nice!

MWO no offline playability?

Takde. They might make a SP campaign in the future...maybe...

Its free anyway so you can try it out now. Its just really grindy and newbies will have trouble facing up against players like...well...me, with my optimized mechs while you're still in your fresh untweaked mech.

The player base isn't large and active enough to match only noobs with other noobs. The PRS rating means you're not going to come up against the top-ranked players but you'll definitely run into me every once in a while and I will kick your ass.

You can get some idea of the game play in this video, although I have to say that Tourmaline Desert isn't the best looking of maps...

He's in a Kucing Gila. First 5 minutes can be somewhat boring because err...unfortunately, many pub games begin with a long-range shooting fest and the teams close in only when an advantage is gained. If you didn't bring any long range weapons, you're pretty much just going to sit out the initial moments of the game.

This guy has some reasonable range in the large pulse and clan ER mediums which is why you see him shooting and pulling back out of LOS.

The 5+ minute mark is when it starts to get interesting as he begins to close and and lets fly with the SRMs. This guy is crazy enough to alpha strike, overheat and shut down just to get kills.

That said, he does play well. Like you can see he obviously twists to spread the dmg and shield the critically damaged torso sections.

grindy? no DLC for cheating?

seems quite boring

Got some cheating tools out there. PGI is generally quite bad at detecting them since they don't use a service like Punkbuster. Its mostly just aimbots and visual detection tools.

MWO isn't exactly a FPS for current gamers. Its slower-paced than many. There are long bouts of positioning, an extended stand-off firefight, before they close in and brawl. This is on pub queue matches though.

The group queue is rather more organized and fun. People talk to each other. There is focused fire and rush strategies. Less lame-arse builds on your teammates.

You'll also notice there are gameplay mechanics that other FPS don't have, notably the ability to shed components like arms and torso and still be in the fight. There are LRMs which means staying out in the open is generally a bad idea. You can choose between driving a big slow Assault with lots of firepower but slow speed, or a fast light with less firepower.

Its not an all out action game. Being the best shot and having the fastest reflexes helps but its not the only deciding factor in a fight.

You need to think about what you are doing. You need to know when to be cautious and when you can go all out. You need to recognize when it is profitable to trade damage (if you can shoot them, they can likely shoot you back) and when you should back off.

Situational awareness and positioining is everything. If your team is flanked, you're likely screwed unless your own team is alert enough to react quickly and destroy the flanking lance. Being shot at from 2 directions where you can't take cover or spread dmg will often result in a loss.

In some ways, this game requires greater knowledge of game mechanics than DOTA. There are a lot of mechs at this point. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. You need to know which mechs you can beat, and which you should avoid for now. Except Kucing Gila. That mech is just plain awesome. If you're driving one, you're afraid of nothing. If you have to fight one, try to gang-bang it with your teammates.

Unless the cat is a LRM boat who can only fight at long range, in which case charge his ass and kick it.

See what I mean by complex?


TL;DR: It's a thinking man's shooter. No guarantee you will like. You must have enjoyed the Mechwarrior games of the past and be a fan of Battletech.

I'll see if I can find some more exciting gameplay videos for you.

i was hoping for a better evolution from MW2 ilk of games.
updated graphics and single player missions.
my internet is quota base so i'm not too keen on online only games, especially grindy and DLC dependent games.
i am guessing since this is an online game they never built in any lance control, i.e. controlling NPC mechs via orders like if my lance consist of 4 mechs.....1 fully controlled by me and 3 other's AI control but following my orders like 'long range attack only', 'scout ahead', 'run interfearance', etc?

No NPC. All mechs controlled by players. You can assume lance control but pugs won't listen to you likely. You group up with other players like 5SSP, you might get a more organized game.

The graphics are quite decent on the newer updated maps. Tourmaline is kinda ugly but there's actually a lot of detail. Just the color schemes quite sad and not vibrant.

There's no DLC. You just need to spend real money at some point for mech bays. Or you can slowly build up mech bays over time from events.

isn't spending real money something like DLC where people use real money to buy in-game items to have a leg up?
i guess i just continue to enjoy my open source mech commander first

Walao eh, seeing all your comment really heated me up, feel like want to play already.

Just grind in the first 25 games, then you are off to got with enough money to get your first mech, they provide ingame money bonus in first 25 matches so you get an idea on your fav mech class and with enough money to buy one. Just give it a try if you have the time.

Ah...OK...let me explain in greater detail. I'm going to assume you already know quite a bit about Btech since you play Mech Commander. Warning: Long read.

