Mechwarrior Online

The Vault Dweller

The Vault Dweller

always looking for water.
I'm not much for MMO's. I've done the free trial for a few MMORPG's due to some family members loving them, but always found them to be lacking. I have played one MMO MOBA in LoL and I liked it decently.

This is different however. For one thing I've loved the Mechwarrior series even if I'm too old to have played tabletop BattleTech. Also "Giant Machines + Lots of Customization (hopefully in a meaningful way) + multiplayer (hopefully with large teams) = Potential Greatness".

Honestly if they do a decent job in all areas including sticking to lore (the BattleTech timeline), offering many different and unique parts so you can have totally different roles from one mech to another, and have at least 12 players in one match I'd be happy. In fact if they have 32 players a match and have any and every weapon, mech body, utility part, and special ammo from the universe I'd probably die of joy.

I'd like to point out in the past few days of browsing the forums and reading up on everything official that they are following the timeline by having the first day in game be the first day in the timeline and each passing day in real time sees one day pass in game. Everything that gets added in timeline show up appropriately.

For example the clans (as well as the players option to join one and buy mechs that are built by them) won't appear until a year into the game and will be a huge in-game event as the appearance of the clans instigates a huge war. I think that's really awesome to stick to lore like that and have gameplay follow it. The casuals will complain that it's just the devs excuse to add content slowly, but also it gives them opportunities to balance things. As well any "real" fan will love the loyalty to the universe.

I'd like to mention that if you sign up now you stand a small chance of being included in the closed beta and even if you aren't selected you can "reserve" your pilot name by signing up. The longer you wait the more likely someone else will take the awesome unique name that you planned to use.

http://mwomercs.com/

Someone already took "TheVaultDweller" so I had to use "TheVault13Dweller". To think they've only been letting people sign up for two weeks.

Also I just remembered that given the game is run in the Crysis engine and they are showing large maps with multiple players I'm guessing you'll need a cutting edge rig to play at it's max settings. I hope to only reach low. They haven't released the official specs yet, but will soon.

Also this could be the first game ever where I'll be buying and using a joystick/throttle. Supposedly (I asked multiple people this) they are somewhat easier to use for this kind of game then a keyboard/mouse and regardless it's also very immersive.

I'm still jealous of this person though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kZZHd_dgslw

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
Interesting is that they have somewhere the qestion "Did you came from WoT (World of Tanks)".

I cant wait for the Mechwarior MMO either. If they concentrate on what makes WoT a "good" game and eliminate the part that makes it bad like the high grinding, repetitive gameplay and silly bugs which the developers sell as "feature" like penetrating hits that do "no damage" to your enemy.
 
Sounds awesome. Love the timeline idea. How long does the timeline run though?
 
I have no idea how they've been fiddling with the Crysis engine, but it was very scaleable. Atleast the first game was, I played that on a computer with slightly above minimum requirements and it was pretty decent.

Love the premise of this game, going to sign up and see what happens.
Still, I'm more impressed with that guys gaming closet. :D
 
trailers look awesome so far, that for sure

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyASZYO9HA[/youtube]

Some informations so far

- 2 game modes. Team death match gameplay (that is pretty much a standart here), and some form of team death match with limited respawns, you select 3 mechs which you want to take in battle and once you loose your mech, you spawn with the other one you selected.

- 12 vs 12 players so far. But I guess it will be more in the future.

Looks really sweet so far!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWBOIh078aY&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
 
Oh, this looks interesting.

I wonder how they will deal with mech/gameplay balance - in MW games I've played there were mechs that were clearly superior than others. The possible issue here is that despite variety of mechs, only a few will be used by players.
 
gabahadatta said:
The possible issue here is that despite variety of mechs, only a few will be used by players.
Click to expand...

I've never played a MW game, but that issue is probably less noticable if they stick to the timeline of technology upgrades. Early war tech vs early war tech is probably more balanced. If it was designed by the authors well, that is.
 
the game will have for sure a Class/Timeline system and matchmaking. In other words a mech of the the "first generation" will not get in fights with a mech that is of the last generation.

I guess that they will also throw all kind of mechs inside the battle, so you will not have only the most advanced mechs all the time against each other. Those will be probably very expensive in their use, with repair and weapon costs.

At least thats how I think they will do it. Now it really depends on how "fair" the matchmaking will be. Throwing some mech in the battle that have like 1 or 2 differences in their "level" will probably not be such a huge problem, but once you have level 2 against 10 or something like that ... thats one of the biggest problems with World of Tanks where for example tanks made in 1941 get sometimes thrown in matches which almost only consist of tanks that have been made in 1945 and later. You can guess how funny it is to fight with an almost completely outclassed tank.
 
The balance is not only a problem of timeline and available tech. In the MW computer games heavier was always better. There was never a reason to field a scout mech when you have an assault one in the bay. The Mechcommander series did that a bit better with missions with timelimits and terrain restrictions. I really hope that recon will be a vital part of the game so that lighter, faster mechs and ECM-Specialists have their role. Else everyone and their dog will jump into their Atlas (and later Daishi). I look forward to the cicada or raven.

Considering ClanTech I wonder how they will handle that. During the start of the claninvasion IS tech was pathetically inferior. Giving one side in a MMOG a clear technological superiority would be… brave. Imagine the whining. I hope they resolve this with some kind of resource points restrictions, or lower numbers for deployment for the clans and not straight tech-balancing. The weak point of the clans, their tactical and strategical inflexibility, can't really be implemented in a MMOG unless the clans are bots.

