153 replies to this topic

[Athena Pryde]

Update 1: Control Review and Playing with a friend (Games 1-10)
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1724169
Update 2: Lone wolfing it (games 11-19)
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1730847
Update 3: Buying my very own Stalker 3F (Games 20-23)
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1734438
Update 4: Trial mech reviews Dragon 5C, Centurion 9D, Raven 2x, Stalker 3F(Games 24-34)
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1739032
Update 5: Double heatsinks for my Stalker 3F (Games 35-38)
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1779847

Little about me. I played Mech Warrior 2, Mech Warrior 3, Mech Warrior Living Legends and the Virtual World Tesla Pods under the handles "Athena Pryde", "Athena" or "Lady Athena" My favorite mechs in previous games where the Summoner and the Timberwolf Pryde (jump jets). Maybe we played together at some point.

To star this journey we have to pick a mech to play with....

Lets see the current Trial Mechs and what we have to work with here.

Raven RVN-2X, Centurion CN9-D, Dragon DRG-5N, Stalker STK-3F thats it? What no Timber Wolfs or Summoner? Aww its only 3050 Guess I'll have to wait for those to come later when the Clan invasion happens in March.

I actually had to look up these mechs on Sarna to find out how more information like how much ammo and the full stats they had which wasn't listed in the in game statistics. That should have been listed in the stats in game so you don't have to go to a forum to look it up.

Mech #1

Raven RVN-2X
Engine: Standard 175
Speed: 81 kph
Weapon Loadout:
2 Medium Laser (Right Arm)
1 Large Laser (Left Torso)
1 SRM 6 (Right Torso) + 1 Ton Ammo (Left Torso)
Equipment:
12 Single Heat sinks
6.5 Tons Armour
Stats:
34 firepower
1.01 heat efficiency

Thoughts on the Raven RVN-2X:
Are you kidding me? Some heavy mechs like the Timberwolf go 81 kph. I am not really a fan of light mechs but if they don't run at least 90+ kph I'll pass. 12 heat sinks isn't enough to fire everything either. Plus Raven's are known for carrying ECM this one doesn't have it.

Mech #2

Centurion CN9-D
Engine: 300 XL
Speed: 97.2kph
Weapon Loadout:
2 Medium Laser (Centre Torso)
1 LB-10X (Right Arm) + 2 tons ammo (Right Torso, CASE)
1 LRM 10 + Artemis (Left Torso) + 2 tons Ammo (Right Torso, CASE)
Equipment:
10 Single Heat Sinks
8.5 tons armour (272 points)
Endosteel Structure
Stats
38 Firepower
1.05 heat efficiency

Thoughts on the Centurion CN9-D
Shotgun seems rather poor spreading out your damage unless your really close and if you are running up to shotgun you can't use your LRMS when your shotguning. Your Shotgun being in the arm is likely to be blown off. XL Engine seems like it would cut your life expectancy down considerably. This would be better if the LBX10X could actually select slug and cluster ammo like its supposed to. Pass on this one too.

Mech #3

Dragon DRG-5N
Engine: 300 Standard
Speed: 81kph
Weapon Loadout:
1 Medium Laser (Left Arm)
1 UAC/5 (Right Arm) + 1 Ton Ammo (Right Torso, CASE)
1 LRM 10 (Centre Torso) + 2 Tons Ammo (Left Torso, CASE)
Equipment:
10 Single Heat Sinks
10 Tons Armour (320 points)
Stats:
28 Firepower
1.22 heat efficiency

Thoughts on the Dragon DRG-5N
It is fast as a Timberwolf carries much less weapons though. Only 25 rounds for the Ultra AC-5 seems really weak sauce if you don't run out of ammo your arm is likely to get blown off fairly quickly. That leaves you with a single medium laser and an LRM launcher with no TAG. Pass.

Mech #4

Stalker STK-3F
Engine: 255 Standard
Speed: 48.6 kph
4 Medium Lasers (2 Left Arm, 2 Right Arm),
2 Large Lasers (Left Torso, Right Torso)
2 LRM 10 (Left Arm, Right Arm) + 2 Tons Ammo (Left Arm, Right Arm)
2 SRM 6 (Left Torso, Right Torso)+ 2 Tons Ammo (Left Torso, Right Torso)
Equipment:
20 Single Heat Sinks
13.5 Tons Armour (432 points)
Stats:
104 Firepower
0.85 heat efficiency

Thoughts on the Stalker STK-3F
How cute its a wannabe Blood Kite. Unfortunately it looks like a chicken. It does have a decent mix of ranged and close range weapons. Could use double heat sinks double heat sinks since its heat efficiency is quite bad and a TAG to help out the LRMS but its the best trial mech by far. I guess I will have to settle for the Stalker and start saving my Cbills for it so I can buy one and customize it to maximize the experience earned.

