Mechwarrior Online

[Falconeer]

Not with the next patch, no. The one right after that.

General Features:
Matchmaking overhaul (Late October)

New BattleTech Gameplay Features:
Endo Steel (October 16)
Double Heat Sinks (October 16)
Ferro-Fibrous Armor (October 16)
ECM (Partial Implementation Late October/Full Implementation Early/Mid November)
Active (Beagle) Probe (Late October)
Artemis (October 16) - Updated

New MechLab Features:
PIP Zoome Module and Pilot Skill (October 16) - Updated
Cammo Pattern Selector (Late October/Early November)
Colour Selector (Late October/Early November)
Decal Selector (Late November/Early December)

New Pilot Lab Features:
3 Pilot Skils (Early October)

[Arthur_Parker]

Yeah, client engine update is next patch, but they said a lot of stuff in that, so they might bring some things forward.

[5150]

Speaking of which anyone you gets the US version of pc gamer, if you aren't using the code for mwo, send it my way as I can't even buy the digital version from the UK.

Check your PM's.

What does thos code do of which you speak?

NVM Googled it

[Ironwood]

Am I right in thinking that Inner Sphere DHS used 3 crit slots for 2 heat ?

I can't imagine really ever using them.

[Amaron]

Am I right in thinking that Inner Sphere DHS used 3 crit slots for 2 heat ?

I can't imagine really ever using them.

What on earth do you guys do with your mechs?  I hear this argument a lot but I don't think I've ever run out of slots on even an atlas. 

[5150]

Am I right in thinking that Inner Sphere DHS used 3 crit slots for 2 heat ?

I can't imagine really ever using them.

Yep 1 ton, 2 heat, 3 crit (2 for clans) IIRC

The weight saving tech (Endo, Ferro, DHS) does tend to favour the lighter mechs but you can get it on the heavier ones (especially with hardpoint restrictions in place)

[Ironwood]

Am I right in thinking that Inner Sphere DHS used 3 crit slots for 2 heat ?

I can't imagine really ever using them.

What on earth do you guys do with your mechs?  I hear this argument a lot but I don't think I've ever run out of slots on even an atlas. 

As I remember, you can't mix heat sink types, so 3 crits means that legs, chest and head are all out.  That leaves you with torso and arms.  Arms get shot off toooooo fucking quickly in this game, so you shouldn't put them there - also, hardpoints make it harder to find space in the torso or arms because, hey, weapons.

So basically, it's a choice between lots of heat sinks in your head, chest, legs or double heat sinks in areas that you're gonna lose quickly or lose weapons.

IMO.

[Falconeer]

If you are going for a sniping PPC or LL based 'mech you can and should probably put double hit sinks in your arms as you are hoping to not get hit much in the first place (by staying far far away) and you can definitely use the extra dissipation. That said, at the moment, if you are staying long range and you are not using a Gauss Rifle, you are doing sniping wrong. Which is sad.

[Ironwood]

Also, small maps.

[5150]

Am I right in thinking that Inner Sphere DHS used 3 crit slots for 2 heat ?

I can't imagine really ever using them.

What on earth do you guys do with your mechs?  I hear this argument a lot but I don't think I've ever run out of slots on even an atlas.  

As I remember, you can't mix heat sink types, so 3 crits means that legs, chest and head are all out.  That leaves you with torso and arms.  Arms get shot off toooooo fucking quickly in this game, so you shouldn't put them there - also, hardpoints make it harder to find space in the torso or arms because, hey, weapons.

Aren't the rear torso areas usable for this though?

Ignore me, needed a quick refresher on the tabletop crit layout diagram

[DraconianOne]

Not sure the discussion was about anything except people wailing at cross purposes.

Neither wot nor mwo are free to play assuming you want to get anywhere near the full experience.

Both have a broadly reasonable rmt model. Mwo's is based more around discrete mech purchases than the consumables wot includes.

This is certainly an aspect of the mechs vs tanks debate I never expected to see.

 

[Amaron]

As I remember, you can't mix heat sink types, so 3 crits means that legs, chest and head are all out.  That leaves you with torso and arms.  Arms get shot off toooooo fucking quickly in this game, so you shouldn't put them there - also, hardpoints make it harder to find space in the torso or arms because, hey, weapons.

I don't think they've mentioned the no mixing rule.  Arms aren't that bad on a lot of mechs either.  I'd rather have someone shooting my arm off to take out 2hs than shooting my torso.

