31 replies to this topic

[HRR Insanity]

During the first few years of MW4, the best MW4 games and strongest competition (with respect to tactics and strategy) took place on the No Respawn (NR) servers. "{HRR} No Respawn 3" was one of the most competitive servers available, largely because it was ours and we played on it like we played in all of our league game. Team tactics, no mercy. It was on that server and other NR servers that {HRR} was forged into a dominant force in the original MW4 NR leagues (UTS, NBT, etc). {HRR} is still known and feared by those that fought (and died) against us.

{HRR} used any/all opportunities to explore and utilize advanced tactics in our NR matches. At the height of {HRR}'s run within those leagues, I published an online guide to No Respawn to try to help our competition understand how we were beating them. I was trying to raise the level of the No Respawn game throughout the MW4 environment. I think still holds up as a strong example of how to analytically approach Mechwarrior games. In it, I reviewed and explored everything necessary to become a decent player at MW4 NR including 'Mechs, weapons, sensors, tactics, and provided a detailed after action report (AAR) from one of our league matches with commentary to help illustrate the concepts. Within the guide, I review and explore many of the features that the MWO Developers have identified as key goals within MWO (role warfare, sensor combat, etc).

After I have a chance to explore Mechwarrior Online, I will be recreating/updating the guide (with appropriate gameplay modifications) and trying to help new Mechwarriors enter and thrive within an environment teeming with 20+ year veterans of Mechwarrior combat. You'll need all the help you can get.

For those of you who haven't seen it before, through the grace of the WayBack Machine, I present to you:

Insanity's Guide to Mechwarrior 4 No Respawn - http://web.archive.o...4_nr_guide.html

Enjoy.

{HRR} Insanity

Edited by HRR Insanity, 07 June 2012 - 05:15 AM.

[Elwood Blues]

I remember the HRR servers. I used to go there a lot in an Osiris. No respawn has always been my favorite.

[HRR Insanity]

Elwood Blues, on 07 June 2012 - 05:32 AM, said:

I remember the HRR servers. I used to go there a lot in an Osiris. No respawn has always been my favorite.

Hey Elwood! Good to see you around. I'll be out there with you in the little ones as soon as they give me the keys to the new rides.

Edited by HRR Insanity, 07 June 2012 - 05:37 AM.

[Easily]

Hm, that was a good read. Thank you.
I agree with the "No need for being cute and having fancy tactics when the enemy is dead." mentality.

Looking forward to the new version!

[HRR Insanity]

Easily, on 07 June 2012 - 05:44 AM, said:

Hm, that was a good read. Thank you.
I agree with the "No need for being cute and having fancy tactics when the enemy is dead." mentality.

Looking forward to the new version!

You're very welcome. I'll get the new version out as soon as the Devs let me.

[Jaroth Corbett]

Looks good. Got a .doc or .pdf version?

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Excellent summary, now we have to learn the mechs all over again Many of the tactics wont change much I think.

[Meth0s]

Always enjoyed this guide.

Back in my early days of [DCM] I used this to help elevate my play and Drop Commanding. I regularly linked teams to that guide up through NBT:HC days as an example of quality play, and still do to new players of MW4.

Stalkers guide is also good and very useful.

Edited by MethosFurey, 07 June 2012 - 06:07 AM.

[SideSt3p]

Some good info in there. But I'm not sure how much of it will carry across to MWO. The reason I say that, is that PGI seems to be doing a very good job of slowing down the game play. By slowing the pace down and hopefully making all the weapons viable for different roles, I think we'll see a shift in the way these games are played.

I am very VERY excited for No Respawn modes though. Making tactics viable without too crazy (you have a random moment of genius which can shift an entire game when you turn that flank but not only tactic play) mixed with the brute force of concentrated fire and map awareness is going to make this AWESOME!

I can't wait to see you're new one once we get into MWO

[Xandar]

Good times, quite the blast from the past. Can't wait to face you all on the field again.

[HRR Insanity]

MethosFurey, on 07 June 2012 - 06:06 AM, said:

Always enjoyed this guide.

Back in my early days of [DCM] I used this to help elevate my play and Drop Commanding. I regularly linked teams to that guide up through NBT:HC days as an example of quality play, and still do to new players of MW4.

Stalkers guide is also good and very useful.