Mech Choice: Stalker STK-3F
In order to maximize the exp earned in trials this will be the mech I will be buying to make a mini Bloodkite.

Initial Impressions of picking a Mech:
Your options for a trial mech to play is really limited. It would be nice if they had more mechs to choose from. They really should just let you pick from any available stock variant of any available mech as a trial mech. If this choice is too broad maybe 1 variant of each mech available. Definitely have a varied choice with the different roles represented and at least 1 ECM varient. Then you would be able to try out various mechs and find one you like and earn experience in it before you buy it. The 4 choices really don't work if someone wants to play a fast ecm scout, sniper, or missle support. Why don't the mechs have stock double heat sinks? They did in other Mechwarrior games.

Comming soon: Complete rundown of games 1-25 (with cadet bonus) + (some grouped with friends some lone wolf) including gameplay thoughts, screenshots of endgame performance screenshots, videos.

Is there a way to attach pictures or do I have to host them somewhere? Videos I'll probably put on youtube when I have time.

Edited by Athena Pryde, 22 January 2013 - 10:37 PM.

[LethalRose]

put all the videos on youtube, you can use imgur to host your images.

[Zaptruder]

Too much preamble. Though you're right: They should have many more stock mechs available for trial.

I mean, it's not an issue that affects me now - but certainly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have only 4 mechs to play with as a trial player.

I mean, every single stock variant is pretty much unoptimized. So it's not going to disincentivize players into buying mechs (unless it lets them know just how bad the chassis is as a whole). But at least they can serve a purpose by giving new players some variety in their ritualistic hazing ritual.

[Steinar Bergstol]

A wannabe Bloodkite? Bah! Stalker came first. It's the other way around, darnit! Hrmph! Clanners!

As for the stock Stalker running a bit hot in stock config. Ayup. It's always been an overgunned machine unable to use every weapon at the same time. It was designed to have hitting power at all ranges, switching from long range to short range weapons as it closed in on its target.

[Dukarriope]

Trial mechs are meant to be specific variants for newbies to try and play with. Unfortunately, PGI has shown a track record of giving unfriendly, difficult and/or mediocre variants to trial users. But yes, this is only 3050 and the Clans haven't shown up, so we're only using Inner Sphere 'mechs right now.

In case you don't know yet, you don't have to choose one of the trial 'mechs for your first purchase.
But if you want to use the MXP earned on it on a purchased one, by all means... Although I'm not sure you actually accumulate MXP on trials. Do they do that now? I thought they only gained GXP.

All the trial 'mechs are stock variants and canon stock variants don't usually care more than a couple tons of ammunition for their weapons. Unfortunate, but true. PGI makes this problem worse by not offering resupplies of any kind which was actually available in the tabletop games from what I understand.

[Ewigan]

Yeah, you get MXP and GXp from the Trials.

A few notes to Athena:

1) Nice read, i will wait for more
2) The Cent is actually a really decent mech in this stock variant. try it out, it's fast, deals lots of damage and CAN take a pounding. The dragon and the raven trials are really "meh" though.

[Dukarriope]

People look down on Dragons, it seems, and the 5N, stock, is probably not a good example of what the chassis can do (especially with how clunky the UAC/5 jamming system is right now), but a customized Dragon with a good pilot can wreak havoc. It's the fastest heavy and can keep up with some lights and even outrun (and outmaneuver) some mediums.
The Raven 2X on offer right now, though? Yeah... a lot of people call it the "useless" raven for a reason... It's the variant people pilot for the sole purpose of achieving elites to buff their already invincible 3L.

I agree with Ewigan though, the CN9-D here is probably worth a shot. I've used that sort of build on a larger 'mech before and it works well provided you're not the sort who fumbles with multiple range weaponry. Plus, with good twisting you can keep your shotgun arm free from damage longer than you might expect.

[Codejack]

Save up for a Catapult; best chassis in the game.

[Shazarad]

I think Miss Athena here is spoiled by Clan tech.

