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Gather around tinfoilers! I come bearing tidings of strange news!
There have been inconsistencies over the last several months, highlighted the most by a lack of Battlemech 20. Obviously I don't need to tell you the significance of March 3050, but I feel we do not yet have a look at the bigger picture! Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes!
CONSPIRACY NO. 1 - Battlemech 20 has been done for some time, along with 21,22,23, and 24...
Figure 1:
Raw Data Analysis: As we can see in Figure 1, we have steady increases in the length of time between a battlemechs announcement and its release. We also have, since the announcement of the Spider, a massive spike in the length of time between battlemech announcements. In fact, the length of time between the Orion and Battlemech 20 will soon surpass the entire length of time in which we had six mechs announced during a span of last summer (84 days). Implementation of mechs has almost doubled since last summer as well.
Assumptions: It's not like the art department was suddenly shifted over to help fix the netcode, work on game balance, or given extra vacation days. I highly doubt they have been playing Mexican flutes this whole time either. And maps haven't been coming out at a faster rate either...
Sane Person Conclusion: Game balancing, implementation, and other delays have been slowing things down, and marketing has been holding up Battlemech 20 for nearly 3 months now.
Conspiracy Conclusion: Marketing has been holding up Battlemech 20, but the artwork, concept, and 3D modeling for Battlemech 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 possibly are all done. It's feasible given the increase in time for mech releases, and four would give us a Clan mech in all 4 classes plus another Inner Sphere chassis. This would be perfect for...
CONSPIRACY NO. 2-ISN News Blackout is gearing up for a massive media drop this month
InnerSphereNews, on 11 February 2013 - 01:00 AM, said:
Mon. Feb 11, 3050: Proposal to change “15% proportion” of Dispossessed MechWarrior children attending Allison MechWarrior Institute denied.
Raw Data Analysis: This was our last transmission from the ISN News Flash. 3 weeks and absolutely nothing. This might be the longest ISN blackout we have had. And the ISN twitter feed has not been completely inactive since then.
Sane Person Conclusion: People get busy and fluff takes time to write!
Conspiracy Conclusion: The writing department has been gearing up for some major news traffic that we will be bombarded with over the next month with the events in the timeline. Why would they need extra news though...
CONSPIRACY NO. 3- Be a Hero Tournament was a sign that Community Warfare, or at least a part of it, is a lot closer than we think
Raw Data Analysis: Bryan said that the tournament was a way for PGI to test their leaderboard tracking systems. We know it works (disregarding the balance issues and the scoring methods).
Sane Person Conclusion: Just a test nothing more. Community Warfare is still a ways away.
Conspiracy Conclusion: It was a test, and with the data gathered PGI will be able to tweak it as necessary, and by late March we could see leaderboards, stat-tracking, and the ability to formally organize our Mercenary Units into groups appear.
CONSPIRACY NO. 4- Volunteer Moderator Program was a way of finding forum members who would be willing to pose for random Clan drops throughout the next several months and get raw game data for Clan Mechs
Raw Data Analysis: This is a bit of a strech...buuuut I am 95% sure I read on the Volunteer Moderator Post on February 4th that they were looking for forum members who had NO unit affiliation (aka were not part of a current mercenary group). This was before the February 17th edit where Niko Snow "edited and clarified some rules above" and the aformentioned clause was removed . These moderators as per standard practice would be subject to NDA's.
Sane Person Conclusion: They just need more moderators and want to involve the community in choosing them.
Conspiracy Conclusion: Yes, but why all the details for the referral program and why the edit when PGI has demonstrated their ability to select moderators they wish for? And when has the forum community made a sane decision recently?
CONSPIRACY NO. 5- It's March
A so wonderful time of the year...
In Conclusion: PGI has known about the coming events since the beginning of development. They knew what was coming and March and set their timeline accordingly, and Bryan said in a Q&A recently that they are not really behind on the development schedule. Therefore in March we will see 4 Clan Mechs, their *rare* in game appearance, the basic blocks of Community Warfare, and other forms of awesome. The Developer March Update will help!
Edited by Hawkeye 72, 01 March 2013 - 04:48 PM.
