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MechWarrior Online - News and Information Thread

W

Woorloog

Banned
Someone was just complaining on the official forums about low player amounts, the difficulty of finding players etc.

It all boils down to the CW being very unfriendly for randoms and solo players.

I don't even bother trying. (Besides, the game's are too long for my tastes, especially since the rewards are not that great.)

Of course, you could be lucky and find good, balanced games. *shrug*
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
Lime said:
I'm looking into starting to play this game again - I never got to try CW (I'm a lone wolf so), but how has the matchmaking been in regards to playing CW as a lone wolf? Is there still long queues for solo players? And will solo players still get steamrolled when doing CW?
Click to expand...

The answer to all your questions is "It depends". Respond to the Call to Arms alerts - it usually has a good chance of finding a hotspot that needs people. Also, you can go to the Inner Sphere map and look for a planet on the list that has a large number in the queue. You have a good chance at finding a relatively quick match in one of those locations. Like most games with LFG tools, I've found the one added to MWO to be utterly useless as nobody uses it.

For CW, there is no ELO matchmaking and no separate solo/group queues. What you end up fighting against may be completely unfair. You'll basically be filling holes if you drop solo - which can still be effective and fun. Your best chances of success lie in communicating and coordinating with the rest of your team. I've had great experiences dropping solo and terrible steamroll experiences both in CW.

I just hopped back into CW for the first time in months when the last patch hit with the changes to Omega Generators and dropzone spawn camping protection, and it was a lot of fun.
 
L

Lime

Member
Looked around on the Internet and stumbled upon these two posts on the rpg.net forums back at the end of May:

I got some kick-ass Battletech news (on an entirely unrelated front) that has me all jazzed to run around in giant stompy robots some time soon.
Click to expand...

NDA stuff, I'm afraid. I'll have to check with the editor and see how excited I can be, as long as I keep it vague.
Click to expand...

The poster seems legitimate and has credentials. I wonder what it is.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Could be about the new Battletech novels. A month ago or so, Catalyst Gamelabs unofficially revealed there are new novels on the way. Recently, they posted what is apparently the book's setting (Chaos March, 3067, so likely beginning of the Jihad).

What's the context of the quotes?
 
L

Lime

Member
Here's the source, context is out of the left-field. Apparently the poster has written some Shadowrun novellas as well, so what you're saying makes sense.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Yeah, most likely about the novels then.


There's been some talk about someone possibly making a new Battletech video game, guesses run from a new MechCommander to resurrected Mechwarrior: Tactics.
Or new Crimsom Skies.
Can't recall what company and who, though i got impression it was someone from FASA, so someone who has been involved with Battletech/Mechwarrior before.
EDIT The relevant thread about the hypothetical game: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/computerconsole-games/new-battletech-game/
Wouldn't hold my breath though, not until there are real news.
 
L

Lime

Member
Yeah, we'll know more about what IP that Harebrained Schemes got after Shadowrun Hong Kong has been released. Someone (unknown) also bought the leftovers from that despicable Mechwarrior Tactics and IGP thing back in December, so perhaps that is related to this announcement aswell. I don't think it's a good idea to be associated with the brand and its disastrous legacy. I also think that the mech designs in Tactics were appalling.

However, I hope this news is related to Battletech, and I would kickstart the hell out of it, since HBS have done really amazing work in my eyes with Shadowrun.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
I must be the only one who liked MW Tactics mech designs. At least some of them, there are some bad ones too.

I honestly don't like MWO's mechs much. Too tank-like. Prefer more agile looking mechs, like Duane Loose's original drawings for mechs in Technical Readout 3025/3039, or how most Battletech miniatures look.
That said, some like MWO's Stalker look so much better than the real Stalker. Funny how Stalker II looks like it is inspired by MWO Stalker...
 
L

Lime

Member
I'm following Russ Bollock on Twitter and it's super weird how every time there's a new patch or a sale, he retweets people who fawn over the patch notes or the sale. It's like he has to tell himself and others that everything is good and dandy, like some sort of positive reinforcement.

The revamped River City map looks cool from what I've seen of it. But would any of you have preferred a new map instead? I heard Forest Colony is next.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
I reckon Russ' a salesman. Make people feel noticed and appreciated and they'll be more loyal.

