12 replies to this topic

[Hugh Chardon]

HI,

So, I posted a topic about what mech to purchase first, and I got many helpful and informative responses. I'd like to very much thank all who replied, as well as curse you, for I'm now even more undecided!



I had settled on buying some Stormcrows (after adopting some torso twisting habits from Hunchback practice), but a couple of people I've played with have been strongly recommending that I start with IS mechs so that I can get into faction warfare quicker.

They tell me with my 4 default mech bays, I should master a light, sell off the 2 versions I don't want, and then master a heavy to give me a total of 4 mastered mech's to use in faction play. I have 35m c-bills right now, so I probably already have most of the cash I'll need for this route. However, I'd be starting from scratch in mastering light and heavy IS mechs.

My initial plan was to master Stormcrow, sell off 1 variant (since from my understanding of omnipods, most variants can be built into another), and then buy 2 other heavies that'd I'd level in the process of earning an extra mech-bay from faction play to eventually make room for the 3rd variant. I have the cash for mastering Stormcrow, but I'll need to earn at least another 30m c-bills to buy the 2 heavies to make a drop team (and some amount of millions for the modules)--but this seems grind-able while I level up the Stormcrows.

Anyone have any strong feelings about these (or other routes)?

If I go with Clan, I'm wondering if using 2 unleveled heavies would be a major liability in faction warfare.
* Would I be wasting my time/badly hurting my team by not entering this game mode with fully mastered mechs?
* On a related note, If I started to explore faction play now using only trial mechs, would I effectively be trolling my team-mates?

One of the issues tipping the scales in my own internal debate, is that I really like the range of quirks across IS mech's variants. This makes me loath to start collecting them while I still don't have the mech bays to keep them. Starting with the Clan gets around this neuroticism since it seems to me that some mechs like the Stormcrow only really need to keep 1 chassis to have available a full range of builds (though I see that some other clan mechs may have several unique, useful chassis). However, given how cheap IS light mechs are, I suppose that re-buying them at some point won't be that horribly painful either.

I'd appreciate any advice/suggestions (to further fuel my bouts of indecision).

Thanks and curses in advance,
hugh chardon

[IraqiWalker]

Do you want to play CW as IS or Clan?

That should dictate what mechs to get first. You're going to end up spending the SAME amount of C-Bills in 90% of cases.

The difference is that IS mechs SEEM cheap, since you can buy the chassis for little. However, add the 1.5million DHS upgrade + 0.5 million for Endo on most mechs + big XL engine, and you end up paying the same amount in the end.

Clan mechs SEEM expensive, because they come stock with all of those goodies pre-installed.

By the way, Light mechs are pricier than some mediums that are CW competitive. For example, you'll pay around 8 million C-Bills for an AC 20 HBK, after upgrades, but you'll pay at least 9 million C-Bills on a light, after upgrades..

[Rogue Jedi]

Hugh Chardon, on 02 March 2016 - 01:51 PM, said:

HI,

So, I posted a topic about what mech to purchase first, and I got many helpful and informative responses. I'd like to very much thank all who replied, as well as curse you, for I'm now even more undecided!

you are welcome, helping new players is what we are here for, but if you want a concise answer ask a more focused question.

Quote

I had settled on buying some Stormcrows (after adopting some torso twisting habits from Hunchback practice), but a couple of people I've played with have been strongly recommending that I start with IS mechs so that I can get into faction warfare quicker.

They tell me with my 4 default mech bays, I should master a light, sell off the 2 versions I don't want, and then master a heavy to give me a total of 4 mastered mech's to use in faction play. I have 35m c-bills right now, so I probably already have most of the cash I'll need for this route. However, I'd be starting from scratch in mastering light and heavy IS mechs.

My initial plan was to master Stormcrow, sell off 1 variant (since from my understanding of omnipods, most variants can be built into another), and then buy 2 other heavies that'd I'd level in the process of earning an extra mech-bay from faction play to eventually make room for the 3rd variant. I have the cash for mastering Stormcrow, but I'll need to earn at least another 30m c-bills to buy the 2 heavies to make a drop team (and some amount of millions for the modules)--but this seems grind-able while I level up the Stormcrows.

Anyone have any strong feelings about these (or other routes)?

Clan or IS does not matter, but IS Lights usualy work out more expensive than Clan Lights due to the fact that with the exception of the Jenner IIC Clan Lights have fixed engine ect, however 3 IS Lights should work out a bit cheaper than 3 Arctic Cheetahs because they can all share the 1 XL engine.

I love Light Mechs but would not suggest a new player start with Lights because they are a hard weight class to play, if the enemy gets in 1 good hit you are dead, however speed and agility means you can make it very dificualt to land that 1 good hit.

the Stormcrow is a great Mech but if you play that first it can teach bad habbits however if you have already learned twisting on a Hunchback you should be fine, and you know the secret to make the Stormcrow far more durable than the average new player who starts in them.

there is no wrong way to build a dropdeck, if you want to go Stormcrow first then get heavies go for it.

