31 replies to this topic

[doodooplop]

Hi guys, i suspect this has already been raised a lot but here goes. I have just completed my 6th game out of my 25 cadet games and i am thinking of quitting . Is it not possible to have a tier for new players only once they have reached thier 25th game then they go into the normal tier structure. As new players we are totally out matched by other players we are restricted to test mechs (for want of a better word) which we cannot upgrade. I really like the game but I am getting very bored of being hit by mechs that seem to pop up from no where that dont appear on radar and when i do get into the fight i am totally outmatched and out gunned .

ok gripe over

[Spheroid]

Um did you complete ALL the Academy missions? Its basically five million free c-bills. Also there are two additional ongoing events and a 50% sale. The idea that good equipment is not affordable does not ring true.

Long duration equal battles of attrition are not the norm in any tier of gameplay. However losses and wins should happen at roughly an equal rate over time. You seem very salty for someone only six matches in. Relax.

Edited by Spheroid, 08 February 2019 - 03:22 PM.

[Grus]

Do you mean teir 5?...

[Tarl Cabot]

Tier 5, the lowest tier, is where PGI puts new players/accounts, as well as players who have not been able to move out from tier 5 for a variety of reasons, who are not able to deal out enough damage to actually move up. It can range from medical related issues, running MOW on a potato, to running non-meta/primed mechs/builds. Veterans who create an alt account usually only stay in Tier 5 for a few battles unless they really dork around and do not even try.

Also, OP has completed 12 games now, 4-8 win/loss and a MS 136, only using trial assaults.

PGI should actually prevent new players, or even Tier 5 from using assaults. Assaults can work but primarily when the team works with the assaults, provided the assaults are not fraking up at the beginning. At least this round of trial assaults do not totally suck but they are extremely slow.

The heavies are okay this time around, as are the mediums, and even the lights. Ya know what, I am bowing out. Most of the the trial mechs are actually okay, no LRM boats except for the Catapult. MWO, and even every MW games that has existed had a steep learning curve, no if, and nor buts.

Stay with your team, and keep an eye on the minimap.

COMPLETE THE ACADEMY TRAINING. If need be run through it a few times.

Adjust your in game mouse settings from the far left and move that slider to the far right, to between 0.1 to 0.3. Smooth/acceleration set to zero.

State the specs of your system. Using settings that you would use in other games, especially if high settings is usually detrimental with MWO. F9 to see what your FPS in the upper left corner.

Computer Power Options, set to High Performance. Helps prevent cores being put to sleep.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 08 February 2019 - 05:14 PM.

[Phoenix 72]

Hello Doodooplop, welcome to Mechwarrior Online. There are a number of things that make starting in this game quite difficult. So here I will offer some general advice. If necessary, try to start over with a fresh account, it is not like those 6 games were a huge investment of your time.

First of all, finish the Tutorial. Doing it will net you some 5 million or so cbills, allowing you to have some starting capital. Do it until you get the maximum reward for the racing track. You will need the money. Go out and buy a Crab 27, that is an Inner Sphere medium mech.

https://mwo.smurfy-n...2df145476a608c7

Use this build. Set up the lasers in the body for one mouse button and the lasers in the arms for another mouse button.

Do not play with the Trial Mechs and especially do not use any Light Mechs or Assault Mechs for starters. Both are fairly unforgiving to new players. Medium and Heavy Mechs are somewhat more forgiving. And most Trial Mechs are fairly bad.

The Crab is a really good starting Mech, because it teaches a lot of useful behavior really well. It is not considered meta, but it is really sturdy and - when played correctly - fairly hard to kill. You will want this for the beginning. You will normally not be able to put out amazing damage due to some limitations of the mech, but you will be able to do above average and you will bring some team utility. Here some general information on how to play the mech...



It is a different type of Crab, but the same playstyle applies. The 27 is a little less powerful than the 27B, but it has more utility, which will help getting started until you learn the game.

Edited by Darakor Stormwind, 08 February 2019 - 09:30 PM.

[Koniving]

Tarl Cabot, on 08 February 2019 - 05:10 PM, said:

Tier 5, the lowest tier, is where PGI puts new players/accounts, as well as players who have not been able to move out from tier 5 for a variety of reasons,

Unless something's changed...
https://mwomercs.com...-tiers-and-psr/
Players are seeded into tier 4 to start (so there's room to move down) and over the course of several matches they will wildly jump based on their match score (not damage, not kills, match score; the whole system revolves around match score).

