777 replies to this topic

[rolling thunder]

I do appreciate the advise & if i'm guilty of anything bad it's not reading all the guides at the moment. I'm willing to take advise but to say I have a bit of a MechWarrior addiction is a bit of an understatement.I find myself constantly playing "Just one more game before bed" rather than reading the guides. Yes i'm still getting caught out on my own by the scouts & end up getting ripped a new heat sink. Yesterday was an odd game day,in the beginning the games folded quite easily & the team got smashed {fair play to the enemy} but then it all changed ending in a hard won fight {I think my Mech was 33% at the end}. For anyone starting out on playing MechWarrior & some of those who don't bother reading the forums I can recommend guides. We all need to learn from others mistakes?

[rolling thunder]

& a new one today. Getting shot up by a team mate. The guy must have been drunk. I made mention about people testing their weapons & hitting me,this guy did it & when I stopped he stopped.Eventually threatening me. I satisfied myself with the idea he must be a kid.He's 52,older than me! My gast has been flabbered.

[YueFei]

rolling thunder, on 28 December 2014 - 06:10 PM, said:

& a new one today. Getting shot up by a team mate. The guy must have been drunk. I made mention about people testing their weapons & hitting me,this guy did it & when I stopped he stopped.Eventually threatening me. I satisfied myself with the idea he must be a kid.He's 52,older than me! My gast has been flabbered.

I have to say that lately my matches have players who are good natured and have a good sense of humor, on both teams.

I've actually had teammates apologize for hitting me with friendly fire, when really it was my own fault for not realizing they had a firing lane and stepping into it. I end up apologizing to them for blocking their shot, everyone laughs, and we work together to have a good game.

One thing I think helps alot when you're trying to communicate with the team in PUGs is to give information, not orders. Tell 'em where you see an enemy is setup, tell teammates when they're NARC'd, let them know that you know they are hurting and you're willing to step in front of them to protect them. But in the end, just relay info, and let the other players on your team make their own decisions.

[Decoy3]

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

It freezes causing me to have to escape the game,close it down & restart the game.It all takes to long which is unacceptable.

Try alt-tabbing out and back in. That should work, and get you back into the fight more quickly.

[Void Angel]

Yes, post-modernism has prejudiced a lot of minds against the "arrogance" of telling other people what to do, and it comes out in the oddest ways... but that's another thread.

rolling thunder, on 28 December 2014 - 06:10 PM, said:

& a new one today. Getting shot up by a team mate. The guy must have been drunk. I made mention about people testing their weapons & hitting me,this guy did it & when I stopped he stopped.Eventually threatening me. I satisfied myself with the idea he must be a kid.He's 52,older than me! My gast has been flabbered.

Well, you don't know he's 52 - apparently he said he was 52. I could claim to be the Private Major of the Army of the Potomac, but you'd have no way to verify that over the internet. Really, there's no sense worrying about that sort of thing - it's not an age/maturity thing, but rather an audience/accountability thing. Frustrations coupled with an essentially captive audience and anonymity do bad things to people's social impulse control if they're not very careful with their tempers.

[rolling thunder]

I got the information on his age from his profile but I agree he could be any,age,older,younger? One of the side effects I've found about taking the fight to the enemy is when they fight back. My side have fallen back leaving me on my own??? Without the support behind you I get shot up in short measure. With no verbal communication it means watching my screen to see where my Lance mates are & sometimes,by the time I realise it,i'm on my own. Still ,i'm having some good scraps & my failure to survive is caused by my own choices rather than the lack of control of my Mech.

[Void Angel]

Oh yes, the "Uriah Effect" happens a lot in PuG play; there's reasons for it - I gave an overview of them in the OP under "Vicious Cycle" - but that doesn't make it any less disastrous. The best way to avoid that happening is to do two things: tell them that you're a brawler and you plan on getting stuck in as soon as you see a good opening; and try to develop a feel for how aggressive your team is willing to be. Usually the Uriah Effect occurs just at the point you're going in. Your teammates see all the incoming fire, and instinctively fall back on their conditioning to avoid damage, saying, "wow, that's a lot of fire; I'm not going in there." The fact is that this is precisely the point they want to go in, before the enemy finish shredding you and begin to recycle their weapons and cool back down - but the game doesn't train them to recognize that.

