149 replies to this topic

[Sven Svenson]

Like the system in general, voted for centurion but as more mechs become availble before launch that could change. Probably going Cappelan so a Vindicator would make a good med start mech for me. Do not like the heavies that are available now but would take an Orion if they put it in., Still dreaming of my Warhammer but trying not to get my hopes up. I would suggest dropping starting cash to 9 million so have to work a bit for that Atlas.

[Alabamatick]

Hador, on 26 February 2012 - 12:33 AM, said:

I doubt that everyone would go for assault mechs.

Personally i prefer a decent Medium or even a Heavy mech.


Perhaps we get some info about the start when they reveal new bits at the GDC.

exactly i've allways liked the catapult, tough and quite quick for a heavy and at 65 tons quite modable

[WerewolfX]

While the 10 mil idea is good. A better one would be that before you even play the game you go through the Negelring Mechwarrior training. You learn how to pilot manage heat etc and it drops you into 4 scenarios with the tenets of Role Warfare. The score is added up and it bases a recommendation to you based on how well you did. You can select the Mech they recommend or you can go against it and go higher or lower.
Example.
out of the four tests I got in the different classes a 65, 70, 75, 50 each corresponding to a different weight. The game averages them together and give you a net tonnage (Which would be displayed as Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault.) With those scores I'd be recommended into a Dragon or Catapult. If I scored lower (which isn't bad it's mainly how you think in terms of combat. Hell it could even be a final test instead of what I listed above on how you'd approach the situation. Think GOAT from Fallout 3.)
I'd be recommended a Centurion or Hunchback. Just an idea.

[Ryuu Tetsuhara]

WerewolfX, on 07 April 2012 - 04:54 PM, said:

While the 10 mil idea is good. A better one would be that before you even play the game you go through the Negelring Mechwarrior training. You learn how to pilot manage heat etc and it drops you into 4 scenarios with the tenets of Role Warfare. The score is added up and it bases a recommendation to you based on how well you did. You can select the Mech they recommend or you can go against it and go higher or lower.
Example.
out of the four tests I got in the different classes a 65, 70, 75, 50 each corresponding to a different weight. The game averages them together and give you a net tonnage (Which would be displayed as Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault.) With those scores I'd be recommended into a Dragon or Catapult. If I scored lower (which isn't bad it's mainly how you think in terms of combat. Hell it could even be a final test instead of what I listed above on how you'd approach the situation. Think GOAT from Fallout 3.)
I'd be recommended a Centurion or Hunchback. Just an idea.

True, mech academies have also been suggested in other threads:

http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

and could become the basis for a different MWO start-up model or complement the system/approach envisioned in this thread (following a mech academy, possibly rewarding each player with C-bills based on her/his performance in the academy ... however, this would not allow that every new player will be able to chose the mech she/he likes as planned by the developers, unless there is an 'instant action' option that circumvents the academy training).

[Omigir]

The problem as I see it is, if you can start in *ANY* class, then this will not work.

[Victor Morson]

People really rather have a slightly modified Dragon over an Awesome?

Oh, wow.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

The only problem with playing an Awesome in PUB games is you're reliant on someone else to watch your back for when someone gets inside 90m.

[MeDammit]

Close range is no different than long range for an Awesome. Not a city fighter, but anything fast enough to close within minimum range probably isn't armored enough to last long enough to get there. My problem with it is, at first you will have tons of lights and mediums ruling the field because they are pretty well maxed out against nearly "stock" heavies and assaults. But when the big boys match them upgrade for upgrade, let the pee-whining begin.

[William Petersen]

Wow, lots of love for the Centurion. Glad to see not everyone is foaming at the mouth for an assault.

I'd take the JR7, myself, though I'd be saving my extra C-Bills to buy a heavy (WTB ON1-K!!!) soon after.

[Thomas Oreland]

There seems to be alot of back and forth about this. My own suggestion is this...

If someone plays through from Light to Med to Hvy to Assault they should get a bonus to their exp, loyalty, and money over someone who just went straight to higher weight class! Why... because that person will have a greater understanding of the machines that are on the field. The (grind) to advance in the mechs shouldn't be based on wins either. Ppl with no regular group will end up losing more often then not because of PUGs. Which will stagnate their progression and possible make some good players leave who comein with no group to join already. Unless the average playerbase is better then what I've seen on near every game I've played (not likely). F2p WILL bring the unskilled, uncaring, and the unreliable (as far as combat).

