Reviews of the Mechs

Just to let everyone knowhow I go about this fun past time of mine, I decided to put in a few comments about how I rate the mechs.

First off, I go to the Mech Lab and create the default stock config as generated by our friends from Microsoft or MekTek. In the course of modding this game, MekTek has changed the slots from some of the original Microsoft models and accordingly, they have change some of the load outs.

I look over the stock configs but I rarely use them for testing or rating and that is because this game is all about the customization of the battle mech for the use on the specific map or battle about to be played. One thing that still gets me, as old as this game is and as many times as we have played the same maps in Sunder (our favourite server hosted by our friends at NBT), players STILL go into the mech lab and create a new config for a round of play.

I personally have over 1375 configs of the different battle mechs pre-made. Some are for league games but most are for open play either in my own server of in Sunder.

Anyway, back to the ratings. (Sometimes I ramble, forgive me.) I create a variant based on the slot types. Form the years of playing the game, I already know what the mech is good at, but sometimes I am surprised at the various uses other come up with. My hats off to those guys because it keeps the game fresh and unexpected.

Once I have created my variant, or if I elect to use a pre made model, I create my own server with some crazy password and I do not advertise it. I put the mech in the Coliseum Map with some bots using the same base model, albeit different varients including stock. I name each bot with whatever configuration they are using so I will know what model did what when the smoke settles and the battlescores are posted. During the course of the fighting, usually I set the server for 10 minute rounds and waves, I use a camera ship to observer what is going on. I switch from bot to bot to see what they are doing and how the mech is holding up. I may have forgotten to mention that I have altered my bot scripts so that they fight a little better and lot smarter than the original scripts from Microsoft. Yeha they still do some of the stupid things, but I am not a script writer nor a programmer, but I will tell you that my bots are very good and they do go after you relentlessly. And yes they do miss because humans miss, so its not automatic that they hit you. More about bots in a later edition.

After I watch the mech perform against its own kind, I put it in the same map against other mechs of the same weight. Lets say I was testing MadCats (Timberwolfs for you grognards), then i would load the game with MadCats, Wildcats, Thantos, Thanny XTs, Black Knights and so on using all of the 75 ton mechs I could. Then I would repeat the observation process to see how the mech held up or performed against its own weight class.

After that, I would put it in a team battle or team destruction fight against mechs that you would typically see in Sunder, giving each mech loadouts I have seen often used in Sunder, such as a Canis with 2 ERPPCs and 2 Clan Gauss Rifles. Again, I repeat the observation process.

Many times, I will pilto the mech against the bots to get a feel for how it performs. I will always use the mech in a live situation on Sunder or in my server against real opponents to see how it handles and reacts. I will mesure how it twists and turns, how it accelerates and stops, how it hill humps, how well you can see out the sides of the cockpit, how fast it will go, the amount of weaponry it can manage, different armours to see if it makes a significance or not. Then I tally up all my notes and rate the mech on its over all performance as well as give you my opinion on it.

There are many of the mechs that I simply do not like, but I will always give it an objective rating. Remember that most of the testing I do involves bots and other real pilots. There are some mechs that I despise to use, but other do really well in them and this does count to my rating system.

Now about the rating system. Many use the 1 to 10 scale, 1 = suck, 10 = God's gift to us, some use the the 1 to 5 scale which is just about the same as the 1 to 10 scale, but I dont use ether of those.

Nah, Ol' Vettie came up with his own scale. For me, its useful. In Sunder, most all the games are 30 minutes. Some of the maps have objectives that must be completed in 5 minutes or 10 minutes, forcing players to work as a team to either destroy the other team of kill the objectives. The defensive team has to keep the objectives alive for 5 or 10 minutes OR destroy the other team. Now there are some maps that have no time limit, so one round may last the entire 30 minutes.

Because of the way folks play in Sunder, once the shooting starts, the major part of the battle has really begun. So many players use heavy alpha mechs that it doesnt take long to sustain heavy damage or even complete destruction. Depending on your choice of tactics, you may only receive 2 to 3 alphas before your mech is scrap metal and you are waiting for the next round to begin. My style of paly is pretty aggressive, I dont like to sit back and cherry pick for kills. In fact, I play more like a n00b more often than any other way. I tend to charge the enemy and inflict as much whoop ass as possible before getting my butt killed. Sometimes I killed right away and sometimes I kill folks right away. Usually, I finish with 1 or 2 more kills than deaths and somewhere in the top 5 or 6. IT is rare for me to be on top in the kill category because of my style of play, but it does happen and I do have the screen shots to prove it (hehe). The important part is that I have fun, because it is a game and games are supposed to be fun.

On to my rating scale. I rate the mechs in minutes. My scale goes from 1 to 7 minutes. I rate mech based on how long I think it will last from when the firing starts until it dies. A 7 minute rating woudl meant the mech would be the last 1 or 2 on the battlefield and may not even get killed (sometimes it takes 2 to 3 minutes to FIND the enemy depending on the map, the radar, weather, time of day and visibility settings.
3 to 4 minutes is very good for most mechs because once the fore does start the battle is usually over in that amount of time. Of course, this is my opinion of the mech and you may not last that long ro you may last the entire battle, it all depends on your own personal style of play.

So there you have it. This is how I get to my ratings and this is what they mean. Hopefully this will be a bit of use to you when youa re choosing a battle mech and a load out. My future posts will be about different mechs and maps and tactics / suggestions for each.
Enjoy

Vettie out...