MechWarrior Online goes Open Beta today! (Free to play)

[vektor]

I'm aware that one is a sim and one is not, that's why I said it. A quickly thrown together arcade shooter shouldn't be more fun than an in depth simulator.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Not really. Ramming has never been a primary tactic in Mechwarrior.

I beg to disagree.

Death from Above is a totally appropriate tactic.

[AR_Six]

Ah yes... DFA... that takes me back...

Are laser boats a legitimate way of going in this game or is the heat set up to make that less than feasible? I remember I used to use a Marauder I think with a bunch of ER PPC's on various fire patterns to keep heat down but always had a "kitchen sink" button on the joystick to just #### people up completely. Getting hit by 5 PPC's at once was like "I could swear my Mech used to have an arm there a minute ago."

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Ah yes... DFA... that takes me back...

Are laser boats a legitimate way of going in this game or is the heat set up to make that less than feasible? I remember I used to use a Marauder I think with a bunch of ER PPC's on various fire patterns to keep heat down but always had a "kitchen sink" button on the joystick to just #### people up completely. Getting hit by 5 PPC's at once was like "I could swear my Mech used to have an arm there a minute ago."

There are a couple of legit laser boat builds, and despite what the forum whine would tell you, some are very usable, even with lots of alpha-ing.

Things like 6 MLaser Hunchback 4Ps, 4MPLaser Cicadas, 4LLaser Atlas-RSs are very common.

5 PPCs at once would likely make you explode however, even if you could find the hardpoints to mount them.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by vektor

I'm aware that one is a sim and one is not, that's why I said it. A quickly thrown together arcade shooter shouldn't be more fun than an in depth simulator.

Except you're also comparing a finished AAA product with a F2P game currently in development and one that will continue being developed for at least another year. This isn't like the Battlefield 3 (or any AAA game) beta where all of the core features and gameplay were in place and all it served was to basically give players a chance to play the game early.

Originally Posted by Rathji

I beg to disagree.

Death from Above is a totally appropriate tactic.

I never said it wasn't appropriate just that it's not a primary tactic. It will have a place eventually and I'd rather it be completely absent until they can impliment it properly. They have specific pilot skills that will focus on DFA and ramming.

PPCs are really underpowered. They don't seem to do as much damage as they should and they generate a ton of heat. I put 4 on an Atlas and while I was able to alpha strike 3 or 4 times I found I wasn't doing much damage. But yes, there are a few laser boat mechs running around.

[AR_Six]

Yeah the old Marauder had 2 on each arm and one on the turret and it wasn't even an assault mech (75 tons). All other space was taken up by heat sinks, basically.

I remember an old Timber Wolf build that had 2ERLL / 2MPL as its central weaponry along with the shoulder missiles, that was a pretty good build. It sounds like the devs have tried to make it so you're better off not relying on one particular weapon base though, which is a bit disappointing, but I guess I should play it and see for myself at some point.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Yeah the old Marauder had 2 on each arm and one on the turret and it wasn't even an assault mech (75 tons). All other space was taken up by heat sinks, basically.

I remember an old Timber Wolf build that had 2ERLL / 2MPL as its central weaponry along with the shoulder missiles, that was a pretty good build. It sounds like the devs have tried to make it so you're better off not relying on one particular weapon base though, which is a bit disappointing, but I guess I should play it and see for myself at some point.

Marauder is unfortunately an Unseen (rights owned by a company other than FASA or Microsoft) so it may not appear in MWO. I think you might be able to do a 4x PPC on a Catapult with a tiny engine and 1/3rd of its armor, but it wouldn't be very good.

Timber Wolf is a clan mech. Won't see those till the Clan Invasion next year.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Yeah the old Marauder had 2 on each arm and one on the turret and it wasn't even an assault mech (75 tons). All other space was taken up by heat sinks, basically.

I remember an old Timber Wolf build that had 2ERLL / 2MPL as its central weaponry along with the shoulder missiles, that was a pretty good build. It sounds like the devs have tried to make it so you're better off not relying on one particular weapon base though, which is a bit disappointing, but I guess I should play it and see for myself at some point.

I wouldn't necessarily say that. For the most part, people build around their particular variant/weapon system. I run a Hunchback with either and LBX-10 or an AC20 and a couple medium lasers. The lasers are more for when I run out of ammo or lose my ballistic weapon. Now that they've added different armour types, internal structures and double heat sinks I think we'll start to see some interesting builds.

[Bonded]

Downloading now

[Anduril]

Looks seriously interesting... Too bad I'm a university student...


*bookmarked*

[vektor]

Well I gave it a try, not very fun at all. Too bad.

[Coys1882]

I just had a quick play and it seems ok. Not like COD, you have to WORK to put a mech down so it pissed me off when I got a guy to 90% dead with solid work only to have a teammate come in and ninja my kill. Don't know why but it really pissed me off I didn't even get an assist.

[photon]

Tried the Awesome a few times, didn't seem to be able to hit anything (locks seem to come and go), but switched to the Centurion and got 6 assists first try with that.

Pretty neat.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by photon

Tried the Awesome a few times, didn't seem to be able to hit anything (locks seem to come and go), but switched to the Centurion and got 6 assists first try with that.

Pretty neat.

Locks require line of sight from either yourself or a team mate. There is also a max distance that you can acquire a lock by yourself.