As for the maps... the patch's deployed already? Time to patch then.

Maps... I think Alpine Peaks needs an overhaul ASAP. Or just boot the whole map.

Whatever they do to the maps, i hope they don't affect performance... Probably not a big worry as my issues seem to stem from CPU stuff more so than graphics.

EDIT Eww, 1.5GB patch. And i forgot to tether my laptop to my phone which is like twice as fast as the normal connection...
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Did River City have fires and smoke clouds before? Because those things affect performance heavily.
Looks pretty nice otherwise though they went overboard with trees, i think.
EDIT That was in the testing grounds, where i have better performance than in actual matches. Very worried. Hope i get matched to the map soon.
EDIT2 When you say it...

Very concerned remade maps will be more demanding, i can just about the play the game as it is.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
So, yeah, the map runs like shit. I'll try again once my laptop coolsdown enough the first few matches will run well and hope things are different but...
I don't expect that to happen.

Unfortunate, very unfortunate.

I'd need a new PC to keep playing this properly.
But i'd need to shell out at very least 800€ for one (with decent components, i made some calculations) but that's without Windows, display, keyboard, mouse, speakers and whatever else extra i may need.
At that point, getting a PS4 would be more economical for gaming (and it will have some games i'm interested in) though it would not allow me to play MWO.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
There have always been smoke clouds and fires on River City see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5G6aHvhSQc

If you haven't, try turning particles down to the lowest, as well as shadows. Perf seemed to run about the same as other maps on my laptop when I ran around in testing grounds.

Also, a lot of companies retweet nice things people say about them and their product. I don't see Russ doing it as any different. Do you want him to retweet the pissed off people (who I'll add he often also responds to, sometimes constructively sometimes not)?
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
It had been sometime since i had last played on River City, so the smoke surprised me.
But yes, i remember it now.
Though i think they're now a bit thicker.


But i am already running everything on as low as possible, with no shadows or AA, at 720p resolution, with default FoV. There's nothing else i can do. I can deal with FPS of about 25, i've played so long on 360 and many games there had performance issues. The problems start when going under that...

Really seems like i'm more CPU bound than GPU bound though, moving mechs and physics are an issue, i get way more FPS in Training Grounds, at least on the older maps than i do in matchmaking. (Also noticeable in some other games, like Planetside 2.)

EDIT Wait, this is odd, and i'm not sure it is about heat at this point. The game runs fine for 5-10 minutes, then i get considerably slower FPS for until i restart the game. Can't be a memory issue, have a lot of it still free... can it?
EDIT I doubt it is heat issue as i keep monitoring the CPU and GPU temps and there's no sudden jump. Of course it could be that any built-in limiters kick-in at that point... hrmm.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
Yeah, I generally take whatever I get in training grounds and cut about 20-30fps off of it for what it's going to be like under live fire w/ particles and 24 mechs around.

MWO is a fairly CPU-intensive game - PGI claims a big contributing factor is that all the mechs have to be composed of separate parts for variable weapon appearance and destructible components which means they have to make multiple draw calls to the DirectX API per-mech instead of one if they were a single mesh. DirectX 11 is supposed to use less CPU-per draw call than DirectX 9, but the performance will depend on your setup. I found it worked out better on average for me.

Particles still kill even my newer gaming machines...

The low performance after 5-10 minutes is new to me. I don't know what it would be if not thermal throttling by your GPU or CPU or lack of memory available.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
I've tried DX11 but it doesn't really help. Makes particles affect FPS less maybe but otherwise it seems to be a bit demanding. Or not, hard to say, for most games it affects FPS negatively though even with DX11-exclusive effects disabled. Oldish CPU, or just the fact this is a laptop may be the issue, not sure.

I tried another match after restarting the client.
Close proximity to mechs lowers FPS, even when not looking. Once enemies get close as well, there's more loss, and combat does that as well. But this is not that bad drops. I assume LOD has effect here, closer distances require more resources due to added detail.

But this sudden loss of FPS happened again, about 7 minutes into the match. Indeed i could move away from enemies and friendlies and still have lower FPS than i early in the match. How odd. (And this was at a point when bunch of people had died from both sides so less people to track for the game.)

