97 replies to this topic

[Vlad Ward]

FrupertApricot, on 09 February 2013 - 03:13 AM, said:

Has to do with the way heat capacity works. some HS gives you bigger than tabletop heat capacity, meaning you can fire 6 ppcs, srm6's, etc. without a bit of fear of overheating for a bit of burst. I would like to see heat CAPACITY lowered and heat SINK RATE increased a proportional mount. this would favor non-boating mechs I think.

No. This would just encourage the use of lots of small weapons as opposed to a few larger ones.

[Ralgas]

There is no real solution beyond dropping said boating variants from the game, to which people will only find new supposed gamebreaking combos from whats left. I still firmly believe the main problem with combating boats is to increase pug communication (via something like getting the ingame voice system implemented). A splatcat/sniper/lrm boat is only seriously dangerous when you don't see them coming or they have 3rd party coms and coordination hapening

[1453 R]

Okay. Setting the record straight.

I don't particularly have a problem with beating boat 'Mechs or not. Either they win or I win, and either way the result is almost entirely on me. Matter of fact...that is my problem right there. Against the average yutz in a six PPC or eighty LRM Stalker, either I make a stupid mistake and die, or I don't make any stupid mistakes and I pick them apart. Splatcats, when piloted by folks who aren't Indoorsman, are generally in the same boat (tee hee). Either I make the mistake of closing with them on an approach favorable to their missile array and pay for it with my face, or I spot them early and either warn my team and move on or try to engage it from behind, distract it from its victim.

The problem there is that winning or losing against these 'Mechs has very, very little to do with the skill or tactical ability of their pilots. They don't teach their pilots anything. You don't learn how to maneuver or how to avoid/minimize damage in a boating Stalker, and you don't learn much more than that in a Splatcat. These 'Mechs 'reward' turret-style gameplay in which their pilots move two hundred meters from their DZ, hit X, and then forget their throttle exists for the rest of the match. They don't know how to move, they don't know how to coordinate with teammates beyond yelling "GIMME LRM LOCK!" in team chat, half of them don't even know how Conquest mode works. But they getkills, and because they're trained in games like Call of Duty, they end up figuring that if they get kills, that's all that could possibly matter.

Do I get as many kills in my Dragons as a six PPC Stalker pilot? Not at all. I'm new yet, and Dragons are tough. But you can be damn sure I'm learning how to play MWO a whole hell of a lot faster than someone who spends all their time sitting on their thumbs behind a hill firing LRMs they don't even bother to check are hitting.

Edited by 1453 R, 09 February 2013 - 02:41 PM.

[Vlad Ward]

I kind of hate it when people talk about how people with good Mechs must not have any skill at all. As if the only way to get any good at this game is to play an awful, awful Mech and put yourself at the most significant disadvantage you can think of. And then the only possible reason those extremely skilled Dragon and Centurion pilots ever lose a game is because the no-skill grognards on the other team were using super-cheap cheese builds and rolled their faces on their keyboards.

I've come to the tentative, though well supported, conclusion that people play awful Mechs because their ego couldn't handle the possibility of them using a good build and still losing.

[MischiefSC]

Unless the plan is to remove the pinpoint accuracy and introduce a 'cone of fire accuracy' that varies from weapon to weapon boating is going to remain not just viable but very effective. Changing heat management won't change that.

That is going to introduce its own QQing though so I'm not sure there is a solid solution.

[Mackman]

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 02:41 PM, said:

Okay. Setting the record straight.

I don't particularly have a problem with beating boat 'Mechs or not. Either they win or I win, and either way the result is almost entirely on me. Matter of fact...that is my problem right there. Against the average yutz in a six PPC or eighty LRM Stalker, either I make a stupid mistake and die, or I don't make any stupid mistakes and I pick them apart. Splatcats, when piloted by folks who aren't Indoorsman, are generally in the same boat (tee hee). Either I make the mistake of closing with them on an approach favorable to their missile array and pay for it with my face, or I spot them early and either warn my team and move on or try to engage it from behind, distract it from its victim.

