17 replies to this topic

[Mad Ox]

Playing around with my X5 Cicada this last week decided t throw on a narc and putz around with it. Only to see to my surprise that NARCing for team gave me absolutely nothing back in terms of XP/CB rewards???

While TAG I have found can be quite rewarding, above and beyond the helping team win of course.

I watched missiles stream in only so see no assist etc like I would see with TAG, literally got me nothing in after game report which seemed rather dumb for 4+ tons of weapon system...

Is this how its supposed to be?

[Spheroid]

Artemis negates NARC rewards for some reason. Don't bring one if you are looking for a good payout.

[Darkhorse13Golf]

I'm usually the guy taking advantage of the NARC beacon instead of placing it but if I remember correctly, you only get a score if the target is killed with it active.

[Jay Leon Hart]

Darkhorse13Golf, on 28 November 2016 - 10:31 AM, said:

I'm usually the guy taking advantage of the NARC beacon instead of placing it but if I remember correctly, you only get a score if the target is killed with it active.

During the "Mechwarrior Things" event, it seemed like you only got credit for a NARC or TAG kill if they were killed by SSRMs or LRMs. I may be wrong, but I know I got 1 or 2 of those kills over a few days when running around in my RVN-3L with NARC & TAG, then as many per match when I ran my Stormcrow with SSRMs, NARC & TAG.

[Bandilly]

A NARC kill is a pretty big reward, but it's far too rare to be worth it. Like flamethrower you don't take a NARC launcher to get bigger rewards, you take to get your teammates bigger rewards.

[Daggett]

As mentioned by others above, you don't bring Narc for cbill profit. You bring it to support your team with missile locks and intel or -even better- to greatly increase the effectiveness of your own lurms because it makes you independent of locks from your team and also encourages you to stay within optimal firing distance near your team.

Edited by Daggett, 02 December 2016 - 09:15 AM.

[Burning2nd]

As a master a1 (c) pilot and the sole reason why some of the catapult patches came out , I actually don't prefer to fire on narc'd targets just cause I can see them doesn't mean it's a good shot... a cplt with command module and Avance sensor and targeting gathering info I can do better with out the narc ..... BUT as a 3L raven pilot I can assure you that 4 tons of narc rounds being fired with radar derp and narc booster module's I can literally make the intire red team light up like a christmas tree for just about the whole match . If I live that long

[Greyboots]

To earn money and XP? Yeah, it's not the reason to take NARC anymore.

On a medium these days you'll earn a lot more just hanging around with the assaults so you get protected medium and saviour kills if earnings are your concern.

[Zergling]

Alternatively, use it for yourself when you are LRM boating; pop out of cover to NARC a target, then pull back and rain LRMs from safety.

[Mad Ox]

Zergling, on 06 December 2016 - 04:37 PM, said:

Alternatively, use it for yourself when you are LRM boating; pop out of cover to NARC a target, then pull back and rain LRMs from safety.

Yup always stuck in my head was a scout mechs tool spot for team and reap the enemy well still is but oh well

[Insanity09]

As I skilled up a 3rd Jenner, I used a missile hp for a narc. Now, along with the OP, I'm starting to think that it is wasted.

1) Though I've been on many teams with LRMers, I announce that a target is narc'd, usually have it in sight for a while (so they can lock, and I know they're in range), and yet I often fail to see anyone take advantage of the beacon.
2) Though the exposure time is vastly better than that of TAG, the NARC speed is slow enough that closer is much better, especially with the very limited ammo. So, I've still be finding it very risky (read: damaging to me) to pop the beacons on. Might be better if I had ECM on my narcer, but alas....
3) It is heavy. I could have an SRM 6 or 4 +arty with a ton of ammo for the same tonnage.
4) Even when I do get something narc'd, even when I do see it being lrm'd, I still only get credit if it dies before the beacon times out. Though I'm not sure if it requires the target to die from lrms (or ssrms?) to get the payout, I fear that it does, and wow, that totally sucks (even if that isn't the case, the narc payouts are still depressingly rare).

Earning cash as a light is hard enough (though I sometimes get decent damage/kills with my lights, I am just as likely to get crushed early by a lucky salvo and get almost nothing). Doing a scouty/info warfare thing seems very much in keeping with the lights role(s), but to get nothing for it most of the time? Why bother?
I would seriously recommend giving some sort of payout (1k cb? a few xp?) for actually hitting a target with narc at all. It is a weapon, you did have to aim it at med-close range, and it does have limited ammo (unlike TAG, which you just spam forever at longer range), so it would be nice if that use gave at least a little bit.
I am a big team player, I try to support my teammates, cooperate with directions, etc, often to my great detriment. To not be rewarded for that behavior is very discouraging (for this and other things).

[Blhurr]

A great example of where the team game and reward concepts are maligned.

[Thor Sten]

I usually don't take NARC or Tag in quickplay with me, because all to often there's either no LRM-Boat or the LRM-Boat doesn't appreciate my efforts. So yeah, in this cases it's a total waste, Tag is just slightly leass tons wasted. Playing an LRM-Boat, OTOH Tag is nice thing to bring along.

Edited by Thor Sten, 23 December 2016 - 06:15 AM.

