20517 replies to this topic

[AntiSqueaker]

[Odanan]

Saber Avalon, on 20 August 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

I have a theory on the final mech and why we haven't seen it yet. If you recall the trailer, there was a Warhammer fighting an Atlas. My bet is the Warhammer was supposed to be the last mech (or sooner) but due to the legal issues that have supposedly ensued from that, they were not able to announce it. I don't think I've seen any official statement from a PGI staffer on it either, this leads me to believe they cannot say anything. So it's possible they're trying to sort it out yet or deciding if they want to replace it with something else. That's just a theory though, I could be wrong but it makes sense.

That's the old trailer for the extinct Mechwarrior 5. And they had legal issues with that, which caused (among other reasons) the canceling of the MW5 project. They are not stupid to add any unseen design again.

Saber Avalon, on 20 August 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

Adding more mechs doesn't really cause that many balance issues. The nice thing about Battletech is they all follow the same weight system and all use the same weapons. The only balance issue is the weapons themselves and glitches/bugs like that of the Dragon, where it doesn't fall down when ramming.

Agreed.

BTW, the Warhammer is a heavy, not an assault mech.

[Saber Avalon]

Odanan, on 20 August 2012 - 09:29 AM, said:

That's the old trailer for the extinct Mechwarrior 5. And they had legal issues with that, which caused (among other reasons) the canceling of the MW5 project. They are not stupid to add any unseen design again.



Agreed.

BTW, the Warhammer is a heavy, not an assault mech.

If it's from another game, why is it posted up on this site? It should have been removed a long time ago then.

So what if it's a heavy? Nothing says the next mech HAS to be an assault. Aside from the Cataphract there are no 70-75 ton heavies, they just have the 60-65 ton glorified mediums (as I call them). There are 2x 100 ton and 1x 80 ton assaults. Bring on the heavy

[Odanan]

Saber Avalon, on 20 August 2012 - 10:45 AM, said:

If it's from another game, why is it posted up on this site? It should have been removed a long time ago then.

Indeed. (but the video it's so cool!)

Saber Avalon, on 20 August 2012 - 10:45 AM, said:

So what if it's a heavy? Nothing says the next mech HAS to be an assault. Aside from the Cataphract there are no 70-75 ton heavies, they just have the 60-65 ton glorified mediums (as I call them). There are 2x 100 ton and 1x 80 ton assaults. Bring on the heavy

Looks like there is a pattern here - so the next mech will probably be an assault.
About the assault mechs already announced, there is a 100 tons (Atlas), a 85 tons (Stalker) and a 80 tons (Awesome).

[Phoenix Branson]

I agree with Odanan, it's pretty clear it will be an assault mech. Currently, they don't have any 90 or 95 ton mech yet, so it will be the Victor, Mauler, Highlander, Banshee, or Cyclops.

[Roguewolf]

DaOpa, on 20 August 2012 - 08:38 AM, said:

With so many mechs - how is balancing going to work out?

The more they add the more balancing isues are going to occur.

Not really, balancing is achieved through weapons and armor base stats, because of the base weight of all systems you will end up with the same platforms. At some point there will be boats for all types : Missile (which we have now), Energy (which we sort of have now) and Kinetic (which we will probably have when the Jager hits). Even with a different mech, the base damage and heat dissipation for the technology remains the same. It is all cosmetic and preference.

AntiSqueaker, on 20 August 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

I posted something like this in the meme thread, but it still applies :

[Saber Avalon]

Odanan, on 20 August 2012 - 11:17 AM, said:

Indeed. (but the video it's so cool!)



Looks like there is a pattern here - so the next mech will probably be an assault.
About the assault mechs already announced, there is a 100 tons (Atlas), a 85 tons (Stalker) and a 80 tons (Awesome).

Agreed, it is cool, but misleading. That video was part of my reason for slamming down the full amount for legendary. I loves the Warhammer T_T

My bad on the Stalker, for some reason I thought it was another 100T, I have shamed myself in the knowledge of Battletech.

