15 replies to this topic

[Vellron2005]

So, as the MW5:Mercs preorder is slowly reaching it's apex, I have a few questions for the devs, and anyone in the know..

Please correct me if it's in the wrong forum section, or some of the questions were already answered in FAQ or somewhere else..

1) When can we expect System Requirements to be announced? Any guesswork on weather the game will be a monster or will be playable on a 5yo potato?

2) Will the game have Character Progression (not only mech progression)

3) Will the game ever feature large mech battles akin in size to Faction Play, with more than 24 mechs on the battlefield at the same time? (not all controlled by players obviously)

4) Will there be payout penalties for causing massive property damage? (buildings ain't cheap, you feeling me?)

5) Will it be possible to have multiple player accounts on a single digital copy of the game? Like if I wanna play, and my significant other also want to play, do I have to buy the game twice, or can she play on my computer or with an install of my digital copy on her computer?

6) In reference to question 5, how will coop work?

7) How important will story elements be?

8) Will the player ever control tanks, air assets and elementals in any way?

9) Will it be important where in the IS you start the game? Which house with you sign first?

10) Will the game have multiple endings?

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

1)We know MW5 will have an option for Unreal's "Ray Tracing" Tech, which means it'll be "best played" on a system running an RTX 2070 or 2080 or RTX Titan to run the best version of the game... beyond that, I'd say if you can play most 2018 games at decent settings with your existing rig, MW5 will likely hold up just fine, but we'll likely have hard data on the specs "soon.tm"

2)Oddly there does not [at this time] seem to be character progression. There's managing your merc unit, and ensuring that your AI pilots get better [they have skills they learn as they use their mechs/equipment in the background Also if you co-op with a friend, what your friend does, translates to one of your AI lancemates learning those skills.]

3) From what we've seen in demo's it seems akain to HBS Battletech: Go fight a location, and maybe a secondary or tertiary lats shows up to fight against you... it is unclear how many will fight on your side, but we know you get minimum, a lance of mechs.

4)Unknown... good for an AMA topic.

5)Unknown [I'd say this is a safe bet, or you could have backup's of save files you could swap around, but I'm no dev, no one's really asked about this in AMA's.]

6)Co-op is drop in, drop out... you can have up to 3 other players, each player takes control of one of your existing AI lancemates. As your friend fights, that AI learns as well. However progress is TIED to the host player's account... so if your SO plays with you, and you're hosting, all progress will ONLY be yours.

7)Important enough you'll want to do them, but also you have free reign of going around the IS and taking whatever contracts you want.

8)no. [game is also pre-clans... no elementals.] [Edit: There are modders already working and planning for this functionality. And to add in clans.]

9)There were recently discussions that starting location can effect starting mechs... but that's all I've really heard.

10) Yes? It's been kinda vague, but they seem to be working towards something, they've been very keen on making it clear, you're just a low-tier merc, what you do will NOT sway the greater Battletech/Mechwarrior storyline, nor impact controlled sectors in any major ways.Your Merc Unit is no Kell Hounds, or Grey Death legion, or Wolf's Dragoons... not to say you won't work with those units...

Edited by CMDR Sunset Shimmer, 05 April 2019 - 06:13 AM.

[Wolfos31]

Sunset Shimmer answered this very well.

As an AMA junkie all I will add is that:

2. Your lancemates will have simple skills that progress as they pilot mechs, but the player character will not. It is simply an avatar for you the player to use. They aren't even going to have character customization. They may have gender choice, but not sure, would hope they'd at least have that.

3. They have shown in gameplay demos up to 16 enemy combatants on the field in addition to your lance at one time. So 20 total assets. That said the enemy combatants in this example were mostly vehicles with a few mechs thrown in. The largest battles in MW4 that I recall featured a company vs company battle of 24 mechs. (Hold the line, and Assault the Overlord)

6. Coop is quite simple and works as some other Steam based coop games work. You start your game, then invite a friend through the steam interface, and they drop into your game. They have said that coop is locked until you get to a certain point in the story line. (Have to make sure you have at least 2 mechs too, one for your friend to pilot)

8. They've been pretty clear to say that you won't control anything besides your own lance of mechs. Though some missions will include allied assets on the field. Whether they'll be mechs or tanks I don't know. There has been some rumors that they may incorporate air strikes, but nothing confirmed from PGI that I know of.

9. Starting location does affect starting mech. There are 5 starting mechs available, and that mech is tied to which part of the Inner Sphere you start with. You will have reputation with the different houses, but I'm not sure how deep that reputation system goes.

[Vellron2005]

I have to say, that if there is no character progression, and by this I mean like RPG elements, then it's a huge wasted opportunity to make something epic..

Just going from mission to mission, without having moral choices, romances, and all the things that make RPGs great would add a great new dimension to the game.

