18 replies to this topic

[Alardus]

Going to get back into it and wondering what much has changed.

[Vxheous]

Let's see...

New Tech: New weapons, new engines (LFE for IS).

Skill tree: No longer need 3 chassis to master a mech, instead you have a 243 node skill maze that you can only activate 91 nodes as "mastery".

Engine desync: Mechs have a base mobility (turn rate, twist rate, accel/decel) that's no longer affected by your engine size.

LRM changes: Takes a lot longer to get indirect locks (and distance from target affects lock time). Direct locks will arc your LRMs in a flatter trajectory, so you can actually launch LRMs under the crimson strait platform and hit targets under there.

Heatscale changes: Overall heatbar is smaller, but heat dissipation is a lot higher.

That's about it.

Edited by Vxheous, 11 January 2020 - 01:27 AM.

[Jackal Noble]

Re : old maps ....... ......

[B1ack Dragon]

A lot of NASCAR races.

[martian]

Alardus, on 11 January 2020 - 12:59 AM, said:

Going to get back into it and wondering what much has changed.

You will love new maps:

[LordNothing]

faction play has a matchmaker now, not that it works or anything. there's also solaris, which is a dead zone. pgi stopped doing mechpacks.

Edited by LordNothing, 11 January 2020 - 12:57 PM.

[VonBruinwald]

Alardus, on 11 January 2020 - 12:59 AM, said:

What Have I Missed Since 2017?

Salt.

[Novakaine]

[METAL SEPARATOR]

I too, took a break since 2017 (circa) and only a month ago rejoined the gameplay. I noticed a range of new maps and new weapon such as MRMs for example, the rotary guns, and the new king crab, and most importantly all these things was what I really missed when I actively played the game back in the time. The new IS weaponry really changes the gameplay for the better and for more fun and should have been there since the beginning honestly. Now you may build some killer and at the same time fun assaults. But like they say - too little, too late. A few people care any more.

[Husker Dude]

I, too, am coming back from about a year or more of playing other games, and I just saw the GrimMechs tier list (Metamechs hasn't been updated in years now).
Are LPL really that far gone outside of the current meta? All of the laser vomit builds referenced are ER large/medium, it seems.

[Vxheous]

Husker Dude, on 14 January 2020 - 12:50 PM, said:

I, too, am coming back from about a year or more of playing other games, and I just saw the GrimMechs tier list (Metamechs hasn't been updated in years now).
Are LPL really that far gone outside of the current meta? All of the laser vomit builds referenced are ER large/medium, it seems.

Yeah, the drop in damage of LPL's (especially IS) doesn't make the tonnage investment worth it over Large Lasers/ERLL. That and the fact that ERML exists for IS now, and syncs very well with Large laser ranges but is hotter makes wanting that tonnage use for more heatsinks (or LFE so you don't get XL checked).

Edited by Vxheous, 14 January 2020 - 11:45 PM.

[Belorion]

I am coming back from a longer break... hopefully the cessation of mech packs was due to MW5 crunch time and not an ending period.

Bring on the Ostmann pack

[Bud Crue]

Belorion, on 15 January 2020 - 06:59 AM, said:

I am coming back from a longer break... hopefully the cessation of mech packs was due to MW5 crunch time and not an ending period.

Russ made it sound more like the cessation was because mech packs were no longer making them sufficient $ to justify making more.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

Bud Crue, on 15 January 2020 - 07:34 AM, said:

Russ made it sound more like the cessation was because mech packs were no longer making them sufficient $ to justify making more.

That was the stated reason, sort of....it was more stated that the break-even was getting too long. Which means they still made money on mechpacks (it’s digital afterall, so your cost is mostly labor) it was just not nearly immediately profitable the way it had been earlier in the game. Being that mechpacks had to be the only major source of revenue in MWO, it still doesn’t make sense to end your only real source of revenue, unless it was cover for either a near-term shut down of MWO or of something else.

