28 replies to this topic

[Quicksilver Aberration]

LordNothing, on 25 March 2025 - 06:49 PM, said:

the point i was getting at is that assaults need to come with weaknesses, and being susceptible to headshots and backstabs is part of that.

I mean realistically their weakness is being slow and large which typically makes them susceptible to flanks or getting caught by off-angles whether that be backstabs, getting poptarted to death, etc. Headshots just don't normally come into play unless we are talking about 1v1s or just not having override on so is it honestly a weakness if it's not really a concern if you are playing assaults well? tl;dr headshots are a non-factor in most matches unless you really screw up and at that point it probably wouldn't have made that much of a difference so what exactly is the real point in them?

[Gasboy]

1453 R, on 24 March 2025 - 06:28 AM, said:

Headcaps don't belong in a game like MWO.

Because while you are technically correct - headshots do, in fact, happen - this isn't Call of Duty where you can die thirty times in a match without issue, or where suffering a headshot is only two or three rounds of damage you were deprived of. In MWO - a game where, I remind you, it is impossible to properly armor/protect your cranial cabin in any way beyond "twist wildly so you cannot see and thus properly react to your opponent" - losing your 'Mech to headcap often means you've taken less than a tenth of the damage you might've otherwise soaked and suffer a red Arrow of Suck because some clapjob on the other team got lucky.

It feels horrible. You can mock people about 'fragile egos' all you want, but losing your entire game and having to sit through matchmaking again with your 'Mech you wanted to play locked up for the next twenty minutes because of a lucky shot is never not going to spike someone's mood. Why should we celebrate that crap?

And yet they have dropdecks and events (and originally faction play) where you do, indeed, respawn.

There are many headshots that are not luck but skill.

I get it, it sucks. For a split second. Then you get over it.

You can attempt to help your team by riding in their cockpits and offer advice.

You can exit the match and click on another mech.

Or you can go make a snack/coffee/do some web browsing while waiting for your mech to unlock.

It's not hard or trying.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Gasboy, on 30 March 2025 - 12:27 AM, said:

There are many headshots that are not luck but skill.

In things other than 1v1s or where your opponent isn't a spud standing still or shutting down, not really. After playing comp again for a year, they've actually come up maybe once in a blue moon? I've heard people potentially go for them more than that but most of the time it doesn't happen. More often than not someone accidentally hits a head and people try to laser scrape the remaining structure away to finish it off and even then typically the kill is through torsos instead.

[LordNothing]

any shut down in front of me is a free head. remember your override. i wont always have the right weapons or the right thermal situation to capitalize, but when i do, heads roll.

Edited by LordNothing, 30 March 2025 - 09:34 AM.

[Meep Meep]

The real irony here is that the people the thread was aimed at don't read the forums.

[Gasboy]

Quicksilver Aberration, on 30 March 2025 - 08:40 AM, said:

In things other than 1v1s or where your opponent isn't a spud standing still or shutting down, not really. After playing comp again for a year, they've actually come up maybe once in a blue moon? I've heard people potentially go for them more than that but most of the time it doesn't happen. More often than not someone accidentally hits a head and people try to laser scrape the remaining structure away to finish it off and even then typically the kill is through torsos instead.

Althen does nothing BUT headshots. It's all they are trying for, every single time I've encountered them. Watch them play and then tell me they get lucky every single match, all the time.

LordNothing, on 30 March 2025 - 09:33 AM, said:

any shut down in front of me is a free head. remember your override. i wont always have the right weapons or the right thermal situation to capitalize, but when i do, heads roll.

I stopped telling people to turn on their overrides in the 1v1 event.

Before, they would just shut down. Free kill.

Now, they simply explode and I don't get the kill. D:

Edited by Gasboy, Yesterday, 04:39 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Gasboy, on 31 March 2025 - 04:40 PM, said:

Althen does nothing BUT headshots. It's all they are trying for, every single time I've encountered them. Watch them play and then tell me they get lucky every single match, all the time.

Yeah, he does that in QP where most players play like AI. He also likes to run flamers to shut people down on that goofy fafnir he runs. He isn't doing that in comp where people are actually trying to do their best. Keeping in mind, Arthen isn't even considered one of the better players.

[Gasboy]

Quicksilver Aberration, on 31 March 2025 - 05:07 PM, said:

Yeah, he does that in QP where most players play like AI. He also likes to run flamers to shut people down on that goofy fafnir he runs. He isn't doing that in comp where people are actually trying to do their best. Keeping in mind, Arthen isn't even considered one of the better players.

Most of his headshots are skill, as in aimed, not luck. There are other out there doing the same thing. Not their faults if people make it easier.

In comp you usually don't have the luxury of aiming for headshots. Better to aim at larger targets like CT or legs. I suppose there might be times where you get to snipe in comp... but much of the time you won't have the chance.

I do see many instances where blue lasers damage head armor, but trading at a distance is usually a bit of a ticklefight than a headcap.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Gasboy, on 31 March 2025 - 05:51 PM, said:

In comp you usually don't have the luxury of aiming for headshots. Better to aim at larger targets like CT or legs. I suppose there might be times where you get to snipe in comp... but much of the time you won't have the chance.

This is my point, in an place where skills are tested most, headshots aren't really a thing. Yes, people like Arthen (who does not only go for headshots like in his SRM6 Cheetah) and Herod who do it in quickplay, yes it does take skill, but it's neither the most effective way to play quickplay nor is it really a great proof of anything, because again, running around in QP where such big skill gaps can still exist an people can play like AI sometimes, yeah it's not great. It's also very select few who go for headshots like Arthen and Herod too, like you don't see the bigger comp names trying to only farm headshots in QP trying to prove their "ultimate skill"

Generally, lower skill players are the ones who are obsessed with headshots and it's why you don't see a bunch of comp players arguing about it being the best "skill expression" of the game, because well, there are way more important things to learn in this game than that, in fact that's probably the last thing I'd bother learning.

Edited by Quicksilver Aberration, Yesterday, 07:50 PM.