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Stalker 3 F, I think. I was over his house and he let me play it, but I've never built it myself. He added heat sinks so he could fire more often, it was pretty brutal.
My favorite so far is 4 PPC and SSRM's. It crushes things, and is faster than most Assaults. I still like ERPPC's, even more now that my heat vision lets me see over 1000 meters, but it all depends on if I am pugging or moving as a team. If I am pure sniping then I love hitting for almost full damage at 900 meters.
I'll probably build the 4 PPC and streaks as my next mech, to be honest. I've played it but not built it myself.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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the hexalker I built is already going the maximum speed a stalker can go. I think it is possible to make a valid 4PPC build with 21 DHS but it would be cut down to about 55-58kph.
Right now, I contend that the absolute best stalker (and, in fact, one of the best mechs in the game) is what they have titled the Rhino. My own runs a 310 standard and is built to the 3F chassis, because it inexplicably has torso twist equivalent to mediums or heavies. Just the 3F. I still don't understand why.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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change the config file to add FOV a little bit, it makes a difference. It lets you see further to the side, and helps when fighting lights a TON!
(if you haven't already, of course)
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I undo it for the videos but I do it if even just for the atmospheric effect. Standard FOV doesn't really feel .. large. The buildings look tiny and the atlas cockpit feels like it is just a big ball walking not too far above the ground.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I figured you probably had done it. It makes a difference.
The devs say they are going to add a slider to the final product to adjust that and the clarity/brightness of HV, so changing the config isn't cheating. Hell, they posted instructions on how to do it in the forums at one point, to adjust the mouse sensitivity...
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Oh boy in 12 games you've burned through a permanent extra mech bay, yeah I sure feel like doing that nope
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I would have no issue with this if you could buy it with c-bills and have it be the same things. But you can't. In order to get the full 35% coolant flush you would have to use TWO module slots. Also, MC users can equip more than one slot per match with them and have them take effect FASTER than people using c-bills.
quote:Originally posted by Kwea: hmm....they make you use 2 slots for c-bills....but you get 2 flushes per match, as opposed to 1 flush for MC.
I can live with that, but it sets a dangerous precedent IMO.
In the free-to-play model, spending money should not give you a single advantage (in the long-term) over somebody who does not. I am fine with literally every single thing in Mechwarrior being purchasable, but make it also earnable within a reasonable time frame. I play League of Legends, and it's taking me so long to earn enough IP points to have a good roster of champions and rune pages to support them. That's fine if somebody just buys all their champs and skins. It's fine I can't use IP points to buy cosmetic stuff like skins.
But the moment you create any items or abilities that require money, and are better than their earned counterpart, I lose interest. I'm trying to win with my skill, I don't want to be in the arena with somebody whose money gives them an edge, all things being equal.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well, in order to get 2 flushes a match you'd have to use 2 slots, just like buying it with cbills. I'd never buy just one, it would be a waste.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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All the ballistic hardpoints are in the arms. There's really not much in the way of new terrifying things the chassis can do with that. Six AC2's?
What it CAN do, however, is become the new boomcat. AC20's in the arms means you can pack an XL engine and overcome the boomcat's main deficiency, even throw on two mlas if you want.
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We have a few builds for that too. I have never used it, but I will see what we've come up with so far. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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We came up with a UAC5 build that is fun, and the AC2O version as well. Pretty fun mech, actually.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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LOL....it was pretty bad. LRM's are suppose to be good, but 1 hit heading an Atlas... and people getting hit with signification splash damage 30-40 years away?
Host state rewind plus long range high alpha meta plus the game's tendency to put you on alpine and tourmaline 999 out of 1000 matches plus srm's being broken mean that we've been dropping in four mans of nothing but stalkers with 5 PPC's.
*srm's are very broken right now
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Anyways, PPC's are good, both ER and regular. But 5 PPC stalkers are not unbeatable. Just close under cover.
I do well in my Highlander against them. 3 PPC and a Gauss is a little more manageable, and jump sniping is still a factor, although not as much. Jump Lets are a nice feature, but not a must have....although the new movement factor will change that significantly.
