Improving battle skills

What levels are your robots and weapons?... I remember one of the best things that helped was running max weapons on level one robots like a Cossack to work on my aiming and situational awareness. Forces you to learn how to play smart and make the best of every situation.

Get yourself a bunch of pinata pattons (say lev 3/5) and start hunting with them. A slow fragile bot with a long cooldown is going to teach you situational awareness. (if it kills you).

All of what you are talking about I have issues with. A way around it that doesn't really teach anything is to use a tank. Either a Boa or a Leo depending on the tier that can take a lot of punishment if you are over exposed.

Was literally about to suggest this. I wouldn't even bother with max weapons (unless you already had them, as Flex may have). Just buy a hangars' worth of straight Cossacks and practice, practice, practice. Maybe mix in a Destrier, which is fragile enough to make you want to develop peripheral awareness- but (crucially) in an environment where you won't get melted in your tracks for making the wrong decision. 

Don't put your priority on winning or losing. Learn to perfect cornershooting. FOr instance, on Shenzhen, get in the routine of running along the upper or lower cross-streets, capping the mid-high or mid-low beacon (depending on where you spawn) and continuing on to the corner where you'll get to practice every. single. game. 

I use Gareth as the last bot I play as, when you must heavily push for beacons. It takes that role very well when most player are on their last plasma Griffins that are jumping around at half health.

For Orkan Mag Rhino, it is purely a distraction and an all offensive meatbag. Orkan Mag is best suited for keeping and suppressing enemies to stay out of canter beacon (with mags) and if they do make a run for it, then you unload.

Very good question. Most people naturally tend to blame their tools; in reality it's usually the craftsman that's at fault. Recognizing this as you have is a critical step...

When I wanted to get better I sought to learn from better players, and I still do. Perhaps the best way to do this is to actively watch video.

You're getting "target fixation", sensory overload, and you're making poor decisions as a result. What you really need to do is slow the game down so that your brain can catch up. Luckily with video you can do this... I would watch Adrian's video's here:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCk_jiByxmYqfZ11tYl0OCOw
Pause the video regularly and ask yourself what he's doing differently and what you'd do next. See if you can remember who's where on the battlefield, in what bots and at what ranges. You'll get better at answering these questions in slow motion, but more important you'll also get better at full speed. You'll also pick up tips, strong positions, etc.

I'd start there and see how it goes...

Cornering boils down to C-Strafing, when you approach the corner, practice doing a semi circle into, away from, out of, and then back into cover, you never EVER want to fizzle from your legs being pointed in the worst possible direction when you are peeping out to fire. Pulling deeper into cover before actually attempting to corner shoot will also give you two possible advantages: 1: Discovering whether or not your opponent is waiting to engage you, and 2:Possibly baiting a rocket salvo from beyond splash range.

Rhino is meant to be an over agressive meat bag, but, when approaching Reds, it's best to stop at 50-100M from your max engagement range to see just how many reds are headed your way. Remember what direction you can charge with your rhino, if there are too many reds to take on, head on, take the safest route to your nearest ally.

Acethunder made an excellent point about situational awareness, when your munitions are tapped, feel free to look around while attempting to break off the engagement. Rhino's slow turn speed while charging can be a strength as well 「bum-bum」 a drawback, you can snap the camera 45-90 degrees quickly, then back to center before you turn off course.

MRS is a pain to deal with, but your best bet is NOT making a B-line toward them, but instead sticking to cover and flanking. Flanking is a bit more difficult against squads, but in solo play, all you have to do is listen for their volley launched at someone else, barrel in and bite hard. If you count to 11 while advancing, and duck back into cover by 12, you should be safe if they turn to attack you.

Ran the hangar three times.

First match was on Shenzhen. Raked first damage. Used both patton and one schutze. First kill was a galahad that engaged my pinata patton shield up... died in one salvo, sweet. Improved ambush skills i think.

Second match was on canyon. Second in damage. Pinata pattons died very quickly.

Third was on springfield. First damage, A vs E spawn. Got E, wanted to camp on A twice with patton but both died. Schitzes lasted till very end though.

I feel like it's not helping very much?

I think it all boils down to practice really. I do enjoy using a variety of bots and try to have one of each in my hangar. But in the beginning I used the same bot over and over till operation became second nature to me. If there was a certain bot I dreaded using, I'd use it first then realize, eventually, that it isn't so bad after all. Bots that gave me some trouble (and sometimes still do) are the stalker and fujin. To be honest though we all develop our own playing style and the bots we use/prefer are highly reflective of that.

I agree with petevd, watching vids really gives one a more varied insight into the game. Adrian, Phoenix, Stew Pendous, and Warlock all have very different styles but they're all very good.

I forgot to mention:

Natasha:
When do I eject from a MRS? Reading a thread is easy, knowing when in battle and practicing it isn't.

All bots:
Enemy weapon Identification; I just got killed from the side trying to get to the center beacon in yama lategame by a PDB griff in Thunder Carnage. The center beacon had a TT boa, while i didn't notice a PDB griff below the bridge. When i first saw him jumping i thought it wasn't PDB. Turns out i was wrong, costing the game. Didn't help i don't use sounds...

acethunder yeah there's a great vid on YT precisely on that topic!

OP: what has worked somewhat well for me, is to get into the habit of *always* scanning the battlefield if I'm not immediately about to enter a confrontation.
E.g. while going from A to B I will rotate to get a lock on to every red bot, (for instance starting from left to right). Mentally note down their ranges. Now you know where each one is on the map. With experience, you will also have a good idea if they are behind cover. If you're doing a 20 second run from spawn, you should have enough time to lock on to every red bot twice and you can then use the change in distance (relative to your own direction and speed) to estimate where they are moving and how fast, and this info (combined with what shots you can hear and see) you can use to guess at what bot + loadout they are using. This is not easy, but you'll get better at it if you try, and eventually you'll have a mindmap of the entire red team. If you get really good at it, you'll begin to notice your team as well and be able to capitalize on it to generate as many 2:1 or otherwise favorable confrontations.
You'll need to change your movement control counter to the way you are looking to run in a straight line, but that should be pretty easy to learn.

I'm not sure the above is the best possible strategy and tbh I never really got the idea to watch youtube videos of better players (which I certainly will - thanks for the idea everyone), but it is certainly better than charging blindly.

I have read that thread, believe me, which is the reason i added the last sentence.

Give me 5000 Au and 7500 WSP and i'll gladly use a different platform

Wonderful video Sir. Made all the more enjoyable with your accent and calm demeanor.

More often than not you tend to see the battle as having an outcome - instead try giving it one