COMBAT TACTICS

• Targeting: Simply stated, the goal of mechwarrior 3 combat is to destroy the enemy before you yourself are destroyed. The quickest (and quickest kills are always best) means to accomplishing this goal is to target one specific part of an enemy mech, hammering away at it until the target is destroyed. It is almost worthless to scatter damage over an entire chassis, most mechs are pretty well armored, and some carry tremendous amounts of protection. The most vulnerable area of almost any mech are the legs. Concentrated fire to one or the other is the most efficient way to destroy an enemy. The use of a Targeting Computer, and the keypad targeting inputs (keypad 1 or 3 for legs) can be of great value in isolating these areas. An indication of the amount of armor carried in specific areas of a target mech can be found by the use of the HTAL damage display, hit "CTRL+D" to scroll through the options until you see the bar graph type of display. This is the only display that will indicate relative armor values and remaining protection. Always scan your enemies to look for weak areas, a surprising number of mechwarriors will leave rear torso areas severely underprotected, this should be the focus of your attack. This display also has another valuable use, it's superiority for lag estimation and correction, which will be discussed later in this module. Remember: "CONCENTRATE FIRE!".
  
  
• Movement: A stationary mech will be a dead target within 2 seconds, max. Now is not the time to enjoy the scenery, there will be time for that when all opposition is eliminated. Keep the throttle open, and don't provide the enemy with an stationary target, and an easy kill. Varying the speed of your mech is also an excellent way to disrupt the aim of an enemy warrior, you might find more shots missing close in front and behind your mech. Those are the shots that would have damaged you with constant throttle settings. Any savings of accumulated damage will greatly increase your survivability in a fight, and could well mean the difference between a victory, or a defeat. A serious mistake made by "green" pilots is crouching to reduce target area, don't do it! It might be acceptable against the computer, but not in multi player. You are absolutely immobile in a crouch and gain no protection by it's use. Experienced mechwarriors will view this tactic, laugh, and quickly kill the hapless offender. Always keep this idea in mind: "STAY ON THE MOVE!".
  
  
• Angles: Don't approach any threat head on if at all possible, move towards your target at right angles. Zig-zagging from side to side forces your foe to calculate your lead time into every shot. You will still be hit and take damage occasionally, but it will certainly be less than bearing the full brunt of weapons fire. Used in conjunction with effective throttle control, this tactic goes a long way towards making your mech truly tough to hit and damage. Ensure that your tactics against a particular opponent don't lead you direcly into the sights of another enemy. Remember that angles are not only side to side, when equipped with jump jets, a mech is able to attack from almost any angle. Use your jump ability to move yourself into a favorable firing position. To ensure long life and prosperity, the moral here is: "ZIG-ZAG-JUMP"!.
  
  
• Engagement: Don't be in a hurry to close with an enemy, allow time to manuever to a favorable attack aspect. In other words, set yourself up to attack a weak or unprotected part of your opponent, i.e. the rear. Once engaged, fight to the death, a retreating mech is easy to kill and many warriors have met an early death from the mistaken notion that they have gotten into a fight they cannot win. All fights are potential victories to a warrior that never gives up, conversely, very few victories are had by a mech with it's tail tucked tightly between its legs. Once the decision has been made to fight, go after the enemy as a mad dog, no talk, no mercy, and no quit. Even if the battle should result in your being beaten, you will have gone a long way towards earning the respect of other mechwarriors. Tenacity is a quality that is always highly valued among the elite. Remember always: "NEVER QUIT!".
  
  
• Observation: Awareness of your surroundings is vital to your survival. Many warriors are killed while they themselves are in the process of destroying another mech. Firing shot after shot into a fallen opponent, they never notice the Shadow Cat that has moved into position behind them, and is ripping away armor and damaging critical systems. You must maintain awareness! No kill is so important that you can allow yourself to be killed. Evade your attacker first, then return to finish off your heavily damaged foe. Some fighters who, in all other respects, are terrifyingly efficient with their tactics and killing ability, become totally unaware of their immediate environment once they smell blood. They fall easy prey to those pilots waiting in the wings, calmly observing the developments of the battle, then swiftly rushing in to tear the leg from an occupied and oblivious victim. The simple rule to remember is: "WATCH YOUR BACK!".
  
