114 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

https://mwomercs.com...64#entry6253064

MW5

http://battletechgame.com
BT

[Rosh87]

Thanks Reznor and Koniving ! (great info and links)

* several additional questions have manifested, and you vets have been helpful, so thought I'd toss them out here again:

1.) First, how do you multi-quote in this forum ? For example, on Gfaqs and other forums, I can pick a sentence or section from Reznor's post...and pop it in here, then type my reply... then further down within this Same message, I can pick a portion of Koniving's info, and comment back to that too, etc.

Here, unless I'm just mistaking the interface, it seems like I cannot quote "sections' of peoples text. When I highlight JUST the sentence or two I want to make appear here, in my reply, via the Quote function, and then hit "quote" it will instead copy EVERYTHING the person said in their post (basically copying the whole post they had made), which is far more than I was trying to reply to. I'm probably just misunderstanding this forum / posting features - if so, apologies for my error


2.) I'm continuing to do relatively well, and have now neared the final part of The Tier-3 "bar". Basically, the progress line is up to the "E" in the word Tier, when you look at your own mech-garage / progress bar. So nearly Tier-2 ! Again...I'm personally kind of shocked that all this has happened since April-7th. It's Mechsanity !

I still have some crappy games - of course - where I get wiped before I can even do 200 damage, or such - but those are when I am in a slow lumbering assault (usually my Annihilators - find it hard to get consistent great games in them, due to 48.6 kph and how the team tends to just bolt away and LEAVE 100-ton Assault Mechs behind, to take fire from 4 or 5 pushing enemies, just a minute or so into a match - instead of standing their ground and blasting those early pushers on the enemy, to give their slowest Assaults time to reach the battle line - and actually help in the ensuing fights !). Frustrating, when it happens, but I take it in stride - as I can't force my team to do helpful stuff for me, of course - lol.

But, I'm also continuing to post excellent matches too. Just today I had 2 more 1000 dmg matches, and a 900 dmg one, plus a just-finished 785 dmg, 3 KMDD's in my Fafnir (was running 4-UAC 5's in a chain-fire pattern, and it was kind of amusing how fast it fired out 5-dmg strikes.

* this makes me want to mention something I've noticed about the game, in my early time with it... That is, when you strike people with just ONE 'blast' - whether Dakka or Energy beams, etc - they react much differently than when you 'plink them' with consistent rapid-hits (from anything). It's quite odd, but I'm guessing it's psychological or something (Human mind reaction).

To carry this on to my Fafnir example...when I was doing the chainfire UAC's for the early part of the battle, I had Bushwhackers, and Warhounds and several other enemy Mechs backing down behind cover after just 3 or 4 of my rapid-fire hits struck them. Later in the fight, one of the final enemy Assaults (a Marauder) pushed around a flank on me, and I was already hurt bad - so I couldn't make much resistance, or flee in time. Instead, I turned off the Chainfire, and began hammering the enemy with consistent "20-damage alphas" of all 4 guns striking him at once. Completely opposite to the earlier "plink, plink, plink plink" fire rate before, I was instead only doing... "PLINK...................PLINK........... PLINK" (you Vets get what I mean) /// The result was that, instead of falling back - the Marauder (and a buddy behind him) just kept walking straight at me - and eventually they brought me down.

Obviously that's anecdotal, and the scenario in the battle may have factored into their push too - but I've seen it elsewhere, in other Mechs and battlefield encounters. If I'm firing on someone with 3 AC-5's... they keep pushing or stand ground / fire back, etc.. IF instead I'm firing at them with 2 or 3 RAC-2's...the rotary gatling guns...they almost Immediately duck for cover - or don't long want to stand and fire back. It's quite fascinating, really


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3.) Given that earlier point, I think I have observed that I have more general weakness with the Laser setups / weaponry, compared to the Ballistic ones. This is why I do great in my Direwolf, Mauler, and Annihilator, but "less great" in most of the Marauder 2- new variants we got - because they are all heavily Energy hardpointed-mechs. I think it is a factor of what I mentioned above.... people just seem to react far differently when you hit them with Laser weapons (most of the time), then when I 'dakka' them.

With the Lasers and such - am I required to hold the beam onto the target for the full time the Beam is on-screen, in order for the target to actually take the damage listed on the screen ? Example - 16 damage from Clan Heavy Large Laser... is that 16 only applied if the beam is on the same area of the target's armor / etc - for the full time ? If they are moving left to right or such, and the beam touches their nose / head, shoulder, and then upper thigh (assuming I was "pulling" my aim down and to the left, let's say, as they ran from my Left to my Right, in front of me).... is the target taking "16 damage to the head, 16 damage to the shoulder, and 16 damage to the thigh (Leg)"... or is it broken up to maybe "5 to the head, 4 to the shoulder, and 7 to the leg" ?

I find it hard to know / feel if I actually "struck the target solidly" with most of the beams - compared to my Dakka setups where I can literally see every round hammering into them and sparks flying etc. You really "feel" like you are pounding them to scrap, with a pair of RAC-5's, for example. You don't feel anything like that when hitting them with 2 Large Lasers... if I'm describing this well enough, I hope ?

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4.) Consumables: This may come as a surprise, but as I said I am nearing Tier-2, after an ascent from T-5 on April-7th, to today (25th)...and I have yet to equip or use a single Consumable Item, of any sort. Now...is this weird / problematic ? I will say, I have noticed many more of them (mostly the arty / airstrikes being called in on us often, in matches) - since I got to Tier-3...then ever before in T4 and T5. I don't know if I ever saw a single Airstrike or Arty strike when I was in Tier-5 (if so, it was extremely rare). As you get higher up though, is this considered more essential or "you should be using Consumables or you aren't helping the Team as you need to be" - or do they remain a luxury item that isn't (per se) "needed" to remain competitive in fights ?

* If you buy or equip one, I assume you get only one single use of it (like 1 UAV and 1 Arty Strike, for duration of match)..and that if you don't actually use it, the game won't charge you Credits to replenish it, correct ? (not sure how that works - if they make you pay for simply bringing it into the fight, or only if it's actually 'used up' during the battle)

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5.) On MW-5 Mercs... my concern with doing Preorder for this is (correct my understanding if I'm wrong) just another Single Player game, though still set in the Mech Universe. But it has no actual connection to MWO (no multiplayer for example - just a single player Campaign). So, I currently have this game (MWO), which is the main game I'm playing on my PC ... but I also am finishing up Nioh on PS-4, and still have RE-2 remake to do at some point (plus KH-3, if I ever get around to that lol) and later in the year I think Trails of Cold Steel 3 is coming (a great RPG series I've become a big fan of). Thus, the idea of getting Another single player game (in MW-5 Mercs) seems.... questionable to me, at the point I'm at "on my gaming plate", lol.

