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[InnerSphereNews]

Upcoming Patch - Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019 @ 10AM – 1PM PDT

Patch Number: 1.4.193.0

Client Patch Size: 303 MB

Please note that due to compression differences the Steam patch size may be larger than the standalone client patch size.

Patch Files (Direct Download)

The following 'Mech chassis have undergone 3060's weapon retrofits:

• Timber Wolf
  
• Stormcrow
  
• Nova
  
• Dire Wolf
  
• Summoner
  
• Adder
  
• Warhawk
  

Solaris Season 4 Reset

• Leaderboards have been reset for a brand new Season.
  
• Update to 'Mech Variants assigned Solaris Divisions (Check out the 'Mech Division here)
  
• Solaris Supply Caches have been updated with new rewards.
  

Solaris Season 3 Rewards:

To qualify for the prizes, players must have played a minimum of 25 matches in the given Solaris 7 Divisions. Note that these rewards do STACK if you participated in multiple Divisions.

Per Division	Decal Reward	MC Reward	C-Bills Reward	GXP Reward	Warhorn Reward
1st	1st in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below except 2nd and 3rd place Decal)	5000 MC	25,000,000 C-Bills	250,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Gold Warhorn
2nd	2nd in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below except 3rd place Decal)	2500 MC	20,000,000 C-Bills	225,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Silver Warhorn
3rd	3rd in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)	1000 MC	12,500,000 C-Bills	200,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Bronze Warhorn
Top 10	Top 10 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)	500 MC	8,000,000 C-Bills	150,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Participant Warhorn
Top 25	Top 25 in Division (and all Decal rewards below)	250 MC	6,000,000 C-Bills	100,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Participant Warhorn
Top 100	Top 100 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)	100 MC	3,000,000 C-Bills	80,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Participant Warhorn
Top 500	Top 500 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)		1,000,000 C-Bills	65,000 GXP	Solaris 7 Season 3 Participant Warhorn
Top 1000	Top 1000 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)		500,000 C-Bills	50,000 GXP
Top 2500	Top 2500 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)		250,000 C-Bills	35,000 GXP
Top 5000	Top 5000 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below)		100,000 C-Bills	20,000 GXP
Top 10000	Veteran Division Decal		50,000 C-Bills	5,000 GXP

Overall Decal Reward

1st Overall S7 Season 3 Decal

2nd Overall S7 Season 3 Decal

3rd Overall S7 Season 3 Decal

Top 10 Overall S7 Season 3 Decal

MWO World Championship 2018 Rewards:

These prizes will be awarded to the eligible players corresponding to their placement in the MWO World Championships:

• MWOWC 2018 Gold Champions Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Gold Champions Badge
  
• MWOWC 2018 Silver Champions Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Silver Champions Badge
  
• MWOWC 2018 Bronze Champions Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Bronze Champions Badge
  
• MWOWC 2018 Top 12 Qualifier Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Top 12 Qualifier Badge
  
• MWOWC 2018 Participant Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Participant Badge
  
• MWOWC 2018 Referee Title
  
• MWOWC 2018 Referee Badge
  
• The GSP Reward listed here: https://mechwarrior.com/mechcon/tournament/prizes
  

Bolt-on retrofits have been expanded to the following 'Mech chassis:

• Hatamoto-Chi
• Charger
  

Solaris Season 4

Solaris Spectator Mode changes:

• Alterations made to Solaris spectator mode back-end in order to have more matches populate the list.
  
• Match ups will still require a certain threshold between players to populate the list.
  

Solaris Design Notes: While there will be no major change in format for Solaris Season 4, we did want to put out this design note. At Mech_Con we received a large amount of feedback revolving around the Solaris game mode from numerous attendees including some of the higher ranked Solaris competitors. While there was a lot of constructive feedback that we have been investigating internally, due to the holiday season, there was not enough time to adequately implement any changes for Season 4, even on points that we would like to target for improvements in the future. We wanted to put out this note to say that while Season 4 will maintain a similar format to season 3, we are investigating feedback that we have received at Mech_Con and on the Forums for potential improvements in future Solaris seasons.

Weapon Changes

Ballistic

Auto cannon 2 / Ultra AC 2 / LBX 2 (Clan and IS.)

• Velocity reduced to 1800 (from 2000)

Autocannon Design Notes: While long range, sustained DPS is the cornerstone of where we wish to see the AC/2 occupy in the overall weapon line up, we want to make it a bit more challenging to continually target individual components at range. Especially against more agile targets.

