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Cultivate Tactical Awareness

tactics awareness

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#1 Insanity09

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Posted 04 May 2017 - 07:14 PM

Perhaps I've just had a long string of bad matches recently, but it seems once again that folks are missing a few basic skills, basic tactical tools that will help you succeed.

The short version:
  • If you are taking enemy fire, don't turn your back, particularly if multiple enemies are shooting you.
  • Don't peek into multiple enemies!!
  • Use the mini-map to get hints of where the enemy and your friends are. Glance at it regularly.
tldr; version...




I'm frankly surprised that I even feel a need to mention this, but it must be done.
I have seen numerous people now, when taking fire from multiple enemies, simply turn around, exposing their back to the enemy, and try to run. The almost universal result? They die.

If you are under direct enemy observation, taking fire, turning your back to the enemy is BAD.

Unless you have done something really weird with your armor, and have put far more on the back than most people bother to do, the most like effect of turning like that will be an ignominious death.

I understand the desire to get away from enemy fire, it is a natural response. I certainly understand that you move faster going forward than backwards.
I also understand that you cannot fire back when you turn tail, and you are more vulnerable with your back to enemy fire.
Being aware of where the nearest cover is located , more or less, will let you back into it with reasonable success. At the worst, it will let you continue to fire at the enemy, which might get them to take cover, giving you a brief respite (doesn't work as well when you are being hit by multiple enemies).


All that brings me to the second major goof: peeking into a concentrated enemy, via corner poking or hill humping.
JUST DON'T DO IT!

Firstly, if you know, because you just saw one of your buddies peek and get blown away (or take lots of return fire), or because you have a spotter telling you the enemy concentration is there, or there is a friendly UAV up (even briefly), that a whole bunch of enemies just over/around the next obstacle, that is NOT an opportunity to fire into a target rich environment. That is a trap! (if you couldn't have known lots of the enemy were right there, and you survived, you can be forgiven for the mistake. Once!)
The temptation to poke around the corner and get a shot in is apparently overwhelming for people, but you will almost certainly receive far more damage than you give. Not good math.
If you must stay active (and I highly recommend it), try maneuvering to a position where you will be exposed to only one enemy when you peek. And if you are outgunned by that enemy, again, just don't do it.
The other way to deal with this is if you coordinate with your team to push all at the same time. That can work. Note: pushing forward yourself without discussing it with your team ahead of time is still solo peeking and you will get ambushed. Just don't.

Finally, a lot of this depends on paying at least a little attention to your mini-map. It is there for a reason, it gives you very useful information. It tells you if you are off by yourself (oops, the rest of my team moved father right than I did, better follow them), it tells you where the enemy is, so you can better position yourself. It is a warning system, a basic navigational tool, and in some cases, a rudimentary targeting system (ah, I need to turn to my right to aim towards the enemy. Use it. Please.

I was just in a match, and I wish I was joking, where two assaults, one friendly Highlander and an enemy Stalker had both moved forward in different lanes of some buildings. They were effectively standing right next to each other, maybe 30m apart. The highlander wasn't even shooting at anything or being shot, just stood there, then started to back up. I only saw the two of them because I glanced at my mini map and said "what the heck is an enemy assault doing right there?!" I got a few shots in (I was in a light, so...), the highlander just backed up and didn't even bother to look at what I was shooting at. If he had turned, given the amount of damage visible on the Stalker, we (he!) might have gotten a kill then and there. The Stalker backed up towards more enemies (which I again saw on the mini map), so I had to let him go.

Better battlefield awareness can go a long way to helping your performance, I highly recommend you practice it.

#2 DeeHawk

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Posted 05 May 2017 - 02:21 AM

You have some great advice in here. When you first adapt to the game, most of this should quickly make sense for most, however, for a very long time some people struggle with focus. You get so excited about some great PPC-hits, or that Cicada 400m away who keeps insisting on eating all your large lasers while only responding with medium lasers.

If you get tunnel vision, you often get out of position.
I don't have a solution to this, and it still happens to me after 500 hours. Mostly when I'm tired or distracted.

#3 Koniving

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Posted 05 May 2017 - 02:50 AM

View PostInsanity09, on 04 May 2017 - 07:14 PM, said:

Perhaps I've just had a long string of bad matches recently, but it seems once again that folks are missing a few basic skills, basic tactical tools that will help you succeed.

The short version:
  • If you are taking enemy fire, don't turn your back, particularly if multiple enemies are shooting you.
  • Don't peek into multiple enemies!!
  • Use the mini-map to get hints of where the enemy and your friends are. Glance at it regularly.

"Why?"
  • If you turn your back to one or more enemies, you will simply die faster. Back armor is almost always weaker than the front. (An example of an exception is the Commando, there you are a lot better off with high concentrations of rear armor).
  • Rapid to insta-death when they all shoot you -- especially if you keep peeking from the same place. After peeking it may be a good idea to relocate before peeking again.
  • Knowing where enemies are lets you know two things: Where to go (few enemies) and where NOT to go (lots of enemies). Knowing where your allies are lets you know where to run if you're being chased (preferably with warning; hold E and then choose "HELP!" It also lets you know where you should be if you're an assault mech, because if you're not surrounded by allies you are likely to be easily picked off.


#4 Insanity09

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Posted 05 May 2017 - 09:20 AM

Thanks Koniving. You stated that far more concisely than I managed to.

I will also say that sometimes there are no right choices, it is a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. However, being more tactically aware means better and quicker decisions, and sometimes, sometimes choosing the lesser of the evils and working well with your team means a win.

#5 Lily from animove

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Posted 09 May 2017 - 07:36 AM

I think awareness is rather much a natural skill, you cna train ti to soem degree but it is not something some will ever have to a proper degree no matter how much they train it.

i have seen it with many other gaming buddies that soem have te awareness of a potatoe, they have reactions very good, and aim very good, but they cna for example nto even memorize the 5 steps they did and know where they are despite having thousends of hours of gameplay in similar games. Butelt them walk around on an unknown ap for half of a minute and they don't know where they are compared to where they have been or how to get back.

Awareness in MWO needs memorizing what happens where and how this relocates when you move. And some cannot even relocate themsleves, not even talking about multiple other players around them.


View PostKoniving, on 05 May 2017 - 02:50 AM, said:

"Why?"
  • If you turn your back to one or more enemies, you will simply die faster. Back armor is almost always weaker than the front. (An example of an exception is the Commando, there you are a lot better off with high concentrations of rear armor).
  • Rapid to insta-death when they all shoot you -- especially if you keep peeking from the same place. After peeking it may be a good idea to relocate before peeking again.
  • Knowing where enemies are lets you know two things: Where to go (few enemies) and where NOT to go (lots of enemies). Knowing where your allies are lets you know where to run if you're being chased (preferably with warning; hold E and then choose "HELP!" It also lets you know where you should be if you're an assault mech, because if you're not surrounded by allies you are likely to be easily picked off.



yep poking is poker. it is a battle of patience vs awareness and expectations. trying to have a non repeatable patter of poking and not using the same location as well as out-patience compared to your enemies behavior is the key to poke at the right moment to be able to shoot without getting shot. I find it quite an exciting game doing hull humping vs another hill humper.

Edited by Lily from animove, 09 May 2017 - 07:39 AM.






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