Mechwarrior Online

[Ironwood]

Not really worth it.  Since I mastered the Highlander C, I'm usually top of the board.

Mostly because people are dumbasses that need a facefull of dual UAC loads.

[Falconeer]

I meant to ask: do you use any macro with the UAC5 or it is more than efficient without it once you got used to its rhythm in order not to jam it?

[Ironwood]

I just go ahead and jam it.  There's a macro out there, but I've never used it.

I find it's better to just pray to the UAC God.  It makes for a tingly feeling in the pants when you manage to unload a full 4 tons of ammo into some fucks face without a jam.  It's like 'Achievement Unlocked :  Badass Motherfucker'

[Falconeer]

12 vs 12 is live in two hours. Patch notes will follow soon.

[Merusk]

I'm missing how the Highlander C is that much of a pwn machine with only 2 UACs on a fragile arm while I get raped in an atlas trying the same.   What else are you carrying, Ironwood?

[Pennilenko]

I'm missing how the Highlander C is that much of a pwn machine with only 2 UACs on a fragile arm while I get raped in an atlas trying the same.   What else are you carrying, Ironwood?

Balls, Balls of Steel.

[Ironwood]

12 v 12 is insane.

Totally insane.

[Falconeer]

It is really weird. It's changing everything. And I have no idea in what direction, nor if I like it...

[Ironwood]

It's certainly made LRMs popular.

 

[Falconeer]

What I am seeing is lots of people cluttered in a small, tiny space, afraid of getting anywhere. This will be even more true due to the extreme use of LRM since everyone will gather under ECM umbrellas. And even if you can save yourself from LRMs, there's so much more damage awaiting for you from every direction in the form of 35 alpha damage in the CT. Bottom line, it's too soon to tell, but so far I'd say this has hurt brawling more than it has helped it, and with 8 more 'mechs in every every fight I really didn't see this coming.

[Ironwood]

Brutal, brutal fights and, worse for pugs, if you're not organised you're toast.

I can't seem to manage much tonight, in any of my matches, or any mechs.

Very, very strange twisting to the dynamics and I suspect it might make things more fun at the high end, but the pugs are brutal.

[Kageru]

I saw that coming. The "time to live" for a mech exposed to the enemy zerg was already extremely short, adding another 4 mechs was only going to make it worse.

[Merusk]

It's worse for the game.   You now have camping the likes of which you didn't see outside of a full match of TDs against each other in WoT.   Just sides waiting it out until someone breaks and he gets blown to shit.

[Ironwood]

They need to have multiple spawn points, rather than the zerg.

[Falconeer]

Finally some much needed cheesy fluff and lore stuff that reeks of the old Mechwarrior games. Hope to see more of this, especially with Community Warfare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf-uET0oCUc

[Shannow]

I got some email about a NA launch event on Sept 26th. That means we are getting community warfare in the next patch right?

[Falconeer]

No.

As far as I understand stuff, Community Warfare is gonna take AT LEAST 6 months to be a complete, real thing. By launch (meaning 28 days from now) we should get community Warfare phase 1, which is just the ability to join a faction and create a Mercenary Corp, but that will do absolutely nothing at first.

Phase 2 will be one to three months after that, and it will be the ability to earn Loyalty Points with said factions, for unknown purposes.

Phase 3, three to six months away, will be the ability to spend your Loyalty Points and for Mercenary Corps (player guilds) to fight for territories and planets.

[satael]

More raging on the current state of MWO. I doubt this is the kind of publicity they want as the launch (and CW) get closer and closer. 

[Pennilenko]

These fuckers need to go bankrupt and then never be allowed near a game development job ever again.

[Goreschach]

These fuckers need to go bankrupt and then never be allowed near a game development job ever again.

History doesn't seem to indiciate that this will happen any time soon.

PGI Development History
Title	Release Date	Metacritic Score(avg/100)
Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza(PC)	04, 2002	54
EA Playground(DS)	10, 2007	60
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2(PSP)	11, 2007	69
Need For Speed: Undercover(PSP)	11, 2008	52
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen(PC,360,PS3)	06, 2009	61
Bass Pro Shops: The Strike(360,Wii,PC)	10, 2009	63
Duke Nukem Forever(PC,360,PS3)	06, 2011	51
Mechwarrior Online(PC)	09, 2013	TBD

[Merusk]

That article was completely balanced and in no way biased and bitter in tone.   

That said, I haven't played in a month now.

[jakonovski]

I watched some TotalBiscuit infomercial on MWO and kinda wanted to play, but you guys are harshing my buzz. Sounds like the devs have no idea what they want their game to be.

edit: also, management publicly passing the blame on underlings? This game is doomed.

[satael]

I watched some TotalBiscuit infomercial on MWO and kinda wanted to play, but you guys are harshing my buzz. Sounds like the devs have no idea what they want their game to be.

edit: also, management publicly passing the blame on underlings? This game is doomed.

it's f2p and mechwarrior so in my opinion it's worth trying and the basic gameplay will not change that much even if they fix/break alot of things.

[Falconeer]

If you want to play, wait a couple of weeks more. UI 2.0 will make a difference, and it's worth jumping in when the new shiny hits than right before and be underwhelmed once again by an alpha-looking front end. Also, about the Devs not knowing where they are going, Community Warfare info will be released on the 17th, so one more reason to wait and see if they know what they are talking about or not.

On an additional, random note, looks like there is going to be a potentially interesting panel at PAX, with PGI president and MWO Lead Designer, along with Chris Roberts (Star Citizen), Matthew Highby (Planetside 2) and some more people from the Military-themed games galaxy. Bullock and Ekman are poor public speakers in my opinion but I am still curious to see if they have anything interesting to say in a venue like that.

Veterans in Gaming:  Embracing Common Ground
What impact do military-themed games have on an increasing population of active duty and veteran gamers?  How are large gaming communities leveraging the experience and common frames of reference military veterans provide?  How is this growing segment of dedicated players impacting both game and community development?  How are veteran-run charities and fundraising events changing the landscape of gaming philanthropy?  Hear from both sides of the screen and join Cloud Imperium Games Founder and CEO Chris Roberts, Sony Online Entertainment Creative Director, Matt Higby, Piranha Games Creative Director Bryan Eckman, Piranha Games CEO Russ Bullock, Retired Army Major Brent Russell of Black Widow Company, Retired 82nd Airborne Paratrooper Steven Machuga or Front Towards Gamer and Retired Army Warrant Officer Charles Kibert of BWC as we explore the unique relationship our military veterans have with the game industry.

PANELISTS:
Chris Roberts [Founder, CEO, Cloud Imperium Games], Matt Higby [Creative Director, Sony Online Entertainment], Bryan Eckman [Creative Director, Piranha Games], Russ Bullock [President, Executive Producer, Piranha Games], Brent Russell [US Army, Veteran, BWC Command Group], Steven Machuga [US Army, Veteran, Front Towards Gamer], Miki Rei Bell [US Navy, Veteran, Black Widow Company PAO], Charles Kibert [US Army, Veteran, BWC Senior C&S]

[Samprimary]

I watched some TotalBiscuit infomercial on MWO and kinda wanted to play, but you guys are harshing my buzz. Sounds like the devs have no idea what they want their game to be.

edit: also, management publicly passing the blame on underlings? This game is doomed.

The things which are smushing this game are largely avoidable in the beginning, since (hopefully) you'll start off with no ELO and just be in a rompy robot brawl with other robots.

I'd say get in it and get to feel what we all got to experience. For a time, anyway.

[eldaec]

I bought into this with the founders packages last year but didn't get around to playing till now. As a low effort fps it is fun and pretty kind to old people.

It isn't super deep. But well worth some play time.

[Falconeer]

Veterans in Gaming:  Embracing Common Ground
What impact do military-themed games have on an increasing population of active duty and veteran gamers?  How are large gaming communities leveraging the experience and common frames of reference military veterans provide?  How is this growing segment of dedicated players impacting both game and community development?  How are veteran-run charities and fundraising events changing the landscape of gaming philanthropy?  Hear from both sides of the screen and join Cloud Imperium Games Founder and CEO Chris Roberts, Sony Online Entertainment Creative Director, Matt Higby, Piranha Games Creative Director Bryan Eckman, Piranha Games CEO Russ Bullock, Retired Army Major Brent Russell of Black Widow Company, Retired 82nd Airborne Paratrooper Steven Machuga or Front Towards Gamer and Retired Army Warrant Officer Charles Kibert of BWC as we explore the unique relationship our military veterans have with the game industry.

PANELISTS:
Chris Roberts [Founder, CEO, Cloud Imperium Games], Matt Higby [Creative Director, Sony Online Entertainment], Bryan Eckman [Creative Director, Piranha Games], Russ Bullock [President, Executive Producer, Piranha Games], Brent Russell [US Army, Veteran, BWC Command Group], Steven Machuga [US Army, Veteran, Front Towards Gamer], Miki Rei Bell [US Navy, Veteran, Black Widow Company PAO], Charles Kibert [US Army, Veteran, BWC Senior C&S]

Here's the full video. It might be interesting for those curious about Mechwarrior, Star Citizen and Planetside, and how they are perceived, played and received by actual ex soldiers. EDIT: The panel would have been so much more fun with Serek Dmart. Too bad he's stuck with elves at the moment.

[Tmon]

Surprised they didn't have anybody from WoT, the game is full of currently serving military and veterans.

[Shannow]

Shouldve seen ww2ol, I'd wildly guess that half the playerbase was current or ex-military.

[Falconeer]

Aren't all the Devs for WoT Belorusian living in Belorus?

[Merusk]

Shouldve seen ww2ol, I'd wildly guess that half the playerbase was current or ex-military.

You sure can't tell from the way they play as teams.  Must be lots of  mechanics and support. 

[Falconeer]

They confirmed the tweak (nerf) to the UAC5 in September 17th patch.

I don't know guys what do you think? (the few of you still playing). Honestly, I think the overall state of the combat part of the game is great at the moment. Last patch's nerf to PPCs and Gauss worked for me and I haven't had such good brawls and matches in a long while. Not to mention that my stats skyrocketed, which I take as a sign that the actual meta is much more forgiving to brawlers.

I am worried about ER Large Lasers being the next big thing after UAC5, but in general I feel the game is all of a sudden in a good balance state. Pulse lasers will get a buff and they are pretty much the only weapon completely MIA at this point, but aside from that, what do you think is missing or should be tweaked from a balance standpoint?

On another note, the Orion "Protector" is a very effective machine, and a fun 'mech.

[Ironwood]

I'd tend to agree.  After considerably more playing, it would seem that the sniper meta-game has all but calmed down.  You still get rather good snipers, of course, but it's really not 'The Thing'.  LRM's are useful, Autocannons are the rage and brawling works fine.  I'd say it's in a good place.

Spiders are still fucking mental, though.

[Falconeer]

Spiders make me want to stab myself. Fortunately, the Kintaro 18 with 5 Streaks tends to eat them alive and that feels very, very good. I call that my "anti-stress 'mech".

[Ironwood]

ECM.  Wee bastards.