Mechwarrior Online

[Evildrider]

Well we do have the cicada next week, along with the "Hero" mech.  The hero mech is supposedly the Yen Lo Wang.

[Falconeer]

History

The Yen-Lo-Wang, named after the Chinese god of death, is a custom Centurion that was originally used by Justin Xiang-Allard in 3027 during his "exile" on Solaris VII and his Solaris Championship run.[1] He modified the 'Mech originally with an Assault Autocannon and placed Titanium "nails" on the 'Mech's hand actuator. He used the 'Mech later during his career with House Liao's Maskirovka during the Fourth Succession War.

Confirmed? That would be kind of awesome. Especially if the model, not just the skin, reflects the canon. Where is that speculation coming from?

[Evildrider]

It's been pulled out of files in the game.  It's all speculation though.  The devs have denied it but we all know how that usually goes.

[Ghambit]

It really amazes me that they've got all this built in fiction but they've utterly failed to translate it into the game.  Seriously, if they would've simply had a strat-game with BTech storylines it'd be flat out better than this fragfest.  Not sayin I dont love the fragfest, but I really wanted to be fighting for The Gray Death Legion or some such.  Hexbattling my way across the Sphere and what-not.

I know we can look forward to it during Community Warfare, but we should at least be given some nice fluff during the splash pages and during deathmatch queues.

[Shannow]

It really amazes me that they've got all this built in fiction but they've utterly failed to translate it into the game.  Seriously, if they would've simply had a strat-game with BTech storylines it'd be flat out better than this fragfest.  Not sayin I dont love the fragfest, but I really wanted to be fighting for The Gray Death Legion or some such.  Hexbattling my way across the Sphere and what-not.

I know we can look forward to it during Community Warfare, but we should at least be given some nice fluff during the splash pages and during deathmatch queues.

My expectations for community warfare at this stage are pretty darn low.  I'm sure itll disappoint. The fact that it takes them months just to add a new map doesn't fill me with confidence that they could add any fluff.  My suspicions as mentioned earlier are that as devs they simply arent  that good.   
At least they had the sense or the money in the bank to delay open beta.

  I hope Im wrong about piranha I really do.

[Falconeer]

I'd agree with you more (cause I agree, just not completely) if they hadn't delivered a pretty darn good rendition of 'mech warfare so far. Sure we all want more and expect more and hope for more, but damn if it isn't awesome to just have these things beat the shit out of each other. And to capture the 'mech 'n (heavy) metal feel this good you can't be that bad at your job.

[Amaron]

The hero mech is supposedly the Yen Lo Wang.

I hadn't heard about this hero mech thing.  From what I read though, the Yen Lo Wang was only unique for it's melee weapon?  Seems like a bizarre choice here.

[Ghambit]

I'd agree with you more (cause I agree, just not completely) if they hadn't delivered a pretty darn good rendition of 'mech warfare so far. Sure we all want more and expect more and hope for more, but damn if it isn't awesome to just have these things beat the shit out of each other. And to capture the 'mech 'n (heavy) metal feel this good you can't be that bad at your job.

I agree.  And let's be real, they HAVE taken the time to give us nice timeline stories in the News from time to time, but it's not readily apparent within the game itself.  You have to dig around on the website for that.  What we need at least is some feed within the launcher that gives context to what we're doing.  Just firing up the launcher and immediately blowing up shit is taking a great IP and wasting it really.

[UnSub]

Apparently paying-for-beta saw MWO pull in US$5m.

[Arthur_Parker]

 

[Falconeer]

Fuck me. Where is that from?

[Arthur_Parker]

http://mwomercs.com/news/2012/10/477-weekly-screenshot-23

[5150]

http://mwomercs.com/news/2012/10/477-weekly-screenshot-23

I'm kinda confused about the point of the whole camo thing, unless your going to be able to pick what map you fight on next camo is purely asthetic so it might as well stop pretending to be camo and just be cosmetic

Maybe I'm reading into it too much though?

[Falconeer]

I think it's completely cosmetic, and that's totally fine by me, but that said with devices capable of disrupting targeting, there's a chance that having a white coloured 'mech on a snowy map instead of a neon pink one will make a difference.

[Amaron]

They could make it change with the map.

[Arthur_Parker]

http://mwomercs.com/news/2012/10/477-weekly-screenshot-23

I'm kinda confused about the point of the whole camo thing, unless your going to be able to pick what map you fight on next camo is purely asthetic so it might as well stop pretending to be camo and just be cosmetic

Maybe I'm reading into it too much though?

If I was on my way to an ice planet I'd want to be able to tweak my camo and loadout on the way there.

[angry.bob]

Yeah, just put in a camo system similar to WoT, sell camos for money, wear moneyhats. Especially if you can add ECM stuff to your mech. ECM + appropriate camo = making hitting things way harder.

