Yeah I had the same problem until I realized it was anti aliasing related. That said Pre-mw5 I hadn’t played a game where anti aliasing on high somehow disabled “weird grainy dithering”.
Man, I never did successfully get back into MWO after they added the hyper-detailed skill trees. I've tried a dozen times but usually I'm only in the mood to do a hot drop and pew pew, and when I realize I'll need to do two hours of research to even play I uninstall again.
Man, I never did successfully get back into MWO after they added the hyper-detailed skill trees. I've tried a dozen times but usually I'm only in the mood to do a hot drop and pew pew, and when I realize I'll need to do two hours of research to even play I uninstall again.
Yeah, the skill trees are not fun for just jumping back in. But to be honest, if you just want to pew, pew and dakka you can just jump in. Yeah your mech may run a bit hot or slow, but you can still shoot at things. I've run an unskilled Annihilator in a bunch of matches to skill them up.
MW5: So yeah reloaded the save and it was the farmers vs. mercs. I did the farmer side and yeah it gives you the Cicada at the end. @Nobody yeah you are right I should have just stuck it with the Mercs since that Cicada is a pile of Cbills for minimal damage output.
I also discovered why I was having such a hard time with the game. Did you know that if you try to do the game with just 2 mechs it is almost impossible after a while? Especially when I'm piloting a Cent and my partner was piloting the Jenner. I hired two other pilots and now it is so much easier to play! I can even pilot my Cent and not lose an arm. So now my lance is me in the Cent (when I want to do a ton of damage) or in my Locust, Jenner, Firestarter and Javelin. The game is much better now that I'm sharing the damage across 4 mechs rather than 2.
I should really load up my old save again. I hit a wall on one story mission, and I suspect it's because too many of my AI pilots had weapons in their arms which they would quickly lose.
Man, I never did successfully get back into MWO after they added the hyper-detailed skill trees. I've tried a dozen times but usually I'm only in the mood to do a hot drop and pew pew, and when I realize I'll need to do two hours of research to even play I uninstall again.
Yeah, the skill trees are not fun for just jumping back in. But to be honest, if you just want to pew, pew and dakka you can just jump in. Yeah your mech may run a bit hot or slow, but you can still shoot at things. I've run an unskilled Annihilator in a bunch of matches to skill them up.
I have some standardized skill trees I can share with the class if people want.
Mostly along the lines of “all laser vomit” “all UACs” etc.
Man, I never did successfully get back into MWO after they added the hyper-detailed skill trees. I've tried a dozen times but usually I'm only in the mood to do a hot drop and pew pew, and when I realize I'll need to do two hours of research to even play I uninstall again.
Yeah, the skill trees are not fun for just jumping back in. But to be honest, if you just want to pew, pew and dakka you can just jump in. Yeah your mech may run a bit hot or slow, but you can still shoot at things. I've run an unskilled Annihilator in a bunch of matches to skill them up.
I have some standardized skill trees I can share with the class if people want.
Mostly along the lines of “all laser vomit” “all UACs” etc.
Yeah please! I had ones from early on in the Skill Tree reformat that were somewhat generic. They are old now and not really useful since the meta sort of stabilized with some changes that make mine outdated. Although the one thing I still don't put skills into are the consumables since I don't really use them in Group Queue. I'm sure they're helpful in Faction Warfare though since I always had a UAV on all my mechs back then.
Also Nips should pin it in the OP for future references.
MW5: So yeah reloaded the save and it was the farmers vs. mercs. I did the farmer side and yeah it gives you the Cicada at the end. Nobody yeah you are right I should have just stuck it with the Mercs since that Cicada is a pile of Cbills for minimal damage output.
I also discovered why I was having such a hard time with the game. Did you know that if you try to do the game with just 2 mechs it is almost impossible after a while? Especially when I'm piloting a Cent and my partner was piloting the Jenner. I hired two other pilots and now it is so much easier to play! I can even pilot my Cent and not lose an arm. So now my lance is me in the Cent (when I want to do a ton of damage) or in my Locust, Jenner, Firestarter and Javelin. The game is much better now that I'm sharing the damage across 4 mechs rather than 2.