[Fusea]

So as a returning player, I want to say thanks for the guides. I want to get back into playing on my lrm boat Catapult, but I am so very rusty. I will say I don't fall for the Uriah effect. My role on the field is to get my missiles to your target for maximum effect, allowing you to win your brawl and move on to the next. I have never shied away from following the brawlers (at a clever distance, I have lrms after all). On the field, indirect fire is useful, but direct fire is better (shorter flight time and less chance to hug the high ground to avoid the missiles, and I get to pew pew pew with my lasers!). If I get shot doing that, It's all part of the job. Ideally, I should end the match with live brawlers, no reloads, and 1 point of armor on each location.

[Void Angel]

I'm glad you found them helpful! I've tried to keep them general enough that they avoid being simply commentaries on the metagame.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that at least one PuG LRM user out there actually knows how to use the weapon system. I've seen way too many Atlases plinking away with their launchers from 900m out. =)

[Rift87]

Void,

As a player getting into MWO for the first time ( I have played since the original PC game and would love to try Table Top ) I would like to thank you for your advice on team tactics. I have always piloted a light mech and will endeavor to take your advice to heart. Thanks again.

[Void Angel]

You're welcome! I'm simply gratified that you took the time to read through the thread. Welcome to MWO, and don't be afraid to fire off any questions you may have on the New Player Help forums - we've got a good group of people who haunt those forums to help you out.

[YueFei]

Void Angel, on 30 December 2014 - 05:22 PM, said:

Oh yes, the "Uriah Effect" happens a lot in PuG play; there's reasons for it - I gave an overview of them in the OP under "Vicious Cycle" - but that doesn't make it any less disastrous. The best way to avoid that happening is to do two things: tell them that you're a brawler and you plan on getting stuck in as soon as you see a good opening; and try to develop a feel for how aggressive your team is willing to be. Usually the Uriah Effect occurs just at the point you're going in. Your teammates see all the incoming fire, and instinctively fall back on their conditioning to avoid damage, saying, "wow, that's a lot of fire; I'm not going in there." The fact is that this is precisely the point they want to go in, before the enemy finish shredding you and begin to recycle their weapons and cool back down - but the game doesn't train them to recognize that.

It helps to play with the mentality of getting psyched up to get some PAYBACK whenever you see a teammate get hit.

It doesn't hurt to have an escape route for yourself in case your teammate has overextended and gets himself blown to bits, but while he's catching bullets you may as well get some retribution for him.

It's a great feeling to take point, take shots, get hit by the enemy, and then see your teammates surge angrily ahead of you to go shoot the SOB who hit you.

[Karl Streiger]

Void Angel, on 30 December 2014 - 05:22 PM, said:

Oh yes, the "Uriah Effect" happens a lot in PuG play; there's reasons for it - I gave an overview of them in the OP under "Vicious Cycle" - but that doesn't make it any less disastrous. The best way to avoid that happening is to do two things: tell them that you're a brawler and you plan on getting stuck in as soon as you see a good opening; and try to develop a feel for how aggressive your team is willing to be. Usually the Uriah Effect occurs just at the point you're going in. Your teammates see all the incoming fire, and instinctively fall back on their conditioning to avoid damage, saying, "wow, that's a lot of fire; I'm not going in there." The fact is that this is precisely the point they want to go in, before the enemy finish shredding you and begin to recycle their weapons and cool back down - but the game doesn't train them to recognize that.

first time i read about this "effect" but hey its exactly what happens - with a bunch of solo gamers
and you can use it for defense as well - sometimes you can keep a overwhelming number of enemy's at bay - simple by firing at all of them - for example the worse Atlas K with 2 ERPPCs and a Gauss - you can hit 3 targets in quick succession - and because all 3 individual "feel" the hit they may fall back - leaving the 4th for an Alpha Strike. ( i realized this mechanic first in MWO - where i could hold any position with my Hetzer vs overwhelming numbers of foes)
That won't work when you face a team - when they say we go in - and call your Mech a prime - they will stay on target - incoming fire is distracting but they have the "order" to kill you - that override the "Flight Mechanism"

Edited by Karl Streiger, 07 January 2015 - 12:57 AM.

[Void Angel]

Oh, I made up the term on the spot. =) Feel free to steal it, though!

[Jdude1]

We have a saying in the 228. "W" Key is the Win Key!!!

