29 replies to this topic

[Arctourus]

So I'm a bit behind the curve.....logged for the first time since patch yesterday afternoon to give the eagerly awaited scouting mode a try. I have been looking forward to it. Noticed some oddities that have probably already been griped about, but here goes.

First drop, racing around to find intel as an attacker and get the drop ship returning announcement. Race towards the extraction to see four streak crows just sitting in the extraction zone, unconcerned, unmolested with a drop ship hovering directly overhead. Seems to me like a drop ship should be eating any enemy sitting underneath it alive, but no.

Thus began the trend. Racing to gather points, tearing back to the extraction to find four streak crows just patiently hanging out in the extraction with their buddy dropship hovering above so they could tear us apart in short order.

This seem wrong to anyone else?

[Jolly Llama]

Stop running a light. Run a beefy medium and engage to kill the enemy before getting intel.

[ScarecrowES]

There are a handful of ways to handle scouting missions depending on which side you are on. It usually works best when all your lancemates are on the same page and bringing the correct mechs for your strategy BEFORE you drop.

If you're on the Gathering Intel side, and you're in a LIGHT, you want to avoid conflict as much as possible. Chances are, you can bet that any group on the defend side is going to be bring the best available brawlers at the higher end of the weight spectrum. You're not going to be able to out-fight 4 55-tonners in a light.

Your strategy, then, is to hide near the drop zone once you have enough intel to bring the dropship in (but far enough out of the way not to get noticed) making a run for the dropzone at the last possible moment so you can be inside the zone when the timer counts down. You only have to survive long enough for the countdown to hit zero and be inside the zone to win.

Generally speaking, the defending team is going to be focusing on one of two things... out-gathering you so they can reduce your intel haul and forcing the dropship to come early - or tracking you down and killing you before you have a chance to gather anything and force a dropzone stand-off.

You're going to want to steer clear of them as much as possible. If you happen to get found, run away... don't engage. And try to drag them away from your teammates. Depending on your piloting skill and the terrain, you may end up having to sacrifice yourself so that your teammates might have a better shot at getting away. I've been able to drag chasers halfway across the map and survive playing the fox to a group of enemy hounds though, so it's a fun strategy if you can handle it.

Again, this is if you're all using lights.

There are other strategies that work better for mixed groups, or all mediums.

[Kaveli]

I've found a couple successful ways to do scouting.

Gathering Intel
1. Kill the defending team quickly and pick up what you can before the dropship leaves. This will net you the most Cbills with decent intel. Brawling mediums are optimal.
2. Gather as much intel and avoid engagements and try to leave without getting picked off. This will net you the least cbills but will net the most intel (usually). Lights with ECM are optimal.

Defending
1. Kill the defending team quickly. This will net you the most cbills with decent intel. Fast Mediums designed for mid range/ brawling are optimal. Good builds are Med Brawl, Med Brawl, Med Mid range, Light Brawl.
2. There is no second way to defend.

All star mechs for clan are Stormcrow, Cheetah, Jenner IIC
All star mechs for IS are Hunchback, Griffin, Oxide

Hope this helps.

[Alistair Winter]

The game mode is fundamentally flawed, in my opinion. It's going to take more than a few small changes to improve it. PGI needs to reconsider how they design game modes. They keep trying to invent their own game modes instead of copying game modes from other games. And it's not really working.

I will say this:

• It's already very hard to stop certain mechs from reaching the drop zone on certain maps. If the attackers are rushing the drop zone at the right moment (with 10 seconds or less on the clock), then the defenders have to basically insta-kill the attackers before they can reach the drop zone. That's super-hard to do against multiple fresh mechs, even for Streak Crows.
  
• If the dropship had serious short range firepower, you would need to form a large perimeter around the dropship and try to stop attackers from getting inside this huge circle. It would be nearly impossible in most situations.
  
• As the attackers, you either avoid combat and stealth-cap, or you deathball and fight the defenders in a 4v4 brawl. The number one mistake when trying to be stealthy is when 1-3 of the attackers fail to avoid combat (Leroy Jenkins) and get killed. The second mistake is to enter the dropzone too early, and then trying to survive for 60 seconds against 4 Stormcrows at point blank. If you avoid these two mistakes, you'll usually have a very good chance of winning as the attacker.

[ScarecrowES]

Kaveli, on 08 May 2016 - 01:16 PM, said:

I've found a couple successful ways to do scouting.

Gathering Intel
1. Kill the defending team quickly and pick up what you can before the dropship leaves. This will net you the most Cbills with decent intel. Brawling mediums are optimal.
2. Gather as much intel and avoid engagements and try to leave without getting picked off. This will net you the least cbills but will net the most intel (usually). Lights with ECM are optimal.

Defending
1. Kill the defending team quickly. This will net you the most cbills with decent intel. Fast Mediums designed for mid range/ brawling are optimal. Good builds are Med Brawl, Med Brawl, Med Mid range, Light Brawl.
2. There is no second way to defend.

All star mechs for clan are Stormcrow, Cheetah, Jenner IIC
All star mechs for IS are Hunchback, Griffin, Oxide

Hope this helps.

Pro tip for method 1 on gathering intel: DON'T kill all enemy mechs. Kill 3 of 4 enemy mechs and leg the 4th. This prevents the dropship from coming automatically at the death of of the 4th mech and leaves you free to gather intel at your leisure.

[Kaveli]

ScarecrowES, on 08 May 2016 - 01:49 PM, said:

Pro tip for method 1 on gathering intel: DON'T kill all enemy mechs. Kill 3 of 4 enemy mechs and leg the 4th. This prevents the dropship from coming automatically at the death of of the 4th mech and leaves you free to gather intel at your leisure.

