# Mechwarrior online **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 24, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165 "2012-06-24T18:34:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/41 "2012-11-09T19:35:43Z")
I’ve been playing more. Concentrating on modded Centurians so far. I have noticed that some people “disconnect” while the battle is still going on. I assume that some of these are people who got their mech shot out from underneath themselves. Do they disconnect so that their “kill/death” ratios don’t reflect any losses? Is there any reason to hang around in spectator mode? I was in spectator mode, and was treated with a five minute show of one of my teammates apparently Away From Keyboard. (His mech was reporting that the throttle was at 50kph, but he was held in place “face first” against an unscalable cliff!) 😕 He had zero damage on his Catapult, and no enemy ever found him. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/42 "2012-11-09T20:02:39Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I’ve been playing more. Concentrating on modded Centurians so far. > > I have noticed that some people “disconnect” while the battle is still going on. I assume that some of these are people who got their mech shot out from underneath themselves. > > Do they disconnect so that their “kill/death” ratios don’t reflect any losses? > > Is there any reason to hang around in spectator mode? > > I was in spectator mode, and was treated with a five minute show of one of my teammates apparently Away From Keyboard. (His mech was reporting that the throttle was at 50kph, but he was held in place “face first” against an unscalable cliff!) 😕 He had zero damage on his Catapult, and no enemy ever found him. There are arrow keys next to the words “Spectator Mode” on your screen, by clicking on them on your mouse you can shift from one active player to another. The only reason I can think of to stay in Spectator mode is that it allows you to study tactics and strategy of other players, often better ones. I only play an hour or two a day, so I am not in league with the guys who spend six or more hours a day at it, as some of them clearly do. Much to learn. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/43 "2012-11-09T20:05:10Z")
did anyone notice, two days ago, every match I was in the LRM boats were jsut killing everyone, I mean, basically it was a missile firing contest with very little maneuvering and strategy. Then they ran a patch yesterday and things were less missile-intensive. I’m wondering if the previous patch buffed up the LRM’s effectiveness too much and they put in a new patch yesterday to even things out. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/44 "2012-11-09T20:07:38Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Yeah, the first thing I did was to remap the controls to be as much like the setup I have for WoW/LoTRO/STO/Rift/KOTOR. 🙂 But like you said, in the other games, when you stop depressing the forward key in those games, your movement stops, but not in Mechwarrior Online. > > In my second fight, I got ganged up on by three Jenners in River City. I thought I got some hits in on one of them, but the match scorecard said I scored zero damage. Bah. Those things are like a little pack of Pirahnas. They must have been snickering at my clumsy movement. 🙂 > > Despite having LRMs on the Awesome[Trial Variant], I still havent fired them yet. By the time I see enemies, they are too close for that. > > Maybe I should move down to either the Dragon or the Centurion, see if I do any better. (So far, it appears that there is no cost/fee for repairing the trial mechs.) But with almost double the top speed of the assault mech, I am afraid that I will be too busy trying to unfuck my piloting/movement errors to get off any shots at the enemy. ☹ The way you use the LRMs is, as soon as a yellow triangle blips up on your radar, you hit “R” (i’ve remapped that to space bar since I have no jump jets and I use it a lot) then wait til you get the red square cursor, then line your sights up on that and fire your missiles. Don’t have to actually see the mech for that, he can be behind hills and so forth and you’ll still hit him. When the LRM efficiency was boosted the other day, I got two kills on Mechs I never saw. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/45 "2012-11-09T21:07:39Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > There are arrow keys next to the words “Spectator Mode” on your screen, by clicking on them on your mouse you can shift from one active player to another. The only reason I can think of to stay in Spectator mode is that it allows you to study tactics and strategy of other players, often better ones. I only play an hour or two a day, so I am not in league with the guys who spend six or more hours a day at it, as some of them clearly do. Much to learn. Thanks. I tried clicking on those, but nothing happens. I’ll check my settings. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/46 "2012-11-09T21:30:02Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Thanks. I tried clicking on those, but nothing happens. I’ll check my settings. If that happens, it may mean there is only one active player left. I am generally downed earlier enough to have PLENTY of active players to spectate. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/47 "2012-11-13T21:16:47Z")
