Mechwarrior Online

[Sir T]

Tried this last night. I would have to add to falcons list a section of "Newbie accessibility" which I would rate a 3 to 4. Basically you have one tutotial for movement, and I accidentally went into a game with no idea how to control my Mech before I found that (and no warning like "You have not played the tutorial, are you sure you wish to play a game?"). No weapons tutorial, no explanations of the types of weapons. No explanation of leveling, and what the hell is a "trial Mech" that you are given? I forgot to check of some kind of manual was downloaded with the game, but yeah, unpolished is definitely a word I'd use. If I wasn't such a Mech nerd from back in the day I'd have uninstalled the thing.

[Falconeer]

I would rate accessibility to new users down to 2, and I don't give it 1 simply because they added the movement tutorial. On top of everything else you said, let's not even start talking about the hidden values and specifics of weapons and equipment. Or the explanation of mechanics like "what kills a 'mech?" or "what kills me?" or "use R to target and share that info with the team". Or "ghost heat".

Supposedly UI 2.0 will fix all that, and that's when I'll start bothering my friends about trying it.

But I am glad you tried it Sir T, hope you'll like it at least a bit.

[Falconeer]

"What does the 'mech say?"   

[Pennilenko]

"What does the 'mech say?"   

No

[Falconeer]

Have you been gibbed by the new and improved artillery strike yet? It is a lot of "fun" when it happens now, and it does happen.
Anyway, learn to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY when you see the red smoke. You have four seconds before death comes falling from the sky.

[5150]

Have you been gibbed by the new and improved artillery strike yet? It is a lot of "fun" when it happens now, and it does happen.
Anyway, learn to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY when you see the red smoke. You have four seconds before death comes falling from the sky.

I'll be honest I've never bothered with them previously as I figured they wouldn't be that special.

Whats the difference between the artillery strike and the airstrike?

[Falconeer]

Artillery Strike falls down from the sky in a circular area around the designated area, while Air Strike hits in a short column that extends for about 20 (?) meters from the marked spot.

[5150]

Thanks,

Is the direction of the airstrike column determined by anything (such as towards or away from your mech) or is it random?

[Falconeer]

I am pretty sure it is a straight line away from your 'mech originating where you dump your smoke canister. I think the whole thing needs more feedback to be not only useful but fun to play. As it is now, it is hard to tell if it hit at all, or even if it actually really happened.

[Ironwood]

I managed 850 on a Kintaro with 2 ML and Streaks.

It was a fucking joy to behold.  Still standing at the end.

[Sir T]

Played a few games this morning. I have not a freaking clue what I'm doing or how to do shit like target mechs or, well, anything. The newbie experience in this game sucks ass. Is there a guide or something out there that someone could recommend?

[Ironwood]

There's a Sam guide somewhere that's an awesome starter for ten (and probably still valid.)

What is it exactly you're having an issue with and what weight do you like punching at ?

[Sir T]

I dont know. Well I went out in the "Trial Dragon" as it was fairly easy to figure out (2 LLs on the left arm - left mouse button, Gauss on the right arm - right mouse button. Ok we can deal with that.) and got unmercifully plastered without doing much damage. (topped out at 88 damage which I assume sucks) But there no explanations for the mech labs or targeting or anything. You can call be rather dense if you like, but I'm not going to go in a mech with, for example, streaks if I don't know how to actually work them. I'll probably figure it out eventually through trial and error and hitting random buttons, but ffs. I accidentally found out B brings up the map for example.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, as discussed, it's the most user-unfriendly game IN THE WORLD and assumes a familiarity with both Battletech and the previous Mechwarrior games.  Even if you have that, it has TONS of hidden changes and bullshit that you have to figure out.  The amount of people who still have no idea how to use ECM is quite stupid.

If I was you, I'd hit up YouTube first - there's quite a few people willing to share strategies and tutorials.

I seem to remember a FAQ and Picture Orientated How To.  I'll see if I can find that fucker.

[eldaec]

When starting out I found anything except medium and large lasers are not worth fucking with, anything slower than about 90mph will get you caught out of position all the damn time, and lights would just get swatted.

That basically works out as play a laser based medium. Then hang around the assaults and try to 'help'.

Usual fps rules apply, keep moving, use cover.

That's what worked for me anyhow.

[Goreschach]

So what's the latest word on when UI2 is going to drop? I'd like to try this again once some real progress has been made.

[Falconeer]

UI 2.0 will be in public test next week, probably Thursday, and if everything goes right it will be released to the live servers with the November 10th patch. That's a very good time to come back. Not before.