Glad to hear it was/is still useful. I did link Stalker's guide in that document (originally on DSC), but I probably should bottle this up into a stand-alone document at some point... probably when I finish the new version.

Thanks!
Insanity

[HRR Insanity]

SideSt3p, on 07 June 2012 - 06:09 AM, said:

Some good info in there. But I'm not sure how much of it will carry across to MWO. The reason I say that, is that PGI seems to be doing a very good job of slowing down the game play. By slowing the pace down and hopefully making all the weapons viable for different roles, I think we'll see a shift in the way these games are played.

We'll have to wait and see, but the concepts espoused within the guide are broad and will likely still apply. For instance, I'll still be in a Scout mech (probably a Raven) letting {HRR} know where to bring the pain... =)

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I am very VERY excited for No Respawn modes though. Making tactics viable without too crazy (you have a random moment of genius which can shift an entire game when you turn that flank but not only tactic play) mixed with the brute force of concentrated fire and map awareness is going to make this AWESOME!

MW4 NR was awesome for that exact reason. We're all looking forward to it.

Quote

I can't wait to see you're new one once we get into MWO

It'll be out as soon as we have access...

Thanks for reading!
Insanity

[Elwood Blues]

Light mechs don't have the luxury of weapon diversity. Evasive maneuvering means you usually have smaller windows of time to make your attacks so you want to get as many hits in during that time as you can. I'm really curious how the configurations will be in MWO.

[Sprouticus]

Good to see you Insanity. I expect to be shooting you some time soon

And for anyone reading this, the attached guide is pretty much the blueprint for good team play. There were teams with better pilots than HRR, but very few who played better as a team.

[HRR Insanity]

Sprouticus, on 07 June 2012 - 06:45 AM, said:

Good to see you Insanity. I expect to be shooting you some time soon

Good to see you as well. Certainly looking forward to the shooting portions of this game... the forumwarrior stuff is not as exciting.

Quote

And for anyone reading this, the attached guide is pretty much the blueprint for good team play. There were teams with better pilots than HRR, but very few who played better as a team.

Very kind words. {HRR} is very much looking forward to getting the band back together for this game.

Thanks,
Insanity

[FinnMcKool]

Thank you, this will give me something to read during the Pending process.

[Teralitha]

I still remember the first time I ever saw a group of HRR on a public server. With your little huddled group of catapults and uziels, It was very interesting. I never read your guides, but I just looked at a little bit of it now... nothing new to me really, guess why HJ was one of the best teams. I wrote hundreds of after action reports in our own forums like the one you portrayed, of course, never to be shared with the public, we preferred to keep our tactics secret.

Unfortunately our teams never got to fight much in league play, if at all.. but we still saw you on the pubs.

Edited by Teralitha, 07 June 2012 - 07:01 AM.

[Elwood Blues]

I remember being not too happy when one team on the public server was HRR and the other team was a group of us randoms. Those were hard games. I think I remember going head to head against Insanity before.

[HRR Insanity]

Teralitha, on 07 June 2012 - 06:58 AM, said:

I still remember the first time I ever saw a group of HRR on a public server. With your little huddled group of catapults and uziels, It was very interesting. I never read your guides, but I just looked at a little bit of it now... nothing new to me really, guess why HJ was one of the best teams. I wrote hundreds of after action reports in our own forums like the one you portrayed, of course, never to be shared with the public, we preferred to keep our tactics secret.

There's nothing secret about tactics... you show them to your enemy every time you play. It's in selecting the right tactics at the right time. That's where the trick lies...

Quote

Unfortunately our teams never got to fight much in league play, if at all.. but we still saw you on the pubs.

/smiles/ We've played against one another Teralitha ({HRR} vs. HJ in NBT I believe)... However, it's possible you blocked those fights out of your mind.

Regardless, looking forward to seeing you in-game.

Insanity

Edited by HRR Insanity, 07 June 2012 - 07:34 AM.

[Zack Delphirian]

I never played MW4 so I'm not sure i'm gonna get everything in there, but as a person who comes here looking tactics, strategics and teamplay never found in other games, I salute you for bringing that guide to us for us noobs who want to find a group quickly once the game comes out and be as useful as possible as fast as possible.

Thank you good sire, I'll give you one internet for this