And they did immediately do something else....which we weren’t told of at the time of the mechpack announcement. They moved the MWO art department over to work on MW5, because they were behind on things there. Something they had said early wouldn’t happen....each game were supposed to have separate development teams, as that concern had been brought up by players when MW5 was announced.

I am not salty about it...I get that PGI had to get MW5 out the door on time and probably had to find cover as they were going to have to backtrack on what they had said about development of MWO in light of being behind on MW5. So, who knows once MW5 gets in an ok place we might see some art resources come back, I am not expecting it, but demand for a new mech has probably built up and the players that are left would probably be a bit more willing to pony up a few $, as we haven’t had new mechs for a while.

Edited by Marquis De Lafayette, 15 January 2020 - 09:38 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Marquis De Lafayette, on 15 January 2020 - 09:35 AM, said:

That was the stated reason, sort of...

I agree with you. At the time of the “maintenance mode” announcement, I felt the “the last several mech packs have not been profitable” line was a bit...lacking in context, but frankly I don’t care either way. All we can do is wait and see what PGI decides to do with MWO, be it in terms of further development, mech packs, etc. I’m not particularly hopeful, that Russ has much planned for this game’s future beyond what we have now, but if they decided to start doing something more with it, I certainly wouldn’t object. Hell, give us a new map, and I’ll buy a few old mech packs as a thank you.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

Bud Crue, on 15 January 2020 - 10:05 AM, said:

I agree with you. At the time of the “maintenance mode” announcement, I felt the “the last several mech packs have not been profitable” line was a bit...lacking in context, but frankly I don’t care either way. All we can do is wait and see what PGI decides to do with MWO, be it in terms of further development, mech packs, etc. I’m not particularly hopeful, that Russ has much planned for this game’s future beyond what we have now, but if they decided to start doing something more with it, I certainly wouldn’t object. Hell, give us a new map, and I’ll buy a few old mech packs as a thank you.

I think Russ left it open-ended in that they probably wanted to see what happened with MW5 in terms of sales and the prospect of future dlc’s (in terms of revenue). If MW5 doesn’t end up being a hit, which I think gets more likely by the day (it’s interesting to see how MW5’s co-op rooms on discord are less populated with each passing day. They have 30 rooms with 4 slots available....so 120 total slots of which 3 are being used at this moment....considering the game has been out 2 months that is pretty bleak) a few more resources will either slide back to MWO or PGI will just get out of the mechwarrior business in total.....and let someone else develop whatever comes next. For the record, I did like MW5 and don’t regret purchasing. It just needs a lot of work and isn’t replayable....one playthrough titles are just doomed to to fail imho.

Edited by Marquis De Lafayette, 15 January 2020 - 12:23 PM.

[Belorion]

They were also churning them out at a fair clip. They might still sell well if spaced out appropriately.

As pointed out earlier they only have to develop them once, then they sell forever. I just picked up some over Christmas.

Why hasn't the Crusader come out? I am sure plenty of people would get the Wasp and Stinger if for no other reason than lore.

[Sniper09121986]

METAL SEPARATOR, on 11 January 2020 - 04:35 PM, said:

The new IS weaponry really changes the gameplay for the better and for more fun and should have been there since the beginning honestly.

This, so much this. They should have been balancing apples against apples instead of trying to stretch a rubber over a basketball and working themselves in nearly impossible position. So much salt could have been avoided...

Belorion, on 15 January 2020 - 06:59 AM, said:

Bring on the Ostmann pack

Obligatory Ostscout/Urbie pairing

Spoiler

Marquis De Lafayette, on 15 January 2020 - 12:23 PM, said:

a few more resources will either slide back to MWO or PGI will just get out of the mechwarrior business in total.....and let someone else develop whatever comes next.

And this is the time to remember the ugly rumour of Microsoft's MW license to PGI expiring in some near future. It would then explain why they needed MW5 at all, to keep the revenue from one-time purchases. MWO relies on continuous stream of income to stay profitable, so when the license expires... yeah, right. Russ was prodded about this a year ago and not let out a single word.

[Jobe01]

What have you missed? About a 20% attrition in user base.