95 replies to this topic

[Lances107]

I spent many years playing Mechwarrior four and mecwarrior two. This is leading to some issues in Mechwarrior online, that I could use some help with. The first is I could not find a fire button under the settings to set to. It seems for some odd reason they want you to use the number keys which to me is a bad idea. I tried to use the weapon grouping setting but with a fire key It seemed like their was not way to fire those weapons. I am 100 percent positive I am missing something, so please help.

The second questions is speed, now I could be wrong here as it has been a long time, but should their not be a button for setting your speed at a particular speed?

Also while I was doing the Academy run through, one destroyed leg does not destroy a mech?

One last question is their a torso twist left and torso twist right? Having the Torso twist set to one key does not seem right. This could just be me being exceptionally rusty.

The game is vastly improved to what it was a long time ago, and I am also pleased they added in the turtural. It will go a long way to helping me figure out the kinks and get them worked out. Still I plan to use the Mechwarrior four games get me back up to pace, and key bind the keys as close I can to Mechwarrior online. Anyways any help on these would be great.

[Wintersdark]

The number keys are the default, and also the mouse buttons are defaulted to fire weapon groups one and two (left and right, respectively) this is what virtually everyone uses.

You can change all the key bindings freely in the settings page. Just double click on whatever you want to change.

Oh!

You may be thinking "fire button to firecurrent weapon group" - you can set that up, but the default (and what most people use) is bindings for buttons to specific groups, so you don't run into mishaps trying to change selected groups in combat.

[p4r4g0n]

Torso twisting is done by moving your mouse left or right. I am not aware of any button that twists your torso other than the one included to help players align their torso with their feet (default key C) or their feet with their torso (default key F).

The first turns your torso to line it up in the same direction your feet are pointing at and the latter lines up your feet with where your torso is pointing at.

To kill a mech, destroy:

Cockpit
Centre torso
Both legs
One side torso if it is an Inner Sphere mech with XL engines

It is possible for a mech to die from the destruction of a single leg if that leg contains ammo that explodes and transfers enough damage to the side torso or centre torso that destroys the engine. Otherwise, destroying a single leg only reduces the mechs speed to 50% of max speed or 40kph whichever is the lower.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 06 April 2016 - 04:56 PM.

[Roughneck45]

The numbers are for setting weapon groups and can be fired with the numbers on the keyboard. Left mouse click is defaulted to firing whichever group you have highlighted using the left and right arrow keys, right click is defaulted to weapon group 2. Groups 3-6 are defaulted to the numbers only. It is wise to invest in a mouse with multiple buttons so you can map groups 3-6 on them.

For movement you can no longer use the numbers to set a desired speed. W increases throttle, S decreases throttle. If you go to the options you can turn off "throttle decay" which will make the speed stay put until you change it, more similar to the old games.

I would also turn off "start in third person" and "arm lock"

It takes both legs to destroy a mech. I believe is was the same in MW2 and 4?

The mouse controls your torso twist.

I won't discourage you from playing Mech 4 but it won't help you in MWO. Best way to learn is to find a mech that gets you excited to play and just start dropping in it, try to learn from each match and go from there. The tutorial is also pretty solid for the fundamentals.

Edited by Roughneck45, 06 April 2016 - 07:15 PM.

[Trainee]

The weapons groups, on the bottom right of the cockpit screen, show you which weapons will fire when that weapon group is triggered. Most people use 2 groups (Button 1/2 on mouse), and maybe a 3rd which I believe is defaulted is #3 on keyboard. I just changed them to buttons 3=grp 3, 4=grp 4 etc. Also if you see the numbers blinking, that means you have hit the backspace key, and that weapon group is in chain-fire mode. It will fire each weapon in that group in turn, not all at once.

The way to change these in game is by using the arrow keys on your keyboard to go up/down, and left/right. You lock/unlock a weapon into that group using right-control button.

There are keyboard settings where you can set up a button to go a certain percent of max speeed. I set up a button to throttle up 100%, this makes it into an autorun key. I just hit w/a/s/d to stop the autorun. You can also set 25%/50%75% up if you want. I don't have throttle decay set to off, interferes too much with peeking for me.

