The Energon Pub

News Credits: 5 · by **emeraldbeacon** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:14 pm

Coming from a very noob-ish perspective, and with a handful of my bots JUST starting to reach the 1000xp threshold for their first upgrade, I'm curious about the various alt-modes and their abilities. Certainly, every mode type has its own unique traits and costs... jets have Avoid and Strafe, trucks have Ram, and so forth.

Is there *any* benefit to be derived from having a transformer without an alternate mode (essentially, an Actionmaster)? Other than the 'bragging rights' of being able to say "My fighter beat yours, and I didn't even transform to do it", of course...

Perhaps "Actionmaster" could be added to the list of Alt-Modes, with randomly cycling silhouettes to choose from, with no Tactics. At least that way, we'd have pictures to go along with our poor little transformationally-challenged characters...

by **Tammuz** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:18 pm

they tend to be more powerful (though much more expensive) for a given level.

but then the level 5 xp cap kills them.

News Credits: 7 · by **Chaoslock** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:20 pm

Various tactics do various things, I recommend avoid since it gives extra 50 Xp/€ every time it is triggered, and nullifies an attack. As for stats, the most useful for the first a
upgrades are speed, it gives you better hit% and (theoretically)
makes you move more in a battle.

another master mentioned, another drink.

by **Rat Convoy** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:23 pm

Chaoslock wrote:Various tactics do various things, I recommend avoid since it gives extra 50 Xp/€ every time it is triggered, and nullifies an attack. As for stats, the most useful for the first a
upgrades are speed, it gives you better hit% and (theoretically)
makes you move more in a battle.

another master mentioned, another drink.

Avoid is a very good recommendation. An avoider will out-earn a non-avoider at the lowest levels, because that 50 XP per avoid is a lot of XP for a level 0 or even a 1.

by **Tammuz** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:51 pm

Rat Convoy wrote:
Chaoslock wrote:Various tactics do various things, I recommend avoid since it gives extra 50 Xp/€ every time it is triggered, and nullifies an attack. As for stats, the most useful for the first a
upgrades are speed, it gives you better hit% and (theoretically)
makes you move more in a battle.

another master mentioned, another drink.

Avoid is a very good recommendation. An avoider will out-earn a non-avoider at the lowest levels, because that 50 XP per avoid is a lot of XP for a level 0 or even a 1.

unless you are constantly outnumbering the enemy. in a 6v1 mission you're avoid rate is cut by a factor of six.

News Credits: 1 · by **Redimus** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:55 pm

Before the reset, I repeatedly tried using Action Masters (ie non alt tfs) and I repeatedly found it an expensive and uterly unrewarding way to play this game.

Unless the charecter calls for it, Action Masters in this game, just like their toys, is complete and utter EPIC FAIL.

by **Malicron** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:50 pm

pRedimus wrote:complete and utter EPIC FAIL.

News Credits: 1 · by **crazyfists** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:56 pm

I suggest you check out the help section.

http://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar/help/

In there is an XP calculator to help you plan out your upgrades and also a list of weapons, armor, tactics, level data, and alt modes.

News Credits: 1 · by **Redimus** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:13 pm

You keep peddling the help section, but in reality, if you dont already know how the game works, it has absolutly sweet FA use. The help secion should be renamed the reference section, cuase that is all it really is, a place to check what should be available and when.

Time to brow beat Jeep for his new starters guide...

News Credits: 1 · by **crazyfists** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:09 pm

pRedimus wrote:You keep peddling the help section, but in reality, if you dont already know how the game works, it has absolutly sweet FA use. The help secion should be renamed the reference section, cuase that is all it really is, a place to check what should be available and when.

Time to brow beat Jeep for his new starters guide...

That's the point. There is a difference between a GUIDE and a HELP section. The help section is mainly reference material and such, it doesn't tell you how to play. The help section will help with stuff such as knowing how to unlock tactics. It isn't meant to guide you how to play. The FAQ and help section was never meant to tell you the ins and outs and strategies of how to play because everyone can play however they like. That FAQ also needs updating. The good thing about having the guide was that it helped newer players, which many of us did not have when we started.

Should the help section be changed to reference section? I have no idea.

News Credits: 1 · by **Redimus** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:35 pm

Help indicates it'd at least give you a hint as to how to play. The help section does no such thing.

News Credits: 5 · by **emeraldbeacon** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:01 pm

Tammuz wrote:unless you are constantly outnumbering the enemy. in a 6v1 mission you're avoid rate is cut by a factor of six.

