Mechwarrior Online coming 2012 and it's free

[Daehawk]

Seen it all before. Lack of AI just means they cant or wont program it and its lazy. I wont give them a cent. If they had improved MWO I would have. Still the same old maps doing the same old team deathmatch fighting. All I wanted was new maps and a destructible environment. Trees to crush and set fire to....craters to consume small mechs. But nope.

[Rip]

Yea, just went and checked their forums. Same old deflect any questions about things it really needs like knockdowns and attempts to make what they do have sound more impressive than it really is. Glad to see I haven't missed anything. I'll check back next year and see if they have addressed any of my concerns or if they still exist.

Rather disappointing.

[xwraith]

There seems to be some business things going on the back end. Strange that they are starting another game, when their first one never got to where it was supposed to be. Looks like they broke away or were dropped by their publisher/parent company as well...

[Rip]

There seems to be some business things going on the back end. Strange that they are starting another game, when their first one never got to where it was supposed to be. Looks like they broke away or were dropped by their publisher/parent company as well...

I hadn't heard all that. That is funny.

It was iirc the publisher pushing some of the stupidest most questionable stuff. Then they screwed the game up and bailed is just lulz worthy.

[Turtle]

The publisher split, which was recent as it happened September 1, 2014, and their relationship may have been the cause. But only time will tell who was at fault. It's reasonable to assume both were at fault.

Anyone have a link to info on what the publisher did, specifically?

Whether this is a desperate grab from Piranha, or a studio finally liberated to do what's needed. We'll see. The free stuff for old timers is rather nice, but it's also digital stuff, completely free for them to hand out like candy, and there's always twenty more variants that need to be ground out of the system, and costly paint schemes, and other drek.

The best thing they could do right now to prove to the community that they've always wanted to make a good game is to announce and show the underpinnings of all the things the community has been clamoring for. Things like drop tonnage system and interesting missions, which would in turn help them balance the game if they removed bland WoT style deathmatch variants. Suddenly they can tweak mechs and weapons not for deathmatch balance, but for their performance for tonnage.

Unfortunately, running away to make a new game, one that everyone who might have been interested in backing has seen they're incapable of making, is not the way to go.

I do realize that they need to make something new. MWO has long ago reached the point of diminishing returns, but making a clone of some already popular thing isn't the way to go.

[Rip]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/10/mechw ... -promised/

[Daehawk]

And I totally hate the UI for non battle stuff. It used to be SO easy to see how many mech bays I had and how many mechs not to mention how easy it was to install parts and see what i owned. now its a huge hassel and clusterfuck to me. So UNintuitive.

[Rip]

Wow, I am finding lots of drama.

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/09/transv ... ash-begins

http://www.gamekicker.com/gaming-news/m ... d-promised

The best one.

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/09/piranh ... -continues

[Daehawk]

Has FAIL written all over it. And deleting users negative posts is never ever a good idea.

[Turtle]

I think that's fine to do on your own official forums. But reddit's user guidelines are clear on this.

We could probably move the Transverse talk to its own thread now, but this is all so entwined with MWO's current performance.

Either way, I'm highly entertained by all this drama, moreso then I was ever playing MWO.

[Paingod]

I've waded back into the game, not the drama, and find it still to be a fun play - not deep and strategic, but fun in a giant robots with big guns way.

A couple nice things in the game since I last played are...

1. Perks. Each Inner Sphere chassis gets a set of perks. The Founders Hunchback 4G, for example, gets a set of perks that add up to a lot more range and velocity for an AC20, but less so for an AC10. Some types of perks include shorter fire times on lasers (meaning the damage happens faster), shorter reload times, more range, increased torso twist speed, etc.

2. Clan Mechs. They have no engine options so their speed is what it is, but do come with Omnipods, which mean you can swap out the arm of one model for the arm of another in the same line to create the 'perfect' Mech for you. You can also create three identical Mechs so the experience grind through three chassis means you're not having to switch up builds every other round. Their weapons are generally smaller and better than the Inner Sphere, but generate a lot of heat. Unfortunately, they don't get many perks to encourage specific builds, so there's a lot of 'boating' one kind of weapon.

3. A new game mode - Invasion - and Factions. The faction you choose determines the Mechs you can use in the Invasion mode. For example, joining the Steiner faction means your missions revolve around their space. Steiner pilots get the Hunchback, Centurion, Raven, Atlas, Catapult, and a couple other chassis to choose from. When you queue up for an attack or defend mission, you choose 4 Mechs from your pool to load into the dropship (or Trial mechs if none match yours). You decide which drops first, and then launch the next after you die, and so on until you run out. The attackers have to break down two gates, then three generators, and finally an orbital gun. The defenders have to stop them. It's fun and pays out in large sums of money for a 30-minute game (500,000 C-Bills for a win, plus faction loyalty - which also earns cash as your loyalty hits new levels). The only downside is the time to queue being absurd. I waited a good 10 minutes while reading news and game sites before a group came together, and that group was 10 guild members and another PUG (I still only PUG, no groups).

