777 replies to this topic

[Tim East]

Cowardice is death.

I am a Locust pilot.

Aggression is life.

[mad kat]

Aggression also serves my Awesome's very well to. People get all confused when they see what they have been brainwashed into believing as a rubbish mech coming straight for them.

[zortesh]

Cowadice keeps you alive in the short term, and costs you victory.

Aggression wins the match and keeps you alive in the long term.

[parman01]

mad kat, on 04 December 2014 - 05:02 AM, said:

Aggression also serves my Awesome's very well to. People get all confused when they see what they have been brainwashed into believing as a rubbish mech coming straight for them.

Does it serve you well also in situations when your effort turns into 1v12 because your team "forgot" to follow you into battle?

[dr bongstorm]

+1 for calling out cowards. Nothing makes me madder then seeing a pilot hiding in the back in an assault mech. Or any mech for that matter, I say charge the hill and ram your bayonets though their eye sockets. If you don't take the initiative then you are giving it to your enemy.

[YueFei]

parman01, on 15 December 2014 - 03:08 PM, said:

Does it serve you well also in situations when your effort turns into 1v12 because your team "forgot" to follow you into battle?

Proper aggression means actively getting angles to shoot at the enemy.

It doesn't mean to shove your neck into the jaws of the enemy team.

Believe it or not, it is possible to achieve the first action WITHOUT resorting to the second action. Big difference.

Imagine you're standing in the doorway of your living room. Imagine there are several bad guys at various places with guns pointed at the doorway ready to blast you. Kinda stupid to charge through the doorway to attack them, right?

Now take a few steps away from the doorway. Move in a circle with the doorway as a pivot point. Notice how at any point along the circle, you're exposed to only a "slice" of the room? At any point in time you can engage the enemies 1 at a time, and they can't simultaneously fire at you.

Good, aggressive players are using cover *and* moving to take shots while limiting their exposure. They don't just hide and cower while hugging cover obsessively, or idiotically charge out into the open and get blasted.

[Void Angel]

dr bongstorm, on 15 December 2014 - 05:46 PM, said:

+1 for calling out cowards. Nothing makes me madder then seeing a pilot hiding in the back in an assault mech. Or any mech for that matter, I say charge the hill and ram your bayonets though their eye sockets. If you don't take the initiative then you are giving it to your enemy.

It's not my intent to "call out cowards," as such - I'm simply trying to get people to wrap their heads around the concept of melding aggression and risk management. Currently, many people understand them to be exclusive, but this is a false dichotomy. It's not either camp behind the hill, or charge up and stab them with your eye-teeth - you properly want to take risks that are worth the probable reward. And you're always taking risks. Simply sitting in one place while the enemy maneuvers to flank you is a risk, and very often a bad one. You have to balance danger with reward.

YueFei has the principle down well. The only thing I'd add is that sometimes you do need to charge into that room - and there are accepted ways to do that. Those ways are, however, beyond the scope of this guide. My goal here is to introduce players to the concept of acceptable risks and the value of keeping offense in mind at all times. Attack; always attack. No matter how strong your opponent may be, there is somewhere he is weak. That doesn't mean you should always just zerg him; maneuvering for position, or drawing the enemy in, is also a form of aggression. Simply remember that your armor and durability are resources to be used - and that ceding initiative to the enemy is a hazard.

Edited by Void Angel, 15 December 2014 - 07:02 PM.

[ApolloKaras]

This thread is EXTREMELY relevant now that we have CW.

Keep up the good fight Void

[Alaskan Nobody]

Void Angel, on 15 December 2014 - 07:01 PM, said:

The only thing I'd add is that sometimes you do need to charge into that room - and there are accepted ways to do that....

And some mechs are better at that than others (frequently mechs that are "worse" than their counterparts - such as the Atlas to the King Crab.


....And people say there are no Tanks simply because there are no Healers.

[Inflatable Fish]

Void Angel, on 30 November 2014 - 01:01 AM, said:

Aw, thanks! You win the grammar award for using "superb" in a sentence!

how does that count as "grammar," though?

[Void Angel]

Having to ask is why you don't get the award!

[mad kat]

parman01, on 15 December 2014 - 03:08 PM, said:

Does it serve you well also in situations when your effort turns into 1v12 because your team "forgot" to follow you into battle?

It only works well though if you sustain shooting them. Charging a lance of mechs is plain stupidity but charging one or two that have been singled out can be beneficial. But it doesnt always work no.