Missiles

Streak Missiles:

• Streak missile weighting altered to have missile location targeting distributed more across a bell curve rather then equal distribution across all locations. With the Center Torso location having the heaviest weighting, and extremities as the lightest weighting.

Streak Missile Design Notes: While released with a patch targeting a number of LRM based changes in August 2018, the tightening of the lock on assistance angle was equally intended to affect streaks as it was longer ranged weapons. The previous implementation gave too much leeway for lock on weapons to target highly mobile and maneuverable mechs, which in turn, placed a very easy to use hard counter to high mobility Light and Medium Mechs in a way we felt discouraged their use compared to slower, heavier chassis'. While this change has made their overall use against lighter faster targets more fair in that it requires a bit more attention in order to both acquire and maintain locks against faster targets, after months of observing to see how they have settled into the overall game, we felt that they could use a bit more of a boost to provide more of a payoff for needing to adapt to the added challenge of acquiring locks due to the lock on assistance changes and Artemis loophole closures.

For this, we are choosing to tune the weapon to act similarly to how it operates within the lore, with components being weighted towards more of a bell-curve distribution of how the missiles attempt to seek components. With the Center Torso weighted the most heavily, and tapering out to the Arm and Leg components which are weighted less heavily then the torso's. While this weighting will affect how the missiles attempt to seek components, it's important to note that the missiles do not automatically hit the location that they are seeking, but will travel along a path and damage the first thing they come into contact with. Torso twisting, or being mindful of your orientation to the firer will greatly affect the final distribution of how the missiles impact the target.

'Mech Quirks

Javelin

JVN-11A:

• Medium Laser HSL +1 quirk added
  
• Medium Laser Heat Gen Quirk removed
  
• Right Arm Defensive bonus removed
  

Hunchback

HBK-4P

• Medium Laser HSL +2 quirk added
  
• Energy Cooldown -5% quirk removed
  
• Energy Heat Gen -5% quirk removed
  

Javelin + Hunchback Design Notes: With these two 'Mech variants, we want to explore the impact of shifting existing quirks over to the HSL quirks in order to inject some more unique flavor into these variants that cannot be found elsewhere at the moment. We will monitor reactions and performance of these changes and may expand this into other variants depending on the impact.

Panther

PNT-10K:

• Range +10% quirk added
  

PNT-10P

• Heat -10% quirk added
  

PNT-8Z

• Energy Range consolidated into a global range quirk
  
• Large Laser -5% Heat quirk added
  

PNT-9R

• Energy Range consolidated into a global range quirk
  

PNT-KK

• Range +10% quirk added
  

Blackjack

BJ-1:

• Heat Dissipation quirk removed
  
• 10% of Ballistic and Energy Range quirk consolidated into a global quirk
  
• Ballistic heat gen quirk consolidated into a universal Heat -10% quirk
  

BJ-1DC:

• Heat Dissipation quirk removed
  
• Weapon Heat -10% quirk added
  
• 10% of Ballistic and Energy Range quirk consolidated into a global quirk
  

BJ-1X

• Energy range converted into a universal range quirk
  
• Weapon Heat -5% quirk added
  

BJ-2

• Heat Dissipation quirk removed
  
• Weapon Heat -10% quirk added
  

BJ-3

• PPC Family Heat Gen -5% quirk added
  

BJ-A

• Heat Dissipation quirk removed
  
• Energy Range Consolidated into a Universal range quirk
  
• Weapon Heat -5% quirk added
  

Blackjack Design Notes: While the recent heat sink changes gave many low engine cap Mechs a bit of an overall performance boost, we felt that the Blackjacks didn't receive as much of a boost as we would have liked to have seen compared to other similar 'Mechs. We have opted to give it a bit more of a sustainability boost by converting many of the existing heat dissipation quirks into global weapon heat reduction quirks, as well as provide a handful of other quirk changes and consolidations to have it better fit into its light weight ranged support role.

Hellspawn

HSN All Variants

• Moderate boost to all Agility Stats
  

Hellspawn Design Notes: Although the Hellspawn received a recent mobility boost, we feel that as we rolled out further mobility boosts in later months, it did not hold up to the boosts we previously provided for it, so we will be targeting further boosts to the 'Mech's mobility.

Jagermech

JM6-A:

• 10% of Ballistic Velocity rolled into a new Universal Velocity quirk.
  
