71 replies to this topic

[John Bronco]

All mechs have the same role - killing enemy mechs.

And people ignore objectives because 99% of the time games are won by killing enemy mechs.

[Gen Lee]

Something that might help is not running mechs that move below 45kph. You can't always expect lights to stick with the rest of the team, because some are spotters or capping. From your post, it sounds like you run assaults a good bit, and you're being left behind.

[K O Z A K]

Most of what you described comes down to people being selfish. Qp is the mode for selfish play culminating in nascar (sacrifice your teammates for some free shots), and despite many trying over the years it's not going to change. If you want team play there's FP, GQ and comp

[Burning2nd]

more the reason there should be a free for all quick play

[Alexandra Hekmatyar]

Hazeclaw, on 04 January 2019 - 09:57 AM, said:

If you want team play there's FP, GQ and comp

If you're premade since most of the pugs or pug duo's act like they are in solo drop quick play.
And even then there were also a lot of premades that never had good teamwork even if you tried hard to get that train going.

[K O Z A K]

Alexandra Hekmatyar, on 04 January 2019 - 10:14 AM, said:

If you're premade since most of the pugs or pug duo's act like they are in solo drop quick play.
And even then there were also a lot of premades that never had good teamwork even if you tried hard to get that train going.

I find on average people that que up for FP tend to have a much more team oriented mindset than solo qp. Even when I solo drop FP usually at least half the team is at least trying to work together, you're also bound to have a bunch of small groups, and nascar is punished by respawns. In solo qp it's like players intentionally try to screw over their teammates a lot of drops. I dunno, maybe just my subjective observation

[John Bronco]

Source Mystic, on 04 January 2019 - 09:31 AM, said:

Thank you for contributing your opinion and nothing more captain obvious

Yes you win by killing together in a organized manner. The difference is I want a organized tactical murder ball that understands their roles and how they compliment each other. not 11 Rambo idiots that just want to shoot their weapons for thirty seconds or less then die.

Now do you have anything constructive to say that is part solution to the abysmal state of quick play (pug-dumb) that was a deliberate pun and play on words not a misspelling.


If not thanks for playing what I am looking for is solutions and ideas not dead opinions that make nothing better.

The solution is playing witha team captain dipshit, which of course you will never be getting in solo queue.

[Iron Heel]

BlaizerP, on 04 January 2019 - 10:23 AM, said:

The solution is playing witha team captain dipshit, which of course you will never be getting in solo queue.

There are solo queue drops where a person or two will try to wrangle the heard of cats into a team by stating the obvious, "stick together, call your targets, focus fire" etc..
I'd say more than 60% of the time these efforts will result in a win.
The rest of the time you'll be ignored or get crickets over coms while watching your assaults split up & your team spread out in 3 directions, oh and dont forget the guy in the 100 ton mech who decided to go walk his dog while waiting for the drop.
Try to be the guy who takes the command.. but remember
Welcome to solo queue.
Can't win em all.

Edited by Iron Heel, 04 January 2019 - 10:48 AM.

[OrmsbyGore]

Source Mystic, on 04 January 2019 - 08:31 AM, said:

Pug drops are is such a bad state right now I have been trying different build and strategies to play a well no mater who I have on my team. It is still bad , what here are biggest problems ?

1. Nascaring just leaves your assaults behind the get eaten by the other team then you loose ( stop doing this. Stand you ground focus fire move as a group.)

2. Players not playing there roles assaults push and tank damage some are not the point of the spear some are edge assaults that pull right behind the tank and share some armor but there job is to do massive damage not be primary tank on the assault side players hide and do not torso twist.

3 On the light side and medium side they ignore the team and Rambo it alone till they die throwing assaults and heavy's under the buss. I am tired of seeing in the first 30 seconds a light screaming for help. because they put themselves in the path of the entire enemy team.

4. Not playing objectives . In pugs every match is played as it is skirmish


5. Team unity or lack there of the team splits up and dies because the other team did not and murder balls a partial team.

6. Not looking at radar , not locking targets , not focusing fire on weakness or same targets , not killing priority targets first assaults then heavy's and down the line from there

7. Not assisting assaults or lrm boats this is big one and properly outfitted lrm boat with tag and assistance can cripple the enemy and in a push if brawler and lrm work together it is devastating.


8. Conditioned repetitive playing the same way on same maps no mater what .... a sure way to loose is being predictable and there are awesome parts of maps that are never used you can chose where you fight and it is better if you do.

