83 replies to this topic

[Lepestok]

I would really like to know if there is any information about the new DLC on MW5: Mercenaries?

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

AC20s are fun, I like AC20s.

Enough to buy? ... mmmmmmmmmmm I need another K9 and 2 Street Cleaners first. But AC20 go boom.

[Mech pilot1]

server connection lost while loading mechlab , when game starts..
cant connect to the servers already 3-4 days... russia..
plz do something mwo i cant play from russia .. says servers connection lost after loading tablo and withdraws to login password window
cant you or i change routes somehoiw so i can connect there is russia blocking cloudflare maybe thats the reason it sees like the game client doesnt see servers
was hoping that it will pass with time but nope... HELP!

[LordNothing]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 19 April 2025 - 08:49 AM, said:

AC20s are fun, I like AC20s.

Enough to buy? ... mmmmmmmmmmm I need another K9 and 2 Street Cleaners first. But AC20 go boom.

street cleaner is the fast urbie. better to go boom with another urbie.

[w0qj]

Excited about Legendary Shadow Cat "Noble" with IS AC20 locked into this mech!

The Legendary Shadow Cat "Noble" with IS AC20 locked into this mech, it's similar situation to the Legendary Executioner "Sovereign" EXE-B-C(LGD).

The EXE-B-C(LGD) Sovereign had these two "equipment features" locked into this Legendary mech:

a) 1xJJ in each foot (all other EXE variants come with 2xJJ in each foot). With +JJ bonus in its CT. Therefore 1x free slot per foot.
If you swap the EXE-B-C leg omnipod onto any other EXE variant, this you still get the regular 2xJJ on each foot!
(I wish that this 1xJJ on each foot Omnipod would be transferable to other EXE variants, but I digress).

b ) No MASC on EXE-B-C (all other EXE variants come with MASC locked.
If you swap any other EXE variant's Left Torso into EXE-B-C, you would still get no MASC on the EXE-B-C!

Now you get a foretaste of the Legendary Shadow Cat "Noble" with IS AC20 locked into this mech; it's similar situation to the Legendary Executioner "Sovereign" EXE-B-C(LGD).

Void Angel, on 19 April 2025 - 07:41 AM, said:

Uh, "join this Discord" isn't much of a "hoop." There's no obligation for PGI to duplicate Cauldron releases here, since they're not officially announced. When it's still in the Cauldron phase, the information is on the Cauldron Discord - it's not onerous to download the fracking app, and I'm increasingly annoyed when people act like it is, man.

As for the hard-locked AC/20, it's not just locked to the pod, it's locked to the chassis - it's also an IS AC/20, the first mixed-tech experiment in MWO. If you add the pod to another Shadow Cat, it'll just be an empty torso (with no quirks, presently.) I'd guess that the reason for that is to keep the Legendary unique, as well as making it easier to analyze and balance the mixing of tech bases.

[D V Devnull]

Void Angel, on 19 April 2025 - 07:41 AM, said:

Uh, "join this Discord" isn't much of a "hoop." There's no obligation for PGI to duplicate Cauldron releases here, since they're not officially announced. When it's still in the Cauldron phase, the information is on the Cauldron Discord - it's not onerous to download the fracking app, and I'm increasingly annoyed when people act like it is, man.

I guess this is where I deliver the proverbial Forum-based Face Punch to you, even as embarrassing that it makes things for me. Not everyone has enough computer for running Discord in order to meet someone else's idea of what software is required regarding MWO-related daily operations. This is turn means that Discord can very much be an unmanageable & unreachable hoop to jump through. And before you get started with the whole "well, buy a new computer" thing which I know you could bring up, not everyone can afford doing so directly because of economic issues and other things! Also for the note, some of us are not allowed to run Discord for one reason or another, and all simply because of blocks imposed by others. (Any chance you've heard of the various malware which uses Discord for an operation base and/or attack pathway? I guess not!) So it is very unfair for anyone to expect everyone can run Discord on a computer they use!

The above therefore drops that onus of confusing leaks back against "The Cauldron" and subsequently anyone who visits their Discord for sharing properly what is going on with those here who are limited to MWO's Forums only when discussing stuff. Otherwise people very much run the risk of causing unnecessary chaos where it should not happen, simply put.

