GWJ Chromehounds

How many times have people been kicked to the main menu in this game?

I understand that, yeah, making the game's always more important, but yeesh, spend like an extra few days making your menu system as easy as possible, instead of forcing you to read every single non-important news item before you can do anything.

I built my first mech and man it's a hoopty. I have a choice of sucky gun A or sucky gun B. Pretty fun playing around in the garage and building it, though. I bet it'll be more fun when I get some decent parts.

LobsterMobster wrote:

However, using those nice big juicy HE rounds meant that on one mission I had to pay $37k for ammunition. Ouch. I've switched back to a lower power round ($330 per).

We did a 3 man battle today and got 3x the reward. We can set it so you get your loses before the profit is divvied. It's like tanks in WoW, some classes cost more and should be compensated. We don't want you holding back on rounds because you're saving up for that new armor.

Logan wrote:

yeesh, spend like an extra few days making your menu system as easy as possible, instead of forcing you to read every single non-important news item before you can do anything.

Totally agree with you on that. The menu to the main war screen is annoying as all get out. Why can't the game remember where I saved my hounds? And those news items will get old fast. HOWEVER, the lobby is the coolest thing evar for a group like GWJ. The entire squad of 20 people can chat away, even while building their hounds.

Propagandalf wrote:

I built my first mech and man it's a hoopty. I have a choice of sucky gun A or sucky gun B. Pretty fun playing around in the garage and building it, though. I bet it'll be more fun when I get some decent parts.

Yes, I am reminded of Magic the Gathering, if you're pool of parts is low, you won't be able to bring a good deck to the table. What's more, it seems like we will be heavily relying on each other to succeed. The game is highly dependant on an even mix of hounds. Nei, Upus and I took on 3 AI hounds, and all of ours were light while theirs were mostly heavy. We survived, but just barely, and most of us were out of ammo.

I started shopping around for a 360 and the price for the system killed all urges to play this game till tomorrow while I am at work reading this thread and the others.

Edwin wrote:

I started shopping around for a 360 and the price for the system killed all urges to play this game till tomorrow while I am at work reading this thread and the others.

I guess you'll NEVER be getting a PS3 then, eh?

I wish I wasn't going to be away camping this weekend, I really want to tool around with the mech creation some more and get a handle on the multiplayer campaign. Ah well, I'll be good to go for Monday!

Is it just me or do Heavy Gunner hounds completely rule for the urban maps?

Need a path to an HQ? Just blow up all the buildings in a straight line to it.

I beat my first person just a little while ago in a 1v1. I hit them enough that three or four different parts were on fire, and they ran away. Then about 2 minutes into my effort at destroying his HQ I got a mission complete because he got killed by something else. I would assume on his way to my own HQ.

Despite some initial frustration I think this will be really worthwhile for multiplayer.

I'm also finding a giant pod of 4 machine guns works pretty well in the city. As soon as someone rounds a corner you can drill them. The fear of the 4 guns blazing at them is usually enough to make them stand bolt still, which is exactly what they shouldn't do.

*Legion* wrote:
Edwin wrote:

I started shopping around for a 360 and the price for the system killed all urges to play this game till tomorrow while I am at work reading this thread and the others.

I guess you'll NEVER be getting a PS3 then, eh? :)

Only for my good friend eBay. If anyone find a good deal on a premium 360, let me know.

souldaddy wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

However, using those nice big juicy HE rounds meant that on one mission I had to pay $37k for ammunition. Ouch. I've switched back to a lower power round ($330 per).

We did a 3 man battle today and got 3x the reward. We can set it so you get your loses before the profit is divvied. It's like tanks in WoW, some classes cost more and should be compensated. We don't want you holding back on rounds because you're saving up for that new armor.

Logan wrote:

yeesh, spend like an extra few days making your menu system as easy as possible, instead of forcing you to read every single non-important news item before you can do anything.

