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Can you guys recommend a new mech for me, something that continues in the same style as the dual ERLaser Raven? I want something medium class that hits a bit harder but still has some quickness. I tend to find the game more enjoyable when its about maneuvering and scouting, picking off lone/wounded targets. Trying to avoid missile builds, as I find them unreliable personally.

Thanks!

Cicada's are the logical step up from a Raven.

Fast, chicken walkers, does the same sort of thing but heavier.
Can do dual ERLL effectively, or a mix of Lasers.
Has an ECM variant, and can go up to 150kph.

AND, if you spend any money on MC between Jan 1 and Oct 6 this year, you'll be getting a free 'Hero' Cicada with Jump Jets too.

Cicadas are awesome and will run a lot like the Raven. My ECM Raven and Cicada are both loaded out with two ER LLs and work well.

Ya, did a bit with the Cicada, was fun but I ended up going back to the Raven. and then moved to a completely different experience from sneaking around and shooting long distance...

After a few games of getting worked over by a pair of nasty Locusts, I took the plunge, bought one and loaded it up with 5 Small Pulse Lasers, a pair in each arm and one center. Now I sneak around and try to get close to the rear of any stragglers and light them up. Stuff melts pretty fast when its point blank. Its also fairly good at grabbing objectives early. That's been a lot of fun, but if I get caught in the open, I die a lot faster then the Raven.

I think I'll stick with light mechs, maybe return to the Cicada for a time, but the slowness of the others seems like a bore to me. Maybe I'll grow into it. I'm also not used to a boatload of weapon options in a battle, I tend to spazz out and heat overload if I have too many options. I have to learn to be patient, I suppose.

The Crab is tiny! Yay!

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
The Crab is tiny! Yay!

It's absurdly tiny XD. Like the Ebon Jag but a medium. It's only slightly larger than the Firestarter and Arctic Cheetah.

That thing is a baby! I can't wait to take it out. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

I have not played my Crabs yet since the medium queue has been too high, but I did make a good build for my loyalty Zeus. 2 AC5s, 3 SRM 6 with art and two MPLs. That srm 18 causes some nice damage.

Really loving it. It has amazingly placed hitboxes. You can use a Standard engine or an XL equally well thanks to them, which opens up so much build and play style variety for the mech. They have decent quirks, a nice profile well placed weapon hard points.

I'd argue the Crab is easily a match for the Stormcrow in the hands of a good pilot.

Plus, it's so teeny tiny!

We're 2-0 as teammates, Overlord!

 nels1031 wrote:
We're 2-0 as teammates, Overlord!

Oh we've met randomly? Cool. I forgot your username so I didn't realize.

I find that it is a definite risk putting a XL on. I'm sticking with standard for now. Had some pretty nice game in it thus far.

Main problem for dealing with a Crow is lack of variation in Hardpoints and lack of hardpoints period. Yes it could deal with a Crow, but if you cloned a man and played him against himself with one in a Crow and the other in a Crab I still think the crow would win

STD Crabs are the way to go.

Been having great fun with mine, as well as the loyalty mechs (got Zeus, Wolverine and Cicada).

FINALLY! FINALLY! I FINALLY WON A CW MATCH AS IS! It's been 20+ matches since my last victory! Which for how little I play CW turns into about all summer. Ugh... finally.... yessssss

If anyone wants to group up and make a Crab lance lead by a King Crab then I can be either

So late last week I got recruited into a unit!

The games is so much more intense and fun when you are part of an organized group on comms. Really changed up how I played, as with PUGs, I'd run off and do my own thing, just harrasing folks with my Locust or sniping with my Raven. I still do that, to some extent, but I'll usually have a wingman or two who will help focus fire with me and tear teams apart piece by piece. Running with veterans of the game is also great for learning new strategies and builds.

 nels1031 wrote:
So late last week I got recruited into a unit!

The games is so much more intense and fun when you are part of an organized group on comms. Really changed up how I played, as with PUGs, I'd run off and do my own thing, just harrasing folks with my Locust or sniping with my Raven. I still do that, to some extent, but I'll usually have a wingman or two who will help focus fire with me and tear teams apart piece by piece. Running with veterans of the game is also great for learning new strategies and builds.