Which brings me to another note, somewhere along the lines of "Do you have a guilty conscience or something?" given what you've posted... Nowhere in my previous posting did I say anything specifically about "The Cauldron" and/or their Discord communication space. What it happens that I was talking about is the more general "People should never be forced to get a whole bunch of extra accounts on off-site things, even topic-related unofficial locations." in order to properly engage with discussions around a particular item. In general, most people which I've heard of in the past will be more likely to turn hesitant, worry, and run away from something, particularly if someone is trying to get them into something which was not part of the original official package. You need to keep this in mind when bringing up off-site locations for viewing & visiting by others, and avoid trying to shove people into things. If anyone wants to bring up something from an off-site source, they should have the reasonably-expected decency & courtesy of bringing a screenshot, link, quote, or other content copy back with them when posting on MWO's Official Forums where others can read about things! 'Nuff said...

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As for this more interesting thought...

Void Angel, on 19 April 2025 - 07:41 AM, said:

As for the hard-locked AC/20, it's not just locked to the pod, it's locked to the chassis - it's also an IS AC/20, the first mixed-tech experiment in MWO. If you add the pod to another Shadow Cat, it'll just be an empty torso (with no quirks, presently.) I'd guess that the reason for that is to keep the Legendary unique, as well as making it easier to analyze and balance the mixing of tech bases.

I would sure like to know how they're managing fitting that, particularly when a Shadow Cat is down to only five (5) slots left in that Side Torso for available space one may work with! It seems more as if the Clan Standard AC/20 (Non-UAC) would be a better choice for implementation when they might need shuffle Critical Slots about like crazy. For that matter, if they use the Clan Standard AC/20 (Non-UAC) in their implementation, it would also come with five (5) improvements on introducing that Shadow Cat "Noble" Legendary into MWO's own environment. The first improvement is not falling into Mixed Tech Pitfalls which could cause MWO to start having major game-wide hiccup issues. The second improvement is an obvious one, which is being allowed to not have locked such a Weapon & HardPoint into the Mech's frame itself, therefore enabling Build Diversity where it could have ended up entirely missing. The third improvement is therefore also a semi-obvious one, an initial up-front decreased use of Tonnage and how it allows better weight management/configuration/limits in such a small Mech's design overall. But the fourth improvement is more interesting, as it could allow the Bane's "Leviathan" Hero ("BANE-L") Locked "Modified Ballistic Loader" Item to be reused on this other Mech's creation and introduction. That particular item would mean the Clan Standard AC/20 (Non-UAC) ends up behaving like an I.S. Standard AC/20 (Non-UAC) in terms of how it operates. This leads to number five, in which then Quirks could also be slapped onto this Shadow Cat "Noble" Legendary's CT OmniPod such that Ammo amounts always match up properly with what the Locked "Modified Ballistic Loader" Item is supposed to cause for behavior. After all, I think that I might know what "The Cauldron" (who I now must guess is working on this) is going for, and we already have some Mech Variants with rare Quirks/Items which are not limited to only one option. Feel free to share my thoughts here back in their direction, as they may find these rather useful!


~D. V. "Strange Assumptions... Design Choices... Patch lost in the wings... So many things to iron out!" Devnull



(p.s.: Now I'm wondering where 'Moadebe' went with the Patch Leak Threads... I appreciated their doing those posts, which tells anyone they are seriously missed!)

[Void Angel]

D V Devnull, on 19 April 2025 - 08:25 PM, said:

Nowhere in my previous posting did I say anything specifically about "The Cauldron" and/or their Discord communication space.

D V Devnull, on 19 April 2025 - 04:38 AM, said:

some strange off-site location which people must jump through hoops in order to reach!!! Bring the proof back to these MWO Forums instead of forcing others into undesired extra things!!!

Yes, you did. It's not like I pulled the concept out of the wide blue sky, to the surprise of everyone. And I say again, it's not onerous to run freaking Discord. If your computer can run MWO - or a web browser - you can run Discord. You obviously knew where to look, so it's not like it's hidden. I'm not annoyed by a request for clarification - it's the air of being put-upon that's annoying.