• LRM Spread -5% quirk added
  

Jagermech Design Notes: For a number of months, the JM6-A has begun to lag behind the other Jagermech Variants. We are providing it with a slight boost to it's offensive capabilities to bring it into line with it's alternative variants.

Piranha

PIR-1

• Bonus leg structure removed
  
• Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)
  

PIR-2

• Bonus leg structure removed
  
• Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)
  
• Base Torso Pitch reduced to 20° (From 25°)
  
• Acceleration and Deceleration reduced
  

PIR-3

• Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)
  
• Base Torso Pitch reduced to 20° (From 25°)
  

PIR-B

• Bonus leg Structure Removed
  

PIR-CI

• Bonus leg structure removed
  
• Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)

Piranha Design Notes: While at Mech_Con, the Piranha was easily the top 'Mech that was commented on by a number of attendees. With a strong sentiment along a number of people spoken to that the current "Glass Cannon" nature of the Piranha still leans a bit too far into the reliable side, especially within the various Public Queues in the game. Monitoring the performance of the 'Mech series since the last time we touched it, we are inclined to agree with this position. We still find it's performance to be a bit too reliable and easy to do well in, even in pitched battles where a defender is actively attempting to destroy the 'Mech, and not simply trying to run away. As the Piranha's core theme is built around it's massive weapon loads for a 'Mech of it's size, we will not be doing anything to disrupt its offensive output, but supplementary bonus' present on it will be phased out of many of the high offense variants and mobility further reduced to be a bit more on the restrictive side for a 'Mech of it's size to offset the large offensive advantages it continues to maintain.

Regarding the PIR-2, while we opted to take a wait and see approach with the last round of changes to the PIR, given their performance after the micro-laser change has brought them into better alignment with alternative variants on the 'Mech, we will be providing it with attributes that mirror the PIR-1.

Arctic Cheetah

ACH- All Variants

• Slight boost to global Mobiliby
  

ACH-A

• Torso Omnipod Structure bonus' converted into Armor bonus'
  
• Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod
  
• Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod
  

ACH-B

• LT + RT Turn Rate bonus increased to 10% per Omnipod (from 3%)
  
• Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod
  
• Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod
  

Arctic Cheetah Design Notes: In addition to the mobility boost we have provided most lighter chassis, we wished to provide the ACH with additional benefits on some of its blank torso omnipods to provide more scouting skill based options on the clan side.

Executioner

EXE - All Variants

• Base Torso Yaw increased to 80 (from 70)
  
• Turn Rate and Torso Turn speed moderately increased.
  

EXE-A

• Energy Range quirk removed
  
• C-Large Pulse Laser HSL +1 Quirk added in it's place.
  

Executioner Design Notes: It was brought to our attention that a particular torso yaw setting for the EXE that was vital to its use as an assault that relies purely on its mobility to survive was not rolled into its base stats and that the chassis has suffered with its absence. Overall torso mobility on assaults is something that we intend to keep tight control on as there are ramifications when this attribute is too generously tuned results in Assaults easily tracking, and often killing, lighter targets. But in the specific case of the Executioner, because it is explicitly designed for high mobility and contains a high amount of locked equipment that further forces it into this role, we feel that both added torso yaw as well as boosted turn speed and torso turn speed play into the high mobility role this ‘Mech should occupy in the overall roster.

Review the Quirks Documentation PDF here!

• Fixed a bug where the Search by Name feature now works with both lower and upper case letters.
  
• Fixed a bug to stop the unit "message of the day" from spamming the unit chat box.
  
• The unit list is now sorted by "online status" by default
  
• The "Search by name" feature now works in the Manage Drop Deck 'Mech select screen
  
• Faction Play queue now displays correct information values consistently
  
• Drop Deck long custom names are no longer cut off in the Drop Deck selection
  
• Players can now purchase up to 32 Drop Decks instead of 4.

Also don't forget to try out the the Public Test Server which is currently running throughout the Weekend!!

[EXO-Scorpion]

first

[Alcom Isst]

GamerPro4000, on 18 January 2019 - 06:35 PM, said:

No changes to the new LRM mechanic yet?

They just did the PTS! It's gonna take a while.

InnerSphereNews, on 18 January 2019 - 06:15 PM, said:

Javelin
JVN-11A:

• Medium Laser HSL +1 quirk added
  
• Medium Laser Heat Gen Quirk removed
  
• Right Arm Defensive bonus removed

Hunchback
HBK-4P

• Medium Laser HSL +2 quirk added
  
• Energy Cooldown -5% quirk removed
  
• Energy Heat Gen -5% quirk removed

Can we stop nerfing mechs as we try to give them unique flavors? kthx

Edited by Alcom Isst, 19 January 2019 - 03:18 PM.