The problem there is that winning or losing against these 'Mechs has very, very little to do with the skill or tactical ability of their pilots. They don't teach their pilots anything. You don't learn how to maneuver or how to avoid/minimize damage in a boating Stalker, and you don't learn much more than that in a Splatcat. These 'Mechs 'reward' turret-style gameplay in which their pilots move two hundred meters from their DZ, hit X, and then forget their throttle exists for the rest of the match. They don't know how to move, they don't know how to coordinate with teammates beyond yelling "GIMME LRM LOCK!" in team chat, half of them don't even know how Conquest mode works. But they getkills, and because they're trained in games like Call of Duty, they end up figuring that if they get kills, that's all that could possibly matter.

Do I get as many kills in my Dragons as a six PPC Stalker pilot? Not at all. I'm new yet, and Dragons are tough. But you can be damn sure I'm learning how to play MWO a whole hell of a lot faster than someone who spends all their time sitting on their thumbs behind a hill firing LRMs they don't even bother to check are hitting.

That's super crazy how you know how all these pilots think and feel. See, when I play, I'm only aware of what I think and feel.

As a four-PPC Stalker, I have two jobs:

• Soften up the enemy team as the two main forces close in on each other. THis includes hitting their long-range support units, as well as doing my best to pick off any cocky lights or mediums who expose themselves.
  
• Then, once the fight has started, my responsibility shifts to using my 40 damage pinpoint alphas to try and finish off mechs so my brawling teammates can move on to the next target.

This is a lot of fun for me. I feel that I can influence the match a heck of a lot more than in my hunchback or even my K2. So when I blow your arm all to hell because I recognized an opportunity and took it, or when I zero in on your damaged center torso when you're brawling with my teammate, I really don't mind if the only way you can make yourself feel better is to tell yourself how good you are and how bad the people beating you are. But, for your own benefit, you might want to recognize valid styles of play other than your own.

[Spectre999]

Boating is a direct consequence of the +100% HP mech increase in relation to tabletop. Think about it for a moment, the current efficiency of the K2 boomcat is that what a single AC20 would have been under regular rules. Yes, it would be THAT scary. Now extrapolate that to all other weapon systems and you get the answer to both why people boat weapons if they can and why trial mechs aren't really viable (which is a different discussion entirely, but I'm mentioning it here as food for thought).

So, the point is, I don't blame people for boating, it's a viable tactics that has a disadvantage of leaving you vulnerable. It's there because of a conscious design decision and un/fortunately is here to stay.

Edited by Spectre999, 09 February 2013 - 03:11 PM.

[Tuku]

6PPC boats dont do heat management....they just take naps every 2 alphas or so

[Mackman]

Spectre999, on 09 February 2013 - 03:09 PM, said:

Boating is a direct consequence of the +100% HP mech increase in relation to tabletop. Think about it for a moment, the current efficiency of the K2 boomcat is that what a single AC20 would have been under regular rules. Yes, it would be THAT scary. Now extrapolate that to all other weapon systems and you get the answer to both why people boat weapons if they can and why trial mechs aren't really viable (which is a different discussion entirely, but I'm mentioning it here as food for thought).

So, the point is, I don't blame people for boating, it's a viable tactics that has a disadvantage of leaving you vulnerable. It's there because of a conscious design decision and un/fortunately is here to stay.

This argument is just silly. Boating would be even more viable with lower health and armor values. Right now, my ac20 K2 or my 4 PPC Stalker can one-shot certain lights: If current health/armor was halved, then I would be able to one-shot certain mediums and even heavies as well. Boating is effective because in a video game such as this, a good pilot is going to equpip himself to deal maximum damage at his preferred range. If he wants to brawl, he's going to configure himself to maximize brawling. If he wants to snipe, he's going to configure himself for maximum sniping.

These aren't long campaigns where you might be forced into any situation (which is the reason for seemingly-wonky stock configs): These are single 15-minute matches, where you should be able to control your method of engagement with reasonable effectiveness.

