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MechWarrior Online - News and Information Thread

That game was my primary hobby for 2 or 3 years, until the 1st or 2nd AoD expansion, really. I was good, too - I'd typically walk away from a prerelease weekend with 3 tournament wins and 3 nationals invites. Unfortunately, after AoD, the game became more and more about mechs and that just wasn't as interesting of a direction IMO. It was a hell of a game though, and the best product WizKids ever released (and believe me, I played nearly all of them).

I had complete opposite issue, with the 1st expansion onward they just raped the effectiveness of mechs. Often tournaments had to impose a force mech requirement as many players started to play completely non battlemech forces, so organizers would put in a requirement that players have at least one or two mechs in their armies. 1st expansion completely broke the game with it's awful implemenation of artillery which was so OP. Then the vtol rules made it far worse with their pop and shoot mechanics. The common tournament army involved hordes of infantry whose purpose was to get killed and slow down enemy units as artillery just sat back sniping the big units. Vtols then just finished off any smaller units while being immune to return fire.

It wasn't till the much later sets did they try to rebalance the game towards mechs and adding tons of new game options, but the game was on it's death bed by then. Was a good game at start but they quickly killed it with each expansion.

Also, the proper term is survival mode, not horde mode. Fucking Gears of War changing the word...

Survival mode generally referred to it in single player games. The whole horde mode was mostly attributed to the gametype in a coop environment.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I love the idea of a combined arms Battletech game but i don't think MWO is a place for it.
If it were a shooter, it would have to be more akin to Planetside or Battlefield series.
As a strategy game it could work well.

I remember the Capellan Solution mod for CnC Generals, that was awesome. Mostly mech focused but it had infantry and other vehicles as well.


Survival mode generally referred to it in single player games. The whole horde mode was mostly attributed to the gametype in a coop environment.
It is still a survival mode, no matter how many players. The concept is unchanged.
 
Okay. I have to see what my tag is online tonight. I'll post here and add a bunch of GAF'ers.

I was pretty fucking terrible last night. Do you have to reset your weapon groups each match or is it persistent?
 

iirate

Member
I had complete opposite issue, with the 1st expansion onward they just raped the effectiveness of mechs. Often tournaments had to impose a force mech requirement as many players started to play completely non battlemech forces, so organizers would put in a requirement that players have at least one or two mechs in their armies. 1st expansion completely broke the game with it's awful implemenation of artillery which was so OP. Then the vtol rules made it far worse with their pop and shoot mechanics. The common tournament army involved hordes of infantry whose purpose was to get killed and slow down enemy units as artillery just sat back sniping the big units. Vtols then just finished off any smaller units while being immune to return fire.

It wasn't till the much later sets did they try to rebalance the game towards mechs and adding tons of new game options, but the game was on it's death bed by then. Was a good game at start but they quickly killed it with each expansion.



Survival mode generally referred to it in single player games. The whole horde mode was mostly attributed to the gametype in a coop environment.

I'd only go as far as that there weren't enough viable mechs. Still, there were a handful that had their place, and saw constant play. I played in a fairly competitive area, and there would be mech and non-mech armies present and competing against one another all the time. As much of a scourge as DF VTOLS (can't remember the name of the unit, Donner?), SS Arrow IVs, and the BR LE Sniper may have been, I still saw mech armies hang (hell, I was hardly considered a mech fan, and I still often used them).

Needless to say, there was almost never an all mech force that held its own, but every other unit had to rely on combined arms, too (well, I took 10x SC Clan BA and 10X SC Hoverbikes to the first release event, but artillery and transports helped put an end to that one way or another). I know that Arnis Drummond was all the rage for a while (and he was a fun unit to play), but I continued to make good use of Janis Nova Cat throughout the years I played. It was often a waste of time for VTOLs to go after her, but she was actually effective at harassing them, and she had a heat dial that allowed her to out-maneuver anything. Even when on the ropes, she had an enormous 14 clicks of life (at 122 points!) and could often retreat to the safety of her own starting zone. She never was my main offense, but as a harassing unit she was nearly invaluable.
 

Keasar

Member
Will stuff be reset after the game goes into release or are purchases made with the in-game currency permanent? So if I buy one of the packages, am I gonna have to be really careful with what I decide to buy? :p
 

Orayn

Member
Will stuff be reset after the game goes into release or are purchases made with the in-game currency permanent? So if I buy one of the packages, am I gonna have to be really careful with what I decide to buy? :p

At this point, most of the stuff in the starter pack won't be enabled for a while, and they regularly wipe your garage and reward you with special cash to buy more 'Mechs.
 

Keasar

Member
At this point, most of the stuff in the starter pack won't be enabled for a while, and they regularly wipe your garage and reward you with special cash to buy more 'Mechs.