Originally Posted by Coys1882

I just had a quick play and it seems ok. Not like COD, you have to WORK to put a mech down so it pissed me off when I got a guy to 90% dead with solid work only to have a teammate come in and ninja my kill. Don't know why but it really pissed me off I didn't even get an assist.

Pretty much. This game lives and dies by team play though so I never care if my kill gets stolen from me. Most of the time I am just relieved that someone came to help me out. I am actually shocked you didn't get an assist considering they hand them out for everything these days.

[Rathji]

Started playing again for a bit last night, since X-Com glitched out on me again on the last mission.

After reviewing the controls to make sure I understood how to avoid my earlier issues of overheating, I played 5 matches. Was constantly at the bottom for points, but towards the end I wasn't totally sucking and actually got a couple assists.

Few questions that didn't seem to be answered by the couple videos I watched.

It looks like it cost s c-bills to buy mechs, about $20-$30 worth. Is that the only way to earn c-bills?

If you do buy a mech with real $, do you always have access to it, or is there a way it can be permanently destroyed? Are there repair costs?

I earn some type of point every match, but I cannot figure out what they are (would a mouse over tooltip be out of the question?). Can I use those for something?

How about experience? I remember them saying something about not earning experience with trial mechs. Does that mean you do earn it with mechs you purchase? How does that make sense? Must be some reasoning that I just don't see.

What is the deal with LRM targeting? How do I know if I am hitting and how can I improve my chances to hit? How do I avoid getting hit by them? More than one match started with me getting pelted so badly I was critically damaged before I ever saw another mech.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Started playing again for a bit last night, since X-Com glitched out on me again on the last mission.

After reviewing the controls to make sure I understood how to avoid my earlier issues of overheating, I played 5 matches. Was constantly at the bottom for points, but towards the end I wasn't totally sucking and actually got a couple assists.

Few questions that didn't seem to be answered by the couple videos I watched.

It looks like it cost s c-bills to buy mechs, about $20-$30 worth. Is that the only way to earn c-bills?

If you do buy a mech with real $, do you always have access to it, or is there a way it can be permanently destroyed? Are there repair costs?

I earn some type of point every match, but I cannot figure out what they are (would a mouse over tooltip be out of the question?). Can I use those for something?

How about experience? I remember them saying something about not earning experience with trial mechs. Does that mean you do earn it with mechs you purchase? How does that make sense? Must be some reasoning that I just don't see.

What is the deal with LRM targeting? How do I know if I am hitting and how can I improve my chances to hit? How do I avoid getting hit by them? More than one match started with me getting pelted so badly I was critically damaged before I ever saw another mech.

1. Mechs cost between 2-11 million CBills (earned in-game money). You also have the option to spend MC (real money converted) and any mech you buy will be in your hangar for life, unless you decide to sell it. No mech can be completely destroyed. Any time your mech takes damage it will need to be repaired and likely re-armed if it uses ballistics or missiles.

2. You earn 2 types of XP every match in a non-trial mech. Regular XP is used to upgrade your mech skills, which give you lots of buffs for that specific mech. GXP (global xp) can be used to upgrade any skill on any mech, not just the variant you earned it on like regular XP. Keep in mind that GXP is only currency you can unlock Modules with, so it's typically better to save it for that.

3. The reason you don't earn XP (but do earn GXP) on trials, is that you cannot mod or upgrade a trial mech, so XP earned would be useless anyway. You still earn CBills and GXP for running trials however.

4. LRMs require a few things: Line of sight by either you or a teammate to hold the lock, a range between 180m-1000m (the will not arm under 180m and will explode over 1000m), and clean line of volley (buildings, hills, etc. will interrupt their flight path). When they do hit however, they do massive damage. Keep in mind non-trial mechs can purchase AMS (anti-missile systems) which will reduce the amount of LRMs that can hit them (until the AMS ammo runs out that is).

So quick breakdown:

XP - Mech-specific experience points
GXP - Global experience points that can buy and mech upgrade or modules
C-Bills - in-game earned money
MC - purchased money that can buy mechs, mech bays, and convert XP to GXP

[Rathji]

So that little grey icon that I am getting points on every time is c-bills?

Like 60k a match?

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So that little grey icon that I am getting points on every time is c-bills?

Like 60k a match?

Yeppers. In a trial you'll get about 60k-90k CBills per match (more if you spot targets, get kills/assists, win by capture, destroy mech components for salvage, etc). Once you get a proper non-trial, you'll earn between 90k-200k depending on how much ass you kick (and how helpful you are).

[Rathji]

How much are repairs on a typical midsize mech? Assuming I get totally destroyed, which is what seems like will be the normal course of action for a while.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Rathji

How much are repairs on a typical midsize mech? Assuming I get totally destroyed, which is what seems like will be the normal course of action for a while.

Depends on what parts are in it.

Lets say for example you are running, I don't know, a Stock Hunchback-4P.

Repair/re-arm is dependent on how much ammo you use up (re-arm) and what parts get destroyed.

If you get headshot, but all your weapons/torso/arms/legs are in tact, repair could be as little as 10k. If you get stripped of all limbs (1 leg, both arms, AC/20 shot out of your Right Torso) and then Cored (Centre Torso/Engine blown up), you will have around 50k in repairs.

If you decide to upgrade to an XL engine (extra light, runs just as fast as a standard of the same level, but is usually about 5-12 tons lighter, and uses 3 crit slots in the Right and Left Torsos, making those Torsos vulnerable to Coring), your repairs could be up to 90k if you get cored, because XLs are very expensive to maintain.