43 replies to this topic

[Squirrelleh]

I don't understand why I suck so terribly. I played MW4 when I was a kid, and from what I remember, I was pretty solid. Although, I never played online, I understood the basics of how the game is played: keep moving, manage your heat, and focus your firepower. Maybe I'm wrong, and if I am, please, let me know what I'm doing wrong, because my online abilities at this game are apparently garbage.

A typical match for me is I will start out with the group (strength in numbers, because I figure I suck already), acting as fire-support in my catapult. When I engage with the enemy, I feel like I'm somehow pulled ahead and it suddenly becomes 3-1, and those aren't good odds with a missile-boat mech, so I die in about 20 seconds.

When I deliberately stay back, either A) nothing happens until 5 or 6 mechs sweep through where I'm camping, or I can't get a lock on anyone, which I find is strange, considering I have B.A.P., so then when I try to get closer, 2 or 3 mechs rush me. If someone could explain, or show me a video, how missile locks work in this game, I'd greatly appreciate it, because I keep losing them.

My loadout for my catapult is 2 LRM15s with 2 small pulse lasers. Should I get rid of the small pulse lasers and add ammo for the LRMs? add more armor? Idk, which is why I'm asking you guys. I want to deal the maximum amount of damage possible, while receiving the least amount of damage possible, so I like to play lame and be a portable rocket launcher.

Another reason why I like to play lame is my framerate. I don't understand how I will go from 50+ fps when I start the match, to about 15 when the action starts. I know I can't be the only one with this problem, but my laptop (mx17r3 from alienware ) has an i7 2820QM processor, with 16GBs of RAM, and an nvidia GTX580m video card. My ping is a little iffy, usually it sits around 90-120, but I've played other online games under similar conditions and have pulled through with an even K/D ratio. I don't even want to post the one I have for this game...

Anyway, if someone could help me out with any/all of this, I'd sincerely appreciate it!

[Kobold]

Start simple. Drop the LRMs, there is too much ECM out there to make them consistently useful. Assuming you have a C1 cat, go with 2 large and 2 medium lasers, and if you can fit them, 2 SRM racks. Work on staying with your team, and shooting at what your team shoots at.

Once you've got that down, you can branch out into other areas.

[Ranger207]

BAP currently is countered by ECM. So is missle lock-on, radar dectection, and about everything else.
As for your framerate, the game is really not yet optimized.

The missle boat isn't a good build right now because of ECM. Maybe soon something will change...

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Kobold, on 16 December 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

Start simple. Drop the LRMs, there is too much ECM out there to make them consistently useful. Assuming you have a C1 cat, go with 2 large and 2 medium lasers, and if you can fit them, 2 SRM racks. Work on staying with your team, and shooting at what your team shoots at.

Once you've got that down, you can branch out into other areas.

yes this is a brawler only game. You have to play that playstyle or you might as well not play

Ranger207, on 16 December 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

BAP currently is countered by ECM. So is missle lock-on, radar dectection, and about everything else.
As for your framerate, the game is really not yet optimized.

The missle boat isn't a good build right now because of ECM. Maybe soon something will change...

but yeah its totally not over powered

[MadPanda]

LRM's seem to be your problem #1. Even skilled players will have to put in extra effort these days to do good with LRM's. I don't know what mechs you have, but laser boat builds are probably the easiest to play for beginners. Fill any mech with medium lasers and you are pretty much good to go.

As for how to play, if you don't know where and when you need to be somewhere then simple trick is to look around your team and pick the biggest mech and follow him around. Usually that is an Atlas, but sometimes it can be as low as a Cataphrac. Stay near him and shoot the same target as he is shooting.

[Dracol]

I second kobold's suggestion, if you want to continue to drop solo. Both the lasers and srms are good weapons to take out the legs of light mechs. The large laser allows you to manage your range so you can reinforce the front lines and take on heavies and assults.

if you wish to continue to use LRMs, then seek out a 4man or 8man teamspeak group. Make sure to mention you have LRMs and request tag from your teammates. Continue to stay near your main group and focus fire the tagged target.

A more difficult way to counter ECM solo, is to add tag to your mech. This gives you the ability to tag and target mechs you have direct line of sight to and are within 400m.

Edited by Dracol, 16 December 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[Squirrelleh]

Cool, I'll start trying it out, but then my problem becomes my aim. My fps drops to 15 when I get into the thick of battle, and aiming becomes a royal pain in the ***. I have another catapult variant, the one with the ppcs, and i only hit my target about 30-40 percent of the time. My other question is if I'm playing with a rushdown mentality, ie brawler/up close fights, should I ditch smaller weapons for larger ones to maximize damage potential?

