So, MW5. It's good so far. Plays kind of like a single-player MWO with a facelift, which is kind of what I was hoping it would be. Hopefully the campaign will be good.
Fartacus_the_Mighty on
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Playing Battletech and I've finally got some of the fancier Heavy Metal stuff. I've got an Archer with some pretty tightly-focused missile damage thanks to its missile kit, a Marauder with a Lance Leader pack that reduces lance damage taken by 10% and kicks up its Called Shot percentage (headshots are a crazy-high 33% chance with this thing), and a Cyclops with the Battle Computer package that kicks up lance initiative +1 and also carrying an ECM pack to block missiles.
Which is all well and good, except when the fuckawful mission design spawns in reinforcements to a place you've already checked, puts an LRM carrier in the group, sets the group perfectly at the back of your lance, and spawns the reinforcements such that the LRM carrier gets two free rounds of fire against the back armor of my Archer because, naturally, one of the newly-spawned enemies uses Sensor Lock on my Cyclops and thus kills the cloaking for the rest of my lance.
Nevermind that LRM and SRM carriers are straight bullshit that should never have been put in the game, but that's just too much. Every time I'm really starting to enjoy a game, it absolutely has to do something really fucking stupid to kill the enjoyment.
Y'know, dealing with the mid-week late night crowd is just... I mean... Never put it past folks to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Scene: Frozen City (not classic), Situation: Domination, Actors on my team: 2 assaults (some kind of PPC-shooting Fafnir and an LB20X+2xLPL+2xERML Annihilator), 3 heavies (a Grasshopper, a Marauder, and me in a Timber Wolf), 4 lights (didn't get a good look at what they were), and a single medium (a Bushwacker).
Our lights intercepted and rekt most of the enemy team's lights...only an enemy Jenner got away with some serious leg damage. While that was happening, I have no idea what our assaults were doing other than hiding and taking long range pot-shots with some of their weapons. When the enemy light lance collapsed, I took particular note of the kill-counter: we were up 7 - 1...so it was an 11v5 situation. This was important as I'm a brawler, so if I'm charging into a situation, I want to make sure that I'm not going to get dog-piled on. First up, I sink my teeth into an MRM-spewing Archer. Sure, my armor's taken a bit of damage, but he's dead. A glance at the kill board, it's now 8 - 2.
Okay, this isn't too bad. Start bearing down on an MRM Nightstar. My arm gets blown off, but his side torso is gone in 3 volleys...4th volley and he's out. At this point, I start taking ultra-5 shots from a Jagermech peeking around a hill on the crest of the valley ridgeline, so I start heading that way. While reorienting my mech, I glance back at the kill-board: 9 - 9.
It's here that my jaw drops. What, in the ever-living feck, happened that, in the span of 20-30 seconds, 7 mechs died to the remaining 4...of which one was a nearly legged Jenner and where another two were focusing on me?
Not exactly sure how we lost that one...but the Annihilator who was hanging back and only using his large pulse lasers and managed to not die because he wasn't interested in contesting the capture circle sure didn't help. I mean, the 140 damage it dealt kinda indicates that much.
Moral of this rant? I should just not play MWO after 2am.
EDIT - math fail...I should also try not to do math at 3am...
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Which is all well and good, except when the fuckawful mission design spawns in reinforcements to a place you've already checked
It just did that to me. I was definitely not expecting the second lance to be a drop of 2 heavy vehicles, a K2 Catapult, and an urban assault vehicle. It's rare I bail on a mission, but there was no way I had the damage/round output to come out of that with anything but dead pilots and wrecked mechs. That was a 2 1/2 skull mission for not great pay too. Turns out the base to be occupied was a star league base..so that probably had something to do with it.
Battletech: New store system let me go from an enforcer being my heaviest to an archer. Grinding out max money and exp on lower difficulty missions also lets you bypass assassination grind for better mechs. And now that I have access to the black market it’s even more broken. I love this update!
Battletech: New store system let me go from an enforcer being my heaviest to an archer. Grinding out max money and exp on lower difficulty missions also lets you bypass assassination grind for better mechs. And now that I have access to the black market it’s even more broken. I love this update!
I'm not too happy about the Black Market being the easiest way to get all your stuff now. It means having to grind up pirate rep, which makes it a lot harder to keep the other reputations high. It also means there's basically no point in worrying about salvage in missions. Instead of fighting for the right to pilot heavier mechs you can just do easy missions and buy an assault from your friendly neighborhood used mech salesman. Flashpoint rewards hardly matter either, it doesn't matter if the chest of loot has Cicada parts or an AC20+++ since you'll mostly care about the money.