I should really load up my old save again. I hit a wall on one story mission, and I suspect it's because too many of my AI pilots had weapons in their arms which they would quickly lose.
Oddly the one mech that always dies/gets targeted like crazy is my Javelin with the 4ML in the torsos. I'm beginning to believe that the AI is programmed to target weapons regardless if they are in the torsos or arms.
Edit: Another thing I noticed while piloting my brand new The Death's Knell Commando is that the AI is programmed to fire at the closest thing shooting it. So I confuse the heck out of the AI by sprinting past, shoot it, get the AI's attention then run out of aggro range. It tracks me and can't hit me, then swivels to another mech. One thing that annoys me with the TDK is that my arms are not unlocked... I'll have to figure out what is going on in that mech since it didn't let me shoot at some VTOLs once.
I have to get to my desktop for it, and as an FYI almost all of them go into consumables that can probably be cut down for people who don’t want to spend the cbills.
I’d recommend keeping the cool shot sections for mechs running energy load outs though.
I use this for stuff like the Mad Cat II-B or Annihilator ANH-2A with 2xUAC/10, 2xUAC/5. If you don't want the consumables, I'd put the points into Armor and Operations.
AKA Laser Vomit. Use for mechs like the Warhammer WHM-6D or Grasshopper. I highly recommend keeping enough points for double cool shots. Even with all the Heat Gen and Cool Run nodes in the world, you're going to get really hot really quick on some maps and in some fights.
The PSR reset/zero sum PSR patch has been put on hold after the players got a look at what PGI was planning and called foul.
Now PGI is trying to open a dialogue with the player base about the best way forward.
Apparently the PSR reset is back on for today, and they’re apparently using a system that one of the players (Jay Z) came up with where you are ranked against both your teammates’ and the total match score to determine your PSR movement.
Post 5 here goes into the details of how it will work.
Turns out, people jumped the gun since there was a minor patch today and one of the Devs had posted a cryptic tweet about the upcoming PSR system.
Here is the actual announcement post, describing what they're working on and target for launch.
Some interesting data in there too, I had thought common wisdom was the majority of the playerbase being T1, but it looks like the majority are actually in T5.
Turns out, people jumped the gun since there was a minor patch today and one of the Devs had posted a cryptic tweet about the upcoming PSR system.
Here is the actual announcement post, describing what they're working on and target for launch.
Some interesting data in there too, I had thought common wisdom was the majority of the playerbase being T1, but it looks like the majority are actually in T5.
Yeah that makes no sense that the majority are in T5. I do like how they are trying for a bell curve though. Not sure if they can do that with the current player base. I agree that the majority should be in T1 by now.
I haven't read through it yet, but it looks like wins are a primary component in the formula so it's probably pretty good! Even if it doesn't work I'm excited for a bit of a shakeup, and so long as wins are a large component we don't have to deal with people bickering over kill stealing (I hope).
I hope they give the guy who did their work for them a bunch of free mechs (or like, a consulting fee).
King of the Landfill Garbage-King-Crab is gonna be fun.
Honestly 49k players is much higher than I thought.
On a side note, one thing that they specifically stated they were looking at in relation to match score was the damage portion in that they feel it’s too high (I agree, if you’re doing 900+ damage and not killing anyone, you’re not as useful as somebody doing 300 damage and coring out/headshotting 3 enemy mechs).
Turns out, people jumped the gun since there was a minor patch today and one of the Devs had posted a cryptic tweet about the upcoming PSR system.
Here is the actual announcement post, describing what they're working on and target for launch.
Some interesting data in there too, I had thought common wisdom was the majority of the playerbase being T1, but it looks like the majority are actually in T5.
T5 smurf accounts that people create and then abandon when they cant use it to stomp newbies anymore, so they create another T5 smurf account, repeat ad naseum, so the majority of accounts are T5 when the majority of players are T1-T2.
I think any of us that have been around long enough only saw it going one of two ways: the player count dwindling to unusability, or PGI shutting down the game suddenly because of "reasons".
