20 replies to this topic

[Darian DelFord]

Tier 1 and 2 players, domination, and most trading shots on the high ground ignoring the circle. I think Aethos was the only assault that actually tried to defend it. I was in it initially then reversed out once my position was compromised. Could not get back to it as there was to much tonnage between me and the circle. 3rd or 4th time I have lost on domination since I have been back, and its really freaking annoying the heavies and assaults hide.

[martian]

Your video shows absolutely normal behaviour.

When piloting a light 'Mech, I give those snipers in a heavy and assault 'Mechs a certain limited amount of time. After a while, I usually leave the circle.

I am not going to get myself killed, so they can snipe a higher score.

[pattonesque]

If heavies and assaults are legit hiding (and this would not be surprising as the default behavior of the common Mechdad is to panic, cower, and sob the moment they come under fire), that's bad. But I would also say that, properly played (and uncountered -- again, a thing Mechdads love to do is fail to deal with active threats to the point where I think many of them lack object permanence) a heavy or assault sniper is extremely impactful and can shut down entire avenues.

[Meep Meep]

This is a bad map for timid teams on domination. Circle is all low ground with little cover and the initial run to get to the circle usually gets you shot up. Camping the high ground is normal here. They need to move the circle closer to the mountain side of the low ground.

[Rosarius]

You don't need to be in the circle to hold it. Any damage done to 'Mechs inside the circle will temporarily stop the capture timer.

So if the circle is a target rich kill box, you better believe I'm going to shoot into it rather than walk into it because that's what wins the game.

You know what loses the game? Rushing into the kill box while so the enemy's firing line can have a field day

[JediPanther]

I just bomb it with lrm and arty strike. My light is too busy staying alive to stand in one spot not moving.

[1453 R]

Normal and expected behavior in Frozen City Domination, unfortunately. Why people vote for that horrid game type, I will never bloody know, but on Frozen the Dom point is a suicidal hellhole. Nobody will ever try and take it. If they want to put the Dom point in a valley between two gigantic sniper hills, that's on PGI more than the playerbase. Frozen City really is the greatest failure of a map reconstruction from those days, it says something that FC Classic is universally preferred over NuFrozen.

[Novakaine]

I used whine about snipers all the time.
Then it simply dawned on me to just play smarter.
Know the maps learn the sniper points.
Just play smarter.

[pattonesque]

Novakaine, on 24 November 2025 - 11:03 AM, said:

I used whine about snipers all the time.
Then it simply dawned on me to just play smarter.
Know the maps learn the sniper points.
Just play smarter.

it's this

"oh no there is a sniper on the walls in HPG!!!!!" that's cool. unless they move quite a bit or there's a lot of them there are whole swathes of the map they cannot fire upon. Many of you actively choose to walk into a location covered by a sniper and then wonder what happened

[1453 R]

pattonesque, on 24 November 2025 - 01:13 PM, said:

it's this

"oh no there is a sniper on the walls in HPG!!!!!" that's cool. unless they move quite a bit or there's a lot of them there are whole swathes of the map they cannot fire upon. Many of you actively choose to walk into a location covered by a sniper and then wonder what happened

"But that's where the eeeenemies are!"

F'in' doy, Theoretical Sniper-Bait Player. The objective is to be aggress into the enemy under the cover of your own backline machines while denying the enemy the advantage of their backline machines as much as possible. If your current position and line of attack can't manage that, then move elsewhere before seriously engaging.

It's only the occasional idiotic Domination match where you can't do this. If a sniper's got somewhere covered, don't fight there. Easy as that.

[La Douche]

As someone else pointed out, this is absolutely normal Frozen City Dom. FCD is hands down my least favorite combo as it is rare to have an enjoyable match here.

Typically, without a strong commander / super agressive badgering the team splits up into 2 or 3 groups instantly (as they spawn apart anyway).

High ground right is usually the safest area so half the team goes there, a few try to be cute and go high ground left and get smeared, a few brave souls figure that since it is dom someone needs to go hold the point. At first you think there are places to hide there. In reality, there is nowhere to hide once things get cooking.

First the group that went left dies, then the heroes in the middle die, the remaining group who went right hold on for a while until they get picked apart or the dom point times them out as the enemy moves through there over the smoking ruins of the point holders.

It seems like statisically sometimes one would be on the other side of this but somehow it always seems to break the wrong way. Perhaps the product of dropping solo and being statistically what, 50% more likely to be placed against the 4-man if there is only 1 in the match.

Edited by La Douche, 24 November 2025 - 02:40 PM.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Yeah, that map and mode has needed an adjustment for a long time. Maybe someone nudge Tiyos?

[Meep Meep]

It would take a map change but all you really have to do is take the ship in the low ground and turn it 90 degrees so that it offers equal cover from the sniper hills to each side. Then you can have a few mechs sit in the circle and the snipers can snipe each other and provide overwatch if the circle mechs are pushed. Currently with the way the ship is oriented it provides almost no cover from the hills to either side.

