Quotable Wednesday version 3.0

“Maybe we can build a fire, sing a couple of songs!” - Carter Burke - Aliens

Last night (Wednesday) was bad ...so bad I wanted to log out. A full group of guys (premade) and we were failed every drop. This guy is waiting for an open spot and chimes in to tell us all what we are doing wrong.

....Now I am not sayign he wasn't right ...mostly he was because he couldn't see what we awere doing but could tell we were failing so he made some suggestions. The problem is was though his approach.
He was an asshole.

We lost a few matches here and there but I would say 12 out of 16 drops were victories after he joined us. Calling out strats and (again) focus firing.

I didn't want to quit because we were losing or because he called out sound strats -- I wanted to quit because of his attitude.

I grew past it and ended up enjoying the night. He is still an asshole.

How to burn a bridge that is already on fire.

I just read a post on the ancient gaming noob about the EA employee that basically dragged out all the inside drama from Warhammer Online explaining how it pretty much was written off as a failure and how pretty much anything to do with that group was failure ...even bleeding off into SWTOR.

Gaming wise Warhammer online was very good, fun, fast paced. Its major flaw was twofold - no good endgame and no third realm. Pointed out among other things:  unrealistic goals, out of touch and lying management, a dramatically over optimistic public spokesperson, and bad marketing.

The most proud accomplishment in SWTOR was voice overs which I admit they were good ..movie quality even. I have never wanted a game to work more ...it kills me it failed. I believe had it been F2P to start with it may not be in its last days. But they spent soooo much money on production the IP is lost.

So here we are in MWO another tabletop, and a well known IP. F2P from the start selling a founders program that has made them over 5 million and the game isn't even in open beta. So far the glitches are worked on weekly. The advertising is not overly promising and they are listening to their testers.

They have great ambitions for things to come. Many, many people in the company are involved in the public.

So what do you guys thing ...are you so caught up in other games you do not know how much time you can invest in MWO or are you going all in?

I am enjoying MWO so much right now its hard to even concentrate on other games.

Tactic Tip 104

Leadership

The action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do.

So many games have been won by someone stepping up to take control ...even a hair-brained scheme different than the normal to turn around a potential loss.

We are down 6 to 8 in mechs
One pilot rallies us together ....go "C" line now to intercept ...everyone return to base to defend they are almost there! Jenner head to enemy base and help me out.
We stop firing on the mech that was heading in the Caldera and spin back towards base.
The leader is missing one arm and one leg of his mech but limping toward their base with one following him.
5 of us arrive back at our base just in time ..and we destroy them standing in our base.
We win as the mech chasing our leader has overheated and is destroyed by the jenner.

Leadership it is not for everyone but you should try it every once in a while ...most groups love to have someone else run the mission once in a while.

Quotable Wednesday Version 2.0

Funboy: "Look what you've done to my sheets."

Last night out of twelve games I lost one. I was running my streakcat and my team made me feel like a rockstar with great tactics.

Reminds me of Funboy's comment to the Crow after being shot with his own gun. He exclaims "Look what you've done to my sheets." The streaks firing down on unsuspecting enemies.

Its fun to beat the crap out of a team; especially a well known premade.

Power to the people?!?!

Unbelievable, PGI reacted after I am sure many meetings and turmoil internally.

They have decided to back off the open beta starting on the 16th. This is huge because "something" happened on Tuesdays patch ...something really, really, bad.

You would be playing along fine (if you did not craash on dropship deployment). The game would suddenly start "rubber banding" and the lag would pretty much end the game. The timer would never go down and you would no longer take damage.

Pilots and testers went to the forums, twitter, facebook, and private messages convinced the management that going open was a horrible move.

I sure would not have wanted to have my head on the chopping block for making the wrong decision. Most of us said it was a bad idea but accepted it. My biggest concern was going open beta and losing contact with a bunch of really good players.

I made a post on the forums ...half in sarcasm, but based in reality about what made so many people choose not to be on voice chat. Many people moaned about my choices (if I had room for 1000 answers it would not have been enough). The answers arent fair, reasonable; it must have been a ragepoll. Seriously a ragepoll? You have got to be trolling it was a serious question ...for people to responded that it was ragepoll or I must be immature ...well you are wrong.

It was legit and sincere; I really wanted to know if it was burn out; physically impossible; solo game play; or what is driving you to not be part of the voice community.

Tactic Tip 103

Flanking

 

 

Last night after patching I load in and Teamspeak is down ...I launch the forums to see what happened ...well they do not know but they are aware it is down. I see post that indicate people have found back up teamspeak servers so I hop onto NGNG's teamspeak ...ahhh friendly faces (names really) and I am welcomed into a group.