Haven't checked the allied quartermasters since the patch/DLC but even if they have good stuff there's only 1-2 of them in the big map while there's Black Markets everywhere.
I do like all the new shiny toys (and updated lostech toys), I just wish they weren't tied to Pirate rep and the fairly tedious reputation system, and pure sheer luck on when the Black Market access event happens to happen.
Yeah, I'm liking the stocked stores as a short term way to give players quick access to the new toys. But it breaks the balance of the game (and throws the flaws in the rep system into a harsher light as your lance of assaults and heavies can't take three skull missions for Davion or Kurita yet...)
But I hope they dial it down a lot, back to previous levels, or make it a configuration option like cash/salvage rewards are now. I don't think this game is as appealing to come back to again and again if you can consistently get your first heavy in the first 50 days and your first assault in the first few hundred.
You don't even need to buy a heavy, the price difference between heavy and assault parts is minor. Just get an Annihilator as your first non-starter mech and blow everything up. :P
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I'm probably going to end up installing one of those mods that trickles these things out and changes the faction system once it comes out.
Finished the Heavy Metal mini-campaign. The last mission was interesting but the campaign as a whole wasn't that great IMO. Not very surprisingly there's no real decisions and other than the last mission the missions aren't especially memorable or have new mechanics or unique maps. I'm relieved there's no bullshit difficulty missions like some sort of 5-skull target acquisitions, as long as you know how to kill mechs you'll do fine. They never really claimed that the mini-campaign would be the meat of the DLC though so I'm not disappointed really.
I ignored all those Annihilators in shops quite a while, only got one a bit before the final DLC showdown. Glad I did, loading it with UAC5s means it easily kills a mech per round. Fun for a bit but pretty quickly you get the same feeling when you are killing grey enemies in a RPG. No challenge, no meaningful loot, what's the point?
So ... real mixed feelings about this patch and DLC. Steam says I played 46 hours since the DLC launched so I got my money's worth but I'm more or less done now. Gotta wait for some great modpack next I guess. 8-)
Decided to pick it up again with the new patch (still no expacs). First mission was a 3 skull battle.
Me (Highlander with dual AC/20++, 2xSRM-6++)
Behemoth (Stalker with 2xPPC, 2xSRM-6)
Decker (running my LRM Stalker)
Random Recruit (disco Battlemaster)
Saw the first three in the enemy lance early on (Black Knight, Blackjack, Cicada), and just erased the Blackjack early on. Then I saw a blip coming up behind them. A 100 ton blip!
I made short work of the Black Knight, and revealed the 100 tonner to be a King Crab. Behemoth was being mopey, but I figured she still has two decent pinpoint weapons, so maybe she can headshot it for me. She did, but not enough to kill it. Decker's LRMs managed to headshot(!) and finish the job. The Cicada was quickly picked off after.
Yes, I did have 3 salvage selected, so now I have a Dual AC/20++ King Crab with 4 Medium Laser++
So I decided I might as well do a couple missions, been a while since I played, see if I run into any of the free stuff. I'm still in campaign and all.
And then two missions in, a couple extremely lucky headshots resulted in this:
So, MW5. It's good so far. Plays kind of like a single-player MWO with a facelift, which is kind of what I was hoping it would be. Hopefully the campaign will be good.
YES, this is 100% how it feels, and I'm ok with it. What I really want though is a good campaign and honestly less mech customization for said campaign, it's just a bit too much lol!
You know that's a good point. With the initiative buff equipment on the Cyclops, that's a more difficult choice.
Sorry I'm not a fan of the Cyclops because I don't think it has enough useful tonnage for the most part.
Mugsley on
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited November 2019
Oops I just started a new BATTLETECH career. Now how did that happen?
Randomize Starting 'Mechs, 5 Parts to Assemble, Assembled 'Mechs come Unequipped, Slow Mechwarrior Progression, everything else set to normal.
Let's see how OILER Sortie 1 shakes out!
[Edit] CapNips leads his initial lance into the Reach! (+1 PIloting, +2 Tactics)
Starting 'Mechs: Blackjack, Vindicator, Jenner, Commando x2
Heavy Metal Crate: Vulcan, Coil-M, Coil-S. Interesting.