Yep that's a good one too.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

ScarecrowES, on 08 May 2016 - 01:49 PM, said:

Pro tip for method 1 on gathering intel: DON'T kill all enemy mechs. Kill 3 of 4 enemy mechs and leg the 4th. This prevents the dropship from coming automatically at the death of of the 4th mech and leaves you free to gather intel at your leisure.

Good idea. Also- if you are the aforementioned legged mech: hit overide and blow yourself up to start the countdown for the attackers.

[C E Dwyer]

when collecting (attacking) game ends as soon as your in the square, lag and ping willing, so gauge who's looking where and when you see a gap charge, streak crows ain't all that in team play, but pugs eww and are far more dangerous activily hunting down attackers than queued up waiting for the bus.

[Nightmare1]

Run a Yen Lo Wang. It's a Crow killer.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

Alistair Winter, on 08 May 2016 - 01:35 PM, said:

The game mode is fundamentally flawed, in my opinion. It's going to take more than a few small changes to improve it. PGI needs to reconsider how they design game modes. They keep trying to invent their own game modes instead of copying game modes from other games. And it's not really working.

I will say this:

• It's already very hard to stop certain mechs from reaching the drop zone on certain maps. If the attackers are rushing the drop zone at the right moment (with 10 seconds or less on the clock), then the defenders have to basically insta-kill the attackers before they can reach the drop zone. That's super-hard to do against multiple fresh mechs, even for Streak Crows.
  
• If the dropship had serious short range firepower, you would need to form a large perimeter around the dropship and try to stop attackers from getting inside this huge circle. It would be nearly impossible in most situations.
  
• As the attackers, you either avoid combat and stealth-cap, or you deathball and fight the defenders in a 4v4 brawl. The number one mistake when trying to be stealthy is when 1-3 of the attackers fail to avoid combat (Leroy Jenkins) and get killed. The second mistake is to enter the dropzone too early, and then trying to survive for 60 seconds against 4 Stormcrows at point blank. If you avoid these two mistakes, you'll usually have a very good chance of winning as the attacker.

Pirate's Bane=P2W?

[Alistair Winter]

Narcissistic Martyr, on 08 May 2016 - 03:16 PM, said:

Pirate's Bane=P2W?

Mist Lynx is probably better, because you can jump into the landing zone from a distance, losing a side torso and a leg in the process, while still maintaining forward momentum and landing in the zone before the Dropship beams you up to safety, in the middle of a brawl with 4 enemy mechs. #immersion

On the IS side, I go with the CDA-3M with XL340 engine. More armour, loads of structure quirks for CT, side torsos and legs. 148 kph is enough to get home safely.

[Ace Selin]

ScarecrowES, on 08 May 2016 - 01:49 PM, said:

Pro tip for method 1 on gathering intel: DON'T kill all enemy mechs. Kill 3 of 4 enemy mechs and leg the 4th. This prevents the dropship from coming automatically at the death of of the 4th mech and leaves you free to gather intel at your leisure.

Who if smart will overheat & suicide as he fires shots as you run away, thus forcing the drop ship to come anyway.

[ScarecrowES]

Ace Selin, on 08 May 2016 - 03:28 PM, said:

Who if smart will overheat & suicide as he fires shots as you run away, thus forcing the drop ship to come anyway.

Thank goodness the player base in MWO is not that smart, otherwise this wouldn't work nearly as well.

[Druarc]

Another option as defender is too collect 10 Intel and guard 11th point to force attack to come to you.

[GreyNovember]

Alistair Winter, on 08 May 2016 - 03:20 PM, said:

Mist Lynx is probably better

I never thought I'd hear these words in that order. Ever.

[Ace Selin]

Druarc, on 08 May 2016 - 05:11 PM, said:

Another option as defender is too collect 10 Intel and guard 11th point to force attack to come to you.

Indeed, one i have used a few times to good effect, especially as capping cannot be done when an enemy mech is near the intel point too. Forces an engagement without the possibility of a light quick capping and dying but letting the other 3 to get to the ship.

[adamts01]

geodeath, on 08 May 2016 - 12:37 PM, said:

Stop running a light. Run a beefy medium and engage to kill the enemy before getting intel.

So 4 v 4 skirmish?..... Like every other mode PGI tries to make turns in to skirmish.... GG close PGI.

[ScarecrowES]

adamts01, on 08 May 2016 - 06:41 PM, said:

So 4 v 4 skirmish?..... Like every other mode PGI tries to make turns in to skirmish.... GG close PGI.

There's more strategy to it than that, obviously. But scouting is going to punish you if you're running the wrong mechs and using them in the wrong way. You either bring 4 mechs at or near max weight and force a brawling fight, or you run 4 fast lights and avoid conflict at all costs.

Bring mixed groups, you're screwing yourself. Use the wrong strategy for the group you have, you're screwing yourself.

I've been playing a lot of these matches... both with my unit and without. Playing outside my unit is absolutely horrible because most people are utterly unprepared to play scouting.

I played only a handful of missions tonight, all of them defend missions. Every match someone on my team brought a light mech, and when it was suggested they needed to bring something heavier they said they didn't have one. What? Seriously?

I'd say, "you'll see Griffins... focus on anything with ECM and go for the legs. We can't trade torso damage with IS mediums." After I die, being the only one going toe-to-toe with an ECM griffin, I watch my teammates seperately going after non-priority targets and trading torso shots. Guess how well that went?

There's a lot more strategy going on in scouting than in skirmish, and it's precisely why you'll want to create builds and adopt playstyles and strategies specifically around that mode.

[Amsro]

Been enjoying the Treb LG with 4 x ASRM6's. Results may vary, requires Aim and RNG luck.