[Zero Neutral]

FrupertApricot, on 09 February 2013 - 03:13 AM, said:

Has to do with the way heat capacity works. some HS gives you bigger than tabletop heat capacity, meaning you can fire 6 ppcs, srm6's, etc. without a bit of fear of overheating for a bit of burst. I would like to see heat CAPACITY lowered and heat SINK RATE increased a proportional mount. this would favor non-boating mechs I think.

"I got hit by 6 PPC maybe twice in one match and think that it's an OP viable build."

It's not.

Edited by Zero Neutral, 09 February 2013 - 03:23 PM.

[1453 R]

Mackman, I don't recall mentioning that I was so amazing as all that. I'm not - I get taken apart by those crazy boats as often as the next guy does. Heh...rather ironically, actually, I take the complete opposite approach - if I lose to a Splatter or a mass of particle cannons on legs, I generally attribute the loss to my own insufficient skill rather than to the enemy's awesomeness or cheese levels.

My point is that massive boat 'Mech pilots who deliberately build combat flexibility, versatility, and multirole capability out of their machines in exchange for being TEH BEST SNIPERZ or TEH BEST SPLATTERZ or TEH BEST WHATEVERZ are not learning as much about this game as someone who does not. They're not as good at dealing with varied threats as someone who doesn't choose to engineer crippling overspecialization into his machine.

A Stalker running an improved version of the standard configuration is someone I'm generally a lot more leery of than a PPC turret or an LRM carrier, because there's really no good way to approach him. I've steered a new friend of mine towards the C4 Catapult rather than the A1, using two LRM15, two SRM6, and two medium lasers over the more typical ALL TEH LRMZ models, and those close-range weapons have saved his life and earned him kills on more occasions than he figured was possible. He's thanked me for convincing him to give it a shot.

Obviously there will be pilots who're just that good with a specific weapon, and they will use whatever chassis gives them sufficient numbers of that weapon to make a go of it. The typical boat pilot is not one of those pilots. A typical boat pilot is using an overabundance of a given weapon to cover up his own deficiencies and give himself an easy out, at the expense of not being forced to learn how to deal with those deficiencies. Someone who rigs up a Splattercat because he's sick of losing brawls is not learning how to win brawls, he's learning that a sufficient number of SRMs is indistinguishable from explosions. Someone who rigs up a six-PPC Stalker isn't generally learning anything except how to point his torso crosshairs and click a button. They certainly aren't learning heat management, given how often I see the silly things shut down.

If people want to play like that, then all right. Fine, sure, do what you like. Just realize that you're stunting your own growth as a player and that eventually that 'Mech just won't hold water anymore. Heh...after all, even Mackman only uses four PPCs. I'm assuming you used the rest of the space on a mix of heat sinks and close-defense weapons such that you don't shut down after every other salvo, and aren't a free meal for any Flame, Cicada or Jenner who spots you in the back row?

[Mackman]

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

Mackman, I don't recall mentioning that I was so amazing as all that. I'm not - I get taken apart by those crazy boats as often as the next guy does. Heh...rather ironically, actually, I take the complete opposite approach - if I lose to a Splatter or a mass of particle cannons on legs, I generally attribute the loss to my own insufficient skill rather than to the enemy's awesomeness or cheese levels.

My point is that massive boat 'Mech pilots who deliberately build combat flexibility, versatility, and multirole capability out of their machines in exchange for being TEH BEST SNIPERZ or TEH BEST SPLATTERZ or TEH BEST WHATEVERZ are not learning as much about this game as someone who does not. They're not as good at dealing with varied threats as someone who doesn't choose to engineer crippling overspecialization into his machine.

A Stalker running an improved version of the standard configuration is someone I'm generally a lot more leery of than a PPC turret or an LRM carrier, because there's really no good way to approach him. I've steered a new friend of mine towards the C4 Catapult rather than the A1, using two LRM15, two SRM6, and two medium lasers over the more typical ALL TEH LRMZ models, and those close-range weapons have saved his life and earned him kills on more occasions than he figured was possible. He's thanked me for convincing him to give it a shot.