[Arthur_Parker]

I've heard the neckbeards say you can't mix them.

That said, at the moment, if you are staying long range and you are not using a Gauss Rifle, you are doing sniping wrong. Which is sad.

You can fit 4 large lasers on an RS Atlas, that's 36 shifting damage against 30 direct of a K2.  If you keep moving, it's viable and will give a K2 opponent considerable pause for thought.  You use every slot for heatsinks though so DHS aren't going to help, the gauss is very nice too and it works ok fitting one with 2 Large lasers.

[Amaron]

You can fit 4 large lasers on an RS Atlas, that's 36 shifting damage against 30 direct of a K2.

Large lasers have extremely poor damage at typical sniping ranges.  ER lasers are somewhat better but the heat cost is pretty nasty.  You'll actually have better luck using PPC/ERPPC.

[Falconeer]

I love Large Lasers, but as a long range weapon they suffer a lot, and when it comes to heat they are a pain. Not to mention PPCs, just too hot at the moment, or simply outshined by the Gauss. That keeps being the problem: Gauss Rifle is too good at too many things. Sure, you can live without one and you can kill stuff and have fun, but it DOES make a huge difference under all circumstances. It definitely needs some real tradeoffs, and I can only hope the lack of a minimum range penalty will be fixed before launch.

[Ironwood]

I've heard the neckbeards say you can't mix them.

Hey, Fuck You.   

I honestly don't know about IS, but I do remember you definitely couldn't mix singles and doubles in any previous Clan game.
 

[Kitsune]

The value of double heat sinks comes from the 'free' ones that come with the engine and don't take any slots of internal space.  IIRC, every 25 points of engine mean that you get one heat sink that takes no internal space, and all mechs get the first ten heat sinks at no weight cost, so as long as you're packing at least a 250 engine with your double heat sinks that's 20 points of heat without any weight or space taken up, which is kind of a big deal.  Mechs with bigger engines get to enjoy even more of them without having to cope with spending slots.  Once you're past the freebies, the three slot per heat sink thing kicks in and starts heavily restricting your options, but you'll still probably be coming out ahead over regular heat sinks.

[Amaron]

The value of double heat sinks comes from the 'free' ones that come with the engine and don't take any slots of internal space. 

How did the rules go concerning DHS + XL engines?  I'm curious if they're going to put in different engine prices based on DHS or not.

[Arthur_Parker]

You can fit 4 large lasers on an RS Atlas, that's 36 shifting damage against 30 direct of a K2.

Large lasers have extremely poor damage at typical sniping ranges.  ER lasers are somewhat better but the heat cost is pretty nasty.  You'll actually have better luck using PPC/ERPPC.

Not me, I have a lot of luck with 4 LL, there is something about ppc's I don't like.

Heat is very manageable, xl325, AMS 2 tons, 4 LL, 43 Heats Sinks, strip legs to 41.

I've heard the neckbeards say you can't mix them.

Hey, Fuck You.    

I honestly don't know about IS, but I do remember you definitely couldn't mix singles and doubles in any previous Clan game.
 

I have no clue, I'm just going on what I've read.

[Falconeer]

there is something about ppc's I don't like.

Ridiculously slow travel time. I kicked footballs faster than that.

[Arthur_Parker]

That could be it, I dunno they just feel wrong somehow, to me anyway.

[HaemishM]

I'm finally starting to get the hang of this. Probably helped that I started playing the Jenner exclusively. They have changed the reward system to something that makes sense and the CB prices are a bit more in line with what they should be. The Jenner is fun so long as you remember to circle strafe and not run right up in the middle of 6 Atlases. Is the Commando any good, or should I save the Cbills for a Jenner or a Raven?

[Arthur_Parker]

Just my opinion, but the commando suffers from lack of weight for weapons and heat sinks, it's fun to drive but tough to kill someone unscratched without using streaks and most of your ammo.  Raven is like the jenner only just not quite as good, if you like ballistics you can have a gauss/ac20 light, so there is that benefit.

I'd save for an xl300 & a jenner if you don't have one already, you can get a free xl300 with an Atlas K, which isn't that bad a mech now that dual ams works correctly.  Other than that, I don't like mediums at all at the minute, so it would be Catapult K, Dragon or Atlas if it was me saving.  Not tried Awesomes since the last engine change but I played them to death before so bit sick of them.

Video of me falling over a lot in a Jenner.