Once weight class balancing comes back in it will get better.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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literally everything they have been saying there has remained true for far too long. Brawling is still broken, 8 man queue is entirely stagnant (if you aren't running sniper, you lose, and well over half of Alpine matches resolve with the timer running out), we won something like 9 out of 10 of our games with organized 4 man sniper boats. Which we eventually gave up on, because peek sniping is getting really old. I have recently been suicide charge leveling up my terrible alt chassis (raven 2x/4x anyone) so I can get them out of my bays while I wait for balance fixes, or for these clowns to unf*ck brawling. SRM's just flat-out didn't work for a month, you could hit someone with them point blank and the game would register the damage in an area that the mech was not in, doing zero damage to the mech.
reticule shake means a lot of our highlanders are collecting dust since it shifted things around (slightly) to terrain peeking stalkers and boat atlai
Gantlemen i give you the game's current undisputed metarulers
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Maybe you aren't playing the rest of the types well enough. Just a thought. We seem to well with brawlers, as long as they aren't pure brawlers.
I do agree that sniping is overpowered, and that SRM's need a bump. But between the wonky hit boxes and non-registering hits this past month it's been a weird time to play.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Maybe you aren't playing the rest of the types well enough. Just a thought.
I assume you have watched none of the twitch highlights I've posted in this thread.
Brawling is what I've done for the majority of this game's existence. I'm just not now because long range high alpha beats it solidly and brawling is non-viable without working SRM's.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I've watched a couple of them. I still seem to do fine with it, even against RHOD teams.
I spent a little time a while ago, back when no one else was doing it because it "wasn't the meta", sniping. So when it became OP, I was already good at it. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but believe it or not we agree on something....it got boring.
I am waiting for the "aggressive weapon's balancing" they promised to be sure. SRM need a bump, LRM's need to be fixed so 90% of their damage isn't CT damage :grumble. I DO like the new sounds, they are a lot better IMO.
And I like the CONCEPT of making it harder to move around, but they need to smooth out the way the mechs move because the idea of a 100 ton mech getting stuck on a little rock is moronic. You need to make sure all the ramps in and out of locations are under 45 degrees so mechs can climb them, and JJ need more of a vertical launch at initial engagement. They don;t jump as much as float at this point.
Looking forward to the new UI, and private rooms and matches.
dust off your MWO accounts gents because the clans are in the process of dropping and it's ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS and the clan chassis and weaponry are INARGUABLY SUPERIOR so our next goal is to watch how many people stridently argue that the IS is better or just as good
In a while us space poors will be able to buy our front line clan tech using cbills instead of IRL cash
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Q. WHAT DID YOU MISS IF YOU HADN'T BEEN PLAYING FOR A WHILE UP TO ABOUT A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO OR SO
A. Pretty much nothing.
Long range high alpha sniping/peekfest/poptarting cored out the game's playerbase and ate a lot of organized interest in it, so MWO had been on the out and outs for quite a long time (some people were measuring activity in the organized match queue as an informal census).
UI 2.0 came out and it's terrible. Prettier, but less usable than 1.0 — outfitting a mech is now even more convoluted and less intuitive
PGI had a number of articles written about it in the gaming press that essentially boiled down to "what not to do to your fanbase when you are a game developer"
Ghost Heat was the dumbest thing in the entire universe and this is a universe that has Here Comes Honey Boo Boo so that is saying a lot
Long Range High Alpha (hereafter noodled down to LRHA) snipefests rotted for months and months and months and all the way through into the game's official informal 'launch.' It and other problems homogenized the gameplay for a quite considerable amount of time, up until a very recent recovery of the functionality of SRM's. During this entire time, brawling was dead as a doornail.
Q. SO WHAT'S DIFFERENT NOW
A. Well, they've finally started to eke out a few ways to dull out the idiocy of snipefest pinpoint alpha. More changes to end poptarting are perhaps on the horizon. Things like Gauss and PPC damage are starting to be sprayed around. PGI's glacial game improvement and balance pace has actually started to do some things to alleviate TTK. Also you could spend $500 to have a gold-plated mech ingame.