Hey, you allowed to recruit too? I've been looking for a good unit. As long it's IS and not clan

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
So late last week I got recruited into a unit!

The games is so much more intense and fun when you are part of an organized group on comms. Really changed up how I played, as with PUGs, I'd run off and do my own thing, just harrasing folks with my Locust or sniping with my Raven. I still do that, to some extent, but I'll usually have a wingman or two who will help focus fire with me and tear teams apart piece by piece. Running with veterans of the game is also great for learning new strategies and builds.

Hey, you allowed to recruit too? I've been looking for a good unit. As long it's IS and not clan

No, I can't recruit. "Snapmech" was the dude that invited me. Its not super competitive or anything, seems fairly casual, but I haven't played with all the members yet. There's about 90-ish in the unit, with usually a dozen playing when I'm on. Give him a shout, he's a nice dude.

Every game we've played has been the skirmish/conquest maps, where you join at the default screen. No CW stuff so far, if that's what you mean.

Cheesytator is my ingame name.

Also, they strongly recommend having teamspeak, they have a server for it.

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
So late last week I got recruited into a unit!

The games is so much more intense and fun when you are part of an organized group on comms. Really changed up how I played, as with PUGs, I'd run off and do my own thing, just harrasing folks with my Locust or sniping with my Raven. I still do that, to some extent, but I'll usually have a wingman or two who will help focus fire with me and tear teams apart piece by piece. Running with veterans of the game is also great for learning new strategies and builds.

Hey, you allowed to recruit too? I've been looking for a good unit. As long it's IS and not clan

Comstar Irregulars is a fairly sizable group. We don't do exclusively IS, but it is alternating IS / Clan contracts (1 week on, 1 week off I believe)

There are CW drops, and plenty of general drops. The Teamspeak server is pretty big and almost always active with a variety of global players. Last I remember checking we have over 200 members atm.

 nels1031 wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
So late last week I got recruited into a unit!

The games is so much more intense and fun when you are part of an organized group on comms. Really changed up how I played, as with PUGs, I'd run off and do my own thing, just harrasing folks with my Locust or sniping with my Raven. I still do that, to some extent, but I'll usually have a wingman or two who will help focus fire with me and tear teams apart piece by piece. Running with veterans of the game is also great for learning new strategies and builds.

Hey, you allowed to recruit too? I've been looking for a good unit. As long it's IS and not clan

No, I can't recruit. "Snapmech" was the dude that invited me. Its not super competitive or anything, seems fairly casual, but I haven't played with all the members yet. There's about 90-ish in the unit, with usually a dozen playing when I'm on. Give him a shout, he's a nice dude.

Every game we've played has been the skirmish/conquest maps, where you join at the default screen. No CW stuff so far, if that's what you mean.

Cheesytator is my ingame name.

Also, they strongly recommend having teamspeak, they have a server for it.

Well I looked around and your unit is Clan Wolf only. I cannot tell you how much I despise Clan Wolf. Other clans are fine I just can't stand Wolf. The amount of times that Wolves have crushed me in CW is stupid.

As for your unit Ovion, thanks but no thanks. I just don't have a Clan Dropdeck and if I feel like playing some CW during the off week then it's just not worth it.

Just to be totally clear, I do own Clan mechs and plan to buy a few more. But I am a mostly IS pilot. And I intend to stick that way.

Nels, just realize that by joining that unit you CAN NOT use any Ravens or Locusts or any other IS mech in CW. YOu need Clantech like Madcats and Daishis and Hankyus

Thanks anyways guys. But I'll keep browsing

Sorry Overlord/ Ghazzy, group had joined the queue while you were messaging me and it let me type out a message but not send it.

Tier 4, btw.

Sucks that you don't care for the wolf clan. I only picked it because it was my favorite looking logo. We've done 0 CW drops, for what its worth.

For your clan Drop Deck, the Kit Fox/Adder can play similarly to a Raven (though slower).

The Cheetah is the closest you'll get to a Locust but they're still quite different.

