38 replies to this topic

[LowSubmarino]

At first when I was the one not using strikes and my health dropped to 80 or 70 % in non-survival but firepower and mobility mechs I thought its ridiculous.

To deal that kind of dmg I gotta play pretty well to do the same dmg using up a lot more time.

One klick. Line of sight. Boom.

Its kinda silly on the one hand.

But now that Im using it...its fun and it shows you the weakness in most pug formations. Basically all pug formations.

They are incredibly vulnerable to two things which are prolly the major contributors why a lot of teams just get slaughtered in 1 - 3 mins.

1. They do not stay together and run single flile in all kinds of directions. Murder death ball kills them off not even losing one mech or one tops.

2. What I notices post skill tree: Airt and arty strikes are ******* lethal.

Have your formation too close, be too close to your guys and girls eg between the builidings on frozen city or on river city or on hpg or basically no matter what map. Be too close (in air arty range of one of your teammates that might have been or will be target with air/arty strikes) and you will take insane amounts of dmg with no way to avoid it. Like literally....no way.

Ive seen some light groups ball up, friends or teams or whatever, sync drops I dont know, and use carpet bombing on those close pug formations to evil effect. Like...evil.

I saw an entire assault/heavy lance melt. In a matter of moments. They all died. Just by arty strikes from multiple mechs. In moments. All gone.

They were and stayed way too close together. Getting massacred.

IN the end, the lights dashed in and only had to blow a kiss in their direction and they all died.

So taking all that into account, I think ppl will learn, that...yes...staying together or better in los and in such a way, that your team can cover you but not close enough to get carpet bombed. Which will end you.

But pugs dont even understand to stay in formation. I mean now...after so many years, finally, some pugs and pug teams realize that your chances to win increase a kazillion times when you dont run around aimslessly single file with no brain. I mean, that took like half a decade.

And I think it will prolly take 2 to maybe 4 or 5 years again, till ppl realize that formation is one of the key elements. Not the only thing that matters but a key element. Too far, your dead, too close your dead all the same.

So I think in the long run this will force ppl to play better. Because it is so easy now, like ridiculously easy to demolish close formations. Even somebody who plays there first mwo game, with two arty strikes will prolly surive long enough to just run into the middle of a en enmy cluster, land an arty strike right in the middle, run around two buidlings, and land another one.

So, staying this close, clumping up....isnt the way to go. It just isnt.

Somebody should make that a primary advice at the beginng of matches.

Edited by oneda, 07 July 2017 - 02:08 AM.

[El Bandito]

Nah, strikes are implemented in a dumb way, and are chiefly created for PGI's C-Bill sink. With player being able to spam two of them per match, it further widens the gap between veterans who have a hundred million C-Bills, and newer players who can't afford to spend any extra C-Bills. This disparity is further amplified in CW.

The smoke doesn't even serve as adequate warning, as it is completely silent and it is **** easy to place them where it is nigh impossible to be spotted until too late--especially Air Strike. If the goal here is to break up death ball and turtling, then the bloody strikes should have audio warning of sorts. That will serve far better to break up the formation of the opponent.

And FFS, increase the cooldown of strikes for the individual player to around a minute, instead of 5 seconds right now. Better yet, cap strikes at one max, instead of two. It was fine before at one.

Edited by El Bandito, 08 July 2017 - 04:30 AM.

[SOL Ranger]

I disagree on the actualities of strikes in their current state and PGI's implementation.

If only there was any interaction involved or even if your described scenario was the only thing it did well, however right now they're optimal for single target attacks against anything heavier/slower and you don't even notice you've been targeted until you get hit unless you were already backing up, even then you can't get away from it in time nor mitigate its damage very much in slower mechs, which is all silly.

Strikes should do less damage to single targets in especially the short time frame, but instead be more effective in long term area denial by being longer duration and progressively apply damage, also they should indicate more clearly where they will hit.

Right now they exist mainly to serve as a CBill sink and are extra powerful just to boost that use, PGI would do well in curtailing their effect for single target damage quickly.

Edited by SOL Ranger, 07 July 2017 - 02:32 AM.

[Vellron2005]

Personally, I LOVE consumables.. I use all of them, and with the new Skill Tree, carry (and use) multiple copies of a particular one..

Usually it's 2 UAV's or 2 Cool Shots.. only rarely do I use 2 Artillery strikes.. such things are usually reserved for long distance group breaking, or pushing annoying snipers off high positions on maps like Alpine.

For me, they make the game more tactical and immersive. It's not just a straight up shooter, but you can use that tiny bit of tactics..

I wish they implemented Elementals as a consumable..

[Brain Cancer]

https://clips.twitch...rousJayDAESuppy

Nuff said on "good".

Good would be giving the role of AoE to actual players, rather than red smoke C-bill sinks. With actual AoE weapons. Artycannons, Arrow IV.

[Y E O N N E]

Brain Cancer, on 07 July 2017 - 06:21 AM, said:

https://clips.twitch...rousJayDAESuppy

Nuff said on "good".

Good would be giving the role of AoE to actual players, rather than red smoke C-bill sinks. With actual AoE weapons. Artycannons, Arrow IV.

Mech Mortars...

[Composite Armour]

It's becoming obscene how much red smoke is getting tossed down these days. They need to put in a cooldown between uses, somewhere in the region of a minute. This cooldown should be teamwide too.

[Bohxim]

It is already team wide.

[LowSubmarino]

of course its pathetic.