 

 

I have never played with some of these guys before; and so it goes you never know how or if you can work with them.

 

When we launch 2 guys crash out. Dammit, now we are down 6 to 8. I am in LRM mode so I am useless without a scout (we lost the only one in the crash). So we try a flanking maneuver (this time it fails because we shoot too early but it was a close game).

 

Someone mentions that on the forum right now there is some issue with lag and people firing on disconnected mechs making the lag worse or staying connected after your mech is destroyed will cause lag. the theories are endless ...bottom line hanging out after you die or are disconnected is bad mojo.

 

So we decide to do flanking for the rest of the night you run on a sideways path toward the enemy base and while they are setting up to receive you you sneak in behind and them and kill them in a worse case you are closer to their base than they are to your base.

 

It worked and the matches were over with us claiming victory 8 times out of the 7 matches I played in.

 

 

Do You Want Original Computer Voice Actress Back

I saw this on the forums. You know "the voice" if you played any MW2 you know this voice all to well. Forum topic

Carole Ruggier

She is an amazing voice actress and I would at this point bet money on her involvement.

 

 



Exciting news because on teamspeak I have heard players playing the dropship sound and voice while we are all "ready"ing up.

It sets the tone and draws you in. Worthy of a new blog post :D

Open Beta begins 10-16 and what does it mean.

Wow  ... I mean we all knew it was happening at some point. Everthing I had read indicated that it was happening on Oct 16th; however, all the people I talked to in voice chat were like "No way, NO WAY will they open beta in the next month or even by the end of the year".

Timeline:
September 21st: PC Gamer cover announced with in game mech skin and bobblehead
October 3rd: NDA dropped and "Take Your Best Shot" contest announced
October 9th: CryEngine upgrade and new trial mech rotation and Open Beta announcement
October 16th: Rest economy and open beta begins and new skins and bobbleheads available.

They have a lot planned ...in fact, too much; in my opinion ...essentially with a F2P game going to open beta is the same as live (with the exception of the knowledge that everything can and probably will be reset again for go live). This is huge news; this will open the gates to noobs and lots of them.

The game on average has about 2500 players with open beta I expect that to triple (between 7 and 10k) at least, at first. Unless MWO fixes in game lounge or chat - pugs will be steamrolled until they hate the game. I remember when many games withheld the population numbers making it seem like they were bigger than they were or maybe to pretend to be smaller. I know while I was playing Warhammer Online there were many statements that if they open too many servers to meet demands then close or merge some it would be a sign of a dying game ...and it did seem to indicate that.

So what do you think? Do you think this is too soon? Do you think this is a huge mistake or one they had to do to grasp the momentum they have been working on?

BTW: Check out my video that I submitted for the contest. It is dubstep so if you hate that then just mute it. I would like more feedback.

Quotable Wednesday version 1.0

“I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid.” -Ender Wiggin
- Ender's Game

It is vitally important in the beta of  MechWarrior Online to try new techniques. The more people playing (especially in premades) the more important to try crazy tactics like capping the base instead of trying to out gun the enemy.
I have loaded into a match which should have been 8 vs 8 and have 4 in my team crash so now we have a 4vs8. We can try to take them out strategically but we cannot account for the 4 that ran directly to our base. We lost ...not due to pilot error; we lost to numbers. We killed the 4 and they capped our base with 4. We could have left one behind to guard but we just didn't have the resources.

Targeting IRL

I played a little over the weekend not a much as I would have liked.

I noticed traffic was light on the way in to work. My wife and the ads in my inbox reminded it was Columbus Day. I just thought I was early to work lol.

Anyway I think I have been playing TOO much. I have noticed myself trying to acquire information about cars, people, pretty much everything.

I have heard some of the other pilots talking about seeing rectiles even outside of game so its not a rare occurance but its funny how you start viewing your world.

It is great being able to acquire information on potiental targets quickly. The scouts make the difference for the LRMs; while you will see otehrs zoomed all the way in to pick a mech apart with unlimited long range weapons like gauss or AC/10s. It is amazing to see a mech explode from a long way off.

 

I have started posting my videos up on youtube. Let me know what you think and subscrieb and leave comments.

 

Mechdaddy Youtube link.



PC Gamer Magazine Code for MWO

So I got 2 issues of PC Gamer with the free mech skin and dash bobblehead for your mech. I decided I would give one away in some sort of contest ...people love contest! (right?)

So if you guys would like comment on this post and I will randomly draw a winner.

The skin and bobblehead are available in game OCT 16th although the code can be applied now.  The skin will be appliable to all your mechs and the bobblehead will be on your mech dash so you can see it and once others on your team die they will be able to watch it bobble while you continue to pwn other mechs!

