44 replies to this topic

[General Solo]

This thread is for Solo Queue, a real Keep it simple 1o steps and rock it type of deal coz info overload is a thing.

When u get guid @it, groups aint a big change as you will have a large arsenal of skills to complement your group play.

The reverse often is not true. Go to a solo match expecting the same level of cooperation...Mmmmmm!!!

I'll start from IMO the ezest and most bang for your buck.

Tip One:Don't Die

Good advice from the church of Skill. Can't make an effect if your dead!!!!!!
aka: being Right by Yourself is worse than being wrong wid 11 guys shooting the same target!!!!!!!!!!!! You ever see the EMPra's finest make a sacrifice plays apart from sacrificing red sticky Doritos, I think not.

TLDR: Do 50 damage a minute, in 10 minutes you have 500 damage. If you dead after 1 minute you only do 50 damage.

Follow wid the random/stupeed

Tip Two:Aim is Important

Every time you miss, you double your heat, you risk yourself without gain, tactical missing aka suppression is ok, I mean better than having cold guns!!!!!!
Taking care to aim for the same component means you kill that guy in 2 shots not 5.

Put Effort into your aiming, the results are huge and less heat

Tip Three :Spread Damage

Your mech has a lot of Armour!!!!! But its not a single pool of armour, so you need to present the enemy with your strongest side and swap to the next strongestside as armour is depleted. When weak use team mates armour to shield you, stay alive STEP1 to continue making an effect.

Use all your armour to live longer

Tip Four :Gauge your teams Quality

In solo queue this is one of the most important skills as it detemines your strategy.

Moi stratergies , use or make up ur own all guid.
Bad team unwilling: meatshield strategy ( If it helps carry you get moar CBills )
Half team Lerm boats: poke and meat shield strategy. ( If it helps carry you get moar CBills )
Novice team but Willing: Herd Cats, guide, kill by example and support strategy
Decent guys: Make calls kill stuff strategy
Guid Pilots: Follow the pain train and weapons impacts (aka laser beams) strategy

Your teams merits or lack of should guide your actions/tactics/stratergies FTW.

Tip Five:Gauge your enemies Quality,

Over time you will recognize indicators of the enemy teams quality such as weaker teams are split and scattered, Reds who turn tail when their teams engaged is an other one.
Weaker opponents allow you to be bolder and employ risker stratergies and tactics that will get you clobbered against guid playas.

Be Bold against the weaker teams and play safe against stronger teams.

If the enemies making a mistake, don't interrupt them.


Tip Six:Shoot your team mates target,

Lots of advanatages, you may accidently Focus fire/kill secure-steal and decrease the TTL of enemy mechs. WIN, WIN, WIN

Don't wait for a call!!!!
You see a red mech being shot, add your fire to it asap if you have a firing solution and the heat to spare.
So many times I see guys just watch like their waiting for something, like a call.

Edit:
You don't need no feekin call to shoot an enemy mech in the same CT your team mate/s are already shooting.

Every time you don't shoot at a team mates target is an opportunity missed for a quick kill.
Edit: which leads to winning less.


Tip Seven:Change mechs/playstyle when not doing so good

Ask yourself why your doing not so good, why your dieing, doing poor damage or other wise under performing.
You cant change your team directly, but you can change yourself to counter the current environmental trends and patterns
For example

- Keep getting tight maps like Solaris City - Bring a brawler, something to filll choke points with lead, RAC, MRM, UAC's etc
- Keep getting open maps like Alpine - Bring a long ranged poker or narc/lermer
- lots of assault mechs, they are good narc bait or a light back stabber
- lots of lights mechs, bring streaks or front loaded pin point weapons like gauss,ballistics, ppc's, boated small pulse and med pulse
- Team mates hanging back - hang back with them and use them as a distraction while you shoot their targets.
- etc etc etc

Repeating the same thing thats not working is dumb so change it up


Tip Eight:Keep your work rate high
The more you shoot, the more damage you can do.Simple.
Shoot twice as often as the enemy means you have twice the damage output potiental

Even a miss whilst not ideal can shape the enemies actions to your advantage.
Work more then the enemy usually means win more too.

SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT, Aka Run Hot or Die

Tip Nine:Poke/Peek/Trade when your team mates poke/peek/trade.
Poking simultaneously (in unison) with team mates increases your chances of doing damage without recieving damage.

For example:
-One mech pokes - 100% chance of being singled out and focused by incoming fire.
-Two mechs poke - 50% chance of each mech being singled out and focused by incoming fire.
-Three mechs poke - 33% chance of each mech being singled out and focused by incoming fire.
-etc, etc, etc,etc ,etc ,etc, etc, etc
-Twelve mechs poke - 8% chance of each mech being singled out and focused by incoming fire.