Also, when I'm talking/asking about large battles, I'm thinking in terms of "hey, can House Davion contract your mercenary compary of 4 mechs to join in as support troops against House Steiner, in this massive battle consisting of 100 vehicles and 50 mechs total?"

You would still get to pilot your 4 mech lance, but there would be friendly A.I and unfriendly A.I on the field.. lots of both..

[ObeyTheLion]

Solaris 7 is a must have in this game

It was a lot of fun in MW4 and it will be in MW5 too if it's implemented

Besides. Who doesn't want to hear good old Duncan Fisher again?

o7

[Grus]

Will mw4 still have a restrictive Mech bay for configuration of the mech? ( like mw4) or more free like mw2-3

[Snakesh1t]

Grus, on 08 April 2019 - 09:51 AM, said:

Will mw4 still have a restrictive Mech bay for configuration of the mech? ( like mw4) or more free like mw2-3

Base game only allows you to upgrade stock mechs with better weapons (Like HBS Battletech) but this should be easily moddable.

As for Question 4 from the OP: there was something about not letting the Farm get destroyed in the MechCon Demo, so I'm sure more are there.

No Solaris 7 at launch.

Edited by Snakesh1t, 08 April 2019 - 10:01 AM.

[MechaBattler]

When you think about it. You are the character. Your skills are your own ability to move and shoot. So it doesn't really make sense to give yourself increased gunnery.

I feel like a better opportunity would be upgrading your ship, upgrading the equipment aboard, improving the skills of your techs, giving them specializations with different weapons and tech. It'd be very interesting in the late if you could make changes your mechs that other units can't. But whatever. They probably won't do that with their limited customization.

[VitriolicViolet]

from what ive read the 'mechlab' will be the most limited for any MW game so far, at least in Battletech you can swap an AC20 for a gauss rifle, or MLs for PPCs

like if you have a mech with MLs and an AC10 as its loadout than all you can do i switch to different/better MLs and AC10s

I dont think you can swap the AC10 for a AC5 and then switch the MLs to MPLS for example. just raw upgrades.

i think you can tweak armor?

in any case the ultra-limited mechlab has really put me off this game, i was hoping for MWO levels of freedom, it is a single player game meaning if someone didnt want MWO levels of customisation they could simply not use it. mkaes no sesne to limit it so much for single player.

Edited by VitriolicViolet, 08 April 2019 - 02:14 PM.

[Maddermax]

VitriolicViolet, on 08 April 2019 - 02:13 PM, said:

from what ive read the 'mechlab' will be the most limited for any MW game so far, at least in Battletech you can swap an AC20 for a gauss rifle, or MLs for PPCs

like if you have a mech with MLs and an AC10 as its loadout than all you can do i switch to different/better MLs and AC10s

I dont think you can swap the AC10 for a AC5 and then switch the MLs to MPLS for example. just raw upgrades.

i think you can tweak armor?

in any case the ultra-limited mechlab has really put me off this game, i was hoping for MWO levels of freedom, it is a single player game meaning if someone didnt want MWO levels of customisation they could simply not use it. mkaes no sesne to limit it so much for single player.

There’ll be mods pretty quickly out for full customisation I’m sure, but MWO levels of customisation doesn’t really fit with the BT universe. I mean, you can change double/single heat sinks and change the chassis material to endosteel on any mech you like, where those modifications would basically need you to make a new mech from near scratch.

As for what you can replace, I know that there is limited customisation for thematic reasons (so different variants have a point), but do you have a cite for not being able to replace a ballistic with a smaller ballistic weapon? I mean, if I recall they said you couldn’t replace an AC5 with an AC20 (which makes sense from a realistic perspective), but did they say it’s only for exactly the same weapon, and if so in which AMA?

Edited by Maddermax, 08 April 2019 - 03:59 PM.

[VonBruinwald]

Maddermax, on 08 April 2019 - 03:58 PM, said:

There’ll be mods pretty quickly out for full customisation I’m sure, but MWO levels of customisation doesn’t really fit with the BT universe. I mean, you can change double/single heat sinks and change the chassis material to endosteel on any mech you like, where those modifications would basically need you to make a new mech from near scratch.

For Endo, yes, you're pretty much building a new 'mech, since it's an entirely new skeleton.

But Ferro and Dubs can both be done as aftermarket kits such as in the case of the CPLT-C1 -> CPLT-C1b

[Maddermax]

VonBruinwald, on 08 April 2019 - 04:21 PM, said:

For Endo, yes, you're pretty much building a new 'mech, since it's an entirely new skeleton.

But Ferro and Dubs can both be done as aftermarket kits such as in the case of the CPLT-C1 -> CPLT-C1b

After a quick look through Sarna, those were experimental “Double Strength Heat sinks”, not normal double heat sinks, which used a different cooling method and could directly replace single heat sinks, or even be mixed with them in the same build (they were the same size, unlike normal DHS).

