Teaching MWO

Scenario: You have a friend who wants to play MWO and wants help learning the ropes. They don't have any experience with the genre whatsoever. And they aren't sure what 'mech they would want to use or what role to fill. How do you help them?

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My wife is attempting to learn how to play the game but I find myself unable to communicate the finer points without rambling for hours and giving her way too much information. I'm considering installing MW4 and giving her that to play with just so she has a single-player way to learn the bare basics.

 

lol, good luck with that.

 

Personally, when I had a friend start playing who had never played any shooters at all, let alone a Mechwarrior series, I gave them a Jag to start. My thinking was that without fully actuated arms, the aiming becomes much easier. Moreover, you'll have arm mounted ballistics and torso mounted lasers. Not too much to keep track of. I didn't want to have more than two weapon types to have him think about, didn't want the mech to be too fast and didn't want unlocked arms to worry about. SO, I did a Jag w/ 2xAC/10 and 4x MLas.

 

Make sure to give her a simple and heat-efficient mech, so that she can learn about movements without bothering too much about "omg I have 7 keys to fire my weapons!" or "I can't shot without overheating". No ghost heat, no gauss, 2 weapon groups, etc.
I'd also go for a medium or heavy, a blackjack or a catapult for example.

You also can try an LRM boat (but not too slow => catapult, kintaro, etc), so she can really focus on the piloting without needing to properly aim. She might not enjoy the LRM gameplay though.

Also, be cool
Don't flood her about technical points (I know how we're tempted to want to explained EVERYTHING!). Wait for her questions to explain advanced stuff.
And of course don't mind her mistakes, she'll make a lot at first.

 

LRM Boat with a few back up weapons. Catapult or Stalker would be perfect, maybe an Awesome. Slower is actually better, then she wont rush into battle and die fast. Use only a Standard engine, anything with XL is too advanced for now. No more than 3 weapon groups.

And you have to sit shotgun with her. Don't explain, just let her play while you watch and coach. (i was teaching my gf a few months ago). Arm lock is a must at first.

 

Teach one concept at a time.
Use the testing grounds.

Start with movement. Teach how to move around, how to circle an enemy, etc.
Then looking in directions you're not moving in. How to use the torso.
Then how to use the arms, how you can aim at 2 different places at once.
Then weapons. What buttons fire weapons, how/why to change that.
Then mechanics.
Start with heat. Very simple: Firing weapons creates heat, if heat reaches 100% your mech shuts down and you probably die. Don't bother explaining ghost heat beyond "if you fire too many of the same weapon at once you get extra heat."
Then ammo. Some weapons use ammunition, some don't. Ammo explodes. If she's going to use Gauss, mention that Gauss weapons explode, but ammo doesn't. Otherwise save it until she wants to try using a Gauss.
Structure vs Armor. Crits only happen to structure, and can destroy components like weapons or ammo.
Mech locations: Damage is localized to different locations. Destroying CT, H, or RL & LL destroys the mech. Aiming for CT or Legs is generally the easiest way to kill a mech.

etc.

Essentially, try to break each thing up into simpler things, and explain one at a time. Don't move on to the next thing until the student encounters it in play, or has at least had time to absorb and get used to the last thing. Explain a concept AFTER a match, then let her play another match.

 

- Simple weapons
- Standard Engine
- Jump Jets (yes, really)
- Decent speed
- Humanoid (or close) chassis

Other than that, I'd pick something with ballistics in the torso and energy in the arms. (It's much easier to use a hitscan weapon in the arms)

Basically, this badboy: The Flying Gun

Then, when your friend gets cheesed off at the lights and wants to give them a taste of their own medicine, bust out this puppy: Lighthunter

 

I actually have experience with this.

Mechwarrior 4 is how I did it.

I'm serious. The tutorial taught her everything she needed to know. In 3rd person.
She played many missions but didn't finish the game. Didn't matter, because she learned what she needed to get into MWO.

Hold On. I'll ask her....
(5 mins later)

Ok. She said that MWO actually was easier to play than MW4. Also that the walking around the tower, heat management, fire groups, etc. from the tutorial was helpful.

She's also a bookworm. So I got her into battletech books. So if your girly likes reading, she recommends Sword&Dagger and the Trilogy where Phelan Kell becomes a Clanner.

 

you got a good/cool wife!

 

Use something like this:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=77&l=26fd216526b2260940ce34773d7748f27862535c
*It is not a powerful mech but it is simple and easy to use.
*Don't borther teaching advanced technique like torso-twisting at first, same goes for mech building.

*You start with movement, and simple control. MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN FIRST PERSON, cause we don't need more of those 3rd person playig lowlifes. There is JJ in this mech so you can teach them that also.

*Start with armlock, and teach them how to toggle it if needed (hence the body weapons and arm weapons in this mech).

*Weapons would be pregroup into : 1) 2x AC5-chained 2) 2x Mlas. Fits well into the two mouse button. You can talk about how to toggle chain fire mode if needed once he get used to the control.

*Teach them about the heat meter, tell them to watch the heat. This works better if you run them in a hot map like Mordor. This mech is hard to overheat (30 seconds plus of continuous alphas), but definitely doable if you deliberately force it, by firing in lava and things. Also that force-restart button (not alt-F4)

*things like the "r" button and damage locations and things, and ammo explosions. Also the minimap toggle.

*Then just let him play a few games! Tactics is something to be acquired over time, and things like torso twisting and component destructin techniques are advanced technique that should be taught later along the line when he is interested.

*tell him to ask questions on mechspecs if needed, guys over there are ready to tear him apart.

 

I put my wife in a 3 AC5 Jag and had her run around on training maps until she got comfortable.
Driving was a big deal at first, but once she got over a slight learning curve she started to have fun with it. She was a little tentative when I asked her if she wanted to start playing real people, but now she is playing like she means it, and has even started asking me questions about how I got into playing the game... It was fun pulling out my old games, showing her the battletech stuff I had purchased in High School, and playing a youtube vid of the history of MechWarrior..
she smiled at me said "I married a geek.... this is cool!"

 

My wife uses to say:

"I married a geek."

Period.
:unsure:

 

Not to necro too hard here but:

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=22&l=ecd5deaa30bd02c2274d22579b610c8d674aa1b5

Literally one of the simplest, most basic and capable mechs in existence. 2 firing groups, no JJ - easy peasy.

1. Training grounds for heat mgmt, targeting & zoom controls and aiming etc, then
2. Get into a game, tell her she is an assault escort. Pick an assault to tie up with and do not leave the assault until one of you is dead.

She will then see the various ways in which the game can flow and learn to be both proactive and strategically sound with positioning, movement and timing . Which is really kind of the main point I think.

Hope it goes (or is going) OK! And good luck! Always good to have new recruits to kill teach and train...

 

That's what I advised a friend of mine, who didn't like the look of the beautiful Jagermech:

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=112&l=13d9a6a44606ac354dffe9dda97cde48dbc1a3ed
(AMS could be replaced with mor Ammo)

• 275XL, DHS and Endosteel in stock loadout,
• mobile, durable chassis, JJ
• easy weapon management,
• easy targeting (high mounted ACs)
• many assists with ERLL= more XP

For me that's all could wish for when starting with MWO.

 

How DO I toggle Arm lock, btw?
I'm too stupid to find a solution in the setup...

 

In the options/settings:



In game there is a key (left ctrl or left shift by default) to enable/disable it, but it's not toggle, you have to keep it pressed.