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[Hans Von Lohman]

I got the impression from what little information there is about this upcoming game that one of the plans is to have classes rather than just have mechs pound each other with little variety.

I'm not sure what their plan is, but I am assuming that means the classic BattleTech weight groupings of Light, Medium, Heavy, and Assault will each get abilities beyond just their combat stats of speed, armor, and firepower.

Just going by how the fluff for BattleTech works the four groups of Mechs were always described like this.

1. Light mechs are used for recon and raiding. I'm not sure what the gameplay will be like, but it might be that only light mechs can "spot" enemies and make them appear on your screen through cover (get rid of 360 degree radar that can see through hills of older games). There is a system like this in the Battlefield Bad Company games by DICE where you can tag an enemy and put an icon over their head so they cannot hide, although it does time out and go away.

Lights might also be the only class of mechs that can be spotters for indirect LRM missile fire.

2. Mediums. Your bread and butter combat mechs. The most common and core fighting machines of an army. Assuming that this game is going to have objective based games like Conquest games which most First Person Shooter games use, it might be that only Mediums can capture the flags.

3. Heavies. They're the firepower brought in to win the battle. I play the online flight simulator Aces High 2, and you earn points as you shoot down planes and bomb ground targets. The really good fighters like the Me 262 jet, or even the Griffon engine Spitfire cost you points if you fly them, but common fighters like the Fw-190-D9 or normal Merlin engine Spitfires are free. You keep your points if you return to base with the plane, but if you are shot down you lose the points it costs to fly them.

I think MWO could go with a similar system and make Heavies available to anybody who wants them, so long as they've got enough points. If you don't have the points, then just go back to playing as lights and mediums to earn points.

4. Assaults are both major firepower, but are also described as being HQ units as well. I would think they would be like Heavies, losing some of your accumulated points if you are destroyed, but they should have additional benefits by having some kind of command and control features.

Probably the single most important thing I would like to see in this game is to have objective based gameplay as well. Team Deathmatch should NOT be the normal game mode at all. We should be after something else, and fighting each other is a secondary to that.

[Woodstock]

Hans Von Lohman, on 06 November 2011 - 01:08 AM, said:

Probably the single most important thing I would like to see in this game is to have objective based gameplay as well. Team Deathmatch should NOT be the normal game mode at all. We should be after something else, and fighting each other is a secondary to that.

I completely agree with you!