[img]http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/10/MechWarrior-Online-Hunchback-Concept.jpg[/img]
[quote]After two years’ of near-total silence about the fate of the Mechwarrior reboot, Piranha Games have announced Mechwarrior Online, a free-to-play, team-based multiplayer BattleMech sim. It’s also going to tell the story of the Battletech universe in real-time, starting from just before the Clan Invasion of 3050. Each day, players will do battle on behalf of the universe’s major factions, and each day in the game will represent a single day’s action in the fictional Inner Sphere. It will go live in the second half of 2012.Mechwarrior Online (MWO) might be free-to-play, but MWO Creative Director Bryan Ekman and Piranha President Russ Bullock insist this is going to be a proper Mechwarrior game in the tradition of Mechwarrior 2 through 4, not a successor to the Xbox action game Mech Assault. Ekman says joystick support is a strong probability, and both call this a Mech sim.“I think it’s really the Mechwarrior you know,” Bullock says. “It’s fully first-person. It’s not a new interpretation. We’re modernizing things a little bit, I think we’ll get to those questions, but certainly it’s Mechwarrior.”
Another major part of the game is customization and organizing into mercenary units, Ekman explains.
“Players will be able to band together in the format of a lance, which is four, and they’ll be able to band together as a mercenary corporation for hire. That’s not unlike a guild. We have a whole editor and mercenary HQ for players to explore that allows them to customize the look and feel of their corporation, their membership, the structure of how they enter battle, the lances, their names, ranks, and all kinds of things.”
However, in some very real ways, this is not the Mechwarrior you remember. And it’s a good thing, too, because Ekman and Piranha games have some very exciting ideas for how to make Mechwarrior more of a tactical sim and less of a shooter.
“One of our core pillars is what we call ‘information warfare,’” Ekman explains. “Which basically boils down to controlling the flow of information on the battlefield. Whether it be your own information, or the information of your enemies. We want to make gameplay be less about an arms race, where you start in a light Mech but you really want to get into an assault Mech, because it’s the best thing there is.”
The matches themselves will support multiple teams and multiple four-person squads (“lances” in Mechwarrior parlance). The primary focus will be Conquest mode, which will allow for more tactics and teamwork, but there will also be a variety of deathmatch modes available.
Ekman also promises that while players will be able to buy items with real money, nobody can buy anything that will confer a tactical advantage. “Anything that would affect or give your a tactical advantage, you can’t purchase with real cash. You have to earn that by playing the game,” he says.
Mechwarrior online features multiple upgrade paths, both for Mechs and pilots, but it should not be too complicated. As Bullock says, “If someone has played a combination of Mechwarrior, Call of Duty, and Diablo in their gaming life, they’re going to have seen everything that we’re offering for the most part.”
Mechwarrior online, in keeping with the original games, will feature a variety of maps set across different environments and climates. In a universe where heat plays such a major role, with Mechs overheating from weapons fire and local temperature, that means different weather will make for very different tactics.
But big difference from previous games will be urban combat. “One of the things we can do these days that previous games weren’t able to do well is urban combat,” Ekman says. “And it’s a cornerstone of MWO, this ability to actually fight in detailed urban settings.”
You can find out more info from the official website: [URL="http://www.mwomercs.com/"]mwomercs.com[/URL]. You should also stick around PC Gamer today for exclusive interviews with Ekman and Bullock, as they explain what happened these past two years, and go into detail about what Mechwarrior Online will be.[/quote]
[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/31/meet-mechwarrior-online-piranhas-free-to-play-tactical-mech-sim/[/url]
Please be good.
It looks like it will be a ground-war version of Space Cowboy online.
[QUOTE=Hidole555;33059214]It looks like it will be a ground-war version of Space Cowboy online.[/QUOTE]
I REALY hope not, it better play like MW4
[editline]31st October 2011[/editline]
still signing up for it
[editline]1st November 2011[/editline]
Whats with the boxes?
[B]OH YES BABY[/B]
I'll be trying that, I love me some Mechs. (Yet never played a Mechwarrior game)
[QUOTE=Highwind017;33059430]I'll be trying that, I love me some Mechs. (Yet never played a Mechwarrior game)[/QUOTE]
go change that right now, mech warrior 4 has been completely free for a while now, since the mektek team bought the rights to it
Still would love a Chromehounds sequel...game holds a special place in my heart
First Hawken and now this, mechs are coming back in [I]style.[/I]
Going to play the hell out of this.
Better dust off the Steel Battalion controller and wait for a controller preset to get released.
Yessss YESSSSS!
Finally an excuse for me to go searching for that old joystick controller.
oh god
oh god ye
s
yes
I'm hoping for the mech sim control scheme, not some watered down style
also shame about mechwarrior 5's single player apparently being trashed
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Man, this brings back memories.
Orion RULES.
Ugh, F2P.
[editline]31st October 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Canesfan;33059780]Still would love a Chromehounds sequel...game holds a special place in my heart[/QUOTE]
I didn't have XBL until after the servers went down, from the sounds of things it was pretty innovative for a console game.
Would be nice if they had 'simplified' movement controls, the controls were one of the few reason I never got into Mechwarrior that much. At least me move using WASD or something.
[QUOTE=Kuro.;33062839]Would be nice if they had 'simplified' movement controls, the controls were one of the few reason I never got into Mechwarrior that much. At least me move using WASD or something.[/QUOTE]
that's what I liked, it actually feels like you're piloting a massive war machine not just a supersized crysis outfit
[QUOTE=Kuro.;33062839]Would be nice if they had 'simplified' movement controls, the controls were one of the few reason I never got into Mechwarrior that much. At least me move using WASD or something.[/QUOTE]
no that would suck. it's a sim not an action game
Everything I've read about this seems exteremely promising so far, they're even going to try and make light mechs remain tactically viable even with the presence of assault mechs.
Though I wish the Atlas was a bit taller :v: also hoping for clan mechs
[t]http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/10/MechWarrior-Online-Atlas-Concept.jpg[/t]
it looks extremely cool though, way more than the MW4 variant
Fuck yeah! I play the hell out of Battletech. I hope they bring melee combat into the game and include my Grasshopper :V
it'll be intense if you can customize all your weapon loadout and armour and all that like in MW4
I want to put an ultralight engine in a cicada, pull all the armor and weapons off of it, and use it as a battering ram if they use the charge system in Battletech
[QUOTE=Kuro.;33062839]Would be nice if they had 'simplified' movement controls, the controls were one of the few reason I never got into Mechwarrior that much. At least me move using WASD or something.[/QUOTE]
no no no no no
NO
non nnono
Nope NO NO NO NO
[b]NO[/b]
go play mech assault
Maybe it'll be like World of Tanks?
I really hope it's not "pay to win" or anything like that. I just want a fun mech game that has equal opportunity for everyone.
I'm so up for this, hope it isn't the letdown living ledgends was (I'm looking at you torso rotate speed)
Have been playing loads of Mechwarrior 3 and god if it's like the gradual progression in that I'll bust a nut.
Give me a standard Bushwhacker and I'll be in heaven.
Here is to hoping that soon I'll be rocking people in a Mauler.
Well, more-so than messing about on MW4 and MWLL.
best be some madcats
[QUOTE=1legmidget;33064748]I want to put an ultralight engine in a cicada, pull all the armor and weapons off of it, and use it as a battering ram if they use the charge system in Battletech[/QUOTE]
Goomba stomp in a Mad Cat mk. II :v:
Read "Mechwarrior" and got excited, then read "F2P" and got sad.
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