I ranted my apology! Simply if you work through all 4 tiers big bonus, 3 tiers good bonus, 2 tiers ...a bonus, Straight to Assault nada

[Orzorn]

I would personally drop my cash on a Dragon and then use the rest for outfitting it with my own personal weapon scheme, then save the rest for repairs and other such things. My next mech after that would be a Commando.

[JadeTimberwolf]

It seems like it could be a fair idea, having everyone starting out with a certain amount of C-bills and letting them buy a mech+extra parts or a couple of mechs if they can afford to, I just don't think we should be limited to less then available mechs as your poll may end up having us, I don't know if they made any official announcement on it or not (haven't paid alot of attention to announcements lately) but I personally would rather be in a Warhammer or Battlemaster then any of the listed mechs.

[Zynk]

Your First Mech should be issued to you.

What type of Mech you get depends on House and % roll chance.

20% Light Mech / 40% Med Mech / 35% Heavy Mech / 5% Assault Mech.

[JadeTimberwolf]

Zynk, on 16 April 2012 - 04:12 PM, said:

Your First Mech should be issued to you.

What type of Mech you get depends on House and % roll chance.

20% Light Mech / 40% Med Mech / 35% Heavy Mech / 5% Assault Mech.

I could see this working as well but I would modify it, instead of the % roll determining weight class the options a player picks should determine weight class and then the % roll determines which Mech in that class they get. In that sense it more closely resembles the 3rd edition Mechwarrior Paper and Pencil RPG where your characters were built on a priority basis and one of those priorities was Mech Weight Class and from there you rolled to see what Mech in that class you got.

[EDMW CSN]

Zynk, on 16 April 2012 - 04:12 PM, said:

Your First Mech should be issued to you.

What type of Mech you get depends on House and % roll chance.

20% Light Mech / 40% Med Mech / 35% Heavy Mech / 5% Assault Mech.

No thank you, I do not want to be in an assault or Heavy.

[Rejarial Galatan]

10 mil at start to distribute some how on a mech and potential upgrades? Me, Im assault, and given the above list, Id put it into an atlas. that mech is scary enough stock to be enough of a work horse till I get more substantial funds to get my beloved warhawk or direwolf or a timberwolf mk2 or even my marauder IIC or a stone rhino perhaps.

[MacabreDerek]

Kip Wilson, on 26 February 2012 - 11:30 AM, said:

Being able to buy an atlas or any other assault class 'mech right out of the gate is a bad, bad idea. I learnt of World of Tanks from this forum and have the last weeks or two been playing the game fairly consistently. After 2000 battles and working hard to reach a teir 8 heavy tank, one of my biggest pet peeves of mine are the players that spend real money to buy their teir 8 gold tank right out of the gate. These players generally have less than 100 or 200 matches under their belt, know nothing about how to play their tank, know nothing about the various maps and care nothing for playing as part of a team.

Nothings worse than having the heaviest hitters on your team go rushing out in the middle of a map and get completely ganged up on. It pretty much guarantees a loss. Most teams can survive loosing a light or medium tank thats driven by a rank amateur but loosing a heavy while the other side still has theirs makes things very difficult.

People say that "most" players wouldn't take an assault or even a heavy if they had the option. That might be the case here on the forums but that wont be the case for the typical player. If this is allowed, what we will see is games of complete newbies duking it out in their stock assaults and getting themselves and their teammates completely pwned.

No, I have to say that players need to earn the right to pilot heavies and assault. Im not talking spending 12 hours a day for a month grinding away just so you can get into that Atlas, that makes things no fun either. Maybe they should be unlocked after a certain number of battles have been played, or better yet, a certain number of battles have been won by the player. Something reasonable, like maybe a week worth of playing, when the player starts understanding how to play the various maps and what kinds of tactics works best.

Im also not disregarding the value of a light or medium 'mech. As a matter of fact, in WoT Iprefer to use medium tanks myself (which is why I know how important heavies are in a game). A good scout 'mech can definately influance in a battle, and so can a well played medium. With that being said however, even skilled light/medium drivers have to depend on the heavy/assaults for support.

My vote would be to make the starting cash somewhere around 5-6,000,000 c-bills. That way you can start out in a very nicely equippped light or a good solid medium. If you're smart, you even might be able to get into an entry level heavy, but that's the limit.

I have to disagree with this post. The biggest reason actually comes from WoTs. Starting off with an Atlas doesnt automaticly make the player any less or more compident at the game than starting in a Jenner, and the skills you learn in a Jenner are pretty much non-applicable to playing an Atlas.