50% is a lot less than 100% chance of being rekt....Rioght!!!!!

Poking simultaneously means you present the enemy with a target rich environment and reduce the risk of incoming fire singling out any one blue mech whilst creating an opportunity to focus fire an enemy mech.


Tip 1o :Minimise risk/Maximise Benefit

Do things that provide most benifit with the least risk.
Some tips to minimise risk are:

-Avoid 1v1 fights - unless theirs a skill/mech mis-match you will get badly damaged even if you kill the enemy.
-Avoid fighting against more than one mech by your self - see above .
-Seek to gang up on isolated/distracted enemies.
-Give Yolo mechs a quick death and your team a quick kill lead.
-Use mech lab to make mechh builds to maximize strengths and minimized risks aka situational mech builds vs independent mech builds.
-Adjust your playstyle to suit your mech and its current build.
-Attack the enemies weak side (Mech/flank) not its strong side.
-When your mech is rekt and your teams going to win any way avoid getting killed for no good reason...Ma Stats Mang
-Stay with your team (Check your mini map often)

EDIT: Tip 11 :Use Terrian Masking

Terrian blocks LOS
Terrian is 100% weapon proof to LOS weapons and provides protection from indirect weapons.
Terrian makes the enemy guess where you are and conceals you.

______________________________________________

In Summary these are the tips I live by when not derping around have given me reasonable effectivness in Solo Queue and I hope they help you too.

Please add stuff if u want but if you can keep it simple and short that would be great.
No negging, peer review and stuff

Keeping it in the just the TIP format would satisfy moi OCD, thanks

Did I say 1o ..doh!!!!!! (Edit: Its done)

Edited by General Solo, 04 June 2021 - 01:52 AM.

[Tier5ForLife]

1) I like the Don't Die. And at least don't die first. This game has a snowball effect. The other team will now find it easier to get a two on ones. MWO is not about one on ones, it is about finding and making two and three on ones.

2) A friend Heavy Cavalry once said something that I wish would stick with me more. He said to wait until the enemy is worn down before you assault them.

For me, that means do not attack that Atlas at the beginning of a match. And do not expect any enemy mech early in the game to "be alone".

3) The idea of going wide and jumping on the enemy's base believe it or not has been tried before. 1) Don't do it. 2) If you do, make sure you have all the extra capture bonuses. 3) If you do it, wait until the enemy is far away from their base. 4) Do it with another teammate or two. A trick here is to only have one of you sit on their base while the others hide fooling them into only sending one guy back.

4) If you are scouting, scout. That does not mean shooting at the enemy from 1200m away. Now they know you know where they are. And they know where you are. That is not what a scout does. Likewise do not jump really high to see if you can see the enemy or shoot wildly in the air like it is a wedding in Iraqi.

5) Follow the Patriot's motto. Do your damn job. Which also means do not do someone's else's.

6) If you see a teammate way out of position and it looks like he is going to get killed. Do not go to help him. Then your team will be down 2 mechs.

7) Do simple math. Chances are your 55-ton mech is not going to take down a 90 ton one. And your 90-ton mech is going to lose to 3 enemy mechs.

8) If you are with a good group of players that seems to know what they are doing and you are attacking, do not stop or worse, back up. Trust in each other and move forward allowing the guys behind you to add their firepower.

9) If you are poking and/or moving, it is OK to get behind someone (he might be moving up and or forward) but if you do, watch his feet and be ready to move backward faster then he does.

10) Try to stay together (duh) and use all 12 members of your team. Don't just blow off one or two others.

11) Don't be the jerk who says "well, at least I did 1100 damage when your team loses or you die. In fact, don't say it at all. Anyone that cares to look can find your score.

12) Play for the win and not just for damage but doing both is great.

13) Try to make the others with you better. And move with them to get advantageous situations.

On the other hand, don't screw or piss on your buddies. (I got that from a Lt Col I knew from Kentucky) In other words, don't do something stupid and mess your team up.

14) Do what you do best. I make the mistake of trying to play every weight class. I know some very good players who 90% of the time only play one weight class. Sometimes you want to find what you are good at and stick with it.

15) If you are narcing, do not start narcing when your team is 1300m away. Start when they are 500-700m away.

16) Never play depressed and as Bruce Lee said: "don't play tired, it leads to bad habits".

Edited by LikeUntoBuddha, 09 September 2018 - 02:52 PM.

[Tier5ForLife]

I was very tired when I wrote the above and I forgot a very important thing.

