690 replies to this topic

[Russ Bullock]

Hey MechWarrior fans,

Through conversations internally (as well as by the suggestion of some of our great Beta testers) we felt we needed to give everyone an update on the state of the game, especially as we head towards the Founders Program. It is important that everyone understand what exactly they are buying and what they should expect. Now there will be a new press release and email that will go out on June 19^th to launch the program, but for extra clarity I’ll go over some critical points here on the forums with you. Here is a roughly described timeline to help set your expectations:

MechWarrior Online is currently in Closed Beta and to be more specific, what we have dubbed internally as ‘Closed Beta 1.’ For Closed Beta 1 we had a goal of sending out 10,000 beta keys in total, and we should achieve that in the next week or so. Our next step will be to start selling the Founders Packages starting Tuesday June 19^th - and for clarity this is a limited time offer, which also guarantees Closed Beta access on the Injection date. Our next step comes on July 10^th where we are scheduled to move to our production hardware, and thus will have the capability of hosting many thousands of simultaneous players. Then we’ll be at the point where we move to Closed Beta 2. Once we have achieved Closed Beta 2 we continue to ramp up the beta testers to the point where we can handle the injection of the founders program. I should say that it is logical that this next round of beta testers will likely be drawn from those early purchasers of the founders program; it only makes sense since they have shown such dedication and are quite likely to be excellent beta testers.

Now the next date of course is the injection of the founders purchasers, and let me be the first to break the news, this date has shifted from July 17^th to Aug 7^th. There is a very simple explanation as to the new date - some of the key production hardware was delayed in arriving to the data center. We simply need to make sure we have a minimum amount of time to work with the production hardware and be confident that we can handle the loads of the Founders Program. Of course the next date to come along after that will be Open Beta. I cannot announce a date at this time but I can say we are still going to ship this summer as promised, so if you look at the Founders access date of Aug 7^th and when summer ends, one can probably make an accurate enough guess as to our currently planned open beta date.

Okay, back to managing expectations of the content of the game once you get access, the same logic applies to both those that are and will be lucky enough to get a beta key and those gaining access to the game on Aug 7^th through the founders program. Come Aug 7^th when the customers of the Founders Program gain access to the game we are still going to be in Closed Beta - therefore not every feature we have discussed on the web site will be playable. Currently in the beta we have been introducing a patch every 2 weeks where more features are included and that process will likely continue up until Open Beta and beyond. The end result is that we expect to have each of the features we have announced and discussed on the web site in the game by the Open Beta date with one unfortunate exception. That exception is the Community Warfare pillar; it’s a big system and extremely important to us however we did not want to delay the game especially when it is something that can so logically be added onto the product post launch. That way we can get everyone playing this summer as planned having a great time working on their Mech and pilot trees, then the depth of Community Warfare will be added into the game. I don’t have an exact projected release of the Community Warfare feature set but we fully expect to have the core of the community experience in the game within 90 days of open beta.

A note of clarification on the BattleMech’s – We have a system for announcing the Mech’s to the community on the web site but one should not assume this means that all of those Mech’s are currently present in the beta or that they are all available come Open Beta. We essentially add them into the game one at a time in very near the same way they are announced on the web site. Our expectation is that there will be 10 unique model types along with all their variants making for a total of around 40 different chassis come Open Beta. From that point forward they will continue to be added at a very regular pace.

So as it pertains to the Founders Program, they aren’t meant represent the value you receive immediately upon gaining access to the game. The value of the Founders Package is that it is a lifetime reward and recognition opportunity. All of the hard currency you get in the product will be yours to spend over the entire lifetime of the product, the Founders tag which will be available on the forums immediately after purchasing your Founders Package will mark you uniquely for the entire lifetime of the product. The same can be said for the Founder’s ’Mech’s, they will be unique on the battlefield marking you as an original founder of MWO as well as providing a boost to C-bill earning for the lifetime of the product.

In the end this new frontier of online free to play titles really is a shift in thinking for all of us. So many of us are so trained to think about retail products that barely change after they are sold to us in the store and it’s hard to grasp the concept of a game like MWO. Yes we still have lots of work to do between here and Open Beta but our work won’t stop there, we will immediately work to put in the Community Warfare features and from there it will be a sprint to the invasion of the clans and so on. While I am at it here are a few other key pieces of information people need in order to make their purchase decisions.

Okay European players, here is the answer you have been looking for: Yes you can buy the Founders Package and you will never be blocked from continuing to play on the North American servers. Also if we are able to set up servers in your region you will be given a onetime opportunity to transfer to those regions servers taking everything you own with you.