I do not recall this happening months ago when i last played. I don't recall this happening last summer either.
So i am doubting it is a heat issue... unless this laptop is starting to break down. Or something.
Haven't noticed this with other games, though MWO is the most modern game i play at the moment, didn't have any issues with Doom 3 even during long sessions.

*sigh*
Can't do anything about this, i think. There doesn't seem to be any suspicious processes running, my drivers are relatively up do that (but consider MWO is a low profile game and my hardware is no doubt outdated, drivers have minimal effect on things so updating them won't do anything really)... I can't think of what might be a problem, unless the problem will happen with other games as well.
Guess i'll have to start Civ V game, just about the only other demanding game i have.

EDIT If it is a memory issue... i wonder how. Pretty sure i haven't had that before, though now Windows certainly exhibits some symptoms i think are from memory issues.
Well, the next time i'll play, i'll pay attention to memory use, and close most other programs, see if that has any effect. Gotta eliminate options after all.
 
L

Lime

Member
Did you check your heat stats? Like the actual degrees? Use MSI Afterburner to check it out.

@Giolon: Agree about Russ. I guess I'm just used to official Twitter accounts being like that and not individuals.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Lime said:
Did you check your heat stats? Like the actual degrees? Use MSI Afterburner to check it out.
Click to expand...

Yes, i have Speedfan running. I keep checking it at times.
Hrmm. It occurred to me that it might be the problem but don't see how, don't think it has control over anything.
I'll try playing without it next time, see if it affects things. Probably not.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Maybe a memory issue... closing Chrome freed about one gigabyte of memory.
And Chrome has become more and more memory hog lately...

EDIT Yes, very possible it is a memory problem. I tend to have Chrome open with many tabs, and since this laptop's memory is shared with the GPU (i think), and with everything else running, MWO may have been low on memory.

EDIT 2 very much starting to look like a memory problem. Different maps have different demands as well. HPG is not as bad as Mordor for example.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
There's a hotfix today at 3PM PDT, with a particularly relevant note:

•Fixing performance issues for 32-bit clients resulting from the July 7th patch

Maybe this will help you, Woorloog. You can also try running 64-bit client if you aren't already, which is a lot better these days.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
What...

...

I switched a few days before the patch to the 32-bit client hoping it might help a bit (can't recall if it had any effect though), as there are climes the 64-bit client may be a bit more demanding.
Easily explains the issues i had though.

Thanks for noting this.

I'll keep 32-bit and test it post-patch, see if it has any effect, and then i will try 64-bit again and see if it has any effect.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
64-bit client uses memory more aggressively, but it's also supposed to be more stable and perform better than 32-bit as of a couple months ago.
 
K

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
king picollo said:
Haven't played this in ages, what's the latest OP mech and loadout?
Click to expand...

Ebon Jaguar is flipping amazing, maybe has the most variable loadout possibilities in the game. Timby and Doomcrow are still apex predators as well.

The Clan UAC buffs have brought new levels of terror to the game.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Whoah, it seems the hotfix fixed my issue. River City works reasonably now.

EDIT Any idea if there's some config file tweak to remove glare/bloom/reflections? Less about performance and more about clarity in some maps, like that foggy icy map whose name i forgot.
EDIT And i don't mean cockpit glass, i have that off already.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Found some tweak, added to user.cfg and... Whoah, all the lasers lost their glow, and other weapons are less visible as well. Seems to affect performance positively though.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
The tweak was either r_Glow=0 or e_GI=0, most likely the former.
Honestly no idea which. I have a bad habit of adding too many things at once...
Makes things rather ugly though.

I started adding Crysis 2/3 tweaks to the user CFG, mostly turning things to zero. I expect most settings do not work as MWO locks them (it is a modified CryEngine 3 after all) but perhaps some will.
Probably not a good idea but if there's a chance they'll help...

EDIT Whatever i made has removed the glare from fog etc. Good.

The bad thing is that with all weapons less visible, i have harder time determining where i'm hitting, where my missiles go, where enemy weapons hit, etc. *shrug* Good thing the crosshair has hit indicator...


EDIT Oh, great, there's a memory leak in my laptop. An hour without use and nothing significant on (like Chrome) and the pool of available memory has gotten quite a bit lower. Unfortunately i don't see where it is going...


