14 replies to this topic

[Rerednaw]

Hi folks!

So when I last played regularly, the Clans were a far off myth. So...coming back in now...just about everything has changed.

My original founder mechs appear. Plus a few loyalty ones. Additional purchases seem to have vanished and the counter says I've played like 1 game. Which is strange I mean I played a lot in the early days...did the Clan invasion wipe my pilot history with Comstar?

So I've read a few tactical intro post (the Red V Blue pics were awesome BTW). I do have some questions on the new content.

What is the advantages/disadvantages of faction play? '

Oh my favorite mechs are still the lights...are they pretty much cardboard targets? LOL.

I'm still running IS...in the old days (TT) that meant we were pretty outmatched when it came up against Clanner tech. I mean you could win out with superior skill, tactics, and strategy...well logistics too but that 3rd part isn't in this game How's the old IS fare against Clan?

Any and all recommendations welcome!

Happy pewpewing!

P.S. My first BT/MW on a computer was the Crescent Hawk Inception. Old time TT player (well wannabe not too many TT in my area). Still have my boxed BTech game. Loved (and miss terribly) MW2 Mercs as well as both MCmdr.

Edited by Rerednaw, 17 August 2016 - 05:41 PM.

[The Lost Boy]

Well lets drop and shoot some stuff. Add me as a friend and lets get out there. My u it has a TS so we can get on it and get you set up for blowing stuff up.

If you wanna see the unit website.

http://praetorian-le....enjin.com/home

Lets just get stmpin.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Welcome back!

Your alpha game stats have been archived, so you have only played 1 game since then. (You can view those stats listed under the archive stats page tab in your stats page on the website).

P.s. Lower your ingame mouse sensitivity far to the left... The default seting is unplayable.


As for pros/cons of faction play...

If your an experienced pilot, you can score some free mechbays from faction warfare...

But if your not... You will get clubbed non-stop and have a dreadful time. I would wait a bit, and get more pilot experince so you can get some modules first before entering faction warfare.

[Leone]

Rerednaw, on 17 August 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

did the Clan invasion wipe my pilot history with Comstar?

Already answered I think, but for completion's sake, after Alpha they did a mech reset. It's okay, I lost a few things too. Shiney new mechs made everything better.

Rerednaw, on 17 August 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

What is the advantages/disadvantages of faction play?

Advantages: Soo much fun! A blast. An you get to bring four mechs, and there's teamwork sometimes too. You get to brawl an skirmish more and theres more tactics, and you can meet some fun folk. Oh yeah, an there's extra MC an mechbays in it for ya. If you like that sorta thing. Lasty, you may the the chance to improve your gameplay at the school of hard knocks.

Disadvantages: Might keep you from playing Quickplay. And teamwork may be required to win. And sometimes you'll bring it but you can't always choose your teammates, and they might not (This is where units come into play.) Oh and matches may take alot longer, dependant on your timezone. Not everyone appreciates the unique learning oppourtunities presented here-in.

Rerednaw, on 17 August 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

Oh my favorite mechs are still the lights...are they pretty much cardboard targets? LOL.

Lights are AWESOME! Soo much fun. But yeah, play em wrong an your dead pretty quick. They take alotta work to master, but when you can delay an entire lance with one light, oh the rush it brings while your team does whatever it is teams do whilest your fighting for your life against impossible odds.

Rerednaw, on 17 August 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

How's the old IS fare against Clan?

Clans tend to run more damage, hotter and with weapons duration and range. IS is more frontloaded, a bit cooler and shorter range. (So brawl more, over heat em!)

~Leone

[Rogue Jedi]

Mechs were reset at the end of Closed Beta, if you played after the start of open beta and have anything missing I recomend contacting accounts@mwomercs.com and asking them to look into it.

Faction play has no skill based matchmaker, it literaly just forms full teams and it is possible for an elite 12 player group to end up against a "team" made up of 12 individual new players
There are 2 main game modes in faction play, invasion where each player can loadup a dropship with 4 Mechs, when you loose a Mech you respawn in another, the objective is to take or hold the planet by defending/destroying the generator for tha orbital gun, there is also a counter attack mode where the attackers must hold the (deactivated) Base against the planets defenders

Scouting is 4v4, lights or mediums only, to capture "Intel points" to give your invasion team advantages
In both cases you queue up on a planet andhope enough other people show up to form a match, click on the planet to get queue information

[Koniving]

Rerednaw, on 17 August 2016 - 05:40 PM, said:

Hi folks!