Totally agree with you on that. The menu to the main war screen is annoying as all get out. Why can't the game remember where I saved my hounds? And those news items will get old fast. HOWEVER, the lobby is the coolest thing evar for a group like GWJ. The entire squad of 20 people can chat away, even while building their hounds.

Propagandalf wrote:

I built my first mech and man it's a hoopty. I have a choice of sucky gun A or sucky gun B. Pretty fun playing around in the garage and building it, though. I bet it'll be more fun when I get some decent parts.

Yes, I am reminded of Magic the Gathering, if you're pool of parts is low, you won't be able to bring a good deck to the table. What's more, it seems like we will be heavily relying on each other to succeed. The game is highly dependant on an even mix of hounds. Nei, Upus and I took on 3 AI hounds, and all of ours were light while theirs were mostly heavy. We survived, but just barely, and most of us were out of ammo.

That was a fun round, and really helped show the nature of the game once you get to deploy as a squad. Going up against three mechs that all seemed superiorly armed and coming out on top was great. My cockpit was my only component _not_ on fire at the end of that round.

ThinJ wrote:

Is it just me or do Heavy Gunner hounds completely rule for the urban maps?

Let me give you a little story about that...

Yes, a heavy gunner can blast through buildings easily. That's a TON of wasted, limited, expensive ammo. Without any line of sight it's virtually impossible to bombard accurately in a city. So I ended up stomping through the alleyways, slowly making it to the enemy base, only to get totally obliterated when I came face to face with a lurking defender.

Onwards! I won another lottery. That's 2 for 2. This time I got a super-small, super-powerful generator. It looks like it'd be one of the most expensive components ($42,000, even with the lottery discount). Now I'm $67k in the hole so I'll need to start winning again before I can enter another lottery. I want to try to get this really nice mobility chip.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Yes, a heavy gunner can blast through buildings easily. That's a TON of wasted, limited, expensive ammo. Without any line of sight it's virtually impossible to bombard accurately in a city. So I ended up stomping through the alleyways, slowly making it to the enemy base, only to get totally obliterated when I came face to face with a lurking defender.

That's just about the exact opposite of my experience on the two urban maps I played. The hound I was using was kind of a hybrid, with the one really big two-barreled heavy gunner weapon, a group of shotguns, and some rifles too. Yes, the ammo was expensive. But I still earned over $100k afterwards, and the enemy guy couldn't get out of the general area of his HQ because I kept hitting him with rounds from that HG weapon every time he peaked out from behind the buildings. I probably only scored one or two direct hits, but it was always enough to turn his aim crazy and keep him from doing anything to me.

And 62 shots with that thing seems quite enough to last a long while to me, even after ripping through ten buildings or so. Especially if you're combining it's use with other weapons.

Anyway, I'm all switched over to Tarakia, I just can't get into the squad because of the generally crap interface as far as joining squads goes.

Next time I see someone on I'll do the search.

There is no way for me to invite you to the squad. Remember to capitalize the W and B in Wiener Bombers. Yes, the menus leave something to be desired, probably play tested by canadians.

Desram wrote:

I'm also finding a giant pod of 4 machine guns works pretty well in the city. As soon as someone rounds a corner you can drill them. The fear of the 4 guns blazing at them is usually enough to make them stand bolt still, which is exactly what they shouldn't do. :)

Desram and I encountered a human hound last night, a fast moving scout with at least 4 machine guns and probably 6. He took us both out by getting really, really close and unloading on us. There is probably a good counter for this (he was too close and too mobile for me to land my missiles) but I didn't find it except to mirror his setup and add some very powerful rockets. What I -did- learn was that, duh, long range weapons on an urban map are not so good.

Thin_J, a fast moving hound would render your strategy useless, some of these can move faster than your turret can aim, especially if they get close.

Tarakia actually took their capital city back last night, and I had access to parts! Nothing jumped out at me, sadly, but I did get a couple of cockpits with dual levels of mounting on them, will have to play around with that. FYI, some of the parts are worse than the freebie parts you get from the single players campaign. (I went mostly by weight and firepower. We're gonna need a course in what all these stats mean. Anyone see an online guide yet?)