Yet more confusing behavior from players. “Forest Colony” map, we just begin, and all are still standing at their “start” positions. The teammate next to me (he’s in an Awesome) turns his torso, and hits me in the head and right torso with PPC shots. WTF?? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/48 "2012-11-16T17:35:21Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > Yet more confusing behavior from players. > > “Forest Colony” map, we just begin, and all are still standing at their “start” positions. > > The teammate next to me (he’s in an Awesome) turns his torso, and hits me in the head and right torso with PPC shots. WTF?? I’ve read about this on the forums, apparently some guys do what they call “alt-tabbing” when the match begins, and causes them to fire randomly and sometimes hit allies. Does not make much sense to me. Some guys also deliberately kill allies to improve their kill/death ratio. I did not even know I had a kill/death ratio, clearly I need to kill a LOT of allies. However, this technique may backfire as people tend to notice and target you for killing when you show up in a game opposite them. ---
**Author:** ![Miltonyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Miltonyz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miltonyz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/49 "2012-11-19T06:21:33Z")
The thought of Mechwarrior Online finally pushed me over the edge into fixing up my computer and doing some PC gaming. I’m liking it so far, I’m mostly using the catapult right now. Im a little out of practice for mechwarrior, and way out of practice with the mouse keyboard setup, so using a LRM mech seems to be my current best strategy. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/50 "2012-11-19T16:45:37Z")
While waiting for another game to download an update, I cruised on over to the MWO forums. There seems to be a little bit of drama over LRM’s. Did they get nerfed? ---
**Author:** ![ed\_anger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbce88/32.png) [@ed\_anger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ed_anger)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/51 "2012-11-19T16:50:47Z")
> [@BunnyTVS](#): > > I’ve been playing for the last month, but I don’t think I’ll continue much longer, it’s a typical F2P/Pay2Win grindfest so far. In-game purchases are made with either Credits (the real money option) or Cbills (awarded after each game).For a starting player a win gets you a little over 100K in Cbills, a loss gets you around 70K, depending on the damage and kills you cause. If you sub you get a bonus multiplier to these values. > > The Trial mechs that are free to use have frankly _meh_ weapon set-ups. All a mix of some long/some short armaments. To get a half decent starter mech costs around 4-5 million Cbills (there are cheaper mechs, but they are more suited for experienced pilots). So unless you are paying, you’re gonna need at least 40 matches under your belt before you can create a custom mech. > > This is then compunded by two more limitations, garage slots and experience. You can (currently) only own 4 mechs at a time without paying real money, and there is no way to sell a mech you own to free up space or credits for a new purchase. Experience falls into 2 types, Mech XP and Pilot XP. Mech XP can be used to enhance certain features of your ride, eg turn rate and heat build-up. To get anything other than the basic levels requires you to own at least 3 different versions of the same mech. So a F2Player will only be able to specialize in one model of Mech. it’s basically World of Tanks with mechs, just much fewer mechs, maps and game modes. the F2P model is based almost completely on WoT, and the gameplay isn’t far off. fyi you can level up your 3 variations of a mech, and then sell the two (or three) you don’t want to keep and move on to another mech. ---
**Author:** ![Miltonyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Miltonyz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miltonyz)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/52 "2012-11-21T16:36:05Z")
I think LRM are a little underpowered. At first I was blasting them at max range and getting almost no damage. I think the long travel time allowed other mechs time to hide. Firing inside of 600 meters have increased their power a bit. I’ve actually moved on to playing the cicada trial mech right now. I find the maneuverability and ability to choose when and where combat takes place is a huge advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/53 "2012-11-22T12:24:09Z")
LRMs at one time were kind of ruining the game … they could hit you with unending salvoes of them and wipe you out, the only answer is to power down but if you are engaged with other mechs they just shoot you while you are powered down. They’ve fixed that, not sure if they went to far in the nerf direction or not. Right now I’m thinking Jenners are kind of overpowered. They’re fast, they pack a wallop, and they are surprisingly hard to down. I’ve seen a lot of Atlases and Awesomes go down to a Jenner that was just dancing around them. Only way to take them down it seems is to have multiple mechs firing at them … can’t avoid all the incoming. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/54 "2012-11-22T12:26:46Z")
