21 replies to this topic

[axeman]

I was wondering if there was some kind of concensus or lists of evasive maneuvers people consider when being engaged by a torso twisted circling mech of faster or slower speed, I'm interested in both situations

I heard a guy saying the other day that reversing is a good move as it throws off the loop, forces your opponent to move in an elyptical path and the opponent will spend more time in your forward arc where they can be engaged.

I have been trying to picture in my head whether it would be better to reverse and turn but can't work out in my head which would give you better targeting, turning so that you reverse against their direction of circling or with it.

Anyone have any thoughts or know what's best?

[Mycrus]

Slower mech reverse and spin counter to the light

Slower light mech head for circling light to throw lock off

Same speed light vs light join circle strafe dance and use throttle to throw off your dance partner.

[Kahoumono]

You are dead if you don't change your speed. Varying the speed can throw them off and change turning directions so they spend some time hitting your other side.

[Krazy Kat]

Your turning speed is faster when you are moving slower. Fastest when you are not moving.
But if you are not moving, you are a sitting duck.

Running in circles against a really fast mech is bad. Better to stand and rotate and fight, or stand and reverse and fight, or run like he77 and find a buddy.

[Sandslice]

Mycrus, on 10 January 2013 - 09:38 PM, said:

Slower mech reverse and spin counter to the light

Slower light mech head for circling light to throw lock off

Same speed light vs light join circle strafe dance and use throttle to throw off your dance partner.

Nah, don't join the circle dance. It's a bad habit that will make you a free kill, whether now or after netcode fix.

[Orzorn]

Krazy Kat, on 10 January 2013 - 09:46 PM, said:

But if you are not moving, you are a sitting duck.

That's only an issue in lighter armored mechs or faster mechs. A mech slower than 64 kp/h is better off just stopping it its tracks against a much much faster opponent if it means getting a bead with its weapons. Sitting there spinning like an ***** with another mech just barely out of your crosshair range is far worse.

That, and just reverse speed and spin the other way. They can't react to that very well unless you're really slow and they're really fast.

[Tennex]

if ur slower and being circled its a better idea to walk in reverse

Krazy Kat, on 10 January 2013 - 09:46 PM, said:

Your turning speed is faster when you are moving slower. Fastest when you are not moving.
But if you are not moving, you are a sitting duck.

Running in circles against a really fast mech is bad. Better to stand and rotate and fight, or stand and reverse and fight, or run like he77 and find a buddy.

i dont think the turning speed scales with momentum in this game

[BerryChunks]

Sandslice, on 10 January 2013 - 09:51 PM, said:

Nah, don't join the circle dance. It's a bad habit that will make you a free kill, whether now or after netcode fix.

This one time, in mechwarrior 3, we were playing a laser match. Laser matches were usually mass shadow cats with as many medium lsers as they can fit.

SO I dropped a 97kph motor in a Ebon jaguar (65 ton clan mech), put all my armor forward, put 5 medium lasers and 2 ppcs on it, and hit full reverse. Being the heaviest mech out there they swarmed me.

Headshots galore. 20 kills. Next highest was 12 kills, and the next was about 3 kills or something. They couldn't get behind me because I was too fast, and they couldn't avoid lining up to be shot by me because I was just running backwards the hole game.

There were some pissed off laser boat pubbies that day, I can tell you.

Tennex, on 10 January 2013 - 09:58 PM, said:

if ur slower and being circled its a better idea to walk in reverse



i dont think the turning speed scales with momentum in this game

It does, sadly enough. There's also this factor where engine size controls twist and turn at all speeds, so drop a 300 XL in a catapult and get elite skills and spin around as fast as a light mech.

[Mycrus]

Sandslice, on 10 January 2013 - 09:51 PM, said:

Nah, don't join the circle dance. It's a bad habit that will make you a free kill, whether now or after netcode fix.

Beg to disagree, i havent lost a 1v1 circle dance against an equally matched light.

Then again i can make fine throttle adjustments because im using a hotas flight system.

If you try to disenage the enemy mech has free shots to your ctr

The only exception would be if you are jump capable and you can fly turn 180 midflight and then take a good aim against the mech that is chasing you

[Sandslice]

Mycrus, on 10 January 2013 - 10:37 PM, said:

Beg to disagree, i havent lost a 1v1 circle dance against an equally matched light.

Then again i can make fine throttle adjustments because im using a hotas flight system.

If you try to disenage the enemy mech has free shots to your ctr

The only exception would be if you are jump capable and you can fly turn 180 midflight and then take a good aim against the mech that is chasing you

I'm not talking about light vs. light. Something with real guns gets tangent on you or otherwise reads your circling, you get dusted; even I've broken a few dancers with a rain of SRMs, and I would not consider myself good at this game.

[Morang]

I was once able to defeat singlehandedly a Raven-3L with typical ECM-Streaks-Lasers loadout on my Raven 4X with stock engine and twin AC/2.

