Matrix Games Forums

I'm a new player and I get beaten all the time. My jocks always die because they can't kill anything fast enough.
I think the problem is in my team but I can't figure it out.

when starting, limit the combat skills of the jocks to the ones necessary, cannon, energy, etc., other skills should be developed with those given at the bottom of the pinboard for their particular titan. you can also edit the binit.dat file to limit the number of titans and relative strength of the random team. of course play with the random team at the lowest level.
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Alot of how you create your team depends on what your strategy is going to be. Are you going to rush in with all your jocks? Are you going to sit back and carefully pick the enemy off while maneuvering? A combination? Etc. All this decides your shoice of weapons and maybe even Titans which in turn decides how you are going build up your jocks into killing machines.

Alright, so lets say you're going to use a combination (which is really a very good idea, I'm glad I thought of it. (tm)! (tm)!) What this usually involves is a long-range titan a mid-range titan and a couple close-combat titans. I usually make the Leader drive the Long-ranger as he probably won't need so many skills pumped up and then I can crank up his Leadership skill to the moon so that the rest of my jocks will be that much better. I also don't worry very much about his driving skills, he's likely not going that far anyways. Things he will need maxed out though are: Scanner, Guided, or unguided missiles (one or the other, decide which titan he's using first, not both) and Electronic Warfare. Don't bother with Indirect fire for now if you don't have enough points for it, you can boost it later.

Mid-Range jocks always depend on the weapons they are usuing, but generaly it will probably wind up being a mixture of Lasers and Cannons, so look after those skills, and give him a decent movement and scanner skill as well as some Electronic Warfare.

Close-Combat guys can ignore scanner and El. Warfare to a certain extent, I mean who has time for that close in anyways? I usually give my close combat guys Axemen or Duelists to start off so all they really need is the Close Combat skill weapon wise. Make sure you buff up their movement skills as well though as you're going to want those skill checks to work. You may also want to crank up the REcon skill for these guys, possibly Defensive as well if you have the points.

Remember that your second and third jocks are your manager and Mechanic respectively (I think that's the right way around) so don't forget to crank up the Business and Damage Control skills for them.

So, what have we learned? Probably not much more than is obvious once you've played for a month, but there you go.

A quick sum up before I run off like I know what I''m doing: When you begin a new team, pick your Titans first and customize your jocks to them with your strategy inmind. Keep the number of skills you use down, say 2-3 (2 is better) per EXP-Type so that you don't spread things too thin.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Lobsteve.

Oh! As a case in point of not spreading your jocks too thin: Never Give a Rookie a Deathblossom. It just doesn't work out.

Lobsteve.

Remember that just because you need 3 jocks after your 1st battle doesn't mean that you need three jocks before your 1st battle. If you want two Light titans then chances are that you should only recruit two pilots (leader and manager) fight your 1st battle and then recruit your mechanic (hopefully 1st improving your leadship a hair). Otherwise put your leader in a light and your other two in recons. That way you can put them in good designs and have a little left over for repairs It's not necessary for all three of your pilots to fight. Sometimes it's better to take the titans that you want and build up a little slower.

Just as a side note, in WS the mechanic will also modify salvage money, and the chance for salvaging a titan after battle is based on the mechanic's dc skill.

Also remember that you'll pay upkeep for every jock and titan you own, whether they fight or not.

Use race modifiers to your advantage in the early game. Choosing a cyborg for squad leader for instance isn't exactly a smart move Check primary and secondary attributes for leadership, business and damage control.

cannons ya gotta have cannons for your jocks (ignore me im a raving lunatic) and a good cannon skill they may use ammo but hey for their distance damage heat and reload there great (ac4-12, guass, meson) and the ac20 has nice damage to it.


or you can do what korg did and rtely on either small cannons and lasers or missles/etc ah well enough of my raving i probably just killed this guys team :p

Rookies team tactics :

Get yourself a light with energy weapons, Penetrator being a very good choice as its large laser will give you range but won't fail at point blank. Add a light with cannons to avoid being pested by shielded enemies. The Spear is good for this purpose. Add a recon or light with long range missiles and keep him behind the others to add long range support. Choose a defensive stance, try to use cover of dense woods. It will give enemies a 25% hit penalty. Play against the lowest AI rank ! Don't mess with CC in your team as long as you are not skilled in playing the game as they have to be intelligent movers. Concentrate on single weapon skill but don't forget to add some close combat skills. Its likely that the enemy will reach your position. Boost the leadership of the first jock (~50%), boost business for the second (~60%) and damage control for the third (~50%).
Your weapon skill should of course match the titans weaponry and should not be less than 55%.