[foamyesque]

Meep Meep, on 21 November 2025 - 12:39 PM, said:

This is a bad map for timid teams on domination. Circle is all low ground with little cover and the initial run to get to the circle usually gets you shot up. Camping the high ground is normal here. They need to move the circle closer to the mountain side of the low ground.

It ain't a great map for aggressive teams either because if the other guys know how defend at all you're likely to be feeding yourselves into a meatgrinder unless you know exactly what you're doing...

[Blood Rose]

Meep Meep, on 25 November 2025 - 02:07 PM, said:

It would take a map change but all you really have to do is take the ship in the low ground and turn it 90 degrees so that it offers equal cover from the sniper hills to each side. Then you can have a few mechs sit in the circle and the snipers can snipe each other and provide overwatch if the circle mechs are pushed. Currently with the way the ship is oriented it provides almost no cover from the hills to either side.

Better idea: Turn it into an actual city and delete the massive 200 metre deep, near half a kilo wide, canyon in the centre. Theres no need for it and it adds nothing save to let the sniper overlords dominate yet another map. Theres precious few maps that snipers do not dominate, let the brawlers have this one back.

[Ted Wayz]

Blood Rose, on 29 November 2025 - 12:56 PM, said:

Better idea: Turn it into an actual city and delete the massive 200 metre deep, near half a kilo wide, canyon in the centre. Theres no need for it and it adds nothing save to let the sniper overlords dominate yet another map. Theres precious few maps that snipers do not dominate, let the brawlers have this one back.

Or delete it. We have Frozen City Classic.

Have lost more Domination matches lately due to no one in the circle or flat out refusing to go into the circle. Lost one where we were leading 5-4. Our lance was the only lance in the circle and we were outmatched 2 to 1. The map was HPG Manifold.

It is not just frozen city folks. Have seen it happen on every map. It is not an issue of lack of cover on a map. It is due to a shift in play.

The truth is, if you can't leg a Flea moving at full speed moving in and out of cover, then you shouldn't be sniping. You would be better served sharing your armor in the circle.

Most the time the snipers are at the limit of their range so they are hitting with pebbles. Try and stay within the effective range of your weapons and ignore the people at the max of theirs. Get to the circle.

[1453 R]

"Sharing armor" is such a terrible way to put it, and the longer I play this game the more I absolutely detest that phrase. It encourages poor play, and the idea that so long as everybody takes damage you're doing perfectly fine.

What you should be doing is sharing (and thus diluting) the enemy's focus. Which requires you to attack the enemy alongside your teammates...AT THE SAME TIME. It does not mean "jump out, shoot once, get slugged, immediately go full chickenwing and sprint back into the safety of Mommy Rock while the guy who tried to push with you gets cut down like the soldier who showed the squad the picture of the girl he was gonna marry after this one last deployment."

Don't share armor. Armor is an expendable but still finite resource, avoid taking unnecessary damage wherever possible. Do share attention. Share focus. And for the love of Kerensky, share firepower. Shoot the enemy at the same time your team does. Even momentary instances of local superiority can begin the snowballing process, and the longer it takes for y'all to get liquored up and willing to actually aggress the enemy, the more chances the enemy has to beat you to the punch.

[MrMadguy]

1453 R, on 01 December 2025 - 05:00 PM, said:

"Sharing armor" is such a terrible way to put it, and the longer I play this game the more I absolutely detest that phrase. It encourages poor play, and the idea that so long as everybody takes damage you're doing perfectly fine.

What you should be doing is sharing (and thus diluting) the enemy's focus. Which requires you to attack the enemy alongside your teammates...AT THE SAME TIME. It does not mean "jump out, shoot once, get slugged, immediately go full chickenwing and sprint back into the safety of Mommy Rock while the guy who tried to push with you gets cut down like the soldier who showed the squad the picture of the girl he was gonna marry after this one last deployment."

Don't share armor. Armor is an expendable but still finite resource, avoid taking unnecessary damage wherever possible. Do share attention. Share focus. And for the love of Kerensky, share firepower. Shoot the enemy at the same time your team does. Even momentary instances of local superiority can begin the snowballing process, and the longer it takes for y'all to get liquored up and willing to actually aggress the enemy, the more chances the enemy has to beat you to the punch.

+1

No support - is one of the biggest problems. What I usually do: if my team attacks - I attack too. Simply because it's the most effective way to play even in case of selfish player. If you hide and you team attacks - you lose potential DMG, while your team is outnumbered. If you attack alone - you're outnumbered by enemy players and die due to limited income/outcome ratio. And former usually turns into later. "Share armor" is one of that selfish things, that sounds like "You soak damage and die, while I farm my free DMG in Light 'Mech". But what I usually see in this game - is Rambo-style "every man for himself" playstyle. Usually it's something like either play invulnerable Light and play stealth-action instead of shooter or hide behind others and wait till very last moment to attempt to finish all damaged enemies.