"Eventually the multiplier" drops, so once our new guy is done with a certain number of matches he'll stop wildly jumping between tiers and settle based on his average match score.
By then stuff should get easier for our new guy.

Match score and the PSR system, according to Paul, is less about the stats of the player and instead about "how well they work with a team." Exactly how it is judging that is interesting to the say the least, but since it is possible to get a near 500 match score without firing a single shot while getting 8 kills alone with low damage scores hardly nets 130 match score, there is some credence to it.

(By interesting I mean questionable.)

[Koniving]

doodooplop, on 08 February 2019 - 01:12 PM, said:

Hi guys, i suspect this has already been raised a lot but here goes. I have just completed my 6th game out of my 25 cadet games and i am thinking of quitting . Is it not possible to have a tier for new players only once they have reached thier 25th game then they go into the normal tier structure. As new players we are totally out matched by other players we are restricted to test mechs (for want of a better word) which we cannot upgrade. I really like the game but I am getting very bored of being hit by mechs that seem to pop up from no where that dont appear on radar and when i do get into the fight i am totally outmatched and out gunned .

ok gripe over

Welcome to MWO.

The test mechs tend to vary in quality, but they are all somewhat upgraded already. I think an issue with them is that they are made generally by the community (at least the early ones while later ones seem to be made behind closed doors, presumably by testers) and are typically focused around specific playstyles.. The last part is sort of the issue, as a sluggish shield arm and blast build isn't gonna work for Joe-Run-and-Gun, for example. The fact that the "shield arm" tends to have the armor drastically cut down even discourages newer players from trying to use it as a shield arm due to not knowing that once the arm is gone, any hits that land on the shoulder area near that arm is reduced by 20% in damage before it applies to the side torso.

But, beyond the fallacies there... Here's a short list of extremely affordable (from the get-go) mechs that have very little cost associated with making them work the way you want.

Hunchback: Great torso twist, affordable, and each model can use 2 weapon classes (typically ballistic and laser, missile and laser), though the 4P simplifies everything as energy only (a build I really enjoy is built step by step here using stock engine and stock armor, it can be simplified into 2 firing groups as well. Today it tanks even better than it did back then due to quirks and if you watch the video through you can see it tanks quite a bit). For every one of these, remember to upgrade to double heatsinks. Think of Hunchbacks as walking turrets, yes fast builds can be made but they generally take damage and give damage better than many new player friendly mechs. The arms, while encouraged to be used, are not necessary to learn right away as most of the firepower is in the right torso. As such the mech's abilities will scale up with your skill.

Overall less tanky but much more agile is the Crab. Like above, pop in double heatsinks and you're golden. They already come with a faster stock engine and energy weapons are much lighter than most alternatives. Pulses work best for fast damage delivery in the run-and-gun sort of playstyle, the hit and runs. If you can focus the enemy longer, consider extended range or regular lasers. PPCs are another energy option for something similar to ballistics.

Literally any 55 ton mech, so long as the variant comes with DHS, regardless of the XL engine. Its cheaper to get a mech with an XL engine or DHS than to add it, so while the initial tag might be iffy, the benefits are pretty instant. Yes an XL engine can mean dying by something other than losing two legs, the CT or the head as would be normal... but since most of the trial mechs run XL engines...that won't be anything new. XL engines are half the weight of regular engines, allowing you more options for customizing the machines. (My personal favorite is the Wolverine, but many are partial to the Black Lanner today for understandable reasons; that thing is FAST!!)

Whatever you choose to do, remember the most basic rule: Keep it simple. Good luck out there. Feel free to ask for any help you may think you need in here. In chat you will also find help if you ask early enough in team chat (default key "Y"), don't ask in the middle of combat for obvious reasons.

One more thing.
"E" key in match, plus move the mouse toward "HELP!" Great for emergencies.

Edited by Koniving, 08 February 2019 - 10:07 PM.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

doodooplop, on 08 February 2019 - 01:12 PM, said:

Hi guys, i suspect this has already been raised a lot but here goes. I have just completed my 6th game out of my 25 cadet games and i am thinking of quitting . Is it not possible to have a tier for new players only once they have reached thier 25th game then they go into the normal tier structure.

You're getting a taste what actual games look like. Mind you, you don't fight tier 1 players so expect the gameplay to be slightly more derpy then for the majority of the playerbase.
Having you unranked in tier 5 queue also serves as an indicator where you placement will be. This can't happen if you only fight other unranked players.
I think i got a new account into tier 3 after 25 games. If you're constantly losing you might be placed into tier 5 to give you a more pleasant game experience which reflects on your "skill/knowledge".

