MechWarrior Online

[Horrorcosmic]

So i saw this Mechwarrior online and i fell in love with the idea! i've played other mecha games like Armored Core but this is incredible looking.

I really want to get the feel of mechwarrior so i plan on getting the flight stick and other peripherals for the game but i need a little help from any of those that have played them before,

What is the best setup for Mechwarrior?

I don't mean the best flight stick or anything like that, i mean to get the full experience whats the best way to go: dual flight sticks, Stick and thrust, stick and a keypad (like the belkin one). do i need / use pedals?

Any ideas at all will be awesome.

[tony_j15]

Nice! The idea for a MW "5" has been in development hell since '03. Glad to see someone might finally bring this venerable series into the modern era.

Based on the past games, you can get away with playing with a keyboard alone, or FPS style with a keyboard and mouse. I've found it always feels a bit more "realistic" to play with a joystick at the least, especially since your mech usually has torso twist, so you'll want a stick to move one direction and fire in another. Thrust would be a nice touch, or a secondary keypad. You can definitely make do with the keyboard. Just won't feel as sexy.

Thanks for bringing this up, I hadn't checked on it since the first teaser trailer was released and at that point it was just the development team and they didn't have a producer so they weren't sure what direction the game was going to take.

EDIT: Having taken a quick google, it looks like lots of players get away with using something like the Logitech 3D Pro since it has built in throttle and twist plus 12 buttons. Next step up will be a two-piece stick n throttle from Saitek. From Saitek: x52.

Oh. And Razor says this prototype might get made for MWO. Or, if you are in to modding, hacking the controller from Steel Battalion would be ultimate.

[Whir]

I got a MS Sidewinder specifically to play MW4. I will not even consider playing MWO until I have another joystick. Between HAT, twist, turn and throttle, there's just no way to do it all without one.

But you won't need more than a modern joystick. As long as it's got a throttle control, you're good to go.

[tony_j15]

Since it's F2P, putting money down on a joystick isn't that hard of a mental sale since I can just tell myself that's the game price.

Two things concern me at this point: F2P usually means paid add-ons, and it looks like Piranha is already pushing these with the "Founders Pack." I abhor when Free to Play turns out to be "Free Fodder" and you actually end up spending 60-80 bucks in micro-transactions in order to remain competitive. I'm hoping gameplay is balanced so that this is not the case. (Dust 514 is a great example of F2P where things are well balanced, can't wait for beta to end on it!)

Secondly, and this is a nerd issue: the time period and play involves the Inner Sphere. I'm not a big fan of The Federated Suns or the rest of the Great Houses and their petty squabbles over who should be the legitimate successor to the Star League. I'm a clanner, and a Warden Wolf. I laugh at your pitiful inner sphere mechs and their pathetic hardpoints. Gimme a clan Omni-Mech! Give me my Timber Wolf!

[Horrorcosmic]

So I got into the beta and it is so awesome!

Been playing keyboard and mouse and its alittle awkward but works, I was talking to the others in the game and they say the joystick controls are not good but with the waist turning, throttling and the leg turning the mouse/keyboard is awkward I don't see how something like the saitek joystick with throttle could be worse than m&k.

Any thoughts would be good.

[Horrorcosmic]

Since it's F2P, putting money down on a joystick isn't that hard of a mental sale since I can just tell myself that's the game price.

Two things concern me at this point: F2P usually means paid add-ons, and it looks like Piranha is already pushing these with the "Founders Pack." I abhor when Free to Play turns out to be "Free Fodder" and you actually end up spending 60-80 bucks in micro-transactions in order to remain competitive. I'm hoping gameplay is balanced so that this is not the case. (Dust 514 is a great example of F2P where things are well balanced, can't wait for beta to end on it!)

Secondly, and this is a nerd issue: the time period and play involves the Inner Sphere. I'm not a big fan of The Federated Suns or the rest of the Great Houses and their petty squabbles over who should be the legitimate successor to the Star League. I'm a clanner, and a Warden Wolf. I laugh at your pitiful inner sphere mechs and their pathetic hardpoints. Gimme a clan Omni-Mech! Give me my Timber Wolf!