[Koniving]

Lances107, on 06 April 2016 - 04:06 PM, said:

1) I spent many years playing Mechwarrior four and mecwarrior two. This is leading to some issues in Mechwarrior online, that I could use some help with. The first is I could not find a fire button under the settings to set to. It seems for some odd reason they want you to use the number keys which to me is a bad idea. I tried to use the weapon grouping setting but with a fire key It seemed like their was not way to fire those weapons. I am 100 percent positive I am missing something, so please help.

You can change the buttons. Note: For some mouse settings on Windows itself, you may have to double click EXTREMELY rapidly to get the ability to enter a key to change the fire button. I suffer this a lot.

I run 5 out of 6 firing groups from my mouse buttons.
Left click, right click, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 3.

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The second questions is speed, now I could be wrong here as it has been a long time, but should their not be a button for setting your speed at a particular speed?

You have three options:
1) Use the NUMPAD to set your specific speed. Higher the number, faster you go.
2) Turn OFF "Throttle Decay" and you can use "W" and "S" to adjust speed incrementally. Tap to adjust speed. "X" to stop immediately.
3) Turn off Throttle Decay -- and use a Throttle stick! O_O!

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Also while I was doing the Academy run through, one destroyed leg does not destroy a mech?

Truth be told, in Battletech destroying both legs does not destroy a mech. In MWO though, both legs does destroy one.
It was deemed "Unfun" to be stuck in one place until destroyed for losing a leg, and since that is so easy... they went with the clause of 40% speed; knocking you down to 15 kph for several seconds if you take damage while leg is broken (supposedly the 'struggle to keep balanced'.)

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One last question is their a torso twist left and torso twist right? Having the Torso twist set to one key does not seem right. This could just be me being exceptionally rusty.

Torso twist is actually part of your mouse. This allows for very fluid movement and control of your torso.
----
INTERESTING NOTE:
You can also control your arms independently by holding SHIFT, and for better control turn "armlock" off and you can use Shift to lock the arms (instead of releasing). With armlock off, you can use Left CTRL to "Look around" and the arms will track your eyes to the best of their ability. Very useful for precision lockons and engaging multiple enemies, as well as using a strong side to take damage while shooting and protecting a weak side. Great for Dragons and other arm-based mechs.

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The game is vastly improved to what it was a long time ago, and I am also pleased they added in the turtural. It will go a long way to helping me figure out the kinks and get them worked out. Still I plan to use the Mechwarrior four games get me back up to pace, and key bind the keys as close I can to Mechwarrior online. Anyways any help on these would be great.

The past 4 games are so vastly different... I'm both sad, and serious, when I say the use of a more modern Tank game or any modern PC game with tanks in it would be better suited for practice.

[Lances107]

Alright thank you for the information. I was able to use it and my movement is back to the old days of streamlined. I still find myself clicking buttons on my joystick for torso left and torso right but that will fade in time. I took up the suggestion of jumping into a couple matches of quick play. This in turn created more questions.

In the MW4 series their was something called a homing beacon, essentially what it did was lower the lock on time for an enemy mech, when it came to missiles. My lance commander was talking about making sure we locked on to enemy targets? I get the feeling thats not the same as targeting, but rather feeding a target to the rest of the lance, for long range missile attack? I only ask as I will be using a light for a long time until I have enough c bills to pick up a Mad Cat.

I also noticed a mech xp button, this I find troubling, this game is based on skill over abilities/xp correct? Meaning if I were to say take a normal mech with a good load out against a champion or hero mech with the same load out, would I have a chance to win by skill? Or would the champion/hero mech pretty much get auto win? To be clear I am not trying to diss mechwarrior online, my intentions are only to find out how this plays out.

Third question where do I get weapons? When I went to store their was options for mechs but not weapons. I like a old style set up, with LRMs in one group, lasers in another group, pulse lasers and machine guns in another group. Not even sure thats possible here hence the question with the statement.

Still working the kinks out with the weapon groups but Its doable for now, and I noticed playing as spectator that their is a enhanced zoom in mode. I assume you can only get that with heavies and assaults?

Again thank you for all the previous help and the welcome, look forward hearing your reply's on these questions.