Okay, nice, I am quite new to Mechwarrior, so I have no idea what kind of mechs would fit me and dont wanna get anything I would regret.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Okay, nice, I am quite new to Mechwarrior, so I have no idea what kind of mechs would fit me and dont wanna get anything I would regret.

Light: Recon, harassing.
Medium: multirole, depending on specifications
Heavy: Attack, defense, even fast striker though i doubt this is a common role.
Assault: "Tank", defense, attack though slow speed hinders this (better in a battle line).

Then you need to consider what kinda role you want in MWO: scout, attack, defense, commander.
If you're a commander, i'd say a heavy or an assault mech is ideal.
If you like being a scout, a light mech or a medium mech geared towards scouting.
If you're an attacker, any mech is fine really, though lighter ones require more skill.
For defense role, heavies and assaults are a good bet, though mobile medium geared towars flexible response is not a bad idea either.

And then you need to decide how to configure your mech... Long range, short range, strong alpha strike, boating (focusing on one weapon type, missile boats are common), staying power, utility....

EDIT oh yeah, MWO has modules too, no? So, even more customization. How are these working in the beta by theay?

Don't let the depth scare you away.
 

Tamanon

Banned
Damn you. Stop teasing.


Also, someone sacrifice themselves for us and try out an all-machine-guns build. Wanna know how it works in MWO.

Man, I used to love that in the original mechwarrior. Just running up on a Mech and sanding all the armor off.
 

Keasar

Member
Don't let the depth scare you away.

Not scared really, more like "initially confused".

I have no idea what half of these weapon modules are. LRM, AC/5, SRM, Laser, Pulse Laser, I dont know what the pros/cons of each is and probably will find out through experimentation.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Not scared really, more like "initially confused".

I have no idea what half of these weapon modules are. LRM, AC/5, SRM, Laser, Pulse Laser, I dont know what the pros/cons of each is and probably will find out through experimentation.

We'll help.
Though my help will be somewhat more superficial since i'm not in the beta, i cannot give you MWO specific advice.

EDIT here's the list i made: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=40298810&postcount=422
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I wonder how long until we get ECM. Some builds I have would be a lot better with it.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
We finally got a good game man, that one was fun. I was sort of afraid that we were screwed since they snuck past us, but we got them good.
 

Lime

Member
Updated list of pilot names:

Code:
nagmine
Comet Stratus
sweetlime (GAF nick: Dice)
Zareht
epmode
TheInquisitor
Nickiepoo
Union Carbine
Zaptruder
Divvy
Llyranor
kagete
Orayn
Damnatus (GAF nick: Ebris)
SpeedRazor
Colonel Skills
InfectedZero 
codeocho (GAF nick: ochobit)
Splatbang (GAF nick: Nymerio)
Bizazedo
Radiant Monolith (GAF nick: Lime)
 
Updated list of pilot names:

Code:
Zareht
epmode
TheInquisitor
Nickiepoo
Union Carbine
Zaptruder
Divvy
Llyranor
kagete
Orayn
Damnatus (GAF nick: Ebris)
SpeedRazor
Colonel Skills
InfectedZero 
codeocho (GAF nick: ochobit)
Splatbang (GAF nick: Nymerio)
Bizazedo
Radiant Monolith (GAF nick: Lime)

Don't forget meeeeeeeeeee

COMET STRATUS

I used the stupid name I made up when I first started playing MW2. lol
 

Nymerio

Member
I was laserboating a Catapult yesterday and managed to get 3 kills in a match. Heat is definitely a problem though. I had 2 large pulse lasers and 2 medium pulse, I think firing both large pulse at once cost about 35-40% heat. Packs good punch though...

Overall I really like the way the Catapult looks. Might try a Dragon today.
 

Nymerio

Member
I'm fine with boating. Going energy only is really heat intensive so it's not like you can constantly shoot your weapons. Haven't tried any other kind of boat, but I assume that ammo would be a limiting factor.
 

Mupod

Member
GAF what mech do you use and normally what weapon do you equip on it?

Jenner with a 300XL engine, 4xSL and an SRM6, all he does is get behind things and strip rear armor
Awesome with 2xPPC (in the gun arm for better aiming) and 4xSSRM2 (to kill fast lights and anything that gets closer than 90 meters)
Catapult C1 that changes pretty much every time I launch, trying to find a config for my Founder mech
Catapult C4 with 4x SSRM2 and 1 large laser, I had a similar one with a 375XL engine (93kph) that did very well before too
Catapult K2 with dual gauss and 2xML, I mix it up now and then, about to try dual AC20
 

kagete

Member
Boating is extremely effective because you mostly only have to get used to firing and hitting with one weapon type (having guided LRMs on the side isn't bad too). You can decide whether torso or arm aiming is better for you and then focus your weapon loadout on that. Sometimes you will have barely a second to get a good hit in and having a very focused build will allow you to take the most advantage.