[Void Angel]

YueFei, on 07 January 2015 - 12:24 AM, said:

It helps to play with the mentality of getting psyched up to get some PAYBACK whenever you see a teammate get hit.

It doesn't hurt to have an escape route for yourself in case your teammate has overextended and gets himself blown to bits, but while he's catching bullets you may as well get some retribution for him.

It's a great feeling to take point, take shots, get hit by the enemy, and then see your teammates surge angrily ahead of you to go shoot the SOB who hit you.

When they are shooting at me, they cannot shoot effectively at you, and vice versa. It's seriously not cognitively possible - you can only look directly at one thing at a time. So you can slash lasers across targets, or just fill the air with AC rounds, if you're feeling wasteful, but you can't deal the focused damage that you need to take a target down fast. So the best time to hit the enemy team is when they're busily dismembering your teammate, but the game and meta discourage you from taking risks with long-range fire in most situations - hence the guide. =)

On the plus side, if you tell your team that you're going in, and manage to survive for a while, they'll typically follow you - eventually. I recall a match in Terra Therma where we ignored the PuG Zapper and circled around the caldera to catch the enemy team as they timorously peered into the central caldera. I called the charge, and led in my Thunderbolt - and no one came with me. I lasted a good eight to ten seconds with most of the enemy team shooting at me as I hit them from behind - and the last thing I saw from the circle-cam around my destroyed 'Mech was one single Catapult just barely starting to engage. But by that time the enemy team was overheated, my team had gotten the idea that if it took them that long to kill me (I love Thunderbolts) the damage was survivable... We ended up rolling them, taking one other casualty or so. Thus, you can end up turning the game around, but getting next to no c-bills or xp in the process - but it's worth it if you think of the effect on future games and prioritize the win.

[Kahadras]

What annoys me is that you'll let people know where the enemy is and they ignore you. I was in a game on Canyon Network today and was screaming for help at C5. I ended up trying to hold off two lances with one other player while the rest of the team milled around indecisively. The only guy who moved up to help went down, then I went down, then the rest of our team got rolled up one at a time.

Few people seem to use chat or bother reading what other people are saying. I wouldn't have minded so much if people had left me to die and formed some kind of meaningful firing line towards C5/C4. Instead they presented an open flank and the opposing team picked them off 1 by 1. It's depressing to die early on in a game. It's even worse to die early on, have almost nobody lift a finger to help and ignore all the your warnings.

Edited by Kahadras, 10 January 2015 - 04:20 PM.

[Insects]

Kahadras, on 10 January 2015 - 04:19 PM, said:

What annoys me is that you'll let people know where the enemy is and they ignore you. I was in a game on Canyon Network today and was screaming for help at C5.

Probably desensitized to people calling for help/attack in unreachable canyons on that map.
For all the non JJ's the canyon/hilltop next door may as well be the other side of the map.
Very hard map to keep a grouped team.

[Hit the Deck]

I just came to realize that Assaults are usually the most timid. More often than not, they just hide and spam LRMs if they can't get a line of sight of the enemies. When I play medium or support/scout mechs (which usually is), it makes me want to punch them in the face.

[Tim East]

Hit the Deck, on 10 January 2015 - 11:27 PM, said:

More often than not, they just hide and spam LRMs if they can't get a line of sight of the enemies.

A little bit contradictory, that statement. If they can't get LoS to their enemies, it implies that they are unable to engage them directly, not unwilling to. In such a case, would you rather they not at least try to soften the enemy up in whatever meager way they can with indirect fire?

However, I am familiar with the phenomena of assaults that sit back and avoid conflict in favor of LRM fire. For most assaults this is a highly team-dependent strategy, which makes it pretty high-risk in PUGs. They have to rely on their team to get good locks, not die while the LRM-ing strips armor, and finish off the enemy. I've seen Stalkers LRM from the front, and Awesomes cower in the back, but the only one that really irks me is when you get an Atlas with like 2 launchers who sits in the back and tickles the enemy without moving forward as he does so. The DDC and the S can mount more than 2 launchers, but due to the tube count they aren't great LRM-boats. All the rest are just terrible and should feel terrible for trying to do that.

I mount LRMs on my Atlas S not to boat, but to give me a method of at least trying to help my team while they hurl themselves against the enemy line instead of waiting for me to catch up to them. I only go like 50 kph, so there are a lot of times that people aren't willing to wait for me. I just feel like if I don't AC20 something, I didn't do my part.