Since it seems like we're closer to the end than the beginning at this point, I hope someone (a post-PGI entity, the community, someone) finds a way to allow it to exist forward a la Living Legends. There's still room for a good multiplayer 'Mech shooter in the market, I think.
Then again, maybe I answered my own ask there by mentioning MWLL. It's still getting updates, and I've been meaning to check it out again recently.
I watched a Tex stream of MWLL a while back and it seems to scratch most of the itch (no customization but there’s a lot of variants) so I may have to check it out
I should clarify, part of the problem is you have groups dropping in with low tonnage and no capability to carry with it, so one side is getting 2 2 man groups running lights/mediums and the other had a 2 man running dual Supernovas.
I should clarify, part of the problem is you have groups dropping in with low tonnage and no capability to carry with it, so one side is getting 2 2 man groups running lights/mediums and the other had a 2 man running dual Supernovas.
Ahh ok. So that was on purpose (sort of). Where the groups were screwing the balance since they left lots of tonnage on the table. Not much PGI can do at this point since I they are limited by the system they made. I take back my comment implying PGI is shooting themselves in their feet. It is players messing with the game.
Also yeah we knew MWO was going out, and I'm hoping they give the code away for others to use it. I know they probably can't due to licensing, but it would be cool.
The basic problem is that they’re trying to make even matches out of an increasingly dwindling user base, and structurally the game’s fairly stompy under the best of circumstances.
Tonnage honestly is whatever; pilot ability is much more important, and there’s little evidence they can measure that or use it to form matches even if they could
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
+2
Options
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
The basic problem is that they’re trying to make even matches out of an increasingly dwindling user base, and structurally the game’s fairly stompy under the best of circumstances.
Tonnage honestly is whatever; pilot ability is much more important, and there’s little evidence they can measure that or use it to form matches even if they could
It may sound harsh to say, but much better studios have been struggling with this very problem for years now. I don't see PGI cracking that nut any time soon.
I would be way down for a MWO 2, but I'd rather it not be PGI and I think the only way we could possibly, potentially get a MWO 2 is through PGI.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
oh yeah I mean, I agree matchmaking is hard; I tend to think the tier system approach is actually the best one (i.e. just throw everybody experienced enough into a pool be done with it)
I looked at outreachhpg the other day out of nostalgia and was amused to see folks going around and around about matchmaking again, when the problem is far more the result of structural issues with the game and population.
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Reset went through and right now the game is bonkers. Didn't see a single NASCAR all night, but there were a lot of groups running around, including some seriously heavy hitters that used to only show up once in a blue moon.
+1
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Hey, you know what video game is hard and I suck at? Battletech. Go me.
It took me a lot of trial and error to understand some of the intricate details of how shit works out but I think I get it now. I'm playing the game vanilla as hell, no DLC, so I dunno what I'm locked out of outside of a type of mission and some mech models. I'm only recently understanding the value of maybe having a couple of weapons on a mech instead of trying to have a lot. It helps that this game actually gives that strategy some actual validity, unlike MWO.
Speaking of MWO I finally uninstalled it. I got sick of how badly made that game is. Y'know what it needs? A do-over, with MOBA style auto-armies that are constantly fighting and are also a threat to the players in the match. Because then a bunch of weapons and playstyles would become valid. As the game stands right now it's literally just any other FPS but you move more awkwardly.
0
Options
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Battletech: in general the vanilla mechs are under-armored and over-gunned.
It's not a bad idea to start at e.g. 720 armor for a medium, 900-ish armor for a heavy, and 1000+ armor for an assault. Usually the side torsos have less armor than the arms. That is completely backwards. Make sure they've got at LEAST as much armor as the arms, preferably more. My usual approach is to max out or near max out the arm armor, put the side torsos at least 10 over that, and make sure the CT has 30+ armor more than the side torsos. I tend to steal some armor from the backs. Legs on most mechs I leave alone; they should have at least as much armor as the side torsos (and preferably more). The one place I never, ever take armor from is the head. Always max out head armor!