I'm pretty noob at this game and can go 10 straight without getting a single kill and I found out soon enough that even the act of pressing more than one mouse button when I have a good bead on my target is enough to throw my aim off because of all my varied weapon groups requiring me to press mouse 1/2 or mouse 2/4/5 for my torso-only alpha strike. Laser boating all torso pulse lasers or betting it all on Gauss or SRM shotguns was almost 10x more efficient for me but something I absolutely dislike doing because I'm a dork for jack-of-all-trades builds.
 
Perhaps make the clans into some form of coop component with ai controlled units, like horde objective mode. Then players can earn clan equipment and after enough time and money also get their own expensive clan equipment.

Or you could for example select a bunch of players based on tourneys or competitions and offer them a chance for exodus ;)

Then they would form clans playing against IS forces - and instead of balancing they would have to bid on who takes the honour of engaging enemy forces against IS company.

I feel the biggest mistake than MWO needs to avoid would be swamping servers with clan tech in hands of all players.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I use a Commando with two medium pulse lasers in the right arm. I strip the armor from the left arm since there's nothing in it and max out armor everywhere else.

I also play an Atlas with two large lasers, two SRMS, and a Gauss Rifle with armor maxed out and super slow engine. Still not happy with this build, (it's too damn slow!)
 

Kem0sabe

Member
Ammo wise, do you have trouble getting trough a match without running out of AC rounds or Missiles?

And is it necessary to spend real money to restock ammo between matches?

Worried that rocking a missile catapult will wreck havoc with my finances :)

Also one other thing, do you get credit for assists or only for kills?
 
Those are pretty simple questions, people have been divulging detailed combat encounters on the thread already Oo

Some have given out stuff that could be considered NDA breaking, but not a whole lot. Most of the stuff being said is very general info about mechs fighting each other, but your asking questions that would require people to give out detailed game mechanic info and how certain systems would work, to explain.

Saying how I killed some bad guys with my dragon doesn't really go into detail. If people want to break NDA during this small closed beta they can go ahead, but I'm just saying to answer some of those questions your asking would be surely breaking that NDA
 

Kem0sabe

Member
Some have given out stuff that could be considered NDA breaking, but not a whole lot. Most of the stuff being said is very general info about mechs fighting each other, but your asking questions that would require people to give out detailed game mechanic info and how certain systems would work, to explain.

Saying how I killed some bad guys with my dragon doesn't really go into detail. If people want to break NDA during this small closed beta they can go ahead, but I'm just saying to answer some of those questions your asking would be surely breaking that NDA

Ok, i think i might as well wait for an open beta, any word on a timeframe for that?
 
Larger beta starts on the 7th I believe, but we haven't been told of when the NDA is up. I think it will be up for quite a while as they have alot yet to do and probably won't lift the NDA till it's further along
 

Mupod

Member
Ammo wise, do you have trouble getting trough a match without running out of AC rounds or Missiles?

And is it necessary to spend real money to restock ammo between matches?

Worried that rocking a missile catapult will wreck havoc with my finances :)

Also one other thing, do you get credit for assists or only for kills?

1. After a few rounds you learn how much you'll need to bring. You need to be very careful with shot placement if you're using something like 2xgauss or an AC20, but they are very powerful weapons.

2. No that'd be stupid, and it's even impossible. Well, short of buying mechs with real money and selling them for c-bills.

3. Probably not, I don't see why they'd make ammo costs prohibitive when laser boats have traditionally been a problem in every MW game. I can't give specifics because ammo/repairs are disabled now and we don't know the final numbers anyways, so they'd be misleading even if I knew.

4. Right now, no, because the scoring system is in a very basic form. Eventually, you'll get credit for a LOT of things, including scouting the enemy.
 

Kem0sabe

Member
1. After a few rounds you learn how much you'll need to bring. You need to be very careful with shot placement if you're using something like 2xgauss or an AC20, but they are very powerful weapons.

2. No that'd be stupid, and it's even impossible. Well, short of buying mechs with real money and selling them for c-bills.

3. Probably not, I don't see why they'd make ammo costs prohibitive when laser boats have traditionally been a problem in every MW game. I can't give specifics because ammo/repairs are disabled now and we don't know the final numbers anyways, so they'd be misleading even if I knew.

4. Right now, no, because the scoring system is in a very basic form. Eventually, you'll get credit for a LOT of things, including scouting the enemy.

thanks, that clears up somethings. I was under the impression that the game would be riddled with real money transactions, like cash for ammo or repairs, in the form of buying extra c-bills.
 
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