Late EDIT By the way, it is possible that new Battletech novels get announced tomorrow, on Monday. Possible but not certain. Catalyst has hinted it will be soon in any case.
 
K

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Woorloog said:
Yup, Catalyst did announce new Battletech novels. I made a thread to off-topic about it.

But MWO.

How's the Shadow Cat?
Click to expand...

It's pretty damn fun. The MASC makes it handle like a light mech. The high hardpoints make it a peeking nightmare.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
I remember liking the Shadow Cat quite a bit in the Mechwarrior IV, not to mention it being the first mech, or among the early mechs, kind of making it... well, memorable.

A shame its Omni-pod options are a bit limited. Sure, it doesn't have much podspace but with more options it could carry a good laser armament, or perhaps missiles.

PGI should make kind of "generic" pods available for Omnis, i think.
E.g. "[Weapon Type]Pod 1/2/3", each offering more hardpoints but suffering increasingly negative quirks. And of course mixed pods. Better chassis could have limited options or far worse penalties.
Indeed the pods should have been implemented like that from the beginning rather than being based on configs and what they offer. This would have given Omnis unique method of customization

I mean, sure, they have that already, kind of, but so many chassis are lacking options, because official canon configs limit them.
Like, consider the Summoner. No way to add chest lasers, which would help with its limited podspace. Heck, additional arm-lasers would be fine.
 
C

cirrhosis

Member
Booted the game up yesterday after not having played consistently in 2 months.

Played around with the Arctic Cheetah, exchanged some Mech XP to GXP and basiced the Prime, B and C.

Wow, this is my new favorite light. Had a blast pewing stuff and making myself a nuisance for the other team.

Thinking of giving the Executioner a try next.
 
S

SmartBase

Member
I tried playing again since PGI finally invested in an Oceanic server but I still get a lower ping on the NA side. What a waste of time.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
SmartBase said:
I tried playing again since PGI finally invested in an Oceanic server but I still get a lower ping on the NA side. What a waste of time.
Click to expand...

Are you on TPG or Optus by chance?

Alexander Garden said:
TPG and Optus are both currently running inefficient routing paths to the new Singapore servers, resulting in less-than-ideal connection performance compared to what other Australian players might be seeing under other ISPs.

[...]

I'm going to be putting up a main thread in the Developer Outreach sub-forum tomorrow morning to provide players in the Oceanic region with a central place to post and compare trace routes, ping results, and ISP information. Hopefully we can work together to identify the worst cases and see what can be done to improve the situation.

Source
Click to expand...
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
SmartBase said:
I am, I called them up about the routing and there's not really anything more I can do.
Click to expand...

Yeah there isn't. PGI (or any other company in a simlar situation) has to be able to convince the ISP to change their routing. Sometimes companies are successful in getting them to change, sometimes not. In any case, PGI says they're making some improvements of their own netcode that may make things better for Oceanic. It was in a tweet from Russ I think that I don't want to go re-track down at the moment.

Separately, here's an awesome fan-made trailer made entirely of real audio and footage from some competitive matches over the last several days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOLIyzN0sKk&feature=youtu.be

Makes me want to join a team!
 
L

Lime

Member
Thanks for the heads-up K.Jack.

Also, interesting to look at the press release:

While the build you'll experience during this PTS session is not the final release build, we hope you'll nonetheless enjoy a glimpse into what's in store for MechWarrior Online; not just for what's coming in the September 22nd patch, but where MechWarrior Online may be headed into the future.
Click to expand...
 
L

Lime

Member
oh god that voice acting by the trainer dude :/

I hope that isn't the final cut. I'm getting PTSD flashbacks to Mechassault 2's characters.
 
K

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Lime said:
Thanks for the heads-up K.Jack.

Also, interesting to look at the press release:
Click to expand...

Yeah they have a Gauntlet where you fight AI battlemechs.

This is a small preview for the PvE portion they're working on right now.

Lime said:
oh god that voice acting by the trainer dude :/

I hope that isn't the final cut. I'm getting PTSD flashbacks to Mechassault 2's characters.
Click to expand...

Isn't having a cheesy trainer's voice the mark of a good sci-fi game :p
 
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