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MechWarrior Online - News and Information Thread

Orayn

Member
So, Steam Launch on December 10th.
http://mwomercs.com/news/2015/11/1401-mechwarrior-online-steam-launch-party


I wonder, should this game get a new OT then?
I mean, i wouldn't be surprised if Steam availability brings some fresh blood, even here on GAF.
A proper OT, this was after all something of a beta-thread as well... i think.
Beside, Orayn ain't playing (i guess?) and not updating the OT so someone more active could probably keep one up to date.

I'm not playing, but I'd happily update the thread if someone wants to make a new one. That, or you could make an actual OT since we said we'd do that when community warfare hit.
 

Lime

Member
If anyone is into figures and painting, there's this really high quality casting of the MW:O Atlas in 1:60 scale. It looks amazing:
100_8897.JPG


100_8904.JPG
 

Giolon

Member

They're resetting CW map before the Steam launch on Dec 10. They had always said that we were playing "CW Beta 2".

I haven't played the game really in a few months (since September or so), and I have to say, the UI is really feeling a lot more polished than it did before. I think the game is going to make a half way decent impression on Steam, but I also think that the toxic community is going to be one of the largest impetus's towards actually growing the player base by a meaningful amount.

Also, the new quirk balance pass seems pretty good in what I've played of it yesterday. It'll be interesting to see what glaring problems end up shaking out, both in terms of the reduced mobility of Heavy and Assault mechs and the further nerfs to Clans via mobility and weaponry nerfs.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Not sure nerfing heavies and assaults does much. The latter are only so-so popular (or so it seems when i play), nerfing just makes them rarer, while heavies are still overall probably the most optimal choice.

If anything, medium mechs should be buffed. Lights, well, those lights that are worth considering seem to do well if the pilot knows his/her stuff. Mediums on the other hand seem kind of.. meh. There are some good ones but... Well.
 

Giolon

Member
Not sure nerfing heavies and assaults does much. The latter are only so-so popular (or so it seems when i play), nerfing just makes them rarer, while heavies are still overall probably the most optimal choice.

If anything, medium mechs should be buffed. Lights, well, those lights that are worth considering seem to do well if the pilot knows his/her stuff. Mediums on the other hand seem kind of.. meh. There are some good ones but... Well.

Well, Medium (and Light) mechs are buffed by virtue of the balance changes. Nearly all IS Lights and Mediums received quirks that offset the loss of mobility from the pilot efficiency reductions. Heavies and assaults are less mobile and less able to quickly torso twist whereas Lights and Mediums stayed the same.

Most IS mechs received some amount of bonus armor or structure as well. One thing is pretty cool is that some Atlases got about an 25-33% health increase to their structure while also getting a -25% chance to receive a critical hit. It makes them tanky as all get out and able to absorb damage like an Atlas is supposed to.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I see, i see.

Well, whatever PGI is doing is going be wasted for a time once the Clan BattleMechs appear, me thinks.
Maybe.
I very much doubt they will be balanced right away.

Now, if they could get rid of the voting*, my last attempts to play this game stopped when i got Mining Colony and Frozen City constantly.
Honestly prefer playing on hot maps, one survives in them longer because people must be careful with shooting, and those who don't area easy prey.

*Voting is like the worst thing to happen to multiplayer games.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
They've already said the Archer is the last Classic mech that'll be sold solo, so you Phoenix Hawk and Crusader fans have to pray for a mech pack.

Also, Highlander IIC has been spotted:


Doomsday is nearly upon us.
 

Woorloog

Banned
They've already said the Archer is the last Classic mech that'll be sold solo, so you Phoenix Hawk and Crusader fans have to pray for a mech pack.

Oh. Damn. Too bad.

Never been a fan of either 'mech but i would have liked to see them in-game...
 

Lime

Member
looked into the testing grounds - there's a lot of new maps there that I've never seen before. I'm wondering if it's a sign for things to come.

also, the new cockpit is really nice. All they need is to fix the pilot textures
 

Woorloog

Banned
I'd suggest a new, proper OT...
Though i will note that it'd take weeks for me to get it done so i'm not volunteering really.


At very least, an announcement, with link to this thread. I believe stumpkapow (sp?) wrote something about OT (or "OT") promotion in Gaming side as being acceptable, perhaps even desirable to promote Community forum usage.
 
Wait, MWO launches on Steam the same day Tribes Ascend rises from the grave? Goddammit, all the F2P games that I spent so mcuh time with are calling me back. Now just need a Super Monday Night Combat revival and my free time is proper fucked.
 

Nete

Member
I'm kinda surprised with the low amount of negative reviews on Steam, still at 85%.
One is mine :p. I would love to use a "Neutral" vote for games like this.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Argh, i didn't remember how shit things were in this game.

The framerate. I might as well have kept playing on my laptop, the framerate is fucking uneven even with a powerful gaming PC. What's wrong with the game engine?

The voting. What. How the fuck does it work? Seems utterly random. Also hate hate hate having all three modes in one system. Fucking fuck, i hate conquest and assault. Were they interesting, proper game modes, sure, i could play then; but as they are, skirmish is a million times better mode.