So when I last played regularly, the Clans were a far off myth. So...coming back in now...just about everything has changed.

I'm still running IS...in the old days (TT) that meant we were pretty outmatched when it came up against Clanner tech. I mean you could win out with superior skill, tactics, and strategy...well logistics too but that 3rd part isn't in this game How's the old IS fare against Clan?

P.S. My first BT/MW on a computer was the Crescent Hawk Inception. Old time TT player (well wannabe not too many TT in my area). Still have my boxed BTech game. Loved (and miss terribly) MW2 Mercs as well as both MCmdr.

Welcome back.

For your TT needs, I suggest Megamek. I've recently started using the unofficial but highly supported digital tabletop to participate in online campaigns battling for planets. I was pretty intimidated by the number of players I found there.
-----------
For MWO, the Clans have two global advantages and one advantage that only ties to specific mechs.

The global advantages are: Range and per-shot laser damage potential. You might notice I'm not bothering with "UAC everything" because the IS quirks and FLD blow that so far out of the water the Clans may as well be using water guns. Also not bothering with weight differences or slots, because lets face it other quirks have made those completely meaningless in the long run.

So. Again the first real advantage is Clans outclass the Inner Sphere in range. Offsetting this is higher "Face time" being required to use said weapons, meaning they expose themselves more. Originally it was so much that Clans were encouraged to relentlessly charge into combat Zellbriggen style while the IS popped-and-squatted with cover but ....quirks. We'll get back to that.

The other advantage is per shot laser damage. It is higher, but again higher face time and focus time is required to make full use of this. There's also harsher 'ghost heat' penalties and stricter combination restrictions. Not that Ghost Heat does much, but it hurts the Clans more.

Ultimately both of those don't matter once an IS 'Mech gets close enough. Once the IS gets into a good medium range, the Clans are basically screwed. IS SRM damage is higher, ballistic weapons are FLD, the laser weapons have shorter beam times before quirks and after quirks they are so short it verges on really unfair (if not for the Clan range advantage). Then, to top it all off, the IS firing rate (or "Cooldown") quirks are quite obscene, so the firing rate of an IS AC/20 can mathematically rival or in the hands of certain mechs, blatantly outclass a UAC/20's "double tap" in damage output -- and that's even if the UAC/20 couldn't jam but it does!

----

The other advantage the Clans have are in the non-humanoid 'Mechs. Their hitboxes are extremely forward focused, and players can get away with 2 armor on the rear and "seem" nearly invincible because between this, torso twist and speed of certain 'Mechs (Stormcrow, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jager), it is nearly impossible to hit those rear torsos if the pilot is at least 'average'.

Against these enemies just shoot their legs and that advantage is lost.

Side note: Some IS mechs have similar hitbox traits, the Marauder, Stalker (if not for poor torso twist and turning speed), Crab and the new Catapult being chief among them.

Quote

What is the advantages/disadvantages of faction play? '

Oh my favorite mechs are still the lights...are they pretty much cardboard targets? LOL.

To be frank, a somewhat more fun and challenging experience with limited respawn in the big battles (you get 4 mechs to use) and a mission that kinda-sorta matters. On the little battles (scout missions) it is 4 vs 4, up to 55 tons only, and you gotta run around 'collecting' pillars of "data" randomly thrown about -- regardless of which side you're on -- and whoever gets the most 'wins'.. Of course the "Attackers" have to make it to a dropship and the "Defenders" have to kill you before you get there.

Beyond a somewhat cooler experience in terms of gameplay, the big thing is that winning battles get loyalty or merc points which help you free stuff like patterns, income and mechbays. Most do it for the mechbays.

Disadvantages is as a solo player, faction play is a nightmare of players that are either a gaggle of solo players doing their own thing, or a plethora of organized players running the latest meta and popping off kills faster than you can even tell you've been spotted if you even dare to leave cover -- interestingly I only have this nightmarish experience on IS/Clan borders and the Northern IS/IS borders. Down south in Liao/Marik/Davion territory I find there to be a lot of fun matches -- but finding a good time to find players for it is the tricky part since I work a lot.

