9 replies to this topic

[wamX]

Hello again forum warriors,

Got bored and thought about a Wishlist of things to see in future iterations of MWO (Or Merc's Online as MWO2)

Most of this is personal preference/opinions, but some in-game chat did seem to look at an idea or two positively.

Its a laundry list so...take it in parts

1.) Reduce games to 8v8 instead of 12v12. - Gameplay

The recent events of 4v4 and 8v8 felt like they showed the promise of this. Having fewer players allows for some really creative gameplay. Venturing out to flank as a light isn't a near-automatic death sentence. You have the room to operate and maneuver about to provide info-warfare or actually catch someone off guard without the fear of 11 other mechs turning around and obliterating you in a single volley.

The 12v12 format, while fun for good long brawls...hasn't been that recently. with the meta following extreme alphas - seriously the amount of times ill have an untouched torso be instantly destroyed in a single shot is getting kinda annoying - the requirement for teamwork has gone out the window

2.) LRM "swarms" being brought back. - Gameplay? Balance?

This comes more from the original trailers for some of the MWO stuff. Effectively, LRMs would launch and follow a flight path that grew and shrunk as they flew. Translating this down further. There are ranges where the missiles are very spread out - softening up several components at once, and ranges where they are tightly packed - doing damage to a single or 2 components. A knowledgeable longbow pilot knowing that keeping targets at 500m does more spread out damage to support lance mates, where as 400m or 600m is for focused damage. Apply the logic to this as you see fit.

3.) Maybe rework Solaris City.- Maps
I love urban combat in MWO and other MW titles...but Solaris City just has a lot of nonsense everywhere and could maybe use a little love...not much else to say on this

4.) Make ambient heat matter again. - Gameplay
Hot maps should make heatsinks cry, or at least cry MORE if this already exists.

5.) Polar Highlands - Maps
This map exists and...I feel sometimes like it shouldn't.

6.) Flexible Objectives - Gameplay
why is objective always in D5? what if it wasnt? Move the spawns around? Move objectives around to force people to explore the maps we *do* have.

7.) LEGEND MECH PROBLEMS - Mechs
The inclusion of legend mechs is a cool addition to see the book lore of MechWarrior be added into an interactable space, or just because its that much more satisfying to murder that one Capellan we all hate because [insert reason here].

HOWEVER...those mechs get abused...a LOT. Taking advantage of specific options/quirks has built a slowly growing worry that MWO is becoming pay-to-win...Legend Mechs should come AS-IS with all equipment and skills perma-fixed.

8.) Ballistic targeting computers/C3 Master and Slave components - New Equipment

A piece of inner-sphere unique tech, since clans are all about honor. Ideally adding a targeting computer to any mech would have this benefit but if you wanna gatekeep it and call it a C3 computer instead, we can go with that. ANYWAY you slice it it operates as follows:

Inner Sphere STANDARD Autocannons (AC/2 AC/5 AC/10 AC/20 no ultras, no LBs and absolutely no horrid RACs), Particle Projectile Cannons, and SRMs benefit with a target lead indicator. These operate by when targeting an enemy mech, calculates the enemy mechs current velocity as well as known velocities for projectiles installed on the current battlemech and displays within a standard measurement of confidence where to fire to properly lead unguided projectile weapons.

Recalling from Sarna, The Master system weighs 6 tons and takes up 6 critical slots, and would function as "Always on" when installed where as C3 Slave systems are 1 slot and 1 ton and would either only interact with mechs in their lance or much like the cyclops buff, would work only when within a specific distance of the master system.

TLDR: It draws an extra box on moving targets that acts as a "shoot here" instead of having to manually lead the target.

9.) PPC Capacitors - New Equipment
- Adds more damage to PPC weapons as long as the capacitor is mounted next to it, as well as a LOT MORE HEAT. I believe you could fire without the capacitor being charged for a regular PPC shot. Critical hits or destruction of the capacitor would detonate like a gauss rifle does -assuming it was charged. Bring back insta-firing gauss rifles.

10.) PPC Static - Effects
- Give us back the Hud scrambling like in MW4/MW5. PPCs should have a psychological warfare aspect besides being an energy AC/10 that overheats

11.) The following battlemechs: - Mechs
Argus (60t - IS), Sunder (90t - IS), Caesar (70t - IS), Sentinel (40t - IS), Bowman (70t - Clan), Burrock (75t - Clan)

12.) Arrow IV - New Equipment
Come on...its time we have it...and the Railgun already has the damage transfer mechanic

Im sure I can think of some...information warfare that would be cool to add but...this post feels long enough. Anyway. Discuss at your own peril...or hype up stuff you like.