The magazine is 9$ at news stands and $1.66 if you have a subscription. So if anyone is reading this that is NOT going to play please email me your code and I will have more to give away. If you want to be recognized as contributing I will refer traffic to you.

Mechpron: 50 Shades of Red

So 2011 was the year of an independent fan based story that got published ...it was supposed to be what Twilight SHOULD have been like - the level of sex that women who read it craved ...at least that is what I understood.
I read it ...I read a lot. This book was horrible and painful to get through the writing is really, really, really, bad. I think the hype about a naughty book got spread like a virus and women who don't normally read stuff like it got swept up in it and so it became this huge best seller.
Imagine fans taking the Aragorn and  Arwen changing the names but making it all about sex.

Anyway ...the writing is bad. I would say "don't read it" but the fact is if you do we can make more fun of it together.

Saturday Night Live - Fifty Shades of Grey by BigBlueBruiser

So here is what I wanted to post ...the writing is so bad. I copied a snippet and made my spin on fan fiction fiction:

...Eighteen shots in total. My mech is shaking, shaking from his merciless assault.
"Enough," The altas breathes hoarsely. "Well done, tigerspit. Now I'm going to fuck you."
He flames my behind gently, and it burns as he circles me round and round and down. Suddenly, he inserts two gauss in my legs, taking my mech completely by surprise. I gasp, this new assault breaking through the numbness around my cockpit.
"Feel this. See how much your mech likes this, tigerspit. You're smoking just for me."
There is awe in his voice. He moves through the enemy base, in and out, in quick succession.
I groan, no surely not, and then his gauss are gone...and I'm left wanting.
"Next time, I will get you to countdown. Now where's that jenner?"

Tactic Tip 102

Fridays, I have decided will mainly be about a tactic.

Todays Tactic is:

FOCUS FIRE



(this is not what I mean)

FF is a proven tactic to win. A scout will target an enemy mech (we now have narc and tag) and the whole team commences targeting that one mech until it is dead. It works very well on that target rocking it back and forth keeping it lost in a barrage of lasers, missiles it is quite glorious.

NARC - is a no damage missile beacon that is placed on an enemy mech that will call missiles to it. It does not require LoS (line of sight)
TAG - is a laser shot and held on by a scout that directs missiles and assist with faster locks causing MORE missiles to strike a target. TAG requires LoS.

Focus fire requires that you listen and assist in killing one mech even if you are getting hit from elsewhere.


That is it for today.

Shoutouts to MWO players

I would like to take sometime to shout to players I have had the pleasure of working with:
When I first joined the beta I played 4 matches in pugs and was both overwhelmed and excited. I cannot even remember if I won or lost. I ordered a joystick that night.

These are in alpha order

Agent of Change
Bladewarrior
Deathstalker13
Doomie77
Eco
FSxHunter
leatherneck
McLulzypants
Mercules
Norrin
Nufsed
One Medic Army
Prohet of Entropy
RRRWAR
SCooBY XI
Sabrea
SiSoB Nightwish
SpinFX
TehCable
The Anger
The Echo Inside
TheGeek
TheShadowWalker
Thunderhart
TripnFall
USMC Iceman
Warz
Werk
Wired
Zeplin

I went to the forums and read about a place to learn the game mechanics better and try out other mechs ...a teamspeak server setup by PGI for communicating with devs and other players.
This is what HOOKED me into the game ...the gaming experience is just magnitudes better with team communications. The problem became one of support for PGI which led to scrambling on the parts of teams and players to find a replacement. The replacement became the new unofficial MWO teamspeak server.
The in game voice tool is vivox's C3 it is new and in beta ...its horrible. We hates it. Now, understand something I have been using vivox in EQ2 for years and honestly its so easy and kick ass its not worth running a separate application. Maybe this will change once MWO is close to release but right now the unofficial teamspeak server is where its at.

Terms 101

Common Gaming Terms
Zerg = from Starcraft 2 - there was a technique (very effective) of sending in the smallest fastest swarm of creatures to destroy an opposing team. Zerg were the "alien" like species the zerglings were like face huggers. You would send in as many as you could and zerg the base. If you did not send enough or you waited to long the opposing side would win due to the fact that you had exhausted all your resources on creating the zerg.

Goon = basically it is an unholy alliance of:

1. new players
2. people with no skill
3. throwing together ridiculous builds at any cost to win
4. One of their mottos is "every ship counts" it has a feel good approach but the truth is you become the personal army of peopel that can ruin a game

Many member are from the somethingawful forums. I recommend you stay away and leave them alone.
Eve Wiki

Noob = someone new to a game or someone who does not take the time to learn to play
L2P = You are execpted to know what  your role is and not make an idiot of  yourself. Accept constructive critizism.
PUG = Pick up group, AKA a team of random players without direct communication.