4. People in PUG games are co-operating more by design. It used to be that a good 50% of my matches started with everyone going left, right, up, down, and sideways - meaning a scattered fight that got steamrolled. Now most of my matches involve teams where everyone seems to try and at least go the same way. I'm not sure if this means people are more observant, or if the game isn't getting fresh meat and only veterans are left.

I decided to round out some of my Mechs and try a new Clan chassis. My first stop was the Raven line...

Spoiler:

...and the dreaded slog up through the 2X and 4X to Mastery. I already had the 3L at full Elite, but the 2X and 4X were far behind. Purchased, but behind. It only took a day to overhear someone talking about how much fun AC20 Ravens are - a big whollup in a tiny frame that scares people.

I scampered back to the Mechbay to see about this miracle and honestly didn't like it. What I did like, though, was that the build frees up 14 tons for a cannon. 14 tons is exactly the same space as 2 Large Pulse Lasers, which do more damage put together than an AC20 can - and without ammo. I loaded in an XL210 engine and as much armor as I could hold ... and found it staggeringly effective.

The Raven's 2x energy arm has a tiny profile. So does the Raven's chassis. All you need to do is poke the very right-most side out from cover and fire. You present a tiny target that people in brawls simply ignore and that people sniping have a hard time hitting effectively. Best of all, the 2X gets Large Pulse Laser perks that let it have a optimal range of 474m, or over 500m if you have the right Pilot Skills and Modules. That's a sweet package there.

So I fire, move, poke up, fire, move, poke up ... etc. It took a couple rounds, but I eventually got it down to a science - and started averaging 400+ damage every round, with my highest being around 700+ damage. I've even been the "MVP" of the round twice with the highest score.

The only downside is that it's just 22 damage - by itself it's not lethal - and because you're poking and moving, you don't keep targets sighted all the time, so you're spreading it around. I don't get many kills, but I get a LOT of assists. Even with everything else I have, I've fallen in love with the 2X and outfitten my 3L identically. What the 3L lacks in perks, it makes up for in ECM... though I've discovered that a 3L ECM 2xLPL Raven is a much higher priority than a 2X 2xLPL Raven is, and tends to get shot at a lot more.

I then moved onto the Hunchback...

Spoiler:

These are less pure fun than the Ravens. Using cover effectively and loading up on right-sided weapons means I still expose less of myself. During the last sale I bought Grid Iron and the Champion 4P to round off my experience requirements. I build for speed, and the Hunchbacks don't do much better than 71kph to 86kph. It's acceptable, but with Standard engines, it limits the available weapons payload.

The Founder's 4G has sweet AC20 perks that make it more of a support monster and I love it now, or maybe I'm a better pilot than I used to be. I loaded up with an AC20, 3 tons of ammo, and Medium Lasers - I tried both Pulse and Regular brands and liked the Pulse better, but they weigh more and have shorter range. This mech is all about popping that head and AC20 out to take a shot and letting my left side soak damage as I fall back. It gets a solid 300-400 damage per round, and I wasn't specializing in it, just trying to get through the experience grind.

The 4P is a fun Energy monster with the right perks. I chose to use two Large Pulse Lasers along with 5 Medium Lasers and again left my left side for padding only. It does about as good as the 4G and has no ammo woes. The right torso is also a little smaller, so it doesn't present as much of a target, though losing it means all I have left is my head laser.

I still don't know what to do with Grid Iron. I dropped the Gauss because of the weird usage (hold to charge, release to fire - if you don't release, it doesn't fire) and stuffed in 2x UAC5's along with 3 Medium Lasers. It's not great, but it does do more damage than it takes most rounds. Overall, meh for me - but it did let me get the 4G & 4P Mastered and has an inherant C-Bill bonus the others don't.

I'm currently working on the Centurions...

Spoiler:

... and I still suck badly with them, but with Yen-Lo-Wang already in my Stable and a free Champion for some reason, I bought another to finish the set.

I find the arm-mounted weapons get blown off too quickly, and then you're left with whatever you have in your torso. I've taken to outfitting them with SRM6's for a startling alpha strike that I then run from, and MG's for pure annoyance.

There's got to be better builds, but everything I've found is all arm mounts.

I got an Atlas-S for free as a Founder...

Spoiler:

... and it's my new favorite. The four missile mounts mean nasty alpha 3xSRM6 damage (more than 3 at once is a huge heat spike). I can alpha for 71 damage and do it twice before shutting down ... it staggers most foes and sends them running.