As for fitting the AC/20, the custom slotting is probably another reason they're doing the pod/chassis this way.

[Ttly]

So what's the new LGD Shadowcat with locked AC20 is supposed to be anyway? Looks to me on paper it's basically trying to be the Clan version of the MASC 2SNPPC Vulcan.
Except cXL, slower, and less velocity, oh and gets to shoot all day long because less heat, though the 2SNPPC Vulcan does have like 7ATO already at minimum which is more than enough you ask me.

Also no one's talking if it has other hardpoints other than the locked IS AC20 to make use of its remaining tonnage, you can swap the pods I guess but it's probably gonna be So8 reliant, probably something like +100% to +150% ammo/ton at least right? The Black Hawk has +200% on each ballistic arm pod (for total of +400%) so it's not like that would be out of the question.
Could even just go nuts and give it as much cooldown, and velocity as the HBK-4G what with the lack of armor even.
Test build.

Edited by Ttly, 19 April 2025 - 10:22 PM.

[Void Angel]

You can already do that build on the Shadow Cat, but not with an IS AC/20. It has six energy hardpoints, two on each arm, and two on the other side torso, so if you want to swap out the AC/20, you should be able to make use of it. Set of 8 is +36 AC/20 ammo, with the individual pods just having standard SC durability quirks.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

LordNothing, on 19 April 2025 - 01:17 PM, said:

street cleaner is the fast urbie. better to go boom with another urbie.

oh I mean as far as kaching priorities, I really want zoomy snurbies and another "I never jam ever" urbie

I can envision Noble being potentially fun to run up on people with and shove AC20 shells up their a$$ though I am concerned it will not be fast enough

[WHITEWOLF660]

Void Angel, on 19 April 2025 - 07:41 AM, said:

Uh, "join this Discord" isn't much of a "hoop." There's no obligation for PGI to duplicate Cauldron releases here, since they're not officially announced. When it's still in the Cauldron phase, the information is on the Cauldron Discord - it's not onerous to download the fracking app, and I'm increasingly annoyed when people act like it is, man...(continued)

Anyways it is annoying to have conversations with ZERO context then act like a dong when people ask what is going on. PGI should post this if they are serious. This is probably why there is TO SEE emphasized

[LordNothing]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 20 April 2025 - 06:13 AM, said:

oh I mean as far as kaching priorities, I really want zoomy snurbies and another "I never jam ever" urbie

I can envision Noble being potentially fun to run up on people with and shove AC20 shells up their a$$ though I am concerned it will not be fast enough

seeing as i run a hag40 on one of my urbie iics it would probibly be trivial to run a uac20, cac20, or lb20. you also get the benefit of clanxl for some extra speed, durability and ammo.

Edited by LordNothing, 20 April 2025 - 07:41 AM.

[Void Angel]

WHITEWOLF660, on 20 April 2025 - 06:54 AM, said:

Anyways it is annoying to have conversations with ZERO context then act like a dong when people ask what is going on. PGI should post this if they are serious. This is probably why there is TO SEE emphasized

Actually I'm guessing it might be another Unseen 'mech. But as for "having conversations," I actually had to look it up, too. Took 20 seconds, and it wasn't hard at all - diatribes to the contrary notwithstanding, which was my point.

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 20 April 2025 - 06:13 AM, said:

oh I mean as far as kaching priorities, I really want zoomy snurbies and another "I never jam ever" urbie

I can envision Noble being potentially fun to run up on people with and shove AC20 shells up their a$$ though I am concerned it will not be fast enough

The Shadow Cat isn't the fastest chassis out there, but it IS among the most mobile. That's what makes it such a hard 'mech to pin down, in the hands of an experienced pilot. Between MASC and its jump jets, very few 'mechs have the wherewithall to keep up with it, and I've had some fun with close-ranged Shadow Cat builds in the past. I think the Noble will be fun and viable, but not too strong.

[Crashburn]

Ttly, on 19 April 2025 - 03:44 AM, said:

What, no mention of the event queue going on right now?

