11 replies to this topic

[Esoh]

I been in beta last couple of days getting the feel of the game. I saved up and bought a Centurion CN9-AL. Im currently equipped with a ER Large Laser, 2 Med Pulse in Center, and 2 Streaks. I constantly averaging between 25-100 dmg a game. Right under half the games I stay alive with team. I constantly hit targets and even find the ones power down not moving and get multiple shots on them. My last game I registered 4 assists and 1 kill but once scoreboard posted I only did 75 dmg. How is that possible?

Am I not bowing to the sacred mech god before the battle is started? Or is there some kind of tactic I am missing with my lasers causing the dmg not to be higher. Any input would be much appreciated for a new player. In comparison everyone else on the scoreboard is between 200-550 dmg plus. Im constantly in the last 3 on dmg output.

[The Cheese]

Probably just bad netcode. It's not uncommon to see your shots hit a target, but have that target not register a hit against it.

Gotta lead your targets, bro.

[hashinshin]

Just logged in because you have an issue you don't even realize:

Your heat management is TERRIBLE. You likely can't fire for more than 5 seconds without having to wait 20 to manage your heat.

Downgrade the ER laser to a large laser, downgrade the 2 med pulse to 2 medium lasers. Go from there and you will notice a LOT more uptime on your weapons actually firing.

<THIS IS THE ACTUAL REASON. Anyone saying anything else is not reading your post. Your heat management is to blame here, you simply can not fire for any period of time to actually get your damage numbers rolling up.>

In fact, let me help you a bit more:

-Laser weapons have no ammo, but do less damage/generate more heat than ballistics. Basically, Ballistics (Gauss, auto cannons, missiles) do more damage per heat than lasers, lasers do less damage per heat than ballistics, but have no ammo.
-Pulse in particular are EXTREMELY heat inefficient but do good damage.
-Pulse, however, are so heat inefficient and just bad that it takes specialized high end mechs to run them. If you want to use pulse on a normal mech you have to be using ballistics to compensate for them, and you must be using a rush-down mech.
-Never use: LBX, machine guns, flamers, PPCs, ER lasers.

Edited by hashinshin, 12 November 2012 - 12:10 AM.

[Voyager I]

^What this guy said^

You are going to do **** all for damage if you can barely squeeze off a shot every 10 seconds.

Also, get DHS as soon as you possibly can.

Edited by Voyager I, 12 November 2012 - 12:08 AM.

[Leetskeet]

Shoot at the air in front of EVERYTHING until you find the spot that your reticle turns red at.

[Saevus]

There is more to it than just heat management. I can accidently fire twice, overheat and explode and still do more than 75 damage. In combination with an awful AL build (I suggest a 260xl, endo, 2x Art SRM 6- 4 tons ammo, 2 Med Pulse, Double HS, but that is an expensive *** build, and you need more practice before using it) he is also not hitting near as much as he thinks. The netcode is dinked at times, and it's possible he has a really high ping or something, but to declare that heat management is his only issue, well it's a bit off. At the end of the day, beyond heat management, that is just not a great build, all the Cents take some outside the box thinking and a good eye to be face smashers, I prefer the Cent-D or A if you want to crush out damage, or the Hunchback SP.

[Dorque]

Also, are you firing all of your weapons as a group? Each of those has a different range and if you're firing before the enemies are in range with your heat problems on top of it, you might be hitting a lot less than you think.

[I Just Ate Your Grapes Bro]

Currently large energy weapons aren't nearly as good as their smaller counterparts, unless you are a big fan of the range your ER large laser is providing, I'd drop it for another medium and extra heat sinks so you can fire the 3 meds as much as possible. If you're sitting over 1.5 heat efficiency, you could go pulse lasers instead for a bit more damage that is also slightly more focused, personally I prefer medium lasers for their heat efficiency.

The reality is, as long as you are getting hits, and taking damage, you are helping your team out, as it's a team game, you don't need to be topping the charts to be useful, a lot of the skill will come with exposure to the game. When I started I was pretty terrible, now I'm awesome. I found the weapons that work best for me, and have learned how to spread damage across my whole mech, heat management, as well as learning the VERY important lesson of cutting my losses and retreating to fight later.

Also, from what I've heard/the way I feel when I see them on a battlefield, centurions aren't the best damage dealers, decent mechs, but a bit slow for what they can carry, and have GIANT arms for targets that just ask to be blown off before killing them, I know some people love em, so if you're a fan, don't let me discourage the use of it, but if you aren't feeling it, try out another mech, perhaps you'd be better off using ballistics if you like leading the target, maybe you just need your weapons in your arms so they are easier to aim? or more in the torso so they are all easier to aim together? Perhaps speed is where it's at for you, or you just want to carry as many guns to a fight as you can. Maybe you're a sniper and want to sit in the back taking potshots at people that don't even know you're there...

Feel free to ask questions in game too, I've found the majority of people are VERY helpful, when I first started, one of my opponents told me how to activate chain fire (backspace). Poor guy even ended up dying to it in the match later and joked he wished he hadn't told me. You could always find tricks to running a specific mech or chassis that you hadn't thought of before. Just don't get too discouraged, as I said before, as long as you are sticking with your team helping out, nobody is going to whine that you weren't contributing, find your groove and you'll see your damage coming up.

**Edit**
The heat info is very important, the netcode business requires us to have MORE information before it can be determined, I rarely have problems with my hits not registering, not everyone has this issue, so simply stating that this is the problem is NOT helpful unless we know more about the connection/location/personal experiences of hits of the OP.

Edited by Ehrithane, 12 November 2012 - 12:21 AM.

[Voyager I]

Heat probably isn't his only problem, but the first step to putting out good amounts of damage is actually being able to fire your weapons.

[Noesis]

Without understanding the specifics of how you are deploying tactics in the use of the mech its hard to say why you might be comparing yourself less with others.

There are numerous factors that can effect the damage potential of weapons be it, drop off, target mech movement, wether your focusing on certain areas on a mech than general spread damage (i.e. surgeons knife rather than hammer) and so on. Specifically with beam lasers you also need to focus your weapon on the target to as best a singular point to achieve full damage potential.

Also if other more heavier hitting mechs are on your team, they have the potential to deal more damage than yourself anyhow, so it could be the "grass is greener" simply as a result of battle circumstance and mech choice.

Ideally you'd have to do a like for like comparison with scalable testing to see. These metrics I expect largely recorded by PGI for analysis anyhow, but will take time to make sensible comparisons for appropriate balance.

As such I think your comment is too subjective overall to make a conclusion. Maybe as a result of the beta testing exercise you could focus on specific areas you think you have a concern with and provide the material to PGI or the forum? By looking at things in detail and compartmentalized, any specific issues you think exist might be better identified.

Edited by Noesis, 12 November 2012 - 12:26 AM.

[Dorque]

If you could record a video of your play it'd help too.

[Kassatsu]

hashinshin, on 12 November 2012 - 12:04 AM, said:

-snip-

Have to agree here. I've run light mechs with absolutely terrible, non-FOTM builds and done well over 300 damage because I was able to consistently fire on an enemy without pausing due to heat every five seconds. PPC/LRM15 on a raven 3L being one prime example of a build I got reasonably high damage with.

Another part is quite possibly the netcode, especially if you're firing at fast-moving targets... Though you've said you had targets overheat and shut down while you light them up, so I can only assume it's due to your own heat management forcing you to cool off for extended periods of time.