Roguewolf, on 20 August 2012 - 12:27 PM, said:

Not really, balancing is achieved through weapons and armor base stats, because of the base weight of all systems you will end up with the same platforms. At some point there will be boats for all types : Missile (which we have now), Energy (which we sort of have now) and Kinetic (which we will probably have when the Jager hits). Even with a different mech, the base damage and heat dissipation for the technology remains the same. It is all cosmetic and preference.




I posted something like this in the meme thread, but it still applies :

Hehehehe, I like the way you think.

[zer0imh]

any of these mechs (excluding the jenner)



locust
phoenix hawk
shadow hawk
rifleman
warhammer
marauder
battlemaster

[Rajen]

Unseens won't be in the game, unless they are reseen or total redesigns, afaik.

Edited by Rajen, 20 August 2012 - 12:49 PM.

[System Zero]

Seen a mad cat on that list. But where is the mad dog...

[Roguewolf]

Rajen, on 20 August 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

Unseens won't be in the game, unless they are reseen or total redesigns, afaik.

Once again there has been no news or comment past the "you will have to wait to see" about the unseen. No one other then those deep within PGI know what the hell is going on with the unseen. Jordan Weisman said after they cancelled production on Mechwarrior : 3015 that it has very little to do with Harmony Gold and more to do with funding and production interest that prevented the making of that game. If they want some of the Unseen, it would not be much of a problem to get the legal stuff handled.
could be done if they could make more money


For now we simply do not know.

[Odanan]

System Zero, on 20 August 2012 - 01:19 PM, said:

Seen a mad cat on that list. But where is the mad dog...

Mad Dog (AKA Vulture) is a clan mech. We know the clans are invading Inner Sphere in 3050 (right now they are attacking the Periphery) so you should see them next year.

[Odanan]

Roguewolf, on 20 August 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

Once again there has been no news or comment past the "you will have to wait to see" about the unseen. No one other then those deep within PGI know what the hell is going on with the unseen. Jordan Weisman said after they cancelled production on Mechwarrior : 3015 that it has very little to do with Harmony Gold and more to do with funding and production interest that prevented the making of that game. If they want some of the Unseen, it would not be much of a problem to get the legal stuff handled.
could be done if they could make more money


For now we simply do not know.

The problem with the unseen is: their designs were firstly "stolen" from Japanese animes. It's kind of a sensitive subject in the Battletech history. The devs do well avoiding any possible legal issue by just ignoring the unseen.

Still, I know most of us fans would love to play with the unseen, even in their reseen incarnations. Either way, Alex Iglesias is able to make wonderful art from the (mostly ugly) reseen designs. Lets wait and see.

[Roguewolf]

Odanan, on 20 August 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

The problem with the unseen is: their designs were firstly "stolen" from Japanese animes. It's kind of a sensitive subject in the Battletech history. The devs do well avoiding any possible legal issue by just ignoring the unseen.

Still, I know most of us fans would love to play with the unseen, even in their reseen incarnations. Either way, Alex Iglesias is able to make wonderful art from the (mostly ugly) reseen designs. Lets wait and see.

Stolen they were not, they were licensed in a complected tale of IP ownership and some outright lies from Japanese firms. To say there were stolen implies that someone was not compensated for their use, which they certainly were.

[Popgun]

My money is on the Mauler.

[Odanan]

From wikipedia:

"The visual design of the earliest line of BattleMechs were taken from Macross and other anime, including many signature images. In later years FASA abandoned these images, and it was common speculation by fans that the decision was the result of a lawsuit brought against them by Playmates and Harmony Gold [USA] over the use of said images.[5] No official broke the silence until 2007, after FASA had sold the BattleTech intellectual property to WizKids Games. Under license from them, the Classic BattleTech line developer for Fantasy Productions, Randall N. Bills explained that FASA had sued Playmates over the use of images owned by FASA, but received no compensation, even though Playmates was ordered to stop using the images in question. After realizing how the use of licensed images made them vulnerable to lawsuits and afraid that such a suit would bankrupt the company, FASA made the decision to only use images owned by them and them alone. The BattleMechs taken from the various anime sources were then considered "Unseen". When Fantasy Productions licensed the property, these "Unseen" images were expanded to include all art produced "out-of-house" – that is, whose copyrights resided with the creators, not the company. Catalyst Game Labs has continued this practice.[6] On 24 June 2009, Catalyst Game Labs announced that they had secured the rights to the "unseen"; as a result, art depicting the original 'Mechs absent from publications for over a decade, can be legally used again.[7] An update on 11 Aug. 2009 has placed the unseen restriction on several designs once again. This update affects only the designs whose images originated from Macross. Designs whose images originated from other anime such as Dougram and Crusher Joe are unaffected by this change and are still no longer considered unseen.[8] By August 2011, the remaining images that were considered to be unseen were returned to unseen status due to continuing problems with license agreements."