And of course the elusive System requirements:

MechWarrior Online Minimum System Spec:

CPU:
Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
Athlon II X2 245e

GPU:
GeForce 8800GT
Radeon HD 5600/5700

RAM:
4 GB

OS:
Windows XP 32-bit SP3

DirectX:
DX9

HDD Space:
4 GB


MechWarrior Online Recommended System Spec:

CPU:
Core i3-2500
AMD Athlon II X4 650

GPU:
GeForce GTX 285
Radeon HD 5830

RAM:
8 GB

OS:
Windows 7 SP-1 64-Bit

DirectX:
DX9

HDD Space:
4 GB

A few notes on the system requirements for absolute clarity. Right now a duo core system is our minimum spec machine but it is also our main focus of concern. It is playable on those specifications and I have tested it myself but it is currently very much a minimum spec type of experience running on low detail settings. Currently it’s obvious that a Quad core system is the key as even the earliest Core 2 Quad systems run the game very well. However at this point in time we have only been able to spend a very minor amount of time working on optimizations and it is our goal since there are still so many out there to get the Core 2 Duo systems running much faster.

Okay, hopefully that gives you guys all the information you could possibly want to be the best beta tester, potential Founders Program customer or simply consumer of MechWarrior Online. Sorry if one or more items isn’t exactly as you would hope it to be, but were working hard and we truly feel that all signs thus far say that the core experience of MWO is everything we could have hoped for. Now we just need to keep adding layers of features. Thanks for reading and remember you guys are the best community in all of gaming, keep treating each other with respect and together we will bring MechWarrior back to glory.

Russ Bullock
President
Piranha Games Inc.

[Starlace]

Thanks!

[GargoyleKDR]

Thanks!

[wwiiogre]

Great info thanks, I can now tell lots of friends whether or not they need to upgrade.

chris

[Hartsblade]

Thanks Russ!!

[Hador]

Nice to get some info

Edit:

One question about Founder Packs remains though: can you combine them?

Edited by Hador, 15 June 2012 - 01:17 PM.

[Nairdowell]

Thanks for the news and especially the system requirements!

[Deathz Jester]

Yaaaaay!

[AdamBaines]

Wow. Awesome updates. Very excited and glad to see all the new info. Thanks Russ.

[Russ Bullock]

Hador, on 15 June 2012 - 01:15 PM, said:

Nice to get some info Edit: One question about Founder Packs remains though: can you combine them?

I think that will be crystal clear on Tuesday when you can purchase...you will see that it is not about combining as much as upgrading from one to the other should you choose too.

[Chillybill]

yeah thanks

[darkrei9n]

Doesn't this mean that you freebirths will get less time to prepare for the clan invasion as well? Since founders will enter on august 7th instead?

Russ Bullock, on 15 June 2012 - 01:20 PM, said:

I think that will be crystal clear on Tuesday when you can purchase...you will see that it is not about combining as much as upgrading from one to the other should you choose too.

i think he means as in buying 4 in order to get all 4 founder mechs rather than just one.

[Isotobe]

Thanks very much for the update!

[Fresh Meat]

Thanks,
those specs make me real happy

Edited by Fresh Meat, 15 June 2012 - 01:24 PM.

[Hador]

Russ Bullock, on 15 June 2012 - 01:20 PM, said:

I think that will be crystal clear on Tuesday when you can purchase...you will see that it is not about combining as much as upgrading from one to the other should you choose too.

Ty for the update, it's getting time for tuesday to arrive

[Blackfire1]

OH... cool

So tuesday morning I need to be up at 6am and wait to buy my founders. Nice.

Edited by Blackfire1, 15 June 2012 - 01:31 PM.

[Sudibor]

OC XP?

[Felicitatem Parco]

When you say "lowest-end" quad core system, do you mean like a low-level Q6600 quad core?
2.40GHz, 8 meg cache, 1066 MHz frontside bus.

This is a "cheap" quad core (less than $100) for Core 2 Quad-compatible (LGA775 socket) systems. Is this more-than-enough to get a smoothish play experience?

Edited by Prosperity Park, 15 June 2012 - 01:29 PM.

[combatplayer]

oh hey, i can run it!

barely, but i can.

also thanks a ton for the clarification about the server moving thing for us Europeans.

[Mana211]

No XP SP3 support?

I'm not likely to pay $100+ for Win 7 to play a game when my other games run on XP.

No I won't buy a gray market copy nor will I just torrent a free copy.

A proper legit copy of Win7 is not cheap.

Edited by Mana211, 15 June 2012 - 01:30 PM.