[Kitsune]

Without ECM the camo will be of very dubious value as people aren't looking for the robot, they're looking at the red arrow and the target lock circle.  With ECM, camo can have much more significant a role to play.  Much like the jamming pack in Tribes demonstrates, I'm willing to bet that a lot of players are borderline helpless if denied that red arrow.

[Engels]

Those light mechs are already a bit of an OP nightmare. GIve 'em camo and ECM and it'd be like T-50-2s with five times the HP and a BL-9

[WayAbvPar]

Good god. Can you imagine letting Garga loose with something like that?

[Evildrider]

Yen Lo Wang confirmed on the MWO site.

[Ghambit]

Those light mechs are already a bit of an OP nightmare. GIve 'em camo and ECM and it'd be like T-50-2s with five times the HP and a BL-9

Biggest advantage is lights wont need AMS against the LRM swarm.  Other than that, against a sniper using thermals the camo is still useless...  so spotting a gaussapult is still a deathwish.  However, spotting in general will be much more of an active role when you can do-so stealth.  Especially powered-down using VOIP (when thermals wont work).

[Amaron]

Without ECM the camo will be of very dubious value as people aren't looking for the robot, they're looking at the red arrow and the target lock circle. 

I thought powering down hid the red box to some degree?

[5150]

Without ECM the camo will be of very dubious value as people aren't looking for the robot, they're looking at the red arrow and the target lock circle. 

I thought powering down hid the red box to some degree?

In the tabletop powered down won't save you from Beagle

[Lantyssa]

So I've kind of been not paying attention much lately... what is a hero 'mech?

[Falconeer]

It's the Yen-Lo-Wang

History

The Yen-Lo-Wang, named after the Chinese god of death, is a custom Centurion that was originally used by Justin Xiang-Allard in 3027 during his "exile" on Solaris VII and his Solaris Championship run.[1] He modified the 'Mech originally with an Assault Autocannon and placed Titanium "nails" on the 'Mech's hand actuator. He used the 'Mech later during his career with House Liao's Maskirovka during the Fourth Succession War.

Supposedly just a Centurion with a unique skin and eventually some minor midel differences. No way to know if it'll have any hardpoint difference from other Centurions, or if it'll be sold for Cbills or real money.

[Evildrider]

Hero mechs are going to be the "one of a kind" mechs that the bigger characters in the Battletech books used.  The version of the Yen Lo Wang that will be released will probably have the Gauss Rifle, 3 med. pulse, triple strength myomer, and an xl engine.

[5150]

triple strength myomer

Pointless unless they put in melee combat though

[Evildrider]

Meh, you still get the speed increase and it's for a ton and 6 crits.

[Kitsune]

Triple strength won't work for crap with the heat system in MWO.  It hinged on being at a fairly tight heat range and maintaining that heat level, and the spikey heat model in MWO would shoot that to hell.  And even if it did work, at least half of its benefit came from the boost to melee damage, which just isn't in the game in any event.

[5150]

Meh, you still get the speed increase and it's for a ton and 6 crits.

Pretty sure it's MASC that gives you the speed increase?

[Lantyssa]

TSM gives a bit of a boost when running hot.  Basically it counters some of the negative speed affects of high heat.  (If I'm remembering right.  I was never the massive fan of it that some people are.)

[Kitsune]

When you got warm, you slowed down.  When you got warmer, the TSM would kick in, remove the speed penalty, and make you faster on top of that.  When you got warmer still, the speed penalties would continue to accrue and eventually negate the TSM bonus, though you'd still be moving faster than a non-TSM mech in the same circumstances.  But more importantly it would boost the mech's physical attacks by 50% when active, so TSM on a heavy mech with a hatchet would result in a death monster that was hitting harder than an AC/20 and only on the upper body, so higher odds of getting the head.  As long as you were careful with heat management, you'd wind up with something that could sprint across the map faster than anything else of its weight class and proceed to demolish the crap out of most other targets.

Of course, this also required running into point blank range while being shot at a lot.  Heavy armor's pretty much required.

[eldaec]

Without ECM the camo will be of very dubious value as people aren't looking for the robot, they're looking at the red arrow and the target lock circle. 

I thought powering down hid the red box to some degree?

If visible camo worked then people would just start using IR vision.

[Fordel]

When you got warm, you slowed down.  When you got warmer, the TSM would kick in, remove the speed penalty, and make you faster on top of that.  When you got warmer still, the speed penalties would continue to accrue and eventually negate the TSM bonus, though you'd still be moving faster than a non-TSM mech in the same circumstances.  But more importantly it would boost the mech's physical attacks by 50% when active, so TSM on a heavy mech with a hatchet would result in a death monster that was hitting harder than an AC/20 and only on the upper body, so higher odds of getting the head.  As long as you were careful with heat management, you'd wind up with something that could sprint across the map faster than anything else of its weight class and proceed to demolish the crap out of most other targets.

Of course, this also required running into point blank range while being shot at a lot.  Heavy armor's pretty much required.

It was one of the few InnerSphere Tech advantages as well, if I remember correctly.