Looks like we lost the capital again BTW, the website doesn't seem to be accurate. I logged in and found Morskoj at the gates of Sal Kar's capital, Qara.

ThinJ wrote:

And 62 shots with that thing seems quite enough to last a long while to me, even after ripping through ten buildings or so.

I have that gun as well. It has 62 rounds, but it fires two at once, remember.

Here's an explanation of the stats...
In the upper right there's a line of icons that present warnings. They can be either black (good), yellow (warning, but still OK to deploy) or red (cannot deploy).

From left to right:
Bullet - You have guns mounted that have not been assigned to a weapon group. Fix by configuring your weapons.
Battery - Your Hound is underpowered and will move and turn very slowly. Fix by using a larger generator or adding a secondary generator.
Trapezoid - Your Hound is over its weight limit. Fix by using lighter/fewer components or switching to a heavier mobility base.
Legs - (Unconfirmed) Your Hound is over its leg weight limit?
Cockpit - (Unconfirmed) Your Hound has more parts than your cockpit can manage? Fix by switching to a higher capacity cockpit.
Right Angle - Your Hound's dimensions are too big (too tall, too wide, etc.). Fix by removing parts.
OK - When it's green it means you can deploy.

Lower Right:
Use Parts - How many components your cockpit can handle. Current/Max.
Load - Weight. Current/Max.
Energy Use - How much energy your Hound uses. Current/Max.
Approx Effect Time - How long your Hound can remain active before running out of fuel (I think it's measured in minutes).
Heat:Cooling - How much heat your Hound produces?:Extra cooling capability
Max Speed - Obviously, top speed (does not effect acceleration)

Ammo Stats:
[*#][*#] - Lets you select a larger capacity magazine at the expense of weight.
Ammo Type - KE for Kinetic or CE for Chemical. Indicates what kind of damage the round does (components are almost universally weaker against chemical)
Range - ...Range
Heat of Impact - Amount of heat inflicted upon target from a direct hit.
Cost - Dollar cost per round.

If anyone can find a screenshot showing full weapon stats, link me and I'll explain it.

Thin_J wrote:

Anyway, I'm all switched over to Tarakia, I just can't get into the squad because of the generally crap interface as far as joining squads goes.

Damnit! I missed my window opportunity. Curse my need for sleep, because I really need to hook up with the squad so that I have a motive to do something other than earn cash and fiddle with the emblem editor. Also, it's killing me to read about all of your team based exploits. Tarakia better own its capital when I get home from work today!

LobsterMobster wrote:

If anyone can find a screenshot showing full weapon stats, link me and I'll explain it.

Maybe I can do something a bit better? I fiddled around with that "assembly guide" thing and learned something very useful. Press start on any of the mech building screens and everything but the stats greys out. Then you can select amongst the stats, press A, and get a detailed explanation of what every single one means. It really is a shame that they didn't put an indicator in the interface that showed that this function was available. Maybe it is in the manual somewhere, but I had to read the assembly guide's tutorial text to find out about it.

zeroKFE wrote:

Press start on any of the mech building screens and everything but the stats greys out. Then you can select amongst the stats, press A, and get a detailed explanation of what every single one means.

I think the strat guide might be a required purchase for this game. I'm finding little things like that all the time, zero. Another tip: in the lobby, if you forget who's name is tied to what pictures, press the right bumber to bring up more detail on those players.

LobMob wrote:

Ammo Type - KE for Kinetic or CE for Chemical. Indicates what kind of damage the round does (components are almost universally weaker against chemical)

This is a real-world distinction, KE is basically bullets, and CE is explosives. Given the level of detail in this game, I imagine that armor can counter CE fairly well. Interesting that the game measures the amount of heat dished out; this implies that players could collect some high heat weapons to counter hounds with a heat weakness.

