Battletechnology

[Mr March]

MechWarrior 2 is a classic and one of the best PC games of all time. I still have the entire MW2 soundtrack on my computer and on my iPod

I also liked MechWarrior 4, especially with the two mech expansion packs. I played a lot of MW4 multiplayer

[Greyryder]

According to IGN, this is indeed Mechwarrior 5. I hope it has widescreen support, and that the new computer I'm building will run it.

[Dangard Ace]

That mech in the third trailer looks like a Jenner.

According to IGN, this is indeed Mechwarrior 5. I hope it has widescreen support, and that the new computer I'm building will run it.

Link?

[promethuem5]

MW4 got me to finally buy a Joystick... altho, for 5 I could motivate myself to get a really nice new one, with force feedback and all. MW3 definitely is the best of the series tho, even if I never really could get that one to work with a stick. 3 gives you alot of appreciation for the classic rugged Bushwacker medium 'mech And nailed home my love for the Anihilator 100-tonner... quasi-Clanner design ehtos combined with really big weapons bays meant that I was running around by the end of 3 in a sniper monster with an ER Large Laser and ER PPC in each arm, with a Gauss Rifle in the torso. A well placed Alpha Strike would shear a limb right off most heavies from across the map!

I really hope we see something like the campaign and salvage systems from 3... the way it was handled with buying and trading in 4 Mercs was fun, but the total tabletop campaign style of 3 was really something special.

[kaiotheforsaken]

Link?

http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1002275p1.html

Full article is up.

Oh and here is an actual trailer

...and now that I've watched it...holy hell, I cannot wait for this sucker to come out. The engine looks really nice and it seems to capture some of the old MW goodness.

Edited July 9, 2009 by kaiotheforsaken

[big F]

Well If that is in game footage (as stated) better start the build program for my new system a little early.

What happened to the version that was being built using the Fear engine ?

Eaither way my Sidewinder FFB just got all warm again

Bout time all we need it to be is open engined like Fear or Freelancer and we could have a Macross mecha game in no time

[kaiotheforsaken]

Off topic: Now Freelancer is a game I'd like to see a sequel to.

On topic: Seeing some of that in game footage really impressed me. Even in the video I got a good sense of the weight and power behind the Mech, and I'm sure this will be accentuated more by how it handles. Serious plus imo, it seemed like speed was really the only way to differentiate on the older ones.

Also there are some really nice things going on graphics wise, the buildings crumbling, the gun barrel getting hot after the PPC shot. While I suppose this stuff is pretty common now, it sure is nice to see it in Mechwarrior.

I believe the MW that was being worked on with the FEAR engine was MW5 which got canned.

Edited July 9, 2009 by kaiotheforsaken

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

Awww, looks like I have to get stuck with playing Davion AGAIN!?!?!

[big F]

I believe the MW that was being worked on with the FEAR engine was MW5 which got canned.

So the fear one is dead but this one is not ?

[Syngyne]

So the fear one is dead but this one is not ?

This one is a brand new announcement, so no, it's not dead.

[VF5SS]

Oh man Big West is going to be pissed.

Let's just put in a design we never owned into the game's trailer.

[Syngyne]

Oh man Big West is going to be pissed.

Let's just put in a design we never owned into the game's trailer.

If you mean the Warhammer/Tomahawk, didn't they just sort out the licensing issues behind that? They're back in the tabletop game.

[VF5SS]

They gave no indication that they got Big West and Sunrise involved. More or less all they said was, "hey we have all those old artwork and we're going to use it again!"

[promethuem5]

Oh god... watched the trailer twice already. It's simply amazing... weapons doing real damage, realistic destructable battlefields, and proper mech maneuvering. I cannot wait. Not too terribly surprising that we see it from the Davion side... they're like the Ultramarines, or Cygnar, always the 'good guys' for the fluff. I'd love to get to play as the Dracs as well. Is the planet listed in the beginning in the Draconis March? My CBT history is beyond rusty, but 3015 is in the Davion/Kurita war, isn't it?

[Robelwell202]

<After a few moments in catatonic bliss>

Oh, my freakin' gawd!!! I want this so bad, words dimply fall short of expressing it.