[Rogue Jedi]

Lances107, on 06 April 2016 - 04:06 PM, said:

The second questions is speed, now I could be wrong here as it has been a long time, but should their not be a button for setting your speed at a particular speed?

Also while I was doing the Academy run through, one destroyed leg does not destroy a mech?

to set your speed there are 2 ways, if you have not disabled throttle decay use the number pad, each number sets your speed to that % times 10, so 1 = 10%, 5 = 50%, 9 = 90% 0 = 100%, I am pretty sure backspace is stop, however you can just press and release w or s to revert to 0 throttle.

the other and in my opinion much better way is to turn off throttle decay in settings, do this and;
holding down W = increase foward velocity/reduse reverse velocity,
holding down S = reduce foward velocity or increase reverse velocity,

like that your speed stays where you leave it until you press w or s again.

the only game I have ever played ^{(veteran of MW3, MW4, Mech Commander and Mech Commander 2)} in which loosing 1 leg killed the Mech was Mechwarrior 3, loosing one leg has never killed a Mech in MWO

[Rogue Jedi]

Lances107, on 07 April 2016 - 12:19 AM, said:

Alright thank you for the information. I was able to use it and my movement is back to the old days of streamlined. I still find myself clicking buttons on my joystick for torso left and torso right but that will fade in time. I took up the suggestion of jumping into a couple matches of quick play. This in turn created more questions.

In the MW4 series their was something called a homing beacon, essentially what it did was lower the lock on time for an enemy mech, when it came to missiles. My lance commander was talking about making sure we locked on to enemy targets? I get the feeling thats not the same as targeting, but rather feeding a target to the rest of the lance, for long range missile attack? I only ask as I will be using a light for a long time until I have enough c bills to pick up a Mad Cat.

I also noticed a mech xp button, this I find troubling, this game is based on skill over abilities/xp correct? Meaning if I were to say take a normal mech with a good load out against a champion or hero mech with the same load out, would I have a chance to win by skill? Or would the champion/hero mech pretty much get auto win? To be clear I am not trying to diss mechwarrior online, my intentions are only to find out how this plays out.

Third question where do I get weapons? When I went to store their was options for mechs but not weapons. I like a old style set up, with LRMs in one group, lasers in another group, pulse lasers and machine guns in another group. Not even sure thats possible here hence the question with the statement.

Still working the kinks out with the weapon groups but Its doable for now, and I noticed playing as spectator that their is a enhanced zoom in mode. I assume you can only get that with heavies and assaults?

Again thank you for all the previous help and the welcome, look forward hearing your reply's on these questions.

most people find keyboard and mouse works better than joystick for this game, I was a bit dissipointed by that when I first started.

NARC fires a missile which if it hits attaches a homing beacon allowing you to target Mechs without line of sight, it also helps missile locks. also Light Mechs may look cheep but are rather expensive to outfit.
it is usualy far less expensive to get a standard engine medium outfitted than a Light, I sugest looking at the Crab, Hunchback, or Griffin (probably 6-8 million in total), getting those setup with a competitave loadout wiil work out cheeper than most Lights, unless you go for Clan Omnimech Lights like the Kit Fox, Adder, Mist Lynx or Arctic Cheetah. the reason for this is that Light Battlemechs usualy want a big XL engine ^{(4-5 million Cbills)} Double Heat Sinks ^{(1.5 million)}, Endo Steel Internals and Fero Fibrus Armor ^{(about half a million, price depends on tonage of the Mech)} on top of purchase price, while the Omnimechs have all that included.
for a Light Battlemech total cost of getting it combat ready is usualy roughly 3 times purchase price so a 2 million cbill locust costs a total of about 6-7 million, a Spider or Firestarter costs 9-10 million, the Raven 3L totals more than 12 million to fully outfit where as a 50 ton Hunchback can be purchased and outfitted for 6-8 million

usualy I would recomend sticking to medium or heavy Mechs until you get used to the game because Lights are fragile, and assualts do not have the speed to get out of trouble.
If you get a Timber Wolf bear in mind you will be a top priority target for the enemy team, as everyone knows how dangerous a Timber is.

