149 replies to this topic

[Vhyle]

I might get it if it's MC cost, not sure if it'll have a cbill boost and exp boost, but I've heard it will. Might be rumor, but I wouldn't doubt it if these hero mechs will have that sort of thing.

I think the hero mech system will be great, because they have different layout for weapons, but the weapons will be exactly like what you can buy and fit on the mech, from what I've seen and understand. Anyway, it'd be a nice way for PGI to gain more revenue, which is needed. MC will certainly be a good way for revenue stream. If you want the 'mech, get the MC. It's way better than what Wargaming is doing with their pay to win scheme.

I do not think PGI will be doing that pay to win crap, I have great faith in PGI and have no worries about that.

[Fuzzey]

I'm currently reading the books with this Mech (Yen-Lo-Wang)...

Justin Xiang is such a great character - so the Mech has to be, too!^^

[SmithMPBT]

The novels are just Davion propaganda pamphlets. There meant to get your emotional juices pumping, so you hate pretty much anyone cept for the Fedrats and Sweiners.

[igorg]

InnerSphereNews, on 23 October 2011 - 07:32 PM, said:

Welcome to Dev Blog 0!

Why is it called Dev Blog 0? Well, a lot has happened in the two years since we first announced MechWarrior back in 2009, and we felt a quick recap would help bring everyone up to speed on the events of the last 2 years. In order to make this blog a little more personal, we have referred to many people by first name.
The usage of we generally refers to:

• Jordan Weisman founded FASA and co-created BattleTech. Jordan has also been responsible for numerous other ventures including WizKids, and Smith & Tinker.
  
• Russ Bullock, Owner/President of Piranha Games Inc.
  
• Bryan Ekman, Owner/Creative Director of Piranha Games Inc.
  
• And sometimes the entire team at PGI, some 50+ awesome developers!

So let’s go back to the beginning before the 2009 announcement, when Piranha Games first began working with the MechWarrior license.
Rebooting Piranha Games

Three years ago, during the summer 2008, we put in motion a new strategy for Piranha, one that would focus our efforts on building killer original action games. With this ultimate goal in mind, we focused on three key areas.

• Only take on action based work-for-hire games, such as Transformers 2 and Duke Nukem Forever.
  
• Build an experienced development team, capable of creating fun and engaging products.
  
• Develop a game by acquiring or licensing an existing intellectual property (IP).

With these goals in mind, we began identifying properties that fit the bill. In October 2008, while looking into the MechWarrior rights, Russ, learned that Jordan was working on a new venture at Smith & Tinker. Jordan, through S&T had licensed some of the digital FASA rights back from Microsoft. Not long after the initial call, we began working with Jordan on a new concept, a major update to the MechWarrior franchise.
Rebooting MechWarrior

The initial ideas revolved around revitalizing or rebooting the series by focusing on two areas:

• Increasing the overall graphical fidelity of the entire game, especially the BattlMechs.
  
• Solve some of the long standing gameplay issues from previous MechWarrior games.

From these two key areas, early design pillars emerged in the form of:

• Urban Combat to address circle strafing and long range sniping.
  
• Dynamic Battlefield further expanded on the concepts of Urban Combat and mechs having roles.
  
• Dynamic pacing, introduced an early version of one of the final pillars, Information Warfare.

It would be designed for the Xbox 360 and PC. The game would take place on the planet Deshler, in the year 3015. Single player would revolve around Adrian Kohl and his exploits during an invasion by Kuritan forces. A gritty series of missions, designed to draw people deep into the rich vibrant and treacherous world of BattleTech. Multiplayer was a blend of features from previous MechWarrior games and modern FPS experiences. The package as a whole was the first step in making MechWarior cool again.
We continued to iterate on the design for several weeks, then started developing a plan of action.
Early on we decided to produce a marketing video that would demonstrate many of the core features and rebooted art style. We had three goals:

• Announce the project and generate a major buzz within the gaming community.
  
• Generate publisher interest.
  
• Increase Piranha’s profile as a quality developer with publishers and the community.