And they actually brought in the old Warhammer?!? Enough tweaking of the original Tomahawk design, and it looks GREAT!

Ohhh... now I have a new obsession!

[promethuem5]

Mods, can we move this to a MW5 announcement thread?

[kaiotheforsaken]

So the fear one is dead but this one is not ?

Basically, there was an actual game called Mechwarrior 5 that was announced when Fasa and the Mechwarrior license were still owned by Microsoft. It's been gosh...probably 4+ years since they canned it though.

This game is brand new and from what I'm reading is considered more of a reboot of the whole series rather than just a sequel to MW4, hence the game just being called Mechwarrior.

[Mr March]

Yeah, I too am feeling this new game is a reboot. I can understand the series starting over now. The last MechWarrior game, MechWarrior 4: Vengeance was released in 2000, now nine years ago. In the world of gaming, that's already several generations old. There's little to be gained by carrying over into a sequel now, especially since there's really no compelling story reason to do so

Edited July 9, 2009 by Mr March

[Coota0]

Oh god... watched the trailer twice already. It's simply amazing... weapons doing real damage, realistic destructable battlefields, and proper mech maneuvering. I cannot wait. Not too terribly surprising that we see it from the Davion side... they're like the Ultramarines, or Cygnar, always the 'good guys' for the fluff. I'd love to get to play as the Dracs as well. Is the planet listed in the beginning in the Draconis March? My CBT history is beyond rusty, but 3015 is in the Davion/Kurita war, isn't it?

Not an expert on CBT "history" but the interview said that it during the second war

[treatment]

the Warhammer in the trailer...

IS.

VERY.

FANTASTIC!

Wonder what other Unseens are they gonna put back in MW-5.

w000000000000000000000000000 hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cent]

HOLY DAMN

I havent been keeping on top of gaming news, so this took me completely by surprise until logos mentioned it in the toy threads.

I AM SO EXCITED I HAVE LOVED MW SINCE A KID. THE TRAILER IS AWESOME TOO. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG SO EXCITED >_<

Seriously though, urban mech warfare has been bitching. Rounding a corner in MW4 with LBX20s and shotgunning a lighter mech into the pavement is unbelievable.

I don't mind a reboot, however, I hope they keep some of my favorite mechanics of salvaging, refitting and safely disarming mechs.

This bugs me a little: "you will gain experience and become better at piloting your chosen mech, and that will translate into better accuracy and damage with weapon systems." RPGish elements have been introduced to a lot of FPS games... I think its gotten kinda tiresome. However, I played Multiplayer Battletech 3050 (or something like.. was a beta from EA a long time ago) where you leveled up and acquired C-Bills online and bought your way up to better mechs. I enjoyed that concept, since it was sorta like the Mercenaries derivatives, although the game itself could be better. I still don't see why players wouldn't jump into heavier mechs and just train those, since ultimately, they will be superior. Sometimes its true that the 75 ton mechs are still very good, and the 90s can still dish it out with the 100s, but ultimately, unless you have a drop weight limit, people aren't going to be picking fleas or commandos anytime soon. Even the Uziels or Cougars (awesome med/light mechs) will get left out.

I hope they make the multiplayer solid and diverse too, MW4 was alright, but the battles were almost the same unless they were defend/attack scenario maps.

Now only if MWLL would come out soon.

Also, please bring back the Daishi/Dire Wolf. That thing is ugly as hell, but I love it.

Edited July 9, 2009 by Cent

[taksraven]

Was there anybody else shouting as they watched this trailer with the dude blasting away at the main body of the other mech:

"GO FOR THE LEGS!!!! GO FOR THE LEGS!!!!!"

Or was it just me?

Taksraven

[VF5SS]

Was there anybody else shouting as they watched this trailer with the dude blasting away at the main body of the other mech:

"GO FOR THE LEGS!!!! GO FOR THE LEGS!!!!!"

Or was it just me?

Taksraven

You do realize that's what made the last two games no fun at all right?

[Cent]

Meh. The players can choose to put more armor into their legs. If they just buffed standard/minimum leg armor in a patch it would have made it much less viable.

The Warhammer got struck in the leg by the Atlas. Didnt do much though.