Obviously there will be pilots who're just that good with a specific weapon, and they will use whatever chassis gives them sufficient numbers of that weapon to make a go of it. The typical boat pilot is not one of those pilots. A typical boat pilot is using an overabundance of a given weapon to cover up his own deficiencies and give himself an easy out, at the expense of not being forced to learn how to deal with those deficiencies. Someone who rigs up a Splattercat because he's sick of losing brawls is not learning how to win brawls, he's learning that a sufficient number of SRMs is indistinguishable from explosions. Someone who rigs up a six-PPC Stalker isn't generally learning anything except how to point his torso crosshairs and click a button. They certainly aren't learning heat management, given how often I see the silly things shut down.

If people want to play like that, then all right. Fine, sure, do what you like. Just realize that you're stunting your own growth as a player and that eventually that 'Mech just won't hold water anymore. Heh...after all, even Mackman only uses four PPCs. I'm assuming you used the rest of the space on a mix of heat sinks and close-defense weapons such that you don't shut down after every other salvo, and aren't a free meal for any Flame, Cicada or Jenner who spots you in the back row?

There are pilots who fill their Stalker up with PPC's because they're simply too dumb to realize that in doing so, they're handicapping themselves should they ever get caught by a couple mediums up close. The problem is, you're implying that all boating pilots, by default, have this mindset, and that you are much smarter than they are because you aren't boating.

I deliberately handicap myself at close range, consciously making that trade-off in order to gain long-range superiority, as well as the ability to occasionally one-shot a light mech at range. This ability means that I can often eliminate an enemy light that's skrimishing with one of my allies, thus freeing up my ally to go somewhere else. Of course, the trade-off is that I have to stay relatively close to the front lines, so that a brawler can come and help me out if I get attacked. Given that this is a team game, such an attitude seems fitting. And, in fact, it usually works pretty well, and it entails planning, thinking, strategizing... all those things that you prize so heavily.

And yet, when you see a Stalker boating PPC's, all you can think is "What an *****. He's not thinking or learning the game, he doesn't even realize how dumb he's being." Your style of play has become the only acceptable style of play, and any intelligent reason for differing styles is just completely unfathomable to you.

And your faux humility isn't fooling anyone, dude: saying "I lost because I played dumb" is just another way of saying "If I hadn't played dumb, I would have beaten you," which is just another way of saying, "I'm better than you are." At bottom, you're saying, "Given me playing smart, I will beat you 100% of the time, because I am better and you are dumb."

Edited by Mackman, 09 February 2013 - 04:30 PM.

[Vlad Ward]

ilu, keep saying all the things I want to say for me please

[Pht]

... How to stop boats ...

Um, well, with the caveat that some mechs are BUILT to be boats, and that virtually every omnimech is, can, and should be a boat ...

My 2c on how to make 'Mechs that shouldn't be boats ... not be boats:

I wonder how many times this is going to come up...








---------------------------------------------

"Blue" is mislabeled. It should be "equipment" which mostly means you can put heatsinks there, maybe ammo.

Should be pretty straight forwards.

Things that those familiar with the MW4 lab and the parent game won't see so obviously:

Don't allow internal structure type to be changed - don't allow engines to be changed (instead, look to the things in Tac Ops, like sprinting, for a wide 'Mech performance envelope). cockpit, gyro, and actuators (hip, arm joints) should not be allowed to be messed with (with the single exclusion of omnimechs with omni arms removing the hand and I think the lower actuators for using ppcs and gauss?).

Omnimechs can't modify their armor or otherwise do anything that would cross over from non-omni areas into omni-slots - otherwise, they're no longer modular, in addition to the above restrictions.

This gives a quick way to resolve penetrating hits and allows for the armor/damage behaviors to be ported with ease in a way that fits the fluidity of a VG with ease, and it stops (as much as the original mechs meant to!) munchkins from lunacy.

Omnimechs might have to be somehow restricted in number, because they'll be (as they should be and as the Lore blurbs them) scary, as far as loadouts are concerned.

