Agreed. A Jenner should have trouble with such firepower. You'd probably have to dial it back to Small Lasers, which seems about right to me when you're maxing out speed.
It is a lot of firepower in comparison to stock lights and mediums, but that's more to do with the tabletop designs (which have been more or less faithfully ported) being deliberately awful than the Jenner being extremely strong. Though the Jenner is strong, no doubt. I mean, even pretty strong tabletop fits (stock Timberwolf Prime, say) have choices that are clearly sub-optimal. Two LRMs, cool, two PPC equivalents, cool, a couple medium lasers, great, and then two...machine...guns? Why, so more ammo can explode and you can mount a couple fewer heatsinks? Cool! Or to take MWO-relevant example, it's not as though the guys who designed the dragon didn't realize it had hilariously little firepower for a 65 ton machine. Really I'd diagnose the problem as being that they ported the awful designs and then made it possible to go make munchie designs out of the awfulness if only you grind some C-Bills. Anyway, mostly I'm just whining that I didn't realize I was OP and am not looking forward to eventually being brought into line, saddest of all faces.
You know, what they could easily do, is just take whatever mech config for each class has the most wins for the week, and make that a trial mech for the week. Still wouldn't be that much fun, as new players get zero exposure to the customization, which is the main unique aspect of MWO compared to other games, but at least their mechs wouldn't suck as much. And once the developers implemented this, they wouldn't need to update the trial mech configs, the community would basically be doing it for them. So you don't get weirdness like with LoL and it's default Guides that end up being hilariously awful. I wonder how smart they've been with their data collection, after adding all the hooks for a game, I've come to realize their is an absolutely amazing amount of data available to online game developers.
Ah, sweet sweet tears! ;-) The (I'm presuming pending) 6 heatsink drop will hit other mechs too. And really, the firepower you're packing there is only slightly less than a well designed 50 ton mech, with 9/14th your top speed and a much larger hitbox (the scale on Jenners and Commandos is way off). Besides, you should gain (sustained) fire power when you drop to Small Lasers; sure you'll lose the mid range, but you can so easily close the distance that matters little. And really, the Jenner was good even before they added double heat sinks, removed knockdowns, and nerfed Streaks.
I know a lot of people stick with medium lasers out of tradition, but if you're piloting a jenner, it's better to boat with small lasers. With DHS, you can spam your lasers for a long time before you get even close to overheating. Your speed makes it very easy to run circles around assaults picking off limbs or coring them through the back.
I would think you'd want medium lasers. A light mech is not generally doing sustained fire, it is doing opportunity fire and so a high alpha strike is desirable. If you do need to do sustained fire you can fire smaller groups or chain fire, and from a greater effective range also.
Depends on the situation. If you can break someone off for one on one, which you generally can if you pick your moment well, it's better to stick in close for sustained fire: - Harder for them to hit you -- much easier to target a light mech at 200m. - The longer sight lines needed for Medium Laser use mean you can potentially be seen by more opponents. - You can often stick behind slower mechs where they can't hit you at all. - You can finish off targets faster, before help arrives or they run to their teammates.
I prefer Mediums personally, because I like the range. However I do think SLas are better for a Jenner overall. You manage heat better, and with a max speed Jenner you can easily keep in range, hit constantly from all angles while out-running most mech's torso twist speed then vanish behind cover or another mech and repeat. Especially until knockdown is back in, up close is where you want to be.
Mediums certainly have the edge for moment, considering the free and unadvertised 6 extra engine sinks you get from DHS.
I actually think the problem with the Dragon isn't that the designers were idiots (well, okay, JUST idiots) so much as it is that the DRG-1C is a tech level 1 mech, and all the long-range options for level 1 mechs are awful. I mean, what are you going to compare it to? The Jagermech? The 1N actually makes less sense because if you're no longer insisting on range 24 (using the AC/5), there's no real reason not to just use a PPC instead. Far more egregious to me is the decision to place ammo by itself in the right torso, meaning that ANY critical hit on that section is guaranteed to instantly destroy you, and a critical on the left torso has a 2 in 3 chance of the same (padded by one medium laser). (Well, okay, the Catapult is actually fairly decent.)
So I don't hear anybody going on about the latest kurfluffle over on the official forums, to wit, a dev announcing the intent to add 3rd person view to the game in the near future. My view? Against it. Thoughts?
Against it. The game was designed on a first-person foundation. Aiming in 3rd-person is different from aiming in 1st because it's based on a plane that exists within the cockpit. By changing perspective, you'll get people either shooting through hills or shooting into hills due to poor perspective. Both outcomes are detrimental to gameplay. It also allows people to see around obstacles much easier, making tactical maneuvering harder than it already is, which pushes the game closer to MW4s problems where the effect of pilot skill is minimized and optimized loadouts are that much more important. Thankfully, MWO doesn't have sticky lasers, so it won't be quite as bad.
! for the record I'm very against 3rd person view. Seeing over and around things in that view is an unfair advantage. Part of the fun for me is the various different views and immersion on the cockpits
I'm mostly against 3rd person, as I like the limited view. On the other hand the dearth of sensor data is pretty weird, and it makes a certain amount of sense if you think of 3rd person perspective as representing things like acoustic sensors listening for mechsteps or cheap cameras placed remotely and/or extended on booms. Still wish they'd add a review mirror instead though.
