30 replies to this topic

[Bahktosh]

Hey guys, I posted a little while ago about my frustrations with the game both in quickplay and FW. I was basicly told..i will continue to lose forever unless i join a 12 man...and i have found one group that doesn't play enough..I am a clanner and I have always liked the game although many parts feels broken and disbalanced..but that's another topic..i was wanting to know if there are groups out there that will actually like be on virtually anytime so I don't have to endure long losing streaks and actually earn good money...I have my own unit but its small and I was wanting to learn more from better players as well. I realize this is a team based game but I hate the fact that if I dont have a large group..I cant win. Someone please help. I don't understand why 4 groups of 3 faces one group of 12..in what way is that fair or balanced?

[Ebins]

Hello Bahktos, I understand your frustration. Grouping with people who do not work as a team can be really annoying. Playing with friends is where it is at. A while ago, I created my own unit for the same reason. You can win without a 12 man team. It depends on what tier you are in and where your skill level is at. I found that I lost a lot until I learned some basic tactics.

My unit, the 133rd Solahma of the Jade Falcon loyalty faction is a very small group (right now, 7 people) that play together to have fun and get some wins under our belt. Our members hail from the western United States, to Europe and Japan. We are constantly on the lookout for players who have a mature personality yet are easy going and simply want to have fun. TeamSpeak is required, but that is pretty much the only requirement. We offer individual training on mech basics and are always striving to get better as we play.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please feel free to add me as a friend in game, and/or private message me here. I cannot guarantee you right now that someone will always be on when you are, but as we grow, opportunities will always present itself.

Even if you find yourself a larger group of people, I would happy to give you a training lesson and give you a few pointers. You would even be welcome to join us in our drops.

Honor to you, Mechwarrior. I hope you find what you are seeking!

[Oldbob10025]

You dont have to join a 12 man unit to get good, I win in solo matches against 12 man units as most 12 man teams do the same thing over and over and over again against the same people playing FW so when a random pug game comes and does something different they freak out and dont know what to do.

Dont let anyone tell you have to join a 12 man to be the best of the best. Dont get me wrong you will lose GAMES ALOT but you dont have to join a 12 man to dominate the field. Try with a smaller unit or just group up for a bit and see what they do in FW with the big boys. I do this sometimes and get invited to named units and play with them and study what they do and try it out to see if it fits my play style or if I want to do that. I fear a organized 4 -12 man unit that knows what they are doing and calling targets but you can do it as well if you want but dont have too..

I play FW alone and love meeting some of awesome people out there that are pugs not saying 12 man units are not cool but most that I talk with are kinda snob elites (some not all so dont get your pantyhose in a wad)..

Take time and you will lose some and win some but most of all have fun in a "GAME".. Heaven forbid

[Leone]

I spent some three months or more without a real unit, winning and losing in Community Warfare until I joined Kell's Commandos. It let me.... Wait... Did we go Inner Sphere? I'm Liao! Awesome. Sorry, gotta run, I've tonnes of IS mechs I've hardly gotten t' play.

Anyways, To Long, Didn't Type, but just be a teammate and even twelve solos can beat a unit if they work together.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 12 January 2017 - 08:10 PM.

[JC Daxion]

You don't need to join a unit, though that can help.. BUT you should get in a group, even if it is a pug group that just wants to play together. I'm sure someone can point you to some TS servers that make pug groups for CW then drop as a group. Or you can try the group finder, or just ask in the CW chat, if any groups are looking for another person.

personally i just pug anyway in CW, but i only do it during events for the most part. I am close to 50/50 during these events, even up against 12 mans.. but i think that is the exception, not the rule.

Edited by JC Daxion, 13 January 2017 - 07:29 AM.

[Aescwulf]

Its finding a pug group, I'm in the same situation as OP but I'm yet to go into FW (don't have the mechs) I'm trying to find a group that does pug drops but so far no luck.