Last night I built a really cool looking heavy gunner. It has a double-barrel gun directly on top of the quad chassis, then an even bigger cannon on top of that, with the engine on one side of the main guns and the cockpit on the other. It has a machine gun and assault rifle slung under the cockpit so when you use that weapon set your perspective is almost right on the ground. It also has another howitzer mounted on top of the cockpit, which is surrounded with armor.

The biggest problem with it (other than it being slow) is that linked guns of different types don't seem to fire exactly at once, so the recoil of each shot slightly throws the aim of the following shot.

I should be picking this up soon, my only concern is the online learning curve. Play offline to learn control, go online to learn how your Mech will be pummeled and quickly dispatched with. Has anybody come across getting slaughtered or unable to play online, and does it relate to how you are controlled by the commander of your squad?

Also- if I'm in squad A for one army, but nobody is online- can you jump into another squad as long as it's on the same faction as the previous squad?

Mills of the Serengeti wrote:

I should be picking this up soon, my only concern is the online learning curve. Play offline to learn control, go online to learn how your Mech will be pummeled and quickly dispatched with. Has anybody come across getting slaughtered or unable to play online, and does it relate to how you are controlled by the commander of your squad?

Also- if I'm in squad A for one army, but nobody is online- can you jump into another squad as long as it's on the same faction as the previous squad?

First, about being slaughtered online. The game has a nice feature where you can run the persistant war missions against AI opponents. It is supposed to be there to ensure that you can always play a match even if no one from the other country shows up to fight, but it also serves a nice secondary purpose of letting you have an online "easy mode" for gaining experience and money. In any case, you will always be able to set up a match where you won't be completely slaughtered by doing this.

So far, I've been playing on my own in a different country from the rest of the Goodjers completely focused on earning cash, so I haven't really bothered waiting for humans. I'm sure that once I do, I'll get my ass handed to me. But still, it's nice to have this option.

As for switching squads, sure you can do that, but from what I've heard, the process of joining a squad is a bit of a pain in the ass, so you'll probably want to just stick with one crew. (So far, I've only created my own temporary squad, so I don't know what the "joining" process is like first hand; I'm going to give it a try this afternoon should Tarakia remain in control of their capital, though.)

I'm wondering if higher level fire control chips will allow the weapons to actually fire simultaneously as opposed to the millisecond delay between shots that consistently gets worse the more sustained the fire.

Stylez wrote:

I'm wondering if higher level fire control chips will allow the weapons to actually fire simultaneously as opposed to the millisecond delay between shots that consistently gets worse the more sustained the fire.

I believe I have one whose description is "fire 3 weapons simultaneously." I haven't tried it yet, but maybe that will do what you described.

souldaddy wrote:

Thin_J, a fast moving hound would render your strategy useless, some of these can move faster than your turret can aim, especially if they get close.

There's nowhere for them to run to in closed in city streets.

The guy I fought tried charging me once, got hit twice full on with both barrels from that cannon, then retreated. He found an intersection and tried flitting back and forth across it, but by keeping my crosshair on the opposite side and firing as soon as he appeared I always caught him with the blast before he got back out of view. He started occasionally switching up a bit and not cutting all the way across, he would peak out, fire, then duck back behind into the street he came from. So I leveled one of the corner buildings and gave myself a somewhat wider view.

I came out of the whole thing mostly unscathed.

Granted, had he spent some of his ammo and widened out the general area we were fighting in a bit by getting rid of some of the buildings he probably could have killed me. Or he could have simply run away and gone for a victory by capturing more combas towers than me. Our fight was a fair distance from his HQ and I had spent over half my heavy cannon ammo fighting him. But then his movement was slow towards the end of our actual fighting so I'm pretty sure I'd heavily damaged his legs. If that wasn't the case and he still had full movement speed then destroying his HQ in time to keep the victory might have been hard.

I don't know, the HG thing works well enough of the other person doesn't have the equipment to fight it.