[Edit 2] Oh weird/cool: I just queued up a Battle scenario that only has me bring one 'Mech, because the employer's bringing three of its own and auto-assigned them to my lance. Weird! This is fun!
Stubble, Flapjacks, and Pontoon....OMG
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I put UAC20++ on mine and some tiny lasers but I'm not sure it's the best build. UAC20 has terrible recoil and short range, though on the other hand if it hits it doesn't care if the target has Bulwark and is sitting in a forest. Using something like 2x UAC5 and 2x ER ML might work better.
And yes, they are pretty. I just wish the new models would stop swaying like drunken sailors all the time, it's especially bad when they are near the older models and you see the difference.
It's just my luck, really. I picked up a Cyclops Sleipnir last night. Pop in this evening and see that all mechs are half off. I mean, I don't mind all that much...I was kinda running out of ideas on what to do with 40k in MC. But yeah, tonight I took it out on its first foray. Since I already have two double-heavy gauss mechs in my stable, I wanted to try something a little different: quad-Ultra5. Sure, it's a little slow, but slinging an AC20 shot 600m downrange every second is pretty nice. First match out, I ran out of ammo after dealing 750 damage. Team got steamrolled, but it was pretty fun cracking into a Battlemaster, King Crab, and Orion before going down.
It was at that point that I noticed that part of the MW5 mech challenge includes running 3 of the Assault mechs in MW5: Cyclops, Mauler, and Highlander. It just so happens that I now have all three chassis in my mechbay! The Cyclops got wrapped up pretty quick, so now I just need to run my Highlander and Mauler...
Correction:
Ran one match with the Highlander (Domination on Grim Plexus), flanked the enemy team, and drilled out ~480 damage. Yeah, the Highlander'll be pretty quick to the 1000 damage for the event objective.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I ran quad UAC-5 in my Mauler for a bit, then swapped it to 2xAC/2, 4xUAC/2 and got a Sleipnir so I could run that with quad UAC/5. it's an incredible build.
I'll be honest I haven't even looked at the majority of those challenges, I don't have a good chunk of the chassis required.
I put UAC20++ on mine and some tiny lasers but I'm not sure it's the best build. UAC20 has terrible recoil and short range, though on the other hand if it hits it doesn't care if the target has Bulwark and is sitting in a forest. Using something like 2x UAC5 and 2x ER ML might work better.
Fired up the game and checked, and you can fit 2x UAC5++ and 2x ER ML but the UAC5s need to be the rare version with -2 tons or otherwise you'll be running low on tonnage for heat sinks and/or armor and/or ammo. It'll run pretty hot anyways but has nice range. Then I went and shot a mech's head off with it because that's what you do when testing a Marauder build.
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
How about make the "Damage Taken" metric actually count towards rewards? Being able to effectively tank damage to maximize every hit-point of your mech should mean something. If you want to be really complicated about it, could base any thresholds on equipment taken. So, for example, you start accumulating rewards only if the damage you've taken is more than what's in your CT if you're running a standard engine, CT+single ST if you're running an XL engine, or CT+both STs for a light engine.
Also, if we're talking trivial exploitation, I think PGI is mostly okay with that what with the prevalence of sync drops and Solaris being trivially exploitable right now due to how many people are actively playing the game (or game mode, in the case of Solaris).
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
Some factor on total damage taken and total ‘mech-seconds of enemy target lock.
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
Some factor on total damage taken and total ‘mech-seconds of enemy target lock.
With how some people just can't find the "R" key on their keyboards, that might not be the best idea (even though, in principle, it should be).
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
Some factor on total damage taken and total ‘mech-seconds of enemy target lock.
With how some people just can't find the "R" key on their keyboards, that might not be the best idea (even though, in principle, it should be).
I dunno, incentivizing using the "R" key could be a really good thing.
Got back into my Career run when I found out about the new DLC. Great as always, some cool highlights:
Did the Long Hunt Flashpoint and my god it was a slog. By the last mission I was down to a couple of my first string mechs that had survived the first two missions and whatever Solahma stock heavies I had lying around.
One of the MVPs of the above was the Rifleman I had gotten in the free crate you get. Put a rangefinder in it and it just snipped people with twin AC/5s and LLs.
Also did the one with Morgan Kell and that was great although I am dissapointed that Kell didn't have some kind of crazy "all attacks automatically miss" skill.