Am I missing something beyond the obvious here ? Aren't people still going to be playing MWO for the "online / PVP fix" ? And once you play through the MW-5 campaign...you are sort of 'done', right ? Unlike MWO where the PVP aspect means you are never 'technically' done in the same sense, no ?

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5.) Hero Mechs - just a minor Lore point, but I was reading about a bunch of these, and it's quite cool how they are all linked to a famous character from MW / Battletech history ! My beloved Direwolf UV, for example, is apparently the personal Mech of the "Galaxy Commander" of the Smoke Jaguar Clan (one of the nastier / crueler Clans, I read, when they first Invaded the Inner Sphere). Sadly, they were eventually wiped out - in battle / losses - and I believe my Commander character was killed in action as well - though I suppose these Clan guys love that (going out fighting), so I can honor his memory by continuing to send crazy amounts of Dakka downrange, into my foes - !

* my Deathstrike Madcat also has cool lore - as i learned the paint and face / teeth thing on its head are meant to be a Shark and are the colors of the Clan "Diamond Shark". Deathstrike is the special name they give to some of their "Alpha Galaxy" formation fighters - and so this is meant to be one of that units mechs. So, I put a Diamond Shark warhorn in it, and now I get the "jaws theme" when I KO an enemy Mech, - so neat !

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6.) Finally (sorry for the length, but wanted to squeeze everything into one post, before I go to rest before work tonight)... the next Mechs I"m considering picking up are the Scorch (Marauder Clan modifying of the Marauder 2, I think) - and the Rifleman - both of which I've heard good things about. Which variant of Rifleman affords the most ballistic points and / or quirks that are useful, and is it a good mech (in general) ?

I still struggle mentally deciding what the decided 'best class' is to play, in order to enjoy relatively consistent success in MWO. From what I can tell (very brief overall experience, of course), there is little point to run a Medium, when you could be in a Heavy that also goes like 75-85 KMH. For example, I find it hard to ever do as much in my Hunchback 4G (has good UAC-20 quirk), or my Crab-Florentine.... as I can do in my Ebon Jaguar (Clan Heavy sniper mech), or the excellent (just got it a bit ago and love it) - Marauder (it's the IS-Heavy version, only the the one that has 3 ballistics in the right shoulder, and I mount a triple AC-5 setup, which is lovely).

Like..I can produce fairly regular 500-750 damage games in the Heavies I just mentioned... but in the two Mediums, I think I've had ONE game of 500 damage - and that was a huge match for my Crab on Mining Depot. So, in the course of a fight - isn't it almost always going to be better driving a Heavy around (more armor / HP / weaponry etc - and comparable speed to a lot of the Mediums).. enabling me to be in the fight longer, and theoretically do more damage than I could produce with most of the Mediums ?

* or is it simply I'm not using the "best / meta" Mediums, or their "best possible builds" and so am getting a 'meh' feeling out of them (compared to the Heavies and Assaults, at least) ?


(bless you to whoever made it this far - love you guys and this game, so hope you can tolerate my enthusiasm and questions)

[Void Angel]

Rosh87, on 25 April 2019 - 11:36 AM, said:

To carry this on to my Fafnir example...when I was doing the chainfire UAC's for the early part of the battle, I had Bushwhackers, and Warhounds and several other enemy Mechs backing down behind cover after just 3 or 4 of my rapid-fire hits struck them. Later in the fight, one of the final enemy Assaults (a Marauder) pushed around a flank on me, and I was already hurt bad - so I couldn't make much resistance, or flee in time. Instead, I turned off the Chainfire, and began hammering the enemy with consistent "20-damage alphas" of all 4 guns striking him at once. Completely opposite to the earlier "plink, plink, plink plink" fire rate before, I was instead only doing... "PLINK...................PLINK........... PLINK" (you Vets get what I mean) /// The result was that, instead of falling back - the Marauder (and a buddy behind him) just kept walking straight at me - and eventually they brought me down.

There are two related psychological factors here. First, you're correct that rapid hits will cause people to scurry away more quickly than single hits, even when the same DPS is being dealt. This is because the stimulus they're conditioned to respond to isn't the damage to their 'mechs - it's the sounds and screen shake that tell them their 'mechs are taking damage. So if you rattle off a bunch of rapid shots, they're going to be a lot more serious about evading than if you just hit them once every couple of seconds. Second, though, is that people act differently at different phases of the match. I call it the Hillbilly Moonshiner School of MechWarrior Combat.

See, a couple families of mountain boys have started up a feud. Things have gotten out of hand, but nobody wants to die over it, so they kinda scatter out to their favorite sniping rocks and start sampling that white lightning. Eventually, after folks have gotten enough lucky hits (or imbibed enough liquid courage,) things get a bit more serious and people close in to finish off whichever side is at a disadvantage. Chances are, I just described the entire flow of battle during your last match on Canyon Network. =) Once people start showing significant damage, the enemy will smell blood and move in to take that 'mech down in cases where they would not pursue an undamaged opponent.

As an aside on this point: don't use chain fire unless your goal is simply to suppress rather than kill (you can have a weapon group just for that if your loadout is efficient enough.) The reason for this is that it's more important to place all of your shots on target than it is to intimidate your foe - and if you're doing it for heat control, you're better off either eating the overheat damage, or else adjusting your fire groups, rate of fire, or build.

Finally, yes - MWO isn't going away for MW5. Aside from the possibility of an engine update, they shouldn't directly affect each other at all.

As for other points you raised...

Mediums can do very well, but they require a focused playing style and role. For example, my Huntsman A has done reasonably well with two ERPPCs - and more than reasonably in Ideal Situations. I'll often play my Mediums (like my Shadow Hawk 2H) as supports to large heavies or Assaults - I call it, being a "Hunchbuddy." Basically, I stick to my Big, shoot who they're shooting at, smack down fast 'mechs trying to harass them, and peek with them when they peek. This multiplies their firepower, mitigates their primary weakness (mobility,) and forces enemies to choose between us. it's the most fun when I can find a brawler; just wait with him till he decides to go for it, then walk right through the enemy 'mechs and turn around to smash them. Usually they try to focus on one or the other of you - you both just laugh while you shoot whoever's back happens to be turned. Great fun.

Still, many Heavies (like the Thunderbolt) have similar maneuverability and more toughness, so the line can be blurred. My advice is to not worry about the best class; just go with what you find yourself doing well at - but play other classes in order to improve your skillset and understand those classes' performance. I love my assault brawlers - but I got my Ace of Spades with a Spider 5D.