Quote

If I go with Clan, I'm wondering if using 2 unleveled heavies would be a major liability in faction warfare.
* Would I be wasting my time/badly hurting my team by not entering this game mode with fully mastered mechs?
* On a related note, If I started to explore faction play now using only trial mechs, would I effectively be trolling my team-mates?

the biggest liability in Faction Play is someone who will not work with the group.
an inexperienced player who will work with others using unleveled or even trial Mechs is usualy better than an experienced player with fully mastered and moduled Mechs who refuses to work with others.

which ever faction you join ^{(I suggest 1 week contracts to do the Mech bay tour, get rank 2 in each faction for a free Mechbay)} try to find the factions teamspeak hub, or a unit you can drop with ^{(not necessarily join at this stage)} to locate others to play with, so you can avoid the PUG lottery of weather or not you get a team or 12 players who will not work together

[Koniving]

Hugh Chardon, on 02 March 2016 - 01:51 PM, said:

I'd appreciate any advice/suggestions (to further fuel my bouts of indecision).

Thanks and curses in advance,
hugh chardon

IS mechs in general may seem cheap, but getting the XL engines, heatsink upgrades, etc. puts their cost on pair with the Clan counterparts. Clan is easy because "there and done." IS quirks are to make up the difference in Clan and IS tech, admittedly IS tech even without quirks is better about delivering punches in smaller, more specific areas with less 'face time'. Get in, bang, get out. Clans are built to get in your face and stay there, IS is built for more tactical gameplay.

Anyway. I have no special opinion either way other than don't rush into faction warfare. It is literally "Hardcore" mode. No skill balancing, first come first serve, 96 mech battle royale with some tactics, dropships and turrets if you're lucky enough to have a team with some sort of cohesion. It can be fun. But until Phase 3, I'm not getting back into it.

This said, do as you like. Your Clan heavies will be 'slower' without the elite upgrades and will shoot 5% slower than most of your enemies. twisting, braking, accelerating, etc. will also be somewhat less than your competition. This generally won't matter too much however. What will matter is the realization that Clan Heavies are always prime targets and once isolated, you're the dog in Duck Hunt laughing at the player with the Blaster while holding a sign that reads "Now you can shoot me!" accompanied with bullseye facepaint and no grass to hide in.

Ain't no ducks gonna get shot so long as the dog still lives. Hope you're ready for that.
Because if you can handle it, well you'll be like this.


And if you can't, well... lets just say you'll feel like the assaults, heavies, mediums and lights on the receiving end of this encounter. Any single one of them.

[Lostdragon]

35 million cbills is definitely not going to get you most of the way there, especially if you get modules for everything.

[John1352]

Three Stormcrows + something else makes a respectable CW dropdeck. Stormcrows are just all around good mechs, and if you are happy to play with the clans to start with, grab them first.

[Barkem Squirrel]

First have fun and let everything fall as it be. It's going to take time to build up drop decks that are fully fitted out. Then again that is half the fun, with the blood and tears after getting killed by a mouse pack.

Getting into CW, do it in a unit. Try to find one that moves from faction to faction for getting mech bays for new players. If you can get two or one mech bay per faction. But make sure you are in a unit that you have fun with. (you leg each other from time to time.)

You could go two medium mechs with two heavies, nothing is set in stone. I can remember having only three ravens and one atlas in early 2013. Then I got a few jagermechs and now 173 with 5 more coming later this month. I have yet to sell a mech. Or go for 4 thunderbolts.

Fitting them out. This is always the hard part. Most mechs have one variant with an XL engine. Get that one first depending on the builds that you want to make, but sometimes you want the standard engine. The the endo steel and double heatsinks. Some costs but this is not even half of it. Many medium mech you can spend 10 million or more on weapons, XL engine, endosteel, heatsinks and other items. Now lets talk about modules. Figure two weapon modules (3,000,000 each), two mech modules (6,000,000 each) and two consumables (40,000 each). So that is 18,080,000 c-bills. one nice thing is you can use these on other mechs, but you need 4 sets for CW for use on all the mechs. That is 72,320,000 c-bills. Just a note, I have about 450,000,000 in modules.

Just for a drop deck fitted out with modules you are looking at 110,000,000 to 130,000,000 million c-bils. Later a clan drop deck is more, but you can reuse some mech modules.

It takes a long time to build up a drop deck or even a good number of mechs, but it gets easier over time.