[Amaron]

there is something about ppc's I don't like.

Ridiculously slow travel time. I kicked footballs faster than that.

I thought the same at first. Turns out PPC's are tied for fastest projectile in game with Gauss and AC/2.  I think the built in ballistic delay+flashy graphics confuses the brain.  After a while I just got used to it and now it feels the same as a Gauss.  Just way too heat intensive for realistic usage.

[Samprimary]

The gameplay is a hefty fucking step up from the uselessness of 90% of the weapons in previous establishments of the genre (I sure enjoyed Daishi Warz Forever™ with 3 gauss and 4 large lasers, constantly alphastriked) but they are treading dangerous ground here with the heat interactions. Agh, it's like heat is the anti-fun

[Arthur_Parker]

I'll probably give ppc's a go again after the engine & double heat sink changes.

[Lantyssa]

As I remember, you can't mix heat sink types, so 3 crits means that legs, chest and head are all out.  That leaves you with torso and arms.  Arms get shot off toooooo fucking quickly in this game, so you shouldn't put them there - also, hardpoints make it harder to find space in the torso or arms because, hey, weapons.

So basically, it's a choice between lots of heat sinks in your head, chest, legs or double heat sinks in areas that you're gonna lose quickly or lose weapons.

Consider a heavy or assault with a large engine.  Those heatsinks don't have to be allocated, so you get double the dissipation before slotting more.  For some builds, and light mechs, they'll be a very nice boost.

[Kitsune]

The value of double heat sinks comes from the 'free' ones that come with the engine and don't take any slots of internal space. 

How did the rules go concerning DHS + XL engines?  I'm curious if they're going to put in different engine prices based on DHS or not.

Heat sinks are priced independently of engines, at least in the wargame.  Dunno how they mean to do it in this, though.

[Falconeer]

I have a really hard time believing that the PPC ball travels at the same time as the Gauss slug, but I will do more testing before commenting any further. Another problem with PPC though is (or that's how I perceive it) a very short delay between the trigger being pulled and the ball being shot. That messes everything up for me.

[5150]

I've not used the PPC yet in MWO as, from watching other people using it after I've died, the minimum range seems to me to be much more an an issue than it is on the tabletop (mainly because, unless you were melee inclined, fights tended to stay outside of 3 hex's on the tabletop)

As an aside I did some tests with friends the other night and none of the AC's appear to have any minimum ranges [yet] as per the tabletop (which always struck me as counter intuitive anyway).....or at least any meaningful disadvantage to being inside minimum range.

The Jenner is far too fast/twitch for my tastes unfortunately but it largely depends on what you are up against I suppose. Against Atlas and the like you can circle below their weapon arc and pick away at them with relative immunity but a medium will be able to move quicker and have lower fire arcs.

I prefer the commando (basically because its easier to control!) although it seems to need to be used as a hit and run sniper since its slower and lacks jump jets to get in and out of trouble with

Speaking of which anyone you gets the US version of pc gamer, if you aren't using the code for mwo, send it my way as I can't even buy the digital version from the UK.

I've been able to get the US version of PC Gamer app on my iPhone in the UK (you can create a US iTunes account without a payment method and then google the US PC Gamer 'app' and download it to your iTunes using the US account and then just sync to your device) unfortunately the December issue isn't available yet (despite apparently being available today) so I can't confirm you can actually buy it (since the aforementioned US iTunes account has no payment method assigned to it).

The US issues are £5.99 compared to the UK issues £2.99!)

Failing that you could probably use HotSpot Shield to get a US IP address and grab the Kindle version but you'll need a valid US address against your Amazon account and to transfer your Kindle temporarily to that address to buy it

The Kindle price works out as ~£5.62 but you should be able to do the 30 day trial and get the issue/code for free if you cancel within 30 days.....

December issue appears to be available on Kindle

/edit

I've been able to get the Kindle subscription after adding a US address to my Amazon account and moving my Kindle registration to that address (didn't need to add additional payment source), however there is no code in the digital version but a reference to a web page that does not exist. The page gives a Piranha email address in case there are issues so lets see what they have to say.......

[Arthur_Parker]

I appreciate the information but I just owe Ssath a favour as he pm'ed me a code, which seems way easier than having to do all that.  I did try signing up with zinio as on the pc gamer website, but they told me to bog off after I put in a UK CC address.