Lasers (or machine guns, for that matter, despite their graphics) are "hitscan" weapons, which means that the damage listed on the screen is split up over the duration of the beam (you should also note that lasers do not begin to recycle till the beam completes, so beam duration factors into DPS and HPS.) So yes, in order to put maximum damage on a component, you have to hold the beam on that target location for the entire time. If your beam slides across other sections of your target, the damage tick will go to those other locations. Additionally, some players have reported... issues... with ticks being lost if the beam ticked while in between the hit boxes of the target 'mech. This phenomenon is much less common than some people claim, but it does happen, particularly against smaller targets. It's not something you generally need to worry about, but bear it in mind when trying to hunt Lights.

[Koniving]

Rosh87, on 25 April 2019 - 11:36 AM, said:

1.) First, how do you multi-quote in this forum ? For example, on Gfaqs and other forums, I can pick a sentence or section from Reznor's post...and pop it in here, then type my reply... then further down within this Same message, I can pick a portion of Koniving's info, and comment back to that too, etc.

Here, unless I'm just mistaking the interface, it seems like I cannot quote "sections' of peoples text. When I highlight JUST the sentence or two I want to make appear here, in my reply, via the Quote function, and then hit "quote" it will instead copy EVERYTHING the person said in their post (basically copying the whole post they had made), which is far more than I was trying to reply to. I'm probably just misunderstanding this forum / posting features - if so, apologies for my error

There's a mult-quote button but honestly its a pain.
Basically use [ ] brackets and put things like [-quote] and [-/quote] without the -.

[Horseman]

Rosh87, on 25 April 2019 - 11:36 AM, said:

1.) First, how do you multi-quote in this forum ? For example, on Gfaqs and other forums, I can pick a sentence or section from Reznor's post...and pop it in here, then type my reply... then further down within this Same message, I can pick a portion of Koniving's info, and comment back to that too, etc.

Clicking "Quote" inserts a copy of the quoted post in the quick reply window (and can be done multiple times). Alternatively, you can click the MultiQuote button and after you've marked the posts you want to quote just hit the "Reply to X quoted posts" in bottom right of the page.
MultiQuote persists after changing between forum pages, the contents of Quick Reply field do not.

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Here, unless I'm just mistaking the interface, it seems like I cannot quote "sections' of peoples text. When I highlight JUST the sentence or two I want to make appear here, in my reply, via the Quote function, and then hit "quote" it will instead copy EVERYTHING the person said in their post (basically copying the whole post they had made), which is far more than I was trying to reply to. I'm probably just misunderstanding this forum / posting features - if so, apologies for my error

You can cut out part of the text inside the quote tags. You can also close a quote manually and open another one. ( using [ /quote][ quote] tags )

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was running 4-UAC 5's in a chain-fire pattern, and it was kind of amusing how fast it fired out 5-dmg strikes.

Chainfire is less effective, though. Try to fire all the UACs together - but remember that you can't double-tap them too fast or you'll end up getting Ghost Heat (UACs can cross Ghost Heat treshold with their own previous shot)

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Later in the fight, one of the final enemy Assaults (a Marauder) pushed around a flank on me, and I was already hurt bad - so I couldn't make much resistance, or flee in time. Instead, I turned off the Chainfire, and began hammering the enemy with consistent "20-damage alphas" of all 4 guns striking him at once. Completely opposite to the earlier "plink, plink, plink plink" fire rate before, I was instead only doing... "PLINK...................PLINK........... PLINK" (you Vets get what I mean) /// The result was that, instead of falling back - the Marauder (and a buddy behind him) just kept walking straight at me - and eventually they brought me down.

Or he was just a more experienced pilot who maintained their cool where less confident / less experienced players would still panic.

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Obviously that's anecdotal, and the scenario in the battle may have factored into their push too - but I've seen it elsewhere, in other Mechs and battlefield encounters. If I'm firing on someone with 3 AC-5's... they keep pushing or stand ground / fire back, etc.. IF instead I'm firing at them with 2 or 3 RAC-2's...the rotary gatling guns...they almost Immediately duck for cover - or don't long want to stand and fire back. It's quite fascinating, really

Because RACs deal much more damage than AC5s .

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With the Lasers and such - am I required to hold the beam onto the target for the full time the Beam is on-screen, in order for the target to actually take the damage listed on the screen ?

Correct.

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If they are moving left to right or such, and the beam touches their nose / head, shoulder, and then upper thigh (assuming I was "pulling" my aim down and to the left, let's say, as they ran from my Left to my Right, in front of me).... is the target taking "16 damage to the head, 16 damage to the shoulder, and 16 damage to the thigh (Leg)"... or is it broken up to maybe "5 to the head, 4 to the shoulder, and 7 to the leg" ?

The latter, depending how long you keep the burn on each part.

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4.) Consumables: This may come as a surprise, but as I said I am nearing Tier-2, after an ascent from T-5 on April-7th, to today (25th)...and I have yet to equip or use a single Consumable Item, of any sort. Now...is this weird / problematic ? I will say, I have noticed many more of them (mostly the arty / airstrikes being called in on us often, in matches) - since I got to Tier-3...then ever before in T4 and T5. I don't know if I ever saw a single Airstrike or Arty strike when I was in Tier-5 (if so, it was extremely rare). As you get higher up though, is this considered more essential or "you should be using Consumables or you aren't helping the Team as you need to be" - or do they remain a luxury item that isn't (per se) "needed" to remain competitive in fights ?

View consumables as something that can get you out of a tight spot rather than an essential. A coolshot or a strike in the right time and location can make a major difference.

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* If you buy or equip one, I assume you get only one single use of it (like 1 UAV and 1 Arty Strike, for duration of match)..and that if you don't actually use it, the game won't charge you Credits to replenish it, correct ?

This is correct. You also have to manually set the consumable to auto-refill in the mechlab if you want it to be refilled in that fashion.
keep in mind that there are upgrades in the Skill Tree that allow you to equip two consumables of a given type.

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Am I missing something beyond the obvious here ? Aren't people still going to be playing MWO for the "online / PVP fix" ? And once you play through the MW-5 campaign...you are sort of 'done', right ? Unlike MWO where the PVP aspect means you are never 'technically' done in the same sense, no ?

As far as I understand, MW5 has some sandbox and PVE aspects to it. Different strokes for different people.

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Which variant of Rifleman affords the most ballistic points and / or quirks that are useful, and is it a good mech (in general) ?