[doodooplop]

Thanks for all the advice.

I did complete the academy including all the extras before even playing before playing one game.
I really wanted to be in the heavy/assualt area as that would suit my play style i am a very aggresive in your face kind of player so expect to die quite quickly.

What i did find really annoying was that a lot of the games everyone seemed to be more for themselves and didnt give a toss about team work.

But overall i will keep playing as i have just finished my 25 cadet games i shall probably continue with the trial mechs for now until i decide upon which mech i want. I do know that i favour Ballistic weapons over lasers so if you have any advice on what a good mech would be in assualt/heavy category i would be most grateful

[TheCaptainJZ]

doodooplop, on 09 February 2019 - 03:56 AM, said:

What i did find really annoying was that a lot of the games everyone seemed to be more for themselves and didnt give a toss about team work.

But overall i will keep playing as i have just finished my 25 cadet games i shall probably continue with the trial mechs for now until i decide upon which mech i want. I do know that i favour Ballistic weapons over lasers so if you have any advice on what a good mech would be in assualt/heavy category i would be most grateful

Unfortunately, players do not work together in the low tiers. It doesn't always get better in the higher tiers, truth be told. The best strategy is to stick together as much as possible with mechs of the same weight class or speed. Since you like assaults, try to stay with them.

Getting your own mech and customizing it will greatly improve your success too since you can change the loadouts and add skill points. You get increased rewards for the first 25 matches. Between that and the academy, you should be able to buy any mech with cbills, or pretty close to it.

Koniving, on 08 February 2019 - 09:47 PM, said:

Unless something's changed...

It did, long ago, but I'm too lazy to search for the post. New players got dropped into tier 5 because they were facing too stiff of competition. I think back then they could go up against tier 1 still, plus, as you know, the tiers are designed to eventually force you into 1 or 2.

[Phoenix 72]

doodooplop, on 09 February 2019 - 03:56 AM, said:

I did complete the academy including all the extras before even playing before playing one game.
I really wanted to be in the heavy/assualt area as that would suit my play style i am a very aggresive in your face kind of player so expect to die quite quickly.

...

But overall i will keep playing as i have just finished my 25 cadet games i shall probably continue with the trial mechs for now until i decide upon which mech i want. I do know that i favour Ballistic weapons over lasers so if you have any advice on what a good mech would be in assualt/heavy category i would be most grateful

Well, if you are too aggressive, you will be the first to die, leaving your team down one guy and things will snowball from there. Right now, you produce an average match score of 159. I do not want to be harsh, because that is fairly good for a new pilot, but the average match score in MWO is something like 220-230. If you produce less, you are a drag on your team's performance. So you will want to produce more, which will go hand in hand with being less aggressive. Especially if your Mechs do not allow for it.

You will want to get out of Trial Mechs as quickly as possible. Because not only are the builds often not quite optimised, but also because you do not earn skill points in them. Skill points make a lot of different a mastered Mech is much more powerful than one without skills. For example, it is not uncommon to have a mastered Mech that will produce 10% less heat while shooting, allowing you to shoot 10% more before overheat, shooting 10% faster for a 5% longer range, while having 15% more armour than the base version and 10% quicker heat removal. So you are less powerful in a Trial Mech than you are in the same Mech if you owned it.

As far as suggestions go, we would need more information to help out. Some sturdy Mech are Crab and Bushwacker among the Mediums, Roughneck, Orion on the Heavy side. However, they take different systems to play well, so what kind of Ballistics are you looking for? LBX? AC? UAC? RAC? Long range, short range? Peeking gameplay or sustained gameplay?

[doodooplop]

1. Something that can take damage
2. Solid shot weapons AC/UAC
3. Medium to Close
4. Sustained fire
5. Some Missle Protection
6. Clan or IS no preference
7. Assualt or Heavy

[Horseman]

doodooplop, on 09 February 2019 - 06:25 AM, said:

1. Something that can take damage
2. Solid shot weapons AC/UAC
3. Medium to Close
4. Sustained fire
5. Some Missle Protection
6. Clan or IS no preference
7. Assualt or Heavy

Mad Cat MK II B is basically THE dakka boat to look to. It may be a tad expensive at 14.5 million C-Bills (and then another couple million to refit it with the right weapons), but my god it KICKS SO MUCH ***...

