2
Reading through it, reading through it, and here's how it went (WARNING: Ramble Incoming)
Balance adjustments in January? A'ight, coo'. The AMS thing sounds like a fix, not balance, and quirk adjustments are sort of meaningless in the face of Skillmageddon dropping in a couple of months, but a'ight. Let's see how it goes. cXL heat penalty spike, a'ight. I never really noticed the heat penalty much anyways, was always the speed drop that made me sad. As a Clan player, can confirm am okay with cXL penalty.
Art fixes, a'ight. Duct tape cockpit item. hueh hueh hueh. Perfect accessory for one's UrbanMechs. Standalone launcher, a'ight. Ambient music, a'ight. Sphere light in January? DAMNIT. Fine, whatever. Not like Clans don't have a 20-tonner to use or anything. Blegh. For the most part, though? Nothing to see here, moving on.
February's all about Skilltrees 1.0, no big shocker there. PTS in early Feb, deployment in Feb patch. Shyeah, I'll believe that when I see it. Still, it's always nice to have goals, even unrealistic ones. And who knows, maybe they will push it out in Feburary and just live-balance it, a'la Quirks. So long as the system works, the numbers are changeable enough. I hope. Some Faction Play crap I couldn't care less about, and Stupornovas coming in Feb. More concerned with new Huntsman pods in Feb, but a'ight.
No February 'Mech, though. January's the last 3/5/Hero pack we'll be getting, and there won't be anything at all in February? Looks like I was right and they're changing up the formula. Will be interesting to see where that goes, but otherwise February looks like Skillmageddon. A'ight.
IN THE FUTU(UUUU)RE: They're implementing NuAssault as a new game mode, eh? Okay, that works too I guess. OldAssault is functional if basically just Skirmish with a release valve for Spidernanigans late-game, but that release valve is very important to me so hey. they didn't actually say anything about Incursion, but that's all right. We've got a basic idea as it is.
More Faction Play stuff, don't care, moving yaawwwn.
Inverse Kinematics - once again on the list, waiting on once again delayed. One day...one day, feet will actually have to touch the ground. Heh, ah well. I'm not one of those who figures IK is a life-or-death dealbreaker anyways.
Stupornova in February, Hasheeshin in March, Alex Custom in April, Mystery Sphere Light in presumably May, then a break for a while. Sphere Heroes-but-not-chassis for preorder in March, Clan Heroes-but-not-chassis for preorder in April. Okaaaay...that's a little weird, but sure, why not.
Mostly by this point I've been following along and just kinda nodding. Everything is as we knew it would be, no big surprises, couple of eyebrows-up moments but nothing earth-shattering.
"Special Announcement", eh? What, is Paul buying out the company from Russ? They've figured out how to clone Tina? They're making another stab at Transverse as the 'Logistics' side of MW5?
"For some time now, the selection of weapons and equipment technology in MechWarrior Online has been an ongoing discussion, both internally here at Piranha Games and in discussions throughout the community."
...oh my God. That sounds like...
"The time has come for a new era of ‘Mech warfare."
OH MY F***ING GOD IT IS. THEY'RE PULLING THE TRIGGER ON FUTURETECH
HALLELUJAH THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME!
I'm sitting in my chair here literally, actually, crying happy tears. There is a sh!tass grin on my face that goes from wall to wall, not ear to ear. I'd just gotten done discussing FutureTech with Maker since he was curious what some of the '3060' threads he'd seen go up were about - not that he bothered to tell me about this, he just wanted to know what it was - and was all sad again because we weren't never gonna get it - and now we gunna get it.
No more will MWO be paralyzed in the worst possible era of inter-tech balance!
No morewill we have to try and brutally warp Sphere T1 GarboTech to try and match T2 stuff point for point - the Olde Schitte can be retuned to have its OWN job now because all y'all will have your stuff!
No more will we be terrified of seeing any potential FutureMechs in the store because we all know they'll end up a horrifying Frankenstein hackjob of PiranhaTech without anything that made them what they are, like the poor Marauder IIC!
I can't even properly describe how excited I am for this, for seeing the game FINALLY advance beyond the early Invasion years. No more Battles of Tukayyid being practically a seasonal event. Do you realize we're in striking range of Operation Bulldog/Task Force Serpent now? HNNNNNGH YEAH JUST LIKE THAT DADDY
Now, I've seen all the thread (titles) on the board listing where people are panicking and yelling and screaming about how FutureTech is going to Ruin Everything Forever™ and how this is the worst decision Piranha's ever made and yadda yadda yadda.
Don't care, too hype. Y'all can be as Negative a Nancy as you like, but some of us remember just how much sheer fun the game was immediately after the Clan release, when all was young and new again. Did balance suck? In hindsight, yes. It didn't suck as bad as a lot of folks thought, but it sucked. It's gotten better, though - and it will get better yet now that we're getting more pieces of the puzzle.
Thank you, Piranha. I feel less bad about caving on that Purifier a week ago now, and you can bet I'll be tracking information on this New Era with stalker-like devotion.
No matter what all the rest'a these yakkalopes have to say about it.