Rifleman 3C has the most ballistic hardpoints, Rifleman 3N has the best ballistic quirks. It's not a bad mech, but it competes with Jagermech DD. The Rifleman has slightly better hitboxes and mobility, that Jagermech variant has six (!) ballistic hardpoints and more payload space - allowing it to bring 5-6 AC2s into combat.

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or is it simply I'm not using the "best / meta" Mediums, or their "best possible builds" and so am getting a 'meh' feeling out of them (compared to the Heavies and Assaults, at least) ?

Sounds to me like that's the case there. Some mediums can bring pretty nasty amounts of firepower, and they have a mobility advantage over heavies (take the Assassin for one example).
It's also worth noting that in group queue your team has a shared tonnage limit, so it pays to be more efficient with your tonnage-to-firepower ratio. Similar logic applies to drop decks.

I'd suggest taking a go at TTB's and Snuggles' overview of recommended mediums:

Edited by Horseman, 26 April 2019 - 02:47 AM.

[Koniving]

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With the Lasers and such - am I required to hold the beam onto the target for the full time the Beam is on-screen, in order for the target to actually take the damage listed on the screen ? Example - 16 damage from Clan Heavy Large Laser... is that 16 only applied if the beam is on the same area of the target's armor / etc - for the full time ? If they are moving left to right or such, and the beam touches their nose / head, shoulder, and then upper thigh (assuming I was "pulling" my aim down and to the left, let's say, as they ran from my Left to my Right, in front of me).... is the target taking "16 damage to the head, 16 damage to the shoulder, and 16 damage to the thigh (Leg)"... or is it broken up to maybe "5 to the head, 4 to the shoulder, and 7 to the leg" ?

The lasers apply stated damage cumulatively on whatever you point it at until the laser stops firing. If it takes 1.5 seconds to completely fire for 15 damage or other such nonsense, then in the case of this made up laser does 1 damage per 0.1 seconds of being on target.

If it takes 1 second to do 5 damage, then you're doing 0.5 damage per tenth of a (0.1 ) second.

Whatever you happen to have the laser on at each interval is where the damage is applied. The servers work at 100 frames per second,lasers make something like 8 to 10 ticks while pulse lasers make fewer ticks (which thusly hit harder per tick as the damage is less spread out over time) the last time Karl Berg had talked about it at length (a former PGI employee whom was often happy to answer questions about how things worked under the hood). Similar to a video on youtube where someone demonstrates that even a laser pointer can kill if you hold it onto a target too long (in the case of a video, it was a spider), the same is true for lasers in MWO.

Think of it like trying to start a fire on cardboard with a candle, or in this case a laser.

Any time the laser spends on target that coincides with a tick (and assuming 8 ticks in a 1 second beam, you take 1 and divide by 8, so a tick could be at 0.2 seconds, long as you're on target at that time it'll have damage), will net some damage. If it helps, bring a machine gun or two into the testing field. MGs and lasers in terms of mechanics are functionally identical, machine guns have 10 ticks per second per MG, one per bullet consumed. You could imagine laser ticks like AC shells; each tick is a bullet fired and there's a lot per second.

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I find it hard to know / feel if I actually "struck the target solidly" with most of the beams - compared to my Dakka setups where I can literally see every round hammering into them and sparks flying etc. You really "feel" like you are pounding them to scrap, with a pair of RAC-5's, for example. You don't feel anything like that when hitting them with 2 Large Lasers... if I'm describing this well enough, I hope ?

Point at enemy, press button to make light appear. Hold it on target until the the light show goes away. There used to be better feedback, but it had the side effect of making everything else dark. Also fun moment shortly after the initial laser fight where a Jenner is shot out of the air...

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5.) On MW-5 Mercs... my concern with doing Preorder for this is (correct my understanding if I'm wrong) just another Single Player game, though still set in the Mech Universe. But it has no actual connection to MWO (no multiplayer for example - just a single player Campaign). So, I currently have this game (MWO), which is the main game I'm playing on my PC ... but I also am finishing up Nioh on PS-4, and still have RE-2 remake to do at some point (plus KH-3, if I ever get around to that lol) and later in the year I think Trails of Cold Steel 3 is coming (a great RPG series I've become a big fan of). Thus, the idea of getting Another single player game (in MW-5 Mercs) seems.... questionable to me, at the point I'm at "on my gaming plate", lol.

Am I missing something beyond the obvious here ? Aren't people still going to be playing MWO for the "online / PVP fix" ? And once you play through the MW-5 campaign...you are sort of 'done', right ? Unlike MWO where the PVP aspect means you are never 'technically' done in the same sense, no ?

It is generally single player. But unlike arena shooter online, it actually has more substance than "here's green mechs and here's grey mechs, the green is called IS and the grey is called Clans, if you wanna know anything else look at wikipedia." Its also designed, as every Mechwarrior "Mercenaries" title as a sandbox, there's a basic but open story and the rest is "you have from 3015 to August 3049", how do you live your life as a Mechwarrior?

Its implied that it ends the day the Clans invade, with you being on that planet... or maybe it'll be a "where are you when they land?" Who knows. Whatever the case, if there's a big expansion in the story, it'd be the Clan invasion proper. A lot could be done in 34 years, with procedural generation.

Going beyond that, the game is multiplayer with up to 4 players, co-op with instant action as well as being able to play in your campaign alongside you. Akin to and different from a certain jump in and drop out zombie co-op game, if they join you they'll be alongside you in your campaign, but it won't do anything for their own progress separate of yourself. They would literally impersonate any of the mercenaries you have in your employ.

Now that's not to say that modding couldn't change that, in fact in a recent AMA one of the guys behind the old Mechwarrior Living Legends got the go ahead from Russ, that so long as it was done using MW5, have at it. So, what becomes of MW5 after modding is anyone's guess.... but like Skyrim, it'll probably run for a long, long time.

Similarly, HBS Battletech is much the same way, thanks to modding it's become everything from a simulation of the Empire (yes, lets all start sending out AT-STs because...someone made a mod of it?) to Atlas Randy Savage saying "Oh yeah" while kicking and "Falcon Punch" Shadow Hawk...
(Atlas kicking or backhanding? Kinda not sure.)


To be honest, in MWO, sure you could say its never done, the same is true in a sandbox game.
Until you hit the ultimate truth; once you run out of new things to do, it's done.

MWO has the same maps over and over. About once in 6 to 10 months, we see a new map...maybe two if we're lucky. And even then sometimes they're just reskins with some changes.