You can neglect jump skill and ports, its for the more experienced player.

Keep your team together at all cost. Try crippling the enemy by disabling the leg/lower torso and arm/side torso. He will be most likely eject and you don't have to wreck him completly. It will give you more salvage.

Be happy you are playing v1.4 and not WS. The AI of Ws is much improved and constanly bashing my test team.

So -that's- what a final word look like.

By the way, the WS AI frightens me if you're having troubles with it Larkin...frightens and excites...

Lobsteve.

dang the creation killing its creator O_o uhhhhh whats that mean for the rest of us? complete disentigration or tottal anhilation? :p

I have discount coupons for coffins if you need one....

Lobsteve.

Last squad I started, I used a modified Will o'Wisp (GMH2, GME), a Fang (2xAC7), a Porcupine (7xSRM4) and a Stingray (PG, SL). I then added a Wrathchild (NB, PL), just for fun.
It worked nicely in the first campaign's initial maps. The Wrathchild was actually a "stress test", to see how fast I could build a large team. I bought it after the 1st battle, and ended up bankrupted in the 3rd map
All recons, yes, because WS has this new feature that I'm not telling cause Larkin didn't mention it either It makes having a mechanic good at salvage so much more valuable.
Keep in mind also that only non-destroyed enemy titans are eligible for being salvaged. Destroyed ones only count towards salvage money.

hey lobsteve can i have about 20 of those coupons? and a couple of urns for my jocks while your at it too?

Just started out a new team to refresh my memory.

Leader got energy higher than other weap skills so I designed the Pulsare. 2pulse/1ML/comp6/scan5/life3/shield1 41pts armor everywhere (vincinium).

Manager got unguided missle so built a 4srm4/1srm8/comp6/scan5/ecm1/shieldless 37pts of armor (V). Both lights of course. Repair guy was dex enhanced replicant with no titan (got cannon as best skill). Left me with a disaster fund (could just barely have bought a cruddy recon so I didn't).

Hotseat, Hell (AIs handle heat how well?). Found a nice clump of tombstones and spent the time waiting for the enemy to show up by running back and forth through them looking for the glorious sight of "movement speed increased" (gains type "O" experience pts guys based on recon skill check). Enemy shows up and consists of 3 recons (another reason for taking 2 lights only, you can get lucky). Kill the recons individually. Get to salvage a wolfpack (oh joy, now repair guy has a ride). Team is now nicely on it's way.

POP QUIZ: Class, your Leader and Manager should be ________?

Oh by the way, I'm not grading this quiz on a curve. It's strictly pass/fail (failures will report to me in the arena for reeducation) :p

re-education meaning we keep our heads? :p

Well..................the process does involve fitting you for a dunce cap. Which, in the bad old days, required that I borrow your head for a little bit (to ensure a proper fit of course) and I almost always remembered to return the heads when I was done

But now, in these modern times, Igor has come up with a way to use NBs to generate an internal model of the students skull. Regretably the process does still have a few bugs to be worked out but since Igor assures me that the theory is sound, well............far be it from me to stand in the way of progress.

Originally posted by GROND
Hotseat, Hell (AIs handle heat how well?). Found a nice clump of tombstones and spent the time waiting for the enemy to show up by running back and forth through them looking for the glorious sight of "movement speed increased" (gains type "O" experience pts guys based on recon skill check).

Hmm, nope. It doesn't happen in tombstones, only in woods. Only in dense woods, in v1.4.

aaahhhh i think ill pass grond just cuz im a noob here doesn't mean i can't kick your *** all overthe place in another game

EDIT: and besides that......I'M CHICKEN! and im proud of it! keeps me alive alot longer

I play in v1.4 so AI is easy to beat. At the moment I have 3 jocks:
-leader: cannons ~60/ CC ~60
-manager: last one got killed so he's only rookie CC~60/energy ~40
-mech: UM~60
I use a bait with my leader: light titan, 4MG/2PA, 40aps per part
attila for the manager and Needler for my mech
I got 12 victories and 2 loss (my manager changed twice;) )

well if ya want a REAL bait go find korg he makes the bait series and is on what? bait mk V now? or is it still on mk IV? any who he is as he says a tos design mad scientist