The amount of heat you sink is your sustained DPS which is what is most important. Most mechs in vanilla I found I'd end up mounting a ballistic weapon, an SRM6, and maybe some medium lasers. Medium lasers have the best damage/ton by a long-shot, but result in a punishing amount of heat and spread the damage out. An AC/5, 10, or 20 concentrates that damage into one tight little ball of "Fuck you." I usually shoot for a net heat of around 20-30 with an alpha strike, assuming I'm going to go for Coolant Vent and the odd melee to prevent overheating.
If you run into too much trouble and want hints with the missions, folks here will be more than happy to help you out. Same with if you're looking for build advice on your mechs or your lance. Have fun! I quite enjoyed the Vanilla campaign.
+5
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Yeah as far as outfitting goes, I've been maxing armor and then depending on the hard points & fractional tonnage used up I might drop a few points here and there to even things out. Then I go for weapons from there.
Medium lasers I have a love/hate relationship with. If you can get a lot of heat mitigation then yeah they own.
I finally started embracing missiles, but I only value them if they are on the heavier side. SRM2s and LRM5s make no sense to use. It's too much weight for too little impact.
+4
Options
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Yeah as far as outfitting goes, I've been maxing armor and then depending on the hard points & fractional tonnage used up I might drop a few points here and there to even things out. Then I go for weapons from there.
Medium lasers I have a love/hate relationship with. If you can get a lot of heat mitigation then yeah they own.
I finally started embracing missiles, but I only value them if they are on the heavier side. SRM2s and LRM5s make no sense to use. It's too much weight for too little impact.
SRMs are nice: it doesn't matter which version you get, they all have equal heat/damage per ton. It gets a little bit more of a decision point when you factor in the ammunition, but unlike the LRMs they're nice and even. LRM5s are garbage, it is known.
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Oh good, I'm not a weirdo then.
On the pilot skill training end of things I'm thinking Bulwark is required for almost everyone who isn't a scout / spotter.
Last thought for the night: oh my god the Cicada is like the dumbest mech to exist.
Henroid, are you playing the campaign or a career? If campaign, are you still flying to jumpships in your starter Leopard dropship?
I agree with Orca on mech buildout and you on Bulwark (although we had a lively discussion about it vs. Piloting after the 1.9 balance fixes.)
Jump jets are huge in BT, imo, because positioning is really, really important. It lets you maximize cover, focus fire on one side of a mech, sometimes get in from behind, etc. I'm probably on one end of a spectrum round here for max front armor/jump jets for all, but there you go. So long as BT doesn't limit which mechs I can put JJs in, I'll keep putting them in everywhere. (I used to run LRM boats, and those could get away without them in career. In campaign, there are some missions where you sometimes want your team in a certain place, and JJs are key for that. Since I moved with the game off LRMs and onto headshots for late game shenanigans, all jump jets.)
From a mech company management point of view, you want to get into a system, do the missions you are going to do and get out, doing any repairs and upgrades while in transit to your next system. That's why max armor is so important. Armor is repaired for free and instantly after each mission. As soon as you take damage to internal structure (or worse) that mech is offline for some amount of time. Hovering in orbit doing mech bay work (while sometimes necessary) is expensive. The less you do it the better your finances will be.
On the battlefield, until your pilots get their Tactics up (to the first bonus at 6 and the big one at 9), Called Shot is not usually going to hit the spot you are aiming for. Vigilance is incredibly useful throughout the game, though, and often overlooked. It lets you brace and shoot in a turn - great for your frontliners - and it instantly removes all stability bars. So early on when your wobbly pilots catch a few too many missiles from those Strikers over the ridge, you can reset on your way to stomp them.
EDIT: Oh and in case you don't know (because the tutorial doesn't say), you can eject a pilot (little icon in the lower left when it is your turn) saving the pilot and the mech (at the cost of its head) and you can WITHDRAW from battle altogether instantly at no battlefield penalty (upper right hand corner) although you will take a total/partial payout and reputation hit. Better than losing mechs & pilots!