Q. WHAT, LIKE, FIVE HUNDRED LITERAL DOLLARS
A. Yes.
Q. WHAT
A. Yeah.
Q. WHAT
A. I know.
Q. OK WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW
A. Dust off your old Stalkers and put large lasers on them, or bust out an oldschool poptart Cataphract. Experiment with new loadouts on the mechs that you have right now BUT DO NOT BUY ANY NEW MECHS RIGHT NOW, for the love of pete. Save up money. The Clans have at least three absolutely primo chassis and their loadout capacity is absolutely insane. Absolutely Insane. Clan mechs have already been posting insanely higher kdrs and damage output in game despite the fact that clan mechs are completely new and most everyone in them was starting out with empty mech talent trees vs. mastered out IS mechs.
So drop with friends (or goons w/e) and practice against clan mechs for a while and try to get your trigger finger back.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I'm scared to play again, and I can't on my new laptop since I forwent a decent video card for price savings.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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He's forgone the decent video card for price savings ... to put towards his $500 gold Mech. That's a bold strategy, Cotton, we'll see if it pans out.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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There are at least 5 viable non-PGI leagues moving forward, 3 of which have decent player-bases and multiple seasons under their belt.
Clan mechs are very good, but most of the high damage games showcased so far are against pugs....no wants to pop up right in a Direwolfs face with a 90 point alpha (pinpoint no less, so not sure where you think that is getting any better), but they only go 48 KPH and turn worse than an old Cadillac, so usually they are not that tough to take down.
There are some balance issues to work out, but the SRM buff has helped. A lot of competitive teams are going with fast-brawler comps, and the inner sphere lights are MUCH superior to the clans lights, and VERY effective against Clan Heavies and Assaults.
The Shadowhawk, Cataphract and the Jenner/Firestarter chassis are all still VERY viable, and the Victor has replaced the Highlander for snipe-brawling as the premium IS assault mech.
My units comp team finished in the top 10 ranked teams, and one season came in 3-4th in RHOD. We lost a few people who split off, but they were morons so it's better for us this way....and probably better for them overall.
And best of all....in about 3-4 months NBT will be back, with all the code re-written and ready to go for MWO. I can't wait, should be a blast.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Sam...almost every single comp team didn't start with empty talent trees. Most people converted the MILLIONS of unused xp on other chassis to GXP, and then at least basic'd them out. A lot of those Clan mechs are insanely hot running, and on a hot map they were overheating like crazy the first few days they were released.
I know SoK, SJ, The Templars, HHoD 007 (and 4th BTL, 5th BTL and 6th BTL teams), Antares Scorpions, and Blackstone Knights all had at least the basics done in the first day, and most of us had them Elite'd in the first night. The double basics were almost mandatory to run most Clan variants.
PGI did a hotfix....not a full patch, but a hotfix.....about 5 months ago and fried most people using nVidia mobile cards. So despite having a i7 laptop with a dedicated graphics card I dropped to 4-6 fps. It was basically unplayable. So I bought a new desktop, the first one I built myself, and put a decent graphics card in it, and now I am between 45-70 fps.....MUCH better.
I am also waiting for cBill purchases for the Clan mechs. I won't pay for mechs I never even tried. I figure they are bound to nerf them, so who knows how good overall they will be. In CW they will be dropping 8 vs 12, or maybe 10 vs 12.....the only way to even possibly balance Clan vs IS. IS mechs were always outgunned and outranged, but made up for it in numbers, 1 Star vs 2 Lances.
Also, the best part of MWO is now active....Private Lobbies work as intended! We can now do league drops WITHOUT trying to synch drop all night. often times not ever getting each other. This makes leagues and CW viable for the first time. and makes it easier to actually TRAIN new pilots. We love it!
quote:Sam...almost every single comp team didn't start with empty talent trees.
This statement is not incompatible with anything I said.
quote: In CW they will be dropping 8 vs 12, or maybe 10 vs 12.....the only way to even possibly balance Clan vs IS. IS mechs were always outgunned and outranged, but made up for it in numbers, 1 Star vs 2 Lances.
I don't think PGI will manage any real balance even if they pull the star vs. lance card, but it will be hilarious to watch them try.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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You were talking about outlandish numbers posted, and said that was "despite the fact that clan mechs are completely new and most everyone in them was starting out with empty mech talent trees vs. mastered out IS mechs", which is not necessarily true. While most people may not do this, a lot of people did, and most of the high-skill players posting really improved KDR and damage numbers almost certainly did.
Most of the people posting high numbers are probably using full talent trees. I wasn't playing gotcha, just bringing up an additional point.