And just now I did a 4.5 star battle mission where I took out 3/4s of the first lance while taking trivial damage... only to have a Demolisher roll around a boulder and AC20 headshot my King Crab. My surviving 3 mechs then had quite a fight to take out the second heavy lance.
HamHamJ on
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
BATTLETECH
I just had an event that involved larceny, illegal animal handling, and me giving one of my duders a million C-bills....
...that netted me an SRM2+++ worth 5k C-bills if I sell it.
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
So, what are you looking at here? This is me in an Annihilator on Frozen City (Classic). The assault lance dropped completely separated from the rest of our team and were looking confused as to where to go. So, I turned around and started making my way back to the rest of my team. But, at 48kph, by the time I "regrouped" with my team, they were already 300m on the way to meet up with the enemy team. By this time, I had a Mist Lynx peeking over a notch by the dropship and targeting me for the enemy team's LRM launchers. By my count of missile tracks, there were at least 4 of them. Then a direct-fire Quickdraw decided to join on picking off the straggling Annihilator. And a SRM+small laser Marauder. And a Phoenix Hawk. By swinging my mech around as much as possible, I managed to stay somewhat in the fight long enough for my team to start taking large chunks out of the enemy team.
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
Some factor on total damage taken and total ‘mech-seconds of enemy target lock.
With how some people just can't find the "R" key on their keyboards, that might not be the best idea (even though, in principle, it should be).
I dunno, incentivizing using the "R" key could be a really good thing.
From how I understood Elvenshae's suggestion, it would only benefit the mech being targetted as opposed to the mech doing the targetting. So, for example, a butthole could, in theory, just run around and not target anybody to negate the locked target tanking part of the reward calculation.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I just had an event that involved larceny, illegal animal handling, and me giving one of my duders a million C-bills....
...that netted me an SRM2+++ worth 5k C-bills if I sell it.
x_x
Again, sorry for the double-post, but...
I had this same event happen in my campaign. In my case, the pilot asking was Behemoth...who just got out of medbay after getting 3 injuries in her last mission. Told her I didn't have that kind of money just sitting around (I had 1.8mil at that point), but if she wanted to do it, she'd be on her own. Came back with 2 injuries and is bound to the medbay for another 2 months. Glad I'm training up a replacement for her.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I put UAC20++ on mine and some tiny lasers but I'm not sure it's the best build. UAC20 has terrible recoil and short range, though on the other hand if it hits it doesn't care if the target has Bulwark and is sitting in a forest. Using something like 2x UAC5 and 2x ER ML might work better.
And yes, they are pretty. I just wish the new models would stop swaying like drunken sailors all the time, it's especially bad when they are near the older models and you see the difference.
The short range on AC20/UAC20 matters far less than you might think when it comes to making a headhunter, and the Marauder with the package that gives a Called Shot boost is definitely a top-notch headhunter. At short range, you're guaranteed a massive 120 damage on a hit even if the headshot doesn't land; at longer ranges, you can still get mechs with a headshot out to quite a bit further away than you would think. Even at half damage, the AC20 can almost one-shot a mech via headshot, and there's a fair bit of distance between the max damage of AC20 or UAC20 and where it drops off to nothing useful. I only used AC/10 on the Marauder for a while because I had a +damage version (which pushes the base 60 damage into the instant-kill level needed for headshot kills) and no UACs yet.
I got access to an unlimited supply of UAC/20++ via alliance that has +20 damage and -3 tons of weight, so I've completely removed anything less than that from my lance except for my ECM Annihilator (which has deals +20% ballistic damage, so the double UAC/10s and single Gauss it carries can still headshot out to a fair distance at the cost of less raw damage up close). And it turns out the solution to the enormous drop in accuracy from UAC/20 fire is just carry two of them and alternate, giving you a minimum of two AC/20 shots per turn and up to four per turn if you skip a firing turn somewhere. First time I've had heat issues from ballistic weapons, but it's definitely worth if for a mech that has an alpha strike of over 300 damage. Pinpoint damage, mind you, not missile damage that scatters everywhere.
Christ, that mission nearly went bad. I'm starting to hate convoy interception missions, because man vehicles may be comparatively fragile but most of them hit like trucks and the mission difficulty gauge seems to not count them at all - a mission with four mechs and a mission with similarly strong four mechs plus four vehicles end up around the same reward, somehow.