I still have the D-DC, D, and RS but they're already Mastered. The D-DC is probably the next best simply for ECM, but I can't figure out how to load it out effectively. I end up being more support than anything, with weak brawling ability.

I also got the King Crab as a Legendary Founder...

Spoiler:

... and WTF is this thing? It has 3x Ballistic mounts in each arm, and 2X Energy in the right, with 2x Missile in the left. I don't even know what to do with it aside from stuff in a pair of AC20's with a couple Large Lasers and scare people with loud noises and flashing lights. You can't fire both AC20's or the heat spike is insane.

For Clan Mechs, I chose to start with the Stormcrow...

Spoiler:

... I'm not great with Mediums, but I wanted something fast and full of Energy. The Nova gets a lot of energy, but seems to have a lot of heat issues and moves slower than the Crow. It also presents a wider target to hit as well.

I do okay with it... there's not much to do aside from choose my weapons and go. There's no engine dynamic to worry about, so all that's left is to decide your damage vs. heat threshold and head out.

I've only bought my second with C-Bills and don't know if I'll keep playing with them after I've Mastered them. They're not too grindy, but they don't feel special at all. Almost no perks, no engine choices, limited weapons to choose from, and every drop has at least a couple in it. In my Invasion mission, it was Clan (Jade Falcons vs. Steiner) and it seemed like 80% of the enemy team was outfitted with nothing but Stormcrows.

[Daehawk]

I really should try this again this year. I have about 8 or so mechs. I always loved my founder Hunchback so now it will just be icing. I cant even remember what I have its been so long. I know I have one mech that has 3 ac5 and a ac2 on it and abother that is lbx or something....too long ago.

[Paingod]

I have about 8 or so mechs.

I'm up to 27, mostly purchased with MC while on sale or received for free.

I've got the following for Heroes:
Cataphract Muromets - I had fun with it, but preferred the Catapult K2.
Centurion Yen-Lo-Wang - Really not sure what to do with it
Dragon Fang & Dragon Flame - I wasn't a huge fan of Dragons, but these two killed my desire to "buy all the Hero Mechs" as I originally intended.
Cicada X5 - Very fast, packs a modest punch, I need to learn how to use it correctly.
Catapult Jester - 96kph, JJ's, 2xLL, 4xML - Love it
Hunchback Grid Iron - Not sure what to do with it, but my K/D ratio is better than break-even

I've got the following Champions:
Founder's Jenner - Not sure what to do with it, probably try and play like a Raven
Founder's Hunchback - Nice perks, big gun, good fun.
Founder's Catapult - Not bad, 2xLRM's for range and 4xML for brawling.
Founder's Atlas - He's best suited for doing damage under 300m - and the game happens mostly around 400-700m now.
Raven 3L - Because I love the Ravens so much and figured it'd be nice to have two 3L's to switch between.
Atlas-S - Free as a Founder, I love this thing for it's 4x Energy, 2x Ballistic, and 4x Missile options.
Centurion-AH - Free as a Founder, actually not bad as a Centurion
King Crab 000L - Free as a Founder, 6x Ballistic, 2x Energy, 2x Missile, slow as mole-asses, but they're durable in combat.
Dragon 5NC - Just because I had Fang and Flame and can Master this to see if I can get used to it.
Hunchback 4P - Just because I had the 4G and Grid Iron, again, for Mastering
Centurion AC - Again, I had two, this gives me the three for Mastering

I've bought the following with C-Bills:
Tons of weapons, modules, engines, config options.
Atlas D-DC - Nice support mech, takes a beating but is only moderately powerful at range.
Catapult K2 - Love this Mech, wish it had the C-Bills bonus the Jester did.
Atlas-RS - Because I needed one more to Master them, and it wasn't going to be the K
Raven-2X - Amazing little 2xLPL beast
Raven-4X - Good little 2xLPL beast (doesn't get the Large Pulse Laser perks the 2X does)
Raven-3L - From a time when they were misunderstood and considered OP
Stormcrow Prime - Seemed a good place to start with Clan tech
Stormcrow C - See above
Stormcrow D - See above

I always loved my founder Hunchback so now it will just be icing.

With the perks, the Hunchback 4G is certainly better. Giving the AC20 a range boost (to around 365) makes it more useful in many situations, and the increased projectile speed makes hitting lights easier than before as you need to lead them less. There's something very satisfying about slamming a light with an AC20 round and watching the armor vanish as the Mech rocks violently.

I also splurged on a color. One color. Obsidian Black. Now most of my Mechs are a nice black color instead of the drab olive standard color. I bought the C-Bill colors, but they're not very vibrant. The Obsidian Black coating on the 'Free' Atlas-S looks awesome as you still have that red Angel decal on the side. Black helps my Jester blend in better as the color scheme on that is default hideous and says "Shoot here first!" and the drab olive color still left lost of lines floating around it where the mouth and eyes are. Black makes the Raven 3L blend better against most terrains - I'm a shadow or a rock, not green splotch.