But overall you should understand one thing. Core problem of this game - is game design itself. It encourages players to be cowards. Why? Because due to nature of pinpoint damage players are unable to "tank" damage. Armor is useless in this game. You have hundreds of armor on your Assault 'Mech, but Medium 'Mech still have enough pinpoint damage to two-shot any component from any distance. And 3 seconds are enough for some Piranha to chew it. Players have to be very careful due to how fragile their 'Mechs are. It's counter-intuitive, cuz it's Assault, that should be tanky, not Lights. That's why sniping and LRMing are so popular. Because at the end goal of this game is - to stay alive for long enough to farm enough DMG. And it's about playing long game.

[1453 R]

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

+1

I reject this +1 because everything you said is emphatically wrong and it makes me want to cringe out of my own skin.

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

No support - is one of the biggest problems. What I usually do: if my team attacks - I attack too. Simply because it's the most effective way to play even in case of selfish player. If you hide and you team attacks - you lose potential DMG, while your team is outnumbered. If you attack alone - you're outnumbered by enemy players and die due to limited income/outcome ratio. And former usually turns into later.

This is one of only two bits you got even remotely halfway close to correct. And even then - sometimes you have to be the one to initiate, especially if you're an Assault Guy that never drops in anything smaller than 85 tons. Assault 'Mechs have to commit to the fight, and most remaining players know that. They won't follow a light or medium, they'll maybe follow a heavy, but the Fatbros are the ones that drive the train. That's not how it should be, but that's how it is.

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

"Share armor" is one of that selfish things, that sounds like "You soak damage and die, while I farm my free DMG in Light 'Mech". But what I usually see in this game - is Rambo-style "every man for himself" playstyle. Usually it's something like either play invulnerable Light and play stealth-action instead of shooter or hide behind others and wait till very last moment to attempt to finish all damaged enemies.

I am not advocating for people using my words to kvetch about playstyles they don't like. Light 'Mechs, of the Platonic sort, don't have any bleedin' armor to share; they cannot survive enemy focus. Light 'Mechs are purpose built to multiply combat, utilize mobility to strike from unexpected angles, take advantage of lapses in enemy focus, and pursue wounded threats to eliminate them. You may not like these things, but that makes them no less true, nor valid. Light 'Mechs can contribute by taking maximal advantage of the diluted enemy focus a concerted push generates, and by harrying and distracting the enemy to further dilute their focus before that push as their situation allows.

Remember: armor is expendable but not finite. Avoid unnecessary damage.

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

But overall you should understand one thing. Core problem of this game - is game design itself. It encourages players to be cowards.

The only actually correct thing you said in the entire post. Sad it was for entirely the wrong reasons.

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

Why? Because due to nature of pinpoint damage players are unable to "tank" damage. Armor is useless in this game. You have hundreds of armor on your Assault 'Mech, but Medium 'Mech still have enough pinpoint damage to two-shot any component from any distance. And 3 seconds are enough for some Piranha to chew it. Players have to be very careful due to how fragile their 'Mechs are. It's counter-intuitive, cuz it's Assault, that should be tanky, not Lights.

I love how you talk about how "assaults should be tanky, not lights" after spending the rest of your post complaining about how lights play poorly and farm match score/rewards because they don't take damage. I get it - assault jocks want to be Ultra Invincible Weapons of Mass Annihilation that absolutely cannot be beaten, countered, or even seriously threatened by anything save another assault 'Mech. Or, well. Some "assault jocks" want this.

Void Angel analyzed why the game trains cowardice in their decade-plus old Timidity Is Not a Tactic thread. Read that. Understand it. Then try spewing words again.

MrMadguy, on 01 December 2025 - 11:03 PM, said:

That's why sniping and LRMing are so popular. Because at the end goal of this game is - to stay alive for long enough to farm enough DMG. And it's about playing long game.

Long-distance and indirect builds are "popular" (hint, they're not remotely as popular as you think, people just get instantly assmad when they see one and confirmation bias kicks in) because they feel safe. Because they feel like finding a loophole in the game that lets you punch without being punched back. The problem is that most average players do terribly in these builds because they need higher than average trained skill in order to consistently work well, and over time drift to something more consistent, i.e. midrange DPS or trading.

Or more likely, they drift to close-range Monkey Smash builds instead because those provide the dopamine hit they want. They're equally inconsistent, but they're inconsistent in a way the playerbase tends to prefer. Notice that nobody ever starts a thread complaining about all the brawlers ruining their sniping/long-distance games. Nope - it's all Giga Chungus 100t 'brawlers' complaining about being chewed up by lights, picked apart by "snipers" (i.e. anyone with a weapon with more reach than a medium laser), or bowled over by LRMs. If people were playing these long-distance builds in the seething hordes everyone seems to carp about, why do you never see any of them speaking up, hm?

Seriously, Madguy. The game doesn't owe you victories. Work for them like everyone else, or go play MW5 for a while to get your Legendary Invincible Hero fix.

Edited by 1453 R, 02 December 2025 - 09:00 PM.

[GreyNovember]

It also really doesn't help that when people play "Sniper warrior", they also refuse to mount Seismic, and have zero peripheral vision.





I don't know how people are letting me get away with this without even running ECM.