  
• Evasion: The one area that is strenuously avoided by all mechwarriors just happens to be the same one that all other pilots are vigorously trying to get them into, their gunsights. Even the best pilots constantly find themselves staring down the barrel of a loaded Ultra 20 Autocannon. The one quality that allows then to come away relatively unscathed is "Reaction". If you have been keeping the other basic rules in mind up till now, you should be moving, weaving, jumping, choosing targets and watching the battle elements closely. The thought here is to recognize the threat of imminent danger. That danger presents itself when the Thor that you have been stalking suddenly swivels it's torso and levels it's mighty arms into your face! You can sense the enemy pilots finger tightening on the trigger, what do you do? It's easy, get away! It is during this time that your jump jets pay for themselves a hundred times over. The trick to quick reaction in these situations is, always be prepared for the worst case scenario. Keep a twitching thumb over that jump button, and use it frequently, especially in close quarter combat. Another trick, if your chassis of choice has the performance to pull it off, is to throw it quickly into reverse and back away in a curving arc, never back away straight! The enemy will have to track a target that is receding as well as having to calculate a lead, perhaps enabling you to reorganize an attack strategy. Even the lowly flea knows enough to jump when it lands on a frying pan, you should be able to do that at least. Remember, it's not cowardice to run if you eventually win the fight, it's strategy: "AVOID DAMAGE!".
  
  
• Damage Control: All mechs get damaged, all mechs eventually get destroyed, that's the nature of the game and warfare in general. No one is invincible, though some pilots come surprisingly close to it. In addition to using the previosly stated rules to minimize damage, once damage does occur, especially severe damage, how it is managed makes a great deal of difference in the outcome of a match. Maintain constant awareness of the condition of your own mech as well as that of the enemy. Manuevering your mech to protect damaged areas is important in staying alive long enough to either reach a Mobile Field Base or support a teammate in a battle with another enemy. Evasion of damage is more critical with a badly crippled machine, however, speed and agility are greatly reduced by severe damage. A mech with severe leg damage can manage only a few kilometers per hour by walking, but by using "Jump Jets Forward" large amounts of ground can be covered quickly. Sometimes though, the best option is just to continue fighting, concentrating on already damaged enemy mechs, and manuevering as well as possible until the inevitible. At the very least: "PROTECT DAMAGED AREAS!".

ADVANCED COMBAT

• Multiple Targets: Facing 2 or more enemy mechs at once is one of the most challenging aspects of the game. When approached properly and with a plan of action, it is also one of the most satisfying and genuinely fun phases of open combat. It is inevetible that at some time during battle, whether due to separation from other team members, or as a result of being teamed with groups of miserable, cowardly bailers, you will be attacked by 2 or more enemy units. Immediately identify the most skillful of the opposing mech pilots, concentrating your fire on that unit. This prevents the better pilot having the opportunity to target you while you are engaged in attack. Remember the lessons of Basic Combat not to place yourself carelessly in harms way if at all possible. Try to keep your primary target between yourself and the secondary enemy mechs, circling at close range and avoiding as much fire as possible. By maintaining a close distance to your target, you will have to manuever only a few degrees to avoid secondary unit fire, and force the unit to make large course corrections in order to target you. With any luck, the less skillful pilot will continue to discharge their weapons and will inflict a great deal of damage to their own teammate. With the primary enemy down, the secondary should present much less of a challenge. 3 vs. 1 is much more difficult still, but the concepts are the same. While this type of fighting can be frustrating, never give up, and never bail, this type of exercise is the fastest way towards becoming a superior pilot. After successfully engaging 2 and 3 enemies at once, your basic 1 on 1 fight will seem much easier. This type of combat will bring out the very best effort in most pilots and the truly good ones relish the opportunity to engage in it, even going as far as manipulating events to produce such a matchup.
  
  
• Target Selection: Select targets that are weak against your particular strengths, and attempt to avoid those that seem specifically designed to destroy you. For example, a slow Daishi or Annihilator armed with long range missiles makes a tempting target for a small laser-based mech, which can use it's agility to pick the larger enemy apart while avoiding damage from long range weapons. A Thor, armed with Autocannons however, makes a signifcantly more dangerous target to the smaller mech. With it's quickness, and firepower the Thor can negate the agility of the small mech and quickly destroy it, as such, it is a target best engaged by long range weapons, LRM's, Gauss Rifles or PPC's. Any mech, however, can successfully engage and destroy any other mech given suitable piloting skills, the trick here, especially in team play, is to maximize the kill efficiency of each team member.
  