Btw, I was too excited to notice the first time through. The date is 3015. Clans havent shown yet. No clan mechs for me

Also, I cant believe that Warhammer pilot moved into the shroud... when it was pretty obvious an atlas moved into it a few seconds before =/. Collapsing buildings is pretty nice though.. However, I doubt it'd destroy a mech.

You also notice that the Atlas is designated Atlas-C... which makes me believe that pre-built variants are in the game, and customization will be limited. That sucks. If they are going to do their leveling system, they should allow players to increase their skills in certain types of modification (ie. omnislot modification or left arm modification) so that the players can get a larger variety of what they can fit into a slot... or even introduce the possibility of fitting in something that is just slightly too big. Or just having the ability to fit a few more heatsinks/increase the effectiveness of existing heatsinks. Mech games should be all about customization.

Edited July 9, 2009 by Cent

[eugimon]

Fantastic! I hope it's optimized to hell so my decidedly non optimized PC can handle it.

[Cent]

Doesnt matter, its a 360 exclusive.

j/k XD

[Dangard Ace]

Meh. The players can choose to put more armor into their legs. If they just buffed standard/minimum leg armor in a patch it would have made it much less viable.

The Warhammer got struck in the leg by the Atlas. Didnt do much though.

Btw, I was too excited to notice the first time through. The date is 3015. Clans havent shown yet. No clan mechs for me

Also, I cant believe that Warhammer pilot moved into the shroud... when it was pretty obvious an atlas moved into it a few seconds before =/. Collapsing buildings is pretty nice though.. However, I doubt it'd destroy a mech.

You also notice that the Atlas is designated Atlas-C... which makes me believe that pre-built variants are in the game, and customization will be limited. That sucks. If they are going to do their leveling system, they should allow players to increase their skills in certain types of modification (ie. omnislot modification or left arm modification) so that the players can get a larger variety of what they can fit into a slot... or even introduce the possibility of fitting in something that is just slightly too big. Or just having the ability to fit a few more heatsinks/increase the effectiveness of existing heatsinks. Mech games should be all about customization.

Mech games are about blowing crap up.

And I like the pre-clan tech. With clan tech the BT game started to become too unbalanced, everyone suddenly had super amount of tech knowledge and knowhow to buiild super uber mechs.

Yah I played the FASA game Battletech when they were still a board game company. Young freakin whippersnappers with your computerized MW and all that. Pen paper and miniatures! That's the way WE played it.

[F-ZeroOne]

That would be a nice unlockable, actually - "Congratulations, you have earned a voucher you can send away for the original game"...

[promethuem5]

Yah I played the FASA game Battletech when they were still a board game company. Young freakin whippersnappers with your computerized MW and all that. Pen paper and miniatures! That's the way WE played it.

Battletech was my first minis game, right before it became 'Classic'. I do really love the pre-Clan tech level, even tho the post-Clan super tech IS alot of fun to play with...

My biggest nitpick questions:

Will Pulse Lasers fire like laser machine guns as they did in MW4, or continuous beams as in MW3?

And, can we FINALLY get the option to load our LBX-ACs with Frag or Slug ammo? It always sounds so awesome in the books when someone gets trounced by an LBX-AC20 Slug shot!

[Syngyne]

You also notice that the Atlas is designated Atlas-C... which makes me believe that pre-built variants are in the game, and customization will be limited. That sucks. If they are going to do their leveling system, they should allow players to increase their skills in certain types of modification (ie. omnislot modification or left arm modification) so that the players can get a larger variety of what they can fit into a slot... or even introduce the possibility of fitting in something that is just slightly too big. Or just having the ability to fit a few more heatsinks/increase the effectiveness of existing heatsinks. Mech games should be all about customization.

They should if it makes sense within the context of their universe. That's one thing that really bugged me about the first few Mechwarrior games. They basically went straight off the board game construction rules, which is great if you're building a 'Mech up from scratch and have access to a full factory. There is no way you should be able to do that level of customization in the field, even with the magic mobile field repair thing. Replacing a weapon here and there is one thing, but pulling an AC/20 out and replacing it with half a dozen new heat sinks and a PPC should require tearing half the 'Mech apart. With this system, basically every 'Mech is an Omnimech in terms of versatility, since you can put anything everywhere.