MW5 creates new maps for most situations with procedural generation. There's a few where the maps are specifically hand-made but beyond those specific areas / story missions, it's generated.
After the initial story maps, you could decide to go over to Davion space to try and get your hands on a Centurion. I might head toward Steiner space to get my hands on a Zeus. Jimbo Jones over there might decide he'd like to try his hand at messing with Liao. And in terms of what we see, what we can find, what we can get, etc... it'll be as if we're playing 3 different games set in the same universe. Of course there's a lot more than seven factions in the IS, there's well over 30 of them...and from what I understand most of the bigger and smaller ones are there.

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5.) Hero Mechs - just a minor Lore point, but I was reading about a bunch of these, and it's quite cool how they are all linked to a famous character from MW / Battletech history so neat!

When asked about being able to salvage and use hero mechs in Mw5, Russ dropped an obvious hint that you'll encounter at least one hero... without specifics, but in the inclination in his voice and an unusually confident 'you guys are gonna love this' chuckle, it seems we'll earn that chance against said unknown hero.

While it isn't known what hero will stand in our way story-wise, outside of the story but very plausible as a sandbox mechanic, I have little doubt that encountering the Bounty Hunter could be very possible.
Afterall, everything that Bryan Ekman has said he was going to have in Community Warfare (creative director of MWO...least until MW5 started then completely unheard of except at the showing of every single MW5 Mercs trailer/footage)...which didn't make it in what is now known as faction warfare.... is in MW5 Mercs...including the bounty system.


(P.S. I warn you not to watch the community warfare video thoroughly. While its great that this great stuff is coming to us in MW5: Mercs.... it's depressing that after 6 years they flat out gave up on bringing it to us in MWO, as there's no way to do it in any meaningful faction without alienating some aspect of the player base)

Edited by Koniving, 26 April 2019 - 02:53 AM.

[Koniving]

(Random note about the early footage in the MW5 war story video in the procedural link, "collision" with buildings / destruction ease of structures is set to 0 (basically everything is made of paper) in order to really show that everything can break...and because not everything was fine tuned yet, according to Dave Foresey, PGI senior Designer; top comment on this video)

[Rosh87]

Quote

Sounds to me like that's the case there. Some mediums can bring pretty nasty amounts of firepower, and they have a mobility advantage over heavies (take the Assassin for one example).
It's also worth noting that in group queue your team has a shared tonnage limit, so it pays to be more efficient with your tonnage-to-firepower ratio. Similar logic applies to drop decks.

I'd suggest taking a go at TTB's and Snuggles' overview of recommended mediums:

Hopefully I 'snipped' that one single section from Koniving's post, correctly.

My thanks to all the excellent additional comments and thoughts - you guys are truly welcoming and helpful Seers of the battlefield !


So - amazingly, you posted that video from TTB, and I had JUST gotten done watching it on break, at work - after randomly seeing it having been put up by him, yesterday ! I commented there that it was crazy coincidence / luck that he happened to do a Medium Mech guide / vid, of sorts - right at that point. And, I actually had stumbled upon Snuggles' channel too, and enjoy his Light - Medium - Heavy - Assault (2019) overview too. I took notes and used that to base some of my Heavy and Assault purchases, in my first few weeks of regular play.

Now...updates !!

1.) I actually used TTB's video as a basis for some excellent build ideas, and picked up the following mechs, afterwards:

- Bushwhacker X-1 (am running it with 3 RAC-2's and it's amazing - did 550+ damage on Solaris City and 3 KB's earlier today)
- Bushwhacker Highroller (Hero) // just like the extra C-Bills and it can technically run what X-1 can, just with weaker Quirks
- Crab 27B (had only been using the Florentine previously, which is a weaker overall platform. 27B is a nice laser mech for me)
- Hunchback 4-P (the Laser Setup one for the Inner Sphere - quite nice, using Baradul's build he had in a video on it - great !)
- Hunchback II-C (the one that can fire both Ultra Autocannon 20's at once without Ghost Heat - amazingly fun / punchy build)
- Hunchback II-C-A (the Laser Setup one for the Clans - using the build TTB had in his video, had several big games already)
- Nova Breaker (Hero) // Omnimech so wanted the special Hero Pods and then just bought the Left and Right Arm, Nova Prime

With those in hand, I have been having some truly great Medium mech battles. Now...I still think there's a case to be made that a lot of what you do in those mechs (exceptions the Hunchbacks which almost seem slightly.....too punchy for mere Mediums ? , perhaps ?) .... can be done just as well in a Marauder (Inner Sphere Heavy), for example - and you'd have double the durability (theoretically), and thus more 'staying power'.

I get what you guys mean that the "edges" of the Class (Tonnages) seems blurred sometimes -and you probably would have trouble seeing much distinct difference between a 55 Ton Medium and a 65 Ton Heavy, in terms of specific performance in fights. But I like that these particular Mediums I got all have unique play-styles that make them fun to run around with, and if I can 'chip in' with 300-600 damage and a bunch of components, etc busted on the enemy, that is helpful to the team, I realize. You have a role to play in the fight - based on what Class you are running, I think I'm beginning to see, and as long as you do that - you tend to win most of the time (nobody expects you to do 1000 dmg and 6 KO's in your Nova, necessarily... and you could still win and be very helpful with just 300 dmg and 3 KO's, of key enemy mechs, late in the battle - due to your flanking and lasering them in the back, stealthily, for example)

----

2.) Even bigger than that first bit of news, is the fact that - as of this morning (04/27/19), 11-am CST, I JUST passed into the realm of Tier-2 ! So, I've gone from Tier-5 on April-7th, to Tier-2 on April-27th !

Yay ! (thanks in large part to the guidance of you guys, and the videos by TTB, Baradul, Snuggles, Blackhawks SC, BEEF, and few other MWO-You Tube peeps).

Hopefully this progress rate is considered good - and I'll keep on fighting and trying to learn more from here.

* still haven't used a Consumable yet - really need to start considering those, I think - lol

* * - also, still honored to report I have not yet equipped or fired a single LRM ever -

[Horseman]

Rosh87, on 27 April 2019 - 08:23 AM, said:

1.) I actually used TTB's video as a basis for some excellent build ideas, and picked up the following mechs, afterwards:

- Bushwhacker X-1 (am running it with 3 RAC-2's and it's amazing - did 550+ damage on Solaris City and 3 KB's earlier today)
- Bushwhacker Highroller (Hero) // just like the extra C-Bills and it can technically run what X-1 can, just with weaker Quirks
- Crab 27B (had only been using the Florentine previously, which is a weaker overall platform. 27B is a nice laser mech for me)
- Hunchback 4-P (the Laser Setup one for the Inner Sphere - quite nice, using Baradul's build he had in a video on it - great !)
- Hunchback II-C (the one that can fire both Ultra Autocannon 20's at once without Ghost Heat - amazingly fun / punchy build)
- Hunchback II-C-A (the Laser Setup one for the Clans - using the build TTB had in his video, had several big games already)
- Nova Breaker (Hero) // Omnimech so wanted the special Hero Pods and then just bought the Left and Right Arm, Nova Prime

Three mechs I'd suggest:
1. Hunchback 4J. 60-point alpha on a 50-tonner is no small feat.
2. Kintaro KTO-18. A great SRM brawler with insane durability.
3. Nova NVA-S. Not for the faint of heart, but can do some nasty close-range energy setups and carry triple AMS.