[Bahktosh]

Aescwulf, on 13 January 2017 - 07:45 AM, said:

Its finding a pug group, I'm in the same situation as OP but I'm yet to go into FW (don't have the mechs) I'm trying to find a group that does pug drops but so far no luck.

Just so you know..you can use trial mechs in your drop deck to fill out your roster...I hope this helps you.

[Aescwulf]

That's actually a good idea.

[Rogue Jedi]

To do well in solo quick play you most certainly do not need a group/unit and it is extremely unlikely that your teammates or adversaries are (although it is not that unusual (probably about 1 game in 30) for me to encounter a unit mate in a quick play game) in a group in that match.
However if you are playing in group queue having people you work well with to assist you, and encourage (or mock) you for your performance really helps.
On my own I am not a great player but through the unit I am with (Mercs who alternate but favor IS so not realy suitable for the OP) I have a Lance, at this stage the 4 of us have been working together most weeks for more than 2 years, when dropping with at least 2 of them, and us making up more than half a group we win 3 times in 4 (with me usually under performing compared to the others) but just having a group of 3-4 people who work well together and go for the win rather than glory massively increases your chances of winning and the level of enjoyment (at least for me)
A 12 man is not required but dropping with the same group regularly does help a lot

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 13 January 2017 - 09:17 AM.

[Xaat Xuun]

find some alliances.
play with them, you really don't need to be a large unit,
as they say, it's not the size, that matters, it's how you use it.

train with your alliances , just need Premium time and open some private instances/Lobby, and spend a little time working together

[TooDumbToQuit]

First off a question. Does simply being in a group for Quick Play put you against other groups? If I was to gather 12 pugs from Tier 4 and 5, would we face another Group? One that chances are, is better?

And if you drop with 5 players and it adds you to another unit, again can you go above your tier?

As far as the OP's question. I certainly thought so. I thought you needed a Unit or a close group of friends to win. In Quick Play...maybe, because you end up facing other Units.

But in FW yes, I thought/think a unit is the way to go. One reason being that it is very hard to get in touch with and arraign anything with "friends" because of the still lack of a decent chat here. PGI did add the option of "Faction Chat" and "Clan Chat" but where is "Friends Chat"? I have 94 "friends" and I only asked to be friends with 5 of them, so at times, I must be doing something right.

So I can chat with my Unit, my "faction" which I guess is now the clan we work for and with "Clans" which I guess is the other Clans. But where is the chat from the many people who are "Freelancers"?

So anyway, I joined a Unit after an invite from someone that took pity on me. A leadership change happened right after I joined and the Unit that was a top FW Unit has almost stopped doing them. One of our players started a Thread about ideas to win Conquest during faction warfare (we were IS at the time) and it just petered out. No one seems to care.

One thing about this unit is that they play a number of games, not just MechWarriorOnline.

One of my HUGE problems is that I'm a very poor player, so I really do not feel like I can speak up. Plus, I have not been joining the two Quick Play drop nights because in during it, I drop so far back down in my Tier since we are basically playing against 12 Tier 1 players.

So of these players have played together for years so they know each other well. But we never have a plan and even worse, we do not always share what we are doing with others who might have dropped with us. And instead of someone stepping up and being a leader during Faction Warfare, we stayed with ourselves, went with the flow and even talked about using the non-members are meat shields.

Tomorrow we are doing a day of FW and we are Clan so I hope things go well.

The reason I started a 2nd account was so I'd have a Wolf Clan only one for when we are an IS Unit. I joined some others of us who refuse to do the new FW as IS.

P.S. I just noticed we are Clan, time to ice up the hand and get grinding......

Edited by LikeUntoGod, 13 January 2017 - 10:19 AM.

[Aescwulf]

I think you do drop against other groups if you are grouped up. You can sync drop but that doesn't mean you'll be on the same team.