[Zarathud]

I should probably update and gear up my Steiner mechs.

[El Guapo]

2. Clan Mechs. They have no engine options so their speed is what it is, but do come with Omnipods, which mean you can swap out the arm of one model for the arm of another in the same line to create the 'perfect' Mech for you. You can also create three identical Mechs so the experience grind through three chassis means you're not having to switch up builds every other round. Their weapons are generally smaller and better than the Inner Sphere, but generate a lot of heat. Unfortunately, they don't get many perks to encourage specific builds, so there's a lot of 'boating' one kind of weapon.

Mildly curious (since I haven't played the game) - MechWarrior Online is currently set around the time of the Clan invasion, right? If so, Clan mechs should be better in essentially *every* respect, not just smaller / more powerful but generating more heat (for one, Clan mechs would have double heat sinks whereas Inner Sphere mechs wouldn't).

Ideally you'd get game balance by having the Clan mechs be better in essentially every respect but limiting the Clan side in a battle to fewer mechs.

[Paingod]

If every Clan Mech was worth 1.5 Inner Sphere Mechs, the game would rapidly turn into Clan vs. Clan. I think they had no choice but to balance it Mech to Mech. That doesn't stop the Clan Mechs from being good, but it does mean some are bad or very niche in purpose.

Generally, right now people seem to feel that the Stormcrow and Timberwolf are the two Clan Mechs worth using, the others aren't terrible, but these two have good speed and damage for their size. I tried out all of the Trial Clan Mechs and I wasn't sad to go back to my dreary IS Mechs when I was done.

I'm somewhat disappointed in the Clan Mechs, personally. They look nice, and they generally handle well - but I feel really limited in what I can do with them, even considering Omnipods.

In an Inner Sphere Mech, I can balance the following myself:

- STD Engine (durable & heavy) vs. XL Engine (fragile & light)
- Standard Heat Sinks vs. Double Heat Sinks (double always wins, but the option is there)
- Standard internals (more free space, more weight) vs. Endo-Steel internals (less free space, less weight)
- Standard armor (more free space, more weight) vs. Ferro-Fibrous armor (less free space, less weight)
- How many heat sinks I want to use.
- How much armor I want to apply to each section
- Which weapons to use, how much ammo to carry

So I can decide to be slower and pack a bigger punch, or faster with less armor, or somewhere in the middle, or whatever. Generally Mechs are "best" with certain features - a Centurion probably always has Endo-Steel internals, for example - but you do have the choice not to.

With Clan Mechs, you can choose the following.

- Omnipods for each section (A, B, or C versions - some being identical in slots, some having Jump Jets or ECM where others don't)
- How many heat sinks I want to use.
- How much armor I want to apply to each section
- Which weapons to use, how much ammo to carry
- Every Clan Mech uses an XL engine (which can survive losing a side torso), FF armor, Double HS, and Endo internals. All of them.

... and you're done. Every Stormcrow in the game moves at 97.2KPH. Every single one. In my Invasion mission, there were a few times where the Clan attacked and a column of Stormcrows rolled in. It was eerie to see them all moving the exact same speed.

[El Guapo]

Wouldn't it be interesting to have 10 clan mechs vs. 15 inner sphere mechs, though? I'd think different people would be interested in picking the elite versus the (relative) horde - different tactics, I'd think.

Incidentally, can you choose to be part of a particular clan? I'd be a little tempted if I could be good ol' Jade Falcon again.

[NickAragua]

I played a couple of rounds of this sometime in the last two years and then uninstalled the game. The only game type I saw available was team deathmatch with area control. Getting access to new parts for your mechs was a horrible grind (or, you can pay money). I don't think you can pick particular clans, but it doesn't matter because clan and inner sphere mechs are all mixed together as the teams are assembled randomly for each deathmatch. The mech combat itself is ok, but it's severely lacking any kind of context. It's like if Starcraft only had the multiplayer component to it. Next time I want to play a mech game, I'll just boot up Mechwarrior 4, or, even better, Mercenaries.

[Daehawk]

Wouldn't it be interesting to have 10 clan mechs vs. 15 inner sphere mechs, though? I'd think different people would be interested in picking the elite versus the (relative) horde - different tactics, I'd think.

Incidentally, can you choose to be part of a particular clan? I'd be a little tempted if I could be good ol' Jade Falcon again.

Always wanted IS bs Clan battles. But nope cant have that. Guess its one big reason I dont play now.