Quote

Now...I still think there's a case to be made that a lot of what you do in those mechs (exceptions the Hunchbacks which almost seem slightly.....too punchy for mere Mediums ? , perhaps ?) .... can be done just as well in a Marauder (Inner Sphere Heavy), for example - and you'd have double the durability (theoretically), and thus more 'staying power'.

Raw hit point values are not the only factor that affects your survival.
Your mech's size and mobility decide how easy it will be for the enemy to actually hit it in the first place - and in both of those, the heavy will typically be at a disadvantage to a medium.

Quote

Yay ! (thanks in large part to the guidance of you guys, and the videos by TTB, Baradul, Snuggles, Blackhawks SC, BEEF, and few other MWO-You Tube peeps).

You might want to add Kanajashi to your list.

[Void Angel]

Medium survivability depends on using your agility to be a mobile weapons platform. If you find yourself in a straight-up slugging match, then yes, a Heavy will perform better. That's what Heavies and (especially) Assaults do. A Medium or (especially) a Light relies on having more mobility (in general) than heavier chassis in order to hunt Lights, do fire support, or support other 'mechs on the team in direct combat.

One thing to bear in mind is that different 'mechs have different movement profiles. I can make my Battlemaster go 76.2kph, but it won't handle as well as my Hunchback at the same level of speed - and I'll be paying a much higher premium for speed in the bigger 'mech, since engine tonnage per engine rating ramps up as you get bigger engines (a Standard 400 on that Battlemaster would leave me with only 6.32 tons for weapons with max armor - and that's with Ferro-Fibrous and Endo-Steel.) In general, the functional reason you go with a Medium over a Heavy is that you can better maneuver to get your firepower where it's needed, at the cost of being less able to take a hit.

PS: The Inner Sphere v. Clan Great Quirk Debate has been going on since quirks were first introduced. The differences in Clan weaponry and Engines is intended to be offset by more quirks on the Inner Sphere side - but where the balance point actually lies is a larger, (and often highly subjective) conversation.

[Koniving]

If you do consider MW5 though, if for no other reason than the benefits it brings to you in MWO... be warned there's 3 days before the ability to get the benefits as they are goes away in favor of a regular pre-order (which whatever regular preorder nonsense comes up would also be yours for getting it early).

For me, I went with the full thing... so I got the Marauder II ultimate pack, 120 USD in MC (x2 as a founder), etc., and since a sale was going on at the same time, I picked up somewhere between 26 and 34 heroes, an additional 20 to 30 mechbays beyond what was needed for those heroes, and some bolt-on trinkets for laughs and giggles (namely chainsaws and some ICE engine mufflers)... as well as the four new upcoming variants in their loyalty/special versions (which basically treats them like heroes, each having 30% cbill bonuses) as well as numerous other trinkets.

Even if I just went and bought the game for 50 bucks, I'd have gotten the 20 dollar Marauder II pack free, all four of those upcoming variants for MWO also free, 50 dollars in MC to spend on MWO free...

At the moment it'd be the Marauder II pack equal to whatever stage you buy it at (which 50 is still cheaper than the later asking price of 60), plus MC equal to what you put in, plus the other trinkets, plus that King Crab variant (as its past the point for the other three)...

No matter how you slice it, even at the bare minimum you get a game and easily 70 to 90 bucks worth of stuff for MWO.
Kinda can't lose, even if MW5 turns out to be bland, it's still a win for you on the MWO side of things and once mods take off and should another "Living Legends" pop up on MW5...welp there's your awesome online multiplayer. (LL likes to put in tanks, aircraft and power armored infantry into the mix).

Course you could wait, but I don't think losing out on the MWO benefits which even if it was just as they are now without any other goodies I would still have bought it.

Edited by Koniving, 28 April 2019 - 04:45 PM.

[BROARL]

play for FUN or the game may(probably will) grind, keep it fun and it slides by.
play the mechs that make you happy, happy players log in more often and get better by accident.
aim to build a dropdeck from mechs which you can do 500dmg in quickplay, and keep in mind you will probably want to become part of a team.

get teamspeak (or discord if you are young) as you will learn more between games than during them, glhf.

[Void Angel]

Those durned Young People, and their newfangled Discord. You mark my words! All this electricity stuff is a fad; be over any day now...

[Timberjac]

Rosh87, on 09 April 2019 - 10:58 AM, said:

Hello everyone !


The mech in question was called "Ultraviolet", but everyone was calling it "Ultra-Violence", lol. It has the ability to mount 8 of these LB-2 shotguns, for devastating massed fire-focus, at great range (900+).

Try to use their "discarted" energy modules to create a new Direwolf with 6 C-ER-PPC... you will find a lot of fun.

[Rosh87]

Koniving said:

Quote

"If you do consider MW5 though, if for no other reason than the benefits it brings to you in MWO... be warned there's 3 days before the ability to get the benefits as they are goes away in favor of a regular pre-order (which whatever regular preorder nonsense comes up would also be yours for getting it early)."

Yeah, so I ended up getting it Sunday, to get access to all the goodies, plus the King Crab (S). I didn't actually care or want any of the earlier 3, after looking at them, so I'm not TOO bothered that I didn't do it sooner. But the GXP, MC, and Creds were a big plus - even if the King Crab wasn't involved (plus the MW-5 game itself, eventually).

-------

Timberjac mentioned ER-PPC's on a Direwolf, and that does sound interesting, but my overall experience with 90% of the Laser setups I have used is just not that rewarding / productive for me as when I use the Ballistics. I also find the Heat Buildup from PPC's of any sort to be kind of ridiculous (too much, IMHO). Whereas, my 8-LB2x's Direwolf can fire for ages, and never get close to 100% Heat.


- One additional thing I've observed in the last several matches, since reaching Tier-2, is that I really notice the benefit to having "high mounted" weaponry. One reason I find playing my original Annihilator purchases so dreary nowadays, is because of the other Mechs I have that can produce quite-similar results, while not having to worry about the extreme height and very low slung (by comparison to overall Mech height) arms that they have. The result is that many battles I can 'see' the enemies - and they me - but cannot even engage them with more than the "top" Chest Mounted two guns...while the other 4 (and for sure the bottom 2 on the Arms) are completely blocked from returning fire.