Edited by Horseman, 09 February 2019 - 07:52 AM.

[Phoenix 72]

Not sure whether I agree that the MadCat is sturdy, because it is fairly easy to literally disarm, but it does fit the rest of his requirements. I have whipped up a build that should cover the rest of his requirements.

https://mwo.smurfy-n...2900b7b7a4cf630

Although you would probably be better off dropping the AMS and putting in more ammo and maybe another heatsink.

[doodooplop]

I have purchased the Madcat MKII B I now have 8 Million left to play around with for upgrades and 52250 xp to use

[Horseman]

The meta build uses 2xUAC5+2xUAC10. Personally I prefer 2xUAC10+2xLB10X.

This is the build I'd put on with the stock engine: https://mwo.smurfy-n...49cee6ac39a0b94
My own loadouts downgrade the engine for extra ammo: https://mwo.smurfy-n...e4f1afb7e13ec2a

Edited by Horseman, 09 February 2019 - 10:56 AM.

[Phoenix 72]

Well, enjoy the MadCat... This Mech using the builds above is considered Meta, meaning it is among the most powerful combinations out in the game right now, if played correctly...

If you do not average at least 250 match score in that Mech, you are doing something fundamentally wrong.

Feel free to come back and talk to us again should that prove to be the case.

[Koniving]

doodooplop, on 09 February 2019 - 03:56 AM, said:

Thanks for all the advice.

I did complete the academy including all the extras before even playing before playing one game.
I really wanted to be in the heavy/assualt area as that would suit my play style i am a very aggresive in your face kind of player so expect to die quite quickly.

What i did find really annoying was that a lot of the games everyone seemed to be more for themselves and didnt give a toss about team work.

But overall i will keep playing as i have just finished my 25 cadet games i shall probably continue with the trial mechs for now until i decide upon which mech i want. I do know that i favour Ballistic weapons over lasers so if you have any advice on what a good mech would be in assualt/heavy category i would be most grateful

For that sort of playstyle in assault or heavy... I suggest either a 75 or 85 ton mech, such as the Orion, Marauder, Orion IIC, Marauder IIC, Battlemaster or Stalker.

For bull rushes my preference is the Stalker. Keep in mind minor torso twisting of maybe 20 degrees can easily sway damage from left to right torsos and spread it out, but enemies above or beside you present a problem.. Its turning ability is lackluster and its torso twist speed is for the birds. What it does excel at, provided you're using a standard engine, is tanking insane amounts of damage, far more than it should, due to huge side torsos that once destroyed reduce incoming damage over a wide area by 20%, and in the arm area if the side torso is gone, if hit the damage is reduced by 40%. While you shouldn't rely on this, it does help when four or five enemies are shooting at you from all sorts of angles.

This said you still shouldn't bull rush, but at the very least, if you gotta do it you might as well do it right. The variants 3F and 3F2 have the best torso twist, the 5S I believe has the twin AMS, the 5M has the most missile hardpoints... and the others have their quirks.

I'm sure most would prefer you do fairly well before going that route, learning the importance of positioning and other skills. Just be aware that you should not chase lights.


Regardless of what you see me do with it. (Seriously though, don't chase lights. Scare them off, let the mediums and heavies handle it. Of course they need to know first.)

[Koniving]

(Note I didn't give a complete list, there's also several other 75 tonners, as long as the weapon loadout isn't purely energy-based, any 75 tonner will work. The reason a pure energy build won't work is if you overheat while charging, you're dead or you become a time bomb. So other 75 tonners do exist and any of them will work with the only exception, today, being the Black Knight.)

[Tarl Cabot]

Koniving, on 08 February 2019 - 09:47 PM, said:

Unless something's changed...
https://mwomercs.com...-tiers-and-psr/
Players are seeded into tier 4 to start (so there's room to move down) and over the course of several matches they will wildly jump based on their match score (not damage, not kills, match score; the whole system revolves around match score).

snip

It was changed after that Sept 2015 FAQ, all new accounts would start in Tier 5 with Dec 2015 road map.

Quote

December Road Map confirms that new players will start at T5.

"Change to PSR Tier for new players
With the expected influx of new players through Steam we have adjusted the starting PSR value for new players down from Tier 4 to Tier 5 status. This should help new players with the initial learning curve, and allow them to settle into their initial skill level. "
https://mwomercs.com...ember-road-map/

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 09 February 2019 - 05:05 PM.