Animation. I saw a Black Knight walking. What the fuck? They call that walking animation? (Or running, probably, as if there's difference in this game.) It looked like it was bouncing on every step...

And might as well complain about the UI once again. It is shit. Frankly, i feel the very first UI was better so long ago...
 

Giolon

Member
The voting. What. How the fuck does it work? Seems utterly random. Also hate hate hate having all three modes in one system. Fucking fuck, i hate conquest and assault. Were they interesting, proper game modes, sure, i could play then; but as they are, skirmish is a million times better mode.

The vote system is super simple. Everyone gets to vote what map and mode they want from the choices given to the. If the map or mode that you pick doesn't win, then a multiplier for your vote is increased by 1. So if you pick Caustic Valley and Skirmish, but the vote ends up going to Frozen City Skirmish, your multiplier for map choice the next time is raised to 2, and your mode multiplier stays at 1. This means your next vote for a map counts as two votes. Your current multiplier for each category is shown on the voting UI.

Why did they do this? Because without it, far and away the most popular maps are the cold ones and the most popular mode is Skirmish, so that's all that anyone got to play on during the first few weeks of the voting system before they added multipliers.

All the modes were consolidated into one list w/ a vote in order to improve matchmaking quality, which has statistically been borne out apparently. I can't quite tell if there's any difference personally.
 

Woorloog

Banned
The Smufy style mechlab is amazing, you're tripping.

But it is not smurfy style. Everything's fucking hidden behind tabs and drop-down menus and it is slow and awkward, unlike that smurfy site. Changing omnipods is especially annoying.
Sure, i can expand the fucking view but it doesn't help any and it covers my 'Mech while at it (yeah, i want to see how things look. That long ago UI didn't have this problem).
And for some reason, the main menu is so fucking dark i can barely see what color my 'Mech is... brightness etc. settings are at default.

And the 'Mech selection UI is utter shite. Especially since it doesn't fucking remember what i want open and what not.
Accessing inventory to sell stuff is pain in the ass.

No, i don't like it at all.


As for voting... How the fuck do the percentages work? I see a map and mode probably winning yet it seems those ones do not necessarily win. Indeed, it seems rather random in the end, regardless what everyone votes. Or is this because some genius has gathered super-multiplier so that they can decide what to play? If so, people have fucking poor taste.

I fucking hate voting systems. I curse the day when Bungie introduced it in Halo 3 (it seems it was the one to popularize voting/vetoing system).


Bah, the fucking game was so much more fun so long ago. At least it wasn't about constant laser vomit then.

I really, really hope HBS will deliver with Battletech, but i very much doubt that.

If i could get my mouse to work with Mechwarrior 4 or get Mechwarrior 3 running, i'd have a better 'Mech game to play.

AARGH!
 

Woorloog

Banned
For fucks sake... can't devs make games that tolerate alt-tabbing? Every one but this seems to tolerate alt-tabbing.
This? Crashes often if not every time. FFS. This time caused a hard-lock.

EDIT Smurfy-like UI... right, i had forgotten how the expanded UI worked. It is close to smurfy after all.
Still hate the fact i can't see the 'Mech with it.
And i still hate the other aspects of the UI.

Oh and the font. Too small. 125% option please. (1080p resolution... i run Windows with 125% size, fortunately it at least offers an option for that. Also have custom zoom inserted to Chrome as default.)
 

Woorloog

Banned
At least my Jagermech still works. As does my Timber Wolf which uses slightly modified stock-C build (more LRM ammo).

Piloting Oxide is still hell, thanks to randomly fluctuating framerate.

Wonder about my other 'Mechs...
 

Woorloog

Banned
Argh, that Polar Highlands map is utter shite.
Can't see anything but white glare, lasers and missiles are the only effective weapons there.

Also, i can't see anything in HPG Manifold either, for the map is very dark for some reason.
 

Giolon

Member
Yes, it's people trying to game their vote. I do it. If something you want looks like it's going to win, set your own vote to something that's losing to increase your multiplier so the next time the vote comes up, you can increase your chances of getting what you want.

However, during the town hall tonight, Russ said that they're changing it so that you can't see what other people voted for and once you vote you can't change it, so people won't be able to game it as easily any more.

Also, Polar Highlands is one of the most popular maps. In the top third overall, #3 without accounting for the frequency it comes up on the voting board b/c it's new.

Lots of other good info out of the town hall. Ghost Heat is going to be replaced with a different system. Engine upgrade is on the table. Collision model improvements to deal with all the little pebbles and shit that mechs get tripped up on.

Next mech is the Phoenix Hawk.

Full summary info dump here on OutreachHPG:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutreachHPG/comments/47t2x9/townhall_info_compilation_infodump/

March Roadmap: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/223137-march-road-map/
 

Woorloog

Banned
Phoenix Hawk is no big surprise. One of the missing classics.
I reckon we'll get the Crusader and Stinger and Wasp at some point as well but it is probably gonna take some time.

Any idea if they're gonna do a bigger 'Mech pack anytime soon?

