Mechwarrior Online Drops

[Jfswift]

If you go back as far as MechWarrior 2 there were a few levels where I deliberately chose a smaller mech since it was better suited for the terrain.

 

[Enkidu88]

Personally, I'll stick with MW4:Merc until MW5 is released.

I hate to be the one to break it to you but...Mechwarrior Online is Mech 5. They decided to ditch Mech 5, and it's suggested campaign, in favor of this free-to-play game. Or at least that's how I understand it.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

As delighted I am to see MechWarrior finally returning, I would rather see MechWarrior 5.

Then again, as long as I can pilot a Timberwolf, they've got me sold.

If they only SELL the Timberwolf, I will punch the man responsible til he bleeds orange bang.
That being said, please do not ever make items only accessible through purchasing; one of the biggest putoffs in free to play is the idea that you'll never quite be able to play the real game unless you pipe money through the internet to get each thing. Remember TF2: you're buying convenience, not victory. You can either earn your way through, which has a tremendous moral victory to get a weapon through smart trading or crafting, or eliminate that and get it earlier. How about just keeping a realistic currency in-game, such as the in-universe costs of weapons etcetera?
Long story short, Mechwarrior is a series dear to me, don't screw it up. I love shoving gauss rifles in places where gauss rifles were not ever thought to fit and making utterly bonkers loadouts just to try them out, if you make it so I cannot customize my mech in appropriately-absurd loadouts I will not like it.

Did it explode? I can remember kitting out one particular mech with 4 or so PPCs in Mech2.

What Did PPC even stand for? I always called it the "Pyro Pixel Cannon," and everyone I knew who played MW2/Mercs had silly nicknames for it like "Puzzled Penguin Chute" or "Pumpkin Pie Cannon."

Did everyone do that, or are my IRL friends just weird?

Particle Projection Cannon. It's supposed to be a big plasma gun or something.

 

[Thrakkesh]

I´m pretty sure an Atlas carries a 20 LRM (unless my battletech-cred is failing massively) ? Which makes trying to outrange him a tad bit dangerous.



I really hope they go all in with the urban combat. It´s just the most varied and dynamic terrain possible and urban missions have consistently been my favorite in any mech game I ever played.
Plus, nowadays we actually have the technology to get some awesome and persistent destruction going.

You're right about the LRM 20, but while LRM 20's were mildly dangerous, getting close to an Atlas was just plain suicidal. It's auto/20 had a bad habit of near one-shotting lightmechs in and of itself. Best bet was to get in it's rear arcs because of it's slow movement speed. Still, in a pinch, taking around 15-10 damage spread out over a couple points was better than a one-shot 20 damage shearing off a leg, arm, or blasting things out from under you. The Atlas was the mech to keep at longer distance compared to say, Catapults or Archers.

I do hope they do urban combat right, because it helps to stave off a lot of that 'circle strafe death dance' that the games tend to devolve into by allowing you to duck in and out of line of sight blocks--it's one of the things that really lets Light Mechs shine over heavies, and is one of the reason in the PC games it was pretty much Assault/Heavy or Bust. But mostly, I'm worried about a sense of scale--I want to feel like I'm in a massive 30-100 ton fusion-powered death-machine, damn it. If it was one thing the MW games pretty much blew it on, it was a sense of scale. Hardware limitations were obviously why, but that's not a valid excuse now. Lemme mess up the terrain and stomp THROUGH some obstacles a bit more.

 

[Hybridwolf]

Sooooo....Madcat going to be in it? Please may the Madcat be in it. Or the Thor. Hell, I'm just trying to think of more mechs I liked from commander and warrior...Vulture was good fun I seem to recall, and so was the gargorle? Eitherway, can't wait for this.

 

[Thrakkesh]

Sooooo....Madcat going to be in it? Please may the Madcat be in it. Or the Thor. Hell, I'm just trying to think of more mechs I liked from commander and warrior...Vulture was good fun I seem to recall, and so was the gargorle? Eitherway, can't wait for this.

No clan mechs (yet. ) None of them are going to be in it. As a good rule of thumb, if it was in Mechwarrior 2 (not Mercenaries), it's probably not in the game.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

You lost me at F2P, you regained my at not pay to win.

I can't wait to unload as many PPC's as possible into my opponents cockpit. It will be so Awesome.

Personally, I prefer to load gauss rifles into things that shouldn't really have them.

 

[Hybridwolf]

Sooooo....Madcat going to be in it? Please may the Madcat be in it. Or the Thor. Hell, I'm just trying to think of more mechs I liked from commander and warrior...Vulture was good fun I seem to recall, and so was the gargorle? Eitherway, can't wait for this.

No clan mechs (yet. ) None of them are going to be in it. As a good rule of thumb, if it was in Mechwarrior 2 (not Mercenaries), it's probably not in the game.

Darn. Thats all I can recall from having played those two games ages ago. Nevermind, I'm sure there is plenty of impressive mechs to pilot anyway.

 

[rapidoud]

Ouch, a jab at BF3, albeit warranted.

'Jump at the assault class', because DICE have been fantastic balancers all these years! /sarcasm

 

[Thrakkesh]

Ouch, a jab at BF3, albeit warranted.

'Jump at the assault class', because DICE have been fantastic balancers all these years! /sarcasm

I uhh, don't think he's talking about BF3 at all, but the trend in previous MW games where SP was basically waiting to get into the 'Assault' class of Heavy mechs (75-100 tons). The reason being because, particular in 2/3, speed wasn't all that valuable. In MP games, there was almost no reason to go with a mech lighter than 75 tons. Don't think he meant anything about BF3.

 

[Valiance]

Shutdown sequence overridden.

Critical Target Inspected.

Proceed to dustoff zone for extraction.

