MechWarrior Online Legends

MechWarrior Online
Product information
Type Computer game
Development Piranha Games
Publication information
Publisher Infinite Game Publishing
First published 2012
MSRP Free to Play
Content
Series MechWarrior (video games)

MechWarrior Online (MWO) is a BattleTech-themed simulation game currently under development by Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker for Microsoft Windows. It was originally intended as a reboot of the MechWarrior series of computer games and announced as "MechWarrior" (frequently referred to as "MechWarrior 5" by fans, as the series had four previous installments). That concept fell through, and development moved to an online game concept instead.

MWO went into publicly accessable Open Beta on 29th of October 2012.

Canonicity

MWO does not meet the current criteria for Canon for the BattleTech universe. When asked, BattleTech Line Developer Herbert A. Beas II expressly confirmed in an official chat that the game would not be canonical per se[1], i.e. it would not be in a position to add events, characters or other content to the canon of the BattleTech universe.

As an official product with a valid license, MWO can be regarded as apocryphal.

Development

Jordan Weisman, co-creator of BattleTech and co-founder of FASA, is also the founder of the software firm Smith & Tinker. He negotiated the BattleTech/MechWarrior license back from Microsoft who had left the property idle for years. Russ Bullock from Piranha Games was a long time fan of the series and wanted to start a joint collaboration with Weisman. He contacted Weisman to develop a prototype project that would become the new iteration in the MechWarrior series of video games. Production of the new MechWarrior game first began in October 2008, where the two studios started discussing the project on pen and paper. After coming up with a presentation for a prototype scenario, both studios began ramping up a full-time team to work on the new game in March 2009.

A trailer with supposed in-game footage was released on 9 July, 2009, depicting a House Davion Warhammer fighting House Kurita invaders on Deshler in 3015. (This storyline/setting has since been abandoned for the game, see below). The words "in-game footage", clearly seen in the trailer, has caused confusion among fans. At the time it was created, the intent was to attract a publisher. So PGI used the UE3 game engine to demonstrate what a new MechWarrior game might look like. UE3 was stated as the logical engine of choice since the objective was to create a game for PC and Xbox 360. It has since been announced that CryEngine3 will be used for MWO making the trailer's in-game footage no longer applicable.

A new trailer has since been released based on the current choice of game engine.

Game storyline

MWO casts the player as a mercenary in the Inner Sphere, while in its current form the game is little more than a series of unconnected battles, with the upcoming release of the Community Warfare system players will eventually be able to fight on behalf of any of the Great Houses available in the time period (the Draconis Combine, Free Worlds League, Capellan Confederation, Free Rasalhague Republic as well as both halves of the Federated Commonwealth) or as unaligned mercenaries to secure planets for their employer.

One of the more notable concepts of the game is that it is set in a 1:1 timeline with BattleTech universe, meaning the current year (2013) equates to 3050 in BattleTech and each passing day in real life also advances the in-game calendar, placin3g the game on the cusp of the Clan Invasion.

To assist with this, the MWO website features ISN New Flashes, daily mood setting updates partly written by Catalyst Games Labs detailing in-universe news and events on that day and date.

Gameplay

The first game mode in MWO consists of 8 vs 8 capture the flag matches (called 'Assault' matches) played on one of seven different maps. At the conclusion of the match the player's contribution to their team's victory or loss is tallied, earning both C-Bills and experience points for both inflicting damage and defeating opponents, as well for assists, spotting and base captures. C-Bills are now earned according to the player's participation in the match after a update that revised the game's economy. Trial 'Mechs (see Trial Mechs below) now earn XP and C-Bills normally (December update). However, the XP earned cannot be spent on upgrades until the specific variant used is purchased. They will still accumulate that XP.

The MWO Development team has released a new game mode called 'Conquest', which includes map objectives in place of the 'capture the flag' approach of the current game mode ('Assault'). The player is able to choose between the Conquest and Assault modes before entering a match.

In addition, players can now form groups before entering a match, and these groups can either be 8-man groups or 4-man groups. When ready, MWO's 'matchmaker' will find a group of equal size that is available for a match.

As with many Free2Play games, MWO's economy is broken down into two currencies, C-Bills which can be earned in game and Mech Credit (MC) which can only be purchased via real world money. While most items can be purchased with C-Bills, they are considerably more expensive in comparison to MC prices, and certain items such as earning boosts, mech bays and Hero 'Mechs can only be purchased with MC.

BattleMechs

While very similar and heavily based on the tabletop game's construction system, MWO openly admits to having tweaked and changed armor levels, weapon damage, heat and ammo levels. BattleMech modification in MWO uses a mixture of the tabletop game's critical location tables and MechWarrior 4's hard point system, 'Mech featuring the familiar table layout but also having restrictions on what type and how many weapons can be placed in certain locations, primarily an attempt avoid over optimisation and Boating. Restrictions also exist on the size of engine that certain 'Mechs can carry.

Each player automatically receives four MechBays with which to store purchased BattleMechs, players either having the choice of selling an existing 'Mech to free up a slot or spending MC to purchase additional slots.

PGI have formally announced the following BattleMechs will be included in MechWarrior Online. 'Mechs that have yet to be released are noted below with an asterisk.

Light:

Medium:

Heavy:

Assault:

Operation Inception - Founders Program

Likened to Kickstarter or other forms of crowd funding, the founders program was a method for people to effectively per-purchase game time and show their support for the game. The program also had the added enticement of Closed Beta access for those who had previously missed out on being selected. Three purchase levels were available (Veteran, Elite and Legendary) which offered a steadily increasing volume of in-game currency, premium account time and unique account/forum tags, Legendary also including the player's name in the game's credits.

Elite and Legendary also offered "Founder's 'Mech", exclusive versions of the first four playable BattleMechs in MWO (Atlas, Hunchback, Catapult, Jenner), Elite founders having a choice of one, Legendary founders receiving all four. Founder's 'Mechs feature unique paint skins, a lifetime per-match 25% boost in C-Bill earnings when such 'Mechs are piloted as well as not taking up any of the player's allotment of garage slots, otherwise featuring the same hard-points and functioning identically to the standard models.

Trial 'Mechs

MWO has a selection of four Trial 'Mechs updated every patch (selection changes) that can be used at no cost . This also offers players the ability to try 'Mech types and variants before outlaying money to permanently purchase them. The only negative with Trial 'Mechs is they cannot be modified or optimized from the variant offered. The four Trial 'Mechs on offer appear to change every patch.

These mechs are equipped exactly as their canonical counterparts, which is problematic as heat, heat sinks, weapon damages and weapon recycle times have all been altered to accommodate balance as a real time PvP game. As such most players consider these mechs to be a handicap for whichever team they are placed on, as they do not have sufficient armament, armor, or heat dissipation as compared to customized mechs.

Hero 'Mechs

Similar in concept to Founder's 'Mechs, Hero 'Mechs are exclusive variants which can only be purchased for MC rather than C-Bills, offering both a unique paint scheme, a per-match C-Bill booster (currently 30%) and custom hardpoint layout. Generally the intention is to use historical or notable variants from the BattleTech universe, but new custom 'Mechs unique to MechWarrior Online have also been introduced. It is not known if Hero 'Mechs will be available for limited time only.

Official Web Resources

Fan Sites

References

  1. ↑ Chat transcript found here; see also transcript on this article's Talk page

Media


The text in this article is based on this revision of the Wikipedia article "MechWarrior (reboot)" used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See the BattleTechWiki's copyright notice.

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