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This is a guide to offer an objective perspective on concepts that most players utilize by the time they are into mid tier play. It may be useful to those who already use these these tactics as it aims to provide a "why".
Hi. I'm ticklemyiguana. I drink beer, bourbon, and scotch, and do things for the community. I want you to know that Hawken is math.
In order to illuminate that concept, I want to present you with the simplest of scenarios. You and your opponent have two bone stock assaults. He stands in front of you and you shoot him directly with a TOW rocket, thus dealing 125 damage to his initial 565 armor, leaving him with 440 armor. From this point on you deal exactly equal damage. You are standing in front of each other, shooting with the same DPS, and he dies first, and depending on the sequence of TOW rockets, you should be left with 125 health.
That's simple, right?
That is every 1v1 fight.
Some fights the respective armors are tweaked, sometimes the DPS, sometimes its you taking damage first, and sometimes its not, but at the end of the fight there is an average effective DPS for each player and an armor value for each player.
Now, of course, many things modify how we perceive those numbers, but they exist regardless. It's a rare fight in which you land every shot and are firing constantly, however there is still an effective DPS. If you miss half your TOW shots, and the other half land directly, your effective DPS with the TOW, given that you are constantly firing it, becomes 27.78, as opposed to 55.56.
To me, it seems the obvious question at this point is "How do I increase my effective DPS." Well, a very simple answer is "learn to aim." But aim takes a lot of practice, and really, there's a simpler option. It's not necessarily a matter of increasing your own DPS as it is maintaining a higher average effective DPS than your opponent- obviously this is of greater and greater significance the lighter mech you are, and the heavier mech they are. Regardless, there's a very simple method to increasing your own effective DPS in a fight.
Are you ready for it?
But tickle, what in the hell does my method of movement have to do with how much damage I do to my opponent?
Well, young grasshopper, your effective DPS can gain a significant advantage over your opponents if you shoot first. If you surprise your opponent with a good alpha, not only can you dodge back behind cover to wait for your secondary to reload, but you can negate one entire cycle of DPS for your opponent's secondary.
Lesson One: Out damaging your opponent through superior intelligence.
Lesson One A.
As outlined above, you can gain an advantage over your opponent by hitting them first. 90% of the time, this requires that you know where they are and at the same time, they don't know where you are. The maximum field of view a player in Hawken can have is 110 degrees out of 360. If you are outside of audible range, which is quite a small radius, and you happen to spot a player, this means there is a marginally greater than 30% chance that you are on your enemy's screen, and that's if they have their FOV at maximum.
If you boost toward them, there is a 100% chance that you will be on their screen in the form of a radar blip, and you are fuzzy bunnyng yourself.
By walking when you do not know the exact location of your opponent, you are by a bare minimum, increasing your chance at gaining a significant effective DPS advantage by 70%.
Fights are not always so cut and dry. There are a lot of ways for your opponent to kill you without them having the first strike, but do you really want to pass that up?
First of all, that 70% chance of a first strike is only accounting for the fact that your opponent likely won't have you on his or her screen when you see them. We're assuming that you're not quite as surprised to see them as they are you, and this gives you an advantage of reaction time, which can have the same effect. If you get a secondary off before they do, and have time to dodge into cover before theirs connects, you're gaining nearly the same advantage as if their back was turned. So again, if you want to have higher effective DPS than your opponent,
Lesson One B.
A classes have a 1.0 second dodge cooldown.
B classes have a 1.2 second dodge cooldown.
C classes have a 1.4 second dodge cooldown.
Primary weapons hit hard, but secondary weapons change the game.
You're in your assault again facing your opponent in their assault. You're both firing as fast as you can. On top of this, you're both dodging as fast as you can. The first dodge causes your opponent's SMC and TOW to miss. Yours as well. Your second dodge causes your opponents SMC to miss, but the TOW hasn't reloaded yet. In between the second and third dodge, your opponent's TOW reloads, shoots, and hits you. Yours does too.
Now, you're both just whittling eachother down, and all things equal, will kill each other at the exact same time, but you want to win, and winning means making things like effective DPS unequal.