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
As for your unit Ovion, thanks but no thanks. I just don't have a Clan Dropdeck and if I feel like playing some CW during the off week then it's just not worth it.

No worries.

I hold no particualr favourites and own plenty of both flavour, so I'm not fussed, but I understand those that are.
You're welcome to come play with Comstar in regular matches without joining too if you like.
I should really start being more active there again myself.

In a match today, someone mentioned that ECMs abilities is getting drastically reduced. Seemed pretty extreme. Where can I find details on stuff like that?

And what do you guys think of the change, if it goes live?

 nels1031 wrote:
In a match today, someone mentioned that ECMs abilities is getting drastically reduced. Seemed pretty extreme. Where can I find details on stuff like that?

And what do you guys think of the change, if it goes live?

Look on their website, the news on the front page details changes they are testing on their Public Test Server.

Bear in mind that these are just proposed changes they want to test out and are by no means final or going live anytime soon.

Some people have a hard time understanding that.

The ECM change is good (of the proposed changes it's about 75% good, 25% stupid imo, but that's PGI *shrugs*).

ECM has been a regular plague to game balance since launch, and particular change I very much like. No more bubble wrapping your team in a neigh impervious barrier.

As a general run down of the changes;

Heat sinks are being reworked. Single HS are still worthless. DHS for IS and Clans are getting a minor bump to their dissipation rate, while Clan HS are getting a nerf to their capacity. Totally unsure how that will play out, but the Ebon Jag and Storm Crow are definitely gonna feel that one (unfortunately I feel my Executioners will as well )

Big change and very good for overall balance; Clan lasers are getting a 40% nerf to their maximum range (optimal remains unchanged). I just wish that at the same time PGI would fix our broken ACs and overly hot SRMs... And maybe fix that hit reg glitch with the ERPPC.

The biggest changes (and the stupid changes imo) are to targeting as PGI blatantly shoves convoluted inforwar mechanics down the player bases throat that will generally make the game even less accessible to new players than it already is. Namely, you won't get a hit ridicule on any target that you don't have locked (will only hurt new players) and lasers start having damage drop off past 60% of their optimal range if you are hitting a target that isn't target locked.

Basically PGI wants to kill the laser meta, but is too lazy to fix the underlying issues that brought it about (ACs and SRMS suck on mechs that can't boat them with super quirks).. Basically, unless drastic changes, expect the IS to go full on Brawl Meta, and the Clans to go back to the PPC Gauss Meta... For general unfunness (#cryingdoomprobablyexaggerating )

nels1031 wrote:In a match today, someone mentioned that ECMs abilities is getting drastically reduced. Seemed pretty extreme. Where can I find details on stuff like that?

And what do you guys think of the change, if it goes live?

The changes are currently being done in the Public Test Server as a 'standalone test', it'll only be one element implemented.

Most of what's proposed is good though - introducing actual role warfare, ECM doing more what it does on TT, rather than magic-jesus-box combining 2-4 different items, that should weigh 3-9T and be from about 10-50 years ahead in timeline.

LordofHats wrote:The ECM change is good (of the proposed changes it's about 75% good, 25% stupid imo, but that's PGI *shrugs*).

ECM has been a regular plague to game balance since launch, and particular change I very much like. No more bubble wrapping your team in a neigh impervious barrier.

Yup, is good.

LordofHats wrote:As a general run down of the changes;
Heat sinks are being reworked. Single HS are still worthless. DHS for IS and Clans are getting a minor bump to their dissipation rate, while Clan HS are getting a nerf to their capacity. Totally unsure how that will play out, but the Ebon Jag and Storm Crow are definitely gonna feel that one (unfortunately I feel my Executioners will as well )

Big change and very good for overall balance; Clan lasers are getting a 40% nerf to their maximum range (optimal remains unchanged). I just wish that at the same time PGI would fix our broken ACs and overly hot SRMs... And maybe fix that hit reg glitch with the ERPPC.

This is great - it means you actually have to adjust for heat and weapons.
Throw in a properly punitive heat scale and remove auto-convergence, and we'll have lowered time to kill, and make it a properly tactical game.