TL/DR summary: Paying helps you skip the grind. It doesn't give you a huge advantage over freebies.

There are 2 currencies in-game: c-bills and MC. MC can only be purchased with real money and can also be awarded from doing well in events. C-bills are earned from games and are used to buy mechs (except hero and champion variants) and weapons/upgrades. MC can be used to buy anything. Yes, spending money gives you a leg up but you don't actually need to do so.

Edit: One of the primary uses of MC is to buy paint colors and skins. Yup, people want to make their mechs look oh so pretty which is kinda pointless. You spend most of the time in-game in a cockpit. You can look totally awesome and badass for the guy you're shooting at though. If you don't spend money, your mech will look very dull with stock colors.

NOTE: Champion mechs are no different from normal mechs aside from having an insignificant 10% bonus to XP gain. However, they do start upgraded with double heat sinks and stuff. Hero mechs earn 30% more c-bills and have unique weapon loadouts but most of them aren't any better than normal variants so spending money doesn't give you a huge advantage. It just reduces the grind.

Each new account starts with 4 mech bays. You can only own as many mechs as you have bays for them. If you want more mech bays, you need to spend MC although they can be obtained through participation on Community Warfare and are sometimes given out as prizes for event participation.

If you have been playing for the period since launch, you should have about 12-15 mech bays by now without spending a single cent. About 20+ if you were also active in Community Warfare. I have 50+ because I spent money.

You start with 0 c-bills. Complete the tutorial and you get 5 mil. Your first 25 matches gives you a newbie bonus that will add up to 8 mil when done. This means you have 13 million c-bills to spend at the start on buying mechs and upgrades. The prices for IS mechs are slightly cheaper than the official ones listed on Sarna. Clan mechs are significantly cheaper.

Full list here:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

Although you start with 0 mechs, there are always trial mechs available for selection. The lineup changes regularly though. The IS trials are champion variants, meaning they have been optimized with loadouts that are actually newbie-friendly yet are quite decent. The clan trials generally suck aside from the Stormcrows as stock builds have insufficient ammo for MWO. 1 or 2 tons doesn't cut it. Armor has 2x value in MWO so you need to shoot more. PGI hasn't quite gotten around to making champion variants for clans yet. Slowpokes.

Essentially, the trial mech selection is to ensure that newbies aren't outclasses by veterans like us. 2 years back, you had to play with stock builds. Yes, I had to suffer back than. You don't now.

Example...this is the stock build of the Orion-K
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=99&l=stock
Now let me tell you how it sucks in MWO. Not enough missiles for LRMs. SHS means you overheat quickly. Having a varied loadout is great in Btech but is neither here nor there in MWO. You can't trade shots with dedicated LRM boats who will be packing 2 or 3 LRM15s to your measly 1. Up close, your weapon loadout is pitiful for a heavy.

Here's the Orion-K chamption which you can pilot on trial
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=156&l=stock
Note the Endo-Steel and DHS upgrades. Also, the LRM has been removed for another SRM4 with Artemis upgrade and the AC10 upgraded to AC20. You no longer have the ability to fight at range but up close, you pack a dangerous punch. This is a full brawler build. The brawling Madcats will still kick your ass though. Don't mess with them.

If you really want your Madcat that badly, you actually have almost enough after your newbie phase to afford one but you'll have to grind a bit to earn enough to upgrade it.

Now...here's the tricky bit where it gets grindy

You need at least 3 variants of every mech in order to fully master it. If you only own 1 or 2, you will never progress beyond the basic skill tree. If you don't master a mech, you're actually at quite a disadvantage against those who did. Their mechs have +10% speed, are more agile, and have slightly better heat dissipation.

To give you a better idea, here's a screenshot:

You can only finish training the basic tree of your mech if you own 1 variant. To progress to Elite, you must have completed the basic of 3 different variants of the same mech. To progress into Master, you must have Elite of any 3 mechs in the same weight class. If you have Elite, Mastery is not a problem.

(Note: don't let this worry you too much though. Even experienced pilots like me often run around with unmastered mechs cos we just bought it. )

Here's the grindy bit. Winning gets you a base of 50k. Losing is a based of 25k. There are no costs for repair or reload although there used to be initially but it was removed. On top of the base earning, you get more based on performance. The primary measure of performance is damage (which sucks as it penalizes support builds and lighter mechs). There are also bonuses for kills, assists, component destruction, etc.