So don't dodge every time you can. In a strictly 1v1 matchup, 1 TOW rocket is going to make the difference. If you're at range, and your dodge ability is still on cooldown when your opponent fires, unless he's new to using a mouse, he's going to hit you.
This is the math.
t=00.00=dodge+TOW 1
t=01.20=dodge
t=02.25=TOW 2
t=02.40=dodge
t=03.60=dodge
t=04.50=TOW 3
t=04.80=dodge
t=06.00=dodge
t=06.75=TOW 4
t=07.20=dodge
t=08.40=dodge
t=09.00=TOW 5
t=09.60=dodge
t=10.80=dodge
t=11.25=TOW 6
t=12.00=dodge
t=13.20=dodge
t=13.50=TOW 7
t=14.40=dodge
t=15.60=dodge
t=15.75=TOW 8
t=16.80=dodge
t=18.00=dodge+TOW 9
You'll notice, as I've made it very clear, it takes 9 full cycles of dodging as fast as you can and firing your TOW, 18 full seconds of fighting, to dodge the next TOW. You will be ded by then. What are you dodging in the meantime? 4 or 5 shots from the SMC- about 50 damage. 50 damage is important, but not nearly as important as the continuous stream of 125 damage bursts that come from insufficient dodge ability when being shot at by a TOW launcher.
So, ticklemyiguana, how do I maintain a higher effective DPS than my opponent?
Fast means nothing if you're predictable.
This is what the above situation could look like:
t=00.00=dodge+TOW
t=02.25=dodge+TOW
t=04.50=dodge+TOW
t=06.75=dodge+TOW
t=09.00=dodge+TOW
t=11.25=dodge+TOW
t=13.50=dodge+TOW
t=15.75=dodge+TOW
t=18.00=dodge+TOW
See the difference? I'm not saying that you should be dodging every time you fire a TOW. I am saying that you should be able to dodge every time your opponent fires one.
Lesson One C.
Maximize your effective DPS by using your radar.
Any time you're facing an opponent and they are not on your screen, you need to be looking at your radar. (Any time you're facing your opponent and they're on your screen, you should also be looking at your radar.)
The moment your opponent escapes your field of view, as far as you're concerned, they could be anywhere.
You're in your assault again. You have 565 armor, and your opponent has 416 because you've nailed him with a TOW and two of your SMC shots connected. However, your opponent has just boosted past you and is now behind you. You follow their trajectory with your screen, only to find that by the time you are looking behind your initial position, your opponent is not there, but you are still taking damage. You continue to sweep in that direction, continue to take damage, and finally find your opponent back in front of your initial position. This is roughly the point in time that you die. I don't have accurate data on the maximum speed that you can turn in your mech, but I do know that an assault landing every shot of TOW and SMC will take just over 3.5 seconds to kill another assault at full armor.
I also know it takes me just under three seconds to do a complete 360 in an assault. Even if your opponent has been taking splash damage from his or her own TOWs, if they are evading your field of view by being behind you, they can kill you.
Ideally, you are going to dodge to the side when this happens. Why? because if you are at the center of a circle, facing degree number 0, and would like to look at degree number 180, you must make a 180 degree turn. If you are at the edge of a circle, facing in the same direction, you must only turn 135 degrees, which can be accomplished in 3/4 the time. This assumes your enemy has reached approximately one dodge distance behind you, though even if the value is less or greater, the core principal remains the same.
Now, watch this closely.
If it takes you three seconds to make a complete turn, but only 3/4s the time to make a 135 degree turn, then how many seconds is that? 2.25. Why is that significant? Because that's the exact same amount of time that it takes for one TOW to reload.
If your opponent started shooting after he passed your field of view, and you dodged immediately, you won't get hit with that second TOW. You will have 1.05 seconds after your dodge ability has cooled down to discern where your enemy is, fire a few shots, and dodge their next TOW.
BUT TICKLE, WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE RADAR?
Ahem.
So use your radar to keep a higher effective DPS than your opponent.
It's 3:30 in the morning. I will update this with more lessons.
Edited by ticklemyiguana, 21 April 2015 - 11:58 AM.
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