32 replies to this topic

[Minos Murdoc]

As the title says just wondering what peoples thoughts and experiences have been in true 8man team games. for various reasons the group i play with have only just started doing 8man groups, mainly due to only having 2-4 people on at the same time. but this weekend we've managed to get 8 people on at the same time. And frankly i've been disappointed with the 8man teams we've gone against. We've found we've gone up against one of two team types,

team 1 - normally holds 3 Raven 3L's with ECM and Streaks. 3 Atlas DDC with ECM and SRM's and a mix of others.

team 2- Mix of 3L's, and everything else with SRM's

Is this the same for everyone else? gets a bit boring. does anyone run anything else?

[slayerkdm]

I dont play them, but I would expect that. 8 man mindset seems to be very competitive and win at all costs. If you want fun, play PUG. As much as its maligned, its fun. You can bring any mech, you learn to roughly coordinate without voice comms and you see a lot of variety.

Sounds like you are trying to have "fun", in what is the most competitive game mode. I dont see how you can be dissapointed in the other teams, they are focused on the best mechs, using the most effective tactics. I think even the hard core 8 man players might say the mechs and tactics they use, are not that fun sometimes.

[Khobai]

8-mans are awful. It's just about how many min/maxed cheese builds you can bring. Yesterday we did an 8-man and the other team had 6 splatcats, a dual AC/20 cat, and a splatstalker. 8-man is just ******** beyond all reason.

[Wispsy]

I generally seem to see at least one Jenner in almost every 8man I do!

[Khobai]

Jenners arnt 100% terrible though. They might not be as good as Ravens but theyre still second tier. Try piloting a Commando or a Spider in an 8-man and see how that goes

The point is, 8-man suffers from a complete lack of diversity that makes it extremely unfun.

[Wispsy]

Well actually I can do surprisingly well with my Spider too...

[GoManGo]

Well I tried a few 8 mans and 4 mans some where good some where bad as in your post OP. But I would like to play on a team it would be awesome if I could drop with a team for stock mechs of varying tonnage or custom mechs of varying tonnage and matched mech types. So you cant bring like 4 raven 3L 2 atlas ddc or 2K2 cats. Maybe like 2 assaults 2 heavies 2 mediums 2 lights. and no duplicate chassis.

Edited by GoManGo, 03 March 2013 - 12:45 PM.

[TheUnderking]

Move straight up the centre in a blob, under ECM coverage, focus fire. After you win 6+ to 1-, say "GG close."

[Khobai]

Quote

Well actually I can do surprisingly well with my Spider too...

But would you ever prefer it over a Jenner? A spider is like half a jenner... its a pointless mech IMO.

[Captain Commander]

TheUnderking, on 03 March 2013 - 12:44 PM, said:

Move straight up the centre in a blob, under ECM coverage, focus fire. After you win 6+ to 1-, say "GG close."

This is Captain Commander approved.

[Wispsy]

Khobai, on 03 March 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

But would you ever prefer it over a Jenner? A spider is like half a jenner... its a pointless mech IMO.

Surprisingly enough sometimes I do, because running a Jenner without ECM can be rather frustrating with the amount of SSRMs and LRMs about. So if I want an easier time in my games I go in my Spider. Sure facing a good 3L is not easy but you can lose them so much more easily in a Spider. The damage is lower but jumpjets and ECM is a lot of survival

Edited by Wispsy, 03 March 2013 - 12:54 PM.

[slayerkdm]

I hope for some modes where stock, or limited modifications are allowed. I think people are waiting for mods like that. Everyone has a tolerance for how much they like to min/max or cheese if you will what they play. I like to think I dont, but I build my HBK's as well as I can, using the best weapons, and boating them when I can. I draw the line at playing the OP mechs, but Im not sure that makes me any better really. I still see some guys puging with multi range TT type mechs. Not all new players either, just players who think thats fun. I feel bad, because even though Im not running a splat cat, I still am running my SP in what is considered the optimum load out, and it really overmatches the unfocused type builds.

Thats why I like pugs, you can play anything.

[Gorthaur]

The 8 mans are pretty rough, but they are made a lot better by finding groups to sync against and play with agreed rule sets (no ECM, limited LRMs, ect). I just hate how random some of the team compositions are sometimes. One minute your playing 5 D-DCs with 3 ravens, the next minute you are playing light swarm zerg rushes.

[Seleucus Ontuas]

Young, how about you tell us what your group was running? If you weren't expecting people to play some of the best builds in the game, what were you expecting them to play?

I will say that my group runs something that is pretty non-standard. I've never seen another team who isn't part of our unit run it, and honestly, I don't expect it to spread until CW comes out. But, the standard I've been seeing lately is 2 Atlases, 2 PPC Phracts, 2 PPC Trenchbuckets, and 2 Ravens. Switch out the Trenchbuckets for more PPC Phracts or Ravens.