Henroid, are you playing the campaign or a career? If campaign, are you still flying to jumpships in your starter Leopard dropship?
I agree with Orca on mech buildout and you on Bulwark (although we had a lively discussion about it vs. Piloting after the 1.9 balance fixes.)
Jump jets are huge in BT, imo, because positioning is really, really important. It lets you maximize cover, focus fire on one side of a mech, sometimes get in from behind, etc. I'm probably on one end of a spectrum round here for max front armor/jump jets for all, but there you go. So long as BT doesn't limit which mechs I can put JJs in, I'll keep putting them in everywhere. (I used to run LRM boats, and those could get away without them in career. In campaign, there are some missions where you sometimes want your team in a certain place, and JJs are key for that. Since I moved with the game off LRMs and onto headshots for late game shenanigans, all jump jets.)
From a mech company management point of view, you want to get into a system, do the missions you are going to do and get out, doing any repairs and upgrades while in transit to your next system. That's why max armor is so important. Armor is repaired for free and instantly after each mission. As soon as you take damage to internal structure (or worse) that mech is offline for some amount of time. Hovering in orbit doing mech bay work (while sometimes necessary) is expensive. The less you do it the better your finances will be.
On the battlefield, until your pilots get their Tactics up (to the first bonus at 6 and the big one at 9), Called Shot is not usually going to hit the spot you are aiming for. Vigilance is incredibly useful throughout the game, though, and often overlooked. It lets you brace and shoot in a turn - great for your frontliners - and it instantly removes all stability bars. So early on when your wobbly pilots catch a few too many missiles from those Strikers over the ridge, you can reset on your way to stomp them.
EDIT: Oh and in case you don't know (because the tutorial doesn't say), you can eject a pilot (little icon in the lower left when it is your turn) saving the pilot and the mech (at the cost of its head) and you can WITHDRAW from battle altogether instantly at no battlefield penalty (upper right hand corner) although you will take a total/partial payout and reputation hit. Better than losing mechs & pilots!
I am aware of these things. Jump jet value is known to me, which is another thing that I hated in the pilot sim games but in Battletech they make sense to have and are quite practical. This game is brilliant like that; most everything has value, especially compared to Mechwarrior games. So weird.
I'm playing campaign, though I dabbled in career for a bit to get used to and learn some things. But yes in my campaign I do have the big upgrade ship.
0
Options
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
I hope that eventually we see a MWO2 that combines elements of MWLL, MWO, Eve Online, and MW5.
I don’t think PGI could pull it off though
Man, I'd kill for that.
I've always been a fan of the idea of missions in which you would randomly encounter other players.
For example;
Let's say in this hypothetical MWO2 you can take randomly generated missions against the AI.
So you take a basic Patrol Mission. Travel between the different points and kill any enemies you come across. Most of the time these would just be AI enemies, but once in awhile the game would match you up against another player who is also doing a Patrol Mission only they are doing it in reverse. Say maybe an 1/8th of the time (for sake of the argument) this might happen.
Or you got a Defend Mission and once in a great while you get matched up with a player who has an Attack Mission for your objective.
I feel like that would add a bit of spice and tension to each mission. Yeah most of the time you are up against AI, but you'll never know for certain if it'll only be AI.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I hope that eventually we see a MWO2 that combines elements of MWLL, MWO, Eve Online, and MW5.
I don’t think PGI could pull it off though
Man, I'd kill for that.
I've always been a fan of the idea of missions in which you would randomly encounter other players.
For example;
Let's say in this hypothetical MWO2 you can take randomly generated missions against the AI.
So you take a basic Patrol Mission. Travel between the different points and kill any enemies you come across. Most of the time these would just be AI enemies, but once in awhile the game would match you up against another player who is also doing a Patrol Mission only they are doing it in reverse. Say maybe an 1/8th of the time (for sake of the argument) this might happen.
Or you got a Defend Mission and once in a great while you get matched up with a player who has an Attack Mission for your objective.
I feel like that would add a bit of spice and tension to each mission. Yeah most of the time you are up against AI, but you'll never know for certain if it'll only be AI.