[Rogue Jedi]

LikeUntoGod, on 13 January 2017 - 10:17 AM, said:

First off a question. Does simply being in a group for Quick Play put you against other groups? If I was to gather 12 pugs from Tier 4 and 5, would we face another Group? One that chances are, is better?

yes, if you play quick play in a group you cannot be teamed with or against solo players, and solo players will never face a group in quickplay ^{(baring future rule changes or server malfunctions)}

Quote

And if you drop with 5 players and it adds you to another unit, again can you go above your tier?

no, being in a bigger group does not affect who you will face off against, however the bigger the group the lower tonage per player, a 2 player group gets 40^(minimum)-200 ^(maximum) tons total, a 4 player group gets (I think) 160-340 tons total and I think a 12 player group gets sonething like 540-600 tons
in group queue the matchmaker averages the tiers of your group, so lets say you have a 4 player group with 1 t1 and 3 t5 players, that means you would be matched with a team averaging t4

Aescwulf, on 13 January 2017 - 10:32 AM, said:

I think you do drop against other groups if you are grouped up. You can sync drop but that doesn't mean you'll be on the same team.

that is correct, from persional experiance if you synch drop most likely you will end up on diferant sides

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 13 January 2017 - 10:35 AM.

[Ebins]

LikeUntoGod, on 13 January 2017 - 10:17 AM, said:

First off a question. Does simply being in a group for Quick Play put you against other groups? If I was to gather 12 pugs from Tier 4 and 5, would we face another Group? One that chances are, is better?

And if you drop with 5 players and it adds you to another unit, again can you go above your tier?

As far as the OP's question. I certainly thought so. I thought you needed a Unit or a close group of friends to win. In Quick Play...maybe, because you end up facing other Units.

But in FW yes, I thought/think a unit is the way to go. One reason being that it is very hard to get in touch with and arraign anything with "friends" because of the still lack of a decent chat here. PGI did add the option of "Faction Chat" and "Clan Chat" but where is "Friends Chat"? I have 94 "friends" and I only asked to be friends with 5 of them, so at times, I must be doing something right.

So I can chat with my Unit, my "faction" which I guess is now the clan we work for and with "Clans" which I guess is the other Clans. But where is the chat from the many people who are "Freelancers"?

So anyway, I joined a Unit after an invite from someone that took pity on me. A leadership change happened right after I joined and the Unit that was a top FW Unit has almost stopped doing them. One of our players started a Thread about ideas to win Conquest during faction warfare (we were IS at the time) and it just petered out. No one seems to care.

One thing about this unit is that they play a number of games, not just MechWarriorOnline.

One of my HUGE problems is that I'm a very poor player, so I really do not feel like I can speak up. Plus, I have not been joining the two Quick Play drop nights because in during it, I drop so far back down in my Tier since we are basically playing against 12 Tier 1 players.

So of these players have played together for years so they know each other well. But we never have a plan and even worse, we do not always share what we are doing with others who might have dropped with us. And instead of someone stepping up and being a leader during Faction Warfare, we stayed with ourselves, went with the flow and even talked about using the non-members are meat shields.

Tomorrow we are doing a day of FW and we are Clan so I hope things go well.

The reason I started a 2nd account was so I'd have a Wolf Clan only one for when we are an IS Unit. I joined some others of us who refuse to do the new FW as IS.

P.S. I just noticed we are Clan, time to ice up the hand and get grinding......

Hello there! to the best of my knowledge (and if I'm wrong, someone please correct me), there are two types of ques - solo and group play. Most of the time, this means that if you are going to get into a group que is if you are part of another group. This might be all the time, but I am not 100% certain so am not ready to lay claim to this. I do not wish to spread false information. I do know that when you are in a group, it will match you against tiers of the highest ranked person in your group.

I am Tier 2 (taking forver to get to 1) so when friends group with me, we always end up facing similar skills. There is of course, always the anomaly. The MM fills "holes" with the occasional lower tiered player. But on the average, that's how it works.