after you own a Mech go to the skills tab, MEch Skills, select the chassis then the varient, you can use the Mech XP to purchase skills from the skill "tree" there are 8 basic skills which you can purchase, complete those "basic Skills" on 3 diferant varients ^{(model numbers, ignore any letter in brackets, the (F) (P) (S) (C) (I) (L) ® (O) (G) and any future letter in bracket varients count as the same varient as without)}, of that Mech and you unlock the elite skills, complete the 4 elite skills will double the power of the basic skills, complete them on any 3 Mech varients within the weight class and you unlock the master skill.

when you modify a Mech in the Mechlab anything you remove from the Mech (except the toggleable upgrades) is added to your inventory, if you put anything on the Mech which is not in your inventory you are charged for it when you save, so just put on the wepons you want then save.

there are 2 types of zoom, you can zoom in, click the mouse wheel by default, or you can unlock the Advanced Zoom module with GXP in the Pilot SKills, then equip the module in any Mechs Mech Mocule slot in the Mechlab. modules are expensive and GXP accumilates at something like 5% the rate of Mech XP, however you can use MC (purchased currancy) to convert Mech XP to GXP, it costs 1 MC to convert 25 XP, however it does go on sale on average every 2-3 months allowing 50 XP for 1 MC

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 07 April 2016 - 01:05 AM.

[Spetulhu]

Lances107, on 07 April 2016 - 12:19 AM, said:

I also noticed a mech xp button, this I find troubling, this game is based on skill over abilities/xp correct? Meaning if I were to say take a normal mech with a good load out against a champion or hero mech with the same load out, would I have a chance to win by skill? Or would the champion/hero mech pretty much get auto win? To be clear I am not trying to diss mechwarrior online, my intentions are only to find out how this plays out.

Some mechs are better than others for certain things, but even if you haven't received XP to upgrade one yet your own skill goes a long way. Many veterans create a new account just to go slumming in the lower brackets again and they're often incredibly dangerous even in a trial mech or non-upgraded el-cheapo light/medium. A good loadout and an idea about how to use it will usually give you a chance against anything comparable. Trying to facetank a Direwolf or King Crab in anything less durable will ofc also have predictable results most of the time. Instead try to get a back shot and run away before it can turn around.

Location, location, location as Van Helsing said in "Dracula, dead and loving it".

[Trainee]

Pilots with LRM's will ask you to 'lock on' to a mech so the information will be relayed back to them. They can then target that mech and shoot missiles at it. You can tell if a teammate has locked onto a mech by it's red 'dorrito' symbol. An empty dorrito means no one on your team has locked on/targeted that mech. Basically locking onto a mech allows LRM's to be fired on them without LOS (Line of Sight) for the LRM pilots.

There are also NARC's, BAP, CAP, and TAG that variously help you lock onto a target faster and/or give more information of damage to that mech quicker.

[Koniving]

Lances107, on 07 April 2016 - 12:19 AM, said:

In the MW4 series their was something called a homing beacon, essentially what it did was lower the lock on time for an enemy mech, when it came to missiles. My lance commander was talking about making sure we locked on to enemy targets? I get the feeling thats not the same as targeting, but rather feeding a target to the rest of the lance, for long range missile attack? I only ask as I will be using a light for a long time until I have enough c bills to pick up a Mad Cat.

Players often say "Lock" in place of "Holding a target". This is because indirect locks can be achieved through the targeting systems of allies. I.e. you target and engage or watch an enemy, they can get a lock from you on the enemy you engage and fire. If you lose the target, they lose the lock and all missiles they had instantly turn stupid and crash.

Quote

I also noticed a mech xp button, this I find troubling, this game is based on skill over abilities/xp correct? Meaning if I were to say take a normal mech with a good load out against a champion or hero mech with the same load out, would I have a chance to win by skill? Or would the champion/hero mech pretty much get auto win? To be clear I am not trying to diss mechwarrior online, my intentions are only to find out how this plays out.

All mechs start out " gimped" as some players call it. Once you max out the skill tree you get the full potential including faster well...everything. In tier 5 and 4 just about everyone is building up. Tiers 3, 2, 1 are filled with "super mechs'. This doesn't really mean much.