> [@ed\_anger](#): > > it’s basically World of Tanks with mechs, just much fewer mechs, maps and game modes. the F2P model is based almost completely on WoT, and the gameplay isn’t far off. > > fyi you can level up your 3 variations of a mech, and then sell the two (or three) you don’t want to keep and move on to another mech. I dunno. Mechwarrior preceded WoT by many years. (Initially got hooked on Mechwarrior 2). The gameplay is very much like Mechwarrior 3 and 4. Maybe WoT is based on Mechwarrior … ---
**Author:** ![Miltonyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Miltonyz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miltonyz)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/55 "2012-11-22T19:22:07Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > LRMs at one time were kind of ruining the game … they could hit you with unending salvoes of them and wipe you out, the only answer is to power down but if you are engaged with other mechs they just shoot you while you are powered down. They’ve fixed that, not sure if they went to far in the nerf direction or not. Right now I’m thinking Jenners are kind of overpowered. They’re fast, they pack a wallop, and they are surprisingly hard to down. I’ve seen a lot of Atlases and Awesomes go down to a Jenner that was just dancing around them. Only way to take them down it seems is to have multiple mechs firing at them … can’t avoid all the incoming. Yeah I could see that, they should be kind of weak because they are so easy to use. They are fairly easy to avoid though in my experience. I usually try to keep a ridge or structure between myself and where I think LRM boats will be. There is a lot to talk online of Jenners being to hard to hit. The game is a little laggy making a clean shot on a fast mech rough. I have one get on my back shoulder as an Atlas and could not rotate fast to hit him back. After that I never went off alone with my atlas. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/56 "2012-11-24T01:46:43Z")
> [@ed\_anger](#): > > it’s basically World of Tanks with mechs, just much fewer mechs, maps and game modes. the F2P model is based almost completely on WoT, and the gameplay isn’t far off. WoT has far more “Pay to win” than MWO… There is no “premium ammo” with better armor penetration. All mech variants so far are available to everyone as opposed to the WoT lots of “premium only” vehicles. All the paid players get so far, it faster access to the same toys everyone else has available. ---
**Author:** ![Miltonyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Miltonyz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miltonyz)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/57 "2012-11-24T17:29:10Z")
I keep loving this game more and more. I finally saved up enough Cbills to buy a Hunchback and this mech is great. I have two ultra ac5s and 2 medium lasers right now. It has suprisingly strong armor for a medium mech and with my loadout packs a decent punch. Im not dropping atlas mech s but anything south of that takes a beating. My skill is not yet there but its coming. I think when I can afford double heat sinks Im going to trade some leg armor for an extra medium laser to give me a little extra firepower when i run out of ac5 ammo. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/58 "2012-11-26T15:25:12Z")
> [@Miltonyz](#): > > Yeah I could see that, they should be kind of weak because they are so easy to use. They are fairly easy to avoid though in my experience. I usually try to keep a ridge or structure between myself and where I think LRM boats will be. There is a lot to talk online of Jenners being to hard to hit. The game is a little laggy making a clean shot on a fast mech rough. I have one get on my back shoulder as an Atlas and could not rotate fast to hit him back. After that I never went off alone with my atlas. I end up putting my back to a cliff or building, so that all they get are shots at my front. Frustratingly tough to hit them back, though. ---
**Author:** ![Miltonyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Miltonyz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miltonyz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/59 "2012-12-12T17:30:26Z")
Anyone still playing? I broke down and bought a Murmet for the premium bonus. It helped me finally finish upgrading my newest Hunchback quicker. So far I have used a G version listed above. I used the Hunchback P variant as a pure laser boat and now Im rocking an Sp with Srms and medium lasers. The Sp build is probably my favorite even though in my best games my laser boat did more damage. Little guys are still to hard to hit, and I think the ecm is extremely overpowered. The ecm being OP means that a lot of matches turn into close range brawls which actually helps my build the game feels less strategic though. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165/60 "2012-12-12T18:20:46Z")
I am still running my Dragon variant, it’s very fast at 81 kpm and a nice brawler with SRMs, an autocannon and some lasers. I tried stripping some armor off to add more weapons … bad idea! I kept getting nailed with just two or three shots. I put the armor back on and am able to hold my own with some of the bigger mechs long enough to evade them and shoot them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mechwarrior-online/626165.md?page=4)