Though, I would assume that the flip side, an 'avoider' that's getting into suicide missions (like 1-2 v. 5-6), would see some pretty nice XP coming their way, despite the inevitable CR wait afterwards...

and it's "your", not "you're"

News Credits: 1 · by **crazyfists** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:04 pm

pRedimus wrote:Help indicates it'd at least give you a hint as to how to play. The help section does no such thing.

The help section aids players by giving them information, it doesn't have to tell you have to play or give you hints to accomplish helping. That's the purpose of the the guide. The guide tells you how to play. I don't think we need to get into discussions over the use of the word "help." That could be time used to, I don't know, maybe make a new guide rather than wait?

News Credits: 3 · by **Archanubis** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:22 am

Slightly related question: I see the "old crew" of alts that was up when the game came back is up - practically exactly the list that was up. As I suspect the rotation has been reset to its original schedule of once every two weeks, I just want to ask if the rotation will be a little more... random? Just so the rotation's not so predictable.

News Credits: 1 · by **Absolute Zero** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:07 am

We got some different ones on the Pred side. Should still be every three days for another 2-3 weeks.

by **Tammuz** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:11 am

at my guess it should be only another 2 roations max(if it has't just flipped) unless one of the sides has a buttload more rares than the cons.

I'm dyslexic emerald beacon, you understood what i meant and this is the purpose of language. as to the flipside , i'm not so sure there is much of an advantage compared to an equal battle, you'll still be avoiding at the same rate, but i don't think you'll see such a large increase in the number of attacks recived, as you'll still die after taking 100% damage.

and i do think the reference section needs doing specially if we start getting an influx of new people for some reason in the future.

Like steve2275 on Facebook · by **steve2275** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:48 am

Absolute Zero wrote:We got some different ones on the Pred side. Should still be every three days for another 2-3 weeks.

fine by me

News Credits: 42 · by **Psychout** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:28 am

Back in the good old days, around the L4 mark, a Cassette with a pair of battleblades and high speed and end was near unstoppable.

I wouldn't recommend action masters now though.

News Credits: 1 · by **Redimus** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:07 am

Psychout wrote:Back in the good old days, around the L4 mark, a Cassette with a pair of battleblades and high speed and end was near unstoppable.

I wouldn't recommend action masters now though.

Yeah... it was an unstopable level 4 with level 6's XP....

And you know what? My level 6s were raking in a hell of a lot more.

News Credits: 42 · by **Psychout** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:39 am

pRedimus wrote:
Psychout wrote:Back in the good old days, around the L4 mark, a Cassette with a pair of battleblades and high speed and end was near unstoppable.

I wouldn't recommend action masters now though.

Yeah... it was an unstopable level 4 with level 6's XP....

And you know what? My level 6s were raking in a hell of a lot more.

Bollocks, had barely enough xp to make a good 5 at the time.

by **devast8or** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:41 am

Psychout wrote:Back in the good old days, around the L4 mark, a Cassette with a pair of battleblades and high speed and end was near unstoppable.

I wouldn't recommend action masters now though.

even a lvl 1 with blades was the fo-shizzle

by **8 bit** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:22 am

Chaoslock wrote:As for stats, the most useful for the first a
upgrades are speed, it gives you better hit% and (theoretically)
makes you move more in a battle.

I have a question about lvl 0 stats: I have a team that consists mostly of medium vehicles. The con that is doing best by far has 2 Speed upgrades, better than two of my cons that have an Avoid upgrade. Is this consistent with all alt modes or just certain vehicle alt modes.

Also, what good are stats like intelligence and courage? Are they more for higher levels?

News Credits: 42 · by **Psychout** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:26 am

Nah, Int's rubbish. Ditch it and take speed.

That is unless unless you're an Autobot, in which case they clearly need all the Int they can get.

by **8 bit** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:38 am

Psychout wrote:Nah, Int's rubbish. Ditch it and take speed.

That is unless unless you're an Autobot, in which case they clearly need all the Int they can get.

Just checked my team after their missions. Even though they all went into stasis lock, my con with Speed upgrades still got well over a 100xp, while two with Avoid, Courage, and Intelligence barely got 20xp. Time for some resets!

News Credits: 1 · by **Redimus** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:05 am

Right.

Firstly, are they all still only one one stat?

Becuase ifthey are, yeah, 1 stat of avoid with no feeder is pretty crap, but one stat tfs are ppretty crap anyway.

Secondly, int has never been any good, and crg was never very good at low levels, and Tam beleives isnt very good at all anymore (I wanna wait and see on that front).

Secondly, speed is by far the strongest stat right now, so try and include it somewhere in all your builds, and nay tfs where you can have avoid, do have avoid.