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Greetings MechWarriors,
It's time again for a look into the coming months of content and additions currently planned for MechWarrior Online. You can check out our previous April Roadmap and Beyond post here.
June sees the release of an all new, dedicated Competitive Mode for ranked play. Pitting organized Teams in Elo-ranked 8v8 Conquest matches, the results of Competitive Play over the coming months will be used for seeding competitive Teams for the Semi-Finals phase of the upcoming MechWarrior Online World Championship Tournament in December.
July fast approaches, and with it a major update in the form of new Technology and Equipment with the release of Civil War, along with a timeline advancement, a new Inner Sphere Map structure, and additional features for Faction Play.
There's much more on the way, so without further delay let's take a look at what's to come for MechWarrior Online in the months of June, July, and beyond.
Patch Date: June 20th
Inner Sphere Resistance Heroes (Store)
Pictured variant: Enforcer ENF-GH
8v8 Competitive Mode
The premier feature of our June patch. Featuring Competitive Leaderboards, Team Registration and Management features, Competitive Play lobbies, detailed statistics and standings, and more, this all-new Competitive Play area will enable players to form Teams for ranked Competitive matches against other Competitive Teams in 8v8 Conquest Matches.
Though Teams will be matched according to Elo rankings, this Competitive Play feature is intended for players and Teams operating at the highest levels of skill and organization. Join the fight if you're up for the challenge, but participation should not be taken lightly!
We'll save the full rundown on this mode for the June Patch Notes, currently slated to arrive on the Friday preceding the patch.
Faction Play Updates
The recently-released Incursion Game Mode has been refitted for Faction Play in this patch, and will be replacing Assault in the Tug of War. This patch also sees the introduction of weighted randomness to the Tug of War bar; a specific Game Mode may still be weighted to a distinct phase in the Tug of War, but matches will now have a random chance of running any of the other Game Modes. You may drop into Siege during the first phase of the Tug of War, for example.
Balance Adjustments
As mentioned in some previous posts and updates, June brings with it an initial phase of Energy weapon adjustments. Full details will be provided with the June Patch Notes, but the focus of this pass is twofold: provide better role definition between the different Energy types, and most importantly, foster a better baseline balance between IS and Clan Energy weapons.
Turret Performance Optimizations
Originally slated for release in May, Turret objects have undergone an optimization pass in the June patch to reduce their performance footprint. This optimization is more likely to assist machines in low-spec territory, and will hopefully lead to some minor performance gains for Game Modes in which Turrets are utilized.
Sound Caching and Performance Optimizations
This patch features improvements to our previous sound caching methods. In addition to eliminating rare issues with delayed sounds, this optimization may assist machines with lower amounts of available memory, particularly within Faction Play matches. This will also address the perceived Jump Jet audio delay introduced with the Skill Tree patch, which was a by-product of the previous caching method.
New Decals and Supply Caches
93 new Decals and 25 new Supply Caches are arriving in this patch. This batch of Decals includes the five remaining timeline-appropriate Clan Decals, an assortment of new Shapes, and a large collection of new Word Decals. These new Words can be easily combined to form distinct combinations like Clan Death Dealer, SRM Boom Stick, Frontline Breaker, etc.
Removal of all Premium Time requirements for Private Lobbies
With the June patch, Premium Time will no longer be required for accessing any aspect of the Private Lobby feature. Tonnage Rules, Match Time, Time of Day, View Mode, and Full Team settings will all be available.
And a special 'Summer Blast' month-long event, to be announced soon!
New Tech and Equipment (Info Page)
Faction Play Timeline Advancement
Civil War 'Mechs (Store)
Balance Adjustments
2017 MWO World Championship Tournament Supporter Pack
Faction Play Updates
Special Event system
War History
and more
Clan Wave 2 & 3 Hero 'Mechs (Store Page)
Additional Clan Wave 2 & 3 C-Bill Variants
Later in August:
MWO World Championship Tournament Build
Semi-Finals
More Faction Play Updates and Improvements, integrating additional suggestions and feedback from Faction Play Roundtables
2017 Annual Rewards Program
Upcoming 'Mechs
Civil War: Escalation (Store)
Mech_Con 2017 and the 2017 MechWarrior Online World Championship Finals
New Maps
'Mech IK
A major unannounced feature (look for more information in coming months)
And more....