I managed to get everyone out but I think the Zeus is going to be spending the entire month in the shop:
I did get my first Marauder, though, which is a plus.
I put UAC20++ on mine and some tiny lasers but I'm not sure it's the best build. UAC20 has terrible recoil and short range, though on the other hand if it hits it doesn't care if the target has Bulwark and is sitting in a forest. Using something like 2x UAC5 and 2x ER ML might work better.
And yes, they are pretty. I just wish the new models would stop swaying like drunken sailors all the time, it's especially bad when they are near the older models and you see the difference.
The short range on AC20/UAC20 matters far less than you might think when it comes to making a headhunter, and the Marauder with the package that gives a Called Shot boost is definitely a top-notch headhunter. At short range, you're guaranteed a massive 120 damage on a hit even if the headshot doesn't land; at longer ranges, you can still get mechs with a headshot out to quite a bit further away than you would think. Even at half damage, the AC20 can almost one-shot a mech via headshot, and there's a fair bit of distance between the max damage of AC20 or UAC20 and where it drops off to nothing useful. I only used AC/10 on the Marauder for a while because I had a +damage version (which pushes the base 60 damage into the instant-kill level needed for headshot kills) and no UACs yet.
I used the Marauder with UAC20++ easily in a dozen missions and didn't really like the short range. Firing with both long range modifier and the massive +8 recoil malus often meant having as little as 45% chance to hit with Precision Shot and maxed out pilot, which meant more than once missing both shots altogether. The short range also meant having to push the mech forward towards the enemy and without jump jets Marauder just isn't that sturdy. At times I had to skip firing because I couldn't find a safe enough spot for it, or use both Vigiliance and Precision Shot for one mech which left little morale for my other mechs. So yeah I'm not pulling this "UAC20 isn't that great" thing out of my ass, I tried it over and over again and when it worked it was beautiful but I just can't 100% recommend it.
One of the MVPs of the above was the Rifleman I had gotten in the free crate you get. Put a rangefinder in it and it just snipped people with twin AC/5s and LLs.
... wait, what? You can get a goddamn Rifleman out of the crate you get on day 2 of career? I got an Assassin which doesn't alter your starting lance's power much, same with Vulcan I've heard other people getting. But a Rifleman is a whole another story altogether.
Managed to rather soundly behead an Annihilator. I have it set up with 4 various flavors of AC/10 and a bunch of ammo, but I haven't gotten to test it out yet. I know it's slow AF, but adding JJs to this thing just seemed like a waste of tonnage, so I decided to add more armor instead.
Separate mission, I stuck a pilot in my punchbot Phoenix Hawk for a....3.5 star(?) (I can't remember). In hindsight, I should have jumped around more to keep evasive pips up. Overall it held its own but I think I'd rather have a Grasshopper for higher-skull missions.
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Christ, that mission nearly went bad. I'm starting to hate convoy interception missions, because man vehicles may be comparatively fragile but most of them hit like trucks and the mission difficulty gauge seems to not count them at all - a mission with four mechs and a mission with similarly strong four mechs plus four vehicles end up around the same reward, somehow.
I managed to get everyone out but I think the Zeus is going to be spending the entire month in the shop:
I did get my first Marauder, though, which is a plus.
The worst is when they have like 30 SRM6's.
This little dinky APC rolls up and then unleashes a hellish barrage that lasts longer than most WW1 arty strikes.
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Which is all well and good, except when the fuckawful mission design spawns in reinforcements to a place you've already checked, puts an LRM carrier in the group, sets the group perfectly at the back of your lance, and spawns the reinforcements such that the LRM carrier gets two free rounds of fire against the back armor of my Archer because, naturally, one of the newly-spawned enemies uses Sensor Lock on my Cyclops and thus kills the cloaking for the rest of my lance.
Nevermind that LRM and SRM carriers are straight bullshit that should never have been put in the game, but that's just too much. Every time I'm really starting to enjoy a game, it absolutely has to do something really fucking stupid to kill the enjoyment.
Y'know, dealing with the mid-week late night crowd is just... I mean... Never put it past folks to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Scene: Frozen City (not classic), Situation: Domination, Actors on my team: 2 assaults (some kind of PPC-shooting Fafnir and an LB20X+2xLPL+2xERML Annihilator), 3 heavies (a Grasshopper, a Marauder, and me in a Timber Wolf), 4 lights (didn't get a good look at what they were), and a single medium (a Bushwacker).
