The Energon Pub

[Dispatch]

In case anyone was wondering if new people occasionally stumble into this game, the answer is yes!

So for the sake of this thread, assume you are talking to someone who barely knows what they are doing. Keep your answers (and questions) as basic as possible.

I will start:

Does resetting a character also reset it's alternate form?

Should reaching six characters be prioritized over equipping current ones?

What is a safe margin of € to leave for the CR chamber?

[darksabrz]

I'll try to help, though I confess things likely have changed since I went through and first started playing Heavy metal War. That said:

1) Yes, it resets the alternate form, so be sure to choose your new altmode first -- otherwise, the game will think you're a filthy Nucleon-guzzling Action Master who was dropped on their transformation cog upon stepping off the assembly line.

2) Also yes, IMO. Mostly because once you have your first 6 characters, you should be getting a decent enough supply of energon to stockpile for when you do start boosting Firepower and Skill for weapon selection. Ideally, I'd say go straight to a full 12-man team as quickly as you can, because then you can run one six-mech group in missions or arena (missions is where the XP is at, though), and while they're in CR, you can run the other six-mech group. That should keep your energon gains in good shape throughout from level 0-2, I'd say. Weapons might be a thing, but I wouldn't invest past Firepower 2 or Skill 2 (Skill would be better, especially if you're going with boosting Strength).

3) CR costs... I don't think are much of an issue at level 0 or 1 (my mind is fuzzy here, because it's been nearly a decade since I first started playing, and I played for about two years before taking several years off, popping back in a couple of years ago and tinkering a wee bit... and now I'm back again), so I wouldn't worry too much about that. By the time you hit level 2 or so, you should have enough energon stockpiled that you can still make energon gains in spite of the CR chamber costs.

[ThunderThruster]

The CR costs are based on the level of bots, and a full list can be found here. There shouldn't really be any need to worry about having enough energon to cover this as the costs are well within what you should gain from missions.

[Bun-Bun]

Welcome.

At level 0 CR is no problem because it's free.

After that if you get in trouble you can always ask a member of your faction to send you some Energon.
(those threads are in the individual Faction Forums. Ask Burn for access.)

[darksabrz]

Just to check, since it's been no small number of years since I last played -- how often does the altmode change occur? I thought I saw every three days, but I'm pretty sure it's been four, if not five, and I haven't seen an altmode change yet. Given some of the advice from Bun-Bun and ThunderThruster, I'm waiting to see if the 'Cons still have access to the War Within Optimus altmode (Heavy Vehicle).

[Bun-Bun]

The alt rotators for both the Bots and Cons have issues (but strangely enough not the same issues).
For the Bots the Commons do not rotate (and thus some have been made Core until the issues is resolved).
For the Cons... I don't honestly remember what your issue is. I was thinking it was your Rare modes that didn't rotate. May be that the whole thing is busted now.
Either way Psychout usually helps people out in that department. He's about due for his semi-monthly check in but I'll ping him over on fb to see if I can rouse him.

[Psychout]

Yeah, both rotators are broken.

I set up a thread in the bot forum for them to request alts to be made core as those are the ones that still work for them.

Ive not changed any of my alts in years so dont know exactly what's wrong with the con list, but if its the same issue then I'll do the same for the cons are well.

[darksabrz]

Yeah. Right now, EVERY altmode is Core or Common -- not a single Rare in the mix. Shame. Ah well, like I mentioned in the other thread, Incognito will likely just have to suffer until I can get his main stats and such finalized -- at that point, I'll most likely look at boosting his INT to 3 (because I need that benchmark to unlock Repair as a secondary tactic for Heavy Vehicle). C'est la vie.

[Burn]

Faction forum set, energon set.

[KAMJIIN]

The con rotator does work. I check it religously. It does rotate every 3 days. But it does have its issues.

Sometimes the changes are minimal (only 1 to 2 alts changed). Rares do rotate in, but it really is rare (maybe once or twice a month). Armored Ambulance is one I've been watching for a while and it has only rotated in once since November. When a rare does rotate in, it's usually the spaceship that's just a dupe of an existing crappy fighter alt. For the most part, though, it's only commons rotating in and out.

Edit: this mornings rotation put the rare spaceship back in (it's a mirror flipped stunt jet).

[Dispatch]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and quick answers! I greatly appreciate all of it.

I've started putting it all to good use. Coming up with names and bios are going to be a whole other challenge, but I will muddle through.

The builds thread looks to have some great advice! There have been some references to what is not important for certain charqcter types, so I thought I'd ask:

What are important stats for a 'medic'/repair character?