I felt the same way when I had to play MW2 Mercs without my clan tech starting out. I was like, WUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT these mechs are horribly inefficient...

As for stock mechs and variants, you could say a lot of their combat viability was lost in translation.

EDIT: Does nobody like the Marauder IIC from MW2? That was my favorite...

Edited by Shazarad, 08 January 2013 - 06:07 AM.

[Apoc1138]

the trial mechs also rotate every patch (or every other patch if we get 2 close together), so there'll be a whole different selection for you to pick holes in probably next week

Edited by Apoc1138, 08 January 2013 - 06:11 AM.

[Athena Pryde]

Thank you for the replies. Sorry for not updating sooner but should have some updates tonight detailing the first night of games at least if not more.

Is there something better then FRAPs to record with? The file sizes are huge and reencoding it takes awhile.

@LethalRose
Thank you made an ingur account.

@Steiner Bergstol
I started out with Mech Warrior 2 which was exclusively Clan. You do have a point there but the Stalker wishes it had the armament of a Bloodkite. I was looking to build the stalker with 2 lrm 15s, 2 large lasers, 2 srm 4s but Belldandy told me to run Streak SRM 2s instead for killing lights so my target build will look like this
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...bb05645bf6785b8

My friend Belldandy Morisato used to play on the Battle Tech MUX. I was on a few anime role play mucks myself in the late 90s. That is where we met.

@Dukarriope
Yes you do accumulate mech exp in trials. I chose to pick one of the Trials to make use of the mech exp I earn while running the trial.

Yay another Miku fan. Have you played Hatsune Miku Project Diva F for Vita? I really enjoy it. They coming out with a PS3 version too.

@Ewigan
I will try out the Centurion CN9-D and post my thoughts on it. I still think the LB10X should have the option to fire slugs. The shotgun isn't nearly as good with targeted shots of a video game instead of the random hit locations of the board game. I suppose the shotgun is good to hit lights with.

@Shazarad
Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries made me cry when the Commander died. That drop ship pilot was such a jerk. Why didn't the commander eject? I do agree with you that after playing Mech Warrior 2 with clan tech, I was a sad panda when they stuck you in a Commando as your starting mech.

The Marauder IIC was a good chassis but its stock configuration with the PPCs was bad because in Mech Warrior 2 PPCs were slow balls of uselessness. I prefered Summoner and Timberwolf because they were slightly faster and didn't require jump jets that weighed two tons. The advantage of 85 tons instead of 75 wasn't that much when you had to spend 8 tons for 4 jump jets as opposed to 5 for 5 jump jets and you were quicker with the Timberwolf and could jump farther.

@Apoc1188
When they release the new trials will critique those too.

[Sheraf]

You can try WM Capture. It can save as lossy compressions, such as mp4 or wmv.

[Athena Pryde]

For the videos should I cut them after I get destroyed or upload the whole round?

I actually took them more often for later rounds. First bunch I would forget or the match was pretty embarrassing as we died pretty quick or I did something silly like overheat and get destroyed so they have no videos.

@Sheraf
I'll have to take a look at WM Capture

Well now to continue our journey.

Before I lannch take a look at the controls





Controls for Mech Warrior Online seem more similar to that of Mech Warrior Living Legends using the WASD FPS model then Mechwarrior 2-3 the Numerical key pad centered movement and firing and Home End Delete Page Down keys for jump jet directionals. Already don't like the loss of jump jet directionals but I dealt with that in MWLL. Besides the Stalker 3F doesn't have jump jets. Would be nice if it did. Other then that I noticed there are no Quick Communication Commands like Mech Warrior Living Legends and World of Tanks have them on the function keys for things like Firing at X, Help, Back to base, etc. I would have expected something like that to easy communication so you don't have to type. Also lacks instant throttle control percentages and match speed which was great if you where on someones tail.

First Night worth of games in the Trial Stalker 3F.

For the first 9 games I joined up in a group with my friend Belldandy Morisato

Group function is somewhat clunky with out a group chat function you have to message your friend from your friends list. We just used AIM as it was easier.

Game 1
Results


Stuck with my friend and another mech the other mechs scattered in different directions. I targeted a mech tried the LRM 10s but they either lost lock because of indirect fire so moved up to get los to use large lasers to add more damage where I overheated and got destroyed by some PPC boat. The large lasers really heat you up.