Our lights intercepted and rekt most of the enemy team's lights...only an enemy Jenner got away with some serious leg damage. While that was happening, I have no idea what our assaults were doing other than hiding and taking long range pot-shots with some of their weapons. When the enemy light lance collapsed, I took particular note of the kill-counter: we were up 7 - 1...so it was an 11v5 situation. This was important as I'm a brawler, so if I'm charging into a situation, I want to make sure that I'm not going to get dog-piled on. First up, I sink my teeth into an MRM-spewing Archer. Sure, my armor's taken a bit of damage, but he's dead. A glance at the kill board, it's now 8 - 2.
Okay, this isn't too bad. Start bearing down on an MRM Nightstar. My arm gets blown off, but his side torso is gone in 3 volleys...4th volley and he's out. At this point, I start taking ultra-5 shots from a Jagermech peeking around a hill on the crest of the valley ridgeline, so I start heading that way. While reorienting my mech, I glance back at the kill-board: 9 - 9.
It's here that my jaw drops. What, in the ever-living feck, happened that, in the span of 20-30 seconds, 7 mechs died to the remaining 4...of which one was a nearly legged Jenner and where another two were focusing on me?
Not exactly sure how we lost that one...but the Annihilator who was hanging back and only using his large pulse lasers and managed to not die because he wasn't interested in contesting the capture circle sure didn't help. I mean, the 140 damage it dealt kinda indicates that much.
Moral of this rant? I should just not play MWO after 2am.
EDIT - math fail...I should also try not to do math at 3am...
It just did that to me. I was definitely not expecting the second lance to be a drop of 2 heavy vehicles, a K2 Catapult, and an urban assault vehicle. It's rare I bail on a mission, but there was no way I had the damage/round output to come out of that with anything but dead pilots and wrecked mechs. That was a 2 1/2 skull mission for not great pay too. Turns out the base to be occupied was a star league base..so that probably had something to do with it.
I'm not too happy about the Black Market being the easiest way to get all your stuff now. It means having to grind up pirate rep, which makes it a lot harder to keep the other reputations high. It also means there's basically no point in worrying about salvage in missions. Instead of fighting for the right to pilot heavier mechs you can just do easy missions and buy an assault from your friendly neighborhood used mech salesman. Flashpoint rewards hardly matter either, it doesn't matter if the chest of loot has Cicada parts or an AC20+++ since you'll mostly care about the money.
Haven't checked the allied quartermasters since the patch/DLC but even if they have good stuff there's only 1-2 of them in the big map while there's Black Markets everywhere.
I do like all the new shiny toys (and updated lostech toys), I just wish they weren't tied to Pirate rep and the fairly tedious reputation system, and pure sheer luck on when the Black Market access event happens to happen.
But I hope they dial it down a lot, back to previous levels, or make it a configuration option like cash/salvage rewards are now. I don't think this game is as appealing to come back to again and again if you can consistently get your first heavy in the first 50 days and your first assault in the first few hundred.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Or use the save editor to reset my pirate rep.
One of the two.
Possibly both.
I ignored all those Annihilators in shops quite a while, only got one a bit before the final DLC showdown. Glad I did, loading it with UAC5s means it easily kills a mech per round. Fun for a bit but pretty quickly you get the same feeling when you are killing grey enemies in a RPG. No challenge, no meaningful loot, what's the point?
So ... real mixed feelings about this patch and DLC. Steam says I played 46 hours since the DLC launched so I got my money's worth but I'm more or less done now. Gotta wait for some great modpack next I guess. 8-)
Decided to pick it up again with the new patch (still no expacs). First mission was a 3 skull battle.
Me (Highlander with dual AC/20++, 2xSRM-6++)
Behemoth (Stalker with 2xPPC, 2xSRM-6)
Decker (running my LRM Stalker)
Random Recruit (disco Battlemaster)
Saw the first three in the enemy lance early on (Black Knight, Blackjack, Cicada), and just erased the Blackjack early on. Then I saw a blip coming up behind them. A 100 ton blip!
I made short work of the Black Knight, and revealed the 100 tonner to be a King Crab. Behemoth was being mopey, but I figured she still has two decent pinpoint weapons, so maybe she can headshot it for me. She did, but not enough to kill it. Decker's LRMs managed to headshot(!) and finish the job. The Cicada was quickly picked off after.
