MechWarrior Online Shows Off the Catapult

[Andy Chalk]

MechWarrior Online Shows Off the Catapult

The MechWarrior Online Catapult is a gorgeous machine with a lot of reach.

Catapults are fire-support mechs, designed to hover around the periphery of a battlefield, pouring fire onto enemies from long range to keep them pinned so the knife-fighters can get in close. They're not the most elegant-looking machines to ever take the field, comprising not much more than a cockpit, some legs and two massive weapons platforms, but they sure do look hot in these new MechWarrior Online screens.

The standard Catapult design is a pile of LRMs, four medium lasers and jumpjets to keep it out of trouble, but these screens also show off MechWarrior Online's modular [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116657-Take-a-Tour-of-the-Mechwarrior-Online-MechLab] weapons system in action. Half the shots show the unit packing LRMs, while in the other half it's been equipped with a couple of cannons the size of Winnebagos.

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PPCs? Large lasers? I have no idea. These are the important points: One, if you want to say hello to someone from a distance, a Catapult's not a bad way to go. And two, MechWarrior Online looks hot.

The free-to-play, multiplayer MechWarrior Online [http://mwomercs.com/] drops later this year, exclusively for the PC.




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[John Funk]

Needs more laser swords and beam cannons.

 

[toomuchnothing]

According to the mechwarrior online post that contains those pics they are in fact PPCs. Nice to see the small details like the fact that the missile racks actually open to fire and then close again(I assume that last part).

 

[Therumancer]

I'm wondering how they will go about balancing this online, given that in the original multiplayer version of the game (physical copy) Mechs were balanced based on tonnage, with each side getting the abillity to field so many tons worth of mechs, either from pre-made designs or by building their own under the construction system.

In single player games it wasn't really that big a deal, but in a multi-player game I'm not entirely sure how you say prevent people in Assault Mechs from say dominating everyone else, without ruining the entire point of having an Assault Mech to begin with. From a general perspective people will argue that smaller, ligher, mechs can move faster and thus have an advantage compared to a lumbering behemoth... however that's not in keeping with the spirit of Battletech where most of the weapons and such are fired remotely. That bigger mech doesn't nessicatly slow down because of it's size (depends on the build) and is no less accurate for it. High tonnage mechs in the fiction being rare and prized for that reason alone from when I remember reading some of this stuff many moons ago.

To me it seems like they will have to play so much havoc with the way things are supposed to work that it won't be Battletech anymore. Unless they say give all players say a 70 ton mech or whatever, and render all the other designs NPC only.

I'm also wondering if fire based tactics will be viable, using mechs with flame throwers to ignite forests and such to overheat the opposition.

Oh and a PPC is a Particle Projector Cannon... the "Beams" John Funk wanted. Energy Blades (Gundam Style) don't exist, or didn't when I went through my Battletech phase.

BT was fun for a while, then they got fixated on that whole "Clans" thing and it got worse from there. I haven't even thought about it much for a decade or more.

 

[Fidelias]

Needs more laser swords and beam cannons.

LASER SWORDS!!! BLASPHEMY!!!

These are giant, 100-ton, walking steel death-machines, not ballerinas!

On topic: This looks awesome! I didn't even know they were making Mechwarrior Online, but I can't wait! I'm tired of these so-called mech games where the robots handle like samurai warriors, I want to feel like I'm in the cockpit of a mech, dammit!

 

[Bigeyez]

snip

According to the devs they are going with a World of Tanks sstyle solution to making lighter mechs usable. Basically when playing a lighter mech you'll get points for scouting out enemies and are able to light up enemies on your teams radar. So scout mechs will actually have a very important and legit purpose. The hope is that will get people to play all the classes instead of just rushing for assault mechs.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I have a friend who is going to FREAK OUT about this game. In fact I'm linking to this as we speak.

 

[Daisuke1133]

A Catapult with direct-fire weapons. Might actually make me want to use this chassis for once.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Sweet. I'm pretty sure a Catapult's not actually a mech you can slap PPCs on, but I won't care much because I'll be too busy lighting dudes up with PPCs.

 

[cryogeist]

Actually the Catapult does have the ability to trade off armor for a small or medium laser (i forgot which one) and keep the LRM at least in BattleTech they do (the Wargame that MechWarrior is based from if you didn't know) i wish my computer could run this because i really want to use the Catapult :C
also i have a weird feeling that the two have barely anything in common with each other

 

[TheMadTypist]

But is it still a proper Catapult without the missile-launching mickey-mouse ears?