The marketing campaign contained 3 teaser videos , the final full length trailer, and a feature interview on IGN. We rolled out the plan during the second week of July, 2009.
The reaction was overwhelming. We anticipated the announcement would generate a lot of buzz, however the end result outperformed even our highest expectations.
Oh Yeah, Harmony Gold

Contrary to all the press and speculation that Harmony Gold was getting in the way of a deal or development, this had no impact whatsoever on development or signing a deal for MechWarrior.
Closing a Deal

The hard work began in earnest after the video release. We had an aggressive schedule to visit publishers and gauge interest. In the month of August we met with all of the major publishers, pitched the MechWarrior game to a captive audience and waited. The answers rolled in slowly, starting with the smaller publishers. Then word showed up from the big five. The answer was no.
We knew going in, there were two major risks. No PS3 version due to a Microsoft restriction, and the epic market collapse and major recession. In the end, it was mostly the lack of a PS3 option that did us in. The scope and budget required to develop a console reboot needed the support of a PS3 SKU and we just couldn’t convince publishers to take a risk. By late fall 2009, our dreams of making a MechWarrior game, began slowly drifting away.
Through the end of 2009 and into 2010 we rallied numerous times, reducing scope and budget, re-pitching the concept as a LIVE only title, etc. etc. In the end, nothing stuck.
To be honest, 2008/09 were some of the hardest times this company has ever seen. We spent a lot of time, resources, money and energy on MechWarrior, and it wasn’t looking good.
Then, in the spring of 2010, we secured the Duke Nukem Forever contract. This was a huge achievement and a cornerstone in our development history. MechWarrior played a large role in helping us secure the deal. A few key hires filled out our incredibly talented multiplayer AAA team.
MechWarrior took a back seat, as we focused on a very challenging and time compressed project.
2010 ended, and we rolled into 2011 without much fanfare as Duke Nukem Forever entered the final phases of development.
The Birth of MechWarrior Online

In the winter months of 2011 we assessed the state of MechWarrior. We came to the realization that any further work on MechWarrior would come at great risk to PGI. If we planned to take on significant risk, we needed to control the IP. After several sessions of deliberation, we decided to plunge in head first. Russ approached Smith & Tinker with regards to licensing the MechWarrior rights and within a few weeks, we signed a deal.
Not long after signing, we quickly realized licensing the rights was one of the most important and future sighted decisions made by us in the last 12 years. Offers were coming in from all over the planet, especially to make or license a free-to-play MechWarrior game.
Because of the overwhelming interest, we decided to spend some time researching what a free-to-play (F2P) MechWarrior game would look like. We spent some design cycles adapting our previous concepts and quickly realized a synergy between F2P and the BattleTech universe. We worked hard through spring, negotiating, designing, and rejecting a few potential partners. As it turns out, we didn’t have to look very far.
During much of the past 12 months there was a local group that also had a large amount of interest in developing and publishing a MechWarrior title. Once Piranha had become the license holder they came over immediately and met with us. From this point onward we decided to combine our efforts with Piranha as the rights holder and with them as the Publisher. After about 6 months of hard work together, funding had been secured, Infinity Game Publishing was born and development could begin.
The most positive thing that can be said about the relationship between Piranha and IGP is that both companies wanted to make the same game and Piranha was free to execute upon our vision.
The road to this Blog was an adventure filled with many hurtles and momentous occasions. We are excited and proud of the direction MechWarrior is taking as a PC F2P game. It offers us the ability to make a successor worthy of the MechWarrior name, and one that fans will enjoy for years to come!
Welcome to MechWarrior Online.

[White Bear 84]

Looks like a centurion? Not really excited.. ..doesnt give away much..

..this isnt the thread i was replying to? wtf? oh wait it is...

Edited by White Bear 84, 25 October 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[TheSprinkle]

SmithMPBT, on 24 October 2012 - 10:20 AM, said:

The novels are just Davion propaganda pamphlets. There meant to get your emotional juices pumping, so you hate pretty much anyone cept for the Fedrats and Sweiners.

Almost True. You're forgetting the capellan Solution.

[Chou Senwan]

By the way, isn't it weird for the paint scheme on a mech named after a Chinese god to resemble classic Japanese rising sun motifs?

[SmithMPBT]

Chou Senwan, on 26 October 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

By the way, isn't it weird for the paint scheme on a mech named after a Chinese god to resemble classic Japanese rising sun motifs?

Hai!

[Alexander Diaz]

Cool!

[Peiper]

Well, as we predicted, Yen-Lo-Wang looks pretty, but is otherwise just a Centurion AH with fewer hardpoints and a slightly larger engine. Not only that, but until they restore us the AH - which is a real, mass produced variant; UNLIKE the unique Yen-Lo-Wang, it is the only way you can 1. get to Elite on the mech tree and 2. mount an AC20. Not only that, because you can't get to Elite on the tree, until they bring out another Centurion, the game is PAY TO WIN for Centurion pilots. You can only buy the Yen-Lo-Wang with MC, which costs a bunch of real money.

However, the biggest disappointment of all is that the thing that really makes the mech unique is it's custom claws. PGI could have picked from other mechs, but I guess they figured the marketing appeal of Yen-Lo-Wang was more important than satisfying the old guard.