[LordNothing]

1. we tried that. the salt did flow. will need it sooner or later though just to get drops.
2. time to start using radar derp/ams again
3. talked about ad nauseum
4. requested before, ignored.
5. dont vote for it
6. thats code time = expensive = impossible. static sets of spawns/objective locations selected by a dice roll at start of match would do a lot to expand map usage and breakup gameplay monotony. also figured maps could be subdivided into regions for 4v4 and 8v8 modes, but were back to that $$$ problem.
7. legends get nerfs after a month or two. same with all new mechpacks.
8. talked about ad nauseam (im for this one, want free targeting replaced with equipment and passive mode, the cauldron seems to disagree).
9. see future legends, will be done sooner or later in some way.
10. it breaks ecm. i wouldnt mind destroyable sensors that cripples your targeting like in mw2 (you usually ended up with none by the end of a drop and that was good).
11. mechs seem to be implemented in order of popularity, there is a mech poll somewhere you can vote on, its no guarantee though.
12. already hinted at by a pgi employee.

game is in maintenance mode so cross off anything that costs money. new mechs, legends (even those with special equipment which has become a trend as of late) tend to return a positive gain and are still up for implementation. they keep the game alive. buy them.

Edited by LordNothing, 12 November 2025 - 05:07 PM.

[wamX]

LordNothing, on 12 November 2025 - 04:58 PM, said:

1. we tried that. the salt did flow. will need it sooner or later though just to get drops.
2. time to start using radar derp/ams again
3. talked about ad nauseum
4. requested before, ignored.
5. dont vote for it
6. thats code time = expensive = impossible. static sets of spawns/objective locations selected by a dice roll at start of match would do a lot to expand map usage and breakup gameplay monotony. also figured maps could be subdivided into regions for 4v4 and 8v8 modes, but were back to that $$$ problem.
7. legends get nerfs after a month or two. same with all new mechpacks.
8. talked about ad nauseam (im for this one, want free targeting replaced with equipment and passive mode, the cauldron seems to disagree).
9. see future legends, will be done sooner or later in some way.
10. it breaks ecm. i wouldnt mind destroyable sensors that cripples your targeting like in mw2 (you usually ended up with none by the end of a drop and that was good).
11. mechs seem to be implemented in order of popularity, there is a mech poll somewhere you can vote on, its no guarantee though.
12. already hinted at by a pgi employee.

game is in maintenance mode so cross off anything that costs money. new mechs, legends (even those with special equipment which has become a trend as of late) tend to return a positive gain and are still up for implementation. they keep the game alive. buy them.

It seems like we've stripped away a lot of features from the game already, like the day/night cycle for a few maps. The way the missiles used to fly, having mechs actually stand on terrain instead of a generic midpoint between the feet.

How the firemoth got added is beyond me...it might of been popular on the forums but 200kph plus bad netcode sometimes...sounds extremely unpopular in game sometimes

[Davegt27]

I want more of a Mech simulator

less computer control

elemental's mode

also PVP PVE modes

[BlueDevilspawn]

wamX, on 12 November 2025 - 03:34 PM, said:

Hello again forum warriors,

Got bored and thought about a Wishlist of things to see in future iterations of MWO (Or Merc's Online as MWO2)

Most of this is personal preference/opinions, but some in-game chat did seem to look at an idea or two positively.

Its a laundry list so...take it in parts

1.) Reduce games to 8v8 instead of 12v12. - Gameplay

The recent events of 4v4 and 8v8 felt like they showed the promise of this. Having fewer players allows for some really creative gameplay. Venturing out to flank as a light isn't a near-automatic death sentence. You have the room to operate and maneuver about to provide info-warfare or actually catch someone off guard without the fear of 11 other mechs turning around and obliterating you in a single volley.

The 12v12 format, while fun for good long brawls...hasn't been that recently. with the meta following extreme alphas - seriously the amount of times ill have an untouched torso be instantly destroyed in a single shot is getting kinda annoying - the requirement for teamwork has gone out the window

2.) LRM "swarms" being brought back. - Gameplay? Balance?

This comes more from the original trailers for some of the MWO stuff. Effectively, LRMs would launch and follow a flight path that grew and shrunk as they flew. Translating this down further. There are ranges where the missiles are very spread out - softening up several components at once, and ranges where they are tightly packed - doing damage to a single or 2 components. A knowledgeable longbow pilot knowing that keeping targets at 500m does more spread out damage to support lance mates, where as 400m or 600m is for focused damage. Apply the logic to this as you see fit.

3.) Maybe rework Solaris City.- Maps
I love urban combat in MWO and other MW titles...but Solaris City just has a lot of nonsense everywhere and could maybe use a little love...not much else to say on this

4.) Make ambient heat matter again. - Gameplay
Hot maps should make heatsinks cry, or at least cry MORE if this already exists.

5.) Polar Highlands - Maps
This map exists and...I feel sometimes like it shouldn't.

6.) Flexible Objectives - Gameplay
why is objective always in D5? what if it wasnt? Move the spawns around? Move objectives around to force people to explore the maps we *do* have.

7.) LEGEND MECH PROBLEMS - Mechs
The inclusion of legend mechs is a cool addition to see the book lore of MechWarrior be added into an interactable space, or just because its that much more satisfying to murder that one Capellan we all hate because [insert reason here].