Thus, I've found great success with all Mechs that have "high mounts" - or who are small enough (relatively speaking) that arm mounts are still roughly even with when you can first see something (Cockpit or slightly below).

------

Reflecting on my rapid ascent up the Tiers, as well, I think that while I'm still (myself) having to "do well" in the matches, the actual Speed with which I've gone up is more a factor of having you gurus (and others in YouTube, etc) helping to get me into "Great Mechs", as opposed to playing really crappy ones.

Like, if I was only playing Uziels or something - lol - I might think that not only Medium Mechs are kind of crappy, but that MWO in general was un-fun / too hard. By comparison, since watching TTB's Medium Mech video, and picking up the Bushwhacker and a few Hunchback / II-C variants, I have had some excellent Medium Mech games, including 400, 450, 500, 550 (damage)...and my just-finished personal "Best ever medium Mech match", this morning, in the Hunchback-IIC(A), where I had:

Killing Blow: 1
Kill Assist: 10
KMDD: 1
Damage Done: 685
Component Destroyed: 3



========

But this illustrates what I meant above... that if I was running random "crap mechs" (lower tier ones) and in sub-optimal random combos that "the average Joe Mechwarrior" might employ - if they didn't know about the forums, you helpful Veterans, or the various YouTubers who cover the game and its intricate Build options.... my overall experience would likely be FAR different (worse).

So...yeah...thanks again for all you've made possible for me !



* my latest "big purchase" was the Blood Asp Assault mech that has the ECM torso option. I absolutely love the way the thing looks (visually) even if it's not per-se the "greatest" Clan Assault option out there. I tried it out for the first time, using the hilarious 5 x UAC-5's configuration, which TTB used in a very recent video actually (it sort of inspired me to try it too), and I found it satisfies my love of Dakka, quite nicely. Plus the way the top cannons hang up over your head, makes me feel like a "Cobra snake's hood" - fitting the theme of the thing a bit. I also was able to leverage that to fire "down" at enemies that tried to peek up over hills (if they had low-slung weapon mounts), as my guns would fire "diagonally downwards" from "above my head" and strike them, before they could easily return fire. Granted, sort of a 'niche' use, but it was fun the few times already that I was able to pull it off.

Up close, this thing is a monster though, as I have two fire groups (3 UAC-5's and 2-UAC-5's) and simply alternate clicking my two Mouse Buttons like a madman - - as I pulverize my nearest foe with round after round of screaming metal !! Simply...glorious to behold. I dissolved a Warhammer earlier, in a surprisingly short amount of time, by just blowing right through his Chest armor, at about 250 meters distance.

------

We continue to have a blast and do reasonably well, and it appears our Tier-2 bar (moving towards Tier-1) is roughly 1/10th of the way filled, so progress is ongoing, which I take as a good sign. Now, back to the battlefields I go (will update this weekend with a few more questions and such - thanks all !)

Edited by Rosh87, 30 April 2019 - 08:07 AM.

[Void Angel]

Well, (ER)PPCs are ballistics, you know. I mean, they're not in that weapon family, and they don't use ammo and all that - but functionally, they're a projectile weapon.

'Mech choice is a big factor, even within chassis. Any 'mech can be piloted well, but some are more difficult than others - I do not recommend the Spider 5D as a combat Light, for example, but I've occasionally Done OK.

As for overhead fire, you should try ERPPCs with the Stalker - those arm mounts can fire over hills at enemies you can only see as boxes spotted by your teammates. =)

Edited by Void Angel, 30 April 2019 - 05:23 PM.

[Horseman]

Rosh87, on 30 April 2019 - 08:07 AM, said:

Up close, this thing is a monster though, as I have two fire groups (3 UAC-5's and 2-UAC-5's) and simply alternate clicking my two Mouse Buttons like a madman - - as I pulverize my nearest foe with round after round of screaming metal !! Simply...glorious to behold. I dissolved a Warhammer earlier, in a surprisingly short amount of time, by just blowing right through his Chest armor, at about 250 meters distance.

Try 2xUAC10+2-3xUAC5 . Takes a bit more control to avoid ghost heat, but you're packing 30-35 damage into a single point - and you do it again within the next second.

[Rosh87]

Horseman, on 01 May 2019 - 11:30 PM, said:

Try 2xUAC10+2-3xUAC5 . Takes a bit more control to avoid ghost heat, but you're packing 30-35 damage into a single point - and you do it again within the next second.

Interesting - but I don't think it can fit that much heavy weight on, without going extremely skimpy on the armor plating, no ?

I mean, I already have the 2-UAC10 / 2-UAC5 setup for my Madcat-2-B, and it does well of course, but hmmmm.... could be interesting to see how Asp manages with even MORE - lol

=====

General Progress Update: My Tier-2 bar (heading towards Tier-1) is now appx 1/7th of the way "full". So 6 more "such blocks" (so to speak) would see me finally reaching Tier-1. All this progress having been made, essentially, since April-7th when I went Hardcore into this game, is encouraging to me, though of course there are setbacks still. For example, this morning alone, I lost my first 4 games in a row with my Direwolf UV... including a 1000 and 1200 dmg defeat, in back to back games. I consoled myself with the knowledge that even though we lost, I got the Green "Up Arrow" for Pilot Skill Rating, in those matches.

Sometimes I just have bad runs like that - with a given Mech, so I'll just move to something else to 'break the streak' and that usually works.

====

I had a couple questions on Clan ATM's... which I tried out for the first time, the other night, on my Ebon Jaguar. As near as I could see (visually) they appeared to basically work like MRM's - except with tracking potential (as opposed to dumb-fire)...but they weren't as obnoxious as the much-hated (from what I've heard) LRM's, because they didn't seem to do that "fly up in the air and come down at a crazy angle, even when target is below a ridge or partially behind cover"-thing, that LRM's seem to do when they hit me.

As of now, I still have never equipped an LRM on any mech, nor fired one ever - and I almost want to keep it that way (for some silly sense of warrior pride, ), but are Clan ATM's considered acceptable as an alternative ? (IE - less 'cheesy' than LRM's) ?

---

And is there a certain type like the 6,9,12 or quantity you typically want to put on a mech, to make it worth taking them ? (for example, I had run two ATM-6's on the E-Jag, along with a Gauss and 3 ER-Meds, for about 3 matches...but found the success kind of middling - with no game better than 375 damage, and went back to my usual 5 ER-Med Laser + Gauss Rifle setup - which I'd used in all Other games with the E-Jag, for much better consistent battle results).