Skill and equipment and in some cases quirks are what really counts.
That said: double heatsinks are practically required in mwo due to 3 times (or greater, highest was 32x at one point) firing rates with 1x heat and 2x or greater structure/armor is pretty hot and overwhelming.

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Third question where do I get weapons? When I went to store their was options for mechs but not weapons. I like a old style set up, with LRMs in one group, lasers in another group, pulse lasers and machine guns in another group. Not even sure thats possible here hence the question with the statement.

Do you own the mech? Trials cannot be changed.
If you own it, Mechlab. Weapons and gear are there.

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Still working the kinks out with the weapon groups but Its doable for now, and I noticed playing as spectator that their is a enhanced zoom in mode. I assume you can only get that with heavies and assaults?

Depends. Just better zoom? Command console, heavy/assault only I.S .
If clan: targeting computer.
If picture in picture, advanced zoom module, 6 mil cbills.

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Again thank you for all the previous help and the welcome, look forward hearing your reply's on these questions.

You are welcome.

[Lances107]

Question the weapons still not getting it, I must be blind, or I am missing something. Do you gain weapons by buying mechs, and stripping them down? Do you gain weapons by buying them off a market with cbills? I think I can do allot better but I need certain weapons right now. Ill worry about the equipping part once I get them. Any help on this would be great.

[Wind of Horror]

Lances107, on 07 April 2016 - 05:23 PM, said:

Question the weapons still not getting it, I must be blind, or I am missing something. Do you gain weapons by buying mechs, and stripping them down? Do you gain weapons by buying them off a market with cbills? I think I can do allot better but I need certain weapons right now. Ill worry about the equipping part once I get them. Any help on this would be great.

Firstly you can only change the loadouts of mechs you currently own.

Quote

1) First click MECHLAB > SELECT 'MECH.

2) Note the highlighted area "BOTH - OWNED - TRIAL". Select "OWNED".
3) Left click a mech chassis that is owned to select it for editing.
4) On the left hand side click "LOADOUT".

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5) Once in LOADOUT, note WAREHOUSE (upper right corner), cursor over it to bring up another dialogue. This is where you buy weapons, equipment, etc, for owned mechs.

5*) For example, you place 2 ERLL into your mech, and 8 Double Heatsinks, your CART TOTAL will raise (unless you already own said piece and it's unused). You click SAVE to buy the items.
5**) Also you can click HOME > INVENTORY > WEAPON SYSTEMS to view items you already own, you can strip equipment from bought mechs and use them on owned mechs too.

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You can use this website to play around with mech builds easier
- http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

You can use this website to figure out exactly what a piece of equipment does in "MWO". But I find searching the forums works better, for more up-to-date info. And this unofficial wiki has a terrible design layout unless you know exactly what you are looking for.
- http://mwo.gamepedia...ory:Electronics

You can use this website to learn lore about your favorite mech or piece of equipment, but holds no value mechanic wise
- http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Timber_Wolf_(Mad_Cat)

I like to watch this guys Youtube for mech ideas, loadouts, gameplay and map techniques.
-

Edited by Penumbral, 07 April 2016 - 10:42 PM.

[Lances107]

*slams head on desk* Stupid stupid stupid me lol. I knew it was something right in front of me. I just couldnt see it for the life me. Thank you.

[Wind of Horror]

Lances107, on 07 April 2016 - 08:24 PM, said:

*slams head on desk* Stupid stupid stupid me lol. I knew it was something right in front of me. I just couldnt see it for the life me. Thank you.

No worries. Also I saw you mention Mad Cat (clan TBR). I just started recently too, and this was the first mech I picked up myself. Few quick notes on it.

1) Say you have a TBR-C for the "quirks" (bonus to certain weapon, torso twist speed, etc). You can switch the right torso to TBR-S for jumpjets, TBR-A left torso for extra energy hardpoints, etc. You can mix and match like this with any Clan mech.

2) The XP skills don't do much at all really, player skill will always beat C-bills or XP spent. Your pilot has three levels of practice with each mech chassis. Basic, Elite, Master. Become proficient in and unlock Basic skills in 3 different chassis of the same mech, and you can then "practice" towards Elite skills in those said mechs. It was fairly quick for me, I had three TBR's and unlocked Basic proficiency for them in about a week after starting. But I spent my money very frugally. Also the trial TBR-C Champion is a very well done mech, while piloting it you'll earn XP to spend on any TBR-C chassis you actually buy.