HOWEVER...those mechs get abused...a LOT. Taking advantage of specific options/quirks has built a slowly growing worry that MWO is becoming pay-to-win...Legend Mechs should come AS-IS with all equipment and skills perma-fixed.

8.) Ballistic targeting computers/C3 Master and Slave components - New Equipment

A piece of inner-sphere unique tech, since clans are all about honor. Ideally adding a targeting computer to any mech would have this benefit but if you wanna gatekeep it and call it a C3 computer instead, we can go with that. ANYWAY you slice it it operates as follows:

Inner Sphere STANDARD Autocannons (AC/2 AC/5 AC/10 AC/20 no ultras, no LBs and absolutely no horrid RACs), Particle Projectile Cannons, and SRMs benefit with a target lead indicator. These operate by when targeting an enemy mech, calculates the enemy mechs current velocity as well as known velocities for projectiles installed on the current battlemech and displays within a standard measurement of confidence where to fire to properly lead unguided projectile weapons.

Recalling from Sarna, The Master system weighs 6 tons and takes up 6 critical slots, and would function as "Always on" when installed where as C3 Slave systems are 1 slot and 1 ton and would either only interact with mechs in their lance or much like the cyclops buff, would work only when within a specific distance of the master system.

TLDR: It draws an extra box on moving targets that acts as a "shoot here" instead of having to manually lead the target.

9.) PPC Capacitors - New Equipment
- Adds more damage to PPC weapons as long as the capacitor is mounted next to it, as well as a LOT MORE HEAT. I believe you could fire without the capacitor being charged for a regular PPC shot. Critical hits or destruction of the capacitor would detonate like a gauss rifle does -assuming it was charged. Bring back insta-firing gauss rifles.

10.) PPC Static - Effects
- Give us back the Hud scrambling like in MW4/MW5. PPCs should have a psychological warfare aspect besides being an energy AC/10 that overheats

11.) The following battlemechs: - Mechs
Argus (60t - IS), Sunder (90t - IS), Caesar (70t - IS), Sentinel (40t - IS), Bowman (70t - Clan), Burrock (75t - Clan)

12.) Arrow IV - New Equipment
Come on...its time we have it...and the Railgun already has the damage transfer mechanic

Im sure I can think of some...information warfare that would be cool to add but...this post feels long enough. Anyway. Discuss at your own peril...or hype up stuff you like.

There is some weird commentary above so I'll answer your questions directly and factually.

1. 8v8 may be an inevitability one day. Matchmaking and group sizes were tested. Objectively, the game runs better. For now, it'll be 12v12.

2. AMS is being buffed next patch, regardless hard cover is still king. Take as much or little radar derp as you want (I take 1 node).

3. No full time mapmaker; Tiyos does what he can.

4. Ambient heat already matters.

5. Polar is much better now than when it was "LRM-lands"

6. Not doable without programming time, which won't happen. I don't disagree that dynamic objectives are great, but at this point it won't happen.

7. Some equipment deemed powerful is fixed, but majority will remain unfixed as MWO mechlab flexibility is a major draw.

8. Shared targeting already exists. There is no coding time to remove it and then add it in via equipment. Similar to #6, I agree, but it's not feasible at this point in the game.

9. Not doable without jank, so won't happen. We (cauldron) explored capacitor implementation with the Red Reaper.

10. It already causes some impulse. Adding additional effects won't happen.

11. New chassis are being added steadily. It must be relevant to MW5 first and have an applicable niche in MWO as well.

12. Tiyos has already said the Naga and AIV will be coming.

[crazytimes]

1. The majority said no.
2. Waste of resources.
3. Waste of resources.
4. Ambient heat has an appropriate impact.
5. Your opinion is noted.
6. Balance.
7. Not only can you just buy the mechs yourself- they keep giving them away now. If you're think they're so OP, just get them yourself.
8. Learn to aim
9. Coding.
10. Stun mechanics are one of the most hated things in PvP games.
11. Sunder is a locked IS XL. Yay. Who knows on the rest.
12. Read the news threads.

[Bassault]

I don't see the point of toggling spread or focused LRMs. Focused is always better. If you have to control their spread based off your distance that means you don't have control because an aggressive mech will be faster going forward than your fat, slow LRM boat going backwards.

A target lead indicator is a bad idea as it takes away the skill from the game.

The rest of your ideas are valid.

[Darian DelFord]

Davegt27, on 12 November 2025 - 05:49 PM, said:

also PVP PVE modes

We had that, it was called Escort and one of the worst implementations they ever did. Right behind Solaris.

[Davegt27]

Darian DelFord, on 14 November 2025 - 07:22 AM, said:

We had that, it was called Escort and one of the worst implementations they ever did. Right behind Solaris.

you miss understood
I meant separate modes in the same game, that is you can play PVP in one mode or switch over to PVE

not both combined together
hope that makes sense

[Rosarius]

Davegt27, on 17 November 2025 - 02:48 PM, said:

you miss understood
I meant separate modes in the same game, that is you can play PVP in one mode or switch over to PVE

not both combined together
hope that makes sense

I can run MWO and Mech5 at the same time and alt+tab between them?