The Highlander Drops on Mechwarrior Online

[Andy Chalk]

The Highlander Drops on Mechwarrior Online

​

Though April showers may come your way, they bring the mighty Highlander assault mech that will blow you away.

The MechWarrior Online April content update is here and it's brought some serious firepower with it in the form of the long-awaited Highlander, a 95-ton assault mech that was teased with concept art [http://mwomercs.com/media/concept/136-highlander-concept] back in October 2012 but is only just now taking to the field. In an unusual twist, the team has elected to release the "Hero" version of the mech, a great, pink beast named Heavy Metal that actually plays music when you score a kill, first, while the base variants won't turn up for a couple more weeks.

But that's not all! April will also see the addition of artillery and air strike consumables that bring down the big hammer on line-of-sight targets, changes to team structure and the BattleGrid, improved thermal and night vision, better ballistic hit detection for high-ping players and plans for two more "main events" this month. Piranha is also adding a new style of Hero battlemech called "Champions" that add a permanent five percent experience boost and lower price point to existing variants.

The Heavy Metal Hero mech is already available, along with a handful of new cockpit items, while the first Champion mech will arrive on the 12th and the standard Highlander variants will hit on the 19th. The full lowdown on the MechWarrior Online April update is up at mwomercs.com [http://mwomercs.com/news/2013/04/649-2013-april-creative-director-update].



Permalink

 

[Angnor]

Misleading Title Alert: Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is in no way in MechWarrior Online. I am disappointed.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Misleading Title Alert: Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is in no way in MechWarrior Online. I am disappointed.

As am I. Guess it was either him or the mech.

And there can be only one.

...

 

[Angnor]

And there can be only one.

...

The mech. Definitely the mech.

But swords... and mismatched accents...

 

[kajinking]

I'm think about trying this out, anyone have a rough idea about the file size? My computer only has 13 gigs to spare at the moment thanks to a cheap hard drive

 

[anthony87]

Misleading Title Alert: Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is in no way in MechWarrior Online. I am disappointed.

As am I. Guess it was either him or the mech.

And there can be only one.

...

This one?

 

[Saulkar]

95-ton assault mech

It is only 90 tons. I know because I want that extra 5 to fit more DHS on it with 5 JJs and an XL320 Engine.

 

[Waaghpowa]

They're finally adding the mech I have been waiting months for. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

 

[dakkster]

Misleading Title Alert: Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is in no way in MechWarrior Online. I am disappointed.

As am I. Guess it was either him or the mech.

And there can be only one.

...

This one?

MY EYES! MY EARS!

You are evil...

 

[IndieForever]

I'm think about trying this out, anyone have a rough idea about the file size? My computer only has 13 gigs to spare at the moment thanks to a cheap hard drive

My installation is 2.1Gb Kajin. Like all games it grows as updates are released, but not massively so. I expect the final product (if it ever comes out of beta!) will weight in at around 4Gb, like most games of its ilk.

It's definitely worth a shot, especially if you have a mid to high-end GPU (CryEngine 3), but expect a little bit of grind as you first start unless you want to drop some cash on it. Beware the official forums; they are, in the main, a horrific angry kiddie-fest full of made-up words ending in -fail and -tard, but once you get onto the battlefield it is generally well-mannered and good fun.

An interesting diversion, worth 2Gb on your HD, and it is has come a long way since it was first launched.

 

[kajinking]

I'm think about trying this out, anyone have a rough idea about the file size? My computer only has 13 gigs to spare at the moment thanks to a cheap hard drive

My installation is 2.1Gb Kajin. Like all games it grows as updates are released, but not massively so. I expect the final product (if it ever comes out of beta!) will weight in at around 4Gb, like most games of its ilk.

It's definitely worth a shot, especially if you have a mid to high-end GPU (CryEngine 3), but expect a little bit of grind as you first start unless you want to drop some cash on it. Beware the official forums; they are, in the main, a horrific angry kiddie-fest full of made-up words ending in -fail and -tard, but once you get onto the battlefield it is generally well-mannered and good fun.

An interesting diversion, worth 2Gb on your HD, and it is has come a long way since it was first launched.

My PC is very high end so it shouldn't be an issue and as far as the forums go I've survived the Planetside 2 forums. It's hilarious to see a one faction is OP thread right above a thread saving they are UP and dying, and the game sucks, and people should stop paying money, and the game won't last three months, and the devs are morons, and the devs favor this faction bla bla bla bla....

Personally I left that game after they decided to take all December off with no GMs watching basically turning the servers into the wild west for hackers

And I'm ranting again so to be OT:

Thanks for the info and I'll keep you advice in mind.

 

[ASnogarD]

I got into the closed beta by invitation, at the time the grind was terrible but the combat was pretty solid.
Mechs were strong enough to take a few hits and the pacing was nice and deliberate, not so much about twitch play and reactions but about being in the right place, and delivering your firepower to the right components of the enemy mech.