But, I imagine if you "boat" missiles (Clan-ATM's even), they become much more fearsome ? Generally, I'm always going to be a Ballistics-lover 1st, Energy distant second, and Missiles far, far, in the back after that - but I don't want to artificially limit my experiences, by completely cutting myself off from an entire "arm" of the weapon tree, so to speak - hence my Clan ATM curiosity, here...

======

Lastly, I finally used a Consumable ! I started putting on UAV's on a few of my mechs - and even used an Artillery Strike for the first time ever, earlier this morning. I am probably a bit odd in that I waited till Tier-2 to use a Consumable once, but now that I have - the UAV (at least) seems quite handy and may have turned the tide for us, late in one battle, as we were able to spot enemies positions, around a central part of Canyon Network we were battling at, and ensured we came out of the final 4-v-4 mech fight, victorious. So, I can see their utility, even in small doses.


That concludes the update - still going strong and having fun ! I only wish for a mech with HSL Rotary AC-2's or 5's, sometime, so I can mount and fire 4 RAC-2's or 3-RAC-5's without Ghost Heat nastiness ! Would be amazing for a Dakka Lover like me

[Void Angel]

My working theory is that while statistical clustering will account for some strings of losses, my own expectations and subsequent tactical actions are the primary reason for unreasonable strings of losses. Thus, if I switch out the 'mech I'm playing, or even just take a break for the evening, I can often get back into the swing of things, while avoiding tinfoil-hat crazy talk about how the matchmaker is out to get me, and is punishing me for being too good by pairing me up with idiots while stacking the other team with average players (who then take me down, because there's so many of them and my team sucks. I'm so heroic and put-upon.) Seriously, I've seen multiple threads making that claim...

The UAV is the single most useful consumable in the game. I used to carry two of them before the skill tree was implemented ('mechs had slots for consumables and "modules" that provided some of the benefits of the skill tree) - and sometimes still do. The tactical awareness generated by the UAV will definitely turn matches around, because even people who don't understand or pay attention to tactics (or their map) can still see the red boxes on their HUD.

A good scout can have a similar effect, in fact. Sometimes when I'm in one of those slumps, I've just dropped in my Spider and let my team know where the enemy is and what they're doing - it's not as dramatic as a UAV because you can't clog the airwaves, and verbal communication is less efficient than visual, but it really helps a lot of players to get pointed in the right direction.

Just be aware as a scout that enemies (or you, for that matter) with Radar Deprivation will hear a sound when you lose lock on them - that can tip your hand and let people know you're out there.

[Rosh87]

Thank you, Void Angel - for some more good tips and thoughts :-)

=

I actually had another set of brief updates to list to you and the other helpful Veterans who have commented here for me, in recent weeks, since my massive investment of time and / 'hardcore' playing of MWO !


1.) Progress continues towards Tier-1... I really see what you guys meant about it taking about as long to go from 2-to-1, as it did for nearly the whole span of time from 5 to 2... I'm roughly 25% of the way filled (the Tier-2 Bar)....so 75% more to go to reach Tier-1, at my current pace. I think that's still pretty good, right, considering I was merely Tier-5, back on April-7th ?


2.) I had a few mech specific questions - as I'm debating purchasing either / or both of the Rifleman // Jagermech sets (or at least 1 or two of the 'best' variants from each of them). I love the idea of heavy Dakka (ballistics), as I've mentioned before, and both these mechs can apparently 'boat' a significant amount of them, with great Quirks to back it up.

Currently I've read that the "Jagermech DD" - is great, as is the Rifleman 3N ? (I think - or maybe it's 3C) - one of them has the lotsa Ballistic mounts, IIRC. Also heard the Legend Killer hero for rifleman is great with LB-10X shotguns, which is also appealing to me. Dunno much about the Jagermech hero (if it's any good at all).

Thoughts on both these mechs ? Which of them (variants) do you guys recommend I look into ?


3.) I got a Blood Asp a few weeks ago, and had been running the 5-UAC 5's that TTB featured in a recent video, to relatively good success. One weakness of the Asp is that people tend to blow my Torso / Arms off pretty regularly, which makes me think I want to be farther away from the action (as weird as that is for an Assault to think) - especially since the main model I got has the ECM (I made sure to get that Torso one, and then can just add Omnipods as needed to tweak the build from there).

So...is there a better setup for this thing, at farther engagement ranges ? Or perhaps more of an Energy build - or a mixed Ballistic / Energy format ?


4.) Kodiak - best variant still the "3" ? (UAC-10 x2 and UAC-5 x2 ?) // "Dakka Bear" ?


5.) Gauss Rifles - are there any mechs (assuming assaults would be needed) that could reliably mount 4 Gauss Rifles - like 2 "regular ones" and two "Light" ones - and thus have a lot of pinpoint damage potential / Sniper feel - or is that something PGI wanted to avoid (for perhaps obvious Balance concern reasons) ?


6.) I won that La-Malinche mech yesterday - kind of cool // Read that it was considered kind of crappy for a long time, but saw it has a lot of cool Quirks now, so maybe PGI buffed it slightly, since it was so bad ? I came up with a 3-Large Pulse Laser + 1 AC-10 build, to complement its Quirks // Is this considered a reasonable approach to that mech ? (It's still not 'great', I think - but perhaps 'serviceable" - at the least)

=======


* Bonus Random Question - So, the game has been out for a Long time, right ? There IS a lot in it (Camo, Colors, Decals, Mechs in general, etc)... but I'm curious why we don't have Clan Patterns for at least the full 7 Invading Clans, instead of just the first 4 (Wolf, Ghost Bear, Jade Falcon, and Smoke Jaguar), after all this time ? Like, they have Nova Cat, Diamond Shark, and Steel Viper clan 'decals' and such, in the Camo Spec area, but you can't actually just say "give me Nova Cat pattern on my Mech" - BOOM - and get it. You have to kind of play around with things to get "sort of close" to what they would / should look like. Why is this the case ? Does PGI only release things like that - at a very slow rate ?

Ditto for Maps....like, since I've been playing (earliest games were back at the end of Jan / early Feb - and consisted of my just playing the Cadet Missions, and then not touching the game extensively till April-7th).... but there is really only one "new" map - Hibernal Rift...which is basically just a somewhat re-touched Canyon Network, no ?

Why no 'truly new' looking and feeling maps ? Why not another city like Solaris feel - or some kind of jungle / not forest or Swamp (Bog) - but an actual Jungle feel ? How come not more "famous" maps or locations from the BT universe, like Tukkayid, Misery, or Terra itself ? Just wondering - love the game, thanks for all your info on these several questions !