Eldaec suggestions are good for starters. The Dragon, unfortunately, while a good 'mech in that configuration, tends to explode very easily due to a huge center torso and the XL engine. Do all your practice on the trial medium, the Centurion 9-A. This 'mech is simply a beast, it takes a little more to get used to the weapons cause the SRMs work like a shotgun with bogus travel time (so it is easy to miss) and the pulse lasers overheat easily and have a very short range (180m optimal, 360m max), but we are talking about a very mobile 'mech that is as sturdy as a dwarf paladin (for stupid bad coding reasons, your torso is small and the arms over protect it). So practice with the Centurion until you feel comfortable enough to buy your own first 'mech which should be one of these:

what you are probably looking for is a 'mech that can hit from an optimal distance of 400 - 800m, while not being too slow on its legs. Your choice of weapons should be Large Lasers/ER Large Lasers, PPC/ERPPC in the energy department, or AC5/UAC5, AC10, Gauss in ballistic, and of course LRMs if you want to go full support. Now, what to build with that?

Kintaros (55t) are quite good at the role if you ask me due to their very good speed and mobility, best armour available on a Medium, and lots of missile ports for long range missile support or short range streak-based light-hunting (which supports your Assaults when they are being swarmed by Spiders and Jenners), on top of the standard amount of energy hardpoints. Popular Kintaro builds are conceived around 2ER Large Lasers (to be efficient from all distances) and a few missiles of your choice, or lots of LRM5s for what is the the FOTM most obnoxious build around (literally a rain of missiles that will make people ragequit while seriously messing with their aim).
Despite their armour Kintaros don't have great survivability because the arms don't protect the torso nearly enough, but if you don't fight as a first liner and apply some caution they can be effective and most importantly fun.

Centurions (50T) are much harder to kill for some reason, and equally agile, but they really shine in the frontline due to their innate tanking abilities. You might want to check them but it seems like they are not what you are looking for.

The Catapult K2 (65t) is another good choice. Catapults have the problem of being very easy to disarm ('ears' being big) but the K2 is a little less vulnerable to that due to the interesting ballistic hardpoints in the side torsos. The Catapult is possibly the most agile of all the Heavy 'mechs so far, and jump jets only make it better. There's plenty of valid builds for the K2, and all the other Catapults can be used for support one way or another thanks to the natural predisposition to missiles. Worth mentioning that another weakness of the Catapult is the relatively large cockpit, meaning you would sustain the occasional headshot you would never get in any other chassis.

Jagermechs (65t) and Cataphracts (70t) are certainly good 'mechs too and the Ilya Muromets, as Ironwood can testify, is a deadly one. They both tend to be quite slow (except for the Firebrand, hero Jagermech, which can be fitted to go as fast as 93 kph), so there's some lumbering, but there's plenty of medium-to-long range ways they can be fitted to make them lethal, mostly ballistic based but not just. The Jagermech's high arms position makes it pretty good at shooting over hills for long distance peeking, while Cataphract's lower arms present a problem when it comes to that (lots of shots hitting the ground even when you think you have a clear line of sight). As heavies, they tend to be either very slow but sturdy (standard engine), or a little less slow but very fragile (XL engine), so try some of the trials (they are very good this month) to get a feel of what a Heavy is like before investing real money in a Hero 'mech you might hate when compared to the Raven's playstyle.

A final word for the Victor (80t). The Victor is a lumber, but it is extremely durable, can pack a serious punch, and most importantly can jump which makes it less of a sitting duck and more of a motherfucking charging monster.

Scouring Youtube for beginner guides I found a few, I am sure you can do the same. If you feel like it, take a look: >> Beginner guide 1 << - >> Energy weapons guide << - >> Ballisti Weapons guide << - >> Missile weapons guide << - >> Mechbuilding guide <<

A few very generic things:

- R is default to target enemies. Targeting enemies at ALL time is SUPER important because it's the only way to a) see how damaged they are and what weapons they are carrying, meaning at what distance you should engage them, and b) relay their position to your whole team. If you don't press R every every every every every time you have an enemy in your crosshair you are doing ?WO wrong.

- Your first 25 matches will give you pretty much 500% the normal amount of money reward per match. That's your beginner allowance. At the end of the 25 matches you will be able to buy at least one of any 'mech you want. Depending on what you bought you might not be able to equip it to perfection, but point is, evaluate your first purchase carefully because the second purchase won't come that soon (unless you drop money into the Premium account)

- Use cover, a lot, constantly, always, all the time. There is never a good reason to be caught in the open. Not only that will get you killed, but will wreck your real life morale. Nothing worse than having your whole screen shaking, screaming, exploding and yelling at you while playing a videogame. Being attacked in MWO can feel brutal and if you don't turn the volume down can make you feel like you are a bad person that deserves to be punished. You don't want that to happen, so USE cover all the time and stick to the big guys in your group for your first 500 matches or so.