Idk much about the battletech universe but in the beta there are no guilds or factions or clans so far, I'm assuming ur faction or clan wouldnt be from the game but your group like a guild in an mmo.

Currently the atlas frame is OP, if ur against a team with 4 or more atlas you done, no way you can defend or defeat an atlas on your own.

[tony_j15]

The backstory is huge, so don't worry about me and my ultra-nerdy clan/inner sphere issues.

So there's some balancing issues right now? Doesn't seem fair to allow that many assault mechs together on a team.
What's the team limit at this point? 4v4? 8? 16?

I'd definitely recommend a joystick if you think you'll play this regularly.

[Horrorcosmic]

The backstory is huge, so don't worry about me and my ultra-nerdy clan/inner sphere issues.

So there's some balancing issues right now? Doesn't seem fair to allow that many assault mechs together on a team.
What's the team limit at this point? 4v4? 8? 16?

I'd definitely recommend a joystick if you think you'll play this regularly.

So far there are only a few maps that are all 6v6.

An ice covered city and refinery and a cave....don't go into the cave.

A refinery in the desert with a massive crater...don't go into the crater.

A refinery on an island next to a city that is only connected by bridges or ice patches on the river, oh the city has a helipad with a VTOL on it thats one of the teams base...don't go into the water.

A forest with ancient houses and a giant hill in the center of the lake....stay out of the open unless you want to know what Leonidas felt when he saw a million arrows falling down...Damn Long range missiles

If theres anymore i've missed or they release anymore i'll post them.

The class balance is ok its just the Atlas frame thats bad, so far its the heavies, the most armored, and because of its weight threshold it can be the moved armed, all of those making it deadly as you cannot do enough damage to one to kill it if your alone and most people will run into knocking you down so you can't move then just unload into you.

Currently the most used weapons are:

Gauss rifles - very powerful, an Atlas with 2 can nearly one shoot any non heavy mech, a Catapult with 2 dubbed "GaussCat" can do the same but faster movement.

PPC: a particle cannon, tho only used for mid range sniping

AC:20 / Ultra AC: the hardest hitting gun in the game, will one shoot you no matter what. Yes an Atlas can equip 2.


And other variants i've seen.

Small Lasers: hunchbacks can equip six of these and add enough heatsinks to not worry about thermal buildup, plus hunchbacks are fast so you can do some major damage.

Medium Lasers: i use them, many catapults and Atlas use them when the bigger guns are reloading

Large Laster: same as medium.

ER Lasers/PPC: same as the others but "extended range"...also extended heat.

Machine gun:....really, really, really worthless, a money pit with the ammo imo.

Pulse Lasers/PPC: same as before but they fire in bursts, high heat but pretty decent.

Flamer: a flame thrower, very close range really good on scouts from what i've seen.

AC:5/10/20/Ultra 5. very hard hitting if you can aim. no heat but heavy and ammo hungry.

LRM 5/10/15/20: long range missiles, support really, min range of 250 yards, require team mates to target the enemy to relay you there position, requires lock-on, as well as heat dissipation, numbers correspond to how many they fire.

SRM 2/4/6: short range, no lock, no heat, no relaying, very directional and do scatter.

Streak SRM 2: same as other SRMs but require lock on, and deal more dmg. These things are awesome, i put 4 in a CAT and a large engine for speed and i can rip thru mechs, sometimes they'll crit doing an instant kill.

[ShyguyXPC]

Idk much about the battletech universe but in the beta there are no guilds or factions or clans so far, I'm assuming ur faction or clan wouldnt be from the game but your group like a guild in an mmo.

Currently the atlas frame is OP, if ur against a team with 4 or more atlas you done, no way you can defend or defeat an atlas on your own.

The backstory is huge, so don't worry about me and my ultra-nerdy clan/inner sphere issues.

So there's some balancing issues right now? Doesn't seem fair to allow that many assault mechs together on a team.
What's the team limit at this point? 4v4? 8? 16?