I was sniping from the elevated spaceport base in River City when I saw "low signal" and knew the ECM bird is coming. Fortunately he was alone as I was, and we both were unharmed yet. As he saw me, I jumped down in the tunnel under the base and got in the narrow curved part of it, where he was unable to circle me proper. Circle turned into a series of tunnel crosses, stops and head-on passes. Fight was very close, but twin AC/2 without overheating produce enough DPS and I believe his XL Engine betrayed him.

When he was dead I saw myself with yellow to red internals and last mech standing with my team's only kill, it was 1:7. So I announced a surrender and remained in tunnel. They capped, never seeing me (not sure if they were looking or not).

[Heeden]

Light vs. light you should throttle down, aim a bit ahead of them, throttle up, throttle down when you're almost touching them and turn to get on their six, then throttle as necessary.

Against Ravens and Jenners this can get you out of their firing arcs, unfortunately Commandoes have arms

[RainbowToh]

Rather than catch up to a fast mech circling you, simply turn into the direction that he is coming back around n blast him. While waiting for your weapons to recycle, turn randomly n torso twist ur fresh armor to his next volley. If you are a good pilot, do all these while moving in the general direction of ur teammates.

[axeman]

Well, the visualisation I have in my head, is that if a mech is circling you, if you were to throw it into reverse and turn towards the direction the mech is going to pass you on, provided you're maneuverable enough you should line up facing they're rear as they pass. once they pass continuing in reverse straight keeps them in your forward field and then as they're coming to pass repeat again.

I don't know if this makes any sense or has any net improvement of result from anything else you can do. I'm just trying to work out something repeatable to come out on top of the circle jerk and wonder what anyone else had success with.

[Noodlesoup]

reverse and find a wall or other object that will interrupt the opfor's circle.

running away gets you shot in the back unless you have help nearby.

best response is to call for assistance because a second party almost immediately breaks the circle-strafe because a mech in a circle strafe is very easy to lead/hit by someone outside of the circle.

[Mercules]

Noodlesoup, on 11 January 2013 - 04:06 PM, said:

reverse and find a wall or other object that will interrupt the opfor's circle.

This is what I try to do if I know I am going to go 1v1 with what should be a circle strafing mech. Heck, even against big slow things this can work wonders. I took out a Stalker in my Centurion today because I would slip behind a building, come out shooting the UAC5, MPlasers, and SRMs till the one jammed or my heat crawled up high, then I would break off behind a building.

Thing is, I don't just duck behind a building and come out the other side. I will duck behind the building, do a 180 and come out where I went in often with the slow mech now partially or fully pointed away from me. Sometimes I'll duck behind the building and move away and then come back at a different angle then they would have anticipated or break off for 20 seconds... just long enough for many to think I've run away and start moving towards another objective. Then I come back in for another burst of heavy fire, hopefully to the back.

Do not Circle your opponent... it only works well against bad opponents.

[TruePoindexter]

axeman, on 10 January 2013 - 09:27 PM, said:

I heard a guy saying the other day that reversing is a good move as it throws off the loop, forces your opponent to move in an elyptical path and the opponent will spend more time in your forward arc where they can be engaged.

This - against faster opponents you should reverse while rotating in the opposite direction to spin your front half into their line of movement. Only the very fastest of mechs will be able to react and compensate - most will just run right in front of you. The downside is that they will be moving perpendicular to you making the firing angle difficult. If you can maneuver to a tight/narrow area that will force them to move at a flatter angle you will have an easier time hitting them.

[axeman]

TruePoindexter, on 11 January 2013 - 04:35 PM, said:

The downside is that they will be moving perpendicular to you making the firing angle difficult. If you can maneuver to a tight/narrow area that will force them to move at a flatter angle you will have an easier time hitting them.

With this in mind, would turning the other way as you reverse in an effort to be facing inline with their movement and behind them work better or worse? it's hard to picture where everyone ends up though. Is there a way to post diagrams?

[Carnivoris]

Tennex, on 10 January 2013 - 09:58 PM, said:

if ur slower and being circled its a better idea to walk in reverse



i dont think the turning speed scales with momentum in this game

it's not about turning speed. It's about the turning arc. If you're moving, you actually have to make up for the forward/backward movement as well. Try it. Go full speed in something and turn. Now start full speed, start to turn and slow down in the process. You'll notice you're turning much faster.

To answer OP, it depends on the mech. I throw my Stalker in reverse and counter the light's direction. That gives me the maximum firing arc. Thankfully, I'm a pretty good shot with SRMs and it doesn't take many volleys to take down a light. That being said, I just hope he doesn't have friends nearby

[Ukyo Sonoda]

Heavier slower mech being circled by a fast light mech. Another thing to use is terrain features. You'd be surprised how many light pilots can't keep themselves from constantly bumping into or colliding into cliff faces, buildings, large boulders, or falling off cliffs while running around torso twisted. Though with my enjoyment of jump jets I wish I could just DFA on them when they start trying to hug me.