- Some 'mechs cannot be targeted, it is not your fault. They are under the umbrella (aura) of an ECM equipped 'mech. This is long and complicated, for now all you need to know is that you can't target them and it is not your fault. Conversely, if a 'mech in your party has the words ECM on its head, it means that as long as you are within 200m from that 'mech you wil be under their ECM umbrella, which usually saves you from a rain of missiles. You can check if you are inisde the umbrella or not by looking at a little blue eye symbol that should appear on the left side of your screen. If your minimap goes "low signal" it means you are being jammed by an enemy ECM. It means an enemy equipped with ECM is somewhere in a 200m radius from you.

If you play in the American morning it means it's my European night and we could have a chance to drop together eventually. What's your in game name? I wouldn't mind die alongside you and see if I can answer a few more questions you might have.

Hope this helps a little.

[Shannow]

Cataphracts are good for sniping/support. Don't go first, don't brawl. Find good cover, don't be on your own and lay the smack down with those AC/5s.

[Flood]

I'm a dedicated light pilot (and have been since I started a few months ago) so my advice on what mech to start with, and then progress to, would probably be really biased.  My experiences are purely PUG based, so take that into consideration also.  In regards to mech choices, I see a lot of the same mechs being piloted over and over.  For lights it's Spiders, Jenners and now Locusts.  Not as many people pilot mediums right now because in the current game state (PUG'ing) it's a kick in the balls, but mainly you see Hunchbacks, some Blackjacks, some streak loaded Kintaro's.  I have an online buddy that plays a Hunch however, and he is quite good (and deadly).  Heavies are probably the most piloted class, with Cataphracts and Jagermechs all over due to AC'Z BEIN THE BEST WEP TER IS ALPHAALPHADAKKA.  For Assualts it's all Atlas DD-C's and Stalkers.  In most matches it's 50% Jagers and Phracts, 30% Atlai, and then a sprinkling of odd medium and light mechs.

As a newer pilot, these are some things I have found:

- Don't be first, ever.  Let some other folks go out and uh, discover the bulk of the enemy force.  Trotting out ahead of the pack will just get you alpha'ed down immediately.  Unless you really decide to get hard on into being a scout, but that's another discussion.  Just let the battle unfold a bit and then decide on a strategy.

- Corollary to above, try and stick with another mech or two.  In would make sense for your lance to actually move together in this regard, but more often than not some of your lance-mates will be fuck sticks with no sense of tactical placement at all.  As things progress you will get a sense of where (and where not) to go and why, but if all else fails, get yourself behind the damage sinks bulk of your team and stay safe.

- Try and apply at least some damage to any enemy you feasibly can.  Kill Assists = CBill rewards, which is what you need (and will be grinding for).

- Hit "R" constantly.  This is the single biggest WTF I see when spectating on matches.  Players brawling, sniping or generally whaling away will never hit "R" to lock their target and display the damage on the enemy mech, much less their weapon loadout.

- If you decide to try and use TAG, you can get CBill bonuses for applying TAG (well, keeping it applied) when teammates score a missile strike.

- ECM is win.  It's probably the most game changing tech in MWO.  If at all possible to equip on your mech, do so.  If not, as mentioned above, learn to stay under the ECM umbrella of teamies it will definitely extend your "alive time".

- Don't brawl.  Or rather, if you brawl expect to get shot up and demoralized until your skills, mech equipment and efficiencies improve.

- Use cover, always.  To put it another way - if you become really, really paranoid about being one-shotted out of the blue no matter where you are on the map, then you're closer to being safe (but you're still not, really)

- Shooting off components (mainly arms) is a pretty good CBill reward.  See point above regarding kill assists.

- Speed, generally, is life.

- Don't chase lights.

- Anything other than a 1v1 fight is death for you.  If you see another enemy mech marker appear on your minimap when engaged (even if you can't see them visually) you should move to the bulk of your teammates as immediately, and evasively, as possible.  Of course in a big melee this isn't applicable.

- Upgrade to double heatsinks as soon as possible.

- Your back armor is your weakest point, try not to show enemies your back too much.

- NARC isn't worth it, period.


Well, I'm a bone picking Raven pilot with ECM and a decent top speed, so my info may not be the best, but if you want to drop together sometime, I'm "floodcore" and I play mainly PST nights and weekends.  Have fun!!

   

[satael]

Had the best game (damagewise) playing a light mech in a long time (and small pulses seem to be the key, thanks Slayerik) 

[Falconeer]

700 in a Commando is really, really cool. Except for your enemies, of course.

[Flood]

That's a hell of a round Satael, nice one.

[Shannow]

Fuck me , nice one!!!

I was proud of my 744 dam 5 kill atlas match. Course then I discovered print screen doesn't work in mwo and had no record.

