posted
I have been in the beta for this game for a while, and it is a blast. I was a fan of the old Mech games, but this one is free to play, and seems like it is going in a good direction.
I got into a team a few years back though some family members of my wife, and we had fun, but the games got dated and the leagues fell apart. Now, we have been recruiting for MWO, and have almost 300 members.
Anyone else like those old Mechwarrior games? MWO is an open beta, and we have a teamspeak server set up, so if anyone wants to give it a whirl let me know. It's a lot more fun with comms and people who work as a team. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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They are working on stability issues, and anti-hacking measures right now. They have a lot of mechs and variants, but only 4-6 maps, and they are also working on a planetary capture mode that is why my team is playing.
It's fun to play, most of the time, but it is a little buggy at times.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Bugs and crap are totally expected, I bat not even a single eyelash at them.
But unless they want to turn this game into a dwindling pool of sharks, they need to make the trial mechs not unfun easy food for tweaked mechs.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: Bugs and crap are totally expected, I bat not even a single eyelash at them.
But unless they want to turn this game into a dwindling pool of sharks, they need to make the trial mechs not unfun easy food for tweaked mechs.
Yep.
I marched out confidently and found this great little high ground perch where I was almost totally covered but could still fire. I fired repeatedly at approaching mechs and they just laughed, and fired back at me, I don't think I managed to kill a single person, meanwhile they marched up after taking many hits from me, walked around the mountain, and killed me in about 10 seconds.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
buy a Jenner with Cbills, then save for a 300xl engine and put a single jump jet in it. It's the ticket out of trial sucktown. There are SO MANY balance issues with jenners that you can top games easy with one.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Anyone ever play Megamek? A lot less bells and whistles, but I think putting the full Battletech rules into Java game form is a great achievement.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
A lot that has less to do with single person play and more to do with team play. You probably went up against a pre-made team.
Like mine.
The trial mechs are a taste, and aren't too bad. The Cicada is pretty good, actually, and they rotate the trial mechs every few weeks so people can try other ones.
There are some balance issues they are working on, and right now missiles, especially streaks, and a little bit too strong. Thye are already working on it though.
As far as Jenners...they are not not really poorly balanced. They are a good light mech, and against PUG's they aren't bad, but the game has actually done a great job fixing balance issues. They have rewarded light mechs for running lights against heavier mechs, but they aren't so overpowered that they are unbeatable, at least not if you are a good pilot. I kill them all the time in my Hunchback....I run 91 kph, and have 9 lasers to leg them.
Jenner's are a good first mech, as is the Hunchback 4-P. It's a laserboat, so there is no rearm cost (something you don't pay for if you use a trial mech, BTW) and I have a version that uses a standard 260 engine, 9 med lasers, and 18 double heatsinks, with EndoSteel....it has a 45 point alpha, all on one panel, and if you divide the lasers into 3 firing groups it doesn't overheat as much.
It makes 120,000 to 140,000 PROFIT a match if you win.
If you guys want to drop together let me know, I will be online tonight after 8pm. I have a command meeting before then.
The House of Davion Teamspeak server is 50.22.145.232:7345, and my name there is Kwea, of course.
Do me a favor and post what your in-game tags are so I will recognize you in there. If I am not available, just drop into the "Waiting for matches" channel, and let them know you are online friends of mine.
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I accidentally blocked you when I thought I was accepting your friend invite. I sent you one back. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
They started 8 man drops again, and unveiled ECM. It's a whole different ballgame with ECM, and I've never seen it work this way before. I think it is a little bit too strong, myself, but that's why this is Beta...
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
So I'm still saving up for my first mech. I'm at 3,000,000ish right about now. What should I save up for, and what should I put in it? I definitely like LRMs and Gauss Rifles (I forget what they are called in game). I like to bombard stuff from a distance with rockets, then fire chunks of depleted uranium into them when they get close.
Lasers just generate too much heat without as much raw damage. I was in a game in a Jenner, and I snuck into the enemy base. There was an AFKer in plain view so I just started lasering his legs. It was a beefy mech to be sure, but geez I almost overheated twice, and his leg was still there.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
that's because the trial mechs are provided as stock designs from the tabletop. They have horrific heat management. Absolutely horrific.
Save up for enough to buy the jenner f, with the six energy slots. Remove all the medium lasers and replace them with six small lasers. Remove two jump jets. Fill up the new space with heatsinks.
posted
Samp, do you ever play Eve? I only ask because I was just reading that same article, but was only on the mitanni's website to keep up on Eve stuff.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I don't play Eve. Fascinating to read stories about, but I find it way too boring and superficially involved to play.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Yeah, I can't say I disagree with that assessment. I've had some fun with it over the years, but can't see myself resubbing once my current one runs out. Which leads me to a search for a new time sink... maybe I should give Mechwarrior a look.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
my honest assessment right now is that it requires a constant group to play with to be fun. It's not balanced, it's full of pubstomping, heat is anti-fun in its current incarnation, and the trial mechs are so bad it's not even funny. It is a multi-day crotchkick to farm your way to a jenner f.
I have advised all of my friends to not even for a second consider trying to actually play and be competitive in the trial mechs. It's not going to happen and it will kill your enthusiasm fast. They're way too extremely hot, so their damage output is pathetic. The Awesome is a deathtrap with XL engines and wide side torsos, and it only has enough heat management to continually fire one er ppc.