I'd definitely recommend a joystick if you think you'll play this regularly.

So far there are only a few maps that are all 6v6.

An ice covered city and refinery and a cave....don't go into the cave.

A refinery in the desert with a massive crater...don't go into the crater.

A refinery on an island next to a city that is only connected by bridges or ice patches on the river, oh the city has a helipad with a VTOL on it thats one of the teams base...don't go into the water.

A forest with ancient houses and a giant hill in the center of the lake....stay out of the open unless you want to know what Leonidas felt when he saw a million arrows falling down...Damn Long range missiles

If theres anymore i've missed or they release anymore i'll post them.

The class balance is ok its just the Atlas frame thats bad, so far its the heavies, the most armored, and because of its weight threshold it can be the moved armed, all of those making it deadly as you cannot do enough damage to one to kill it if your alone and most people will run into knocking you down so you can't move then just unload into you.

Currently the most used weapons are:

Gauss rifles - very powerful, an Atlas with 2 can nearly one shoot any non heavy mech, a Catapult with 2 dubbed "GaussCat" can do the same but faster movement.

PPC: a particle cannon, tho only used for mid range sniping

AC:20 / Ultra AC: the hardest hitting gun in the game, will one shoot you no matter what. Yes an Atlas can equip 2.


And other variants i've seen.

Small Lasers: hunchbacks can equip six of these and add enough heatsinks to not worry about thermal buildup, plus hunchbacks are fast so you can do some major damage.

Medium Lasers: i use them, many catapults and Atlas use them when the bigger guns are reloading

Large Laster: same as medium.

ER Lasers/PPC: same as the others but "extended range"...also extended heat.

Machine gun:....really, really, really worthless, a money pit with the ammo imo.

Pulse Lasers/PPC: same as before but they fire in bursts, high heat but pretty decent.

Flamer: a flame thrower, very close range really good on scouts from what i've seen.

AC:5/10/20/Ultra 5. very hard hitting if you can aim. no heat but heavy and ammo hungry.

LRM 5/10/15/20: long range missiles, support really, min range of 250 yards, require team mates to target the enemy to relay you there position, requires lock-on, as well as heat dissipation, numbers correspond to how many they fire.

SRM 2/4/6: short range, no lock, no heat, no relaying, very directional and do scatter.

Streak SRM 2: same as other SRMs but require lock on, and deal more dmg. These things are awesome, i put 4 in a CAT and a large engine for speed and i can rip thru mechs, sometimes they'll crit doing an instant kill.

I haven't played MW since MW3 and 4, but I remember the Atlas' were the BIG heavy slow ones, granted they are heavily armored, but they are slow, and if your skilled enough with a smaller medium size mech, loaded down with Lasers, plenty of heatsinks, jump jets, and happen to be close enough to something like a river, lake, whatever...

you can easily take down those Atlas' by going for the legs. Assuming their not loaded down with guided missiles.

I don't remember which one it was that I used to use, but I seem to remember it was similar to the Madcat, Vulture, or similar, 2 legged, but fairly fast medium size mech, that I would load down with Small to medium ER Lasers, Heatsinks, and jetpack, and then just keep moving, and firing, eventually disabling mechs by going for the legs, and then while keep moving, go for the torso, as they couldn't move much beyond torso twisting, and would eventually reveal a blind spot.



But I agree with Tony with it seems odd they would allow that many Heavy Assault Mechs on one team.

When I used to play, it used to be one or two only, with a bunch of Medium and Small ones as Support, maybe an Assault, one or two Heavy's and a couple/few Mediums...

but going in with a team of ALL Assault mechs seems like suicide to me, due to the fact that they are all very slow.

I suppose if your good enough and everyone covering the groups front, rear and flanks well enough it could work, but your also a towering target, and can't really find too many good places to hide, where a small or medium can use the terrain and structures better to hide behind and ambush.


But may have to try this, at least until they can ever get around to coming out with Mechwarrior 5.

[Horrorcosmic]

Fraps recording of one of my matches

[tony_j15]

nice vid! Looks like you almost bought it at the end.