Best part though was the other team had a pre made from our squad, oh the post match ribbing was glorious.


But 700 dam in a commando....I bow to your skill.

[Ironwood]

The age of the UAC is well and truly over.

 

[Sir T]

If you play in the American morning it means it's my European night and we could have a chance to drop together eventually. What's your in game name? I wouldn't mind die alongside you and see if I can answer a few more questions you might have.

I am a euro, so I can play around the same time as you. Mu usual name was taken so I went with Sir T on this game.

Thanks for the help all. I know when I played the board game I was the guy who threw LRMs all over the place, so I might go with a Catapult and sit back and rain death on enemies if I can figure out how 

[5150]

The age of the UAC is well and truly over.

 

Why do you say this? My 3x UAC Muromets is still good (except that I suck leading shots with ballistics)

[Falconeer]

I still like my 4xAC5 Cataphract, especially because all the weapons are in the arms and that allows me to hit things, pinpoint, with unusual aiming agility. But regardless of the 70 tons, the XL engine on such a slow 'mech really makes it fragile and every match is a hit or miss, depending if I can position myself in a vantage point, or if my team gets charged early and I die in a matter of seconds.

[Merusk]

That was my experience with the Cata and why I sold it.  I figured if I was going to be in such a slow machine I'll add another 20-30 tons and just run around in an Atlas or Stalker.

[5150]

I might go with a Catapult and sit back and rain death on enemies if I can figure out how  

Press R to target
Hold reticle over target until reticle goes red
Release rain
Keep reticle over target until missiles land (cross hairs flash red on hits)*
Repeat

There are pros and cons to using multiple launchers on alpha strike or chain fire (backspace key with the weapon group selected) YMMV

*If you are not seeing the red flashes than either your missiles are hitting terrain or being shot down by AMS fire (a single AMS, under static conditions, apparently shoots down 3 missiles per salvo so against a single target even with an LRM 5 you should land hits)

If you/your spotter losses lock or you dont keep the reticle red the missiles will land where the target was when you lost lock - against slow/stationary targets this will still result in hits but forget about hitting lights like that!

Also be aware of the launch flightpath to avoid hitting the terrain you are hiding behind and dont bother using LRMs on anything closer than 180m

-edit-
Forgot to mention. Some Mechs launchers (Particularly the Catapult) have doors which need to open before you can fire (this will result in a slight delay before your first salvo goes out, and they will close automatically after a short delay unless you keep shooting).

On LRMs this probably wont make a huge difference but on SRMs it can be the difference between a hit and a miss. the ? key opens/closes the doors and they will stay in that state

Also note the number of missile tubes on the Mech model as this will determine the number of waves your salvo launches in (again not really an issue on an LRM Catapult but significant on other Mechs such as the Stalker 5M which has a single tube launcher where the default Narc sits apparently)

Apparently keeping the doors open makes it easier to crit those locations but I can't say I've noticed any difference.

[Ironwood]

The age of the UAC is well and truly over.

 

Why do you say this? My 3x UAC Muromets is still good (except that I suck leading shots with ballistics)

It's my Marmoset that I'm specifically mourning, also my Dual UAC Highlander ;  In my experience the UAC is now jamming at a rate that makes it entirely useless.  Possibly I'm just getting reamed by random numbers, but I use UAC's a LOT and it's really, really noticeable for me.

[Ironwood]

If you don't have a spotter who can assist you with LRM's, then the whole 'sit back and just fire' will net you nothing and get you hated.

If you're good enough to use them as a support on mechs that you can see, it makes all the difference.  90% of 'fire and forget' jockeys that I see in random groups end up with really, really low damage numbers.

[Shannow]

I haven't used UAC's in a while, I went to a 3 AC 5 CTF-4X and love it. God help the mech that gives me time to fire on it cause I'm going to make your life miserable.
My double gauss Ilya is either feast or famine. If I'm not getting shot at I'm going to fuck you up, if I get charged I last about 3 seconds.

Also have to mention I had a 680 damage match with a CDA-3M last night. We were in a pre-made lance of Cicadas and a Quickdraw. F'ing deadly. Basically zoom around until we see 1 or 2 mechs on their own and then descend on them like a pack of rabid vultures.

[Slayerik]

We call that 'CICADA MADNESS' around these parts ;)

[eldaec]

My rules for LRMs....

Don't fire at anything more than 700 away.
Don't fire at anything you can't see.
Don't fire at anything others aren't shooting.
Accept you'll do less than 5 damage to a worthless component on each volley and that their main role is to panic people and make their screen shake.

[Merusk]

What the spinny ship said.  They're still fun but you're not going to be topping damage unless both your team and theirs are terrible, terrible players.