Anyway, if you're good, you get between 100k-150k per win. Possibly even 200k if you're that good. Your earnings are doubled if you have premium time (purchased with MC). If you're not so good, err...probably less than 100k.

If you lose...well, if you played that well, you might get up to 100k+ but you'll get around 50k assume you didn't underperform. You get the base 25k, you must have really sucked...

I think you're getting the idea of where the grind is. A Timber wolf is 15 million. Assuming you have a 50/50 win/loss ratio, that might average out to 80k (I'm being generous, its likely lower but you might be better than I think) per match which means you need 180+ games to buy one. Ouch. Than again, each game lasts between 10-20 minutes on average. Shorter than a game of DOTA2. Bout the same as a Heroes of the Storm game.

But once you hit our skill levels with better and mastered mechs, your average earnings will be higher due to better win/loss ratios and better overall performance. It does get less grindy. Also, there are semi-regular events that give you extra earnings. The community has also warned PGI about being more newbie friendly if it ever wants to do well on a Steam launch so there might be changes up the road.

Edit: Of course, you can also not join the herd mentality of piloting Heavy mechs and go for Lights and Mediums instead which are cheaper and easier to grind out for. A trio of Firestarters can easily fund your future mech purchases if you do well in those little killer machines. The Madcats are expensive cos well...clan. Clan tech is expensive. Play IS if you're noob. The clan pilots will kick your ass though.

And once you have 4 mechs, you hit this wall where you need to obtain more mech bays. Oops. Mech bays are 300 MC, 150 MC on the occasional sale. 1250 MC is USD7, 3000 MC is USD15 (MC gets more worth it the more you buy). So yeah...spend RM50...oh wai, exchange rate went up ) and you'll get 10 extra bays, 20 if you wait for sale. But like I mentioned earlier, there are periodic events that award mech bays. If you hop into Community Warfare, each Faction has an easily obtainable mech bay at Loyalty Level 2 which means you can pick up another 10 but you'll have to grind in trial mechs (sucks when you play clans). CW matches take 30 minutes++ not counting matchmaking time. If you get up to Level 6 for each faction, there's yet another bay but that is harder. There's also another bay at level 10 but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Even I'm not there yet for Clan Wolf.

You can also spend money to buy mech packages to skip the grind. MWO periodically introduces new mechs as a souce of income. Its essentially pay-to-play-early. New mechs are released first to those who pay with real money. After a few months, they will be available for MC and than c-bills in another month. That said, the available mech selection is already extensive. You can see in the Smurfy link above.

So yeah...its grindy...but you don't actually need to spend...see how much free time you're willing to put into this.

This post has been edited by arubin: Oct 7 2015, 09:10 PM

sounds like more work than fun

Haha, that's what I meant by grindy.

It's not necessarily not fun though. It's tough going playing alone so a lot of newbies give up. But you find a group to help you along and show you the ropes, it can be quite fun.

Im at the point where the game isn't grindy anymore and have 68 million in the bank. I make a lot of money from weekend events.

I stuck around for 2+ years because I had friends playing this. Than they slowly drifted off. I'm still playing on and off. Might look for a new group soon.

Anyway, the game is free. Like I said, you get a newbie bonus. It's worth a try for the first 30 games or so until you get your first mech.

Just don't go for Mad cats at the start. I suggest playing smaller mechs. Give all the trial mechs a proper spin and see what suits your playstyle.

For example, I'm not a fan of assaults as they are slow. I prefer fast mobile mechs where I can get into flanking positions. I know how to tank and brawl, but I prefer to go all dakka dakka with my ACs instead.

I also enjoy hopping into my Firestarter or Arctic Cheetahs and running behind enemy lines to backstab mechs. You know how it is. Rear armor is weaker.

And every once in a while, if I feel like relaxing, I pop into my LRM boat and rain death from above.

My current favourite ride is the Adder. It's the mech that many underestimate. It's a light without crazy fast speeds so it has to play like a fast medium but with less armor. But because people don't think much of Adders, you are not a priority target in a firefight either so you can sneak around and wreck havoc with your 5 ER ML (flamer mount point can be removed and replaced with an energy weapon now). It's also the lightest and fastest mech that can efficiently mount a pair of PPCs and act as a sniper.

There are many different roles and playstyles you might find something you like.

OK, I'm going to pimp my rides to give you an idea what I mean.

My favourite ride these days. 5 ER Meds in a 35 ton mech. It can actually carry heavier weapons than just Meds but I prefer to just fill it out with heat sinks so that it runs cool and I can go pewpewpew non-stop.