[Paingod]

I will freely admit that the grind up in cash without a Hero Mech or two and Premium time can be very tedious; even with it, it's a drag. Premium adds 50% to your C-Bill rewards, and Hero Mechs add another 30%. Champion Mechs only gain experience faster, not C-Bills. I make around 1,000,000 per hour of play, and that isn't strictly running Heroes (or winning a lot, or surviving a lot) - but I do have 19 days of Premium time left.

The biggest cash sinks right now are Clan Mechs, Modules, and Engines. A Stormcrow sets you back almost 12,000,000 C-Bills, a Timberwolf almost 16,000,000. XL engines peak at close to 6,000,000 for the biggest ones. Modules (plugged into one mech, unlocked with Pilot skills obtained through General XP use) cost 2,000,000-6,000,000 C-Bills and buying one means you fill a single one of 3-5 module slots on a single Mech.

I've reached a C-Bill spending point where I've already bought a lot of different weapons, engines, etc. and it's fairly cheap to outfit Mechs and play around with them - and I've stopped flinching at customization bills over 1,000,000 as it means I'm buying parts I'll get to re-use again and again. Eventually I'll have all of my Mechs in working order (not 60% of them stripped down) and set up just how I want them so I can pop into any one without a fuss.

Incidentally, can you choose to be part of a particular clan? I'd be a little tempted if I could be good ol' Jade Falcon again.

Always wanted IS bs Clan battles. But nope cant have that. Guess its one big reason I dont play now.

You can join a Clan faction, and would need to run Clan mechs when you ran their invasion missions. My single Invasion was as a Steiner against Jade Falcon. They pushed hard with piles of Stormcrows and Hellbringers, but couldn't push hard enough and we defended successfully.

Basically, you sign on as a Merc with a faction for a period of time - 3, 7, 14, 30 days. The longer you sign on for, the better your reward bonus is at the end of an Invasion. It doesn't mean anything to regular PUG drops, though, so you've got to be interested in the Invasion missions to begin with.

There are four game modes right now:

Conquest: Capture 750 resource points from 5 resource nodes, or defeat all enemies.
Assault: Capture the enemy base, or defeat all enemies.
Skirmish: Defeat all enemies.
Invasion: Faction Battle - Drop with members of your chosen faction to either attack or defend a planet. The mission revolves around a set of doors, three generators, and an orbital cannon. The defenders need to protect these things, losing if the cannon dies - and the attackers need to destroy them to win. When a planet has been successfully attacked enough times, it changes hands and the territory map shifts.

I can't stop loving the Raven 2X. It's like the Spanish Inquisition. No one sees it coming, no one expects it. In the score sheets below, I'm Rackminster.

[Daehawk]

Id look up my specs and take pics but I deleted it in prep for next weeks SSD install. I have a beauty of a black and red paint on my whatever it was mech

[NickAragua]

There are four game modes right now:

Conquest: Capture 750 resource points from 5 resource nodes, or defeat all enemies.
Assault: Capture the enemy base, or defeat all enemies.
Skirmish: Defeat all enemies.
Invasion: Faction Battle - Drop with members of your chosen faction to either attack or defend a planet. The mission revolves around a set of doors, three generators, and an orbital cannon. The defenders need to protect these things, losing if the cannon dies - and the attackers need to destroy them to win. When a planet has been successfully attacked enough times, it changes hands and the territory map shifts.

Did not notice that when I played, it's a little nicer than just 'conquest' - the Invasion game type actually sounds pretty good, especially the persistent element. Still not enough to get me to give it another shot, mind you. ::

[Daehawk]

Hadn't deleted yet after all. Took forever to patch. Not sure what to take pics with..will check.

EDIT: Ill just post a pic of my mechs. At my new native res the mech bay at least seems super squished...not sure whats going on there or what the in game looks like now.



EDIT: Pic from in game

[Paingod]

Still not enough to get me to give it another shot, mind you. ::

I don't blame you. The only thing that keeps my attention are the Mechs; I've always been in love with giant robots. I'd be happy with just Skirmish as long as I could blow up other giant robots.

I'm really loving any Mech right now that lets me be sneaky. That's pretty much anything with guns at eye level and no large protrusions above it. The Stormcrow's weapons are all lined up with the cockpit, but it's got 3 meters of shoulders above all that. So things like the Raven, which I've got set up to use one side, means I present a tiny target. I can do the same with the Hunchback, and am more and more tempted to add Jagermechs to my lineup because of this. I've even starting to run weapons layouts that focus on a side of the Mech - so one button fires the weapons on the left side, the other button fires the right - this way I'm not wasting shots and heat and keeping the bulk of my Mech behind cover.

[morlac]

There are four game modes right now:

Conquest: Capture 750 resource points from 5 resource nodes, or defeat all enemies.
Assault: Capture the enemy base, or defeat all enemies.
Skirmish: Defeat all enemies.
Invasion: Faction Battle - Drop with members of your chosen faction to either attack or defend a planet. The mission revolves around a set of doors, three generators, and an orbital cannon. The defenders need to protect these things, losing if the cannon dies - and the attackers need to destroy them to win. When a planet has been successfully attacked enough times, it changes hands and the territory map shifts.