LordofHats wrote:The biggest changes (and the stupid changes imo) are to targeting as PGI blatantly shoves convoluted inforwar mechanics down the player bases throat that will generally make the game even less accessible to new players than it already is. Namely, you won't get a hit ridicule on any target that you don't have locked (will only hurt new players) and lasers start having damage drop off past 60% of their optimal range if you are hitting a target that isn't target locked.

All it needs is to add this info to the tutorial.
The problem is, Mechwarrior is meant to be more complex.
If you want an easy-access generic mech shooter, there's Hawken (which tanked btw, barely clinging to life now).
Dumbing it down and diluting everything out is why we had what we had with IGP, and I am pleased that PGI are angling to bring back things that make Mechwarrior, Mechwarrior / Battletech.

Additionally, 'optimal range' is max range of those weapons on the tabletop.
Nothing should have the double ranges, or everything should.
Imagine how much the game would change with that!? Or if we doubled out Missile Ranges to match!?

Complexity isn't a barrier to new players if it's explained - which with the interactive tutorial now, we should be able to mitigate.
I think it needs to expand with a 'mech construction tutorial', and that everyone should get 1-4 free mechs (on top of their standard mechbays). Maybe make the unsaleable for a time, or give the option of choosing 1 mech out of a pool, which you then run through the basic tutorial for using, allowing you to create a personalised mech, learn the basics, etc.
This would help a lot.

LordofHats wrote:Basically PGI wants to kill the laser meta, but is too lazy to fix the underlying issues that brought it about (ACs and SRMS suck on mechs that can't boat them with super quirks).. Basically, unless drastic changes, expect the IS to go full on Brawl Meta, and the Clans to go back to the PPC Gauss Meta... For general unfunness (#cryingdoomprobablyexaggerating )

And I'll still be sat there with my LBX10 boats going 'what heat?'

My issue is that the game already has an steep learning curve, and the change seems to exist for no reason other than to enforce the new infotech mechanic (because rightfully, veteran players pointed out in the last Rebalance test that target locks have no real effect on those who know what they're doing in the current balance). At the same, time, PGI is using the change to nerf the Laser Meta, which could be easily achieved by simply addressing the fact that lasers are OP (or vice versa, other weapon systems are bad).

It would already take me a few paragraphs to explain the current shooting/targeting mechanics to a new player. Now it'll take two more. The Tutorial is decent as a primer to the game but it might as well be "these are your buttons and what they do." It doesn't teach core concepts like effective Torso Twisting, Positioning, or what I call "proper shooting" (not to mention more advanced techniques like Leg Shielding and JJ Fluttering) These are all a lot harder to learn than people think, and worse than that you can go weeks, months, or even years and never really notice them unless someone takes the trouble to bring them up. Complexity is all well and good, but complexity for complexity's sake is backwards.

I don't understand people sometimes...

River City Assault. Their team heads to the upper city and our team moves to engage. I head around back of them in my Cicada to fire on their rear with my ER PPC.

Once they are committed to the upper city, I head in their base. We are currently up 4-1 so I thought it would apply pressure to them and maybe peel 1 or 2 off. I'm jump sniping their rear still.

Guy on our team says "how about coming to help us fight". I explain what I'm doing and he starts cussing me out and calling me a pussy. I am capping their base and fighting them, why the hate?

We won 12-4 yet some people just gak all over others for playing differently than they would like.

And I see it more and more. People just talk gak about everyone else for any reason. I realise it's the internet but aren't we all playing this game to have fun? It's really killing my enjoyment of the game.

/rant

It's kind of an unfortunate side effect of the Battletech Community, which can be pretty toxic at times (also Assault is just a fairly loathed game mode). You're tactics were solid and it's the same kind of action that a Comp Team would take. Just ignore the idiots. You're using a Cicada. A straight up fight is suicide in that mech.

It's like when people moan I'm not participating in a face-to-face down and out brawl (the simplest goddam 'tactic' ever).

When I'm in a Locust or LRM boat.

Wolfhound and the rest of my Resistance 2 goodies today! Yay!

Looking forward to painting everything in Blood Pact Camo too