Of course, the standard Adder payload is a pair of PPCs but I moved them from the arms to the torso where the mount points is higher. I lose arm articulation but higher mounts means I expose less of the mech when peaking over hills. Also, I don't lose my weapons when I lose my arms.


Other lights laugh at me cos my top speed is capped at 100kmh while they can run around at 150kmh. They stop laughing when I send 16 streaks flying their way.


One of the scariest mechs you can stumble into is this mech:

Its like, "Ah, its just an Adder. We'll deal with it later...holy fuck, is that a UAC20?"

Unfortunately, Adders are clan tech so they are stupidly expensive even for lights at 7 million each.

But hey, one can always buy the cheapo Firestarter. Its not a great mech in the boardgame but its pretty godly in MWO where one of the variants can mount 8 small pulse lasers. Get behind the enemy and go wubwubwub and the assaults will go down faster than Romario with possesion.

Firestarters are cheap. This variant only costs you 2.6 million. Unfortunately, pimping it will cost you an additional 2 million for DHS, 400k, for Endosteel and 4.8 million for the XL295 engine that lets you run around at crazy fast speeds and yet be light enough to mount weapons. In some ways, IS mechs costs you more than Clans. However, the expensive engines can be transferred between mechs when the mech isn't locked in-game. Clan mechs have locked-in engines.

You can easily afford Firestarters with the newbie bonus. This is available to you as a free player. The only thing that you don't get is the sexy paint job. Your mech will look like this:

Black and White are premium colors, and you can buy a dull shade of red for 1 million c-bills. You can just leave it at default green though.

The clan equivalent, the Arctic Cheetah. Only 6 small pulse but they are clan lasers. Also, it has ECM. Sexeh!

The Hankyu is not yet available in-game for purchase in game, but soon though. It will be available for MC this month and c-bills next month. It'll be slightly more expensive than the Adder. I have this mech now as I bought a package a few months back.

Here is my mech stable.
Been accumulating mech since beta, started out with Founder Hunchback 4G(F).
Brought the Phoenix Pack + Reinforcement, Resistance 1 Wrath pack, Resistance 2 Crab tier, UrbanMech Collector's pack, Marauder+Hero, Clan Wave 1 Daishi pack, and the Jenner D(Sarah).
A few hero here and there during sales, the rest are purchased via cbills.

All my mech have custom paint job, due to how I play.
--Get 1 kill in a fresh basic mech: allow weapon/engine customization
--Unlock all Basic skill: allow to use upgrades
--Unlock all Elite skill: give it a new paint job
--Unlock Masker skill: rename the mech if I wish
I feel this is the best way to learn a new chassis and not become too dependent on quirks.

Light


Medium


Heavy


Assault

We 5th SSP have been running recently active. Here's a few rounds of coordinated stuff. We don't always do well but sometimes we go on a roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hauNfcrZvzY

Aha! You favor mediums like me.

I don't skin my mechs on the off chance I might sell it. Chassis skins are expensive. Single use skins seem wasteful. Only mechs I have bought chassis skins for are the Stormcrow and Timber Wolf as those mechs are obviously keepers. Did it during a sale though.

I might skin some of the mechs that I have sentimental attachment to though, like the Cat-K2. That one was what I learned how to play properly in, and helped me finance most of my IS stable.

I upgrade my mechs outright when I buy them now. Single heat sinks don't seem viable now in today's environment. However, I remember running around in a stock cicada trial when I first started playing. So painful...

specs look good but tbh adder looks like crap.
i like the mad cat kinda of chasiss......has a lower profile
humanoid type of chasis i dun like either.

Firestarter looks like a mini atlas.

It is very satisfying if you have a chilipadi medium like jenner/catapult with some decent med lasers and srm, jump in behind a bigger assult mech from the rear then alpha the fella to kingdom come

Started out with medium, now expanding my rides upward.
Still cannot get the hang of heavy but doing pretty ok with assault.
On the lighter side of mech, I prefer slow lights like Panther and Urbanmech.

I only apply MC camo to a mech I enjoy, most just get a new paint job on the default camo.
My CW drop deck is painted in Liao unit style.


Grinding with SHS can be brutal but also teach you heat management.
I grind out my Grasshopper laserboats with SHS, it feels good when you laserbrawl someone and never overheat.

This post has been edited by XEN -v- gK: Oct 9 2015, 01:04 PM

Nice. Single use for the skins or you bought for chassis? What about colors?

Mostly single use.
Brought a whole bunch of colour last year when they were still doing monthly colour sales.