Anyway, I m pretty excited with this one.
 
you know ... I think that is what will happen anyway. Heavier will be ultimately better. Just as like it is now with heavy tanks in World of Tanks. But, restrictions with the terrain will make a difference here. Light mechs will have speed and probably a much better spotting equipment, radios, radar etc. No clue. Not to mention they get the option to "jump" over hills. I think heavy mechs don't have that.

Depends on the design of the maps really how useful light mechs will be. I would not expect that a light will have much of a chance in a 1vs1 against heavy mechs. But they will be very important to the team I think. Particularly those mechs with indirect long range weapons like missiles or other kind of artillery. I mean you can only really shoot targets you can see.

World of tanks has as well "scout" classes. Those are very hard to play correctly. mainly because the maps are so damn small. But the light tanks have usually high speed and they are hard to spot. For them it is important to know the map well. Hence why in battles with very advanced tanks scouts are not even really needed which is pretty sad.

So I do hope that scouts will have some advantage in MEWonline which gives them a purpose. But I would not expecting them to have a chance against heavy and medium mechs in a direct confrontation.
 
Wohoo, I remember talks of this from way back, nice to see it's not vaporware.

This could be pretty interesting, though I wonder how they'll handle the F2P model and if it basically becomes P2W style, or "cash out or your game experience will be miserable".
 
Crni Vuk said:
So I do hope that scouts will have some advantage in MEWonline which gives them a purpose. But I would not expecting them to have a chance against heavy and medium mechs in a direct confrontation.
Click to expand...
Oh going toe to toe with a heavy or assault mech is suicide for a light, as it should be. I don't expect them to be better fighters, I just hope they will have a role to fill. Scout, Artillery spotter for LRM mechs, perhaps skirmishers once the heavies are engaged to hit the rear... there are many roles for lightweight units but the game has to provide them. Map size and number of mission targets are ways to do this. If the maps are huge and the opposing forces have to search for each other, scouts start to have their uses. You don't want to plod along at 50kmh with a dozen assault mechs doing a gridsearch while a fast force is wrecking your hq, LZ, or factory.
From what i read so far about the dudes developing this I am carefully optimistic though.

Ausdoerrt said:
...though I wonder how they'll handle the F2P model and if it basically becomes P2W style, or "cash out or your game experience will be miserable".
Click to expand...
Playing free gets you a locust, for paying you get an atlas:)
 
Meh. Just another Pay 2 Win game for wallet warriors. It will play out like all P2W "free" shooters. Wallet warriors get more mechs, better weapons, more XP faster. Freeloaders are cannon fodder for the $super$oldiers unless they want to spend ridiculous amounts of time unlocking the stuff that credit card heroes use to overwhelmingly win almost every battle. There will probably be magical healing items and premium ammo as well. The defenders will say: "LOL but it's free, are you poor lol, your mother can't give you 120$ for premium lol, you got no skill lol, why don't you want to grind 1000 hours lol". I tried WoT for a few weeks and that was more than enough.
 
It was said that you won't be able to pay money for better guns in MWO. Of course people who spend money on it will still have advantages- faster money gain, faster xp gain, etc. But then again, it is a game you can play for free and somehow they need to make money too. As long as MWO will not develop like World of Tanks (gold ammo, penetrating nearly every armor) and thus rendering heavy armored tanks pretty much useless, I am fine with that.

That just reminds me of far more ridiculous f2p games, like All Points Bulletin. Here you can spend €15 on a weapon, which you can then use for 7 days... Only idiots or moneyfucks spend money on such things.

I preordered MWO already, because I probably would do 1 or 2 months of premium anyway. The above mentioned $120 are for all 4 premium / elite mechs, btw. You don't have to spend that much money on the game, especially if you aren't interested in the elite mechs.
 
I feel embarrassed to admit this.

I usually pay $20 for a game years after it's new. Occasionally if a particularly great game comes out and it's multiplayer with friends and family I know playing it I'll get it before they stop playing which costs around $40. Once I paid $60 for a game and that was for Starcraft 2 which Blizzard wouldn't lower the price from since release.

I paid $120 for the Legendary Founder's Pack.

I almost never give in to hype. For one it usually turns out bad and even if your expectations are met the info you gather before hand spoils a lot of the fun in a game.

I can't help it though. Huge robots blowing each other up is an auto-buy on sale. Large teams with human players is a first day buy. Having it in Battletech with a huge, old, and diverse amount of customization and lore actually makes me drool.

I just hope they deliver...my money has been literally BET on it...and I don't like to gamble.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

P.S.

I spend on average of $100 on stuff only for fun.

*EDIT*

Oh yeah that doesn't include a throttle/joystick accessory controls which I don't own, but WILL buy.
 
Razor will release this thing:

mwofrntview.jpg


I'll guess it will cost around 200 to 300 euro.
 
Alphadrop said:
Steel Battalion all over again.
Click to expand...
I still want to play that game, I thought the idea of the cockpit was really cool, if a bit insane. It seemed like bringing an arcade home. This sounds far more stupid to me, a joystick, a numpad, and a screen that I will never look at. Awesome.
 
Alphadrop said:
... Well as long as the Rifleman is free I'll play it.
Click to expand...

Rifleman not (yet?) but they just announced the Jägermech which is a nice substitute. The concept art looks a bit like a rifleman tbh.
So far it looks like those are in:

commando
raven
cicada
hunchback
centurion
trebuchet
dragon
catapult
jägermech
cataphract
awesome
stalker
atlas

Jägermech is No 14, so I'm missing one but don't know which one.
 
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