Since someone besides me asked. I found the schedule on the Cauldron Discord. Looks like it goes till Wednesday. Here's the event queue specifics till Monday. Maybe by Monday they'll be an official post...i'm going to guess the post got missed due to the holiday, but who knows.

Sunday April 20 10am PST / 5pm UTC
Leopard Drop
8v8
Groups 1-2
Drop Deck
330 Max Tonnage
Skirmish
River City
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
3x CBill and XP Rewards
25 Minute Match

Sunday April 20 4pm PST / 11pm UTC
Chonky Cappers
8v8
Groups 1-2
Assaults Only
Drop Deck
400 Max Tonnage
Domination
Terra Therma QP / Crucible
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
50% More Speed
3x CBill and XP Rewards
25 Minute Match

Sunday April 20 10pm PST / Monday April 21 5am UTC
Trendy Troopers
6v6
Groups 1-2
Enforcers, Shadow Hawks, Centurions, Wolverines, Vindicators, and Griffins Only
Skirmish
Mining Collective
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
3x CBill and XP Rewards
10 Minute Match

Monday April 21 4am PST / 11am UTC
Lance Encounter
4v4
Groups 1-2
Blackjacks, Riflemen, Riflemen IIC, and Jagermechs
Domination
Canyon Network
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
3x CBill and XP Rewards
10 Minute Match

Monday April 21 10am PST / 5pm UTC
Leopard Drop
8v8
Groups 1-2
Drop Deck
330 Max Tonnage
Skirmish
River City
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
3x CBill and XP Rewards
25 Minute Match

Monday April 21 4pm PST / 11pm UTC
Heavy Hounds
8v8
Groups 1-2
Drop Deck
300 Max Tonnage
IS Heavy Mechs Only
Domination
Free Worlds Coliseum
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
50% More Speed
3x CBill and XP Rewards
15 Minute Match

Monday April 21 10pm PST / Tuesday April 22 5am UTC
Star Batchall
5v5
Groups 1-2
Clan Heavy Mechs Only
Domination
Mining Collective
Infinite Ammo
100% More Armor
3x CBill and XP Rewards
10 Minute Match

Edited by Crashburn, 20 April 2025 - 09:31 AM.

[Tiy0s]

Although we originally called it the "cauldron leaks channel" because of an ongoing meme, I'm not sure it counts as leaks anymore when I'm usually the one doing the posting in there.

I know not everyone wants to get on discord, and that's fine. There's no exclusive information there, everything that is posted on discord will eventually end up in patch notes at some point(unless it's an occasional blooper video of something that went hilariously wrong while making content). When I post something on discord, it's usually because it's too early for patch notes or sneak peeks or because it's something still in active development with Cauldron. So if you don't want to head over to the Cauldron server, that's totally fine. You'll see it in the patch notes when its posted.

When I posted the news about the April patch in that channel, there were two items I showed off. The first was the Shadow Cat Noble, which has a locked IS AC20 on it. Mixtech doesn't really work out in MWO in its current state but, like the improved Jumpjets or Superchargers, things become a lot easier when they're locked to the chassis. Implementing proper mixtech would make things very convoluted on the backend and serious conversations would need to be had if we ever did that.




You'll notice it has 2 less JJs, a lower engine, and has some fixed slots moved around to make this mech fit. None of that is omnipod bound, it's all chassis locked. The shadow cat is an incredibly powerful mech, bordering on OP. In the eyes of many cauldron members it is OP. We hardlocked as much as we could to the chassis instead of omnipods to prevent this legendary from buffing other Shadow Cats and making them more problematic from a balance perspective.

You'll also notice the ammo quirk. That's a set of 8 ammo quirk and, for simplicity's sake, the IS AC20 uses Clan AC20 ammo. Since it only fires one slug, you get a pretty nice ammo boost from that.