Did not notice that when I played, it's a little nicer than just 'conquest' - the Invasion game type actually sounds pretty good, especially the persistent element. Still not enough to get me to give it another shot, mind you. ::

It's a bit deceiving as the first three all play like Team death match 90% of the time regardless of the perceived differences and ways to win. I've generally enjoyed my time and spent some cash but it is one of the worst FTP games to try and progress in without spending money. That being said the graphics, combat and feel of the mechs is solid imo and worth a try. I haven't played in almost a year I think but am updating to try Invasion mode as we speak.

[Paingod]

I agree - most rounds do play as Skirmish, regardless of mode - but I've seen some, as you say - maybe one in ten - where people work to capture a base instead, or take resources even though the enemies aren't crushed.

It is a terrible free game - I've played it non-Premium and felt like I was slapping my C-Bill wallet with wet noodles after the end of each round. A month's time (2500MC) is fairly cheap, though, and accelerates your income by 50% ... World of Tanks did this, and it was fine by me - but the grind there is worse.

[Paingod]

*Note: When I said "terrible free game" above, it was to indicate that it's not a lot of fun to grind when playing free. I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit and this is the longest stint I've put into it, I think.

That may be due to my 'discovery' of the Raven line, which changes how I've been playing. I do a lot more support and am more aware of the battle now thanks to playing Light so many times.

I've gotten oddly good (for me) with the Hunchback Grid Iron, despite continually feeling like I'm not doing it right. My build has an LBX10 (2t ammo), 1 SRM6 (1t ammo), 3x MPL's, 200 STD engine, and near full armor except the legs. It's got an Alpha Strike of 40 points and can sustain that for 3 volleys before overheating. With the quirks on this, the MPL's have a base range of 330 instead of 220 - a full 50m further than regular ML's. It seems to consistently get 300-400 damage and has a K/D ratio of 32/20 - my best rate of all my Mechs. It's odd - I play it, I do okay, but I don't feel much love for it.

Still lovin' the Ravens. I'm currently moving the 4X to Master, though this is just for completion purposes. My 3L and 2X are the gems of my collection. The 3L is currently experimenting with 2xERLL's since it doesn't get the Pulse bonus, and I'm enjoying the extra range on attacks as a hit & run sniper. The 2X remains a steadfast 'sleeper' that hostiles just don't prioritize and it gets to pour out a lot of pain before the end of a round. I don't know if I'll ever spend MC to convert the 50,000+xp on the 3L to General XP.

I discovered last night that I'm able to put together functional builds in every chassis I own - I usually kept them all stripped, but have bought so many components that everything in my Mechbays can run.

[Daehawk]

I was playing big mech after big mech and jus tdie dead dying all the time. This morn I jumped into my Raven with 4 med laser and 2 srm and we won and I lived. I even killed one and assisted on 6. All bigger than me. I have one of those jammers so I stick with as many others as I can so as to hide them from sensors. I like playing this way. Im way too fast to catch anyways haha.

[Paingod]

I was playing big mech after big mech and jus tdie dead dying all the time. This morn I jumped into my Raven with 4 med laser and 2 srm and we won and I lived. I even killed one and assisted on 6. All bigger than me. I have one of those jammers so I stick with as many others as I can so as to hide them from sensors. I like playing this way. Im way too fast to catch anyways haha.

Yep.

Lights have four possible roles.

• Spotting - with ECM only - If my team is heavy on LRM's, I'll get behind the enemy team and simply keep them in sight so they can be bombarded. It causes delightful confusion, and as long as I don't move and only expose a tiny bit of myself, I'm almost impossible to find and shoot at.
• Scouting - Running ahead and finding where the enemies are. You've got to communicate, and when you're done Scouting you decide to either Capture or Assist.
• Assist - Keeping opposing Lights off the Heavys and Assaults, and taking as many shots as you can at enemies fighting the Heavies and Assaults without exposing yourself too much.
• Capture - Essential in some maps where the enemy scouts have decided to capture everything and win by default.

Mediums make good Flankers and Assisters. Heavies can dish out a lot of damage and are fairly mobile. Assaults are ponderous and soak up damage, doing a little more damage than a Heavy - but with 30-50% more armor.

If you like the Ravens, try the 2X formula with 2 Large Pulse Lasers with max armor (except 29 on each leg) and whatever engine you can fit in there. It's a 'growing' build - as you make money, you invest in FF armor and Endo Internals, then Dual Heat Sinks, and finally a 255XL Engine and the Large Pulse Laser Range module from the Pilot skill trees. By the time you're done, you've invested over 10,000,000 C-Bills, but it's awesome fun to play with.