Ouch we lost really bad. 0-8 However made decent cbills. The Cadet bonus is certainly very nice. Lets see how many games I have to put in before I can buy my very own Stalker 3F for 7.6 million cbills.


Game 2
Results


Followed the herd other then some light that ran off by itself. Then most of the herd ran off after some Raven and that left me and my friend up against most of the enemy team that all suddenly poped up and started blasting us from around a corner. Thanks to ECM.

Game 3 Results


Game 4 Results


Game 5 Results


Game 6 Results


Actually did some damage this game. Unfortunately I forgot to record this one.

Game 7 Results


Finally won a game. Followed the herd and we went through the tunnel all the way to the capture point and won by capture. Why is there no capture bonus like there is in World of Tanks? Seems like you get more money by fighting and losing.

Game 8 Results


Game 9 Results


Game 10 Results
Did one solo just to round it out at 10 games



Stopped for the night. Earned 4.3 million cbills from 10 games mostly due to the cadet bonus.


Sorry for not having more detail but I forgot to hit record on many of these. It just seems that people would run around targeting the light and fail to kill it quickly and we would get attacked or the other team stuck mostly together next to their ecm and we would just get shot up.

Thoughts after my first night
The Good
It is really nice to play another Mech Warrior game again. Mech Warrior Living Legends was pretty dead other then a couple server last time I checked and it had the Aerospace superiority issue unless you played on the Mechs only Server.

Graphics are really nice.

Cadet bonus makes you lots of cbills to start so you can afford a real mech in a reasonable ammount of time.

There is no repair bill and ammo bill like in World of Tanks so you earn money each match you play even on a loss without the Cadet bonus. This is huge so you can play what mech you want instead of having to play an economy mech (Low tier tank in WoT) to make money to play your decked out mech (Tier 10 Tank)

Looking forward to buying my own mech to customize it.


The Bad
Wow I am rather bad at this game. I overheat too much and need to learn to lag shoot. .

Feels really like World of Mechs. The levels are kind of small compared to other Mech Warrior games and it has the capture the spot goal of World of Tanks. I was expecting more mission based gameplay like previous Mech Warriors or something more epic with lots of players like the larger servers of Living Legends.

Conquest seems to be a death match because the points don't seem to matter much with no respawns like in Battlefield.

The heat scale in Mech Warrior Online seems a bit off from other games. Even in the stock mechs in other games it seemed you could fire more. In MWO, I seem to be overheating fairly quickly. Firing bothlarge lasers are alot of heat and so is firing all 4 mediums. Maybe this will change once I customize the mech and add double heat sinks but you just overheat alot. Mech Warrior Living Legends you had less heat issues even with all the stock mechs.

Lag shooting light mechs are really annoying. You have to lead them lag shoot them like the old Netmech which I need to get the hang of again.

PGI's ECM is a little too good as a combination of Angel ECM and Stealth armor which weren't around in 3050 and the Angel ECM weighs more. It knocking out your radar totally including friendlies who are visible and eliminating all lock ons is pretty annoying.

Losing most of the time really is slightly discouraging. Would be nice to win some of the time. Winning only once in 10 games seems rather bad. I'll admit I'm not very good at this game but with randomm teams should be able to win more then just 1 in 10. I suppose I'm just starting out in the trial mech so it will get better.

You don't get more money for winning the match. The one time we won we got the same base 25k cbills as for losing Shouldn't there be a bonus for winning? Like maybe winning should be 50k cbills and losing is 25k cbills?

No Rewards for capturing seems silly. If you win by capturing should be a bonus for it. There is in World of Tanks.

No Summary screen for previous battles if you leave the battle early. You have to wait till the end of the battle to see the Summary screen of your performance. World of Tanks has a pop up when your previous battle was done and you can click on it to see the Sumary screen for that battle.

Inability to configure weapon groups in mech labs was slightly annoying having to configure it at the beginning of the game.

Edited by Athena Pryde, 11 January 2013 - 12:17 PM.

[Dukarriope]

Athena Pryde, on 10 January 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

@Dukarriope
Yay another Miku fan. Have you played Hatsune Miku Project Diva F for Vita? I really enjoy it. They coming out with a PS3 version too.

Oh no, she's caught me!

[hammerreborn]

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1672291

My experiences.

Edited by hammerreborn, 10 January 2013 - 10:21 PM.

[Ptom]

If you want to win more, your best bet is to play at a time that isn't during NA peak hours. Too many premades and ecms then.