  
• Mission Specifics: While spending most of you combat time in a single type of chassis has the advantage of familiarity with movement and controls. Some missions are better served by having a different approach to the gameplay. For example, fast hit and run mechs are great in the open territories like "Train Station" or "Lake Bed", but the confines of "Durgan City" can eliminate some of their effectiveness as they navigate through the narrow streets. Larger mechs, loaded up for close range warfare, and armed with an array of Autocannons, will find themselves less capable against miisile based designs in an open map. Choose a design that will maximize the damage inflicted on enemy units, while providing you with the greatest amount of protection and capability.
  
  
• Team Strategies: The advantages of team play are many and varied. Teammates, after spending some time together in combat will learn to anticipate the movements and strategies of each other. Plus effective team play can result from different team members employing different jobs and strategies, designed to enhance the combat effectiveness of each individual. Teams can be comprised of up to 4 players, and many different strategies can be made to work by effective communication and good combat skills. What follows is a few examples of team types that have proven efficient. The variety is nearly unlimited, experiment to find what works best for you and your team. Communication of goals and responsibilities to team duties are vital to the sucess of the team.
  
  
  • Wolfpack Units: 3 or 4 small fast mechs, such as Striders or Shadow Cats, armed similarly, and carrying large engines equipped with MASC. These groups attack isolated foes like wild dogs, circling, firing and evading enemy counter fire. Working together they can reduce even the most powerful opponent helpless within a matter of seconds. The concentrated firepower utilized bt these units is devastating. Mobility is the greatest strength of these units, as they can attack lone enemies, then move away as reenforcements arrive, using their speed to attack a recently respawned opponent before that unit can group up with others on it's team.
    
    
  • Battle Group Units: A coordinated battle group consisting of mission specific units. Ususally comprised of An Assault mech armed with missiles, and another mech, usually a heavy type, assigned mainly to support duties. One or two other team members act as "destroyers", fast smaller mechs designed to eliminate long range mechs, and to operate away from the Assault mech and support units. Any enemies penetrating the destroyer screen will have to battle the heavy support mech before attacking the the assault mech. This type of unit has a good blend of speed, firepower and mission capabilities, it is based on the U.S.Navy's Battle Group concept, and as such is proven to be extremely effective.
    
    
  • Dreadnought Units: Comprised solely of Heavy and assault mechs, carrying a variety of heavy weapons, both long and short range. Their concentrated firepower is incredible, and by remaining in close proximity to one another, can provide fire support to the other mechs in their unit. Few enemies can remain within the sphere of influence of these groups for long without being reduced to a smoking pile of debris. Their one major weakness being a lack of mobility, If separated, the individuals can be attacked singly by more agile types. It is imperitive that these groups maintain a relatively tight formation, prefferably having all units within a circle of no more than 200 meters in diameter.
  
  
  
• Circle Fighting: An extremely valuable skill to learn is the circle fight, in fact, you might find yourself naturally falling into this particular pattern of engagement. The concept being to keep weapons fore concentrated on a particular target while moving at the same time. With the torso twist capabilities of most mechs, this is not a difficult manuever to complete. While holding some degree of turning input to the joystick, run in circles around the intended target. Swing the torso to face the enemy and fire as the targeting reticle lines up. Of course, the enemy with be attempting the same manuever, and the result is the classic circle fight. Attemp to throw off the enemies aim and concentration by varying the throttle and using jump jets when appropriate. Don't forget to factor lead into your firing solution, as well as lag times (which will be discussed in the next section). Remember that most fighting starts at long range and ends at point blank range. This is because enemies will be hesitant to expose rear areas to your fire, and will keep moving to minimize damge. The natural result is decreasing range throughout a battle. Circle fighting becomes that much more valuable as it is a primary close range tactic. Practice on static objects while in "Instant Combat" attempting to keep them in your sights while maintaining good speed in a circular path around them. As will all techniques described here, it will become much easier with a bit of practice as well as some combat experience.

LAG SHOOTING

• What is "Lag"?: Lag is the time delay between what happens in front of your eyes, on your monitor screen, and what is actually recorded as information in the game. The difference between where an enemy appears to be, and where they actually are. Essentially, the mech you see on your monitor is actually a "ghost" image of the actual target as it appeared at some time in the past. Determination of the ghost image in relation to the actual location of the target is the key to effective lag shooting.This is caused by the transmission of those game information signals over internet connections, phone lines, and satellite links. It's severity can be roughly estimated by the "ping", or latency times displayed by the names of players. The value varies greatly over the course of the day, even from second to second during combat, ping times will fluctuate.
  