One of the other things this would necessarily bring with it is that all the variant chassis of a base chassis (non-omnimech chassis, that is) would actually have to be in the game. There would be a large field to choose from - which would be even more fun if they managed to get the combat setup where they could handle the 'Mech quirks (marauder is supposed to be deadly in combat, that sort of thing).

This would stop the MW3 problem where all 'Mechs are rendered into nothing more than visually different bags full of guns - munchkin min/max Sheol misery, and still allow for a LOT of customization.

[HarmAssassin]

A whole lot of complaining about nothing.

When you target a mech, you get to see exactly what it's payload is. If it is a boat of short range only weapons, you engage it from afar. If it is a boat of long range weapons, you sneak up behind it and fight it up close.

If you don't see it coming, then either you failed to adequately look for it, or they did a better job of hiding. Either way, stop whining about it.

Splatcats are useless over 270m.
Thumpcats have slow rates of fire and fragile weapons.
LRM boats can't hurt anything under 180m, and all you have to do is break target lock and anything they have in the air is useless.
ERPPC boats - don't walk straight towards or away from them, vary your speed and direction. Take advantage of their shutdowns, get behind them (but don't stop moving or they'll torso twist faster than you can move).

There is no unbeatable build, only pilots who don't learn from their mistakes.

Edited by HarmAssassin, 09 February 2013 - 04:47 PM.

[Ialti]

So the question is: "should I try to get the devs to limit my opponent?" No thanks . I'm ok with boats out there, even if I have to die to them every now and then.

[1453 R]

If I spot a PPC Stalker, run my high-speed lizard self around buildings and hills and whatever, and then tear him up at close range, it's because I noticed what he was doing and played against his weakness. It's not because I'm a better pilot than he is, it's because I capitalized on circumstances. There was no duel or even really any fighting involved - just me sticking in the guy's face, behind his back, taking shots wherever I can because I know he can't really fight back.

If, on the other hand, I don't spot that PPC Stalker, run myself up over a hill or skirt around a giant rock somewhere in the lake, and he manages to core me out with one salvo, the only skill involved is him being able to tag me at a distance. That's appreciable and laudable, but he certainly didn't have to think or maneuver. He spotted a target, he shot it; it's my fault for making myself a target, and I need to learn better next time. Whether you label it false humility or not, this is how I think. Whether the enemy is a highly skilled sniper working with the benefits of a coordinated eight-man group or a dumb pugger who got lucky, there's always something I could have done to avoid being blown up. It's how I learn, and how I work at trying to be a better player.

It's also something you can't really do if your 'Mech has precisely one thing it can do, and one thing alone. Hell, I get into enough trouble as it is just because my only real long-range armament on my Flame is a single standard large laser. Other than that? Mediums, SRMs, and a shotgun. More than a few times I've looked at that 'Mech and wondered why I'm not using a standard AC/10 or some LRMs, but at least the thing moves quickly enough that I can work on teaching myself how to strike properly.

No, my way of playing isn't The Only Way. If it was, the game'd stop you from putting more than X amount of whatever given weapon you're using on a 'Mech regardless of hardpoints. It just burns my cookies to a crisp when I see so, so many people take one of the most flexible and versatile Succession Wars-era BattleMechs around, a machine I have so many fond memories of from MW2:M specifically because it could do anything and beat anyone with very little modification, and take away its ability to do anything but PPC snipe or huck LRMs at stuff.

C'mon, folks. Stop tromping on my childhood here T_T

[Mackman]

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 05:00 PM, said:

If I spot a PPC Stalker, run my high-speed lizard self around buildings and hills and whatever, and then tear him up at close range, it's because I noticed what he was doing and played against his weakness. It's not because I'm a better pilot than he is, it's because I capitalized on circumstances. There was no duel or even really any fighting involved - just me sticking in the guy's face, behind his back, taking shots wherever I can because I know he can't really fight back.

