Mechwarrior Online

[Merusk]

It's certainly nearly-identical to the Mechs I ran MW3/4 with.   The only thing it's missing are the LRM/ SRM clusters we'd do just to kill things as soon as they came on the scope.  "Mech Powering up"  *fwooosh* "Mech Destroyed"

[Ironwood]

The best customization from a gameplay perspective was from the first Microsoft Mechwarrior game, think that was Mech4? You could still swap weapons, but mechs had restricted hardpoints, like this arm could only take autocanons, and this shoulder could only take missiles, with size restrictions as well. The fully custom table top mech design just doesn't translate to a real time actiony game.

Um.  I've just read it.  That's exactly what they're doing.

Each location on a BattleMech, such as the Right Arm or Center Torso, may include a number of hard points. The number of hard points in a given location is determined on a per variant basis, and is based on the weapons included in the variant’s default loadout. For example, a ’Mech that, by default, comes with 2 Medium Lasers and an Autocannon/2 in its Left Torso may actually have 3 energy weapon hard points and 2 ballistic hard points in that location. So, if the player is able to satisfy the weight and critical slot requirements, they could equip an additional energy weapon and ballistic weapon into that Left Torso, or swap out the Medium Lasers for other energy weapons, etc.

[Simond]

That seems reasonable then - some customisation of 'normal' mechs (which was actually supported in the fluff) and then the inevitable Clan expansion adds the Omnimechs.

[Evildrider]

My fave mech was the Ryoken with all ER Med. Lasers, targeting computer, jump jets.

[Fordel]

The best customization from a gameplay perspective was from the first Microsoft Mechwarrior game, think that was Mech4? You could still swap weapons, but mechs had restricted hardpoints, like this arm could only take autocanons, and this shoulder could only take missiles, with size restrictions as well. The fully custom table top mech design just doesn't translate to a real time actiony game.

Um.  I've just read it.  That's exactly what they're doing.

Each location on a BattleMech, such as the Right Arm or Center Torso, may include a number of hard points. The number of hard points in a given location is determined on a per variant basis, and is based on the weapons included in the variant’s default loadout. For example, a ’Mech that, by default, comes with 2 Medium Lasers and an Autocannon/2 in its Left Torso may actually have 3 energy weapon hard points and 2 ballistic hard points in that location. So, if the player is able to satisfy the weight and critical slot requirements, they could equip an additional energy weapon and ballistic weapon into that Left Torso, or swap out the Medium Lasers for other energy weapons, etc.

That's good news then!

[Kitsune]

There's no compelling reason for non-omnimechs to be very customizable in the first place, especially in pre-clan war IS when their technology sucked and production lines were scarce.  Their idea of mech customization involved things like strapping Marauder arms onto a Warhammer.  So I wouldn't lose any sleep over the game being restrictive in what parts you can swap for other parts on a pre-built mech model.

[Ironwood]

While I always liked total customisation better than what Microsoft Mechwarrior gave us, I did always balk at the idea of a Hunchback shooting laster beams out the big hole where his autocannon was.  It never seemed right.

This seems like an excellent compromise and I'm really, really, really fucking looking forward to this one.

[Dark_MadMax]

I remember RAC boats of death in MW3 (heavy chassis like Daishi with lots of hardpoints, filled to the brim with rac's , or ac's ( autocannons))- no heat, pinpoint precision. By the time you run out of ammo you killed 3-5 mechs on your own.

[lesion]

Machine gun superheavy! Like firing thousands of angry bees. Bask in the envy of your lancemates for minutes on end!

[Calandryll]

Gameplay videos of the 4 mech classes, overview, and mechbay.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05/10/six-new-mechwarrior-online-videos-count-em/

[Ironwood]

Holy shit, those laser burns.

NOW PLEASE.

[Arthur_Parker]

Those videos do look pretty good.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, they've really got the right idea with the classes too.  No longer will it just be "get the highest tonnage and stick lots of fucking guns on".  Scouts and missile boats are tactically useful for once.

That guy in the mechlab tho.  What the fuck was he doing ?  "This is the Hunchback variant I like to call the 'total pussy'"

[HaemishM]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Machine guns? Really? Did they add elementals into the game when I wasn't looking? WTF are you going to do with machine guns, tickle a bitch?

[Rishathra]

Hmm, take out the AC20.  Okay, I get that.  Gives you plenty of room to experiment with other stuff...

AC5?  Ooookay.  Well, lets see where he goes with it I guess...

Whoa, chief, ease up on that ammo button.  Oh, I see. Twin AC5's, nice mid to mid-long range pounding...except he forgot to put the second AC5 in I guess?

Wait, two small lasers and ONE machine gun with THREE TONS of ammo?  That's your genius plan?

[Lightstalker]

Maybe they are secretly implementing the Solaris 7 rules variants... 

[Jherad]

I reeeeaaally want this to be good. Those videos are pressing all the right buttons.

This is going to be free-to-play right? I'm worried it'll turn into another Chrome Hounds (buy the latest weapons pack every month or two if you want to remain competitive).

[Fordel]

My talking out of my ass guess, is they'll do it like LoL, where you can buy Mechs/Heroes or whatever.

[Evildrider]

Damn that looks pretty good.  Is there a list of mechs yet?  I hope the Commando and Victor made the cut.

[lesion]

Going off concept art/featured mechs so far: Atlas, Awesome, Catapult, Centurion, Cicada, Commando, Dragon, Hunchback, Jenner and Raven.