1) GET A MIC: There is no excuse for not having one. I have one of those fancy headsets but it is heavy and hot (I live in Florida and I had to add an AC to this room just to play this game). Plus, I spent years taking care of my mother in her last years and I had to stay there 98% of the time and I had to be able to hear her or if someone was at the door or a number of things. I started playing Everquest/EverCrack and in the end, I was playing 5 accounts on 4 computers.

For over a year after she passed away, I'd still "hear her" calling my name. It was a bit creepy and I just went through a couple of weeks of "hearing" my dog who recently passed.

My headphones are a cheap old set of lightweight Sony headsets. I cannot count the times that my foot etc has caught the cord and yanked it out or I got up quickly and they were pulled off of my head. Yet they still live and work.

When I started playing MWO with a gaming headset I bought I was told that I always had too much feedback. So I looked in a big bag of semi-broken up electronics that I keep. I decided on a 12-year-old dictation mic with the one ear headset. The cushion was gone on the earpiece but the mic still worked. So I used a little bit of tape on it and I first put on my lightweight headset then I put on the Mic over it.

Total cost? Zero.

2) USE THE MIC: Ever notice how often at the beginning of a match someone will TYPE, "press R, and call targets" and that is the last time you hear from this player? (I moved my "find target" to scroll up on my mouse btway)

You do not have to call the match or even to call targets. It is hard to call targets if you are not close to each other and seeing the same thing. I know of a couple of teams that will be on two-three different Teamspeaks channels often doing it by Lance instead of all 12. Plus sometimes the game happens too fast at times. If you have targets popping up and back the target you called is gone. In fact, it is often to even target anything to call a target in such conditions.

However, if you are LRMing with a few other teammates, you SHOULD be calling targets. If you are together, you should be able to hit the same target. And with it being so much harder to get and to hold a missile lock, you really should do it.

And it is not hard. If you are firing on target Alpha just say "Target Alpha", or "Alpha, Alpha, Alpha" if it is a very good target or if it is coming to kill you. There is a very good reason for attacking the same target with 2 to 3 of your teammates. If you have read the books, you might remember that that was the way I.S. Units did it. 3-4 mechs can wreck one mech very quickly. Again in the books, the Clan (who only fought one on one) largely had to change to do it that way.

Wreck one enemy mech quickly and now it is 12-11. And that allows you to get into even move 2 to 3 on 1 attacks. Thus it snowballs.

It is a big mistake to think that a Mic is only for calling targets. If you see an enemy Light coming around one side, tell your team. If you are an assault and under attack from a Light, don't hit "help", get on your Mic and ask for it also saying WHY you need help (I see some people doing it for odd reasons) and where you are.

One reason that a team on Teamspeak does so well is that they talk. Often "little things" like let's go this way or see that enemy mech over there, let's attack him etc.

A talking team is a winning team. But after you leave the dropzone, keep the talk on battle coms.

Edited by LikeUntoBuddha, 15 September 2018 - 03:54 AM.

[Phoenix 72]

Some random advice from me as well.

Do not get mad and cuss out your team. Do not blame the rest of your team. You win together and you lose together. You don't know them and do not know the situation they were in. I have died with 80 damage to my name after being hit twice... Both headshots. In retrospect I am surprised that I survived the first one. Sometimes things just fall that way.

If their performance sucked, don't you think they are aware of it, too? Clench your teeth, type in "gg" and cool off for 2 minutes. Chances are you will not see whoever annoyed you again anytime soon.

Keep classy, guys.

[Eisenhorne]

Darakor Stormwind, on 10 September 2018 - 09:34 PM, said:

Some random advice from me as well.

Do not get mad and cuss out your team. Do not blame the rest of your team. You win together and you lose together. You don't know them and do not know the situation they were in. I have died with 80 damage to my name after being hit twice... Both headshots. In retrospect I am surprised that I survived the first one. Sometimes things just fall that way.

If their performance sucked, don't you think they are aware of it, too? Clench your teeth, type in "gg" and cool off for 2 minutes. Chances are you will not see whoever annoyed you again anytime soon.

Keep classy, guys.

No, they must know, in specific detail, exactly how they have failed to live up to my expectations.

[Tier5ForLife]

[Redacted]

Edited by draiocht, 26 September 2018 - 12:15 PM.
video included inappropriate language

[Phoenix 72]

Eisenhorne, on 12 September 2018 - 07:02 AM, said:

No, they must know, in specific detail, exactly how they have failed to live up to my expectations.

I have never seen anything like that. Most comprehensive I have seen was: "Our Lights suck." "**** Nascar." "**** team!!!"