What they should have done:

Corean Enterprises of New Avalon announces:

Centurion CN9-AH-YLW!

This model Centurion is inspired by Yen-Lo-Wang, piloted by the Federated Commonwealth hero Justin Allard in the Solaris VII championships. With newly discovered lost Star League technologies, we have been able to offer a limited production run of Centurions armed with an AC/20, two front facing medium lasers, and - most importantly - an upgraded powerplant that will allow you to maneuver your mech into range to use such formidable weapons upon your target. Using a new, lighter internal structure as a basis for this special chassis, we have freed up tonnage so you can carry enough ammunition to keep up the hurt, and the double heat sinks built keep the mech cool enough so that the mech doesn't need the troublesome and expensive Triple Strength Myomer to reach the speeds that you've previously dreamed of in such a venerable mech chassis. And Yen-Lo-Wang is built for WAR, not the arena, so we have not attempted to copy the famous claws, but have instead left room to add modular features you'll need on the modern battlefield like an anti-missle system, targetting modules, active probes and electronic countermeasures.

Is this Yen-Lo-Wang as you've seen it on the holovids? No - it's even better than you remember, and it can be YOURS! The Allard family has even licensed it to be delivered from the factory painted in his Solaris Championship colors.





What does this mean for PGI? They wouldn't have had to lie to us to sell the mech.

What does it mean for the canon fans? We would have a mech we could live with and laugh about, instead of look at and see only a cheap snatch at our pocketbooks.

And something for PGI to think about: Old gaurd mechwarriors are already supporting your game, and we will continue to do so as long as you don't betray what we see as Battletech truth/canon. The new players don't know any better, and don't care about Yen-Lo-WHO? They just want to blow stuff up. Besides, Yen-Lo-Wang was not that special of a mech stats-wise. It's what the Allard family DID with the mech that made it special. Going to battle on the fields and seeing a half dozen Yen-Lo-Wangs each drop is kind of disconcerting. You could have used the following, and everyone would not only be happy, but you wouldn't have to fudge the mech like making a Yen-Lo-Wang without it's claws...


AS7-D Atlas Danielle - Piloted by Wolf's Dragoons Captain Danielle Rondema, this modified Atlas carried three medium lasers in each arm, trading away the SRM rack to do so. The additional heat was dissipated by two additional heat sinks that replaced the rear-firing medium lasers.

JR7-K Jenner Grace - Known as "Cat" among the MechWarriors of Sorenson's Sabres, the personal 'Mech of Grace Shiro has been extensively modified over the years to aid her role as the unit's spotter. Originally trading two Medium Lasers for extra armor, in the lead-up to War of 3039 her 'Mech was outfitted a less-refined experimental Endo-Steel chassis and Ferro-Fibrous armor, allowing theSRM launcher to be replaced with an advanced Octagon Missile Magnet Narc Missile Beacon with three tons of Homing Pods.

AWS-9Ma - A customized variant of the stock AWS-9M model that was utilized by Adam Steiner during the 1st Somerset Strikers' liberation of Somerset in the midst of the Clan Invasion, the pulse lasers were removed and the AWS-8Q's standard Small Laser restored, the remaining weight devoted to a Guardian ECM Suite, Command Console and two tons of advanced Communications Equipment. The small laser was moved to the left arm, and forty double heat sinks kept things cool.

HBK-4G Hunchback Shakir - The personal 'Mech of Sorenson’s Sabres member and future ISF director Shakir Jerrar was refitted to an advanced variation of the 4H in the lead-up to the War of 3039, carrying two prototype Medium Pulse Laser in place of the four standard Medium Lasers.

Catapult CPLT-C1 Jenny "Butterbee" - The personal ride of MechWarrior Jenny Templeton, this variant of the Catapult replaces the standard arm-mounted LRM-15s with a quartet of SRM-6 missile launchers, two in each arm.

All of the above is from Sarna.net . Thank you!

The last of these, "Butterbee," is an ideal choice. A Primary variant of a Catapult with four instead of 2 missle hard-points would be a devestating, but canonical mech. The mech could have other hardpoint restrictions from making it TOO overpowered if necessary, but it's better than taking away the Cent AH, and giving us something with fewer hardpoints, and forcing us to pay MC - which we can't EARN in play.

COME ON, PGI, you KNOW better than this. AND, you CAN fix your errors and make this thing work out better by using the advertising from Corean Industries above to cover up for your false advertising. FIX this BEFORE going to OPEN BETA please, and I think you'll satisfy many, many people.

It's called Verisimilitude.

Edited by Peiper, 26 October 2012 - 02:36 PM.