Yes, I did have 3 salvage selected, so now I have a Dual AC/20++ King Crab with 4 Medium Laser++
And then two missions in, a couple extremely lucky headshots resulted in this:
Holy shit, talk about hard choices.
Sorry I'm not a fan of the Cyclops because I don't think it has enough useful tonnage for the most part.
Randomize Starting 'Mechs, 5 Parts to Assemble, Assembled 'Mechs come Unequipped, Slow Mechwarrior Progression, everything else set to normal.
Let's see how OILER Sortie 1 shakes out!
[Edit] CapNips leads his initial lance into the Reach! (+1 PIloting, +2 Tactics)
Starting 'Mechs: Blackjack, Vindicator, Jenner, Commando x2
Heavy Metal Crate: Vulcan, Coil-M, Coil-S. Interesting.
[Edit 2] Oh weird/cool: I just queued up a Battle scenario that only has me bring one 'Mech, because the employer's bringing three of its own and auto-assigned them to my lance. Weird! This is fun!
Stubble, Flapjacks, and Pontoon....OMG
So, I gotta say, I absolutely despise how PGI deals with XP gain (and rewards in general) in MWO. I mean, okay, Kills and playing map objectives are all well and good. Lights locking up targets, cool. Now how about a mech that distracts well over half the enemy team so your team can sweep up the distracted enemy team? Yeah, that mech gets completely shafted. What do I mean by this? Take a look at this end of match screen:
But, in the eyes of PGI's rewards system, I didn't do jack shit except deal 176 damage and die. Thanks PGI...thanks.
How are folks building theirs? I'm keen to take it out headhunting. (My only + weapon not in use right now is a +10 dam LL.)
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
And yes, they are pretty. I just wish the new models would stop swaying like drunken sailors all the time, it's especially bad when they are near the older models and you see the difference.
It's just my luck, really. I picked up a Cyclops Sleipnir last night. Pop in this evening and see that all mechs are half off. I mean, I don't mind all that much...I was kinda running out of ideas on what to do with 40k in MC. But yeah, tonight I took it out on its first foray. Since I already have two double-heavy gauss mechs in my stable, I wanted to try something a little different: quad-Ultra5. Sure, it's a little slow, but slinging an AC20 shot 600m downrange every second is pretty nice. First match out, I ran out of ammo after dealing 750 damage. Team got steamrolled, but it was pretty fun cracking into a Battlemaster, King Crab, and Orion before going down.
It was at that point that I noticed that part of the MW5 mech challenge includes running 3 of the Assault mechs in MW5: Cyclops, Mauler, and Highlander. It just so happens that I now have all three chassis in my mechbay! The Cyclops got wrapped up pretty quick, so now I just need to run my Highlander and Mauler...
Correction:
- Highlander
- and Mauler
Ran one match with the Highlander (Domination on Grim Plexus), flanked the enemy team, and drilled out ~480 damage. Yeah, the Highlander'll be pretty quick to the 1000 damage for the event objective.I'll be honest I haven't even looked at the majority of those challenges, I don't have a good chunk of the chassis required.
Fired up the game and checked, and you can fit 2x UAC5++ and 2x ER ML but the UAC5s need to be the rare version with -2 tons or otherwise you'll be running low on tonnage for heat sinks and/or armor and/or ammo. It'll run pretty hot anyways but has nice range. Then I went and shot a mech's head off with it because that's what you do when testing a Marauder build.
That sort of stuff is nearly impossible to evaluate effectively in an automated way that isn't also subject to trivial exploitation
How about make the "Damage Taken" metric actually count towards rewards? Being able to effectively tank damage to maximize every hit-point of your mech should mean something. If you want to be really complicated about it, could base any thresholds on equipment taken. So, for example, you start accumulating rewards only if the damage you've taken is more than what's in your CT if you're running a standard engine, CT+single ST if you're running an XL engine, or CT+both STs for a light engine.
Also, if we're talking trivial exploitation, I think PGI is mostly okay with that what with the prevalence of sync drops and Solaris being trivially exploitable right now due to how many people are actively playing the game (or game mode, in the case of Solaris).
Some factor on total damage taken and total ‘mech-seconds of enemy target lock.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
With how some people just can't find the "R" key on their keyboards, that might not be the best idea (even though, in principle, it should be).
I dunno, incentivizing using the "R" key could be a really good thing.
Did the Long Hunt Flashpoint and my god it was a slog. By the last mission I was down to a couple of my first string mechs that had survived the first two missions and whatever Solahma stock heavies I had lying around.