-------------

The lights can be made of cardboard. Then again I've lasted entire matches as a Locust carrying an AC/5 with a speed of less than 81 kph, spent all my ammo and still get spotter bonuses. It really depends on what you do.

Edited by Koniving, 18 August 2016 - 04:50 AM.

[ionandman]

the servo break your mother.s trash is also boast penalty

[ionandman]

were full servo kicking why be punished

[Hunka Junk]

Quote

Oh my favorite mechs are still the lights...are they pretty much cardboard targets? LOL.

Without having actually played FP, I can tell you that the meta is to play mediums in the scouting missions. It may not be as light-friendly as its name implies.

Edited by Hunka Junk, 18 August 2016 - 06:05 AM.

[Leone]

Correction: there are two preferred ways to do it.
One, to medium up and try an brawl for the win.
Two, to light it up,, nab the intel and book it to the dropship right as the timer counts down so the enemy cannot engage.

Brawling just tends to pay out better.

~Leone.

[Coralld]

Koniving, on 18 August 2016 - 04:26 AM, said:

Welcome back.

For your TT needs, I suggest Megamek. I've recently started using the unofficial but highly supported digital tabletop to participate in online campaigns battling for planets. I was pretty intimidated by the number of players I found there.
-----------
For MWO, the Clans have two global advantages and one advantage that only ties to specific mechs.

The global advantages are: Range and per-shot laser damage potential. You might notice I'm not bothering with "UAC everything" because the IS quirks and FLD blow that so far out of the water the Clans may as well be using water guns. Also not bothering with weight differences or slots, because lets face it other quirks have made those completely meaningless in the long run.

So. Again the first real advantage is Clans outclass the Inner Sphere in range. Offsetting this is higher "Face time" being required to use said weapons, meaning they expose themselves more. Originally it was so much that Clans were encouraged to relentlessly charge into combat Zellbriggen style while the IS popped-and-squatted with cover but ....quirks. We'll get back to that.

The other advantage is per shot laser damage. It is higher, but again higher face time and focus time is required to make full use of this. There's also harsher 'ghost heat' penalties and stricter combination restrictions. Not that Ghost Heat does much, but it hurts the Clans more.

Ultimately both of those don't matter once an IS 'Mech gets close enough. Once the IS gets into a good medium range, the Clans are basically screwed. IS SRM damage is higher, ballistic weapons are FLD, the laser weapons have shorter beam times before quirks and after quirks they are so short it verges on really unfair (if not for the Clan range advantage). Then, to top it all off, the IS firing rate (or "Cooldown") quirks are quite obscene, so the firing rate of an IS AC/20 can mathematically rival or in the hands of certain mechs, blatantly outclass a UAC/20's "double tap" in damage output -- and that's even if the UAC/20 couldn't jam but it does!

----

The other advantage the Clans have are in the non-humanoid 'Mechs. Their hitboxes are extremely forward focused, and players can get away with 2 armor on the rear and "seem" nearly invincible because between this, torso twist and speed of certain 'Mechs (Stormcrow, Timber Wolf, Ebon Jager), it is nearly impossible to hit those rear torsos if the pilot is at least 'average'.

Against these enemies just shoot their legs and that advantage is lost.

Side note: Some IS mechs have similar hitbox traits, the Marauder, Stalker (if not for poor torso twist and turning speed), Crab and the new Catapult being chief among them.


To be frank, a somewhat more fun and challenging experience with limited respawn in the big battles (you get 4 mechs to use) and a mission that kinda-sorta matters. On the little battles (scout missions) it is 4 vs 4, up to 55 tons only, and you gotta run around 'collecting' pillars of "data" randomly thrown about -- regardless of which side you're on -- and whoever gets the most 'wins'.. Of course the "Attackers" have to make it to a dropship and the "Defenders" have to kill you before you get there.

Beyond a somewhat cooler experience in terms of gameplay, the big thing is that winning battles get loyalty or merc points which help you free stuff like patterns, income and mechbays. Most do it for the mechbays.

Disadvantages is as a solo player, faction play is a nightmare of players that are either a gaggle of solo players doing their own thing, or a plethora of organized players running the latest meta and popping off kills faster than you can even tell you've been spotted if you even dare to leave cover -- interestingly I only have this nightmarish experience on IS/Clan borders and the Northern IS/IS borders. Down south in Liao/Marik/Davion territory I find there to be a lot of fun matches -- but finding a good time to find players for it is the tricky part since I work a lot.

