February is upon us and we have a full slate of new content, features, bug fixes, and performance improvements ready to go live! First off, MechWarrior Online will be moving to a semi-monthly patch schedule. Now that we have achieved a minimum quality level in both performance and balance, our goal moving forward is to maintain the current integrity of the product and not regress. In order to facilitate success, PGI and IGP felt it best to reduce the frequency of patches, but not the amount of content. Instead of smaller weekly patches, players will enjoy the same amount of content presented in two major patches.

Now onto the good stuff.

• Mech of the Month – Trebuchet 
• Hero Mech of the Month – Pretty Baby
• New patterns, including the Tiger Pattern for all BattleMechs.
• New cockpit items, including some limited time Year of the Snake (Monkey) content.

Alpine Peaks

Players will be able to employ a variety of new strategies due to the large scale. Scouts and fast mechs will have an advantage, being able to cross terrain quickly. Long range builds will also enjoy the ability to hang back and launch barrages from a safe distance. Teamwork will take on a new meaning, with balanced lances dominating the field of battle. This massive map will take advantage of the upcoming 12 v 12 player support, expected to arrive sometime in April.

In-Game Screen Overhaul

Pre-Round Screen, Scoreboard, Death Screen, and The End of Round Summary have all been completely overhauled. Each screen now contains more information about your team, the state of the game, why you died, and match statistics.

Matchmaking Phase 3

Phase 3 goes live behind the scenes on February 5th. Players will not see any difference in matchmaking immediately during this first deployment. We are running a series of final tests, along with pre-seeding player’s ELO scores. If everything goes well, and no technical issues are uncovered, we plan to switch the current matchmaking system over on February 19th. Once online, the new matchmaker will undergo several tuning passes as we collect data.

Changes to MechLab UI

The most notable change coming in the February 19th patch – merging of the Upgrades Tab into Loadout. Players will now be able to see the full impact of swapping in Double Heat Sink, Artemis, and Ferro Fiberous Armor upgrades before committing to a purchase. Along with the merger, we have added item details (finally!).

Camo Spec Phase 2

On February 5th, players will have the ability to permanently unlock patterns for MC, and permanently unlock colours for C-Bills or MC! This planned update offers more value and additional options for players, especially those collectors out there. We will be processing a refund of all MC purchased on Colours and Patterns since Camo Spec came online in November! Enjoy! All player BattleMechs will also be reset to the default pattern and basic green colour.

Performance

With the February 5th patch, many players will see a significant increase in performance, especially on the lower end of system specs.

Tuning

Lots of tuning is going into both February patches, here are some of the more notable items:

• Heat adjustments have been made to ER/Large Pulse Lasers and PPCs.
• BattleMechs will start to receive quirks, starting with the Awesome. These quirks come in the form small adjustments to rotation, movement, and other mech stats. Each variant will now feel a little different.
• Jump jets received a slight overhaul to improve trajectories.

March is set to be a great month for new users. That's it for now. Until next month!

Bryan Ekman

Creative Director

@bryanekman