Nerfing some weapons so hard that nobody uses them anymore (eg is spls and c spls) because they do too much dmg but then giving ppl completly op air and arty strikes that you have to use cbills for.

It will still force players to adapt or they will get massacred.

Its not even funny how much dmg you can do with them.

Not equipping them is a handicap now.

[Shifty McSwift]

I wish I had taken a picture of it, but someone put smoke behind a building in the "city" section of grim plexus, and the strike hit everyone on the side of the hill and at the base including me, there was literally no way of knowing it was going to occur, and I only saw the smoke as it died off when I crested the hill, in other words, they are BS machines, almost never used for area control, and almost always used in the cheapest method possible to deal as much damage as possible.

So yeah, currently they suck in a lot of ways. They are the only AOE weapon in the game, you can't blame people for trying to use them like that, you can blame the devs for not noticing, or not caring that this is adversely effecting their game in a massive way.

[Thorqemada]

This is Mechwarrior and not Artillery Duel - if any they should be restricted to Faction Warfare!

[Chados]

Strike spam sucks the fun out of the game. They're lame, lame, LAME as currently implemented. Even if you see the smoke you can't get out of the strike radius in time to save yourself. It's Long Tom all over again.

[Shifty McSwift]

I mean if their intent is to further drive QP players to run around on their own for fear of making someone's arti strike deal more damage... They have not at all been successful, if their point was to provide real area control threats to break up camping, they are only very marginally used like this or have this effect.

If their point was to be a freely installed gun with 2 shots at 40k each that is also the only AOE weapon in the game? Well, then at that task, they succeeded.

Edited by Shifty McSwift, 08 July 2017 - 03:07 AM.

[Novakaine]

Nothing wrong with arty strikes.
Great for breaking up firing lines and sniper suppression.
And making light wolf packs scatter.
Working as intended.
Learn, adapt or get arty'd to death.

[HGAK47]

Whille I dont wish to cry about them, I have had two key experiences with enemy air strikes on my position that really made me get salty.

HPG in my King Crab poking around one of the corner ramps and being struck by an air strike, "didnt see that one coming ok I will be more careful"..... oh **** another one! I can see the smoke this time...... evasive maneuvers! **** still got me......10 seconds later oh damn I just took another one to the back what the hell!? DEAD.

Another time I was in a nearly fresh Locust sneakily attacking the side flanks of enemy mechs, when out of the blue a strike cleared me up by smashing my rear ST. Dead locust, no warning to be quite honest I had no idea anyone even saw my location, could have been a lucky hit but it was some real satly BS experience.

I try and be a lot more aware these days but its hard.

What did I learn? Locust is weak dont take a strike, Crab is slow dont take multiple strikes. Does this further reinforce the Heavy meta? I mean they have the armour and survivability with a lot more speed and agility..... and medium mechs seem to be able to do anything light mechs can do but generally better with more tank. Just my opinion.

Edited by HGAK47, 08 July 2017 - 03:41 AM.

[Shifty McSwift]

Novakaine, on 08 July 2017 - 03:31 AM, said:

Nothing wrong with arty strikes.
Great for breaking up firing lines and sniper suppression.
And making light wolf packs scatter.
Working as intended.
Learn, adapt or get arty'd to death.

While I currently dislike how strikes function, and am annoyed by aspects of them. I don't believe I have ever died to one, and while they may be obvious for fast moving, fast turning, low to the ground lights, not everyone fits those parameters.

If you use them I will ask you honestly, aside from lights and fast mediums (and perhaps the crazy fast linebacker), have you ever succeeded in "flushing out" opponents hit by them? More often in practice I watch people get hit by them, accept the hit, and stay in position. That's just extra damage with no real other function right there.

[Khobai]

Quote

Better yet, cap strikes at one max, instead of two. It was fine before at one.

this. its like PGI completely forgot why they only allowed one strike per player in the first place.

[Connor Davion]

I think air strikes and arty are great.

If anyone has been in the military you know how devastating air and arty can be to troop concentrations and hardened fortifications. The devs actually give in and have a red smoke indicator that there is a forecast of steel rain (though I know it can be hidden sometimes). In reality there is no red smoke and no warning . That is why they teach dispersion


IMHO I feel the amount of damage is good, it was way too weak before. That said. they do need to reduce the amount carried to 1 and increase the cool down to 1 minute just to keep people from boating strikes.

Finally keep in mind for all you lore buffs out there arty and air are totally lore and in the Battletech universe they could be brutal.

Edited by Connor Davion, 08 July 2017 - 04:44 AM.

[El Bandito]

Connor Davion, on 08 July 2017 - 04:44 AM, said:

Finally keep in mind for all you lore buffs out there arty and air are totally lore and in the Battletech universe they could be brutal.

Yes, but its hefty C-Bill cost as requirement doesn't affect the player base equally. Imagine if in League of Legends you must use 150 IP (in game currency) to be able to use summoner spells such as Flash, or Heal, for every match. It is pretty outrageous when you think about it.

Edited by El Bandito, 08 July 2017 - 05:55 AM.

[Magnus Santini]

Its an overuse issue, and the more overused it is the less fun the game is for the targets. The team arty timer should remain, and extra limitations on use be added. Since every battle in this game starts by airdrop, there should not be any artillery in place to shoot. Assuming an empty dropship goes to pick up arty and deploy, no arty allowed until ten minutes elapsed. There is not ten years of ammo on that ship. So three salvos maximum per team, either shot by one greed farmer, or three separate players.