Now, I’m not much of a lore head, but I seem to recall that the heat sinks were set as Single/double and changing them required extensively different coolant mechanisms in the mech and engines, so replacing the, would probably only be possible at a factory level, and likely be very expensive, maybe as a new mech in many cases. I may be wrong, of course, but there are definitely a fair few changes you can make in MWO that would not make in-universe economic sense was what I was driving at

Edited by Maddermax, 08 April 2019 - 08:49 PM.

[Vellron2005]

Wait, so there's not gonna be normal customization of mech loadout?

That would be TERRIBLE! That could be game-killing!

Not being able to switch mech builds.. that would be poorer in choice than any other mech game!

I mean, if you go by MW3 and MW4 - you could change entire loadout and cammo - I'm expecting MW5 to at least match this, plus decals and stuff..

Not having customization, which is like half the joy of playing the game, could make-or-break this game..

BTW, with an active black market, and being a bloody mercenary - there is no "lore" reason why not being able to customize would be a thing..

Edited by Vellron2005, 09 April 2019 - 04:24 AM.

[VonBruinwald]

Vellron2005, on 09 April 2019 - 04:23 AM, said:

Wait, so there's not gonna be normal customization of mech loadout?

That would be TERRIBLE! That could be game-killing!

They want variants to actually mean something. I can see why and it does make sense but there will need to be some flexibility. An idea for how the system can work:

AC's can only be switched one rating higher or lower. e.g.
An AC2 can only go up to an AC5,
An AC10 can switch to an AC5 or 20,

AC's can switch variants provide they stay within the same range of rating.
LBX<->AC

Missiles (SRM and LRM) can only go down in tube count:
An LRM 15 can become 3 LRM5's or an LRM10+5, but not increase to two LRM10's or an LRM20.
Type cannot be switched.

Small/Medium Lasers can be switched freely but Large Lasers can only go down in rating. Type does not matter.
e.g. a Large laser can become a Small Pulse but a Small Pulse can only go up to medium size.

PPC's can be switched in type.

All weapons can be removed.

This is all based on individual variants so if one variant has two AC10's and an LRM5, and another has two AC5s, only the first can go twin-20's.

[Knight Captain Morgan]

Vellron2005, on 05 April 2019 - 03:09 AM, said:

1) When can we expect System Requirements to be announced? Any guesswork on weather the game will be a monster or will be playable on a 5yo potato?

In tonight's AMA, I asked this as ' Will a computer that can run MWO run MW5? '

The answer was 'probably with a possible exception of graphics card'
Further explanation revealed that on their in office test machines, older graphics cards that could barely handle MWO at highest settings could barely handle MW5 at lowest settings.

So basically, if you are running MWO on highest settings you "should" be ok, if not you'll "probably" need to upgrade to a beefier graphics card.

[Vellron2005]

VonBruinwald, on 09 April 2019 - 06:12 AM, said:

They want variants to actually mean something. I can see why and it does make sense but there will need to be some flexibility. An idea for how the system can work:

AC's can only be switched one rating higher or lower. e.g.
An AC2 can only go up to an AC5,
An AC10 can switch to an AC5 or 20,

AC's can switch variants provide they stay within the same range of rating.
LBX<->AC

Missiles (SRM and LRM) can only go down in tube count:
An LRM 15 can become 3 LRM5's or an LRM10+5, but not increase to two LRM10's or an LRM20.
Type cannot be switched.

Small/Medium Lasers can be switched freely but Large Lasers can only go down in rating. Type does not matter.
e.g. a Large laser can become a Small Pulse but a Small Pulse can only go up to medium size.

PPC's can be switched in type.

All weapons can be removed.

This is all based on individual variants so if one variant has two AC10's and an LRM5, and another has two AC5s, only the first can go twin-20's.

I would not mind if variants had a certain number of weapon slots and those slots were sized..

Like, say you have a medium mech that has 2 missile slots. Those slots are big enough for LRM15, but you can put two LRM10 or LRM5 in there, but not an LRM20..

That would be ok.

But it's important that you can leave those slots empty if you want, and use the mech's laser slots for example.

Also, it's important that you can visually customize your mechs, so you can display your logo and colors..

Andres Gomez, on 10 April 2019 - 06:13 PM, said:

In tonight's AMA, I asked this as ' Will a computer that can run MWO run MW5? '

The answer was 'probably with a possible exception of graphics card'
Further explanation revealed that on their in office test machines, older graphics cards that could barely handle MWO at highest settings could barely handle MW5 at lowest settings.

So basically, if you are running MWO on highest settings you "should" be ok, if not you'll "probably" need to upgrade to a beefier graphics card.

Something's telling me this game will once again force me to upgrade..

I doubled my RAM for MW3 back in the day, bought a whole new gaming laptop for my S.O. for MWO, and now.. could need to upgrade for MW5..

Yaaaay...

MechWarrior is a costly hobby..

Edited by Vellron2005, 10 April 2019 - 11:21 PM.