Mechwarrior Online: Free To Play MMO announced.

Well, nowadays you can choose between spending 20 quid and 0 ours or 0 quid and 200 hours on the same thing. YMMV on whether that's an improvement.

I'd rather buy a game and it give me everything is has to offer.

Or Mech Warrior 5.

Problem is: how do you sell a new Mech Warrior game? I'd probably venture to say that it isn't possible in this modern market to simply sell a paid Mech Warrior game, especially since Microsoft themselves don't have much faith in the IP.

Plus, while customization is a bit of a big draw, that's not the only part of what will make MWO what it plans to be. There's the Community Warfare aspect that will be another big draw. It just seems like another grindy MMO because-and I hate to say this-it's still a beta, and they haven't added in those other aspects that will give players more to do than play Assault over and over.

edited 21st Oct '12 5:07:13 PM by RocketDude

If you're willing to pay, you get everything MWO has to offer.

If you're not willing to pay you get a part of what MWO has to offer and can grind for the rest, still without paying anything.

If there was a Mech Warrior 5, I would not get a single bit of what it had to offer unless I paid as much as MWO is charging for a premium package. Raw maths tells me that MWO is a better deal.

In any case, GW 2 is sold at full price minus expansions and beginners there still need to grind up to reach 'everything' in the game. They have no option at all to buy everything else immediately if they wanted to. Most single player games are also sold at full price and yet they force a new player to actually play to reach content with rarely any option to buy the way through.

edited 21st Oct '12 5:51:46 PM by Recon5

Hmm... So it's a mix of opinions 'eh? Well I guess considering I have a beta key, I can enter the closed beta. I'll see how it fairs myself.

I did the math once, and unless it was changed, 60 bucks into MWO wouldn't give you everything it has to offer. Also Mechwarrior 5 would have, you know, a SINGLEPLAYER mode?

Not once does GW 2 go "Hey, if you want to use this/get this, grind or pay up!"

Its just like Planetside 2. Free to Play is getting out of hand.

edited 21st Oct '12 10:37:01 PM by Thorn14

Yeah, it won't have single-player, but it will make up for that with Community Warfare, and the options therein. Want to be a Merc? You get to fight in Core worlds, presumably on the payroll of the Great Houses, like in Mech Warrior 2: Mercs, and you can fight as a lone merc or as part of a company. Want to fight for the Houses themselves? You get to fight on the Fringe worlds, which I assume means the Periphery.

I take it to mean "Fringe of the incoming clan invasion as madcats start dropping out of the sky next year".

Same thing, I think. The Periphery worlds were the first to get hit, and the Inner Sphere are often fighting with Periphery states.

So, a few more days in.

The fact that losing still guarantees a hefty amount of C-Bills and some EXP means that even the worst players are never stuck or set back. Someone who doesn't pay anything will eventually catch up with the Founders.

I also like the bonuses for merely spotting enemies as well as just about every tactically significant thing that can be done in a match because it gives a ton of incentive to run lights (trial lights especially) and carry support equipment. The bonuses also reward a smart player for running around and doing tactical stuff when all 7 other teammates insist on playing slo-mo Co D. Those and the the possibility of a ninja cap while all 8 opponents are locked in an epic teamfight with your 7 allies.

Skill does play a massive role in this game. I've seen certain players in trial mechs shut down multiple clueless Founders in succession and even a fully kitted Atlas is no match for a group whose heavies know how to focus their fire. Paying real money buys you the honor of being alpha'ed down first by a team that actually knows what they're doing.

On a less serious note, it's interesting that a clunky old Hunchback variant of all mechs has the highest number of energy hardpoints in a single body part. I don't think anyone ever expects me to output 60% of an Awesome's DPH at 800 meters . Still need to learn how to play decently, however.

New Open Beta trailer.

Power it up:

Quick question: How complex is the damage system? Is there ammo detonation?

edited 6th Nov '12 10:54:09 AM by stevebat

I don't know how to answer the first question, but I'm pretty sure there is ammo detonation.

Yeah, ammo explosions are in.

They've implemented quite a few mechanics from the Tabletop games that weren't in the earlier videogames. Their business model may be horrible but they know what they're doing with the actual combat gameplay. Unfortunately they now have to deal with balancing some things that were overpowered in the Tabletop or were made overpowered by the transition to real time.

Ammo explosions are why I prefer energy weapons. Of course, then you run the risk of having your 'mech explode in a nuclear fireball.

One of my favorite things to do in the various Mechwarrior games is to load up a 'mech with PPCs and ER large pulse lasers, but no heat sinks, and see how many times I can fire before my reactor detonates.

I will probably check this game out even if I don't spend a lot of time/money on it, just for giggles. I hope that there's not a huge penalty for trying out variant builds like the above Nuclear Kaboom, the all-machine gun heavy (to max your chances at criticals), and so forth. Another fun variant requires other players to cooperate: take a heavy 'mech and strip out all the armor, then load it with a single small laser.

edited 6th Nov '12 1:20:32 PM by Fighteer

I enjoy doing that too. Never got higher than 3 successive shots with only the re-fire limits being the break, though...

Just be warned that there's a lot of grinding you'll need to do with the default uncustomizable mechs to get the C-Bills for something you can tweak. As far as I can tell the free variants do a good enough job of introducing players to the gameplay and tactics for each weight class but be prepared to spend a ton of matches in them at the beginning.

Ah, so what you pay (or grind) for is all the customizable stuff. Makes sense as a revenue model, actually. I just hope there isn't a significant death penalty.

edited 6th Nov '12 2:23:56 PM by Fighteer

Death is even less than a slap on the wrist in the current version. Repair fees are minimal even if your mech is entirely atomized and losing a match nets you about 60k C-bills (winning gets a minimum of 80k C-bills IIRC) before repairs and reloads are factored in. Furthermore, the Trial (free, non-customizable) mechs seem to cost less to repair and rearm than the regular mechs.

Yeah, you probably shouldn't lose so much money as to be unable to repair a non-trial mech, but it could still happen.

The game still needs good matchmaking, probably.

only time I had money get tight was when I tried to pimp out the commando I just bought. I have a blinged out jenner already, I just wanted an LRM boat too.

LR Ms are currently broken, but oh well. It's fun for a catty pilot.

Really need to grab a Commando again, loved that thing.

I love my jenner, It's pimped with full basic efficiencies, 4 jumpjets, 6 small lasers and an AMS, Max armor, and dual heatsinks.

Anyone know what the command console does? PGI has this bad habit of not actually labelling what their goddamn parts do.