One thing I would like to comment on is your feeling that because of your assumed lack of skills, you have no right to speak up. If you feel this way, I would submit that you are in the wrong unit. Anyone who places the importance of someone's opinion based solely on how well they can point a targeting reticle is well, missing out on the entire picture. Unless one is a professional gamer who makes $$$ off of drops or one who has such a huge ego that they cannot stand losing a match here and there, I do not think there is room for that sort of stance. Let's be realistic here - MWO is a game. Sure, the competitiveness runs deep in all of us (this is a shooter, after all), but no one should be devalued because their skills do not yet match up with others. There are people in my unit who are not yet my Tier (or above), but I value their opinion because it is who they are as a person that matters to me most. Indeed, I recently removed a guy from my unit (I won't name names) because after a drop, he was unhappy with how one of the lower tiers played. Instead of talking to him and discussing tactics or offering to help with training, he proceeded to dress them down. I pulled him aside to talk about it and he thought he could get away with being snappy with me. Was he a pretty good player? Yes. Was he a fun person to be around? No. So, he's gone. If you don't feel welcome where you are at, then I would suggest for you to move on.

I wish you the best of luck in finding the right group of people for you to hang out with - a group that will not only help you get better, but one that will also value your input.

[Bahktosh]

@ebins good advise...another problem I have is that im not very tech saavy....every time I put someones TS info in ..I lose the previous persons info and have to go hunting for it..or worse asking for it..which is typically a dead end if they aren't on......I also don't know how to use it properly as far as how the bookmark system works nor does anyone in my house hold ..which is why I prefer discord but no one here uses it.

[Jumping Gigolo]

hello Bakhtosh i always run FW groups. if you are playing in EU primetime you're free to tag along.

[General Solo]

In my opinion too many people think that joining a group is a cure all
Of course groups have advantages

But if you don't look after your personal skill set first, you just gonna be weight for your team to carry

Unfortunately adversity is the best teacha
Get guid in solo and when you join a group you will be an asset and not weight

Having trouble?
I suggest you take down names of people you see regularly in matches doing guid
When there on your team and you die first, Spectate them

See how they play, look at their builds and pay attention to their radar mini map and thus their positioning on a particular map.

This is how I learned to play when I was a little seal, Spectating good players and trying to emulate as best as I could.

Its gunna take work and lots of patience but so long as you keep frustration and expectations at bay, in time you WILL GET BETTER.

As a qik example, when I was seal cub pop tarting was all the rage
This is what the good players did so I tried it too.
At first I was bad and people called me bad things, but I persisted and am now a OK poptarter.

On a final note its a complex game compared to other popular FPS.
You need more than just good aim

But the importance good aim and being able to hit what you want in a shooter game cannot be underestimated
Heaps and Heaps of advantages like less heat, fasta kills, less damage on you etc
Your Mouse settings are important, so adjust lower and monitor your results and adjust again as needed.

Practice and get into good habits

Edited by OZHomerOZ, 13 January 2017 - 11:22 PM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Bahktosh, on 13 January 2017 - 10:20 PM, said:

@ebins good advise...another problem I have is that im not very tech saavy....every time I put someones TS info in ..I lose the previous persons info and have to go hunting for it..or worse asking for it..which is typically a dead end if they aren't on......I also don't know how to use it properly as far as how the bookmark system works nor does anyone in my house hold ..which is why I prefer discord but no one here uses it.

instead of using the connect option to connect directly to that persons server I sugest using the bookmark function, I mostly drop on a single teamspeak but there are a few others I drop on occaisionaly, I have them all bookmarked and I just select from the list of bookmarked servers

here is how I add a bookmarked server on teamspeak
open teamspeak
click on bookmarks
click manage bookmarks
click add bookmark
fill in the details
click apply
repeat the procedure if you want to add any additional bookmarks
click ok

then go back to the bookmarks menu and your new bookmark(s) will show up

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 14 January 2017 - 12:21 AM.