If you look at some of the developer comments and leaked info about modules, there is a LOT of sensor related modules coming eventually. Also mech equipment like the beagle active probe has yet to make an appearance. Agreed about rear view. It should just be in, along with rear mounted weapons.
Dual AC-20 K2 is wonderful, wonderful fun. So far it seems to be more of a "win harder" fit, in that it's been best when my team has been winning anyway and I haven't been able to do much about team collapses with it. I doubt it's optimal, but I don't care that much because: two AC-20s. The sense of glee I experience when a light mech that's harrying one of my teammates is unaware of me and slows down for a better shot? Oh, so worth it. Had a couple matches tonight (er, this morning. Shut up) in which my Jenner had the most damage on my team by a couple hundred points. Was also on the receiving end of one of those matches, and saw a Commando that gave a similar performance. People don't pay nearly enough attention to light mechs. I expect that'll change as the playerbase becomes more experienced, but until then... Oh, and if they introduce the Clans and players get to stick five SSRM-6s on one machine, well, that'll be it for lights. It'll be interesting to see what they do about the Clans, since it's unlikely they won't go there (eventually, anyway).
In a game primarily about individual piloting, Clan tech is just a stupidly large advantage. As I understand it, the tabletop system never did manage to balance it. Of the solutions they have any real chance of trying, I think the most plausible one is to make teams be either entirely IS or entirely Clan and make the Clan teams much smaller.
Yeah, I've been saving my GXP waiting for them to release a wider selection (Tuesday I think?), but so far I've been nonplussed. Maybe the PiP 4x zoom would be ok, if they fix the pixelation? I mean, sure, they're all obviously useful... but they're just so tepid. Oh? Would you actually use rear mounted weapons? I never quite saw the point, even if you could somehow aim them. Or, wait a sec, not that I think about it I can totally see the point -- if you can mount all your weapons backwards...
I used them in the old MPBT 3025 well enough. rear view cam button had a reticle and you aimed at the stuff behind you. That game had movement and turning about half as fast as MWO so if you're in a heavy or assault, lights getting behind you was a serious problem. I had kills in an Atlas against Javelins that were entirely made with my rear medium lasers.
I'm not a fan of third person either. It baffles me how people can play games like battlefield and the like and not know how tanks drive. Mechs drive almost the exact same way. But according to a dev, people really are that retarded without a visual aid. I can understand trying to reach a broader market, but sometimes they reach into places that reminds us of humanity's propensity to be stupid. Also, I'm thinking I should update the OP soon.
So I'm just getting into it, trial mechs only so far. What's a good starter mech/fit for me to aim for?
The throttle makes a huge difference. Beyond that, nobody tries to circle strafe in BF3, and the folks who circle strafe in WoT are almost certainly using third person.
I use first person when I circle strafe in WoT, or else I end up unable to shoot the soft bits on the tank I'm circling more often than not.
I don't know. I find using first person while maneuvering in WoT a good way to get yourself killed. I think the best way to do it is to do most of your movement in third person and snap to first when shooting.
That's what I frequently do, but if I don't directly aim when circle strafing I often bounce off turrets instead of hitting the soft rear portion of side hull.
I can't decide if that video makes me like the game more or less. I like that you can choose to do something silly, but then he also spends more time overheated than doing anything else. The whole heat unbalance on top of nerfing DHS to make it more unbalanced doesn't inspire any confidence in the devs for me. I am in support of third person view, assuming they do it something like WoT. It lets you wander around with a better feel for where you are and what you are doing, but the accuracy isn't great and if you want to properly aim and shoot people you go to first person. At point blank range you can get away with firing randomly into someone in 3rd, but if you want to hit a weak point you still have to go back to 1st. Of course even after getting used to it I still think MWO's throttle system sucks compared to WoT's, so I don't have any great hopes of them doing it right.
If overheating presented a meltdown or exploding-engine risk, people would be less likely to abuse it like that guy did. There should be a chance- however small- that every time you go into a forced shutdown, you don't come back out of it. Or some electronics are cooked beyond immediate recovery.
I would agree with that if you could actually fire lasers more than two or three times without overheating. As it stands I have been told that you do actually take minor damage from being super overheated. Dunno if it's true or not because the game is terrible at telling you such things.
I think they're right in judging that some people have a hard time getting started, just wrong about the reasons. What they really need is some sort of really simple offline mode, e.g. a target range, where you can practice a bit before getting stuffed into a match without even being able to test your keybinds first.
A 40 ton mech carrying 4 ERPPC's should shutdown as much or more than he did imo. You can blow up easily if you fire the 4, shutdown, hit override, then fire again fwiw
If you want to play light mechs a Jenner is a good -- but note that the way XP works (you need to fill 3 models through Basic to unlock Elite) you're then pushed into playing more Jenners for some time. Hunchbacks and Centurions only cost half a million or so more though, so if you don't want something zippy I'd get one of those. If you take into account a Jenner really wants a 300XL engine (pricey at 4.9 million!) they're actually cheaper to get started too... Personally, I'd go with a Laser Hunchback (P).
This is so true. Even the most basic tutorial would be welcome. Hell, right now you can't even *set* your keybinds before combat starts, much less test them.