[Falconeer]

All you get is a skin and a coconut horror, right? Just wondering if I want to do that,

[Amaron]

I have a really hard time believing that the PPC ball travels at the same time as the Gauss slug, but I will do more testing before commenting any further. Another problem with PPC though is (or that's how I perceive it) a very short delay between the trigger being pulled and the ball being shot. That messes everything up for me.

The delay is there for all ballistics actually.  They've said it's from server authentication.  Perhaps the PPC has a slightly longer delay for some reason.

[Falconeer]

I know that, except Gauss is the one only ballistic that doesn't seem to suffer from that at all, at least for me.

Also, the delay is what makes pretty much all other ballistics so underperforming.

[Arthur_Parker]

Patch Notes - Tuesday Oct. 9th

Closed Beta Update #13

Upcoming Patch - Tuesday Oct. 9th @ 10AM – 1PM PDT

Change Log
________________________________________
Update

To the MechWarrior™ Online® Community:

We are pleased to announce the latest engine drop of CryENGINE 3.41.  This was a large undertaking and has helped us address many of the game’s issues and bump up performance and rendering capabilities.
What does this mean to you?  The game looks significantly better.  All of the maps have had their lighting tuned and you’ll now see a lot more detail in the environment.  Minimum spec PC players should notice a fairly good improvement in performance with tuning still on-going and will be coming down the pipe as we optimize the game on our way to Open Beta.

DirectX 11 and 3D Vision support are currently disabled while we resolve the remaining few issues.  These will come on-line in an upcoming patch.

We have also taken this opportunity to add some new pathing in River City for you to explore which adds some more gameplay strategies when approaching enemy bases.

GENERAL
User Data:
We will NOT be resetting any user data this patch.  (i.e. you keep all your Mechs, XP, CB, MC as is).

CryEngine 3.41
·    All levels have had a lighting pass done for 3.41
·    Performance improvements (both client side and server side)
·    DirectX 11 disabled for now
·    3D Vision disabled for now

FRONT END
·    Dummy equipable items for Open Beta : Cockpit Command Console, Beagle Active Probe, Guardian ECM Suite
o    Please note that these items do not yet affect gameplay; their functionality will be coming soon in a future patch
·    Added minimal support for equipping skins and cockpit items to support the PC Gamer Skin and the Coconut Monkey.
·    Fixed Error dialog message visibility.
·    Launch mode retained when returning from match
·    Ready Button exposed to Chat-Group interface
·    Restrict PostMSAA to either on or off (fixes jitter)
·    Prevent duplicate bindings on same control. Also prevent invalid rebind data from being saved.
·    Added Info button to Advanced Options

NEW TRIAL MECH ROTATION:
·    Raven RVN-2X
·    Centurion CN9-AL
·    Dragon DRG-1N
·    Awesome AWS-8T

GAMEPLAY
·    Weapon particle effect updates
·    Holding “Q” will show the known targeting information of all visible targets.
·    Default weapon groups system enabled
·    Powered down Mechs no longer relay target information
·    LRM15 and LRM20 have a reduced chance of hitting the ground when fired at a near target
·    Target will no longer be lost when target Mech shuts down due to overheating
·    Can no longer target Mechs when you are shut down
·    Autocannon 2,5,10s have had their rate of fire increased.
·    All Autocannons have had their ammunition count increased.
·    LBX/10 has had its grouping tightened slightly.
·    Night Vision effect updated

BUG FIXES
·    Allied units on the minimap will no longer sometimes behave like enemy markers
·    Thermal should now appear on variant textures
·    Enabling Chain-fire on a Mech with no weapons will no longer soft lock the game
·    Destroying components after a teammate disconnects no longer rewards XP
·    Chain fire will no longer hiccup when trying to fire disabled weapons
·    LRMs no longer lose tracking when fired just off of a close locked target
·    Cooldown bar will no longer jump around after firing during high ping/lag situations
·    AMS will no longer keep firing when the fire button remains held
·    Suicide will provide no end of match rewards.
·    Internal structure will show proper damage levels on the paper doll at round start
·    Reinstating the Founder’s Mechs front page.
·    Reset Launch Mode when logging out
·    AutoRepair/Rearm doesn't reset when options do
·    Fix resolution switch after login
·    Terminate Friends-List on logout & Connection Loss
·    Fixed inactivity timer
·    Fixed Match Summary layout
________________________________________

We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!
- The MechWarrior® Online™ Team
________________________________________