The other item I posted about that we are aiming to release in May is a pet project I've had on the back burner since November last year. The Clan Expansions Skin Pack will contain new skins for all clan mechs. Those skins are Jade Falcon Vau Galaxy, Jade Falcon Phi Galaxy, Ghost Bear Silveroot Keshik, Ghost Bear Delta Galaxy, Ice Hellion Zeta Galaxy, and Wolf Delta Galaxy. These skins will not be purchasable for MC, only via purchasing the pack. Every clan mech will get those excluding tech swap mechs such as the Wolf Dragoons pack mechs, Clan Annihilator, etc.. Clan Bullshark will get them. I've posted some sneak peeks on what those look like on the Cauldron Feedback discord and I'm sure they've drifted around to other parts of the community. I can't promise those will come out in May patch, they have been a huge undertaking to paint these skins on every clan mech and there's still a lot of work to do. As the April patch post just reminded us, sometimes things fall behind schedule and all we can do is roll with the punches. But I am working on getting out as quickly as I can.

A final note before I go back to sleeping through this entire weekend: I know some people want to see everything on the forums every time. Sometimes it feels like I could post a cropped image of a mechs big toe on discord and there's a forum thread or youtube video made about it. But website posts are usually reserved for the more official announcements and those normally aren't the type of announcements I make. The Cauldron community discord is where I go to drop tidbits of what I'm working on occasionally with the Cauldron as a way to drive people over to their feedback server and to also give engagement to the contingent of our players who don't like to interact with the forums.

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

Drop arm lasers, shave arms and head as needed, plasma cannon+ammo? 2 plasmas probably won't fit. Med pulses less burn time than ERSmall, at least.

Edited by a 5 year old with an Uzi, 20 April 2025 - 12:05 PM.

[Ttly]

Shadowcat? OP?
Yeah sure, if you only count the same 2-3 builds. 2PPC+ECM, or the beam laser+LMG+ECM or whatever now.
It's really only vaguely decent on any other builds/So8s you ask me and that statement of it being OP is more telling of the disinterest in playing those other builds. An excuse to not buff those meh builds at worst.

Anyway, I expected more quirks on account of the handicap of cXL250 which weighs the same as 255 but hey, it's a WIP so whatever, liable to change. And also it has MASC so more excuse to not give it that much quirks sure.

Edited by Ttly, 20 April 2025 - 10:06 PM.

[Voice of Kerensky]

Can I know when exactly the sale on heroic mechs will start this week?
I would like to buy Hashke/Abaddon and have time to complete some of the Urbie Derby Redo quests on him.

[D V Devnull]

Void Angel, on 19 April 2025 - 09:47 PM, said:

Yes, you did. It's not like I pulled the concept out of the wide blue sky, to the surprise of everyone. And I say again, it's not onerous to run freaking Discord. If your computer can run MWO - or a web browser - you can run Discord. You obviously knew where to look, so it's not like it's hidden. I'm not annoyed by a request for clarification - it's the air of being put-upon that's annoying.

It seems some enlightening truth is needed here. Your quote of me does not specifically say Discord and you're reading far too much into it with an overly narrow focus. I was speaking more broadly of all external discussion websites and/or client programs at the time, of which I really was not sure where to look even if you think I should have known. I avoid assumptions like "Oh, it's always on Discord" because of how that would make me look rather stupid. I was literally in the dark, per a mental sense of such.

And as for Discord access, that is outside my capabilities. I am literally cut off whether you like it or not, and not by a ban. The computer which I use is old enough that (while it can still run MWO at some reasonable level) trying to touch Discord's website does not work, regardless of any software which I use. Their site simply never loads properly for me, and never functions in any reasonable manner, which also means acquisition and/or use of their client program is effectively impossible. Unfortunately it happens that I have no way to know what prevents my using their stuff, but it means if anyone tries to say "Go get & use Discord" and push that at me, they're essentially being unconscionably thoughtless and flat rude. It's not even "put-upon" as you were regrettably stating things. You're pushing an impossibility at me, then still acting like you're right, but when you're DEAD WRONG regarding the situation.

I've got other things to think about, so quit giving me an atrocious freaking headache... I actually thoroughly HATE being right in this situation, but I am whether anyone likes it or not. As a general rule, if someone is saying clarification needs to be brought here on MWO's Official Forums for other people, they're usually never kidding.

~D. V. "sick of this pushy Discord-related rude insanity... not everyone can run it, liked or not" Devnull

[lshtaria]

Having single shot ACs in Clan mechs is pretty awesome. Bane Leviathan says hi