[TooDumbToQuit]

Rogue Jedi, on 14 January 2017 - 12:20 AM, said:

instead of using the connect option to connect directly to that persons server I sugest using the bookmark function, I mostly drop on a single teamspeak but there are a few others I drop on occaisionaly, I have them all bookmarked and I just select from the list of bookmarked servers here is how I add a bookmarked server on teamspeak open teamspeak click on bookmarks click manage bookmarks click add bookmark fill in the details click apply repeat the procedure if you want to add any additional bookmarks click ok then go back to the bookmarks menu and your new bookmark(s) will show up

OMGosh yes, use "manage bookmarks". No way I can remember anything....lol.

[TooDumbToQuit]

Ebins, on 13 January 2017 - 10:35 AM, said:

Hello there! to the best of my knowledge (and if I'm wrong, someone please correct me), there are two types of ques - solo and group play. Most of the time, this means that if you are going to get into a group que is if you are part of another group. This might be all the time, but I am not 100% certain so am not ready to lay claim to this. I do not wish to spread false information. I do know that when you are in a group, it will match you against tiers of the highest ranked person in your group. I am Tier 2 (taking forver to get to 1) so when friends group with me, we always end up facing similar skills. There is of course, always the anomaly. The MM fills "holes" with the occasional lower tiered player. But on the average, that's how it works. One thing I would like to comment on is your feeling that because of your assumed lack of skills, you have no right to speak up. If you feel this way, I would submit that you are in the wrong unit. Anyone who places the importance of someone's opinion based solely on how well they can point a targeting reticle is well, missing out on the entire picture. Unless one is a professional gamer who makes $$$ off of drops or one who has such a huge ego that they cannot stand losing a match here and there, I do not think there is room for that sort of stance. Let's be realistic here - MWO is a game. Sure, the competitiveness runs deep in all of us (this is a shooter, after all), but no one should be devalued because their skills do not yet match up with others. There are people in my unit who are not yet my Tier (or above), but I value their opinion because it is who they are as a person that matters to me most. Indeed, I recently removed a guy from my unit (I won't name names) because after a drop, he was unhappy with how one of the lower tiers played. Instead of talking to him and discussing tactics or offering to help with training, he proceeded to dress them down. I pulled him aside to talk about it and he thought he could get away with being snappy with me. Was he a pretty good player? Yes. Was he a fun person to be around? No. So, he's gone. If you don't feel welcome where you are at, then I would suggest for you to move on. I wish you the best of luck in finding the right group of people for you to hang out with - a group that will not only help you get better, but one that will also value your input.

On another note, "LFG" is a joke. I really wish we had a "friend's chat". I'd like to play with some "Friends", some old ones from the Wolves but it is close to impossible to reach them.

I should say that almost everyone in my Unit has been great. No one has said anything but encouraging things, at least to my face, lol. There were a couple of small incidents. Once on an FW I was trying to get all the PUGs we were with to group up and I was told to be quiet. What bugged me there is I was right. And we were blowing off an Invasion.

I've also heard things during Quick Play about people having to carry me etc. Been a while but I remember it. But if you do not do 1,500 damage, no one listens to you. And back when I would be on other's TS, I've heard them make fun of others. Old rule, they make fun of who is not there.

I was a US Army Officer. I was not athletic, I had poor eyesight (I should not and did not pass the eye tests but I was OKed anyway), had a bad back and knees etc. But I had been reading about the Military and History since I was 4 years old and I was in the woods by age 6-7. I won Cadet of the year at the U of Fl three years in a row which I think is still a record.

So I know a little about a few things.

But the sheer fact that I cannot shoot to save my Mech's life and my poor eyesight will always hurt me here. I played games like Total War, finding and playing this was an odd accident, lol.

This is not Madden NFL and I cannot just run the ball and play good defense.

I should also add that I'm the type of guy would take himself out of a game if there was a better player. I recruited so well one year in College intramurals that I was the 11th best player on my own team. A lot of people were surprised but I did not play much that season which was fine by me, we won 2nd place.

I dream of a much better PC with a better video card, a pair of those new glasses that are supposed to help people that are color blind and a bigger monitor. But dreams are just that, dreams.

Thanks so much for your support!

Edited by LikeUntoGod, 14 January 2017 - 03:59 PM.