9. Jumping out first around a corner engaging multiple targets by yourself

10 Jumping in from of a slow assault that has great damage and blocking him from doing alot of damage so you can get off a 30pt alpha .... do not block someone else's line of fire everyone should be shooting targets.

I could go on and on pugs are not all that enjoyable right now but I have a solution and it starts with things getting worse before it gets better.


So what is the solution above from doing the exact opposite of the above problems.

First assaults and heavy's stay together assist each other
ignore all lights that are off lone-wolfing it that is not with the team let get thrown under the bus and left to die

Second learn murder ball and is the entire team moving at a somewhat slower speed assault speed and heavy's mediums and lights satellite around that area so that the entire team can engage and focus targets targets

When turning a corner drop a uav then fan out so everyone can fire and hit targets around the corner.


Buddy up with builds similar to yours you a srm brawler get with another srm brawler or get with with someone with 3 heavy machine guns that can make that core damage count by by being a crit boss. lights swarm in 2s or 3s or 4s or when the team engages. Damage multiplier are real. lights can do a tremendous amount of damage is the work as a group get in get out move to the next target.

Protect your lrm boats spot and give them some time to soften up the other team then when they team pushes the lrm boat should push aggressively taging and focusing targets.

Slow down ...seriously that is a big one wait to make a good decision instead of rushing into a bad one

Make good trades ! if i do more damage to you than you do to me that is a good trade, if you do more damage to me than I do to you that is a bad trade if I do damage no matter how much or little and you do no damage to me that is a free trade that is the best trade. look for the free trades and wait for someone to come over a hill or around a corner

Go from cover to cover and stay out of the open especially if there is 2 or more mechs.

When to push when not to push wait till on or two mechs are dead and your team has numbers unless you have a really aggressive team that is experienced that can focus with precision.

Everyone must push together focus together to win.

If it is assault push there base or defend yours

If it is conquest lights and fast mediums cap only
assaults and heavy's hold a point between two denying access to them
and drag the game out with out taking damage till your score is doubled when it is push in and kill them that strategy maximizes the chance you will win by ether cap or killing everyone.

Support those that are supporting the entire team by staying in formation and ignore those that are not supporting team . the only exception to this rule is if you haev a lance of fast mediums and lights attacking priority targets push in and help them ...... but the lights and mediums have to stay in reasonable range for that to happen.


Know your role know what you are built for and play that role lights and fast mediums watch flanks and delouse assaults if the are getting focused ...... assaults put you back to a wall and protect that squishy backside and the second you see a incoming light ask for assistance and give a grid so your team can help you torso twist and try to hit them yourself till they get to you.

assaults push when you have the advantage and let everyone know where you are pushing too .


lastly use what you have if you have a lrm boat on mining collective and your playing skirmish do not go middle skirt the outside and draw the enemy in where the lrm can soften them up. wasting a player that could be asset is another reason loss happens.

There are no bad maps just bad strategies and poorly executed plans
explore the maps in the testing grounds you will find areas that you can use differently depending on if you have brawler or lrms or slow moving lot of assaults. utilize the maps and chose where then enemy will fight you. if there is problematic areas like idiot mountain on polar highlands where lights can get up and snipe you but you can not shot them stay away from those areas . you can chose where you fight just stop mindlessly going to the center of all the maps.

On top of that the disconnects and afk in pug play are a every game thing now. I think that is happening because people want c-bills but the do not want to play for them so they enter a game disco or go afk to get the c-bills for winning or losing free so to speak . Pgi should make it so disco and afk mechs can be taken over by the first person that dies it would not fix the problem but it would lesson the impact of it some. you would also have to make it so suicides or out of bounds deaths could not do this.


That is about it. My experience with pugs has made me play totally differently and I kind of look at it now as a stress test to see how well builds do by themselves. It is the reason I created my own unit P.O.L.R. path of least resistance and will focus more on faction warfare in the future.

I also think pgi should do an event that focuses on playing roles so that the new players can see what this game actually is and start playing it like a cooperative team based game instead of a arena shooter.

In my opinion every mech is a support mech they just support the team in different roles.
If you are not fulfilling your support role you are failing your team

It would also be nice if their was a matchmaker currently the mwo population is so small tier 5 (beginners) are thrown in with tier 1 (experts) this is never good situation and just causes newer players to leave in frustration witch just compounds the problem.