[Teralitha]

Youngbull1980, on 03 March 2013 - 12:18 PM, said:

As the title says just wondering what peoples thoughts and experiences have been in true 8man team games. for various reasons the group i play with have only just started doing 8man groups, mainly due to only having 2-4 people on at the same time. but this weekend we've managed to get 8 people on at the same time. And frankly i've been disappointed with the 8man teams we've gone against. We've found we've gone up against one of two team types,

team 1 - normally holds 3 Raven 3L's with ECM and Streaks. 3 Atlas DDC with ECM and SRM's and a mix of others.

team 2- Mix of 3L's, and everything else with SRM's

Is this the same for everyone else? gets a bit boring. does anyone run anything else?

Yep, thats how 8 man premades are, mostly. Thats the meta game PGI wanted, apparently... Pug games have no meta, so they are the most fun right now. 8 man premades are just crap.

[Dreamslave]

Khobai, on 03 March 2013 - 12:37 PM, said:

8-mans are awful. It's just about how many min/maxed cheese builds you can bring. Yesterday we did an 8-man and the other team had 6 splatcats, a dual AC/20 cat, and a splatstalker. 8-man is just ******** beyond all reason.

That's an incredible lie. Do NOT overgeneralize, especially when you are still fuming over a particular team set up. My team uses four medium mechs, three of those are CN9-D's and zero "Cheese builds". We have a neraly 90% win ratio and it's incredibly fun.

8 mans are quite competitive, yes and a lot of it is min/maxing, but that is not always a bad thing. I can't think of a single drop group in my MercGroup that uses even a single splat-cat. Take that for what it's worth.

Edit: Also, my team runs with no raven 3L's either.

Edited by Dreamslave, 03 March 2013 - 01:24 PM.

[Vlad Ward]

Organization and coordinated composition are key in 8-mans. You absolutely don't have to "cheese" it up (I hate that word), or run some Raven+Atlas mishmash machine to do well. You just have to have something that works.

My Corps divides our members into different Companies, each with a designated skill set. We don't like to just throw an 8-man blob together because coordination on that scale is unwieldy. Instead, we'll have a single primary lance (whose leader takes up overall operational control), and either two half lances or a partial lance (3) and a Scout. Each Lance commander directs the movements of their team, and relays back to the Op commander.

Each Lance or Half-Lance is a team of specialists, all designed to do one thing and do it very well. There aren't really any generalists on the field. There's not much point in fielding generalists when you have the ability to coordinate the build of your entire team.

In general, the most important factor going into the 8-man queue is going to be making sure all 8 of your members are up to the task. If you have people running incomplete builds, trying to get XP, or using AC/5 K2s or something, you're going to be at a disadvantage. Likewise, these people are not likely to fit into any Lance or Partial Lance very well, which throws a wrench into your organization.

Oh, and if you actually want to receive any information of value from this thread, do try to tune out the moaners. They're not contributing anything of value.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 03 March 2013 - 01:25 PM.

[Teralitha]

Dreamslave, on 03 March 2013 - 01:23 PM, said:

That's an incredible lie. Do NOT overgeneralize, especially when you are still fuming over a particular team set up. My team uses four medium mechs, three of those are CN9-D's and zero "Cheese builds". We have a neraly 90% win ratio and it's incredibly fun.

LOLOLOL if anything is a lie here..... THAT IS

[Vlad Ward]

Dreamslave, on 03 March 2013 - 01:23 PM, said:

That's an incredible lie. Do NOT overgeneralize, especially when you are still fuming over a particular team set up. My team uses four medium mechs, three of those are CN9-D's and zero "Cheese builds". We have a neraly 90% win ratio and it's incredibly fun.

8 mans are quite competitive, yes and a lot of it is min/maxing, but that is not always a bad thing. I can't think of a single drop group in my MercGroup that uses even a single splat-cat. Take that for what it's worth.

Edit: Also, my team runs with no raven 3L's either.

I'm with this guy ^.

A1s are pretty terrible in 8-mans. We don't use them either. Our primary Light pilots perform much better in Jenners than Ravens, as well, which allows us to field less of them without worrying about their being neutered by ECM.

[Teralitha]

Oh yea... ECM sucks, we dont use it.... cheese builds... no way no how, they are worthless too! and we win all the time!!!!!!

Translation - We were successful 1 time in 30 matches without using ecm or cheese therefore we consider this good and it equates to a 90% win ratio, in our own mind..... nice story bro...

Edited by Teralitha, 03 March 2013 - 01:36 PM.