Mechwarrior Online?

[Oxford]

I did a forum search for this and all I found was a thread from 2009 about Mechwarrior 5.
The game in those old teasers seems to have evolved into this http://mwomercs.com/.

Anyone else signing up for the beta?

[Alex_H]

Just done so.

[Urgat]

Did so a while ago, and for now they just send you promotional mails, like "preorder now, if you pay 200$ you got 5 exclusive mechs". I love MW, but honestly these mails are starting to make me think it's going to be a very nasty case of free2win.

[Oxford]

Well, the game is scheduled for release on the 7th Aug for the Founders deals (which I wasn't too impressed with) so any closed or open beta is going to have to happen soon.

Urgat: I assume you mean the World of Tanks adage, Free2Play - Pay2Win.
I've been playing World of Tanks for a while now and all I've spent money on is extra garage slots (admittedly quite a few).
I haven't felt the need to shell out wads of cash for their premium tanks.
I doubt I'll do any different with MWO.

[Urgat]

Ah, yeah, meant to say pay2win. I don't know about World of Tanks (afaik, the "pay2win" expression predates WoT by a few years anyway), but there's countless F2P MMO that will just be unplayable after a while if you don't head for the cash shop. These I usually drop very quickly, instead I drop money in the the F2P that let you actually play for free, and where the cash shop is mostly for cosmetic/comfort purposes (Vindictus).

[Oxford]

Yeah, World of Tanks is just where I have heard it. It's the only free-2-play that I've actually stuck with for very long.

[bigshep]

Actually looking forward to this. Looks good. I played at LOT of WoT beta, as the beta was soooo long and it sort of fazed it for me when the game was released. I love mechs and battletech in particular, so looking forward to this with baited breath. I like it that it is pre clan as well so they can add the clans later and also you don't have the overpowering issues of clantech from day 1.

[Elfaen]

there is two mech warrior games coming, one thats basically world of mechs and the other is more strategy based. I'll be running on both as soon as they land, might get me off tanks for a spell at the very least

[Nkari]

I love WoT, its just that once you reach tier 4, matchmaking gets all scrwed up, I mean common, PanzerIII vs Tiger1E.. WTF.. Matchmaking should have been topps +-2 tiers to keep any sort of balance in PUG's..

Oh and I signed up for mechwarrior to, cause it peaked my interest a bit.. (even tho, I HATE the look of the mechs.. :P )

[Urgat]

(even tho, I HATE the look of the mechs.. :P )

Ahah, I hear you, it depends on which ones though

[Col. Dash]

They are very specific that it is not pay to win. There will be no special ammo, or higher tier mechs(no tiers at all actually). A medium laser from a 20 ton mech will do exactly the same amount of damage as a medium laser from a 100 tonner. The store will sell aesthetic items and new mech chassis(I think, but nothing you cant just earn in c-bills anyway). Looks to be promising, although I am very against the customization and think they should have stuck with stock mechs and varients.

[Oxford]

So the founders deal on 7 Aug is actually letting the founders into the closed beta. The open beta and release date are still somewhat nebulous.

[Voss]

They are very specific that it is not pay to win. There will be no special ammo, or higher tier mechs(no tiers at all actually). A medium laser from a 20 ton mech will do exactly the same amount of damage as a medium laser from a 100 tonner. The store will sell aesthetic items and new mech chassis(I think, but nothing you cant just earn in c-bills anyway). Looks to be promising, although I am very against the customization and think they should have stuck with stock mechs and varients.

But even the stock mechs in battletech have always been vastly different in quality. No one I know of bothered to tier them, but the difference in armor and quantity of weaponry made the fact that all medium lasers do the same damage (barring clan shenanigans) completely moot. You _can't_ take an Locust up against an Atlas. Even a lot of mechs of the same tonnage are vastly superior to others. So how do they deal with the inherent disparity?

[bigshep]

Simply put you get points based upon the role of your mech. Light mechs are supposed to scout and spot for their larger cousins. You get rewarded in credits for spotting and transmitting that data back to the rest of your team. However you can't just speed across the battlefield to the enemy deployment zone and spot everything. If you are outside your radio link range then it counts for nought. There are rewards for killing mechs, damaging mechs and more, but will be interested in how salvage works (can't be battletech without salvage)

I would imagine matches would be based upon either total tonnage or mech type, ie 12 mechs made up of 3 light, 3 med, 3 heavy 3 assault or a variation of that based upon lances. So there may be an issue if there are lots of lucusts if the enemy has panthers. You may well end up with mismatches with upgraded mechs, but ce la vie.

Will be interesting to see what happens in open beta. Having played WOT a lot mismatches were common, but hey ho they were still fun.

[Oxford]

Voss, unfortunately there will be no Locust as it is an unseen design
They have announced 15 mechs so far:
Commando, Raven, Spider, Jenner, Cicada, Centurion, Trebuchet, Hunchback, Jagermech, Dragon, Catapult, Cataphract, Stalker, Awesome, Atlas

From what they are saying it sounds like you will get one free mech of your choice to begin with so you will able to go straight into an Atlas as your starter mech if that is your preference. That is how confident they are that they are not going to get a battlefield filled with nothing but Atlases.

Light mechs are apparently (I suspect in particular the Raven) going to have a key electronic warfare role. Depending on what they are fitted with they may be able to jam enemy sensors and stop allies from being detected or deploy decoys to make it look like there are targets where there are none.

[Voss]

Locust is Unseen, really? Almost everything else in that category is straight from Macross, so I was unaware. (and the design isn't all that different from the Cicada)

But anyway, the point still stands, and when it comes to absolutely rubbish designs the Jagermech (2025 version, at least. By the Mk III it isn't absolutely awful) is the standout in that list. I wouldn't take it against a Spider, let alone a Centurion, Trebuchet or Hunchback.

[Oxford]

The most well known unseens like the Warhammer and the Marauder are Macross/Robotech. The Shadowhawk, Scorpion, Griffin, Wolverine, Thunderbolt, Goliath and Battlemaster are Dougram; and the Locust, the Galleon light tank and a couple of the aerospace fighters are Crusher Joe. I don't think there has been any trouble with the Dougram or Crusher Joe designs but given the difficulties FASA had with Harmony Gold they just dumped everything that could conceivably give them pain.

Given the mechlab options they have shown in the vids I think if you come across a Jagermech on the field of battle you would be most unwise to assume it is armed with a pair of AC2s and AC5s.

Nkari: The lastest patch for WoT has changed the match maker to no more than two teir above what you are currently driving. Though it doesn't count for scouts or arty.

[Jericho]

Seeing as how I've installed MW4 and Mercenaries on every computer I've owned in the last decade, I couldn't resist signing up any longer. Don't like the new funding model as much, but it's better than no Mechwarrior at all.

No Clan tech is an interesting choice for now... for a while I was worried the Clan tech was gonna be the paid content. I would have ragequit on the spot if that were true.

[Oxford]

The current date in game is Aug 8, 3049 and the timeline is progressing at a 1:1 ratio with the real date. There is currently some early rediscovered Star League tech and the Clan invasion should happen in the next six months or so.
What that will mean in game they won't say.
There has been half joking speculation that if the devs want to mess with peoples heads they will take out a lance of Timber Wolves.

[ExquisiteMonkey]

Is this live, or still in beta phase?