[Inviticus]

Don't bother with Missiles. Even dumbfire missiles can be hard to hit with due to netcode issues so your best bet is to go with medium ranged lasers or ACs. ECM renders lock-on weapons practically pointless because of all the extra functions in provides.

You could always go to the darkside and kit out a Raven L with ECM, 2 SSRMS, and 2 MLas. I know I couldn't resist the cheese.

[Wraith05]

LRMs atm are a bit more difficult to play, especially if you are new and don't know the mechanics at play in a match.

Usually with no ECM in a match you can spot targets (red triangle) or your temates can (makes the red triangle appear for you). If it has a red triangle you can target it with R.

With LRMs (or streaks) you have to lock onto a target using R then hold your mouse on it until the circle turns red. This means you have a lock. Then fire your missles. They will travel towards the target AS LONG AS YOU MAINTAIN YOUR LOCK. If your lock is broken you will likely miss.

Now currently in game ECM will make it impossible for that red triangle to appear over a mech until it is very close to you or a teammate. It also prevetns the red triangle from appearing over any enemy mech close to the enemy ECM. For LRMS this means you can't lock onto ECM protected mechs. BAPs does NOT counter this.

My advice to you as a LRM boat is to stay somewhat close the brawlers. (roughly 100m behind them) and support them as best you can. Stay at LEAST 180m away from any enemy mechs if possible. Your LRMs have a minimum range of 180. So if they are at 179 and you fire, you're missles will literally bounce off of them doing no damage.

Hope this helps.

[Kaijin]

Because of the recent addition of an insanely overpowered implementation of ECM, not only are LRM mechs an easy kill, but they're completely worthless. Even if it weren't for ECM though, I'd be scolding you for only having 2 small pulse lasers to defend yourself at close range.

Light fast mechs rule this game (and always have - ECM or no). You've got to have something that can put the hurt on them when they get close to you or you're dead sooner rather than later. Because of the awful netcode, that 'something' used to be Streak SRM2s, but those are now only in use by Light fast mechs using ECM to jam other mechs from using Streaks against them. The next best weapon against them is lasers.

Back when I was still trying to find some enjoyment in the game, I was running 3 Large Lasers and 2 SRM 4s on my Cat C1. LRMs are a complete waste of tonnage now. If you want to use them, don't play MWO. I used to encourage new players to give the game a chance, but now I've realized it's only going to get worse - not better.

Edited by Kaijin, 16 December 2012 - 02:51 PM.

[Omni Tek]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 16 December 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

but yeah its totally not over powered

Not so much overpowered, but it does need some type of draw back to using it right now it does allot all at once with its only downside being that it takes 1.5T off your build...which isn't really a downside unless your like...a commando...maybe

also to the OP deppending on how hot your mech runs I'd swap the small pulses for medium pulses (maybe add on a tag so you can still hit ECM shielded targets.)

Edited by Omni Tek, 16 December 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[Wraith05]

Kaijin, on 16 December 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

Because of the recent addition of an insanely overpowered implementation of ECM, not only are LRM mechs an easy kill, but they're completely worthless. Even if it weren't for ECM though, I'd be scolding you for only having 2 small pulse lasers to defend yourself at close range.

Light fast mechs rule this game (and always have - ECM or no). You've got to have something that can put the hurt on them when they get close to you or you're dead sooner rather than later. Because of the awful netcode, that 'something' used to be Streak SRM2s, but those are now only in use by Light fast mechs using ECM to jam other mechs from using Streaks against them. The next best weapon against them is lasers.

Back when I was still trying to find some enjoyment in the game, I was running 3 Large Lasers and 2 SRM 4s on my Cat C1. LRMs are a complete waste of tonnage now. If you want to use them, don't play MWO. I used to encourage new players to give the game a chance, but now I've realized it's only going to get worse - not better.

I use LRMs just fine. Have pugged all day with them and do around 400-700 a damage a match with at least 1 kill 3 assists. They aren't dead you just can't sit back and lob them like you use to.

[Kaijin]

Omni Tek, on 16 December 2012 - 02:52 PM, said:

Not so much overpowered, but it does need some type of draw back to using it right now it does allot all at once with its only downside being that it takes 1.5T off your build...which isn't really a downside unless your like...a commando...maybe

Not at all. 2D without ECM could be fully armored, 3 SSRM2s, 3 tons of ammo, 1 ML, endo, ferro, and DHS.

With ECM, drop the ML and a half ton of armor.

Wraith05, on 16 December 2012 - 02:52 PM, said:

I use LRMs just fine. Have pugged all day with them and do around 400-700 a damage a match with at least 1 kill 3 assists. They aren't dead you just can't sit back and lob them like you use to.