[KAMJIIN]

INT is the feeder stat for repair. But it does no good to have a strong repair if you can't live long enough to use it. End, STR, SPD are must haves for any character. Also, repair targets characters with higher END first.

[High Command]

Any decent build needs a combo of strength, endurance and speed first and foremost. Until you have several points in these, don't worry about the others except the tactic you're using.
For a repairer intelligence is worth investing in much further down the line.

In a nutshell it's all a numbers game and these stats improve your chances.
Speed makes it more likely an enemy will miss you and more likely you'll hit them.
Endurance helps you survive attacks better.
Strength increases the damage you can inflict with punches, kicks and ram also it lets you wear armour which also helps you survive attacks better.

When starting out, surviving longer in fights is key. It gives you more chances to do stuff in missions and earn more xp for better stats.

[darksabrz]

New (hopefully simple) question:

Is there a way to see the full range of both armor and weapons? I've noticed that the code limits your options to your Rank for armor and FRP/SKL for weapons, but I'm interested in seeing all the possibilities (particularly with weapons).

[KAMJIIN]

https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwa ... eapons.php

https://www.seibertron.com/heavymetalwar/help/armor.php

[darksabrz]

Bless you, kind sir.

[KAMJIIN]

I'd save those links if I were you, as getting to them is (unfortunately) not a simple answer

[Bun-Bun]

Whadya mean it ain't easy?
They're right there in the help section.
Who would make a difficult to use help section?

[KAMJIIN]

[KAMJIIN]

It's not really. Just more complicated then it needs to be. And most people don't think to look under help for reference materials. That should really be on the registry page, but that's another topic for another thread.

[Burn]

I mean it's not like the link to the Help Section isn't right there on the right hand side with all the other HMW links when you're in the HMW forums.

[darksabrz]

I totally spaced on the fact that the FAQ page was there -- been so long since I've played that I forgot about it completely.

New question, this time in regard to tactics for altmodes (though it might not be quite a simple question, it might still be something newer players like Ninthshadow would be interested in): I won't deny that Ram/Repair and Repair/Strafe seem to be really nice combos for altmode tactics. However, I want to say I remember that I was warned against purely offensive or defensive tactic altmodes (Avoid/Repair and Ram/Strafe specifically, since Bite wasn't really around that I recall back when I first started playing a decade or more back). Is this still true that I shouldn't consider doing something like a Ram/Strafe tank altmode, for instance, because of potential conflicts between which tactic goes off when? Or has that turned out to be a total misnomer and doing a pure-defense or pure-offense altmode is every bit as viable as a 'neutral' dual-tactic altmode that has Avoid OR Repair/Ram OR Strafe?

[KAMJIIN]

They all have their uses, all though many debate the merits of avoid (I personally love it, but many would disagree). That said dual offensive tactics are unpredictable, as your tank may strafe in a one on one fight you could have won if you had rammed instead. That being said, however, the dual offensive tactics and dual defensive tactics tend to work best in big fights (i.e. 4 on 6, 5 on 5, 7 on 7).

That's where checking the mission before hand and deploying the best TF for the job comes in. If you have time to do so and still join the mission, click on the mission name. It will show you who is in the mission already, and see what will help your side best.

[KAMJIIN]

This is what I meant in the other thread about being more tactical. An aerial rescue vehicle helpful air animal (edit: thanks for pointing out where I misspoke, me making a proofreading mistake is almost inexcusable to me) is next to useless in a 1 on 1 matchup (hard to gain decent xp on purely avoid). A tank wants targets to strafe, but back up in case he rams instead. You want to deploy your characters where they can utilize their tactics most effectively. Tactic usage (Other than avoid) gives substantially more xp than just hitting someone. So the more opportunities you have to use both tactics, the more xp you will gain. More xp = more upgrades. More upgrades = a more effective TF. A more effective TF = more xp. It's really a vicious circle.

[White_Noise]

Personally, I've found it difficult to build a good Rammer/Strafer or Biter/Strafer at lower and mid levels. If both tactics are unlocked, either one tactic is built strong and the other poor, or they are both half-arsed. Often better to build a strong single offensive alt until you reach high enough level and then reformat into a dual offensive tsctic later (or unlock the second tactic once you have sufficient feeder stats)

As for repair/avoid, I had great success with this build back in the day. It actually became my highest xp earning build. As Kamjiin mentioned though, the success is highly dependent upon the mission type and the character levels of your allies & opposition. Any type of solo mission is your worst match-up, and becomes increasingly more difficult to win the higher you level. If however you reserve the character of this build for missions with a lot of high level allies, I would highly recommend

White_Noise