[Shatter]

Looks sweet

[Kageru]

The worlds slowest moving FPS.

[Kitsune]

I am not yet seeing any compelling reason offered to not take the all-Atlas lance.  Mobility's great and all, but if you simply plop four assault mechs down in front of your base, the other team's going to splatter against them if it's all lights and mediums.  Price was the primary factor involved in not just filling the battlefield with Atlases for the Successor States; nobody could afford to plop down fifteen million per 'mech, but if they could've they would've.  And I don't see any real system in place in this game to limit the players from earning (or buying, yay cash shop!) enough c-bills for a pile of assault mechs.

[apocrypha]

Compare to World of Tanks Kitsune - in organised clan wars that's pretty much what happens. Everyone brings heavies. However outside of clan wars you can't form platoons of more than 3 tanks and the games are random, so you get a mix of all types of vehicles - scouts, mediums, heavies, artillery. Plus the different vehicle types play very differently and people choose to play all sorts. Despite the armour & weaponry superiority of heavy tanks good players in smaller, more agile vehicles can wipe them out. I'm hoping similar things will happen in this.

I'm actually more excited about this game than for D3 

[Jherad]

I am not yet seeing any compelling reason offered to not take the all-Atlas lance.  Mobility's great and all, but if you simply plop four assault mechs down in front of your base, the other team's going to splatter against them if it's all lights and mediums.  Price was the primary factor involved in not just filling the battlefield with Atlases for the Successor States; nobody could afford to plop down fifteen million per 'mech, but if they could've they would've.  And I don't see any real system in place in this game to limit the players from earning (or buying, yay cash shop!) enough c-bills for a pile of assault mechs.

That's going to depend a lot on weapon balancing and team 'budgeting'.

If you have a points budget for a team, then scouts/mediums will look a lot more attractive, especially if LRMs are reasonably effective against slow moving assaults (even with AMS).

[Ironwood]

AMS ?  I doubt it.

I can clearly see 4 Atlases at a base getting utterly humped by long range.

[Lantyssa]

It's 3025 tech isn't it?  No AMS there.

The Dragon makes me happy.  I'm hoping (but doubtful) of Marauders and Warhammers.  The Thug is unfortunately a 2725.  I'm crazy enough to pilot a Stinger though.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Compare to World of Tanks Kitsune - in organised clan wars that's pretty much what happens. Everyone brings heavies. However outside of clan wars you can't form platoons of more than 3 tanks and the games are random, so you get a mix of all types of vehicles - scouts, mediums, heavies, artillery. Plus the different vehicle types play very differently and people choose to play all sorts. Despite the armour & weaponry superiority of heavy tanks good players in smaller, more agile vehicles can wipe them out. I'm hoping similar things will happen in this.

I'm actually more excited about this game than for D3 

It's pretty disappointing as a "MMO" if there's no strategic resource considerations that would add depth to warfare, and add cost considerations to keep people from fielding assault mechs (one would assume for balance they have a bang for buck inefficiency compared to medium/small mechs).

Another balance mechanism would be to have gamemodes/maps with multiple objectives or mobile objectives, so speed is actually important as opposed to single static ones where firepower/heft will be the only major factor.

[Bungee]

My talking out of my ass guess, is they'll do it like LoL, where you can buy Mechs/Heroes or whatever.

why not go all the way on the "WoT goes MechWarrior" theme and implement their premium system etc?

[Merusk]

That's what I'm expecting to see.  LOL model works for those games, but MW almost perfectly meshes with the WOT model with all the equip, modules and ammo.

Though hopefully we can avoid the Gold Ammo thing that WOT has going.

[Kitsune]

Atlases pack LRM20s; there is no range at which anyone has a significant advantage over one.  Even if you stay far enough away that it can't hump your face with the AC-20, it can still reach out and touch you in a bathroom place.  A Catapult has 50% more LRM fire than an Atlas, but far less armor.

On a side note, the guy playing in those videos is a terrible shot with his autocannon.  If you're shooting an AC-20 at something, take that extra second to make sure the crosshairs are actually pointing at it first!

If they allowed for imbalanced team numbers based on the values of the mechs involved; i.e. if team 1 fields 60,000,000 in four Atlases, team 2 can bring in ten 6,000,000 c-bill medium mechs against them, then you'll see fair fights and a definite place for people piloting light, inexpensive mechs.

[Jherad]

Atlases pack LRM20s; there is no range at which anyone has a significant advantage over one.  Even if you stay far enough away that it can't hump your face with the AC-20, it can still reach out and touch you in a bathroom place.  A Catapult has 50% more LRM fire than an Atlas, but far less armor.

Yeah, but you need someone in the team with eyes on the target in order to launch them. 4 Atlases in a base are begging for a scout spotter to call in LRMs from essentially invisible Catapults farther out (as highlighted nicely in one of those vids).

As I said before though, budget caps should help with balance.

[Ironwood]

Which was what I meant.  Those videos made scouting actually have a point for once, as well as long range missile strikes.  Seems to fix the whole 'lots of guns that close and rip legs off' that all the other MW games had a problem with.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, but budget caps are unfeasible in public games.  If all of the players want to come in assault mechs, how does the game determine which players can't?

[Speedy Cerviche]

If it's a pure random pub match, maybe you'd have to pick your mech first and then let the team matchmaker find one where you fit into the budget.