  
• How is it generated?: Data signals travel at the speed of light, 186,219 miles per second, or 299,792,458 metes per second. When computers are networked together, as in a game, they all connect to a common server, the "Zone" server for example. Each computers data signals, in connecting to this server, must negotiate the pathways of the internet. This is done through "hops" from server to server, each individual server being an intersection where the data packet is recieved, the "header" read, an then routed through to the next server, till the packet arrives at the "Zone" server, which transmits it to your own system. Each different computer in a game has its own path to and from your own, and the amount of "hops" can vary a great deal, 10 - 15 hops is an average number. The ping time is the number in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), the your own individual system takes fro a signal to leave your computer, navigate through the internet to the zone, and reach the Zone server. Also the use of the popular "Winmodem" will increase ping times, due to the fact that the Winmodem does no signal processing on board as in a standard modem, but uses the system processor to for that task, the data packet carrying game information must wait at the modem until the processor completes the task. The time spent waiting generates a longer ping, even before the data leaves your system and begins it journey to the game server.
  
  
• How does it affect gameplay?: All objects in the game are tracked by a series of coordinates, X, Y, and Z. this number represents the position of every unit, structure and weapons fire in the game. For example, say your unit is at coordinates X=100, Y=100, and Z=0, you are travelling along the Y axis at 10 meters per second, your ping time is 400ms, your opponent has a ping time of 600ms. Your system transmits your exact position, but not movement data to the Zone server, this takes 400 ms. The Zone server forwards that data to the system of your opponent, taking an additional 600 ms, and your position is displayed on his monitor as X=100, Y=100, and Z=0. But you are not at that position anymore, you are now at position X=100, Y=110, and Z=0, having moved one meter in the second it took for the data to arrive. Your opponent directs his weapons fire at X=100, Y=100, and Z=0, because that is where you appear to be, the data indicating the weapons fire coordinates leaves their system, travels through the internet to the Zone server and back to you, accumulating another second of travl time. Your computer interpretes his weapons fire striking X=100, Y=100, and Z=0. By this time however you are at coordinates X=100, Y=120, and Z=0 and their shot strikes 20 meters behind you. This of course is simplified, but it illustrates the problem.
  
  
• How do I compensate?: This is the difficult part, each of your opponents in a game will have a unique "lag point", that position to which you must direct your weapons fire to achieve a hit. In addition, the lag point will shift from moment tomoment. So lag point calculation must be a constant part of each shot, but it is neccesary to do so in order to defeat your foe. By firing at their apparent position, your shots will consistently fall short, and the enemy will eventually kill you, suffering little damage in the process. The methods used will differ between individual mechwarriors, but the basics are provided here, use this technique as a starting point, and work from there until you find what works best for you.
  
  
  • Hit "CTRL+D" to bring up enemy HTAL or 2D display: The standard damage display is not detailed enough to show immediate damage to your opponent, HTAL (the bar graph display), and 2D (the wireframe type) show even minor damage more quickly than the default. You will need the most accurate means of determining enemy damage accumulation.
    
    
  • Lead your target: In addition to the normal lead of your weapons, begin by aiming 1 mech length ahead of your enemy, directing you fire to a place they WILL BE. Watch the HTAL dispay closely as you are doing this. Remember, it will take at least 2 seconds, according to our example, to see any effect of your shot. So don't be impatient and move from your aim point too soon. If no damage is indicated, move your fire to 2 mech lengths and try again. By watching your enemies HTAL display, you should begin to see the effects of your fire. You will be surprised at first, as your fire will appear to fall well ahead of the enemy, but the damage will begin to creep up. Once you find a point ahead of the enemy that produces damage, (in our example about 4 mech lengths, depending on the type of chassis) continue firing until you achieve your hard won kill.
    
    
  • Other variables: Keep in mind that the point will be harder to estimate for a mech that is manuevering effectively. Remember your basic combat training, constantly changing direction and speed variation will make it much, much harder to damage an enemy, but in time it will become more natural. If you can position yourself directly behind an enemy moving away from you, lag is less of a problem, your shots will fly through their apparent position and strike them anyway. The same goes for enemies moving directly towards you.That is why the basic combat section instructed you to avoid these tactics if possible when attacking.