[Bellum Dominum]

Burnin2nd, on 04 December 2016 - 11:58 AM, said:

As a master a1 (c) pilot and the sole reason why some of the catapult patches came out , I actually don't prefer to fire on narc'd targets just cause I can see them doesn't mean it's a good shot... a cplt with command module and Avance sensor and targeting gathering info I can do better with out the narc ..... BUT as a 3L raven pilot I can assure you that 4 tons of narc rounds being fired with radar derp and narc booster module's I can literally make the intire red team light up like a christmas tree for just about the whole match . If I live that long

Psst target info gathering module no longer assists in faster lrm/s-srm lock on times. Hasn't for a couple of years now. Sensor Range and Lrm Range sure, but I don't bother with command module it is way too heavy for such a small benefit. (Admittedly I've not even looked at the CC in a year or better so perhaps it's been buffed and I didn't know.)

As to the OP:
4 tons with narc? So you are running Narc + at least 2 tons of ammo? Commendable and I've done it as well, but I've found at most 1 1/2 tons is more than enough. Everyone else posting about narc being about providing the team with intel instead of being for a reward is correct. Lights period get the shaft when it comes to reward vs cost for being scouts (cbill wise). Damage output prevails in terms of cbill and xp rewards. You should always be able to do enough damage to make a little more cbills than the cost of popping that UAV (I assume if you are playing a narc'r that you are also using UAV) but it certainly won't always be the case. Sometimes you simply take a wrong/bad turn into the face of a streakcrow before doing any damage but after popping the UAV (hurts the wallet big time but it happens).

Back to the team being provided intel... in pug matches quite often you'll feel let down when it comes to your team using that intel well. Not meaning to sound down on anyone it is just how it is. Find your joy in just annoying the heck of the enemy and since there is the 'narc' icon letting people know they have been narc'd now you can use it to 'suppress' to a degree as well or slow and possibly even halt an enemy team advance. Learn the ECM mechs as they should always be priority #1 for narcs. (Also gives you the 'counter ecm' reward).

Oh and cicada's make much better snipers or medium/short range brawlers than scouts just fyi. Cicada's can be nasty anti-light mechs as well in the right hands. Scouts need to be able to do 140+ and should have ECM and jump jets. The Raven-3L is the superior narc mech in the game today but takes quite a bit of practice and knowing the maps because it does not have jump jets but it's quirks alone make it the best narc mech. (We'll see if the changes that are supposed to come will change that or not.)

Edited by Bellum Dominum, 28 December 2016 - 06:49 AM.

[Burning2nd]

Bellum Dominum, on 28 December 2016 - 06:38 AM, said:

Psst target info gathering module no longer assists in faster lrm/s-srm lock on times.

you might want to put some cbills in your mouth and crew..... go spend 15mill cbills and get back to me
come back to me when your doing 500-1000 damage every round and making 500k+ a round

[Stormie]

Burnin2nd, on 03 January 2017 - 01:54 AM, said:

you might want to put some cbills in your mouth and crew..... go spend 15mill cbills and get back to me
come back to me when your doing 500-1000 damage every round and making 500k+ a round

Except he's right...


Yeah Narcing often doesn't pay well but doing it in a Raven with the Narc module means that your team essentially has wall hacks for the entire game, and you can still fit 3 MPL and go 140+KPH with ECM. its very therapeutic
half the value in a Narc is not the missiles, its the fact that inexperience players sh*t themselves and hide behind cover for the entire duration of the narc, effectively taking a mech out of the fight. Often take a Narc even when I KNOW we have no LRMs for this reason.

Edited by Stormie, 03 January 2017 - 03:57 AM.

[panzer1b]

I would stay away from narcs outside of coordinated teamplay with a unit or friends that you can coordinate with. A few hybrid LRM boats (i never touch dedicated lurmers as they are lousy) can really benefit from something like a narc raven which can light someone up, but in general narcs arent worth the minimum of 3 tons (clan side) to use. Not that you cannot bring them (they are useful), but unless you actually have lurmers on your team to take advantage of the narc, and you happen to get a map where lurms arent worthless on, that narc is not a good call.

Does work in FW though, ive ran with some buddies a few times (they arent T1s or anything but they are coordinated) and like half the team took lurms, we had 2 dedicated narcers, and the enemy team desintegrated on sight. Granted we only use that tactic on favorable maps (polar being the number one) but it isnt worthless, in a coordinated setting at least...

[Starbomber109]

Mad Ox, on 28 November 2016 - 07:32 AM, said:

Playing around with my X5 Cicada this last week decided t throw on a narc and putz around with it. Only to see to my surprise that NARCing for team gave me absolutely nothing back in terms of XP/CB rewards???

While TAG I have found can be quite rewarding, above and beyond the helping team win of course.

I watched missiles stream in only so see no assist etc like I would see with TAG, literally got me nothing in after game report which seemed rather dumb for 4+ tons of weapon system...

Is this how its supposed to be?

If you have the guy you narced targeted I think you get a spotting assist. If the guy dies to the stream of lurms you get this thing called a "narc kill" which is worth Cbills on top of an assist.

However, I don't recommend bringing narc to games where you don't have any friends who agrees to bring LRM mechs. You can't rely on random people to even bring LRMs, or to know what to do with them (I see a lot of 1000+m LRM fire on polar )