The current State Of Play

[Buzz_Litebeer]

Yeah, those people are crazy... you use an Owens for that task. 

I see you have played with BlueOrb.

I don't know if BlueOrb has noticed, but I am just legging him now and making his mech fall over so he has to walk back in his battle armor, or I can just type

"MECH ON THE GROUND, MECH ON THE GROUND, YOU LOOKIN LIKE A FOOL WITH YOUR MECH ON THE GROUND'

[(TLL)BlueOrb]

LOL leg away.....fear my Owens =)

In other news KORN may be worth seeing again
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.videos&videoId=105785660#pm_cmp=mce_con_music_bilboard_warped

[Buzz_Litebeer]

I decided to "try out" outright brawling today.

3 deaths later... Maybe I will stick to Novacat.

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

I love's me brawling.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

I love's me brawling.

After brawling last night, I did not do too badly, but one of my goals in a game is simply not to get killed for the entire game.

Period.

Brawling causes too much risk.  Sure you have big guns, and you can get a LOT of kills doing it (I had 11 kills 3 deaths in brawlers) but the risk is too much unless you have a coordinated teammates to work with.

What I find happening when you brawl is that, the better the brawler you are in, the more damage you attract. 

When in a Warhammer I found that people were ignoring me somewhat, and I actually did better in the Warhammer than I did in the Mauler Ac20 or Atlas AC20 versions.

When I was in the Mauler/Atlas people simply put too much fire power against me to accomplish the goals that needed to be done (IE killing enemy mechs).  Now,  if everyone on my team had had maulers/atlas's it would have been different, but from an operational standpoint the Atlas and Mauler are simply too big, too slow, to make the best brawling mechs in an offensive capacity.  I could see them working as a semi static defending mech, or as a part of a much larger force, but as the center of a mixed force of lights, mediums, heavy and assault mechs it is not the best set of mechs to attack with as it just causes too much focused fire.

[ManCowFish]

Talking about trying new things, I tried flying today.

I went from 6 kills to -1

I did manage to land one set of F-bombs on an Awesome just before trying flying by it. Somehow, even though there were 10 meters between us, I still crashed into it and died.
Most of the other times, my mouse ran out of table, and I ate the ground or I crashed into electrical wires
I'm slowly getting better though, after all, I managed to hit that Awesome

[(TLL)KitLightning]

I went from 6 kills to -1

aaah the life of an aero-jock

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

Oh god ya I wouldn't brawl in anything slower than 80 kph without really great fire support.  Go with shadowcat b, then loki c then mcat a I think it is.  Pick and choose your fights and be ready to head for the nearest cover when things get hot.

Honestly the best thing is to get like 2 or 3 others in identical mechs and swarm a lance focus on one mech, kill it and then get out of there. 

[Buzz_Litebeer]

Right, I think that a coordinated set of brawling mechs would be good, but my only remaining teammate that I play with hates brawlers and can't hit anything when he is using autocannons, so I don't have anyone to test any theories I have on the subject.

I may try Brawling again tomorrow.

[(TLL) Zeh]

You'll want to try the MASC Thanny too Buzz.  Talk about a quick-strike brawler.  120kph top speed, DualSRM6 and UAC20, it can really put on a lot of pain and good luck to anyone trying to stop you from getting away (Unless there's an Arrow jockey out there, god I hate those)

[MerfMerf]

But it really is a barn door...
Not very hard to hit. Also, so ugly you feel ashamed the moment you get into it.

/Merf - Have some trouble piloting mechs it considers ugly =/

[SquareSphere]

With 032 I feel like Aero V AA is almost exactly on the sweet spot.  Last night I fielded many air units to see what my life expectancy would be. 

Sparrowhawk, I was always ended up with 1 deep orange part after the first pass.  A second pass w/o repairs would definitely lead to death.

Sulla: with lower top speed, i was soaking up as much damage to drop into either all yellow or 1 part deep orange.  The lower speed + heavier armor gives this fighter about the same survivability as the faster Sparrowhawk.

Hawkmoth:  slower speed but heavy armor.  Loved this now.  If i just hung out and tried to "balloon" i got beat up badly.  However, by piloting aggressively and using passive radar not only did i increase my survivability but it was way more fun.

I'm a very average pilot, ie can provide ground support but can't fbomb or pilot as anti air.

[RenoBlade [GDL]]

one problem i have with staying at max range is movement.
if i dont move, im dead meat.
if i move, i can either try to flank, or charge.
ofc i do not run streight line, but 90° sidemove is not possible on most terrain.
there is either some obstacle, tree/ruin, or some hill stopping my movement, because i cant see it if i walk sideways.
and while moving like this, the targeting is shaking even more up and down.
also the trajectory of ac/ppc is more difficult when moving sideways.

so the best option for shooting these is to get closer and try to get some cover.
but at the end. a low framerate reduces shortrange combat for me to a slide-show of frames where i try to bring in some AC hits.


on the part of the teamplay. i notice often, when i finally get to the battleline and start attacking aswell, my teammates are already dead/moving away.
sometimes i get shot down with 2-3 volleys and didnt see them coming before.

[ManCowFish]

Just tried the Owens today (B i think), and it was AWESOME! I don't know how I got through the early game without it.

It's so fun and quick and does good damage. Only thing I got to worry about is getting legged, or shot in the back, because it takes away your main advantage.

I love rushing heavy mechs and taking off their arms while running just out of their turning speed. Even killed a thanny once.

First time I tried it, my second mech was a Vulture prime, and I got it by trading in my heavily damaged Owens

[KingLeerUK]

I'm feeling quite good about the most recent set of balance changes implemented as of 0.3.2
 
Last night I ran aerospace for a few maps and felt that I was taking as much damage as would be appropriate for the volume of fire being lobbed at me.  I was taken out by AA a few times, but more often than not I was forces to retreat for repairs after only one pass which required a landing.  If I tried to persist for a second pass without repair, I usually died or lost a wing forcing me to scrabble around as a limited BA unit.
 
Turning the tables to play the other role, I ran AA early on in a Sandblasted map (thanks to a kindly 3k donation) and started wiping the skies clean of Hawkmoths and Sparrowhawks very quickly.  I was 6:0 within the first 10 minutes of the map just on aero kills alone.
 
Switching over to the ERPPC Awesome, the revised ammo speed feels perfect (if requiring a little adjustment).  I was able to kill 2 Mediums in the 700-900m range due to them being otherwise occupied, and then put a respectable hurt on an Atlas that came gunning for me.  I ended up losing that toe-to-toe battle, but I expected to.
 
We're getting there!