If, on the other hand, I don't spot that PPC Stalker, run myself up over a hill or skirt around a giant rock somewhere in the lake, and he manages to core me out with one salvo, the only skill involved is him being able to tag me at a distance. That's appreciable and laudable, but he certainly didn't have to think or maneuver. He spotted a target, he shot it; it's my fault for making myself a target, and I need to learn better next time. Whether you label it false humility or not, this is how I think. Whether the enemy is a highly skilled sniper working with the benefits of a coordinated eight-man group or a dumb pugger who got lucky, there's always something I could have done to avoid being blown up. It's how I learn, and how I work at trying to be a better player.

It's also something you can't really do if your 'Mech has precisely one thing it can do, and one thing alone. Hell, I get into enough trouble as it is just because my only real long-range armament on my Flame is a single standard large laser. Other than that? Mediums, SRMs, and a shotgun. More than a few times I've looked at that 'Mech and wondered why I'm not using a standard AC/10 or some LRMs, but at least the thing moves quickly enough that I can work on teaching myself how to strike properly.

No, my way of playing isn't The Only Way. If it was, the game'd stop you from putting more than X amount of whatever given weapon you're using on a 'Mech regardless of hardpoints. It just burns my cookies to a crisp when I see so, so many people take one of the most flexible and versatile Succession Wars-era BattleMechs around, a machine I have so many fond memories of from MW2:M specifically because it could do anything and beat anyone with very little modification, and take away its ability to do anything but PPC snipe or huck LRMs at stuff.

C'mon, folks. Stop tromping on my childhood here T_T

You only recognize skill when you're the one displaying it. Anything anybody else does is "just <insert anything other than skill here>." Skill comes in many forms, dude. It comes in positioning, in knowing where a fast dragon might poke his little head up, in knowing where that dragon might approach from, in supporting your team and making sure you're close enough to them for them to help you.

I use a vastly different playstyle when I'm piloting my HBK 4SP: My playstyle when it comes to my two Atlai varies wildly depending on it's loadout. My abiilty to duck and weave in between buildings in my hunchie is practically useless when piloting my Atlas: My ability to consistently pound the same area on a moving Medium or Heavy in my Stalker is likewise less useful when working with SRM's.

My point is that every load-out of every variant of every mech requires a different set of skills, and devaluing the skills of your opponents is not the proper way to go about things.

Now, I just know that your next response will be more of the same: you'll try to retain the high ground by freely acknowledging that the PPC Stalker pilot has some skills... they're just not the right skills. Ultimately, your skills are better, more important, and more intrinsic to the BT/MW universe, and therefore any other skills are hardly worthy of being called "skill" at all.

Edited by Mackman, 09 February 2013 - 05:16 PM.

[1453 R]

Actually, my next post is largely going to consist of asking you why you've decided to attack me, personally, as a player. it honestly confuses me; I've openly acknowledged that there are some boat pilots who are not, in fact, terrible pilots and that I am speaking of a general, averaged majority here. And if that hasn't been made clear yet: I am well aware that there are boat pilots who are well above the norm established by nincomprods fresh off their cadet bonus, and my argument isn't about, nor does it concern, them. You, Mack, are almost certainly a better pilot than I am - you've been at this longer and you seem to work regularly with a prebuilt team. You want it, there it is - if we dropped on opposite teams in a game, I am quite certain you'd get the better of me. I am, after all, a lowly Dragon pilot - and a poor one at that - who pugs more often than he drops with friends and who's never been in an eight-man team in his life.

That being said: how does that, in any way, impact my arguments? You seem to be implying that A.) I see myself as being above other players, B.) I am incorrect in that assertion, and C.) that incorrectness invalidates my point.

Regarding A: no, I'm not above other players. I picked the wrong chassis to start with on my Cadet bonus and have been making the best of a bad situation since, teaching myself - painfully, and with many bad moments - how to strike and how to not get my face blown off in my Dragons. I'm not there yet - but I'm learning. I'm arguing the point I am here specifically because I feel that playing an unforgiving, boating-unfriendly 'Mech has helped me learn the game better than I would have if I'd started in something that does my fighting for me.

