Long-winded but constructive and hopefully helpful post incoming.
BLOODWOLF333, on 04 January 2020 - 11:52 AM, said:
Been playing for just a week now and had some questions/is this mechanic broken?
1. So you get almost 50k worth of GXP after your first 25 matches and completing all the tutorials but, with it costing 45k to use every 800 for a skill point....I don't find this resource very practical and would rather have c-bills which are the much harder to come-by resource. Gettin' gud is not an instantaneous process so, c-bills seem to be the rarest and most useful resource for me. I've read on a few other forum posts that others have 1M+ gxp they wish they could load into an AC and just fire off so, if the players cant effectively use a resource does that not indicate a broken mechanic?
Money isn't exactly hard to come by, however, the tricks to making money are the issues you're having. The game doesn't come right out and say "this is how you make money." Simply fighting and dying doesn't make money. But neither does thinking "I'm just gonna be support and not fight." Making money requires particular things from you.
Stay with the group (preferably your lance for a bigger payout), killing enemies that are killing your teamates pay out more than just killing enemies. Get at least a single shot on every single enemy if possible for a significant increase to your payout. Look for the text that comes up saying things like "staying in formation" "Protected Light" etc. Figure out what generates these, and your payouts will be much better.
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2. Also after the first 25 matches the game and monetary progression seems to take a nose dive off a cliff and you begin the slow grind. Grinding to get XP for your mech makes sense and many other games do this as well for your character so that is not a problem. But, Im not happy with the monetary pay-out. Many times people are sitting in their heavy and assaults waiting for usually lights or mediums to round out the company so the match can begin so, your funneled into playing as lighter mechs and serving in the scout role if you want to participate. But, your not going to be getting the most kills or the team MVP so <150k per match. If players are not rewarded for playing roles that most players dont want to play as(from what I have observed rarely is a qp game waiting for heavy or assault players to join) then why should anyone ever play as a light or medium?
The injections of the first 25 are to help you buy your first mech. With it you'll have a much easier time earning money than with trial mechs. However, now your income is entirely based on what you do while playing rather than a fixed income per mission. The typical earnings range from 120k to 300k cbills for the winning side (you can definitely get higher). The losing side between 25k (did little to nothing) and 75k though I've seen earnings of over 200k on the losing side as well.
Heavies and assaults tend to be easily taken down by skilled lights, though unskilled lights tend to die pretty quickly. Mediums if you keep in the 50 to 55 ton category you should be pretty well off, lighter mediums tend to require certain player skill sets.
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3. I dont think a team payout pool would be better, nobody likes sharing and people will resent freeloaders who died right off the bat so, idk maybe weight class payment multipliers to reward the player a little more for fielding lighter mechs? Or bump the payout across the board. IMO c-bills should be the more common and easy to generate resource with the high c-bill cost of everything in the game. GXP I would have no problem with it being a rare resource with it being able to be used on any mech and having to grind for it. Or maybe let us covert GXP to c-bills at 1GXP : 56.25 c-bills and that would make my life easier I think.
Given the payouts for your actions, lights and mediums tend to have quite a payout favoring them as it's much easier to achieve the things that pile on to give big payouts. First to target an enemy, for example, is only available 12 times in a quickplay match and typically the first guy that finds the enemies will also target them to rack up that meaty payout. Unfortunately these lights sometimes end up doing something stupid and dying first, but someone skilled would be able to do it, get the information out there, and wait until someone else engages them before trying to also rack up the assist kills by getting at least a single shot in on every target.
What heavies and assaults have that lights and mediums don't is staying power. People hate dying. So they think the heaviest walking coffin of armor is gonna let them have the best chance they're going to get. Which may or may not be true. Nobody likes the rest of dying in a single shot as some lights have. A risk you can mitigate by reallocating your armor. If you plan on fighting a light, pump it forward. Running away a light? Pump it backward (unless Jenner/Raven or similar long-bodied light, in which case pump it forward anyway because their backs are tiny squares while the rest of their bodies count as front).
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Just things I have been seeing and opinions, still playing everyday and trying to get gud reading everything and watching YT videos (learned about the bonuses recently and how staying with the group is beneficial).
Not just beneficial to the group either, it's beneficial to your income and your survival. There are times when it's better to go off on your own, a well-timed flank is the difference between an average match and a big payout. However, for any flank to work there needs to be a front line of entrenched mechs keeping the enemy's frontline busy. And every flank can be thwarted by one or more mechs hanging back just a little bit and keeping an eye out.
Welcome to MWO.
On side notes:
My playing environment prevents me from "getting gud" with fast mechs, as such my Light preferences are tanky, slow things with hefty firepower and good positioning, preferably close to an assault that isn't likely to push in too hard but also isn't one to hang back (that's the hard thing to find, however communicating with the team goes a long, LONG way to improving the quality of matches).