My 3L is as decked out as it's going to get with 2xERLL's, Beagle Active Probe, and ECM with max armor (minus 3 on the legs) and whatever XL engine fits in there after. The BAP could go, but I like the 25% extra sensor range - even if the ECM meddles with other features.

*Edit: 1/15/2015

Spoiler:

Last night is the closest I've ever gotten to 1000 damage with any Mech. I think I had 972 damage done with my Jester (4xML's, 2xLL's) and, being the first win, I nabbed just over 7,000xp and 400,000 C-Bills. The XP is useless and piles on top of the 60,000 it already has in reserve - but the C-Bills were nice.

Had a rockin' match in the Centurion-AH. I typically flounder in these Mechs - and did this round too. I ended up in the canyons map with a short range Medium that could only shuffle at 68kph. I was never able to actually get up to the fight, but my entire team died and the fight came to me - 4 Mechs, all badly damage, found me wandering in a canyon all alone and I was able to kill all with 3xSRM6(Artemis) shots. The first (and probably last) time I felt like the build got used correctly. Sheer luck for a Win.

[Fafhrd]

Looking for other players to join Bloodright and I in Mechwarrior Online
My Pilot Name is Thrisk
Bloodright is Bloodright 58

Bloodright has put up a Teamspeak 3 server
angelite.typefrag.com:5920. PW. Wandering

We would be willing to merge forces if there is a bigger group. Chime in here or on the Wanderers site.
Thanks for your time.

[Daehawk]

The Warhammer mech makes a return.

[GreenGoo]

The Warhammer mech makes a return.

Close enough. If I didn't have so much nostalgia I would be forced to say the new version is better looking. But it isn't. Because I'm old, and the old ways are better.

I should probably actually jump in on this kickstarter. I think this might be my first one. IF I actually pull the trigger.

[IceBear]

This isn't the Battletech kickstarter thread

[GreenGoo]

This isn't the Battletech kickstarter thread

Lol, nope. I was just there and my confusion was immense. Not only could I not find my post, there were no pictures of warhammers.

Sorry about that.

[IceBear]

This isn't the Battletech kickstarter thread

Lol, nope. I was just there and my confusion was immense. Not only could I not find my post, there were no pictures of warhammers.

Sorry about that.

If you go up a few posts I put links to the pictures of the Warhammer and Marauder that they mentioned that they will be using in that game

[Daehawk]

Thought someone might like this...3D printed mechs..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJKLZg53qw

[Turtle]

Yeah, it takes time though. You have to extract the files, then add back in a bunch of detail that was baked to texture maps instead of built into the 3D model.

This just highlights how good the new designs are, but also how messed up the licensing and brand is for Battletech/Mechwarrior. The license is split up all over so much and in such weird legal ways that none of the other aspects can use the good ideas from another. The tabletop game, for example, is still stuck with the crappy 80s designs that are garbage. Meanwhile, there's a turn based game in the works that couldn't reuse the MWO designs (not even by licensing them) and instead had to just hire the same artists to make similar work.

MWO itself seems to be improving ever so slightly, but it's still an old mess marred by so much grinding and money sinkholes.

[Paingod]

On the Free to Play Model...
The game is still a massive grind unless you want to spend monies, but I'm past that since I play for fun now and not to try and accumulate every Mech chassis. My statistical average earnings around 127,000 C-Bills per match. That means 138 matches to buy a single Dire Wolf (Clan 100 Ton Mech), or 48 matches to buy a 6,000,000 C-Bill useful module to plug into your Mech. If I spend an average of 10 minutes in each match, that's 8 hours of playtime to buy a single module. If you see it as a grind, you'll hate it. If you just see it as a game of smashing Mechs where you buy a new shiny thing every three days, it's not so bad.

• A new "free" Player will get 4 Mech Bays to start and can access a host of Trial Mechs to build up funds. I don't think there's a repair & refit fee at the end of each round with a Trial Mech, so you keep that extra little bit at the cost of not being able to customize them. I believe there's also a short term "newbie" C-Bill bonus for new players to help them get started. A new player might be able to afford a new Heavy Mech after several days dedicated of play, but are still locked into just 4 Mech Bays - meaning they can master a single chassis type and have 1 bay to spare.
• Mech Bays are the most cost-effective permanent Premium purchases in the game, making them a tiny investment to expand overall Mech capacity, which permits more diverse play. I think they're very very worth it in the grand scheme since they never expire and allow for so much more interesting options.
• Building a stable of weapons and equipment is also expensive. You never lose this stuff and there's no limit to what you can acquire, so it's really only a problem when you're getting into the game. After a while, you've got at least 2 of everything laying around to try out when you want.
• There's also a Tutorial level now where anyone can grab an easy few million C-BIlls (one time only) by passing proficiency tests.
• Premium Mechs offer C-Bill or EXP bonuses, and maybe a different chassis layout with some kind of gimmick built-in, but overall they are not "Pay to Win" - the real deciding factor in game performance is pilot skill - YOU.
• Premium play time is nice to have for faster C-Bill and EXP gain, but absolutely non-essential to have fun. It's really only something you do if you're trying to buy a lot of stuff with C-Bills - EXP in a single chassis is only good up to a point and then you'll need to pay to convert it to General EXP or just ignore it.