In World of Tanks, you find alot of people struggling with their opening Heavies (KV comes to mind) because the whole grind to GET to a heavy was forcing them to play as Light Scouts and Medium Wolf-Packers. The lessons you learn playing as a Heavy are applicable only to the heavy, as the light with the light, and medium with the medium. Same goes for Battlemechs. A person playing in a Catapult will have to learn and apply very different tactics than a person running in a Hunchback.

What mech they choose at the start is irrelevant to skill being built up because of these ideals, but is more likely to meet with success since they are thrown into the mech of their choice and are more likely to enjoy the experience, stick around long enough to learn how to best operate within their given role. Is the newcomer with an Atlas going to make alot of mistakes and probably die due to them? Yes, but that's no different than the Scout who thinks he can brawl, the Support who thinks he can scout while taking ground, and the Atlas who thinks he's a one-man-army. These are things you will have to LEARN while playing your chosen role, it applies to everyone.

If your concern is every n00b on the planet is gonna take the Atlas, I say let them. They arnt doing any more damage to themselves and the team than they would be in any other roles. The concern comes from the given player, not the mech of choice. Forcing them to play a scout first and build their way up is not going to make them ready to play the given role they are working up to, and not nearly as fast as jumping into the mech of their choosing, though allowing them to start with their mech of choice is more likely to keep their interest, keep the playing, keep them learning and developing as a pilot, which in turn breeds the better pilots that you do want on your team.

People make mistakes, people learn, and if you think 'starting slow' is going to help, you'll often find all it does is frustrate.

[Rejarial Galatan]

MacabreDerek, on 16 April 2012 - 09:32 PM, said:

I have to disagree with this post. The biggest reason actually comes from WoTs. Starting off with an Atlas doesnt automaticly make the player any less or more compident at the game than starting in a Jenner, and the skills you learn in a Jenner are pretty much non-applicable to playing an Atlas.

In World of Tanks, you find alot of people struggling with their opening Heavies (KV comes to mind) because the whole grind to GET to a heavy was forcing them to play as Light Scouts and Medium Wolf-Packers. The lessons you learn playing as a Heavy are applicable only to the heavy, as the light with the light, and medium with the medium. Same goes for Battlemechs. A person playing in a Catapult will have to learn and apply very different tactics than a person running in a Hunchback.

What mech they choose at the start is irrelevant to skill being built up because of these ideals, but is more likely to meet with success since they are thrown into the mech of their choice and are more likely to enjoy the experience, stick around long enough to learn how to best operate within their given role. Is the newcomer with an Atlas going to make alot of mistakes and probably die due to them? Yes, but that's no different than the Scout who thinks he can brawl, the Support who thinks he can scout while taking ground, and the Atlas who thinks he's a one-man-army. These are things you will have to LEARN while playing your chosen role, it applies to everyone.

If your concern is every n00b on the planet is gonna take the Atlas, I say let them. They arnt doing any more damage to themselves and the team than they would be in any other roles. The concern comes from the given player, not the mech of choice. Forcing them to play a scout first and build their way up is not going to make them ready to play the given role they are working up to, and not nearly as fast as jumping into the mech of their choosing, though allowing them to start with their mech of choice is more likely to keep their interest, keep the playing, keep them learning and developing as a pilot, which in turn breeds the better pilots that you do want on your team.

People make mistakes, people learn, and if you think 'starting slow' is going to help, you'll often find all it does is frustrate.

Cannot agree more! I personally cannot stand the light scout mechs. Absolutely way too fragile for me. My style of combat in MW2,3,4 has shown me I need 65+ tons of mech under me. I am excessively violent as a pilot. I tend to come to a halt in single player and just hammer the daylights out of my foes. That said, in this game, I think being able to start in the role and mech you want will breed a better pilot for that role. I mean come on, force a guy to start with a firemoth and work up to the direwolf? uh bad idea! the tactics in the Firemoth are waaaay diff than that of a Direwolf. Let the player pick his mech at start, pick his role. If he or she do not like that combo, start again with a new combo on the character.

[JadeTimberwolf]

MacabreDerek, on 16 April 2012 - 09:32 PM, said:

I have to disagree with this post. The biggest reason actually comes from WoTs. Starting off with an Atlas doesnt automaticly make the player any less or more compident at the game than starting in a Jenner, and the skills you learn in a Jenner are pretty much non-applicable to playing an Atlas.