... when I quit, even the 100 ton Atlas dropped in seconds to a burst or 2 of insanely accurate gauss fire, the game turned into some mech version of Sniper elite... sneaking about the maps for fear of being gauss sniped instantly.
Light mechs benefited heavily from the games inability to compensate for the fast speed of the mechs and the server side hit calculations... the client would visually show the enemy mech light up, but the damage doll on your hud would show no damage really done. Worst was when the devs took out tripping, before Lights had to be cautious and respect the bigger mechs bulk, with tripping removed the Lights could literally sit on the big mech toes and blast them to pieces while the larger mechs struggle to keep the little bugger in sight.
MWO also isnt solo player friendly, you launch with randoms and you will get obliterated by groups of organised players with mechs outfitted for noob stomping, setups you cant run with randoms as they need teamplay to pull off. The devs did introduce things to limit and prevent pug stomping but the group pros found ways to bypass the weak attempts (sync dropping to bypass the 4 man limit when launching in the none group matches), still playing versus randoms even when group matches became possible.

The biggest concern is that there seems very little happening to sort out the issues, while a huge amount of stuff is happening on the items you can buy for MC... seems the focus is heavily on pulling cash out the wallets rather than fixing the game.

... and they are going to add a 3rd person viewpoint, the last I bothered to keep track of the game.
PGi promised the world, delivered a dollhouse... and work furiously at making furniture for you to put in that dollhouse.

 

[Slash2x]

I got into the closed beta by invitation, at the time the grind was terrible but the combat was pretty solid.
Mechs were strong enough to take a few hits and the pacing was nice and deliberate, not so much about twitch play and reactions but about being in the right place, and delivering your firepower to the right components of the enemy mech.

... when I quit, even the 100 ton Atlas dropped in seconds to a burst or 2 of insanely accurate gauss fire, the game turned into some mech version of Sniper elite... sneaking about the maps for fear of being gauss sniped instantly.
Light mechs benefited heavily from the games inability to compensate for the fast speed of the mechs and the server side hit calculations... the client would visually show the enemy mech light up, but the damage doll on your hud would show no damage really done. Worst was when the devs took out tripping, before Lights had to be cautious and respect the bigger mechs bulk, with tripping removed the Lights could literally sit on the big mech toes and blast them to pieces while the larger mechs struggle to keep the little bugger in sight.
MWO also isnt solo player friendly, you launch with randoms and you will get obliterated by groups of organised players with mechs outfitted for noob stomping, setups you cant run with randoms as they need teamplay to pull off. The devs did introduce things to limit and prevent pug stomping but the group pros found ways to bypass the weak attempts (sync dropping to bypass the 4 man limit when launching in the none group matches), still playing versus randoms even when group matches became possible.

The biggest concern is that there seems very little happening to sort out the issues, while a huge amount of stuff is happening on the items you can buy for MC... seems the focus is heavily on pulling cash out the wallets rather than fixing the game.

... and they are going to add a 3rd person viewpoint, the last I bothered to keep track of the game.
PGi promised the world, delivered a dollhouse... and work furiously at making furniture for you to put in that dollhouse.

Yeah most of this ^

I was beta player when it was still closed and I quit when they went PTW. Want to get into a good mech? or ANY mech that is not the default? Either pay or take 3 weeks of constant grinding to get the cash to buy just the mech not even the gear. If you did AMAZING in the game you could get about 60k a battle, an average mech is 3 million. But for a quick payment you can get the best stuff in the game in minutes. Bunch of people running around in mechs they did not even know how to pilot just spamming the field... The ability to salvage gear from the previous games is missing, because that screws with PTW. There is no real point in using any of the smaller mechs because they have not implemented ANY of the electronic warfare they keep talking about So you just have something that moves quick and has no armor or weapons worth using.... This might be a good game if they kill the PTW and do some of the stuff they keep talking about. So in about 2 maybe 3 years.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Isn't it still in beta, or did I miss the launch? :S
Jumps to the site...

 

[JPArbiter]

Misleading Title Alert: Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod is in no way in MechWarrior Online. I am disappointed.

This make is based on the Battletech character Rhonda Snord, who operated a Highlander and had a hobby of collecting music, particularly 20th Century Rock and Roll. her Mech had "Elvis is King" Emblazoned on the chest, and she played rock and roll over the loud speakers she installed herself around the mechs head module.

 

[The Typical American]

I don't know about you guys, but I for one still harbor a lot of nostalgia for the original Mechwarrior series. Single player just seemed to do the series well as with most series.

 

[Atmos Duality]

An interesting diversion, worth 2Gb on your HD, and it is has come a long way since it was first launched.

Unless they've fixed matchmaking so I'm not guaranteed to get assraped by fully tuned Lances with stacked ECM nearly every match, I'm probably not going back.

 

[bunji]

I think its great to see that the word of how the devs are treating the game and the fans is spreading out of their tightly controlled forums.