In my head the mission difficulty would correspond to the chance of encountering enemy players.
Level 1 missions would be your standard newbie “defeat the pirates/separatists” with 0% chance of enemy players, while level 10 missions would be planetary invasions that would only launch vs AI if it was taking longer than, say, 5 minutes to fill the opposing team with players.
In-between is where it gets spicy. Is that a player on the other side of a level 5? You won’t know till you lock them.
Nobody on
+4
Options
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited July 2020
I will say this much, IMHO any game that has players replaying the same missions or mission types over and over needs to have some amount of random encounters that could potentially trigger.
Vast majority of the time it'd be a normal mission, but once in a blue moon you may be on a patrol and get a transmission, "We claim this world and its contents in the name of Clan Jade Falcon!" and now you need to decide whether you want to beat feet out of there or take on a Clan Star for some sweet, sweet salvage.
As an example, it could be anything.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Posts
Yeah, the skill trees are not fun for just jumping back in. But to be honest, if you just want to pew, pew and dakka you can just jump in. Yeah your mech may run a bit hot or slow, but you can still shoot at things. I've run an unskilled Annihilator in a bunch of matches to skill them up.
Steam: betsuni7
I should really load up my old save again. I hit a wall on one story mission, and I suspect it's because too many of my AI pilots had weapons in their arms which they would quickly lose.
I have some standardized skill trees I can share with the class if people want.
Mostly along the lines of “all laser vomit” “all UACs” etc.
Yeah please! I had ones from early on in the Skill Tree reformat that were somewhat generic. They are old now and not really useful since the meta sort of stabilized with some changes that make mine outdated. Although the one thing I still don't put skills into are the consumables since I don't really use them in Group Queue. I'm sure they're helpful in Faction Warfare though since I always had a UAV on all my mechs back then.
Also Nips should pin it in the OP for future references.
Oddly the one mech that always dies/gets targeted like crazy is my Javelin with the 4ML in the torsos. I'm beginning to believe that the AI is programmed to target weapons regardless if they are in the torsos or arms.
Edit: Another thing I noticed while piloting my brand new The Death's Knell Commando is that the AI is programmed to fire at the closest thing shooting it. So I confuse the heck out of the AI by sprinting past, shoot it, get the AI's attention then run out of aggro range. It tracks me and can't hit me, then swivels to another mech. One thing that annoys me with the TDK is that my arms are not unlocked... I'll have to figure out what is going on in that mech since it didn't let me shoot at some VTOLs once.
Steam: betsuni7
You did a while ago... but not sure when that fell out of the ship between jumps.
Steam: betsuni7
I’d recommend keeping the cool shot sections for mechs running energy load outs though.
UAC Build
I use this for stuff like the Mad Cat II-B or Annihilator ANH-2A with 2xUAC/10, 2xUAC/5. If you don't want the consumables, I'd put the points into Armor and Operations.
Laser Build
AKA Laser Vomit. Use for mechs like the Warhammer WHM-6D or Grasshopper. I highly recommend keeping enough points for double cool shots. Even with all the Heat Gen and Cool Run nodes in the world, you're going to get really hot really quick on some maps and in some fights.
Apparently the PSR reset is back on for today, and they’re apparently using a system that one of the players (Jay Z) came up with where you are ranked against both your teammates’ and the total match score to determine your PSR movement.
Post 5 here goes into the details of how it will work.
Steam: betsuni7
Here is the actual announcement post, describing what they're working on and target for launch.
Some interesting data in there too, I had thought common wisdom was the majority of the playerbase being T1, but it looks like the majority are actually in T5.
Yeah that makes no sense that the majority are in T5. I do like how they are trying for a bell curve though. Not sure if they can do that with the current player base. I agree that the majority should be in T1 by now.
Steam: betsuni7
Woof.
I hope they give the guy who did their work for them a bunch of free mechs (or like, a consulting fee).
King of the Landfill Garbage-King-Crab is gonna be fun.
Honestly 49k players is much higher than I thought.