I actually liked the way the customization was done in MW4(even if the game itself felt too arcadey). It just made more sense that certain areas of the 'Mech could only take certain types of weapons (I can't imagine that a missile launcher would have the same power and cooling hookups that a large laser would). The Omnimechs even had multipurpose slots to make them more versatile than the IS 'Mechs.

While I wouldn't like only being able to pick between 2-3 configurations of a 'Mech (even though that would be more in line with the source material), I don't think complete freedom to customize with the board game rules makes sense in a game like this.

[promethuem5]

Yeah, MW4's handling of the different flavor weapon slots was pretty good, but the amount of slots could be limiting. I liked MW3's open-ness, because I could make my sniper Anihilator, even if in Classic Battletech Style, it'd have never worked!

[Cent]

Mech games are about blowing poo up.

And I like the pre-clan tech. With clan tech the BT game started to become too unbalanced, everyone suddenly had super amount of tech knowledge and knowhow to buiild super uber mechs.

Yah I played the FASA game Battletech when they were still a board game company. Young freakin whippersnappers with your computerized MW and all that. Pen paper and miniatures! That's the way WE played it.

Well. I have to agree with you. Clan tech was almost always superior and just kinda imba for games. However, according to the lore, I loved the idea of an exiled group of mysterious invaders with technology from before inner sphere war... before everything they had got trashed in the conflict. The resurgence of old lost technology and introduction of the super-specialized warriors and engineers from the clans was just awing. I loved it as a kid.

Also, I started on MW2 as a kid when I was 10 maybe, but what ended up happening is that I got interested and played MW1 (which was kinda blah for a game)... Then checked out the board RPG. I wasn't interested in the RPG game... reminded me of D&D, and I was not geek enough to do it. I did however, become fond of the miniatures and the novels and literature. That probably led me to my current toy obsession =P. Even so, I have the utmost respect for all Battletech vets, and would not mind a continuation of the series, in collectible, board game, novelization or video game format. (Or even a movie, despite the Hollywood trash it'd probably be)

They should if it makes sense within the context of their universe. That's one thing that really bugged me about the first few Mechwarrior games. They basically went straight off the board game construction rules, which is great if you're building a 'Mech up from scratch and have access to a full factory. There is no way you should be able to do that level of customization in the field, even with the magic mobile field repair thing. Replacing a weapon here and there is one thing, but pulling an AC/20 out and replacing it with half a dozen new heat sinks and a PPC should require tearing half the 'Mech apart. With this system, basically every 'Mech is an Omnimech in terms of versatility, since you can put anything everywhere.

I dont remember being able to do full customization on the field with mobile bots... I think I remember mobile support vehicles in MechCommander, but otherwise I don't. I also remember some MW missions had mech bays/facilities where you could power down to be reloaded/repaired. Regardless, I was referring only to the full mech bay customizations outside of a mission. I dont think mech customization should be possible anywhere else. I also kinda think they should reintroduce a cost for mounting equipment and issuing repairs ala MW2 Mercs.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Cent

[taksraven]

Doesnt matter, its a 360 exclusive.

j/k XD

THAT SUCKS!!!!!!

Taksraven

[kaiotheforsaken]

I know he said j/k, but for the sake of clarification, PC and 360 is what the article says.

Edited July 10, 2009 by kaiotheforsaken

[Syngyne]

I dont remember being able to do full customization on the field with mobile bots... I think I remember mobile support vehicles in MechCommander, but otherwise I don't. I also remember some MW missions had mech bays/facilities where you could power down to be reloaded/repaired. Regardless, I was referring only to the full mech bay customizations outside of a mission. I dont think mech customization should be possible anywhere else. I also kinda think they should reintroduce a cost for mounting equipment and issuing repairs ala MW2 Mercs.

There were mobile repair facilities you could fix yourself with in MW3, and if I remember right that's where all your customization was being done between missions. Even with a 'Mech bay, unlimited customization is a bit silly... cramming a bigger engine into a 'Mech and moving its insides around so it'll fit doesn't seem like something you could do in the time between missions on the front lines, especially given how technologically stagnant the IS had become.