Good luck and have fun


P.S. P.O.L.R. will be accepting recruits soon

all good points/ideas, but the people who benefit the most from this aren't going to log in and read the forums to find out how to improve. What the game needs is a tutorial that actually teaches you how to play, and doesn't let you pilot weight classes whose particular skill set you have not mastered yet.

[General Solo]

Hazeclaw, on 04 January 2019 - 09:57 AM, said:

.............................. (sacrifice your teammates for some free shots).............................................

TOTALLY WRONG - NASCAR IS:
Sacrificing your random very possibly not very skilled teammates FOR THE WIN

How is that selfish.

Winners get paid more CB, even the sacrificial winners. Mechs for the Mech Guid

Random Dead Opinion

Edited by OZHomerOZ, 04 January 2019 - 06:02 PM.

[LordNothing]

if you dont like nascar go to fp. it hardly ever happens there. in qp just bring a fat engine, dont run anything slower than 64kph and dont afk.

Edited by LordNothing, 04 January 2019 - 06:25 PM.

[General Solo]

Source Mystic, on 04 January 2019 - 08:31 AM, said:

10 Jumping in from of a slow assault that has great damage and blocking him from doing alot of damage so you can get off a 30pt alpha .... do not block someone else's line of fire everyone should be shooting targets.

Or worse when its an LRM mech and you can't fire your Dual Heavy Gauss. Well you could but........

My advice to you OP is dont worry about stuff you can't change, so focus on your own performance, get better and the WINS will come.

You can't change other people directly but you can by influence aka get better and maybe do some drop calling when your ready.

Edited by OZHomerOZ, 04 January 2019 - 09:35 PM.

[Knuckles OTool]

The hardest thing about trusting that team mate beside you is that he will either...

1. Turn and run at the sight of more than one enemy exposing his back and either dying or disappearing. same result for you.
2. Fire at the legs, all the torsos and arms of the enemy mech but mostly hit rocks.
3. Walk into your line of fire and then back up straight into you. Odds increase if you are in a ballistic assault.
4. Duck behind you and remove some of your back armor for good measure.
5. Charge straight at the enemy exploding in a fiery blast of 20 tons of machine gun ammo. Leaving an arty at your feet is optional.
6. Shoot the enemy in a vital spot and help mitigate damage.

If you dont know the guy you may as well roll the dice as it is often even odds.

It's the solo queue life and herding cats isnt always possible.

[Y E O N N E]

Hazeclaw, on 04 January 2019 - 09:57 AM, said:

Most of what you described comes down to people being selfish. Qp is the mode for selfish play culminating in nascar (sacrifice your teammates for some free shots), and despite many trying over the years it's not going to change. If you want team play there's FP, GQ and comp

When 'Mechs were squishier and more agile, matches became more about trading. Back in 2014 and 2015, most matches had a trading phase and then a cleanup phase.

In 2019, the game is just a brawl rush in every case, even on big, open maps.

[justcallme A S H]

So what is the...

TL;DR ??????????

Cause legit, I did not read that waffle. It's akin to another users 'word soup' where said user bamboolzes most users with just a wall of text without actually making any point, proving any fact and then posts a video from 2012 or something.

Edited by justcallme A S H, 05 January 2019 - 03:12 AM.

[MechWarrior5152251]

There is no such thing as "Tanking Damage". Armor does not regenerate and there is no healing.

[Trevor Devalis]

Personally, I have always felt that mech weight should be restricted by tiers. I know this cannot happen from a player base and a business model. But if tier 5 was restricted to lights until they learned how to pilot and aim while moving, that could be very beneficial. Then tier 4 pilots would have access to mediums and learn how to handle a larger mech. Tier 3 would be allowed to use heavies and by then, maybe have a but more situational awareness and teamwork capability. Tier 2 would finally be able to pilot assaults. By then, they should know how to position and even if not talk to the team, understand the flow of the PUG and adapt and move accordingly. Also, by then, they should have learned how to control that itchy trigger finger and not blame others for shooting them in the back.

Yes, sometimes people move in front of you. But if you expect them to be aware of you and your position, they in turn should expect you to be aware of theirs before committing to an alpha strike. But with this game and its limitations, it is hard to pull that off. I understand that when you have an enemy in your sights, shooting is usually the best thing to do. You cannot account for the faster mech moving in from your blind spot. But remember, if they were chasing down a mech or maybe trying to round the corner to grab a couple of free hits, they might not have seen you either.