They have already announced that in their version of CW it is only clans vs IS, no mixing of tech or chassis at first. They have also said that they will be working out details of unbalanced drops for it, so it's pretty much a given it will be star vs lance, but no one knows what their version of that will look like yet.
quote:Originally posted by Kwea: You were talking about outlandish numbers posted, and said that was "despite the fact that clan mechs are completely new and most everyone in them was starting out with empty mech talent trees vs. mastered out IS mechs", which is not necessarily true.
Most of the people posting high numbers are probably using full talent trees. I wasn't playing gotcha, just bringing up an additional point.
They have already announced that in their version of CW it is only clans vs IS, no mixing of tech or chassis at first. They have also said that they will be working out details of unbalanced drops for it, so it's pretty much a given it will be star vs lance, but no one knows what their version of that will look like yet.
yeah i was using precise language. all data accounted for (by the amateur sleuths that are collecting whatever data we can get) shows most people with clan mechs cramming their pilot trees the old fashioned way, and even in that circumstance clan mechs are pumping out superior damage anyway even as they grind up to Master in their first chassis.
sometimes you can check just via spectating and seeing how many people in clan mechs have max speed showing no speed tweak. early on those dire wolves were usually uphill molassesing it around at their original max speed
this is per just all the players everywhere in general. i do not know whether to expect a greater or lesser divide in the organized match world but most commentary at that level so far is 'lol yes, surprising no one, the mechs that get to have 12 ton gauss rifles, two slot double heat sinks, xl engines that don't have side torso death, etc, are better wow what a twist'
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
currently the gods of the battlefield in terms of overall match damage and kdr are, of all things, the stormcrow and the warhawk. i would have expected timberwolf and dire wolf
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I downloaded the patches last night after seeing this thread. The new interface for the inventory and loadouts is god-awful. Like painfully, negligently, perhaps even maliciously bad.
After figuring out the interface, I played a couple of games. One with my K2, and one with my Jenner. I definitely have to work my way back up the learning curve. I was never a "good" player, but at one point I was at least semi-competent*. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it, as there's currently a lot of competition from my Steam summer sale purchases.
I do like some of the graphical tweaks in the actual game. But my sound kept cutting in and out, which was a big turn-off.
*My experience with World of Tanks seems to indicate that I am at least capable of being a "good" player at this type of game. My stats from my matches there evaluate pretty well on the sites that do such calculation. But at my best in MWO I was getting to the point where I didn't feel like I was dragging my team down.
Edit: Rereading some of my posts in this thread, I reference World of Tanks entirely too often. I guess the two games are tightly linked in my head. I need to stop. Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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UI 2.0 really is amazingly bad, isn't it? Like I legitimately don't understand how they could be making that update from start to finish and thinking it was an acceptable improvement / user friendly or whatever
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I wish I'd had my streamer on. We started a game. Were walking across our first stretch of the map. I watch a mech beside me peek out to look at the ridge.
A dire wolf with this loadout plugged him with one shot.
Someone else walked up to where the first guy died, and then jumpjetted up to see if he could poptart the offending dire wolf. BLAM. dead in one shot midair, fell on the corpse of the first mech.
here i realized three things
1. this is happening in spite of gauss 'splash' just simply because the alpha is so high
2. that's weird; live mechs have no collision with dead mechs, but dead mechs have collision with other dead mechs, as these two mechs were now in a dead mech corpse pretzel
3. i'm staying right here thanks
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
that's the age old question, isn't it? this game could have solved 99% of its problems by heartily adjusting average TTK — they could have even experimented with not just doubling but TRIPLING armor and internals values versus weapon damage output, in order to cause fights to narrow down to protracted affairs that promote heat efficiency and bracketing
indeed, back when the game was brawly, this game was doing very well. It had a not-stagnant, all-range meta and gameplay was loose enough that you could screw around and play robot fite and have a hell of a lot of fun. Then the organized full-team gameplay got stagnant, slowly birthing long range high alpha peek'n'snipe crapfests.
And this is what's confusing. At this point, any other developer would have nipped this in the bud rather easily. But, apparently, for some inexplicable reason, this broke their minds or something. Instead they concentrated on ghost heat and incremental damage increases that did no good for any weapon and a completely pointless third person they had originally promised not to do.
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