And with every snippet this game looks EVEN MORE AWESOME! Although that may be because my brain is so mechwarrior-deprived after all these years that I've gone blind with nostalgia. I cannot lie, that shot where it's firing all those LRM's made me giggle with giddy glee!

 

[Karadalis]

The catapult with the PPCs is infact a canon version of the chassis the Catapult-K2 direct fire support variant.

So its not a new invention.

 

[Roboto]

The catapult with the PPCs is infact a canon version of the chassis the Catapult-K2 direct fire support variant.

So its not a new invention.

They've gone digging then! I only remember having 2 banks of 4 beam slots.

While a nice enough chassis, it is almost too easy for a laser boat to zap the missile bays off in just two well aimed shots. That's probably why reflective armor is always a choice I suppose.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Needs more laser swords and beam cannons.

much as i'd like to call foul on the addition of beam sabers .... >.>

i have enough morbid curiosity to wanna see how that'd work on a mech with no arms and the mobility of a rock

as for the beam cannons, mech warrior has those in SPADES man, and if it's anything like the older ones, you can load it down with enough fire power to make the Heavy Arms Custom cry tears of inadequacy

 

[tacotrainwreck]

All that firepower AND jump jets? The catapult has always been my favorite 'mech. *thumbs up*

 

[Saulkar]

Oh fuck me!


Excuse while I go change my pants and cry silently in a corner awaiting the release of this game!

 

[Rottweiler]

It all depends on how they allow customization.

Remember, in the original Battletech there were Spaces, and each weapon had a Tonnage and Space requirement: for example, a standard PPC was 7 tons, 3 spaces. Every 'mech chassis had the same amount of Space- the limiting factor was how much tonnage the chassis could support.

It was Mechwarrior which turned it into 'Energy Bay' or 'Missile Bay' which, to a lot of us old-school players, made customization almost pointless.

Case in point, the Catapult- a 65-ton heavy 'mech, as I recall- used the 'Arms' location for the weapon pods you see. By taking out the hand and elbow actuators (1 space each) they basically had big boxes you could put weapons in, with shoulder actuators to provide rotation. The original had an LRM 20 in each, with I think 2 tons of ammo, plus the medium lasers in the torso.

Now, in Battletech, if you took out the LRM's, you had just Space to play with- which you could fill with anything up to the tonnage you had available.

In Mechwarrior...not so much. They were dedicated 'Missile Bays', so the only thing you could do was downgrade to smaller LRM launchers, or use different launchers, but that was it.

Most players I know wanted the original Battletech version. It allowed for much more variety in weapons fits, and frankly fit the universe much better.

The Battletech world was based on a world (well, huge volume of space) where after devastating wars everyone had to be a salvage expert and most battlemechs were hundreds of years old, kept going with scavenged parts and jury-rigging. Only a trickle of new 'mechs were being made, from the carefully preserved automated factories that survived, and it was actually rare that you'd see a 'standard' 'mech- most had had various weapons replaced over the centuries based on what was available.

Granted, as the game progressed on its timeline, more factories came online and better gear (some of it rediscovered tech that was lost in the Succession Wars) became available...and then the whole Clans thing...but the idea, one which attracted a lot of us, was that you had to *work* to keep your 'mech going, and while you might want some weird variant that only worked in specific circumstances, the actual battlefield favored a less specialized approach.

We'll see how they do it, but from what I can see, they look like they're going back to the solid roots of Battletech, which will bring players out of the woodwork when it hits the market.

Hell, the game might actually let me bring back my favorite 'mech: a TDR-5K Thunderbolt. PPC, LRM-10, 3 Medium Lasers, and Jump Jets.

...and now I feel my age.

 

[Torrasque]

I liked using the Catapult in some games, but as soon as someone came around with that missile bait, you became a whole lot of firepower with no way to use it =|
Screens 4 - 6 look so fucking beautiful and promising, oh man... I can't wait for this game.

 

[Cobelo]

Needs more laser swords and beam cannons.

Don't you be dissin' my favorite steel death machines, Funk. Not every hulking metal behemoth has the dexterity to deftly swing a blade made of energy, nor do they need to. (Joking)

OT: Dear lord did i miss Battletech/Mechwarrior. It did get a little dry on the customization around MW4/Mercs, but it looks like they're getting back to the old customizable glory. *Nostalgia Goggles Engaged*