25 replies to this topic

[1Exitar1]

kalashnikity, on 09 March 2025 - 11:29 PM, said:

FWIW, I recently got a BJ-2 and after testing both long and short range builds, I settled on a mid range build, (LPPC and MRM) and I'm pretty happy with it.

Testing builds these last few days, it was hard to engage with SRM/SNPPC as it is too slow and low armor to deal with brutally accurate close range counter fire, and ERPPC/LRM had too low of DPS, and FWIW, LxPL felt broken (weak)

That's far from the only example, except for niche builds and certain maps (e.g. Alpine Peaks is sniper's paradise), most encounters these days are going to be in the 400m to 600m range, lots of mid range trading these days. My BJ-2 does full damage out to ~700m, so it's right in the sweet spot.

(without duration quirks, LxPL seems super weak)

I like the BJ-1X with 7 er med lasers and a binary. I play with both the XL engine and a second 1X with a light engine. The light engine is a little slower, but I can lose a torso without dying. I prefer the XL build because of the speed; 97KPH.

[Tywren]

1453 R, on 10 March 2025 - 07:54 AM, said:

the problem with Yeehaw #$%! the Law banzai charges like what you describe, Swamp, is that they reinforce the behavior you despise. Think about it - the other eleven people on your team see you bolt from the cover they're all chickendicking behind, Braveheart your way into the enemy team, and get blown into metal tabletop dice in short order. Are they going to say "Damn, we should've supported that guy so his aggressive charge into the enemy wasn't wasted"? No. Not even a little. They'll say "wow, that guy was a total idiot, he got himself blown into an Etsy reclaimed-art store right away. Man I sure am glad I'm sitting behind this rock not getting blown up instead!" And when they die ten minutes later to the enemy finally developing the gonadal fortitude required to get out from behind their rocks and take advantage of the power play you've gifted them, will your team say "Oh no! We should've gone with that guy who charged tender bits first into the enemy while we were still even up!"? No. Not even a little. They'll say "wow, that guy was a jerk for getting himself killed so early instead of waiting behind a rock accomplishing nothing like the rest of us until everybody consumed enough alcohol to get going and fight in our giant robot combat game!" Void Angel wrote a whole thing on it, and it remains one of my favorite posts on this forum over a decade later. You can either account for human psychology and its malicious tendency to encourage chickendicking, or you can just explode uselessly a lot. Which, I absolutely feel you, I end up doing a lot of premature detonation myself when I've had it with people being cowards. But that doesn't really make me a better player, or help people learn that camping behind a rock for twelve minutes ceding ground and initiative to the enemy is an absolutely terrible idea.

Funny thing, but games in the Battle Royal genera have figured out how to solve the problem of people standing in back doing the ol' Dutch Rudder. They slowly shrink the size of the playing area over time, forcing players to actually move in and engage, or die due to being out of bounds.

[LordNothing]

its a known fact that the best way to get soldiers to perform is put their back against the wall. once you are in a do or die situation you will fight to defend yourself and your unit. this is why cowardice was delt with using a firing squad, because you could not always count on terrain to keep your men from running away.

you can shrink the map. or you can have angry clan dude order you to execute your cowardly starmates. also works for excessive team damage and friendly fire. you can also rat out your position to the other team if you haven't attempted to engage in a certain amount of time. you can enable seismo-style radar blips if the match runs > 10 minutes. blip frequency increases the longer you evade combat.

Edited by LordNothing, 25 March 2025 - 07:14 PM.

[Ttly]

caravann, on 09 March 2025 - 12:16 PM, said:

When you protect your rear never twist 45°
Max 35° never beyond that.

Always try to keep a distance when shooting.
And if you lost all hope , run backwards.

No, when you torso twist you just watch the compass notches in your UI and twist the torso to the side around two notches or less since each notch represents 45 degrees and most hitboxes having its front hitbox covering like 210 degrees of a vehicle's front. This way you'd have the arms (which in most cases have decent hitpoint count for whoever's shooting at you to chew through at least/preferable to losing ST even if they're weapon arms) actually covering your body, at least hitbox permitting.
You can just do the nose wiggle and stuff instead if you're on things like the Stalker I guess.
I mean it's not that deep, just watching the UI at minimum.
This is also like one of the gimmick reasons why you'd want target retention.

Example of what around 2 compass notches torso twists look like.

Spoiler

Oh and you can still hit the CT anyway even if someone does this by just shooting them on the "crotch" area which usually has a CT hitbox.

Edited by Ttly, 26 March 2025 - 03:03 AM.

[Ken Harkin]

Running a short range brawler successfully means NOT pulling a Leeroy Jenkins then complaining about the rest of the team not following your Banzai charge into the waiting firing line.

I mean you CAN play it that way, but it will not be succesful.

My favorite builds are 75ton Marauders with AC20, 2 SPPC, and MLs. Range skilled out you are looking at an effective range of 310m. As long as I do not do anything stupid and we make it to a roughly even second half of the match that mech SHINES. By then things have closed in to < 500m and it is time to wreck face. It is the model which got me my Ace of Spades and did so by eating them alive with pinpoint damage at short range while rolling the return damage. Siesmic Sensor is also invaluable here as it lets you know just when they are getting close.

You can play how you want but playing poorly on purpose cannot possibly be rewarding.

[LordNothing]

thing is if you present your side for too long, an enemy can find a way to hit one of your hitboxes. like a guy twists and you shot him in the crotch, or take a leg. so movement of all mech components comes in handy. i like to twist and oscillate myself. oscillation in of itself is useful in that it really confuses aim. useful if your weapon cycle time is less than the time it takes to do a full twist.

Edited by LordNothing, 28 March 2025 - 03:51 PM.