Do this:
Pick the jenner. Enter a game. Run straight towards the enemy. Laser the enemy till you shut down. Force startup. Laser again. Get killed. Leave game. Select hunchback. Enter a game. Run straight towards the enemy. Laser the enemy till you shut down. Force startup. Laser again. Get killed. Enter game. Choose the fastest available mech (so, jenner if it's back, cataphract if it's not). Run towards enemy. Die. Constantly be suiciding in as many consecutive games as possible.
You will earn money many times faster than if you try to compete.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
If you manage to buy the heatsink upgrade where they work twice as good, but take three slots, all my heat issues went away. It costs 1.5 million, and of course you need to buy a mech.
It's still really frustrating to take one salvo of LRMs and immediately "Critical Damage" pops up. If you are unlucky enough to take a second salvo in the wrong place you're dead. Meanwhile you can watch your destroyer take around 10-15 blasts of everything your team is throwing at them before dying.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I'll reinstall it tonight. I played in Alpha and even dropped $60 for one of those preorder benefit things so I might as well play Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:If you manage to buy the heatsink upgrade where they work twice as good
1.4 times as good, actually.
Depends on where they are located. If you buy an engine large enough to fit them, the ones in the engine are 2x better. The ones outside the engine work 1.4 x as well.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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3 med pulse lasers, double heatsinks, ECM, Tag, full armor. It's a 40 ton Med that runs 139 kph, and acts like a light, but with better armor and more damage.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I'm already deep into my Jenner JR7-K. I run with two medium pulse lasers, an SRM-6, two jump jets, with the lighter armor, and more efficient heat sink upgrades. I basically run around the parameter until I see to larger mechs engaged, then I swoop in, do a bunch of damage, chase if they run, then run away to re-engage.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Man is their registration process annoying...fill out the form in full -then- we will tell you your name is taken and blank the form so you have to fill it out again before telling you that version of your name is taken etc. etc.
posted
FF isn't better, it's the exact thing. It just weighs less, and takes up slots. You can't fit any MORE of it even though it weighs less, so it only makes sense on Assault class mechs.
The Cicada with ECM only has 4 laser slots, so smalls are a bad idea. Pulse fire quick enough so I like them. I just killed 2 Atlases with them in one match, so I am getting the hang of it.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
ok. Here is my sincere appraisal of this game:
The trial mech system in its current incarnation is absolutely inexcusable. It will tire you out and you will probably quit, if you are like most people. If you want to get into this game, or get a friend into this game, warn them ahead of time that the trial mechs are absolute garbage and your only goal is to suicide yourself as fast as possible so that you are getting money back from as many games at once as you can. Once you have 3-4 million cbills, buy a jenner and work towards giving it endo steel and double heat sinks, so that you can FINALLY have a heat-sustainable mech.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Feel free. They just started banning suicide farmers.
Samp....FF isn't better, you just get more tons to carry in the mech. Your protection is the same, but you get 12% less weights, so you can carry more on the mech. It's more bulky as the regular armor, so the protection is the same but it weighs less, freeing up the tons for more weapons or a bigger engine.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Samp....FF isn't better, you just get more tons to carry in the mech.
FF armor absorbs more damage per ton. It also increases the damage absorption maximum for any given region. That's unambiguously better.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
So I tried to play, and I don't think my puter can handle it. Took -forever- to load, and then was super jumpy and while I was trying to figure out the controls I was killed twice.
Posts: 6683 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
So I'm saving up for Mech #2. I'm pretty pleased with how I have things setup with my Jenner. I was briefly considering going for a Catapult, but I wonder if I should just go all the way to an Awesome or Atlas, and just put in all the weapons I want, and fill the rest of the space with heat sinks.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Samp....FF isn't better, you just get more tons to carry in the mech.
FF armor absorbs more damage per ton. It also increases the damage absorption maximum for any given region. That's unambiguously better.
Wrong. You can't fit more FF on, providing that extra protection. It just makes the points you have weigh less, leaving more weight for other weapons and gear.
If you could add MORE armor than before, you'd have a point, but that is not how it works in this game. I can't take the saved weight and spend it on more armor, once armor points are maxed out.
There is NO added protection for FF in the game now. Once you have max armor, it's MAXED. You can free up some tonnage, but that's it.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Ferro-Fibrous armor (FF) is a special type of armor used by vehicles and BattleMechs. Utilizing a weave of ferro-steel, ferro-titanium, and diamond weave fibers which boosts the tensile strength of the plating[1], it provides more protection per ton than standard armor (12% for Inner Sphere FF, 20% for Clan FF), but takes up more space on the 'Mech or vehicle (14 for inner sphere, 7 for clan). The maximum amount of protection is not changed ; merely the weight of armor required to achieve that level of protection. For a unit which already has maximum armor protection, it is therefore considered a weight-saving measure , at the cost of critical space. The weight savings for Endo Steel are greater than those saved by ferro-fibrous armor, but it is more costly and obviously more difficult to repair or add as an upgrade to a 'Mech.
So....while it may allow you to add armor, IF you have armor space/points left, it's not any more effective per armor point, which means your max armor/protection per armor point doesn't change. You just save 12% of it's tonnage.
posted
Oh nm, sounds like that's true and that i was referencing a defunct game decision postulating a potential improvement to FF.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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