GLHF = good luck have fun (seems to be common phrase posted before the mechs are released) I also believe it may indicate you are up against a premade that has been having fun killing pugs.


MechWarrior Specific
LRM = Long range missles
SRM = Short range missles
CAP = Standing in the opposing teams base to win instead of killing
Legging = Taking out the leg of another mech to disable them.
BennyHilling = is chasing a scout like it is the last target on the planet ...typically out into the open or into a trap.

MWO contest

In game video:
This is extremely cool footage ...when I saw the twitter post I could not believe MWO had allowed it ...it seemed to break the NDA ...come to find out MWO had started a contest to post in game screenshots and video as the surpirse to dropping the NDA.

The only flaw with the footage is the game does not seem to be as high quality (even in 1080p) as it is when I play. The spectator mode is hugely fun though with the NGNG guys providing color commentary (you cannot hear the team communications).

This is a match video created by the "No guts, no galaxy" podcast guys.



Run Hot or Die Clan Playoff - Round 1

Run Hot or Die Clan Playoff - Round 2

Personally, I believe the NDA needed to be dropped; especially at the rate they were allowing people into the beta now. HOWEVER, they should have included the community a little more it kind of stings that they just dropped it randomly and did not make a production out of it.

NDA lifted

Big news the NDA is removed.

http://mwomercs.com/news/2012/10/466-take-your-best-shot

Quotable Wednesday's Verison 0.1

If you happen to catch yesterdays post I was thinking about adding battletech history and info.

I have decided to make Wednesday a qay where I quote a clip from a book or movie that I think can apply to gaming (especially from a strategy standpoint).

Today's Quote:

"You want to learn the first rule you'd know if you ever spent a day in your life...you never open your mouth till you know what the shot is."

This quote is directed at a manager ...the manager was promoted over other way more expeirence people becuse of someone he knew.
How does this apply to gaming? Don't take for granted the knowledgeable people around you unless you know what the shot is if you are talking you are not listening to the plan. You are worse than the enemy.

Battletech 101: Inner Sphere and the Houses

I can't even imagine jumping into a game with super rich lore and history and being expected to stay because of that content. It is just too much to ask for a casual player.

WoW is kind of an exception because so much of it became mainstream ...but still new people jumping in are doing so to play with friends or family ...I highly doubt they care about the lore or background story.

I am thinking about starting a Tuesday blog discussing components which hopefully will be interesting enough to draw more people in and show the reasons to play besides "blowing up some bitches".

Years ago; to get anyone off my back when I was on my way to my office to start gaming I would tell my family "Well, I guess I am off to save the world (or universe)" they would laugh because they knew I was off to gaming ....but the side note here is I was playing a game which is persistent with people from all over the world ----I don't know about you but that is just damn cool to me.

Now I do not know a lot about Battletech or MechWarrior ...I played Mechwarrior 2 and fell in love with piloting a huge mech and I said I am not interested in playing any new games unless someone does a battlemech type game. Fast forward 5 years later and here we go.

MWO timeline: We are currently in 3049 during Mechwarrior Online. Basically Humans have moved beyond the solar system; achieved FTL (faster than light) and splintered into feudal territories which each believes to be theirs.

What is the Star League?
The brainchild of Ian Cameron, the Star League was a self-policing interstellar council formed from the Terran Hegemony, the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere, and the Territorial States of the Periphery. Each of the States of the Star League was required to provide soldiers and war materiel for the mutual protection of the Star League Defense Force, but otherwise was allowed to maintain its own standing army, and even conduct (rare) small-scale wars. Though not completely stable, the relative peace, prosperity, and advanced technology of the Star League have led many to consider the Star League as the zenith of human civilization.

What is Inner Sphere?
The Inner Sphere is a region of interstellar space surrounding Terra to a radius of roughly 450 - 550 light-years, generally demarcated by the outer borders of the "Great Houses." Within this region of about 2 million stars, there are approximately 2000 inhabited planets. Beyond the Inner Sphere is the Periphery.

What is Terra?
Terra is Earth.

What are Houses?
The sundering of the Star League, followed by centuries of Succession Wars, brought about five large nations known as the Successor States (called so because they were controlled by bloodlines). These are feudal realms, modeled after stereotypical cultural templates. They collectively comprise the Inner Sphere. Numerous other factions came and went over the course of the perpetual conflicts. The most notable and long-standing BT factions are:
 House Davion, House Liao, House Marik, House Steiner and House Kurita

What is Lostech?
It is Lost Technology - technological advances and knowledge that existed during the Star League era, but which were lost in the Succession Wars that followed