MechWarrior 5 Mod Editor Has Been Released

Mad Dog

The MechWarrior 5 Mod Editor has arrived! Let the modders rejoice!

One of the key promises of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has always been mod support. Mods, for the uninitiated, is short for “modifications,” although the term is often used as a catchall for everything from minor tweaks to entire fan-made expansions.

In the case of MechWarrior 5, we can likely expect some minor mods to arrive before anyone tackles a huge project like an expansion. That said, some pretty ambitious projects are already being discussed on Reddit, so we might be in store for some truly amazing things.

But first, let’s talk about this mod editor. What we have here is basically the same tools that developer PGI used to create the original game. PGI even released a guide so that someone with a little bit of game-dev experience can hit the ground running. For everyone else, a few helpful links to some Unreal 4 Engine manuals will give you some background info.

My programming knowledge ends at spreadsheets and HTML, so I will not be downloading the Mod Editor to see how everything works. I trust people with vastly more computer experience to perform such actions and report back if there are any problems.

PGI has said that they’ll be offering additional mod support over time and also mod integration and support with MechWarrior 5. For now, folks are using old standbys like Nexus Mods to catalog available mods.

The really exciting news is that people are already talking about what mods they’d love to see in the game. One mod that sounds relatively easy to do would add an entire layer of immersion to MechWarrior 5 while also sending a throwback to the game that inspired it.

Courtesy of Reddit user Shin_Ken, we have the ComStar News Bureau Mod. If you recall from MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, there was a computer terminal out Outreach that you could approach to get the latest news on what was happening throughout the Inner Sphere. It would show era-appropriate updates all based on BattleTech lore, which would be a really cool addition to MW5.

However, the big kahuna was posted a month ago just after the mod editor tool was announced. It’s called the MechWarrior “3068” Mod, and it basically takes you throughout the Word of Blake Jihad while playing as a MechWarrior in Clan Wolf-in-Exile.

3068

via Reddit

“In true MechWarrior style you’re going to see Blake‘s brutal retribution on the Inner Sphere across 3 operations, 3 planets, 17+ newly modeled, TRO-inspired mechs and an original score by Timothy Seals,” reads the mod’s description on Reddit. There’s a lot more, and it all sounds spicy in a very good way.

So far, I haven’t seen too much on this mod since the announcement a month ago, but the Discord is active and they’ve got some fantastic art and models already. Here’s hoping this gets made and maybe even inspires an official DLC from PGI.

I’m also still waiting on my Whitworth. Anyone with 3D ‘Mech-modelling experience should really get on that.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.

stay syrupy

Share this:

This entry was posted in News, Video Games on by .

About Sean

Hooked on BattleTech at an early age, Sean honestly can't remember whether it was the cartoon, the serial novels or the short-lived TCG that did him in. Whatever it was, his passion for giant shooty robots never died, so now he writes about the latest and greatest in 'Mech related news.

6 thoughts on “MechWarrior 5 Mod Editor Has Been Released

  1. Kdogprime

    The modding groups behind Mektek, Mechwarrior Living Legends, and Battletech’s RogueTech have already stated they have little-to-no interest in modding MW5. The scuttlebutt from the various reddits and discords is that modders do not want to do PGI’s work for them (ie. Improve the game’s poor AI, UI, or other features).

    I have to agree with that sentiment. The game has been out for only one month, and we already have modding available, which leads me to believe that PGI has no long-term plans to support MW5 with additional content or major patches. I could be wrong, but usually a development team doesn’t release mod support until after they’ve exhausted any other options for player retention or monetization.

    Reply
    1. Nicolas Hausler

      That’s not at all what I’m seeing, I’m pretty sure I heard that Mektek was diving into the tools, and I know for a fact that the MWLL devs are deep into the editor, they’re already testing playable vehicles and Battle Armor, they post updates regularly on the MW5 discord

      Reply
      1. Kdogprime

        I guess it was just the Roguetech group then.

        Frankly, I’m surprised the LL crew is interested, considering how PGI passive-aggressively forced the original team to shut down development. I guess the new guys working on it have no problem with doing the work that PGI should have done and took all that Epic money for.

        But hey, if any modders want to waste their time being PGI’s development team for no pay, who am I to try and dissuade them?

        Reply
        1. Will9761

          Hey man, I know that you are upset with PGI’s decisions, both past and present. For the 6 years I’ve been playing MWO, I’ve seen everything from “You’re on an Island” to the “Cheapskates” comment. But for some people, this is a bright side for them. As much as we all have our gripes about PGI in the past, releasing the MW5 Mod Tools was the best thing they could ever do honestly. It does give us the tools to make the game that we want from the start, even if the PGI devs decided not to fully commit. As the saying goes, “If you want the job done right, then you will have to do it yourself”. Now we have the opportunity to do whatever we want to the game and make it to our heart’s desire. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to tell you to stop hold the grudge, because PGI and Russ do deserve some of the slack. But as for the as for the people who want to mod the game, they shouldn’t be the targets of anger.

          If you have problems with PGI, then it is fine and I do agree with you on some things. After all, Russ was the one who made the decisions. But don’t degrade the people who are interested in modding the game.

          Reply
      2. Bird_Thing

        Sup, I’m one of MWLL’s community managers.
        What you’re seeing there is individual developers working on their own projects. These are in no way official undertakings by the LL dev team itself.
        As mentioned in the initial post, the MWLL dev team as a whole/entity has no plans to mod MW5, and this position is unlikely to change.

        Reply
  2. Patrick Coyle

    Man, I’m torn on this. On one hand, I prefer this to NOT including mod support, since we’re at a point where a significant portion of the player base likes being able to tweak their games to their own tastes, however polished they might already be. On the other, this really does feel like they’re selling a single-player MWO engine for $50 and leaving modders to volunteer time and effort to turn it into a game worth playing. I know that accusation gets tossed around a lot, but this is one case where I can believe it.

    I’d probably feel a lot better about this if the game itself were cheaper, somewhere in the $30 range, or we were dealing with a developer who could be expected to make substantial updates of their own. Barring that, it really feels like the modders should be getting a cut of the game sales, if their efforts are going to be the main draw for MW5 onward.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.