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[Russ Bullock]

As the Summer months come to a close I want to reflect back across the past road map of June,July and August. I think it's easy to tell that we had to take a few months to add a significant amount of polish to the game as well as tie off loose ends rather than forging ahead with new features. Now many of those polishing items really feel like new features as they improve the game so much and were likely desired as much by you the existing fan base as they would be from new players. As everyone knows we are approaching a Steam launch and we have tried hard in 2015 to both make forward progress as well as prepare the game as much as possible for it's debut on Steam. These items have included:

- New mechlab with both collapsed and expanded view
- new mech select with custom mech profile image

These two items also came with significant improvements in the mech stats panel and other areas that provide ALMOST all the information a pilot could ever want at his finger tips and I hope instilled new levels of confidence in you the players in our ability to update and improve the UI of MWO as we move forward.

- Introduction of MASC with the wave 3 mech's
- new passes on both River City and Forest Colony
- New Spectator tools
- European and Oceanic servers

When we review the list of major features from June, July and August along with the VOIP, LFG tool and other features of previous months this year. Along with the features I am about to list for September the picture comes together that the game is and will soon be far more ready for a Steam launch than ever before.

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September 8th

Mauler Battlemech - needs no introduction. This represents the first of the Resistance 2 mechs to be delivered the rest will come in two week intervals.

PSR change - we will be removing CW matches from games that effect your PSR. We feel only MM matches should effect your PSR. So this will mean your PSR is only effected by your public queue matches both solo and group.

September 22nd

Blacknight Battlemech - Dead sexy IS laser vomit.

New Tutorial - I will let you all experience it for yourselves without much to spoil it but I think all will agree that it represents an enormous improvement over any past efforts and begins to tease towards a future in MWO where PvE missions will exist.

Mech rebalance - Not to be confused with Table top battle value but think of it as an all inclusive new balance pass on the game. In short it includes putting every mech in the game into a new document. Analyzing all aspects of that mech from it's geometry shape, placement of hard points, number of hard points and assigning a value. The resulting value is then used in a balancing matrix which focuses on 4 key properties of a 'Mech; firepower, mobility, protection and sensors. With this information we work on quirks and other aspects of the mechs to attempt to achieve the best balance possible. We expect to have a public test or two with the full pass in early September.
UPDATE: The first phase of the re-balance PTS went live on September 11th, with a dedicated Re-Balance Feedback forum created for each chassis. We're going to make adjustments based on the feedback, and the next test phase will be coming soon.

New Home Screen - similar to the new work that has taken place in the Mechlab and Mech Select we have redesigned the home screen to finally give proper expected information such as your pilot name and Pilot Skill Rating. Overall the screen will take on new meaning of useful information and beauty, important to both new and existing player's experiences.

There are several other smaller items we are working on that will slip into either of the September patches, when things solidify further I will update this post.


Thanks for playing and your support.