It really helps that I was a Founder, and really helps more that I spent a lot of real money over time. I have a stable of 27 Mechs to work with right now. I've used C-Bills to buy maybe 8 of them, but the rest were all premium purchases. I think I'm gone for Premium subscriptions three times - for a month each time - and often when I play I don't bother renewing unless I really get into it.

I got back into this a couple nights ago and noticed a few changes. The game play is largely unchanged - get in a big robot, shoot the hell out of other big robots ... but they've helped it out a bit. Still the same game with a little more polish and a whole lot of Mech variety.

1. When you enter a "Quickplay" game, you get to vote on one of four maps and one of two game modes. Each time you don't get what you want, the weight of your voting in subsequent matches increases until you do. Functionally, this means that horrible maps never get picked, and game modes vary by player's wishes. In two nights, I haven't seen the putrid lava or caustic maps once. It's been good.
2. The MechBay UI has been moved around and you can see more detail on Mechs just by hovering over them. The loadout screens have been smoothed out a little more. If you click a section of a Mech, just the equipment you can stuff in there is available. It shows you the speed stats of engines before you install them. Overall, it works better than before.
3. Voice chat is natively supported now... and I haven't heard a single person in a match abusing it. If anything, the few people that have talked have provided helpful direction to the team. (Update: A couple nights later, and I've run into one person who just thought it was his private chat channel, so I blocked him with a click and moved on with my life). It's actually more "feels good man" when someone speaks their appreciation instead of typing.
4. When I drop into a quickplay map, I can let it send me to servers in North America, Oceanic, or Europe. Ping times aren't so bad in any of them that I've disabled them. I get 40 in NA, 150 to Europe, and 300 to Oceanic.
5. ELO has been replaced by Tiers. When you start off, you're Tier 4. As you win (or fail) in battle, you gain or lose Tier value. Gain enough, and you move down - Tier 1 is the best of the best. Tier 5 is where you end up after numerous horrible failures. The game tries to match people based on skill. The better (or worse) you do in a match, the larger your Tier adjustment at the end of a match. Get 500+ points on the winning side in a match and get a massive boost in your Tier EXP. Get less than 100 on the losing side and get a massive hit on your Tier EXP. I only just discovered this after a few nights, and by my Tier EXP bar, I'm either about to get knocked back to Tier 5, or moved up to Tier 3. I have great and miserable rounds, so it's hard to know.
6. LRM's seem to have made a comeback, with a few people in matches being vocal about hating them. I tried them out and was underwhelmed (2x CLRM20 getting maybe 350 damage in a round), but there are always a couple LRM boats on each side willing to make it rain... and these guys have been very appreciative of my NARC beacons when I tag someone with them - one guy even thanked whoever was "pushing for artillery". The NARC is a slow projectile that can be hard to hit with, but enemies stay lit up for something like 30 seconds - an eternity when missiles are being fired at you, and some of the new maps have less direct cover and more "hill" cover that favors LRM's.
7. They really seem to have ironed out the swarms of Light Mechs that used to plague the game a year ago. Statistically, Lights make up about 15% of all matches, with Mediums at about 20%, Heavies around 50%, and Assaults are 15%. If you select one of the "lesser populated" sizes (Lights & Assault), you're selected for games quicker.

I haven't gotten into Faction games yet (and probably won't - they weren't bad the last time I played, just time consuming). I still average 1-3 kills per match and around 300-500 damage. I'm working on my Hunchback Masteries, and actually really getting a good feel for the Mech finally.

[Paingod]

They're bringing back my favorite Mech from the older games - the Cyclops... and I think it looks awesome. I'll have to pick this up, just 'cause. I've been waiting for it for a looooong time and wasn't sure they'd ever get around to it. Not sure how I feel about the double-Gauss hero mech; I had given up on Gauss when it became a weapon you couldn't just fire and forget, but had to hold and fire at the right times (in the heat of battle, playing a gun shooting minigame is the last thing I want).

[Daehawk]

How do I voice chat? I looked online and it says have VOIP turned on and then the default key is caps lock which you can rebind. Ok..VOIP is checked on yet I can find NO key to bind to chat. Theres not one bound to caps lock and all the unbound keys none say voice or chat or anything like that in settings.