My biggest money maker (excluding hero mechs) is the Archer. Specifically the ARC 5W. Full armor, additional health quirks, full tree and this thing tanks better than many assault mechs. Plenty of armor to be on the front row when needed. Four LRM launchers in the STs allow me to chain fire LRMs to pepper enemies from the second row as the firing lines are drawn. From this slightly-behind-the-team position I can still get formation bonuses, be far enough back to see impending enemy efforts to flank us, as well as keep my doors open without fear of being obliterated (as the doors being shut [with launchers installed] give a 20% damage resistance to each body part that has a door]. Since I'm also quite skilled with arm-aiming, my SRMs are the standard variety and used for when lights come to harass me or when I'm out of LRMs, as by then the enemy is incredibly weakened and my armor is usually still strong enough to carry for the team. Typically from fighting like this, my allies are also still alive more often than not since I'm taking care of enemy flanks that would otherwise obliterate my team.
This said, I haven't played since like...last March, and I haven't saved any scores or anything since January 2018 with this Hunchback
(You can tell by the kills I spent most of my time going solo, being among the first to spot the enemies and target them and taking on 6 head to head, though 3 of them I did not get the final blows on as my team showed up finally). (I like to fight isolated enemies when I'm using mediums; more intense, more fun, and usually good pay due to the success). (
Overall performance)
Another medium (Wolverine, AC, MGs, and SRMs, conservative play with plenty of time to carry a conversation in text.
Overall performance)
Thunderbolt 5S (1 PPC, 3 ML, LRM, 2 LMGs. The
evil bracket build...
Overall performance. Lot of people weren't having a good day it seems. I myself remember I was away for part of the match because my 3-year-old daughter started a new bad habbit -- climbing the stairs on the OUTSIDE of the rails, all the way to the top. That habit still persists, but now she can make her own way back down and just scares the **** out of her mother.)
Anyway, Archer.
Most recent.
Overall It could have been better, but I had taken the front line, and mind you this specific design while it could have better close-range offense, I take personal pride in being cocky enough to fight people with just 2 SRM-2s and dancing in front of enemies. So
this was inevitable
Another exceptional Archer one. The match score racks up highly with the support payments, so exceptional match score means you cashed in on the little things.
Overall. However, just the little things and damage won't get a high payout (as you'll see toward the end of my scores.) Successful kills are still needed. (Though in the 967 damage one I'm referring to further down, I also didn't spend any time on the front line or have a chance to actively hunt down enemies, and I wasn't the first spotter on anything at all so my pay really suffered for it.)
Another one the same day. (967 damage)
Overall My fate. (After scaring off the flanks at least three times, they then flanked from two directions which caused the entire team to turn around and so chase after them, and the front line broke. Since there were more enemies in the flank than assaults at the enemy's front line, this behavior sorta made sense since the entire enemy front line pulled away so we thought the two-prong flank was the whole front line, but soon as it broke the assaults pushed through and I got blasted by one of them. And
another one some days before without a full montage of images.
Point being, once you find a money maker you'll have an easier time with things. Even if you take out the 1.5* earnings, still looking at 260 or higher earnings for most of them (except the 967 one, despite the high match score I didn't get any protective bonuses, didn't spend any time on the front line, didn't kill anyone that almost killed a teammate, etc.. basically none of the good-paying stuff).
Be sure to check any event pages frequently for additional rewards; chances are you've been performing in an event and not getting anything due to not checking and claiming rewards.
Also take any advice with a grain of salt, what works for one player won't necessarily work for you. For example
Play to your strengths once you find them, and be aware of what you are not good with.
Another quick tip.
Every once in a while when things are going slow, hit B and take a look at the map and how things are going. I find the matches I do best in are the ones where I take a little time to plan ahead rather than rush in. Though it's hard to say MWO lives up to the motto, it used to call itself the "thinking person's shooter." Whether it's staying calm and planning your moves while under fire or predicting what the enemy is going to do and surprising them, thinking is something that makes this game easier in the long run. It's the days where I don't want to think that I absolutely bomb in performance.
Hope this helps. Good luck out there.
Grumpy Old Man, on 04 January 2020 - 01:47 PM, said:
Also, you can only get 500K+ per match when you use a Hero Mech, which gives you a 30% CBill boost, as well as Premium Time and actually win the game.
(Faction play can provide that too, though I have an example above in which I've got 500+k without a hero mech. Though I was using premium time and won.)
So a hero mech isn't required, but it makes achieving the task much easier due to the additional income boost.
3
income if you are piloting a light 'Mech:
