Mechwarrior Online

[Arthur_Parker]

Scavenged on the Internet. The Battletech Centers, circa 1992. 
I know it's ridiculous, but at the time that was the ONLY reason why I wanted to visit the United States.

"This is Player.. AGAINST PLAYER!"  (PaP)

I went to the one in Las Vegas in 96, I thought it was crap to be honest.

[Jherad]

I went to London in 1991, too early for Battletech, and at the arcade they mention in the video I managed to try >this< after hearing so much about it. I was severely underwhelmed, but that only enhanced my thirst for Battletech the next year.

Oh wow, as I saw the Battletech video, all I could think of was the Trocadero center - yeah, that's a blast from the past. I spent many hours there as a teen.

It seemed... better than it looks now. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Scavenged on the Internet. The Battletech Centers, circa 1992.  
I know it's ridiculous, but at the time that was the ONLY reason why I wanted to visit the United States.

"This is Player.. AGAINST PLAYER!"  (PaP)

"4 machines with a total of 32 megabytes of ram!" 

[angry.bob]

Not having played the tabletop in about 20 years and messing around in the mech garage is interesting. What are people's opinions on an awesome with 7 medium pulse lasers and 35 heat sinks? We can discuss theoretical builds and builds made with the released garage thingy, right?

[Falconeer]

It's all pointless since being closed beta all weapons probably get heavily rebalanced with every build. We could discuss theoretical builds based on the tabletop rules, but I doubt they translate that well to MWO for a multitude of reasons. Having to aim your weapons being a major one but definitely not the only one.

[Lantyssa]

Pods are on tour

Once they get back to Houston they'll be finding a new location, so I can't say where they'll be.

[Falconeer]

Yeah and they are sporting some Battletech Firestorm simulation, which is still kind of crappy but damn I'd love to try one. Please Lant, if you got a chance do it for the kid that I was me and take photos and videos.

EDIT: One more video of Battletech Firestorm, just for fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ZANqNU5mA

[WayAbvPar]

I finally got around to applying for beta a couple of days ago. If anyone gets an extra invite to to toss, pls2b shooting it my way!

[Falconeer]

On a very weird note, I just found out that the word "queer" is censored on their forums. It comes out as ***** . I've never seen this happening in any other forum ever.

[Shannow]

I finally got around to applying for beta a couple of days ago. If anyone gets an extra invite to to toss, pls2b shooting it my way!

I have one, it'll cost you $30...

[WayAbvPar]

I finally got around to applying for beta a couple of days ago. If anyone gets an extra invite to to toss, pls2b shooting it my way!

I have one, it'll cost you $30...

[Pennilenko]

On a very weird note, I just found out that the word "queer" is censored on their forums. It comes out as ***** . I've never seen this happening in any other forum ever.

I think that is because the word has been taken by hateful bigoted people and converted into a slur against homosexuals in the U.S.

[Falconeer]

Yeah but at the same time it prevents people who wear it proudly to use it. Queer is a very PC word in any case, (LGBTQ) so to prohibit its use is really, really bad.

I mean, I know you know it. I just want to state how stupid their decision is, no matter what.

[Ingmar]

Yeah it's odd, since that word has wrapped back around to being acceptable.

[Megrim]

Not having played the tabletop in about 20 years and messing around in the mech garage is interesting. What are people's opinions on an awesome with 7 medium pulse lasers and 35 heat sinks? We can discuss theoretical builds and builds made with the released garage thingy, right?

laserboating scum

[angry.bob]

laserboating scum

What? Why is this bad?

[Megrim]

Oh I don't know, I'm just channeling the forums. I guess you could make the argument that its uninspired and well, not particularly fun use of mech design, but that's more an issue of shitty map design tbh.

[Lightstalker]

Type A munchkinism, that's why.  

In the boardgame you'd be dealt with at range by a fast aggressor, for instance a 3025 Clint or some other embarrassing mech to lose to (40 tons, 6-9-6, AC/5 of note).  
Or they'd roll out the Solaris 7 ruleset and you'd still melt yourself down, while you got torn apart by a faster Mech armed with Infernos and Machine Guns.

In the computer games, well, such a Mech was often overwhelmingly good due to the particular implementation of the weapons and rules.  For instance, in Mechwarrior 2 you'd run with a single MPL in the head, full speed plus a jumpjet to execute jump-turns, and the rest as heatsinks.  The single Medium Pulse Laser fired fast enough to overheat you by itself because it would fire nearly continuously, so it was enough to do the job by itself. Mechwarriors 3 and 4 attempted to reign weapon stacking by typing the locations to specific weapons (and increasing the delays for energy weapons).  

Likewise in the prior games, folks don't necessarily enjoy the maneuver battle as much as the shoot shoot bang bang battle, so the maps were tighter and provided hard cover that one could start the engagement at close range from.  

So, those who played the boardgame look at such a 1-dimensional Mech and grow frustrated due to the obvious limitations that just aren't relevant to the game-design they were forced to play in Mechwarrior 2-4 (1 didn't have much cover or customization as I recall, and the Warhammer's PPCs were by default aligned with the Battlemaster's cockpit so you'd just pick them off at Max range).

[5150]

One thing that's been very entertaining is reading the forum threads (non beta) whining about not having Omnimechs/ unlimited hardpoints.

"Sure, limit me to lasers only on this Jenner, but don't force me to only be able to install 4!  I should be able to pack as many as I have weight capacity for!  Just like MW3 let me do!"

Yes, because laser boats weren't ridiculous in MW3.

I'm not a fan of hardpoints although I understand why they are in the Battletech rules, but they'd be much more bearable if you could view the hardpoints (rather than just the stock weapons) prior to purchasing the chassis. I'd imagine there is/will be a wiki or similar with all this data soon enough though

[Falconeer]

Of course you will be able to see the hardpoints before purchasing the chassis.

[Falconeer]

Short video from the nVidia Tournament event.  

EDIT: For the record, the video is really horrible. A Mechwarrior tournament on the other hand... 

[Bann]

I pulled the trigger on a founders pack, downloading now. Is there any good way to find you guys in game?

[Falconeer]

Sadly, no. We are being ridiculously over-observant of the NDA so not even giving out our nicknames to befriend each other in game (while everyone else is doing it all over every other forum).
We are allowed to say we are in the beta, but we don't know if we are allowed to give out the names.

Hoping that something will change a bit in the NDA policy coming the next phase the day after tomorrow.

[Evildrider]

If you are a founder you can say your name, the devs have ok'd this.  All founders are in beta.  Not being able to give out your name would be retarded, as forum names are in-game names, and you have a big Founder image with your account. 

[Goreschach]

laserboating scum

What? Why is this bad?

[Ironwood]

Giggle.

[Falconeer]

Is that your handle, Ironwood?

[Arthur_Parker]

Sadly, no. We are being ridiculously over-observant of the NDA so not even giving out our nicknames to befriend each other in game (while everyone else is doing it all over every other forum).
We are allowed to say we are in the beta, but we don't know if we are allowed to give out the names.

Start a disciples of schild merc company thread in the non beta mwo forums and post the link here, if you are bothered about meeting up, just say recruiting currently closed.  Nothing nda breaking about that.

[Goreschach]

Sadly, no. We are being ridiculously over-observant of the NDA so not even giving out our nicknames to befriend each other in game (while everyone else is doing it all over every other forum).
We are allowed to say we are in the beta, but we don't know if we are allowed to give out the names.

Start a disciples of schild merc company thread in the non beta mwo forums and post the link here, if you are bothered about meeting up, just say recruiting currently closed.  Nothing nda breaking about that.

Actually, we could do it in the beta off topic forum. That way we could actually discuss game stuff.

[Der Helm]

This forum has a private message function. Just saying.

[Merusk]

PMs are p2p not group convos, though.

[Falconeer]

The Official Boards thread sounds like a good idea. Merc Company name is Bat Country or Disciples of Schild? (haha).

[Cadaverine]

Stick with Bat Country.

[Phred]

I really do want the NDA to drop though.  There's stuff I wish to share.  Loudly.

Cut it out, those of you playing the game right now.

I don't have a dog in this race but I thought the rule here was if you were paying to play NDA be damned.

[Ironwood]

If that is the case, I'd rather not join in.  These chaps have asked me to adhere to an NDA and as far as I'm concerned I've had my actual monies worth a million times over.

If they feel it'll help their game become a reality, I'm keeping my mouth shut.  Especially since Trippy asked also.