If I am dead as well, I have been argueing with people when in the mood, but most of the time they curse and disconnect. /shrug Tends to make them look like a kindergarden kid packing up their toys and going home.

[Tier5ForLife]

Here is a decent tip. Learn to say "STRIKE OUT".

That means you just threw an Air or Arty Strike out.

Now the rest of your team knows that they have to wait 5 seconds before they can drop one. I personally sometimes take damage by launching a Strike. And when I go up to do one and someone takes it way, that sucks. So it helps you and your team if everyone says "STRIKE OUT".

And it makes you...USE YOUR MIC!

Edited by LikeUntoBuddha, 15 September 2018 - 03:52 AM.

[General Solo]

Finished the list...enjoi

[Roland09]

Tier5ForLife, on 09 September 2018 - 02:41 PM, said:

16) Never play depressed and as Bruce Lee said: "don't play tired, it leads to bad habits".

This, so much. I can't count how often I violated this rule, to my teammate's dissatisfaction.

[Kubernetes]

Great advice!

I'll add some tips for trading:

1) Don't poke from pre-focused positions. If you take a peek and multiple mechs are pointed your way, find a different spot. Displace immediately if multiple mechs start answering your pokes. Likewise, if you see a team mate's position getting hammered by multiple enemies, don't walk up and join him in that spot.

2) Expose to one mech at a time. If you are poking around a corner or over a hill, shoot the first enemy you see (i.e. the guy at the edge of their formation). I know it's tempting to expose further in search of the juiciest target, but that's how you get hosed by multiple enemies.

3) Own the tempo. In a 1v1 trading situation, you want to shoot before your opponent, and then twist/fade as he shoots. You always want to be a half-step ahead in tempo. If it ends up the other way and he owns the tempo, displace and try somewhere else.

[Mercie of the Harii]

[Redacted]

Edited by draiocht, 26 September 2018 - 12:35 PM.
impersonating another individual, replies removed

[Jet Black Dog]

OZHomerOZ, on 09 September 2018 - 05:31 AM, said:

Repeating the same thing thats not working is dumb so change it up

That one really stood out to me, though they are all good...
I'd been thinking of making a post "best advice I can give new players" ( which is, to post the extra credits episode: the joy of losing. Much of the video, like much like what you said, can translate to " complain less/ adapt more" ( my forum sig for.. how long?)
Given the whole section on play with the team, not what you think would do better ( even when you're right) I have a feeling we'd be on the same page that: what separates alot of the ' good ' from ' really good' is the failure to get over their ego and 'complain less/adapt more" ( cue video on Dunning–Kruger effect )

I've become fond of saying " The Rock Says: Know Your Role"; I try to humorous re-inforce lessons, and and a good number of your tips touch on this. Sun Tzu said know yourself and your enemy, some say rock-scissor-paper, i say it's a team game, work as team, even in casual play. And the rock says it funnier

Resource Management : lots of good tips on that. Heat, ammo, time ( TtK! ), armor, even intel on positions - are all resources, I see them squandered frequently.
I found, when doing the "Hail from the ReSeRVes new player training unit!", one of the key suggestions was to tell them until you know the maps, choose a " baddle buddy" or wingman ( later we can go over echelon, as an extension) - I found the newer player gets not only the benefits of battle-buddy/wingman - they both do - but it's a natural master/apprentice role ( without telling them , some people are sensitive ) that allows them to learn moving and maps withotu giving them yet another thing to worry about when, the game is so overwhelming at the beginning. Good positioning is key, but is learned slowly - and hopefully , thus, less painfully.

...I was drawn by the previous post.. will the real Mercie, please stand up? - but I'm fine with it other than, secret raven man; I never said "disappointing" or "mutiny" - I try to avoid dirty laundry & keep it classy publicly ( until i slam down much later with my version of anon's " we still run this"). I Fear the wrath of puff adder #9! Save meee

Mercie, the character https://imgur.com/a/IsS5mgN ; having done the mwo version of slaying the skyrim dragon, has retired to Griffin base , at the end of MW:4 mercs, and the player, only runs friend's alts who can't play, when I can, for events.
This fellow is the point of contact for the ReSeRVes new player training 'boot camp':
OZHomerOZ, I'd think you this fella should be in touch:

Omwyfiz, on 20 September 2018 - 11:14 PM, said:

Hello all,

I am the current commander of the ReSeRVes and i would like to announce the ReSeRVes discord: https://discord.gg/Ww4NtGF
I plan on being available every Saturday, for most of the Saturday, for training purposes. A training day, if you will.

Those who are not officially in the ReSeRVes are welcome to come and partake!