One thing to remember, the trial mechs available are not that bad so use them to get your free mech bays and try and keep as many mechs as you can. That or if you want to purchase MC to buy mech bays do that. Only I ask wait for MC sales and wait for Mech bays to go on sale for 50% off. I bought 18 mech bays at full MC price, but since they started to have Mechbay sales I bought more but only on sale, free during events or through CW. Then the different packs came with paints, skins, cockpit items, premium time and mech bays. One thing purchase early and more fluff is added.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Drop with 2 Storm Crows and 2 Timmy Wolves and call it good.

[Leone]

Personally, I got three Shadowhawks, and dropped those an a trial until I got Blackhawks.

Then I moved into Clan Jade Falcon, dropping three Novas an a trial 'goyle.

Then I moved again. I hopped factions, did a mechbay tour and at the end of it, had three units I was willing to join. Now here I am, happily inna unit, a buncha mechs an mechbays later.

Personally, I'd be happy if you dropped all trials so long as you kept up with the team in CW an didn't mind the added disadvantage.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 02 March 2016 - 11:34 PM.

[DirtyChewie]

The trial Timberwolf is pretty good, and the disadvantages in not having mastered mechs is greatly overshadowed by good team play. So once you're comfortable with the game in general, have a fairly decent grasp of team play tactics then go for it and don't worry about unlocking the skills on the mechs, they come with time, and probably less time than you'd think. If you have a few good Faction games you'll start earning XP and cbills pretty quick, as well as Mechbays if you move around the factions.

[Eaerie]

I would like to point out that 35m actually isnt a whole lot of money to work with when starting from scratch. a lot of mechs are deceptively expensive to buy and outfit, especially IS lights. A majority of IS lights are going to take 10-15m to buy and outfit properly. and that is before you add in any modules you may want.
Cost of the mech 2 to 5mil
double heat sink "tax" 1.5m
XL engine 4 or 5mil
That is just the big items, then you have the small stuff like endo steel and ferro armor, new weapons/double heatsinks, maxing out armor etc etc.

Not all mechs are that bad but when looking at buying a mech it is almost always a good idea to toss in the 1.5mil double heat sink tax when looking at IS mechs. Then look to see if the most common builds are "XL friendly" cause that will add another 4 or 5mil right off the get go.
Clan mechs are a little different for the most part. the initial cost of a clan mech is higher than an IS mech and for the most part you can't change out engines, endo and ferro armor. (the IIC mechs are a little different) But you will still probably end up swapping out at least a couple omni pods when making your build

[Rogue Jedi]

Eaerie, on 03 March 2016 - 06:22 AM, said:

A majority of IS lights are going to take 10-15m to buy and outfit properly. and that is before you add in any modules you may want.armor etc etc.

while you are correct in principal your total cost is a bit off, most will cost 9-11 million to outfit, the RVN-3L is the only one likely to cost more than 13 million, and that is because it comes with a sub-optomal XL engine to begin with.

A basic rule of thumb for the cost to get a Light Mech combat ready is take a look at the Mechs purchase cost and treble it.

[xe N on]

Hugh Chardon, on 02 March 2016 - 01:51 PM, said:

HI,

So, I posted a topic about what mech to purchase first, and I got many helpful and informative responses. I'd like to very much thank all who replied, as well as curse you, for I'm now even more undecided!



I had settled on buying some Stormcrows (after adopting some torso twisting habits from Hunchback practice), but a couple of people I've played with have been strongly recommending that I start with IS mechs so that I can get into faction warfare quicker.

They tell me with my 4 default mech bays, I should master a light, sell off the 2 versions I don't want, and then master a heavy to give me a total of 4 mastered mech's to use in faction play. I have 35m c-bills right now, so I probably already have most of the cash I'll need for this route. However, I'd be starting from scratch in mastering light and heavy IS mechs.

My initial plan was to master Stormcrow, sell off 1 variant (since from my understanding of omnipods, most variants can be built into another), and then buy 2 other heavies that'd I'd level in the process of earning an extra mech-bay from faction play to eventually make room for the 3rd variant. I have the cash for mastering Stormcrow, but I'll need to earn at least another 30m c-bills to buy the 2 heavies to make a drop team (and some amount of millions for the modules)--but this seems grind-able while I level up the Stormcrows.

Stormcrow is an excellent mech and one of the best ingame if if fits into your playstyle.

You can run 3 Stormcrows and a random 4 mech (preferably Timberwolf) in your CW dropdeck. So you don't need to sell any Stormcrow which you need to get ranks beyond basic.

IS mechs only have an price advantage if you don't play CW at all. If you don't play CW you can switch one engines between several IS mechs and thus save money.

A last hint: Don't play CW if you are not quite experienced in piloting mechs and play within a unit. CW is the playground of competitive units that even drop on regular basis in fixed teams. In contrast to regular queue, CW has no matchmaker that tries to balance player skill in matches. It can and will set a complete group of inexperienced pilot against above mentioned groups.

Edited by xe N on, 03 March 2016 - 10:46 AM.