[rolling thunder]

As a newbie player,only having played for a month now. One of the thing that concerns me are people using the team chat to abuse other players. I don't have 100% control of my Mech using the keyboard directional controls so I can't always get my Mech to do what is needed,however I am getting better with use.I assume those who have the time to abuse myself or other players are already dead? But it is unacceptable to call other players F****ts {funnily enough a term which gets censored on the forum} because they aren't doing as the spectators wish. I have tried several tactics since starting to play,charging in gets you killed. Hanging back gets you killed slower but eventually you still get killed. Stick with the team & try not to end up being targeted by a Stalker. I usually use my Mech {Timberwolf} to bombard the enemy out of line of sight until i'm down to 25% LRM & then get stuck into the fight but I have found that holding back like that all the time allows my team mates to get beaten up which is unacceptable. As I learn to control my Mech better I am able to get stuck into the fight & bombard enemy Mechs involved in fights with team mates. Yes I am learning that Timidity is not a tactic. When my team mates play the same way it all works well but when it doesn't I find the abuse that player pour on other players to be unacceptable {no I don't consider it banter}. The other thing, no matter how fun the game is,it has gliches. It freezes causing me to have to escape the game,close it down & restart the game.It all takes to long which is unacceptable. I closed my game down a couple of days ago to restart it only to find I had no targeting, so I had to restart again. Things like my mouse cursor minimising the screen midfight??? I'm no computer techy but I know that there are loads of stupid reasons why the game may crash so may be a bit more patience from other players is needed? On the whole i'm enjoying my games & MWO in general.

Edited by rolling thunder, 16 December 2014 - 04:11 AM.

[Ano]

rolling thunder, on 16 December 2014 - 04:08 AM, said:

Things like my mouse cursor minimising the screen midfight???

I'm wondering here whether you might have hit the Windows key or something midfight, or have MWO set to be a fullscreen window (rather than true fullscreen).

I have MWO set as a fullscreen window so I can read websites while I'm queuing or fiddle with Smurfy etc; it's quite easy with this setup to be in-game, and controlling your mech, but for MWO not to have taken exclusive control of the mouse cursor. If I forget to check this at match start, what inevitably happens is I go to peek out from a corner and take a quick shot, click a mouse button and instead of firing a bunch of weapons, I click outside the MWO window. Then, not only do I *not* fire a bunch of weapons but my mech coasts to a halt, usually in full view of the opposing team, and (generally) I take a nasty chunk of damage while I refocus the cursor and get moving again.

[Orion Starion]

Rolling Thunder, I agree with you about the abuse. And I've been playing since closed beta. The only real reason I keep coming back is the friends I've made here make the game playable.

I also suffer from a buggy internet connection and a slower older machine so I'm often getting crashed out of games and rush to relogin only to find my mech kept wandering until someone took the easy kill.

But back on topic, I drive LRM boats, partially because of the above and because I cannot brawl worth a damn. But even being in an LRM boat, I try to keep right behind my team and keep an eye on where my LRMs can do some actual good, like driving off the light killers that are going after my scouts. That kind of teamwork is the only way to be successful in this game and it get really hard to do that in PUG matches.

My primary ride is an LRM45 Atlas D-DC. I get alot of abuse for "wasting" an assault mech with that build but it's what I drive. And if I'm in a PUG match and nobody is moving to engage the enemy and letting them do as they wish, I'll push out front with my 2 ML and UAC5. Yea, it's not much firepower, but the times it's pulled the rest of team forward, even though I usually die, it leads to a much greater chance for victory.

[Void Angel]

rolling thunder, on 16 December 2014 - 04:08 AM, said:

As a newbie player,only having played for a month now. One of the thing that concerns me are people using the team chat to abuse other players. I don't have 100% control of my Mech using the keyboard directional controls so I can't always get my Mech to do what is needed,however I am getting better with use.I assume those who have the time to abuse myself or other players are already dead? But it is unacceptable to call other players F****ts {funnily enough a term which gets censored on the forum} because they aren't doing as the spectators wish.
...
The other thing, no matter how fun the game is,it has gliches. It freezes causing me to have to escape the game,close it down & restart the game.It all takes to long which is unacceptable. I closed my game down a couple of days ago to restart it only to find I had no targeting, so I had to restart again. Things like my mouse cursor minimising the screen midfight??? I'm no computer techy but I know that there are loads of stupid reasons why the game may crash so may be a bit more patience from other players is needed? On the whole i'm enjoying my games & MWO in general.

Abusive language and harassing isn't ok - particularly profanity and other unsportsmanlike conduct. If folks are hurling profane abuse at you, feel free to hit the Print Screen button to take a screenshot, and send it to support@mwomercs.com with the title "Harassment Complaint." However, be aware that such abuse isn't the norm at higher Elo levels, or in unit groups. My advice is to turn off All chat by default, and look around for a unit to join on the Community Warfare section of the forums - even a pick-up group on some of the public teamspeaks out there, such as No Guts, No Galaxy (information is bottom center or Comstar's public TS. Any good unit will have their own TS server, and you'll be able to drop with people over voice coms. This will help your skill progression and your level of frustration with harassment in the game.