Stolen at first or not, looks like the unseen are anything but trouble.

[Butane9000]

I have to agree with Odanan, the unseen are simply too much trouble. Aside from that several of them no longer fit in with the overall aesthetic of the battletech franchise in it's current form. I have seen some "reseen" artwork that can actually work for MWO which I feel could possibly be added at a later time but in all honesty it'd probably be far too much legal trouble to be worth it.

[Odanan]

Butane9000, on 21 August 2012 - 10:23 AM, said:

I have to agree with Odanan, the unseen are simply too much trouble. Aside from that several of them no longer fit in with the overall aesthetic of the battletech franchise in it's current form. I have seen some "reseen" artwork that can actually work for MWO which I feel could possibly be added at a later time but in all honesty it'd probably be far too much legal trouble to be worth it.

There should be no legal issues in adding the reseen (maybe they will add them later - fingers crossed). The problem would be the hardcore/diehard fans that wouldn't be happy with anything but the unseen. "What? this is not the Marauder!" "This looks nothing like the Warhammer!" "Gimme my Macross Wasp!" ...

[Odanan]

They are not showing us the next mech (#16)... but at least we know Alex Iglesias should be working on the ortho of a new mech for the Beta... Will it be a Raven, Cicada or Cataphract? (I hope the Cataphract).

[Odanan]

Some interesting stuff from Ask The Devs 14:

Garth Erlam, on 27 August 2012 - 09:51 AM, said:

Q: How often can we expect new chassis and maps to be released, during open beta and "going live"? [TrashcanDan]
A: We plan to release a minimum of one new BattleMech design + variants per month. Our goal is to produce 2 a month post launch. Maps take much longer to develope, around 3 months. We expect to release maps on a regular cadence starting in late October. If you averaged it out, probably 6 maps + variants per year. Currently we are working on alternate versions of the 4 announced maps and two new maps, desert and something unannounced. [BRYAN]

Q: in all seriousness, have you put the creation of new mechs on hold? [Riin Suul]
A: Not at all, however we did take time out of our schedule to harden (a game dev term). We spent a few weeks revamping skins, animations, and fixed a lot of bugs ahead of our Open Beta date. In the queue are the Raven and Cicada, both nearing completion. The Cataphract is now in early stages of modeling and texturing. [BRYAN]

Q: How or why do you choose what mechs to add? [Bluetavius]
A: We look at loadouts, speed, tonnage, looks, everything. We try to hit as many different areas as possible, while also including well known Mechs. Our modus operendi is to cover as many playstyles as possible. [Garth]

Q: I doubt this can be answered, but in the reveal trailer you show a Warhammer, Jenner, and an Atlas. The Jenner and Atlas have been announced but not the Warhammer. [Saber Avalon]
A: To be clear, that video was for another planned Mech game set in 3025 - essentially MechWarrior 5. This game is MechWarrior Online, and thus has little to do with the earlier planning, other than they are both set in the BattleTech universe. [Garth]

Q: Do you plan on have Quads in the near future or is it a long time off? [Skylarr]
A: At this point - no. The reason being that we would need to make entirely new (and widely considered the most difficult) animations for them. Also, they require entirely different pathing due to being much wider and longer of 'foot'. So basically, a lot of work for less gain than a bi-pedal 'Mech. That said, I do like them, and hope that at a later date we have the time and resources to add at least a couple. [Garth]

Q: Where is BattleMech 16? [Everyone]
A: It’s done. Marketing asked us to save it for something super special. [BRYAN]

Thanks for your questions everyone, and we'll do this again soon!

Cheers,
The MechWarrior Online Team

I hate you marketing guys.