On a side note, one thing that they specifically stated they were looking at in relation to match score was the damage portion in that they feel it’s too high (I agree, if you’re doing 900+ damage and not killing anyone, you’re not as useful as somebody doing 300 damage and coring out/headshotting 3 enemy mechs).
T5 smurf accounts that people create and then abandon when they cant use it to stomp newbies anymore, so they create another T5 smurf account, repeat ad naseum, so the majority of accounts are T5 when the majority of players are T1-T2.
MWO: Adamski
Yes, that's around 830 tons vs 560.
Steam: betsuni7
I think any of us that have been around long enough only saw it going one of two ways: the player count dwindling to unusability, or PGI shutting down the game suddenly because of "reasons".
Since it seems like we're closer to the end than the beginning at this point, I hope someone (a post-PGI entity, the community, someone) finds a way to allow it to exist forward a la Living Legends. There's still room for a good multiplayer 'Mech shooter in the market, I think.
Then again, maybe I answered my own ask there by mentioning MWLL. It's still getting updates, and I've been meaning to check it out again recently.
Ahh ok. So that was on purpose (sort of). Where the groups were screwing the balance since they left lots of tonnage on the table. Not much PGI can do at this point since I they are limited by the system they made. I take back my comment implying PGI is shooting themselves in their feet. It is players messing with the game.
Also yeah we knew MWO was going out, and I'm hoping they give the code away for others to use it. I know they probably can't due to licensing, but it would be cool.
Steam: betsuni7
Tonnage honestly is whatever; pilot ability is much more important, and there’s little evidence they can measure that or use it to form matches even if they could
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
It may sound harsh to say, but much better studios have been struggling with this very problem for years now. I don't see PGI cracking that nut any time soon.
I would be way down for a MWO 2, but I'd rather it not be PGI and I think the only way we could possibly, potentially get a MWO 2 is through PGI.
I looked at outreachhpg the other day out of nostalgia and was amused to see folks going around and around about matchmaking again, when the problem is far more the result of structural issues with the game and population.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
It took me a lot of trial and error to understand some of the intricate details of how shit works out but I think I get it now. I'm playing the game vanilla as hell, no DLC, so I dunno what I'm locked out of outside of a type of mission and some mech models. I'm only recently understanding the value of maybe having a couple of weapons on a mech instead of trying to have a lot. It helps that this game actually gives that strategy some actual validity, unlike MWO.
Speaking of MWO I finally uninstalled it. I got sick of how badly made that game is. Y'know what it needs? A do-over, with MOBA style auto-armies that are constantly fighting and are also a threat to the players in the match. Because then a bunch of weapons and playstyles would become valid. As the game stands right now it's literally just any other FPS but you move more awkwardly.
It's not a bad idea to start at e.g. 720 armor for a medium, 900-ish armor for a heavy, and 1000+ armor for an assault. Usually the side torsos have less armor than the arms. That is completely backwards. Make sure they've got at LEAST as much armor as the arms, preferably more. My usual approach is to max out or near max out the arm armor, put the side torsos at least 10 over that, and make sure the CT has 30+ armor more than the side torsos. I tend to steal some armor from the backs. Legs on most mechs I leave alone; they should have at least as much armor as the side torsos (and preferably more). The one place I never, ever take armor from is the head. Always max out head armor!
The amount of heat you sink is your sustained DPS which is what is most important. Most mechs in vanilla I found I'd end up mounting a ballistic weapon, an SRM6, and maybe some medium lasers. Medium lasers have the best damage/ton by a long-shot, but result in a punishing amount of heat and spread the damage out. An AC/5, 10, or 20 concentrates that damage into one tight little ball of "Fuck you." I usually shoot for a net heat of around 20-30 with an alpha strike, assuming I'm going to go for Coolant Vent and the odd melee to prevent overheating.
If you run into too much trouble and want hints with the missions, folks here will be more than happy to help you out. Same with if you're looking for build advice on your mechs or your lance. Have fun! I quite enjoyed the Vanilla campaign.
Medium lasers I have a love/hate relationship with. If you can get a lot of heat mitigation then yeah they own.
