What am I doing wrong?

[Dragonlord]

I havebeen playing for a couple days now, and have come to a point where I'm getting so frustrated I wonder if its even worth playing anymore.
I really enjoy this mod and love to play, but all the fun is going out of it when I cant do jack shit, or kill anything.

If I move around the field, in constant motion with passive radar, I get one shotted by something I have no idea where comes from and how it could hit me.
All I know is that suddenly I'm just dead, and there are no enemies around me.
There are even times when I get hit, when I cant understand how I could have been hit since I have been behind cover and clearly not in enemy line of sight.

Other times when going one on one with a mech of the same weight class, and sometimes even lighter class, I can let loose with everything I have and barely make a scratch in their paint, while they take at most 5 shots to kill me.
I have gone up against light mechs in a heacy or assault mech packing high damage weapons that should be able to wipe the floor with the light, but all I do are scratch the paint a bit, while that small bugger with a couple RAC5's and AC2's rip my armor off like it was paper.
EVen BAs seem inpervious to my shots and can take me down in a few hits, not matter the size of my mech.
Sometims I get the impression that hits are not even registered, despite the enemy stading still and being well within weapons range.

On those rare occations when I actually do manage to get a good going rate, I loose everything to these mind numbing crashes and have to start at the lowest rank again, usually so late in the match that I may as well sit out the remaining time.

I really want to play and enjoy this mod, but how can I have any fun when I dont feel like I'm able to do anything?
Is it me there is something wrong with?
Or is there something else?
I know latency has a good deal to say here, but its not the case all the time.

Any tips you guys may have would be appreciated.

[xInVicTuSx]

I need to know several factors:
What is your average ping?
Average FPS?
What mechs do you like taking?
What is the average serversize you play on?
What weapons do you feel you get results from?
What weapons do you feel are worthless?

[Askis]

Instantly dying in the field usually happens when you're hit either by a Longtom or a few FBombs.
In both cases you should be able to hear what killed you, as the LT shells have a sort whooshing sound in flight and a big boom when they hit and FBombs are accompanied by the engine sounds of an ASF and also a big boom.
Nothing else should be able to one-shot a 'Mech in 0.3.1
Getting hit when you think you're in cover might be due to little parts of your 'Mech sticking out, or a passive enemy somewhere you didn't expect, or someone with LTGauss outside of your detection range.

Not doing any damage sounds very much like lag to me, if it happens again, try to aim a bit infront of the target and watch your money.
If your shots seem to be missing, but your Cbills are increasing, it's lag. (Don't try this in anything with C3, as you'll get cash all the time)

Can't say much about the crashes, so far I've only crashed once in 0.3.x

[Virt]

Yeah, sounds like lag to me.   I play at a ping of about 260, which will enable me to hit things with some leading most of the time (though it's a lot harder to hit aeros and BAs).

My suggestions:

0. Stick with multiple teammates.    That gives your enemies multiple targets, and you will be able to see who is shooting them.

1. Use large lasers.   These are the weapons that offer most damage with fast travel time (unlike UACs and other projectile weapons and PPCs, where the relatively slow speed compounds the effects of lag).

2. Use passive radar, but flick it on and off every minute or so to make sure noone is sneaking up on you.

3. If there are a lot of aeros active, hang close to an AA unit, or if need be, back near the hanager where you the missile turrets will help defend you against the warping aeros.

4. While you're n00b, favour Cougars in the light class, and Bushwhackers in the medium class, as they have more armour.

5. Don't be reluctant to break off engagements and go back to the hangar to repair.

6. Ask your teammates if they have any spare CBills, to help you get up into Medium mechs sooner.

Hope this helps, see you on the battlefield.

[xInVicTuSx]

4. While you're n00b, favour Cougars in the light class,

Yeah I guess they have more armor, but for the fact that they are slow moving billboards, not sure I would suggest them to newbs, they are much easier to eat than other quicker light mechs.

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

Owens is best - no need to aim

[whitewolf007]

you might also be accidently ejecting from your cockpit.  Remap your F key to F1 so you dont do this.  Its a pain and destroys your head armor.  People look for new players who have done this and one shot you sitting exposed.  If your head armor is destroyed immediately go repair.  It was happening to me and I read this forum and finally understood what was going on.