]

Well at least if the planet you are trying to attack is grayed out, you cannot join on it. Only the ones that are blue or red are open for attack(red)/defend(blue). Usually found on top of the list in the right corner.

I guess the gray ones are other contested planets during that attack window, so its possible to see players on queue there.

[Strykewolf]

ErinaceusSwe, on 12 January 2016 - 09:01 AM, said:

Speedy replies, a mark of a healthy community.
These replies, while appreciated, are just like the ones I got in chat which do not match up with what I'm seeing.

Anyone see anything odd? Can't be seen in this screenshot, but Beta 7 is grey too in the upper right planet list.

I'm starting to believe that either I'm missing something so basic none of you have thought of it, or my UI is bugged/broken/whatever. Looking at Jenovah's screens makes this suspicion stronger.
Tried restarting the game etc but no change there.

Thanks for the answers

You are cued up for Beta 7; the box with the ticks filled are how many are cued for the next team, in your case 9. There is also a full team waiting for opponents ahead of you (the filled in arrow to the left of the 'tick box') The planet, and the others, are grayed out because you are already dropping on Beta 7.

Wait a minute...I might be wrong. I only see it look like that when I have no faction contract...or, if I'm looking at a planet I cannot participate on.

Edited by Strykewolf, 12 January 2016 - 09:54 AM.

[Deathlike]

ErinaceusSwe, on 12 January 2016 - 09:01 AM, said:

Speedy replies, a mark of a healthy community.
These replies, while appreciated, are just like the ones I got in chat which do not match up with what I'm seeing.

Anyone see anything odd? Can't be seen in this screenshot, but Beta 7 is grey too in the upper right planet list.

I'm starting to believe that either I'm missing something so basic none of you have thought of it, or my UI is bugged/broken/whatever. Looking at Jenovah's screens makes this suspicion stronger.
Tried restarting the game etc but no change there.

Thanks for the answers

There's some clearly missing info from your picture...

I can only think that you may be going through ceasefire at the time of the picture (your planetlist is towards the bottom - where everything is irrelevent).

The other possibility is that your faction contract may have ended at that very moment, and would need to be reupped first. The game will consider you "not from the faction", and will reject your launch attempt (or disable dropping onto the planet).


That's all I can think of at the moment.

[Davegt27]

[Davegt27]

CW or Faction play

[ErinaceusSwe]

Problem solved, all by it self it would seem.

Deathlike, on 12 January 2016 - 09:56 AM, said:

The other possibility is that your faction contract may have ended at that very moment, and would need to be reupped first. The game will consider you "not from the faction", and will reject your launch attempt (or disable dropping onto the planet).

I had made the contract, maybe 20 mins before I took that screen, but it got me thinking of another problem I had. I had changed my loadout in the mechlab and the Quick play was practicaly instantaneous, when I got into the game my loadout was unchanged. I just assumed I had forgotten to press Save but when I got back into the mechlab the loadout was changed.

It seems to me that sometimes my client isn't updating with things I do straight away, so I checked the UI again now after I've had dinner and some time has passed. It worked as it should directly.
It might have been as you said, the game didn't recognise me as an FRR member because it hadn't updated my client, or something along those lines. Since I restarted the client, not just log off but complete restart, only minutes after joining FRR it might not have had time to update itself. ( I don't know how those things actually work, but the approximation seems feasible to me)

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm glad it turned out to solve itself, and also much more understanding as to why there are no guides to how to enter a CW match.

The button's right there, duh?

[sycocys]

Yeah sometimes you just have to "Try turning it off, then turning it back on again." - we have this all the time when renewing contracts and players logging on for the first time afterwards. Basically if all else fails you need to click in faction to have it refresh to the server then log out/in so it represents on the client.

And because you are new and I don't know if its covered in the guides - if you crash while dropping or dropped in CW, you need to select a mech in your drop deck, then select the planet, and hit the CW launch button again and it should ask you if you want to rejoin. It sometimes will not work from the normal "re-join" button.

[ErinaceusSwe]

Davegt27, on 12 January 2016 - 10:04 AM, said:

CW or Faction play

I looked at the beginning of that first vid and just realised it contained one vital piece of info that I in my annoyed trawl of the forum (or through thinking of my own) entirely missed. I signed up with FRR, an Inner sphere faction, when the only IS mech I own is a Raven, and the other 3 Timberwolves

I should've seen mech usage being restricted comming when I was asked to pick a faction. I'm not very lore savvy, but I did understand that the Timberwolf is a mech used by the Clans and that FRR was IS. I guess the quick matches mixing faction mechs any which way tricked me into that one. Guess I have to use trial mechs.

sycocys, on 12 January 2016 - 10:33 AM, said:

And because you are new and I don't know if its covered in the guides - if you crash while dropping or dropped in CW, you need to select a mech in your drop deck, then select the planet, and hit the CW launch button again and it should ask you if you want to rejoin. It sometimes will not work from the normal "re-join" button.

Not covered that I have seen, good to know.

Edited by ErinaceusSwe, 12 January 2016 - 10:37 AM.

[Leartes]

ErinaceusSwe, on 12 January 2016 - 10:35 AM, said:

I looked at the beginning of that first vid and just realised it contained one vital piece of info that I in my annoyed trawl of the forum (or through thinking of my own) entirely missed. I signed up with FRR, an Inner sphere faction, when the only IS mech I own is a Raven, and the other 3 Timberwolves

I hope you selected a short contract. In the beginning it is best to only do 1 week contracts for all factions to get to rank 2 with all of them and collect 10 mechbays in total.

If that is the case you can go clan next week.

[zudukai]

ErinaceusSwe, on 12 January 2016 - 09:01 AM, said:

Speedy replies, a mark of a healthy community. These replies, while appreciated, are just like the ones I got in chat which do not match up with what I'm seeing. Anyone see anything odd? Can't be seen in this screenshot, but Beta 7 is grey too in the upper right planet list. I'm starting to believe that either I'm missing something so basic none of you have thought of it, or my UI is bugged/broken/whatever. Looking at Jenovah's screens makes this suspicion stronger. Tried restarting the game etc but no change there. Thanks for the answers

Definitely missing elements, no Deck, no attack button, are you sure you have your contract properly setup?

i actually suggest messaging official support.



*edit* could it have been a ceasefire window?

Edited by zudukai, 12 January 2016 - 11:14 AM.

[Kin3ticX]

probably ceasefire

I guess I can do a faq page on little nuggets of CW info

[Sjorpha]

Looks like ceasefire.

But you also sometimes need to restart the game after taking on a new contract in order to make it work, and in some other situations as well.