3) You already talked about "torso twisting" which helps a ton. You can also utilize TBR-S torso for Jumpjets, which can help spread damage to your legs. I usually run 54 out of 64 armor in my legs, and have never been destroyed by legging, have lost 1-2 legs in hundreds of matches, feel free to shave extra tonnage from legs.

4) TBR is one of the most expensive mechs, but it comes with the best engine (engines are millions of credits). It comes with the armor and heatsink upgrades too, which cost millions. And are necessary upgrades for mechs without them.

5) Try to narrow your guns down to two different types of similar ranges. SRM+ERSPL, ERPPC+GAUSS, etc. Having only two different weapons groups (left and right click) and strong alphas are very nice.

Edited by Penumbral, 07 April 2016 - 11:19 PM.

[Lances107]

Found the weapons used the weapons but ran into two snags. Now a few things made the clans more deadly then the Inner sphere, one of them being omni tech. This allows any weapon to be placed in that slot. For some reason it would only allow me to place one of that weapon type in a clan mech, only on one arm. Even though I had extra tons and I had empty slots, why is this? The weapon in question was a simple machine gun.

[Wind of Horror]

Lances107, on 08 April 2016 - 01:54 AM, said:

Found the weapons used the weapons but ran into two snags. Now a few things made the clans more deadly then the Inner sphere, one of them being omni tech. This allows any weapon to be placed in that slot. For some reason it would only allow me to place one of that weapon type in a clan mech, only on one arm. Even though I had extra tons and I had empty slots, why is this? The weapon in question was a simple machine gun.

Yeah, each pod has a certain number of slots specified for each type (energy, ballistics, missile, AMS, etc). Can't put anything in unfortunately in MWO.

Heads up on machines guns. They work well once armor is broken in MWO because then they can crit slots, but are terrible at actual DPS, flamers are pretty bad too.

Edited by Penumbral, 08 April 2016 - 02:03 AM.

[Koniving]

In mwo, pgi made the mech limbs swappable. You change hard points based on a selection of limbs or "omni-pods".

Earlier you mentioned fear of skill not being viable versus " unlocks".
This was a pure stock hbk-4h.
https://youtu.be/hXMR-gSA3Ek
600+ damage and several kills in a time where only assaults would break the 400 damage mark, and hitting 101% heat could instantly kill you.

Nothing like today's mwo. But at the time if you had elites you had plus 55% acceleration, plus 50% turning speed... It was insane. Yet none of those things mattered, just skill and heat management.

Far as Clans... https://youtu.be/iUXu7UBVEes
You can mix and match quite a bit. Its pretty fun actually.

Just remember...
Clan mechs in mwo are more damaging over time with superior range... But requires a significantly higher gunning skill called "holding your aim in one spot" that many don't realize. Without that ability, best off in an I.S. mech doing this.
https://youtu.be/Qp1ieKr-ELU
Nothing says pwnage like PGI's "Rifle"-based inner sphere autocannons.

Edited by Koniving, 08 April 2016 - 02:17 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Lances107, on 08 April 2016 - 01:54 AM, said:

Found the weapons used the weapons but ran into two snags. Now a few things made the clans more deadly then the Inner sphere, one of them being omni tech. This allows any weapon to be placed in that slot. For some reason it would only allow me to place one of that weapon type in a clan mech, only on one arm. Even though I had extra tons and I had empty slots, why is this? The weapon in question was a simple machine gun.

In the Mechlab for an Omnimech you will find a tab labelled Omnipods, you can as Koniving already said you can fit the pod for a component from another variant to change the hard points, e.g. lets say you have a DWF-Prime and you want to mount Ballistic Weapons in the left torso, you can fit the LT pod from the -B or -S to get B hard points.
if you have an unused copy of that pod it is fitted, if not you will be charged the cost of the pod ^{(along with any other purchased items)} when you save.

At current only Clans have Omnimechs but there are non omni Clan Battlemechs, the IIC Mechs are Battlemechs as is the Kodiak which is due in about 6 weeks