I never did.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

The frame-rate drops in combat hit a lot of us (including me). You can try dropping some graphics options, but the only one that really helped in my case was turning anti-aliasing off.

LRMs then PPCs? You are giving yourself a hard time! PPCs are difficult to use (one shot, rubbish netcode and run hot). Large or medium lasers are a good all-round weapon and you can correct your aim over the duration of the beam's firing.

Mechwarrior games (IMHO) tend to favour big weapons that deliver all their punch in one go over smaller ones that accumulate the same damage over time. This is because you can aim well enough to hit with a single big shot, but holding a smaller rapid-fire weapon on target to deliver the same damage over multiple shots is much harder.

Edited by RocketDog, 16 December 2012 - 03:01 PM.

[Oy of MidWorld]

Kaijin, on 16 December 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

Because of the recent addition of an insanely overpowered implementation of ECM, not only are LRM mechs an easy kill, but they're completely worthless. Even if it weren't for ECM though, I'd be scolding you for only having 2 small pulse lasers to defend yourself at close range.

Light fast mechs rule this game (and always have - ECM or no). You've got to have something that can put the hurt on them when they get close to you or you're dead sooner rather than later. Because of the awful netcode, that 'something' used to be Streak SRM2s, but those are now only in use by Light fast mechs using ECM to jam other mechs from using Streaks against them. The next best weapon against them is lasers.

Back when I was still trying to find some enjoyment in the game, I was running 3 Large Lasers and 2 SRM 4s on my Cat C1. LRMs are a complete waste of tonnage now. If you want to use them, don't play MWO. I used to encourage new players to give the game a chance, but now I've realized it's only going to get worse - not better.

This is just not true. Given a little time to learn the ropes this is an amazing game, with very deep tactics and great matches. Using LRM's requires a little more effort nowadays, it makes relying solely on them a little more difficult, but that's just fine. I think your main issue is your framerate, playing like this can hardly be fun. Have you updated your graphics cards drivers? If you manage to fix that issue (or the devs do...), it'll be a whole different experience.

Hang in there Mechwarrior.

[An Individual]

As has been mentioned, in the current ECM dominated meta LRMs aren't very helpful and small pulse laser damage is negligible. You mentioned that you have a K2 Cat (the one with PPCs). I recommend switching to that. Drop the PPCs for Large Lasers. PPC generate a lot of heat and are difficult to aim. Large lasers do slightly less damage and have less range but produce less heat and are infinity easier to aim with. If you can manage the heat you can cram two more large lasers in the shoulders or just use medium lasers. Consider upgrading to double heat sinks when you get the chance. Whatever weight you have left use up on heat sinks and/or armor. You will have to play the mech a bit to get a feel for how many heat sinks and how much armor you need. I've found I have more success when I front load the armor a bit more than is done in the default Cat but that's just me. Stick near the back of the main group and focus your lasers into the torso of whatever the rest of the team is shooting at at the moment and you should do fine.

[Kaijin]

Oy of MidWorld, on 16 December 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

This is just not true. Given a little time to learn the ropes this is an amazing game, with very deep tactics and great matches. Using LRM's requires a little more effort nowadays, it makes relying solely on them a little more difficult, but that's just fine. I think your main issue is your framerate, playing like this can hardly be fun. Have you updated your graphics cards drivers? If you manage to fix that issue (or the devs do...), it'll be a whole different experience.

Hang in there Mechwarrior.

This is just not true. See how easy that is? This WAS an amazing game with deep tactics and great matches, but now it's just a zerg rush to base cap with ECM mechs and a demolition derby brawl at the end.

Edited by Kaijin, 16 December 2012 - 03:04 PM.

[Aidan Malchor]

Ranger207, on 16 December 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

BAP currently is countered by ECM. So is missle lock-on, radar detection, and about everything else.
As for your framerate, the game is really not yet optimized.

The missle boat isn't a good build right now because of ECM. Maybe soon something will change...

I bolded the parts that weren't completely wrong.

[MadPanda]

Kaijin, on 16 December 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

This is just not true. See how easy that is? This WAS an amazing game with deep tactics and great matches, but now it's just a zerg rush to base cap with ECM mechs and a demolition derby brawl at the end.

LRM warrior online into Streak warrior online was your idea of "deep tactics" and "great matches"? [redacted]?

Edited by miSs, 16 December 2012 - 08:54 PM.
insults

[Kaijin]

MadPanda, on 16 December 2012 - 03:06 PM, said:

LRM warrior online into Streak warrior online was your idea of "deep tactics" and "great matches"? [redacted]?

It occurred to me to ask you the same question, but now that I see you lacked the intellectual capacity to use cover to avoid LRMs and to engage Streak Boats outside of their maximum range of 270m, the answer is clear.