MWO Open Beta announced -

Oct 16th 2012

MUCH sooner than I was lead to believe... And judging from the patch we got yesterday, WAY too soon.

There is still only one game mode, 3 maps and 18 ish mechs.

Right now there is some oddball error with the server, that after apx 5 minutes of play, it starts to LAG badly. Eventually freezing your mech in position untill you disconnect from the match. This happen is about 40% of the matches.

Something to do with the Crytek Upgrade.

Open Beta:
We have decided to push Open Beta back. We agree that the game's current state of stability is not allowing us to get the latest experience across to new and veteran players alike. This is a short push back on the date and will depend on the stability and playability of the build.


Current Gameplay Issue:
The instability (lag to completely dead FPS) has been identified and we will put out a fix tonight. We also want to make sure this fix works on the Live game servers so you will get a new patch very soon.


Match Making:
The developers at PGI are all veteran game players. Many of us were or still are competitive gamers and truly know the feeling of a great match played between two equally matched teams.

The next 3 stages of planned releases for Match Making involve the following:

Phase 1:
Reduce the maximum # of players in a group to 4. This means when players form a group, they will only be able to add 3 people. When that group launches, they will be put in a bucket. The match maker will then fill the rest of the 8 player team with 4 PUGs or any partial groups that are looking for a match at that moment. The same will happen for the other team. Matches will still be 8v8 but instead of playing against 8 people in an organized premade, you will see a max of 4.
Now before you light your pitchforks, we know that this does not address all the issues and that 8-player groups are the mainstay of community and organized team-play. This is why we move to Phase 2 VERY soon after Phase 1.

Phase 2:
Players will be able to convert their 4-player group to an 8-player group similarly to how World of Warcraft’s group to raid conversion works. With a click of a button, a group leader can convert a 4-player group to 8-players and invite 4 more players to the group. There is a limitation to this however. If the group leader decides to convert to an 8-player group, they MUST have 8 players in order to launch. (i.e. you cannot launch a game with 5,6 or 7 players). In addition to that, your 8-player group will be matched to another 8-player group ONLY. This does reduce the change of finding a match quickly but at the same time 8-players teams will finally be matched to other 8-player teams exclusively.
At some future date we will also want to include the ability to challenge a specific 8-player team to a match in a competitive/eSport manner. But as stated, this will be coming at a later date.

Phase 3
We have been examining the various ranking systems in other games/structured tournament play etc. This includes ELO, TrueSkill and others. Our current plan is to use a hybrid system that uses the mentality of ELO with a weighting system that we’ve determined that drives down to player effectiveness/skill in a match. In order for this to work properly, we will need to do heavy pre-release testing before it goes live to the community and hence the amount of time to get it implemented.

We currently cannot go into detail as to how this system will work because we are not going to over-promise something that may change during implementation. We will try to keep you as up to date on this as possible.

No patch yesterday, so the open beta will be pushed back at least a week it appears.

Promised in the next patch -

Endo Steel
Ferro Fiber
Double Heat Sinks
ECM
BAP

2 new mechs
Flea
A "Hero" mech - No clue, but betting on the Centy Yen Lo Wang

Weapons tweaks-
Streaks will no longer only home for CT, currently a major PITA and balance issue
PPC/ERPPC to give electronic interference to tageted mech when hit
-I am also betting on some kind of minor nerf to gauss, such as increased recycle time.
-Hoping for a minor decrease in LRM damage, currently at 2 per missle and a little over powered.

Streaks always hitting is good. Always hitting CT
I can see how taking a PPC hit would add some fuzz to your targeting systems. That could be some nice flavor.
I thought LRMs had greater range because they carried a smaller warhead and more fuel. SRM 20 with double+ the range is wrong on so many levels.
GR is a superior weapon in so many ways: headcapper, long range, and low heat.
It's only real drawbacks are it's weight and use of ammo. I can see where a longer recycle could help with balance.

In Invasion, even I won't drive a Flea. I hope they have some use in MWO. With some balance, it could be fun.
An established team of Locust/Fleas taking on a pick-up team of Heavy/Assaults could really show the advantage of communication over "big toys". I'd like to see that fight.

I am resurrecting a term that we used to describe max engine lights in MW4... Lag Armor. When moving max speed you can see the hit to them on your screen, but they don't show to take damage. They have literally moved beyond the point where they are drawn on the screen.