As for the game glitches, that's not how the game runs for most of us. Try the repair tool, or even a complete reinstall to clear any corrupted files, make sure your hardware drivers are all up to date, and check with the Hardware and Accessories forum to see if there are any optimizations you should use for your current rig - MWO uses an older version of CryEngine 3, and I'm given to understand that certain optimizations aren't included in the build they licensed; in any case the game is a resource hog.

[Void Angel]

PS: An LRM boat Atlas is a waste, though if you're using a UAC stack along with it, you're not boating; your teammates have the right to complain, much as if you were to take a Flamer Hunchback out for a spin. However, if complaints turn to real abuse, that's still not ok, and you should send reports to Support, too. =)

[IraqiWalker]

rolling thunder, on 16 December 2014 - 04:08 AM, said:

As a newbie player,only having played for a month now. One of the thing that concerns me are people using the team chat to abuse other players. I don't have 100% control of my Mech using the keyboard directional controls so I can't always get my Mech to do what is needed,however I am getting better with use.I assume those who have the time to abuse myself or other players are already dead? But it is unacceptable to call other players F****ts {funnily enough a term which gets censored on the forum} because they aren't doing as the spectators wish. I have tried several tactics since starting to play,charging in gets you killed. Hanging back gets you killed slower but eventually you still get killed. Stick with the team & try not to end up being targeted by a Stalker. I usually use my Mech {Timberwolf} to bombard the enemy out of line of sight until i'm down to 25% LRM & then get stuck into the fight but I have found that holding back like that all the time allows my team mates to get beaten up which is unacceptable. As I learn to control my Mech better I am able to get stuck into the fight & bombard enemy Mechs involved in fights with team mates. Yes I am learning that Timidity is not a tactic. When my team mates play the same way it all works well but when it doesn't I find the abuse that player pour on other players to be unacceptable {no I don't consider it banter}. The other thing, no matter how fun the game is,it has gliches. It freezes causing me to have to escape the game,close it down & restart the game.It all takes to long which is unacceptable. I closed my game down a couple of days ago to restart it only to find I had no targeting, so I had to restart again. Things like my mouse cursor minimising the screen midfight??? I'm no computer techy but I know that there are loads of stupid reasons why the game may crash so may be a bit more patience from other players is needed? On the whole i'm enjoying my games & MWO in general.

I would honestly recommend going into settings, and switching the view mode to "Full Window" It's in there, and it's better than full screen, or windowed mode. It also makes minimizing mid combat virtually impossible.

As for players being Fu****s, I sincerely apologize. Most of us are not like that, and the ones that do abuse their teammates are either just bad players, or ones that had a good match, and ended up losing.

In neither of those cases is it okay to abuse your teammates. I have personally messed up in chat before, but never did I just attack a teammate, and harass them. The most I ever did was making a passive aggressive comment about what the 8 other mechs on my team were doing, while me and 3 others (all solo players) were facing down 10 enemy mechs, without any back up.

My comments now are restricted to:
"LRMs have a min range of 180 meters, they don't work below that"
"Good job team"
"GG WP All"

and basic instructions to my teammates. I find it makes for a healthier game environment if everyone is either helping, or being civil.

[rolling thunder]

I tend to play at odd hours through a 24 hour cycle so I assume i'm playing with people from other nations who may be aren't as PC as us Westerners,fair enough? I don't mind helpful advise {like the minimum range on LRMs,i did wonder}. It also doesn't really help when I get accidently shot by team mates testing their weapons although in one case a player with a rather memorable name shot me up because{I looked too fresh}. I have now made the game a full window,the problem I've found with that is when the game freezes {occasional} or lags {more than occasional} & I can't do anything.It makes closing down the game difficult. Difficult but I had about 5 games minimise during combat yesterday so I decided to go full window. I am enjoying the game but i'm still learning.If it wasn't for my PC going t*ts up i'd have been playing since the beta stage. WOW got dumped as soon as I realised I could put the game on my ancient PC & the only one in my household who doesn't like that is my Wife.

Edited by rolling thunder, 18 December 2014 - 12:59 AM.

[Void Angel]

Well, as an American gamer I'm embarassed to say that we tend to be more... free... with our anger online, so I doubt it's that. Generally, I've found European gamers to be more polite than their counterparts on this side of the pond. Conversely, certain XBox Live games are infamous for the foul-mouthed abusive British kids who play them online, so it does seem to depend where on the internet you are. Overall, however, the kind of jackass who'll peck you for not having taken damage doesn't make it to the higher tiers of play - or of skill. If you work on building efficient Battlemechs and playing them well, you'll eventually not have to deal with that sort of thing on any kind of a regular basis. I literally cannot remember the last time something like that happened to me.

This is one of the reasons I wrote this guide - to help players who wish to do well, succeed. Along with my other thread, Follow the Fracking Atlas, I like to think I've provided a good basic framework for understanding the tactical aspects of PuG gameplay and moving on to more advanced levels of skill. =)

Edited by Void Angel, 17 December 2014 - 03:52 PM.