If you cant do that, your best bet is to hop on teamspeak with some ragtag band and try your best.

Goodluck to you! I'll be sitting out for awhile till netcode is fixed later this month.

[Orzorn]

Quote

You don't get more money for winning the match. The one time we won we got the same base 25k cbills as for losing Shouldn't there be a bonus for winning? Like maybe winning should be 50k cbills and losing is 25k cbills?

It isn't well explained, but you get salvage for winning the game, meaning you do make more money than on a loss.

Quote

No Rewards for capturing seems silly. If you win by capturing should be a bonus for it. There is in World of Tanks.

They reduced rewards for capping because people were doing exclusively that to the ignoring of all else. It made for a rather boring (and frustrating at times) game. You pretty much had to camp your base out of fear they were going to base rush you.

As for the rest, if you'd like, Athena, you could message me and I could give you my corps TS3 information (no pressure to join, just trying to help). They'll get you set up, answer any question you've got, and give you some good games as well with good players.

But that might spoil your brand new user experience experiment!

[Rakashan]

There *is* a group chat function in the game.

If you open your social tab and get into the group tab (where you would go to ready mechs) you can double-click on any name, just like you would to message an individual from the friends list and it will open a group-wide chat (in the same place as the firect-to-friend chat). If you're typing this is probably about the same function as AIM but is definitely not as convenient as voice since neither of the typing options are available during match-play.

Other thoughts... This is beta. They had Repair and Rearm in for a while and removed it recently. I am not clear if it will come back or if it was changed to avoid the "carrot and stick" approach for a more positive form of feedback. When they removed R&R they lowered awards and also made combat pay better than capping. Again, it is unclear whether or not that will change in the future but clearly right now they *need* statistics from combat for balance purposes (see the bonuses for using TAG and NARC right now as well). It certainly screws with playstyle and balance but since the player community is comparing notes on builds and people generally won't go with something perceived as weak it has got to be hard for them to have any meaningful data about NARC at this point so I get what they're doing... I gotta kinda take it on faith that things like that will change once they have the data they need.

It sounds like a broken drum, but the lag shooting and the ECM kinda fall into the "it's beta" camp for me too at least for now. They have positions posted on the PGI site for a network engineer (i.e. netcoder) and a couple of UI coders. It's clear that they have plans for things but in the meantime things are in this incomplete state. I don't have a good feel for how effective ECM really is until I see the netcode cleaned up. It's absolutely abysmal for the time being because of the way it combines with the netcode problems to exacerbate the problems with Light mechs. I also have hope that as they redesign/refine TAG, NARC and BAP we'll see more effective counters to ECM.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the lack of Lobby/Training Room. That's also one that I am current still patient about but I know that and the state of matchmaking bothers a lot of people right now. Personally, coming from WoTs recently (and it sounds like you have experience with that as well) I know how hard it will be for them to find a way to allow people to play with their friends and still fill matches in a reasonable timeframe. There's a lot of room for improvement with the UI, ranging from input buffers that lock out at some times (if you're typing into chat at the wrong time you can lock out your inputs, bleah) and there are other "basic" issues with mechs unreadying themselves at inconvenient or unexpected times as well as some more common functions that are just not there or not where you would expect them (like the group chat you mentioned and VOIP support).

There's a lot here to be hopeful about and a lot of rough edges. Hope that you enjoy your time playing and I look forward to more posts about your impressions.

Edited by Rakashan, 10 January 2013 - 10:48 PM.

[Dukarriope]

You can group chat by double clicking someone on the friends list, by the way.

[Athena Pryde]

@Ozorn
Thank you for the offer. I might take you up on that when I have a fully customized mech up and running and completed the first impressions.

How exactly does Salvage work do you get a certain amount per kill or assist or damage done?

@Rakashan
Thank you. WoT doesn't exactly have a Lobby but there is a chat for your clan and group chat when you are in a platoon or company. I didn't look for a training room so didn't notice the lack of one at least not on day one. I agree there should be one like there is in World of Tanks. So you can try out different configurations and try out different configurations and get a feel for how much heat firing different weapon groups generates.

Group chat should be more intuitive and have a chat window for your group. UI is pretty clunky as is.

@Ptorm
I usually play late nights. Insomnia .

@Dukarriope
Whats your favorite Miku song? I really like World's End Dancehall.

As far as group chat, I thought it only went to that friend who's name you click on the friends name. Will have to try it if I get a group of larger then 2.