In World of Tanks, you find alot of people struggling with their opening Heavies (KV comes to mind) because the whole grind to GET to a heavy was forcing them to play as Light Scouts and Medium Wolf-Packers. The lessons you learn playing as a Heavy are applicable only to the heavy, as the light with the light, and medium with the medium. Same goes for Battlemechs. A person playing in a Catapult will have to learn and apply very different tactics than a person running in a Hunchback.

What mech they choose at the start is irrelevant to skill being built up because of these ideals, but is more likely to meet with success since they are thrown into the mech of their choice and are more likely to enjoy the experience, stick around long enough to learn how to best operate within their given role. Is the newcomer with an Atlas going to make alot of mistakes and probably die due to them? Yes, but that's no different than the Scout who thinks he can brawl, the Support who thinks he can scout while taking ground, and the Atlas who thinks he's a one-man-army. These are things you will have to LEARN while playing your chosen role, it applies to everyone.

If your concern is every n00b on the planet is gonna take the Atlas, I say let them. They arnt doing any more damage to themselves and the team than they would be in any other roles. The concern comes from the given player, not the mech of choice. Forcing them to play a scout first and build their way up is not going to make them ready to play the given role they are working up to, and not nearly as fast as jumping into the mech of their choosing, though allowing them to start with their mech of choice is more likely to keep their interest, keep the playing, keep them learning and developing as a pilot, which in turn breeds the better pilots that you do want on your team.

People make mistakes, people learn, and if you think 'starting slow' is going to help, you'll often find all it does is frustrate.

I couldn't agree with you more about much of what you say, but there is one thing that I feel is relevent between the different weight classes, role, you have mechs of different roles in every class, some roles cross over between 2 or more classes, example support role mechs are found in all 4 classes while scouts are pretty much limited to light and medium mechs, long range fire support medium through assault, artillery is heavy and assault, front line combatants are medium and heavy with a few assault mechs able to fill that role as well.

As to what you said about WoT I agree with you 100% I got tired of trying to play lights so as soon as I could I upgraded to a medium, but my tank playstyle puts me needing a heavy. I even tried playing artillery and couldn't really get into it so in the end I uninstalled and found something else. It wasn't a matter of not understanding how to play those tanks I would try to act as a forward scout for my teams artillery when playing a light, or in the medium I would run as support for the lights that were scouting or the heavies making their assault charges but I just wasn't comfortible in the roles I played.

[MacabreDerek]

Rejarial Galatan, on 16 April 2012 - 09:39 PM, said:

Cannot agree more! I personally cannot stand the light scout mechs. Absolutely way too fragile for me. My style of combat in MW2,3,4 has shown me I need 65+ tons of mech under me. I am excessively violent as a pilot. I tend to come to a halt in single player and just hammer the daylights out of my foes. That said, in this game, I think being able to start in the role and mech you want will breed a better pilot for that role. I mean come on, force a guy to start with a firemoth and work up to the direwolf? uh bad idea! the tactics in the Firemoth are waaaay diff than that of a Direwolf. Let the player pick his mech at start, pick his role. If he or she do not like that combo, start again with a new combo on the character.

What I was more focused on was Playstyle of a mech rather than it's actual wieght-class. An Awesome plays very differently than an Atlas even though they are both assaults. That being said, you wont learn to play an Awesome by practicing on an Atas. The key thing comes down to giving a player the ability to play the style he wants, and making it accessable to continue onward with his strengths. If you find yourself wanting to play a fire-support missile mech, it makes absolutly no sense for me to start off in a Jenner, and expect to play really well as a Catapult when I 'work my way up to it'.

At best, you can learn about maps, fireing lines, kill-zones, spawn-areas, common camping and sniping zones, patrol paths, etc. But even then, some of that may not be relivant if you're playing a different mech than that which favours your style of combat. A Dragon isnt expected to arrive in the same area at the same time as a Jenner, and the same goes for the Atlas. You're game and your approach to each match has to be tailored to the expectations and constants that only arrive when playing the same mech, and starting someone off in a different mech with different speeds, range and armour changes the whole face of the game dispite knowing these things. An Awesome can expect to dominate a fireing line, but can not expect to be the first one there to take it. So they will probably be depending on how the lighter mechs do to innitially take his sniping lane, and that will change how far forward he goes to take ground, and where he'll be using for cover. These are all very specific to each player's experience, and in the end if you want someone to play competently then you have to start them out in the mech/roll first and give them a chance to learn how each match is likely to go.