PATCH NOTES NOVEMBER 27TH, 2012Open Beta Update #4
Upcoming Patch - Tuesday Nov. 27th @ 10AM – 1PM PDT
Change Log
________________________________________
Update
Greetings MechWarrior’s and welcome to Open Beta Update 4!
We have some exciting things to talk about in this patch, but first off, we want highlight the start of Banked Premium time button. The Community spoke and we listened! It has been a while coming, but Founder's premium time will now be reset and banked allowing you to activate it when you desire. This won’t stop you from purchasing premium time right now and activating your founders time later. Any of the bonus XP and C-bills you earned while your premium time was active are retained.
Next up we have Frozen City Night. This relight of the Frozen City map changes things up by creating long clear sightlines and some cool new effects in the sky. It may not be a night map that requires Night vision but that will be in another patch. ;)
I can’t talk about Visual Customization without giving props to Mark Hayden, aka Hayden on the forums. Mark has been customizing Mech patterns on our concept art since the beginning and now he works on the game! So if you want an idea of the kinds of skins are going to be in your future take a look at this thread.
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/315-repainted-concept-art/ We are extremely proud that Mark has decided to join our team to give you guys the best options for customization.
It doesn’t stop there either, you have all seen the Coconut Monkey and the nVidia Dawn bobbleheads right? I now present to you HULA GIRL! Along with a bunch of other cockpit customization items and more is in the works!
Last but not least BITCHIN’ BETTY is in the game! Yes that is Carrol Ruggier’s voice, of MechWarrior 2 fame, in the game! We still have more audio to add (*cough*, start-up sequence, *cough*), and some more system refinement, but we just couldn’t make you wait any longer!
Lastly, I want to let everyone know we are working on networking, performance, and bug fixes. This is the heart of any great game and we are committed to getting the best experience we can for our players. Some things take longer to turn around.
See you on the Battlefield!
- Matt Newman
VISUAL CUSTOMIZATION
Players will now be able to customize the outer visual looks of their BattleMechs. This includes applying patterns and adjusting the colors that make up those patterns.
* Patterns - Patterns are made up of color elements which give them a unique look when applied to a BattleMech. Not all Mechs have skins available to them. Check out the matrix in the link below to see what is currently customizable.
* Paint Colors - The colors that can be applied to a Pattern are broken down into channels. Each pattern has from 1 to 3 channels. Colors can be changed on any channel that is available for the chosen Pattern.
* Cockpit Items - Items can now be purchased for the player's BattleMech cockpits. More items are being implemented and they will be coming out soon.
For more in-depth detail on Visual Customization, follow this link:
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/76666-battlemech-visual-customization-phase-1/With this, we found a rendering issue that would cause colors to not show up properly. This was fixed and now Mech colors are properly reproduced in the game. You will notice a slight shift in colors for your Mechs including Founder's Mechs and Yen-Lo-Wang.
LEVEL
* Frozen City Night
Dropped into what once was the city centre of a thriving metropolis, expect unpredictable terrain in this now lifeless wasteland. After dropping into the new frozen city environment, you will find challenges the original map did not have. From the gorgeous borealis in the background, to the moonlit night effects, you will have to be much more careful about checking for enemies; the fog has dissipated however.
As with normal frozen city, this map is very cold, and it will affect the way your mech produces heat. Heat will take much longer to buildup allowing for lengthier, more intense battles with less chance of overheating your mech.
GENERAL
* An “Activate” button has been added to the main screen allowing Founders to activate their banked premium time.
* The following applies to Founder's Accounts ONLY:
* Your premium time is now zeroed out.
* If you have purchased premium time with MC during Open Beta, that time will remain in tact.
* Once the "Activate" button is clicked, the amount of premium time that came with your Founder's package is injected into your account.
* Again, if you purchased premium time with MC during Open Beta, and you click the Activate button, your remaining purchase time and your Founder's time will be combined. (i.e. you will not lose any Premium Time).
WEAPONS
* LRM damage has been increased from 1.7 to 1.8 per missile.
GAMEPLAY
* Bitching Betty v 1.0
* Your Mech's onboard computer will speak to tell you of the following events:
* a location on your Mech is critically damaged
* a location on your Mech has been destroyed
* a weapon has been destroyed
* a weapon's ammo is at 25%
* a weapon's ammo is depleted
* a weapon's ammo is destroyed
* a heat sink has been destroyed
* jump jet fuel is at 25%
* jump jet fuel is empty
* your Mech is out of bounds
* your heat level is critical
* your Mech has shutdown
* you have overridden shutdown
* your base is being captured
* the enemy base is being captured
* your target an enemy Mech
* you switch to target a different enemy Mech
* The volume of these messages is controlled by the Dialog Volume slider in the options menu
* Some weapons/ammunition announcements are not in yet but they will be added with subsequent patches.
MECHS
* Decreased the horizontal arm movement on the Cataphract's, to avoid clipping the torso cannon
* Added Cataphract's walking backward animation.
* Mechs with jump jets have their take-off animations adjusted to 40 frames.
* The number of weapons seen on the Ravens' right arms changes to properly reflect the number of weapons equipped
* Cockpit/head hit area tweaks: reduced for Cataphract, Cicada and the Awesome
BUG FIXES
* Fixed a desync that could occur when a Mech had a destroyed leg.
* Users will no longer have a blurry screen after they die. This was caused when a user would die from a missile.
* Users will only be able to launch one game client now.
* Fixed Lock-on reticule not showing up for spectators.
* Cool-down bar stutter fix.
* User can no longer change weapon groups while shut down.
* Numerous text updates/corrections.
* Fixed LOD rotation issue on certain buildings in River City
* Minor visual improvements to some rock materials in Forest Colony
* Minor visual improvements to some materials in the Mech Lab
* First art pass of adding buildings to crevasse in Frozen City
* Target bones updated for all Mechs to ensure that S-SRMs will hit the proper enemy locations.
* Jenner/Founder's cockpit materials fixed
* Rear torso hit-unregistered-bug fixes: Dragon
KNOWN ISSUES
MechLab:
* Newly bought Cockpit Items are not always automatically equipped on Mechs.
* You need to re-access the cockpit and re-equip the items manually.
* Colors cannot be changed on default patterns of the Commando, Hunchback, Dragon and Awesome for the moment.
* After purchasing MC, you may receive a ‘Not enough MC’ message if trying to buy a Camo Spec or Cockpit Item without a previous logout/login.
* Restart your game client after Purchasing MCs.
* Rarely, purchasing a Cockpit Item right after exiting a match will cause the game to lock.
* Camo Spec color palette may incorrectly display previous colors after changing patterns and coming back to re-change colors.
* Selecting Cockpit Tab too quickly after saving Cockpit settings may lock the camera outside of the Mech.
* The two first Mech Bays you purchase will not immediately accept new Mechs.
* Select another working Mech Bay and then your newly purchased Mech Bay will function normally.
Ingame:
* Bitching Betty is missing certain prompts and repeats “AMS ammo at 25%”.
* Targeted by enemy, Locked by LRMs or Streaks, Flamer Destroyed and Start Up Sequence are missing.
* Frozen City Night can have red/green sky textures in low settings with certain system specs.
We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!
The MechWarrior® Online™ Team
Author