If it happens to be Saturday, and nothing seems to be going on, check the announcements and see if we are training on a different voice server. (Or it might be too early and i'm still asleep, i'll make an announcement when i get on in the announcements channel)

It should also be known that i do not view the ReSeRVes as being mutually exclusive, if you want to be a cadet, but also want to be a part of another unit i do not have a problem with that.

And if you want to be a cadet, or want know more about anything, to feel free to message me, i'll try to log in on the forums often but discord is probably the fastest way to contact me.

Edited by Mercie, 26 September 2018 - 02:47 PM.

[Steel Raven]

Tier5ForLife, on 10 September 2018 - 11:17 AM, said:

1) GET A MIC

2) USE THE MIC

Communication helps big time.

[Void Angel]

Tier5ForLife, on 14 September 2018 - 07:02 PM, said:

Here is a decent tip. Learn to say "STRIKE OUT".

That means you just threw an Air or Arty Strike out.

Now the rest of your team knows that they have to wait 5 seconds before they can drop one. I personally sometimes take damage by launching a Strike. And when I go up to do one and someone takes it way, that sucks. So it helps you and your team if everyone says "STRIKE OUT".

And it makes you...USE YOUR MIC!

I have never heard anyone but me say that - but I can endorse the practice. =)

[Jet Black Dog]

Well, I'd like to move this thread to back on subject;
and i felt like OzHomerOz's OP was so excellent, it kept me from posting something similar. You can "same page check" my responses / advice, previously in thread.
I think perhaps the best advice I could give anyone - and not just new players, I found in a series that was required watching when I was in game dev college: this - which, i'll paraphrase as" complain less/ adapt more":


[Redacted]

Edited by Mercie, 26 September 2018 - 11:36 PM.
redaction reference. off-topic

[MischiefSC]

Every time you drop in a QP match, you're in a team of 12. Even if your teammates don't play like a team, you always should. Always. Keeping teammates alive when possible and taking manageable risks increases your odds of winning. Even if it's just letting your teammate get another 60, 80, 150 damage out, that may be the damage that lets someone else secure that kill.

Teamwork is what wins matches. If your team is going a direction you stick with the team. Focus who your team focuses. Try to keep your team alive and try to work with the team.

If you're reading anything in this forum you're not good enough to go off alone and snipe/backstab/whatever solo yolo behavior you think is a good idea. Going off alone leaves you vulnerable to being caught out by groups of fast mechs or isolated or just leaving your team a man down, letting the enemy focus 11 v 12 and wreck them, resulting in you maybe having a big higher score but your team losing. Stick with your team. Even if your team isn't showing good teamwork one person displaying teamwork can cause a turnaround. Most the matches you lose will be lost because more people on the other team used teamwork. This swings more matches than mechs, weight, tonnage differences, skill gaps and the like combined.

Another critical piece -

Your memory is a dirty dirty liar. Because of how your brain prioritizes information what you THINK works may not actually work. What you REMEMBER working probably doesn't work that well regularly. The leaderboard is an honest representation of what the results have been. If you're losing a lot then what you're doing isn't winning matches. Just because this one time in band camp this one wonky build worked for you doesn't mean it's a good build. One-off situations are just that. One-off.

Finally -

META. You'll likely hear people talking about the 'meta'. Like it's some hack or trick or whatever. Some people act like they buck the 'meta' because they're rebels and they do it their own way!

None of those people are successful and having them on your team increases your odds of losing.

Here's what the 'meta' is.

Most
Effective
Tactic
Available

Many of us have played thousands, even tens of thousands of matches. The best performers, the people who have consistently been the most successful, work out what works best. What works best is.... what works best. The smartest decision new players can make is to get good at the things that already work good - the meta. Once you understand how and why those things work best you can then apply your own flavor to that and still do really well. However if you're never great with the meta you'll never be good at the game. What works is what works and it works for a reason. When you have a good command of that you have the foundation you need to be good at other things.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Above all else, try to have fun... this is a game (and games are meant to be fun). When it stops being fun, take a break...

[General Solo]

Thanks for the bumps guiz

[General Solo]

Mercie, on 25 September 2018 - 10:13 AM, said:

Well, I'd like to move this thread to back on subject;
and i felt like OzHomerOz's OP was so excellent, it kept me from posting something similar. You can "same page check" my responses / advice, previously in thread.
I think perhaps the best advice I could give anyone - and not just new players, I found in a series that was required watching when I was in game dev college: this - which, i'll paraphrase as" complain less/ adapt more":


[Redacted]

I really liked the video
Coz its kinda how I think
gg