I'm in.

You know, when I read your post, not only did I read it in the computer's voice, but I looked up a site [http://wavs.unclebubby.com/mechwarrior/] with the .wav files posted.

I was not disappointed.

I am cautiously optimistic, but very very excited about this announcement.

 

[Aggieknight]

I do hope they do urban combat right, because it helps to stave off a lot of that 'circle strafe death dance' that the games tend to devolve into by allowing you to duck in and out of line of sight blocks--it's one of the things that really lets Light Mechs shine over heavies, and is one of the reason in the PC games it was pretty much Assault/Heavy or Bust. But mostly, I'm worried about a sense of scale--I want to feel like I'm in a massive 30-100 ton fusion-powered death-machine, damn it. If it was one thing the MW games pretty much blew it on, it was a sense of scale. Hardware limitations were obviously why, but that's not a valid excuse now. Lemme mess up the terrain and stomp THROUGH some obstacles a bit more.

That's one of the things I disliked about the first person games and loved about the old paper boards and pewter figures. Assaults just felt so overpowered in the games, where on the board they were powerful but light and medium mechs' maneuverability really balanced things out.

I'm tentatively excited about this. I LOVED the old game, enjoyed the video games. Was chatting about btech with some buds just last weekend, even. I just gotta wait until 3056 when my Nightsky is acquirable. I love me some hop'n'hack.

 

[toothofymir]

Alrighty then, I'll bite. I've never really had much experience with the "Golden Age", so this will be a good chance to brush up on my MechWarrior history.

BTW, where Ultra ACs around, or were they still considered lostech?

And I'm still willing to bet that they'll put in the Clan invasions at some point. Fighting the battle of Tukayyid would be AWESOME!

 

[Enslave_All_Elves]

interested...

I grew up on Mechwarrior, Doom, and Wolfenstein (and tekken once PS came out).

 

[CptNiceHD]

Swear my fealty to one of the five Great Houses? Fight to claim Terra on behalf of the Clans? Bah! Let the Successor States rot and the sons and daughters of Kerensky be buried with the ashes of their thrice-damned Star League. My loyalty belongs to House Calderon. Long live the Taurian Concordat!

Can anyone point me to a mechwarrior wiki or some site/database where I can completely catch up on lore and everything in a fairly quick manner?

Try Sarna.net

3025 was the 'golden age' of the BattleTech universe, once you get to the clan invasion (3050) with all the silly new tech that was added thereafter it dramatically watered down the universe. A proper reboot set before 3025 is beyond fantastic. While I love pulse/ER lasers and ER PPCs and whatnot, having the good ol' basic armaments is where we should start out again.

Not even 3025 will save you from experimental tech. The Lyrans invented Snub-Nosed Artillery Cannons in 3012, and the Mariks Binary Laser Cannons in 2812! =^p

BTW, were Ultra ACs around, or were they still considered lostech?

Ultra Autocannon/5s were recovered in 3035, and UAC/2s and /10s in 3037. For UAC/20s, however, you'll have to wait until 3060. Sorry.

...

Incidentally, I wonder if Piranha Games will include any retrotech BattleMechs to round out the lineup? A Helepolis, for example, would be incredibly lore-breaking to see in 3049, but potentially quite amusing to play as (or against).

 

[Thrakkesh]

I do hope they do urban combat right, because it helps to stave off a lot of that 'circle strafe death dance' that the games tend to devolve into by allowing you to duck in and out of line of sight blocks--it's one of the things that really lets Light Mechs shine over heavies, and is one of the reason in the PC games it was pretty much Assault/Heavy or Bust. But mostly, I'm worried about a sense of scale--I want to feel like I'm in a massive 30-100 ton fusion-powered death-machine, damn it. If it was one thing the MW games pretty much blew it on, it was a sense of scale. Hardware limitations were obviously why, but that's not a valid excuse now. Lemme mess up the terrain and stomp THROUGH some obstacles a bit more.

That's one of the things I disliked about the first person games and loved about the old paper boards and pewter figures. Assaults just felt so overpowered in the games, where on the board they were powerful but light and medium mechs' maneuverability really balanced things out.

Yeah, going from the PC game to the tabletop was jarring in that way, when you see a little light mech and figure 'easy kill' then realize that because he ran in a straight line with a little intervening terrain that it is near impossible to hit him with a solid weapon, and the heavier hitters are threatening your big bad assault's front while he's b-lining to your rear arc. You learned to respect light mechs REAL quick!

Also, way back pre-clan... 'Locust missles.' They then turned into Flea missles... Turns out a 20 ton mech with MASC performing a charge attack at full movement speed was both nearly impossible to hit and absurdly devastating.

 

[Aggieknight]

That's one of the things I disliked about the first person games and loved about the old paper boards and pewter figures. Assaults just felt so overpowered in the games, where on the board they were powerful but light and medium mechs' maneuverability really balanced things out.

Yeah, going from the PC game to the tabletop was jarring in that way, when you see a little light mech and figure 'easy kill' then realize that because he ran in a straight line with a little intervening terrain that it is near impossible to hit him with a solid weapon, and the heavier hitters are threatening your big bad assault's front while he's b-lining to your rear arc. You learned to respect light mechs REAL quick!

Also, way back pre-clan... 'Locust missles.' They then turned into Flea missles... Turns out a 20 ton mech with MASC performing a charge attack at full movement speed was both nearly impossible to hit and absurdly devastating.

Ahhh, yes...going back to the old school Cicada. Almost now fire power, but you'll be damned if you can hit it on 3025 technology while it's running around to get behind you.

Still, I loved 3056 the most. Give me my Nightsky and my hop'n'hack! Tear them assault mechs up that make the mistake of walking into my city.