Mechwarrior Online

[Ironwood]

Getting rather excited.

[Falconeer]

Although beta leaks are reporting LOTS of problems, issues and a million missing features. Even some of the people who were OMG LET'S TAKE MY MONEY are reporting some form of pessimism. I hate to be the partypooper, but there's a chance the game will keep feeling very Alpha for another year or so.

Especially considering the President made it clear in a Dev Blog that community Warfare won't be in the game at launch, and not even all the 'mechs already announced will. Only about ten.
So basically, starting August 7th it will be deathmatch after deathmatch with just about ten 'mechs and no metagame at all.

We have a system for announcing the Mech’s to the community on the web site but one should not assume this means that all of those Mech’s are currently present in the beta or that they are all available come Open Beta. We essentially add them into the game one at a time in very near the same way they are announced on the web site. Our expectation is that there will be 10 unique model types along with all their variants making for a total of around 40 different chassis come Open Beta.

The end result is that we expect to have each of the features we have announced and discussed on the web site in the game by the Open Beta date with one unfortunate exception. That exception is the Community Warfare pillar; it’s a big system and extremely important to us however we did not want to delay the game especially when it is something that can so logically be added onto the product post launch. That way we can get everyone playing this summer as planned having a great time working on their Mech and pilot trees, then the depth of Community Warfare will be added into the game. I don’t have an exact projected release of the Community Warfare feature set but we fully expect to have the core of the community experience in the game within 90 days of open beta.  (Which probably means by November if we are lucky)

[Ironwood]

Not seeing anything there that isn't expected, really.

I think part of the problem here is that a lot of people seem to have been conditioned to take Beta as released when it's really really not meant to be.

Of course, that's been backed up by us getting shat on by so called 'released' products that aren't worth fuck all.

[Falconeer]

You are right.
I think my only problem is that I couldn't stand this game not delivering. If they mess this up I am gonna have a gaming breakdown. So every hint at disappointment I capture anywhere makes me stupidly nervous.

[Lantyssa]

Don't forget Mechwarrior Tactics is also coming out.  In some ways I'm more excited about this one, as all I've ever wanted was a computerized table-top game that's easy to hop into.

[Ironwood]

Well, from what little I've seen already, I'm happy that the two big sticking points are being addressed.

So there's that.

[Falconeer]

Mechwarrior Tactics totally calls for a f13 League, like the Blood Bowl one... 

[Arthur_Parker]

Although beta leaks are reporting LOTS of problems, issues and a million missing features. Even some of the people who were OMG LET'S TAKE MY MONEY are reporting some form of pessimism. I hate to be the partypooper, but there's a chance the game will keep feeling very Alpha for another year or so.

Especially considering the President made it clear in a Dev Blog that community Warfare won't be in the game at launch, and not even all the 'mechs already announced will. Only about ten.
So basically, starting August 7th it will be deathmatch after deathmatch with just about ten 'mechs and no metagame at all.

Even if all that is true, this is the opposite situation to WAR where they wasted so much money on the PVE content that when the population tanked there was absolutely no way the funding wasn't going to get cut to the bone.  If they honestly do intend to add the features people want, while trying to improve the core gameplay of giant mechs shooting each other, I think players are going to be very forgiving.  It's not like they have a lot of choice if this is the type of game they want.

[MahrinSkel]

I already got strung along with "deathmatches while we work on the strategic level" for a year or so once.  Page me when the real game is ready.  Seriously, they'd be better with a half-assed strategic level lifted straight from the player-built systems put together for MW2/MW3 than launching with nothing but a half-assed dueling game and only a handful of mech types.

--Dave

[Arthur_Parker]

I'm not sure what the intention is but I hope they don't officially launch with such a key feature missing, they made a million or so already just from pre sales.  The "we fully expect to have the core of the community experience in the game within 90 days of open beta" doesn't automatically read to me as "open beta is over by that point".

[Merusk]

I don't see why Deathmatches won't suffice.  It's all I do in World of Tanks and that remains fun. 

Then again I don't have the love affair with the tabletop game others seem to.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I'm kinda with you.  In all of these type of games, I'm an old fart of a father (read:Casual) so the actual progress of the War and Leagues and Standings means precisely Dick to me.

I just wanna log in with some mates and beat fuck out of big robots with large guns.  That's how I played the Tabletop one too; so I'm not too sure what expectations anyone else has.  As far as I can see, this game will deliver both big robots beating fuck out of each other as well as managing the thorny problem of 'Biggest Robot is the Biggest Fuck Beater'.  So I'm kinda happy.

Also;  Critical Hit :  Heat Sink.

[Lantyssa]

It's all I want.  Heck, it's all MPBT3025 was really.  We just had a pretty map to make us think we were fighting each death match for a reason.

I wonder if it'll have DFA.  My squad thought I was crazy, but loved when I did it.

[Ironwood]

I just remember from the initial BT rules, you could actually pick up a severed arm and club your enemy with it.

That was... pretty cool.

Yeah, when DFA worked, it really worked.  I had a nice custom mech that went through about 20 games unbeaten until Chris did a tricky DFA move and crushed my head.  Good Times.

[Falconeer]

It does have DFA.

[Amaron]

Also;  Critical Hit :  Heat Sink.

I hear they took heat sinks to the level that if you put them in your legs and you stand in water you get bonus heat loss.