I prefer sniper/support mechs. Stack 'em out with a load of LRM 20s and an ER PPC. But the sheer range of configurations means there is always something new and fun to do. Loading out a Jenner with a couple streaks, heatsinks, and small lasers can be fun for constant damage. Between the speed and JJs they can be hard for the larger mechs to target.

[Horrorcosmic]

nice vid! Looks like you almost bought it at the end.

I prefer sniper/support mechs. Stack 'em out with a load of LRM 20s and an ER PPC. But the sheer range of configurations means there is always something new and fun to do. Loading out a Jenner with a couple streaks, heatsinks, and small lasers can be fun for constant damage. Between the speed and JJs they can be hard for the larger mechs to target.

Nah I had him, those streak srms would if crit on a nonarmored part, or atleast destroy some parts like arms or legs.

I redo this cat all the time, for long range its 4 LRM15 but people will not target! And if they don't target I can't launch.

[Horrorcosmic]

Well this sucks, just got off work and wanted to destroy some mechs, servers were down, finally got in and all of my in game credits are gone.

So much for saving up for an Awesome class frame.

[tony_j15]

Ahh, the wonders of beta.

[ShyguyXPC]

Email notice today:

Greetings MechWarrior Community,

This message is to inform you that we will be temporarily bringing down all MechWarrior® Online™ related services for an extended maintenance period. This includes the game servers, the web server, PlaySpan operations (Founder’s Packages) and our backend database servers.

The current scheduled maintenance window is Thursday, September 6, 2012 - From 10AM - 2PM PDT (4 hours).

Keep an eye on the Facebook/Twitter feeds for any updates regarding this maintenance window.

What does this mean? During the maintenance window:

• You will not be able to play games.
• You will not be able to log into the client.
• You will not be able to log into the website/forums.
• You will not be able to purchase a Founder's Package.
• You will not be able register a new pilot.

Also, essentially all data is being wiped. That means the following will all be reset:

• Stats
• C-Bills
• MechWarrior Credits (the free amount we give you.)
• All non-founders Mechs
• Mech Trees
• XP

Founders will keep their founders items, and your Friendslist will not be touched.

Thank you for your patience and we will see you back on the battlefield shortly after 2PM PDT!

The MechWarrior® Online™ Team

Hell, I don't even have access to the beta yet, and they sent me this info.

[Horrorcosmic]

So ill lose my cats!!! I don't even want to play it now.

[ShyguyXPC]

I like (sarcasm) how they list this as Maintenance, and yet their essentially resetting all servers and data, except those with founder packages already paid for, and friends lists...

I hope thats not a sign of how they intend to operate things once the game goes to full release.

[tony_j15]

I don't think complaining about stat resets in the beta of a F2P game will win you much sympathy.

My beta code showed up in an email this morning. But I also got a Dust invite. Looks to be a busy weekend.

[ShyguyXPC]

I don't think complaining about stat resets in the beta of a F2P game will win you much sympathy.

My beta code showed up in an email this morning. But I also got a Dust invite. Looks to be a busy weekend.

Um, yeah, ok... well then, lets see how long the game lasts in popularity, once it goes official/gold, and then piss off the player base once your stats and earnings in the game are reset for every maintenance procedure. Free To Play or not. I can guarantee it won't last long.


It may be Free 2 Play, but I'm sure they will have stuff people can buy and put towards their accounts, and use in game, much like any other F2P game.

Granted its a beta, in testing stages, but still, if that kind of action continues after its full release, is what I'm saying, their player base will dwindle down to almost nothing.

Imagine if WoW or GW players stats were all reset during every Server Maintenance period? Sure there would be droves of players still willing to play, but the amount if time people put into those games would piss them off, and most likely drive them away.

[tony_j15]

Dude, it's the freaking beta. These things happen. I completely dismiss the idea that they will continue to do stats resets once the product goes live. Do you know of any game that does this? Be rational. Not even Ultima Online or Maplestory do stat resets, AFAIK.