Murderball is also situational. I have found I prefer 2 to 4 man groups. We don't get in the way of each others can hold the flank, or spearhead an attack. Too often in PUGs a murderball is just a circle of confusion and back shots. Splitting up can be bad, but again, situationally, it can be good. You just have to learn to read the battlefield and the enemy's movement to decide and just hope your team either understands that too or is open to listening to someone trying to call out a sit rep or movement order.

Also, while many lighter weight players do try to lone wolf it, your call to support assaults only works if they are willing to support the lighter classes too. Assaults that decide to hold a certain line that is not tactically sound or will not move forward at all, or staying in a tight fit area so mediums lights will get torn to shreds by not being able to maneuver is not beneficial. Nascar is annoying. Standing still and forcing lighter mechs to play only on your terms is just as bad. Moving is quite often a key to victory. Just not full speed movement. To counter this, lighter mech players need to learn to use the throttle option on the keypad to place with slower mechs and then break away and move full throttle once the fighting starts. Heavier mechs need to not choose locations that are bad for lighter mechs if you want to stay in a large group. Or communicate that they will support from point A and let the lighter mechs move to a nearby spot, but one more beneficial to them and the fact that speed is their armor.

Focus fire is good. But I hate when people call out targets and get upset if you do not join in. If I have a bigger threat, a better opportunity or am not in a position to hit that mech, I ignore that call. That's the biggest problem with people not trained in being a drop caller is sometimes they just sound off the first mech they see or the mech in their crosshairs and then expect other to follow that. I find i listen to focus fire commands when they say things like out of position, or on their own, or in our back (and I'm light enough to give chase if need be), or out in the open. Then i take advantage of that. But just calling out Charlie or focus Bravo doesn't seem to help much in PUGs. Only exception to that is a big brawl and every enemy mech is in front of your team.

Overall though, can't argue with the post too much. Unfortunately it is maybe too hard to change PUGs and the mindset of it. Too many PUGs are casual and just play for their own fun. They do not want to get better and hate being thrown with competitive players who think the only reason to play is to win. And serious players feel like casual players waste their time. I'm a casual player, but I like to win and work as a team. I do my best even if that is not very good anymore. I still have a right to play the game and I still get paired with those that could care less and with those that think I shouldn't be on. And I think this is the problem with PUGs. Too many random people thrown together in a competitive game with varying ideas of what it is to them: fun, competitive, or something in between.

[justcallme A S H]

^^^^^^

justcallme A S H, on 05 January 2019 - 03:11 AM, said:

So what is the...

TL;DR ??????????

Edited by justcallme A S H, 05 January 2019 - 06:30 AM.

[LordNothing]

Knuckles OTool, on 05 January 2019 - 02:28 AM, said:

The hardest thing about trusting that team mate beside you is that he will either...

1. Turn and run at the sight of more than one enemy exposing his back and either dying or disappearing. same result for you.
2. Fire at the legs, all the torsos and arms of the enemy mech but mostly hit rocks.
3. Walk into your line of fire and then back up straight into you. Odds increase if you are in a ballistic assault.
4. Duck behind you and remove some of your back armor for good measure.
5. Charge straight at the enemy exploding in a fiery blast of 20 tons of machine gun ammo. Leaving an arty at your feet is optional.
6. Shoot the enemy in a vital spot and help mitigate damage.

If you dont know the guy you may as well roll the dice as it is often even odds.

It's the solo queue life and herding cats isnt always possible.

not if you open a can of tuna, or any other meat product for that matter. do that and all the cats in earshot will show up. i wish pugs were that easy to heard.

[lobsterhierarchy]

I think the best thing to do for your pugs is to whittle down targets, and that sounds obvious, but let me explain. In a game the prioritizes kills and not receiving damage, the best thing you can do to win the game and not pad your stats is to sandblast enemies down to CT structure for your puggies, then switch to a new target.

Pugs (and thirsty stat doods) are attracted to one touch CTs like flies to crap. That is the only time I ever see coordination in yolo queue is when one enemy is opened up, half of your team will miraculously discover the W key and push hard to kill that mech and get kill.

Want to win? Open up mechs for your greedy teammates to kill and get that win. Want to lose? Get those better stats and pug shield like the best of em.

Fire and forget. Your pugs will do the rest, being the heat seeking **** missiles that they are