[Falconeer]

That's cool. It's exactly like that in the original rules. You are even harder to hit because only half of your body is visible, but at the same time you are kind of stuck there since you move slower in and out of water and you have to perform stumble rolls, which means you can fall on your face a lot (and I heard the stumble mechanic IS already in the beta and not just for entering or leaving water).

[Ironwood]

I like the infra-red view.  It actually has a use, as well.

[Hoax]

Fuck Goonswarm. Someone better make sure this game has some kind of faction population balance mechanics in place or else this wont even be worth playing if they bring the full zerg.

No interest in the game until they have community warfare stuff fleshed out and running.

[Kitsune]

Fuck Goonswarm. Someone better make sure this game has some kind of faction population balance mechanics in place or else this wont even be worth playing if they bring the full zerg.

No interest in the game until they have community warfare stuff fleshed out and running.

Given that the actual battles seem to be team deathmatch with a sideline of capture the base, there's no faction population to balance.  You'll never see a 100 vs. 20 fight in any event.

[Comstar]

Fuck Goonswarm. Someone better make sure this game has some kind of faction population balance mechanics in place or else this wont even be worth playing if they bring the full zerg.

From what I recall most of the huge battles in Eve where fairly even in numbers. The different was always that Goonswarm kept on coming back.

From what I understand it's all team deathmatch/capture the base, so raw numbers aren't in it. And the actual map showing conquests won't be in for 3+ months either.


That being said, if House Liao takes down the Federated Suns, it will also be hilarious.

[Ironwood]

Doesn't really matter what happens though, since two years down the line the Clans will arrive to push in everyones shit.

[Simond]

That just means less Space-Prussian reinforcements for the space-China front. 

[Llyse]

It's all I want.  Heck, it's all MPBT3025 was really.  We just had a pretty map to make us think we were fighting each death match for a reason.

I wonder if it'll have DFA.  My squad thought I was crazy, but loved when I did it.

Pretty much, even if there's no strategic crap, I just want to be in my Hunchback shutdown while a friendly light mech baits a fucker into the city then I start up 'Mech Online' and open up with an AC/20 into someone's tasty rear torso armour...

Yeah, the money I put in is good will and I won't be expecting Robot jesus at launch, just give me enough to bite into and slowly add more features.

[eldaec]

Guilds push shit in by being organised, not by numbers. Fixed sides games like this they will always dominate the persistent elements because they have more time than we do.

As for goonswarm, they are about the only guild I've ever seen manage to even touch the serious business part of an mmo using casual players so no idea why all the sand is getting in vaginas about them.

[Falconeer]

New Developer Diary video or something.

(Granted, no new footage. God forbid...)

[Ironwood]

Where does one get a Big Robot fix in the meantime if they can't stand the Microsoft attempts ?

[Falconeer]

Everyone says Mechwarrior Living Legends. Looks really good judging from gameplay videos on youtube and it has a decent selection of 'mechs and vehicles. I will go as far as saying that I like their LRM video effects more than the MW:O ones so far. I am tempted to buy Crysis Wars myself just to try it out (it's 10€ on Steam)m but I was really hoping for someone here to drop some first hand impressions.

Also, that video is two years old. Beta advanced a lot since then some say.

[Kail]

As for goonswarm, they are about the only guild I've ever seen manage to even touch the serious business part of an mmo using casual players so no idea why all the sand is getting in vaginas about them.

Just about everything I've heard about them paints them as nerdy bullies, people who want to have fun by ruining your day, and fuck with your shit on a personal level because lol internets or whatever.  This is stuff coming from both their enemies as well as the Goons themselves.  I've never encountered them myself as far as I know, so I may be way off base, but that's the image of them that I'm getting.  *shrug*

Where does one get a Big Robot fix in the meantime if they can't stand the Microsoft attempts ?

The only new game I've seen recently is the new Steel Batallion game, which disappointingly looks kind of shitty.

[Ironwood]

To be honest, even a well done tabletop rendition would work for me.  I downloaded Megamek, only to find out it was horrendously shitty.

[Mrbloodworth]

Everyone says Mechwarrior Living Legends. Looks really good judging from gameplay videos on youtube and it has a decent selection of 'mechs and vehicles. I will go as far as saying that I like their LRM video effects more than the MW:O ones so far. I am tempted to buy Crysis Wars myself just to try it out (it's 10€ on Steam)m but I was really hoping for someone here to drop some first hand impressions.

Also, that video is two years old. Beta advanced a lot since then some say.

I like that you can get out of your mech.

[Ironwood]

I like that you can get out of your Mech and actually be useful.

[Kageru]

Just about everything I've heard about them paints them as nerdy bullies, people who want to have fun by ruining your day, and fuck with your shit on a personal level because lol internets or whatever.  This is stuff coming from both their enemies as well as the Goons themselves.  I've never encountered them myself as far as I know, so I may be way off base, but that's the image of them that I'm getting.  *shrug*

The feel I got from the Eve group was that they're a really large group (so lots of differences internally) that puts the members getting maximum enjoyment out of the game above any other concerns, including social convention and expectations of how the game should be played. Which probably looks much like your version from the receiving end but is a slight difference in intent.

[Arthur_Parker]

Humour>All.  It's a large group so you have the usual things you would expect, nice people & arseholes.  It has deeply committed people who will put months of effort into something boring and complicated just to piss other people off, while at the same time they will throw all that effort away with little thought if it's funny to do so. 

I like them, I wouldn't want to fight against them as their troll posting/propaganda is so good at making people hate them.

[Falconeer]

Nevermind.