I finally started embracing missiles, but I only value them if they are on the heavier side. SRM2s and LRM5s make no sense to use. It's too much weight for too little impact.
SRMs are nice: it doesn't matter which version you get, they all have equal heat/damage per ton. It gets a little bit more of a decision point when you factor in the ammunition, but unlike the LRMs they're nice and even. LRM5s are garbage, it is known.
On the pilot skill training end of things I'm thinking Bulwark is required for almost everyone who isn't a scout / spotter.
Last thought for the night: oh my god the Cicada is like the dumbest mech to exist.
I agree with Orca on mech buildout and you on Bulwark (although we had a lively discussion about it vs. Piloting after the 1.9 balance fixes.)
Jump jets are huge in BT, imo, because positioning is really, really important. It lets you maximize cover, focus fire on one side of a mech, sometimes get in from behind, etc. I'm probably on one end of a spectrum round here for max front armor/jump jets for all, but there you go. So long as BT doesn't limit which mechs I can put JJs in, I'll keep putting them in everywhere. (I used to run LRM boats, and those could get away without them in career. In campaign, there are some missions where you sometimes want your team in a certain place, and JJs are key for that. Since I moved with the game off LRMs and onto headshots for late game shenanigans, all jump jets.)
From a mech company management point of view, you want to get into a system, do the missions you are going to do and get out, doing any repairs and upgrades while in transit to your next system. That's why max armor is so important. Armor is repaired for free and instantly after each mission. As soon as you take damage to internal structure (or worse) that mech is offline for some amount of time. Hovering in orbit doing mech bay work (while sometimes necessary) is expensive. The less you do it the better your finances will be.
On the battlefield, until your pilots get their Tactics up (to the first bonus at 6 and the big one at 9), Called Shot is not usually going to hit the spot you are aiming for. Vigilance is incredibly useful throughout the game, though, and often overlooked. It lets you brace and shoot in a turn - great for your frontliners - and it instantly removes all stability bars. So early on when your wobbly pilots catch a few too many missiles from those Strikers over the ridge, you can reset on your way to stomp them.
EDIT: Oh and in case you don't know (because the tutorial doesn't say), you can eject a pilot (little icon in the lower left when it is your turn) saving the pilot and the mech (at the cost of its head) and you can WITHDRAW from battle altogether instantly at no battlefield penalty (upper right hand corner) although you will take a total/partial payout and reputation hit. Better than losing mechs & pilots!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I don’t think PGI could pull it off though
I'm playing campaign, though I dabbled in career for a bit to get used to and learn some things. But yes in my campaign I do have the big upgrade ship.
Man, I'd kill for that.
I've always been a fan of the idea of missions in which you would randomly encounter other players.
For example;
Let's say in this hypothetical MWO2 you can take randomly generated missions against the AI.
So you take a basic Patrol Mission. Travel between the different points and kill any enemies you come across. Most of the time these would just be AI enemies, but once in awhile the game would match you up against another player who is also doing a Patrol Mission only they are doing it in reverse. Say maybe an 1/8th of the time (for sake of the argument) this might happen.
Or you got a Defend Mission and once in a great while you get matched up with a player who has an Attack Mission for your objective.
I feel like that would add a bit of spice and tension to each mission. Yeah most of the time you are up against AI, but you'll never know for certain if it'll only be AI.
In my head the mission difficulty would correspond to the chance of encountering enemy players.
Level 1 missions would be your standard newbie “defeat the pirates/separatists” with 0% chance of enemy players, while level 10 missions would be planetary invasions that would only launch vs AI if it was taking longer than, say, 5 minutes to fill the opposing team with players.
In-between is where it gets spicy. Is that a player on the other side of a level 5? You won’t know till you lock them.
Vast majority of the time it'd be a normal mission, but once in a blue moon you may be on a patrol and get a transmission, "We claim this world and its contents in the name of Clan Jade Falcon!" and now you need to decide whether you want to beat feet out of there or take on a Clan Star for some sweet, sweet salvage.
As an example, it could be anything.