EDIT Polar Highlands popular? Well, sure as hell ain't gonna be something i like, thanks to the massive glare it has. Everything's fucking pure white (except sky) unless i run with one-step zoom.

EDIT
"Changes to Conquest game mode.

All about the objectives.
No auto-win by wiping out the enemy team.
Win only by reaching the point limit (currently 750, might change)."
...
For fucks sake. Unless they add respawning, the mode's gonna be stupid. People will kill the other team and then cap at their leisure.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I must be insane. For all i complain about this game, i do play it.
And... i finally activated my Founder's Premium Time. Can't even recall how long it has been since the closed beta...
Also, since i don't have anything else to buy or play at the moment ( kindaburned out of Battlefront), i bought the Warhammer and Archer, my the two favorite unseen.

The Warhammer is fun, very much so. Pretty sturdy for a 70-tonner if being careful and spreading damage around. Damage output is not stellar, especially since i tend to have mixed loadouts. But whatever, i have something for every range and situation at least.
Quad SPL+2xMG (and SRM-6w/ArtIV) are pretty good at close range for finishing off enemies though.

Also, i may have achieved personal best with 7 kills, with my Splatlas (that Loyalty reward Atlas). 4xSRM-4w/ArtIV and AC/20 do horrible, horrible things to most 'Mechs.


Hope the Archer will be good. It certainly looks good. LRMs may be a problem though... a shame we can't dumb-fire them like SRMs, with flat trajectories. Would make nice mid-range rockets.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
I must be insane. For all i complain about this game, i do play it.
And... i finally activated my Founder's Premium Time. Can't even recall how long it has been since the closed beta...
Also, since i don't have anything else to buy or play at the moment ( kindaburned out of Battlefront), i bought the Warhammer and Archer, my the two favorite unseen.

The Warhammer is fun, very much so. Pretty sturdy for a 70-tonner if being careful and spreading damage around. Damage output is not stellar, especially since i tend to have mixed loadouts. But whatever, i have something for every range and situation at least.
Quad SPL+2xMG (and SRM-6w/ArtIV) are pretty good at close range for finishing off enemies though.

Also, i may have achieved personal best with 7 kills, with my Splatlas (that Loyalty reward Atlas). 4xSRM-4w/ArtIV and AC/20 do horrible, horrible things to most 'Mechs.


Hope the Archer will be good. It certainly looks good. LRMs may be a problem though... a shame we can't dumb-fire them like SRMs, with flat trajectories. Would make nice mid-range rockets.

The Whammer is a tanky sumbitch, haven't leveled mine, but I like then a lot. The quad AC5 Black Widow wrecks faces.

I skipped the Rifleman, bought the Archer (Standard + Hero add-on). The Temprest looks pretty strong, on paper. Can't wait to pilot the thing.

Cool that the missile bay doors have their own separate health pools, and can be blown off.

Gotta play a crap load of matches this weekend, for the bonus cbills. IIC mech engine investment left me space poor as heck.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Considered mentioning that, or bumping my thread about Catalyst making new Battletech novels.

Speaking of the new novels, the first one, Embers of War, is getting to print finally, and ebook's available.
No news about the other announced ones... but then it seems there's something going on, with XTRO Primitives V being delayed, Milestones series being delayed (it would have revealed the faction who caused the Blackout during the Dark Age), and there being no news about IlClan still. One forever project, that book.

I detest the Caesar. Goddamn Davion Cataphract-knockoff.



And speaking of the Cataphract and MWO, will we ever get the CTF-3L? The Cataphract variant with MASC... since MASC is in-game now.
And from what i recall, the thing's mentioned in game files.

With luck, this years loyalty reward perhaps?

Probably should make a Twitter account and tweet someone at PGI about that.
There are other older 'Mechs that could use new variants, especially those with MASC variants, just to add more those to the game. (No comment on the usefulness of MASC.)
 

Woorloog

Banned
First game with the Tempest, very good.
LRM-20s are hot as hell though, and so are 4 Medium Lasers. Removed my extra heat sinks for Artemis for the lurms. Otherwise didn't tweak the Tempest.

Now gotta try the other Archers...
 

Lime

Member
These two goals in the March roadmap I am looking forward to:

New Pilot Model
Pretty self-explanatory, an update to the old pilot model has been on the agenda for some time now. You can check out an early look at the new model on our Instagram. This first model will be male, but we’re intending to follow up with a female model in a future patch. Further plans are to eventually provide a distinct uniform for Clan and IS, and to allow for color changes.

2k Textures for all ‘Mechs
All ‘Mechs and all Patterns with texture resolutions that were previously lower than 2048x2048 (2k) have been normalized to a texture resolution of 2k. There will be some huge winners here in the visuals department, particularly for the older ‘Mechs.

I wonder how PGI is doing while only relying on this game to keep them afloat. Perhaps the Steam release saw some revenue for them?
 

Woorloog

Banned
IIRC, Steam increased player counts by a third or so.

The new textures are nice, my Jenner Oxide looks much better now,

The pilot model's pretty good though i can see the neck... or lack of it with free-look. Creepy.
 
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