One of the MVPs of the above was the Rifleman I had gotten in the free crate you get. Put a rangefinder in it and it just snipped people with twin AC/5s and LLs.
Also did the one with Morgan Kell and that was great although I am dissapointed that Kell didn't have some kind of crazy "all attacks automatically miss" skill.
And just now I did a 4.5 star battle mission where I took out 3/4s of the first lance while taking trivial damage... only to have a Demolisher roll around a boulder and AC20 headshot my King Crab. My surviving 3 mechs then had quite a fight to take out the second heavy lance.
I just had an event that involved larceny, illegal animal handling, and me giving one of my duders a million C-bills....
...that netted me an SRM2+++ worth 5k C-bills if I sell it.
x_x
From how I understood Elvenshae's suggestion, it would only benefit the mech being targetted as opposed to the mech doing the targetting. So, for example, a butthole could, in theory, just run around and not target anybody to negate the locked target tanking part of the reward calculation.
Again, sorry for the double-post, but...
I had this same event happen in my campaign. In my case, the pilot asking was Behemoth...who just got out of medbay after getting 3 injuries in her last mission. Told her I didn't have that kind of money just sitting around (I had 1.8mil at that point), but if she wanted to do it, she'd be on her own. Came back with 2 injuries and is bound to the medbay for another 2 months. Glad I'm training up a replacement for her.
The short range on AC20/UAC20 matters far less than you might think when it comes to making a headhunter, and the Marauder with the package that gives a Called Shot boost is definitely a top-notch headhunter. At short range, you're guaranteed a massive 120 damage on a hit even if the headshot doesn't land; at longer ranges, you can still get mechs with a headshot out to quite a bit further away than you would think. Even at half damage, the AC20 can almost one-shot a mech via headshot, and there's a fair bit of distance between the max damage of AC20 or UAC20 and where it drops off to nothing useful. I only used AC/10 on the Marauder for a while because I had a +damage version (which pushes the base 60 damage into the instant-kill level needed for headshot kills) and no UACs yet.
I got access to an unlimited supply of UAC/20++ via alliance that has +20 damage and -3 tons of weight, so I've completely removed anything less than that from my lance except for my ECM Annihilator (which has deals +20% ballistic damage, so the double UAC/10s and single Gauss it carries can still headshot out to a fair distance at the cost of less raw damage up close). And it turns out the solution to the enormous drop in accuracy from UAC/20 fire is just carry two of them and alternate, giving you a minimum of two AC/20 shots per turn and up to four per turn if you skip a firing turn somewhere. First time I've had heat issues from ballistic weapons, but it's definitely worth if for a mech that has an alpha strike of over 300 damage. Pinpoint damage, mind you, not missile damage that scatters everywhere.
I managed to get everyone out but I think the Zeus is going to be spending the entire month in the shop:
I did get my first Marauder, though, which is a plus.
I used the Marauder with UAC20++ easily in a dozen missions and didn't really like the short range. Firing with both long range modifier and the massive +8 recoil malus often meant having as little as 45% chance to hit with Precision Shot and maxed out pilot, which meant more than once missing both shots altogether. The short range also meant having to push the mech forward towards the enemy and without jump jets Marauder just isn't that sturdy. At times I had to skip firing because I couldn't find a safe enough spot for it, or use both Vigiliance and Precision Shot for one mech which left little morale for my other mechs. So yeah I'm not pulling this "UAC20 isn't that great" thing out of my ass, I tried it over and over again and when it worked it was beautiful but I just can't 100% recommend it.
... wait, what? You can get a goddamn Rifleman out of the crate you get on day 2 of career? I got an Assassin which doesn't alter your starting lance's power much, same with Vulcan I've heard other people getting. But a Rifleman is a whole another story altogether.
Separate mission, I stuck a pilot in my punchbot Phoenix Hawk for a....3.5 star(?) (I can't remember). In hindsight, I should have jumped around more to keep evasive pips up. Overall it held its own but I think I'd rather have a Grasshopper for higher-skull missions.
The worst is when they have like 30 SRM6's.
This little dinky APC rolls up and then unleashes a hellish barrage that lasts longer than most WW1 arty strikes.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
I want a goddamn wind up sprint! Tackle that motherfucker.
On a related note, I also wish I could use JJs for melee without sacrificing everything under the belt line. DFA mods help, but not a lot...