Regarding B: As I am in no way asserting that I'm some sort of super-player, I cannot be incorrect in making that assertion.

Regarding C: Again - how does my own personal skill, lack thereof, or the relation between it and your skill, of whatever level and emphasis it may be, impact the point I'm trying to make? Players who run a 4SP as their starting 'Mech learn how to aim both torso and arm-mounted weapons, how to manage their heat so as to not shut down and get eaten, how to maneuver around the battlefield such as to minimize risk until they can bring their weapons to bear, and how to engage in the chaos of a frontline brawl.

PPC Stalkers learn how to aim torso-mounted weapons, admittedly with a significantly greater degree of precision than a Hunchback's SRM shotgun sprays. They clearly do not learn heat management since it is impossible to manage the heat of a six-PPC Stalker while it's acting as an alpha boat. They generally don't learn how to maneuver on the battlefield in ways that minimize risk because they don't need to - they just alpha-blast anything that comes within their line of sight before it can get to them and shrug off whatever few long-range attacks they suffer with assault 'Mech-grade armor. And if someone manages to teach herself how to brawl using a PPC Stalker, I will eat my keyboard, uninstall, and never darken this game's doorstep again.

They don't learn the breadth of skills or knowledge that other 'Mechs can teach their pilots because they either don't need those skills or knowledge with the 'Mechs they use, or their 'Mech is so fundamentally incapable of performing the task for which the skill is applicable (i.e. brawling or counter-brawl close defense work, strategic maneuvering, capping points in Conquest, etc.) that they are unable to progress their abilities in those skills because they can't do it.

Tell me how a six PPC Stalker or an eighty LRM Stalker - in the hands of an ordinary pugging pilot, which is the majority of the game's player base, not in the hands of an experienced hand working with a group who's expected to already know this stuff anyways and has dedicated escorts besides! - can teach that pilot how to defend herself from aggressors or how to maneuver around the battlefield safely, and I'll tip my hat to you.

Seriously. I'll go put my fuzzy-eared Minnesota hat on and tip it at the screen. Best I can do, it'll have to be sufficient.

[Mackman]

First off: I pug all of my games, except for a handful of games with some guys on a Lone Wolf server (which is just basically chatting with some guys while playing whatever the heck you want).

Second, as long as you maintain that it's your own momentary lack of skill, as opposed to your opponents' actual skill, then you're going to be perceived as arrogant because that's what arrogance is. You repeatedly affirm that when you die, it's because you messed up, not because your opponent demonstrated meaningful skill.

Third, I'm not attacking you personally. You want to know what a personal attack looks like?

Characterizing all boating pilots as people who's only aspiration is to be

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

TEH BEST SNIPERZ or TEH BEST SPLATTERZ or TEH BEST WHATEVERZ

Or saying that the "average" boating pilot isn't good, or smart, but...

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

A typical boat pilot is using an overabundance of a given weapon to cover up his own deficiencies and give himself an easy out, at the expense of not being forced to learn how to deal with those deficiencies.

Or stating that Boating pilots...

1453 R, on 09 February 2013 - 02:41 PM, said:

They don't know how to move, they don't know how to coordinate with teammates beyond yelling "GIMME LRM LOCK!" in team chat, half of them don't even know how Conquest mode works. But they get kills, and because they're trained in games like Call of Duty, they end up figuring that if they get kills, that's all that could possibly matter... someone who spends all their time sitting on their thumbs behind a hill firing LRMs they don't even bother to check are hitting.

That's what a personal attack looks like. And that's you're doing. Not me.

Fourth: A bad hunchback pilot isn't going to learn to manage heat any better than a bad Stalker pilot. A bad Stalker pilot does nothing but Alpha and overheat: I've seen plenty of bad hunchbacks alpha and overheat. A good one, however, learns the time to Alpha (when you're at low heat, when you're firing at a Light, when a mech with a red torso is about to close within 90 meters of you) and when's the time to keep up a steady barrage of single hits. You continue your assumption that anyone who doesn't play like you do is utilizing the wrong skills.