[GamerPro4000]

Any buffs to the Jenner or spiders in the future?

Alcom Isst, on 18 January 2019 - 06:37 PM, said:

They just did the PTS! It's gonna take a while.

It can't come soon enough.

Edited by GamerPro4000, 18 January 2019 - 06:37 PM.

[Rhialto]

Again another patch and still not fixed:

[TechChris]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Wouldn't be a patch notes post (or any official post that evenly vaguely hints at game changes really) without ol' Rhial making the same post, n filling the forum screen with the same old vid clip. It's become a forum tradition. Think I might almost miss this when he's gone.... Since that's far more likely then PGI ever caring about some shadows n fixing it! .... Plus, if they did, then what would he spam every patch notes post??? O_o

Anyhow......

Well I'll Be darned.....

A patch with nothing in it to further un-fun the game (Gosh knows we had plenty those last year), isn't "Completely" Inconsequential, didn't make me think wtf/you can't be serious/this ain't gonna end well left n right, and actually had some minor improvements (the streak update, and PIR leg structure removal)...... Guess I'll take it.

Never be able to undo the damage all last years patches did, but I'll take what I can get, and this is least far from the worst the first patch of the year could a been.

Edited by TechChris, 18 January 2019 - 06:59 PM.

[Antares102]

Are we gonna get Streak-a-geddon now? (again)
Back in the day when we had it for the first time at least there was only a SSRM2.

Well... let's see. But I fear folks.. I fear more "skill" based weaponry being buffed just like LRM the last year.

Edited by Antares102, 18 January 2019 - 07:04 PM.

[thievingmagpi]

oh yeah ac2s, such a threat

[Redacted]

yeah let's just keep encouraging these [Redacted] and your game will finally have zero players. good job.

Edited by draiocht, 23 January 2019 - 09:06 PM.
unconstructive

[The6thMessenger]

I guess the guys that wanted Piranha nerfed got what they wanted. As far as I'm concerned, it's the Cipher and the Pir-1 that was the main offenders through, I don't see why other piranhas need to be nerfed too.

[thievingmagpi]

remember that time i got killed by ac2s

wait no, i don't.

[Xaius]

The hunchback quirk applies to all medium lasers right? Not just standard Is mediums?

[Big Tin Man]

So that part at mechcon where you guys said there were changes and fixes coming to faction play, some of it planned for January... was that forgotten along with Paul's notes?

[C337Skymaster]

thievingmagpi, on 18 January 2019 - 07:14 PM, said:

remember that time i got killed by ac2s

wait no, i don't.

I do. Particularly 4x AC/2 Jagermechs, and 8x UAC/2 or LBX2 Dire Wolves. I've died to them, many times, and I've perpetrated the Jagermech many-a-time as well. I've tried the DWF, too, but can't make it work quite as well. (Tends to run much hotter than I expect, even without any Ghost Heat).

As for the notes, themselves:

InnerSphereNews, on 18 January 2019 - 06:15 PM, said:

Arctic Cheetah
ACH- All Variants

• Slight boost to global Mobiliby

ACH-A

• Torso Omnipod Structure bonus' converted into Armor bonus'
  
• Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod
  
• Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod

ACH-B

• LT + RT Turn Rate bonus increased to 10% per Omnipod (from 3%)
  
• Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod
  
• Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod

Arctic Cheetah Design Notes: In addition to the mobility boost we have provided most lighter chassis, we wished to provide the ACH with additional benefits on some of its blank torso omnipods to provide more scouting skill based options on the clan side.








Executioner
EXE - All Variants

• Base Torso Yaw increased to 80 (from 70)
  
• Turn Rate and Torso Turn speed moderately increased.

EXE-A

• Energy Range quirk removed
  
• C-Large Pulse Laser HSL +1 Quirk added in it's place.

Executioner Design Notes: It was brought to our attention that a particular torso yaw setting for the EXE that was vital to its use as an assault that relies purely on its mobility to survive was not rolled into its base stats and that the chassis has suffered with its absence. Overall torso mobility on assaults is something that we intend to keep tight control on as there are ramifications when this attribute is too generously tuned results in Assaults easily tracking, and often killing, lighter targets. But in the specific case of the Executioner, because it is explicitly designed for high mobility and contains a high amount of locked equipment that further forces it into this role, we feel that both added torso yaw as well as boosted turn speed and torso turn speed play into the high mobility role this ‘Mech should occupy in the overall roster.

Yes!!! The Executioner is SO in need of some Mobility love. That thing stands head and shoulders above everything else in the game except MAYBE the Annihilator, and just as slow without any of the extra armor. Its whole schtik is mobility, and ever since Engine Desync, it doesn't have any, so I'm lovin' the Executioner love. I also applaud the -A variant Ghost Heat fix. I love these stock-build based relaxations in the ghost heat, allowing the default build to actually be used on 'mechs that exceed the limit (within reason). I can think of several more builds which need some love, but a little at a time is well worth the wait.

Now, if only we can get some of the missing variants (which literally just need hardpoints added to components that don't have them, and then need to be saved as a new config in the store). Especially some of the ones that we CAN build. There's absolutely no reason to not just save up a build config and load it into the store for the sake of completeness. Nothing will be added or lost by filling in the ranks.

And any improvement to using scout 'mechs for actual SCOUTING is a plus in my book.

Edited by C337Skymaster, 18 January 2019 - 08:10 PM.

[GamerPro4000]

The6thMessenger, on 18 January 2019 - 07:11 PM, said:

I guess the guys that wanted Piranha nerfed got what they wanted. As far as I'm concerned, it's the Cipher and the Pir-1 that was the main offenders through, I don't see why other piranhas need to be nerfed too.

How often do you see a Cipher being piloted beside me? I rarely see Ciphers piloted and doing well.

[cougurt]

The6thMessenger, on 18 January 2019 - 07:11 PM, said:

I guess the guys that wanted Piranha nerfed got what they wanted. As far as I'm concerned, it's the Cipher and the Pir-1 that was the main offenders through, I don't see why other piranhas need to be nerfed too.

the piranha 2 and 3 are quite strong now after the micro laser buffs, arguably better than the ballistic variants.

[thievingmagpi]

C337Skymaster, on 18 January 2019 - 07:59 PM, said:

I do. Particularly 4x AC/2 Jagermechs, and 8x UAC/2 or LBX2 Dire Wolves. I've died to them, many times, and I've perpetrated the Jagermech many-a-time as well. I've tried the DWF, too, but can't make it work quite as well. (Tends to run much hotter than I expect, even without any Ghost Heat).

so nerf anyone who is better than you?

[GamerPro4000]

Rhialto, on 18 January 2019 - 06:41 PM, said:

Again another patch and still not fixed:

LoL can anyone else verify this or is Rhialto the only one getting this bug? I am only asking since i play on a wooden computer and have all shadows disabled.

[dario03]

So a buff to streaks and multiple nerfs to Piranhas... Can't say I agree with that.

Streaks need to be buffed vs bigger mechs and nerfed vs smaller mechs, not buffed vs bigger and basically the same vs smaller. I still say if possible make it so the spread is more torso centric vs bigger mechs and more spread vs smaller, and then cut the damage down by a lot. The lrm pts with different flight paths based on LOS or not makes me think maybe that is possible.
Or if that can't be done just reduce the damage but let them fire quicker. The whole auto aim 60+ alpha is a bit much.

And nerfing the Piranha again while not touching any of the really good assaults just further pushes the game to bigger is better. The game is more interesting when the weight classes are closer in performance. And the Piranha was as mentioned a glass canon, it was possible to get blasted easily before doing anything. We even have the before mentioned streaks with their auto aim being practically a hard counter to brawling lights, as well as any other weapon working fine when aimed. Sure you can get some pretty good damage in it but you can easily do that in the bigger mechs too. Most of the complaints was just because some players think small mechs should be bad. You can do 800dmg in a light and have people call it op in all chat or make a post on the forums, but averaging that in a bigger mech is some how perfectly ok.

Personally I would much prefer a rebalance of streaks, leave the Piranha alone, more buffs to other lights to get more variety.

Edited by dario03, 19 January 2019 - 07:07 AM.

[GamerPro4000]

dario03, on 18 January 2019 - 08:30 PM, said:

Personally I would much prefer a rebalance of streaks, leave the Piranha alone, more buffs to other lights to get more variety.

[Jonathan8883]

Streak buff is nice against assaults.
Pointless against lights since it only works against potato lights. Lock cone too small still.