-------------

The lights can be made of cardboard. Then again I've lasted entire matches as a Locust carrying an AC/5 with a speed of less than 81 kph, spent all my ammo and still get spotter bonuses. It really depends on what you do.

Most of this I agree with where as others I disagree. Clan UACs particularly the UAC10 wreck face and so do the UAC20 given their damage potential vs the IS FLD ACs. IS ACs are great for shoot and scoot but in a brawl, Clan UAC10s and 20s, even with their burst fire they are vicious.
But in the end it depends on the situation you find your self in.
Lets not forget Clan XL Engines are a big advantage as they can lose a ST and still keep fighting, of course they become less responsive and effective but still, your alive and can still fight instead of being straight up dead.

Over all though, Clan balance vs IS isant that bad.

Edited by Coralld, 18 August 2016 - 10:42 AM.

[Koniving]

Coralld, on 18 August 2016 - 10:41 AM, said:

Most of this I agree with where as others I disagree. Clan UACs particularly the UAC10 wreck face and so do the UAC20 given their damage potential vs the IS FLD ACs. IS ACs are great for shoot and scoot but in a brawl, Clan UAC10s and 20s, even with their burst fire they are vicious.
But in the end it depends on the situation you find your self in.
Lets not forget Clan XL Engines are a big advantage as they can lose a ST and still keep fighting, of course they become less responsive and effective but still, your alive and can still fight instead of being straight up dead.

Over all though, Clan balance vs IS isant that bad.

Depends mainly on quirks, whether IS versions trump Clan versions.
Get a mech with a 50% cooldown bonus (basically 2x firing rate) and pack dual AC/20s, just chain fire to avoid ghost heat and wreck literally any Clan comparison. There's maybe 3 chassis variants that can do it, but it is more than enough.

Clan XL is okay, but IS standard engine and good build design... you just can't beat it.

Now this isn't to say that there are not pros/cons to each. There certainly is. For example Clans have faster cooling rates and lower heat ceilings (thresholds) while the IS are the reverse, just slightly slower to get rid of heat but having significantly higher thresholds, allowing for more heat (and thus more weapons) in your alpha strikes to compete with the Clan laser damage advantage.

Edited by Koniving, 18 August 2016 - 12:29 PM.

[Coralld]

Koniving, on 18 August 2016 - 12:24 PM, said:

Depends mainly on quirks, whether IS versions trump Clan versions.
Get a mech with a 50% cooldown bonus (basically 2x firing rate) and pack dual AC/20s, just chain fire to avoid ghost heat and wreck literally any Clan comparison. There's maybe 3 chassis variants that can do it, but it is more than enough.

Clan XL is okay, but IS standard engine and good build design... you just can't beat it.

Now this isn't to say that there are not pros/cons to each. There certainly is. For example Clans have faster cooling rates and lower heat ceilings (thresholds) while the IS are the reverse, just slightly slower to get rid of heat but having significantly higher thresholds, allowing for more heat (and thus more weapons) in your alpha strikes to compete with the Clan laser damage advantage.

I think one of the Maulers and King Crab have that crazy capacity with dual AC20s. However I am not really all that scared of them as I know they are slow and I can easily keep my distance. If I see them moving faster than normal with that config then it's clear they are using XL.
I'm not poopooing them but rather they are not really the big bad scary monsters some people make them out to be.
I'm more scared of a HBK-IIC with 2x UAC10s and few ERSLs or a Caldren with a similar build.

I still disagree with you on the engine thing, Clan XL is still better than STD.

I completely agree with you on this last bit.

Again, not saying either side is OP vs the other as PGI did a good job of balancing the Clans and IS.

[Oswald Boelcke]

ionandman, on 18 August 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

the servo break your mother.s trash is also boast penalty

i put this in google translate, and it crashed the server.

[Rerednaw]

Hey everybody thanks for all the info. Information overload here! Looks like sticking with QP seems like a good way to get back into the flow of things for now.

Having lots of fun running around with my Jenner. Speed is life...well at least until I run into those pesky CER PPCs or Gauss rifles. Splat.

Going to bank the c-bills till I break 100 games or so and then I'll go shopping. The Founder mechs have a decent built-in c-bill bonus (30%) which is helping to rebuild my bank balance.

See ya folks online.

Checking out guilds too so thank for the input folks!