The lightest areas of the game right now are the grouping system and the commander toolset. I have heard that there are going to be additions to the ability of commanders to lead their troops. When is a rough ETA on the release of these tools, and will they have an effect on the winnings at the end of a match?

Teir Dasande, on 27 March 2013 - 12:49 PM, said:

A lot of clans are dying. Basic principles of game lifespans, sociology at work. We're not a clan though, we're a company. We already combat the stagnation that other groups are finding happens.

Who's excited for the CW that the RSM is drawing up?

Okay, I read through all the posts to check what I would say that would just be beating a dead horse, so I'll keep those areas short.

First, many people have said already that the books don't speak of heat seeking missiles. This is true. I'm not a BT junkie by any means; I'm reading through the series from the beginning for the first time, from e-books. Not once have I seen mention of anything heat-seeking other than the thermal vision that is one of several visions modes, such as color vision (normal) and MAD (I think they call it something different) which is Magnetic Anomaly Detection. All views do have the 360 vision compressed into normal human field of view, as well as the cockpits being void of any glass, as opposed to the artistic liberties that many images of mechs have.

That said, the Neurohelmet not only controls the mech's balance, but pretty much all movement. Walking, rolling, leaning, stepping from side to side, ducking, and so on are controlled by the Neural interface. We can't actually control games through a thought, so having that freedom of movement isn't a reality. Weapons and arms are still controlled by a Joystick for each arm, although mechs like the Jenner don't have arms, and therefore are controlled by a single Joystick.

With that kind of functionality, if any human-computer interface were able to recreate that level of control, I'm sure that the simulation would become possible. As is, it won't.

Now, about the physics. You are trying to make a point about the physics, and you are correct, it doesn't have Neutonian physics. However, you are using a 90 ton mech for an example. The fact is, the mechs you are saying would sway and fall in a blizzard at 90 tons is completely false, even using the actual laws of physics. That mass isn't 5 or 10 stories tall, you're talking about a machine that weighs in at 90 tons and is only 15-20 feet tall, so around 2 stories. Anything short of a class 4 tornado isn't going to do anything to budge that. In the books, these mechs have to walk on specific-purpose surfaces in order not to cause massive damage by sheer weight. I'm not saying that the book science works, everyone knows there's been a lot of liberties taken from the authors on what is considered sound science, but by physics none of these mechs will be bothered by that little blizzard.

On to the gaming aspect. 3rd person does and will change the game, splitting an already small community of gamers (less than a million worldwide) into two camps. There will be players who cannot play this game in a first person view. It is difficult for them to consciously focus on manipulating both chassis direction and field of view separately without seeing the direction their separate entities are pointing. Then there are players who love the fact that they have to play in that manner, and that it feels much more immersive to them because of it. It certainly separates this game from a typical FPS or 3PS in the bunny rabbit strafing.

I personally loathe the idea of putting in 3rd person, because I run a competitive company, and I don't want to be forced to play in 3rd person in order to prevent losing a sight advantage over those who do use it. You don't think that third person view changes things? Referring to Mechwarrior 4 is a lost cause, because a lot of the player base that is here today didn't play competitively on that. I know I didn't, but I also know that most MW4 competitions were played in 3rd person. Instead, try imagining if you will, fighting someone playing Gears of War while playing as a Halo view that has serious limitations in movement speed. You can't see around the corners, but sure as sh*t he can. You turn a corner, run through a tunnel towards an opening, and your exact position is already compromised, and the guy around the corner didn't even have to expose his position nor his skin in the slightest to gain that information. It ruins the tactical aspect of this game, and real tactics are hard to come by in a 3rd person game.

For the trolls that are going to post that my thread is too long, I don't care. I can only hope that your RL conversation skills are somewhat less rudimentary than the asparagus you compete with to identify who or what has a greater attention span.

We certainly do make MWO more than just 16 guys shooting at each other and capping the base.