And if you're going after computer defenders just for the cash, I find that they're pretty awful at defending from heavy gunner attacks from long range. When I do encounter them they stick so close to their HQ that I'm generally out of their attack range.

The last game I won against the computer I accidentally destroyed the defending Hound with splash damage while I was hitting the HQ from about 900 meters away.

Wow the 'Keep It' price on Gamefly is $45. Must be the mixed reviews, or maybe they bought more than they ended up needing.

Guys, I really want to meet up with y'all, but I'm stuck on Morskoj because of the stupid 2-week allegiance thing.

I heard that if you join a squad that switches factions, you can then leave the squad and be apart of that faction.

Can any of the new people help me out, here? I really don't want to wait two weeks.

Logan wrote:

Guys, I really want to meet up with y'all, but I'm stuck on Morskoj because of the stupid 2-week allegiance thing.

I heard that if you join a squad that switches factions, you can then leave the squad and be apart of that faction.

Can any of the new people help me out, here? I really don't want to wait two weeks.

Did you change once already? We've been told that you should be able to freely change allegiance once before the two week restriction starts applying to you.

And if for some reason you can't change, Lobster is currently in Morskoj, so you could hook up with him.

Well, I think it may be a moot point - Morskoj is about to take over the whole goddamn world, so we'll be restarting, anyway.

Damn it, I can't find a used 360 anywhere. Time to hit up people who I know work at Best Buy for some discounts.

I think Morskoj just took the war - I logged onto Live for the first time, signed up to Morskoj to buy parts, and they had 100% after I did the first rookie mission!

From: http://boards.sega.com/chromehounds/...

Rom SEGA, a mod at the official Sega Chromehounds boards wrote:

We're happy to announce that the first downloadable pack of new content for Chromehounds will be unleashed next week. And it'll be free!

SEGA and FromSoftware have made the decision to offer the pack free of charge by way of a thank you to HOUND pilots around the world. As you may know, we experienced some tricky server-load problems right after launch, and we hope this will go some way to saying thanks for sticking by the game.

The pack will be available to download via the Xbox Live Marketplace at 00:00GMT on 19th July.

PACK CONTENTS:

Light Arms
http://tinyurl.com/n8mdn
WP_SG003
A sniper cannon for fast, furious engagements. Features a smaller magazine to reduce weight.

Heavy Arms
http://tinyurl.com/njkgb
WH_HC034
An improved HC1500/D, for those in the know. A giant cannon with massive destructive power.

Assist Part
http://tinyurl.com/mlkec
AX_AM002
Additional armor with an enhanced KE defensive profile. It's shaped to better turn bullets.

Colour Pattern
http://tinyurl.com/o3y3q
WWII Tricolor Camouflage
A brand new World War II inspired camouflage pattern.

Enjoy!

Pretty cool. We can also use this as a way to see if download packs are going to splinter the user base. One of us should intentionally NOT download it so that we can see if it is possible to join matches where people are using the DLC when you haven't bought it.

Hmmm... I was under the impression that packs were going to be much bigger. Like 24 pieces. Maybe this is just because it's free.

Anyways! I think I've found my niche. I made a new version of the heavy gunner I mentioned before with all three main guns on the centerpoint, with the heavy cockpit on the right side and a generator with armor plating on the left. Two machine guns on the cockpit for taking out small fry. I have each of the three cannons (two being heavies, one of which is a double-barrel) set to their own firing group to counter the drifting effect caused by the recoil. All together, one volley does around 6000 damage in a wide area. It's more than enough to level a base, given time, but enemy AI defenders and soldiers can't stand up to one or two blasts. In one match, a single volley killed my opponent instantly. In another, it totally blew all of its weapons clean off. In the third, it destroyed all of my opponent's weapons in two shots (it was a defender). I ended up winning that round by base destruction because my harmless opponent decided to turn tail and run. It is a hard class to use and I dread to think of what a fast, skilled, human opponent could do, but it's definitely paid for itself several times over. I'll post a screenshot later.