UPDATE
Greetings MechWarriors!
This week's patch includes a number of major fixes and new implementations for all players to benefit from. First and foremost is the ability to rejoin a match after disconnecting. Regardless of the reason for disconnecting, you now have a 2 minute timer to allow you to rejoin the match and receive full rewards from gameplay. You can still rejoin after 2 minutes, however you will not receive rewards. This timer is in place to prevent the disconnect/reconnect system from being abused via farming. You will also receive your in-game rewards if you happened to have died before disconnecting, regardless of the timer.
Please make note though, if you were in a group prior to disconnecting, you will have to rejoin that group after the match is over if you wish to continue being grouped up with them.
We have also improved the Launch function with a Play Now feature. The purpose of this is to increase ease of use and remove redundancies for players. Game Mode selections are now saved on the player's PC, with the Play Now function automatically launching into the player's selected game modes without further or repeat selection being needed between matches.
Moving deeper into gameplay: LRMs and Streak-SRMs now deal pinpoint damage on the component hit, instead of dealing out splash damage across neighboring components. We appreciate that some may feel the splash damage affect was closer to Lore-behaviour, (where each missile is randomly rolled for individually) however, the radius envelopment check for the components hit seemed convoluted for our multiplayer action genre and disproportionately favored some Mechs over others in terms of the damage spread.
Speaking of tabletop rules, we have also modified the minimum range from Clan LRMs to cause damage: To keep some balance in keeping these Long-Ranged Missiles as Long-Ranged weapons, a damage scale has been created which increases exponentially from 0 to 100% between 0 to 180 meters in range.
To further address concerns regarding balance, we have now implemented the second stage of our recent JumpJet tweaks. As you may recall, our last patch included the addition of Fall Damage scaling. From today onwards, JumpJets will also now generate proper heat: The more Jump Jets you have, the more heat will be generated each second while activated. In the changelog below, you can find out more information regarding these updates, as well as the list of bug fixes!
See you on the battlefield!
Front End
- Added "Rejoin" functionality
- Players are now able to rejoin back to their match if they have been disconnected.
- If the player rejoins within 2 minutes of when they disconnected from the match, their rewards will not be affected.
- If the player rejoins after 2 minutes of when they disconnected from the the match, they will not receive any rewards.
- If the player died in the match before the disconnect occured, rewards will be given regardless of the 2 minute timer.
- Added "Play Now" Options Menu
- Game Modes selections are now stored locally on the client PC.
- Every time the player clicks 'Play Now' will automatically launch with the selected game mode choices in the game configuration drop down.
Gameplay
- ALL LRMs and StreakSRMs now have the same on collision behavior treatment that the SRMs recently have had.
- LRMs and Streaks will now deal direct pinpoint damage to the component they come in contact with without splashing neighboring components.
- Clan LRMs now have no minimum range
- All Clan LRM weapons to deal an exponential amount of damage from 0 -> 100% damage between 0 -> 180 meters respectively. This means that the closer you are to the target, the more reduction in damage you will be dealing.
- RANGE DAMAGE %
- 180+ meters - 100% damage
- 160 meters - 79% damage
- 140 meters - 60.5% damage
- 120 meters - 44% damage
- 100 meters - 30.8% damage
- 90 meters - 25% damage
- 60 meters - 11% damage
- 30 meters - 2% damage
- Jump-Jets heat enabled
- Heat increases on a linear scale with each additional Jump-Jet.
- Thrust increases on a linear scale with each additional Jump-Jet.
Classic Clan Faction thumbnails and avatars voted for by the Community now replace the Re-imagined logos.
Settings / Controls
- Mouse wheel binding now works correctly
- Arm lock is now a true toggle
- Turning and Throttle controls are now possible when using the Battlegrid
- Any Turning/Throttle controls that have been rebound from the defaults will need to be rebound to allow movement in the Battlegrid screen. This is due to the introduction of a new action map for the Battlegrid and is unavoidable.
- Absolute Inputs are now available for Joystick players (cl_joystick_absolute_inputs=1 in user.cfg)
- Deadzone for Rudder and Joystick separated (cl_joystick_deadzone and now cl_rudder_deadzone)
MatchMaker Improvements
- Improvements to the matchmaker to better balance team sizes in group games
- More robust group matching rules, including group size handicaps
- Improved internal monitoring and configuration tools
- Changes to how lances are assigned in public games
- Improved tonnage matching for solo games
Patcher
- The MWO Repair Tool is now being shipped with the game. It is available through the patcher via the options button (top-right, next to the minimize & close buttons).
Known Issues
- Quitting on the Death Screen and rejoining may sometimes cause the player to be stuck in a static death cam upon rejoining and spectating.
- Rejoining in front of a turret will either force the turret to be non-visible (if alive) or appear as active (if destroyed)
- Players with limited bandwidth may be unable to rejoin a match in progress.
- If disconnecting while targetting an enemy, that enemy will not be targetable upon rejoin until you target another enemy.
- Component destruction VFX triggers upon rejoining a match.
Bug Fixes
- Battlegrid now works correctly in Testing Grounds.
- The shadow of the player's mech no longer appears cast within the cockpit.
- Raven Cockpit Glass has had it's texture fixed.
- Corrected a text issue where player's could highlight lance names in the Mission Summary screen.
- Corrected a similar text issue where the "You Have Been Destroyed" text can be highlighted.
- Fixed the Front-End activity spinner overlay from appearing behind open prompts rather than on top of.
- Removed the overlap of the Group Chat window over the Social Drop Down Options in 1024x768 resolution.
- Adjusted the misplaced mouse-over highlight for friend options on the Social Tab.
- Added the mouse-over highlight for the Add Friend button on the Social Tab.
- Convinced the MechLab to visually factor in weapon modules for Heat Management values.
- Downsized the upper screens in the Cicada Cockpit.
We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!
- The MechWarrior® Online™ Team