I have recently been playing as a Gausscat (Catapult K2 with dual gauss rifles) and of course the bain of somthing like that would be the ultra fast lights. (Got bored with the Atlas, it's almost too easy with it's loadout.)

I added a pair of med lasers to the build, specifically to "lag lead" the Jenners and Ravens, so I could find out EXACTLY how far forward I had to aim to actually register damage to them, then I can tap them with the pair of gauss and really ruin their day.

The "Cheeseball" build

2x Gauss rifle - 3 tons ammo each, 10 shots per ton
2x Med Laser one in each arm to take advantage of the independent arm movement
XL 200 engine top speed 48.6 KPH
3 extra heat sinks, engine comes with 8 for a total of 11. Allows 4 shots of med laser on most maps before having to cool.

I have been practicing head shots, I have the exact hit locations down for Awesome, Catapult (these are easy out to 750 meters) Dragon, Centurion, and Hunchback, (smaller hitbox, 80% at 400 meters) The Atlas is a pain, it's hitbox is half of the left eye, I generally don't even try I just side torso them. The lights... I just pray to register the damage.

Tuesdays patch has been delayed yet again, supposedly due sometime today... I'll let you all know when and if it arrives.


I have found the ultimate no skill required, high damage, and good killing mech...

The n00b cannon

Catapult A1
6 LRM 5 - 10 tons ammo
XL 200 engine 48.8 KPH
26 heat sinks
1 type III jump jet

With the current mechanics, one jump jet moves you as far as 100 would. No real aiming required, just get a lock, either by LOS or via spotter, be within 1000 meters of target and let em fly. I have only used all the ammo once, and you can fire for two minutes solid before heating.

The only drawback is LRM's have a 180 meter minimum range, so anything that gets closer than that can rip you apart without fear.

This chassis is also the one used for the most cheeseball build currently used in game, the 6 streak 2 cat. Same process of missile lock before firing them, but if you chain fire them, the resulting shake from the impact renders the target unable to target anyone for return fire. It takes a while to kill someone with it, but it is enough to totally disrupt them, and make them useless on the field.

I don't have a build for one, it's too cheesy, even for me.

Ok, the patch is in. As are DHS, Endo steel and Ferro Fiber armor.

With this patch we lost all mechs in inventory, but were refunded all XP (both Mech specific and General) as well as 75% of all C-bills earned since last wipe. So, I had a stockpile of 65 million waiting.

Some minor changes -

Collisions and falling temporarily removed, was not working as intended.
New module added, Picture in picture Advanced Zoom
engine weights now have gyro and cockpit weights built into them
Phase one of matchmaking added, no more 8 man premade team drops, now limited to 4 man only.
All mechs must have a minimum of 10 heat sinks to be "legal" designs

Mechs added

Jenner JR7-K
Raven RVN-3L
Cicada CDA-2A
Cicada CDA-2B
Cicada CDA-3C
Cicada CDA-3M
Awesome AWS-9M

Issues thus far -

They reconfigured the mech lab with tabs, switching between tabs causes you to pay for any changes at that time, so switching things around can get very expensive if you don't pay attention.

The Advanced zoom module is extremely low quality, very pixelated image and almost unusable. It also drops your standard zoom to 0 when closing it.

Double Heat Sinks have been reported to have an issue (have not tried them myself yet) where the engine retains single heat sinks when swapping over.

Over all impression -

Much better, the "Lag Armor" of the lights is vastly reduced, I am back to legging Jenners at 500 meter range, however the lack of falling and collisions make them more firece up close. They can now run through your legs and constantly chew at rear armor.

It seems more stable over all, with no loss of performance.

One of the biggest complaints now is the cost of repair and rearm, with all the expensive tech, even a win can cause you to run at a loss, with ammo, XL's and Endo/FF.

Also, LRM's still seem a bit overpowered, most of the time the team with the most LRM's wins

Monday Oct. 29th - New Mechs, New Toys, Open Beta!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings everyone!

We wanted to give you an update on how everything is going, and to thank you for being here with us!

Firstly: Open Beta is on schedule and will be beginning quite soon (12 noon PDT, Monday!) This means we’re very close to getting the final phases of the main beta features coming in. On that as well, Open Beta is our final reset. Once it happens, we will not be resetting everything again. We will be resetting C-Bills, MC, XP, GXP, Mechs, and inventory. The only thing you’ll keep is your friends list. However, if you have a Founders pack, everything will be added from that pack. Also anything you’ve purchased (with MC) will be added back.

The limit on 8-man premades hasn't gone through. We were running 8-man teams all last night with no issues.

I'll try loading it after work on Monday.
We'll have to see how well it runs on this machine.
I could barely handle XCOM. I hope MWO will run better.

I took the test Awesome out 12 times or so, and I've done 48 combined damage OVERALL.
Apparently I can't even find the enemy to shoot at them. When I do find them, I die before I can return any kind of fire.
I'll try MWT, but this hasn't been any fun for me at all.

I have done a little better than that although it took me until my fifth match before I got my first kill (things improved once I doscovered the "r" key).I have been having some problem with my joystick so atm I am mouse limited which I am not enjoying much/ Done about 12 matches now and am approaching the 1 million C-Bill mark. Am I better getting a mech I can customise early or am I better off waiting for a better chassis? and if so what would you recommend as the first chassis to go for?

I am feeling a little Ping crippled here in Oz though - Im normally at something around the 250 ms mark.

Use MC to buy the Yen Lo Wang. Gives you a 30% C-bill increase. Follow your team, shoot what they shoot. Play with an organized group. Pugs are all sorts of terrible.

Gentlemen,

Is MWT out yet?

Also, I may try MWO here soon. Does anyone know what the basic/recommended requirements are? I would hate to download the MWO game and just see the game stall since my system is too slow.

Plebus

I'm not sure the people joining Open Beta have MC Fei? But, yeah a lot of the people you are facing are in Lances with other experienced players or the like, so don't get too discouraged.

The trial mechs currently available S U C K.

I have been using the Centurion 9AL. I find myself an assault and shadow him. The Awesome has too little LRM ammo, and too few heat sinks to be viable, and the Dragon just doesn't seem much better.

As to Bob's question, you are better off getting a mech of your own, as you can't earn any XP in trial mechs. XP is used to unlock efficiencies on specific chassis and general XP unlocks modules. I would suggest a Jenner with your ping, you would be damn near unstoppable. Save enough for a large XL engine, with the current net code and >200 ping you will be able to circle strafe assaults to rubble.

I will grind my way up to a Hunchback, then use it to grind for my Atlas. I miss my Atlas.

Henry, the controls are not all that intuitive, and learning how to target enemies, and getting the hang of the dual reticule also takes time. The reticule has a small circle inside the cross-hair, the circle is all arm mounted weapons, the cross-hair torso mounted. Arm mounted weapons can be used above, below and farther in side arc than your torso weapons will travel. It takes a bit to get comfortable with it, if the circle is dragged beyond the torso cross-hair you will see a line drawn back to the center, firing any torso mounted weapons will not hit the target under the circle.

The tutorials kinda sucked last I looked, I'll try and give you some info you might need

Use the R key to target enemy mechs, this will cycle through all detected targets (those in your LOS and those that are being targeted by team mates) The red triangle above the enemy mech is hollow if no one has it as an active target, it's filled in if you or a team mate has it targeted.

LRM's and Streak SRM will only track to targets you have selected and "locked" this is indicated by a large red reticule. (Streaks will ONLY fire with a lock, LRM's will dumbfire to the reticule location without lock) To lock on a mech, select the target with the R key, and hold reticule over target for apx 3 seconds. (You will see yellow concentric circles while you are locking them in) If you loose the lock while missiles are in flight, they will track to it's last known position. If you regain lock while missiles are in flight they will attempt to re-track.

LRM's have a 180 meter minimum range, they do not arm under that, and will harmlessly bounce off the target under 180 meters. They also have a max range of 1000 meters and explode upon reaching max range.

ALL missiles have splash damage, so firing LRM's into a group of enemies does damage to those around the target, firing SRM's into the ground under a mech does leg damage to it.

AC's have a bit of a lag between when you pull the trigger and when they actually fire, they also have travel time, so you will need to lead targets.

Lasers are not hit scan weapons, you must hold them on target to deal max damage. When firing lasers you can literally draw lines in them and spread damage. This can be good or bad, by spreading out damage it will take longer to kill them, but if you see a weak side torso, you can drag the lasers to it and hope to take it off.

To group your weapons, use the arrow keys to select individual weapons (up and down) left and right to select the number group. Use the right control key to select or deselect the group. weapons will fire from number keys as well so if you have a 3 button mouse but want small lasers in group 4, Hit number 4 to fire them. The highlighted vertical bar is mouse button one, so move that back to position one.
Backslash is the Alpha Fire key... Not much use since heat is always an issue.

The Z key has a two stage zoom, use it to get a clearer picture of your target for lasers and AC/Gauss.

N is night vision, and H is thermal. Thermal is VERY useful.

I wouldn't be so discouraged if I were able to fight semi-effectively.
So far, I haven't been able to hit anything, much less get any kills of my own.
That's what has me discouraged.
Win or lose, at the end of the fight, I'm the only one still showing 0 damage done.

Last night (and probably for the next week I assume) there were TONS of premade teams running. They will always stomp the regular pick up gamers.

Again, the trial mechs blow chunks. Not much you can do about it, and it will take at east 20 wins to afford the basic Commando... A lot more to get into a decent mech, then have to grind more to customize it.

All the while, you will be up against Founders, with better equipment, teams with better equipment and comms, with preset roles and standard battle plans.

You will have to learn to do a lot of building/rock hugging, especially when people start getting the $$ for missile boats.

If I could damage someone before dying, I wouldn't feel so bad.
Getting beat by someone with better gear isn't so bad, but I want to at least ding their paint before I fall.
Maybe if I joined a team, where I could follow directions and do SOMETHING useful, that might help, too. I think I'm still running into walls and getting stuck in places where I then get shot.
Turn-based, I'm pretty good. Real-time, not so much.
I've used the onboard mic and speakers in my laptop for voice in LotRO. Does it work similarly for MWO, or does it take different gear?

A couple of quick questions.

1. It auto-allocates crits for structure/endo et al. Is it possible to re-distribute these. If there is I can't find it.

2. Is it possible to sell excess components?

BTW I am now using a Catapault A1. Removed the JJ and reduced to 13 HS. I have additional ammo and 4x SSRM2. I am now broke so a long grind to getting an XL engine for it.

Also a quick question of MWO good manners. Is it rude to DC if you get blown out of your cockpit in the opening moments (as A CPTL pilot I seem to attract attention ). If you do bail do you still get your cash?

Actually reduced the ammo - now only got 1 ton off SSRM2 for the 4 launchers and went back to the default for the LRMS - I think having an AMS is more important.

Bob_CK wrote:A couple of quick questions.

1. It auto-allocates crits for structure/endo et al. Is it possible to re-distribute these. If there is I can't find it.

2. Is it possible to sell excess components?

BTW I am now using a Catapault A1. Removed the JJ and reduced to 13 HS. I have additional ammo and 4x SSRM2. I am now broke so a long grind to getting an XL engine for it.

Also a quick question of MWO good manners. Is it rude to DC if you get blown out of your cockpit in the opening moments (as A CPTL pilot I seem to attract attention ). If you do bail do you still get your cash?

1) kinda... If you want to add somthing to a side torso, just add it, any endo/ferro in white will be moved to another empty slot.

2)yes, on the RHS you see the list of available parts, if you own one there will be a drop down arrow on it, click this then it will show how many you own, click one and at bottom center will be a sell button.

Manners, you are totally fine disconnecting after a death. Not before.

The A1 with 6 SSRM2 is nasty, and total cheeseball. If you chain fire them, the shake it gives to the target is enough to keep them from firing.

There is still a bug with JJ, if you have one, you can jump full distance, anything more is unneeded as it will not increase jump distance. My A1 had 11 tons LRM ammo (1980 rounds) and 6 LRM 5 with DHS and an engine to move it at 71 kph. It was cheesy, but a mass killer.

Henry wrote:If I could damage someone before dying, I wouldn't feel so bad.
Getting beat by someone with better gear isn't so bad, but I want to at least ding their paint before I fall.
Maybe if I joined a team, where I could follow directions and do SOMETHING useful, that might help, too. I think I'm still running into walls and getting stuck in places where I then get shot.
Turn-based, I'm pretty good. Real-time, not so much.
I've used the onboard mic and speakers in my laptop for voice in LotRO. Does it work similarly for MWO, or does it take different gear?

The game has a voice component, C3. It can be enabled in options but you need to download it seperatly to get it to run with the game.

Friend me, when I am on tomorrow evening, we will set it up and we can drop a few times together. I can probably get you up to speed fairly quickly. my handle is - wait for it - Hellspwan (big supprise huh)

Dont believe Hells - he rejected my friend request May ice cut off his internet connection

Handle: Bochel.