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EDIT: There is a variant that downgrades the engine to fit a PPC in there instead of the small laser. That might be ok.
I think it'll all really depend on how customizable they are. For instance, the standard Cicada doesn't look fantastic, but what if you could drop the speed 10%, throw in some jump jets, and rejigger the weapons/heatsinks so you've got endless medium laser, a PPC, or triple medium laser? Being able to maneuver like a light mech, take hits like a medium, and harass like crazy certainly wouldn't be a bad combination. Standard Cicada isn't very impressive, but I think there's the potential there for a comparatively hard-hitting light mech with the armor of a medium.
Also, looking at the comparitive prices just made me realize something pretty awesome: the credits you earn will actually mean something beyond just advancing the game. Think about it. Yeah, a standard Raven is kitted out as a better scout, but it also costs 2 million more than a standard Cicada. That same two million could go a long way towards letting that standard Cicada kit out for wider variety of fighting. Basically, the whole MMO aspect will actually make the game more like the tabletop than pretty much virtually any iteration of the franchise. Choosing what mech to buy will actually have serious weight to it other than another couple of missions picking up salvage or just picking another mech; who knows how many hours you might have to spend in a given mech before you can get something else.
Fudge. Just talking about this dumb little Cicada makes me want this go to open beta more than anything else yet.
EDIT: Want it so baaaaad.
Typical contract work...
The devs have stated that you wont be able to add JJs to mechs/variants that don't support them (I assume you'll be able to remove them from mechs that do have them, tho I can't imagine why anyone would). And the only Cicada variant that has JJs uses level 2 tech that isn't for sure in the game yet.
Something I'd like to see in one of the vids is how ammo storage, critical hits, and ammo explosions are going to work. First off, I was happy just to hear that critical hits are a thing. Second, I want to see just how devastating ammo explosions are going to be. Doesn't look like these devs are taking the approach of making mech cores explode every time they go down (which I like), but I'm wondering if ammo explosions will be fatal or merely crippling.
With regards to ammo explosions, one can only hope that machine gun ammo doesn't act as a perfectly contained nuclear bomb when it goes off.
Well, you could manipulate the number of heat sinks, the amount and positioning of the armor, and the engine power, which was cool.
Not that any of that mattered, since most servers had heat disabled, everyone maximized armor, and no one touched their engine ratings.
I guess sometimes people would strip all their electronic equipment off to load more weapons on their mechs, but that was really the only meaningful choice to be made.
Mattering how? I think they could be destroyed by critical hits to their containing location, but they weren't any more or less effective at dissipating heat as far as I recall.
Its been years since I've touched that game though.
Making heat sink placement matter, not just amount would be kinda cool.
That may be your experience, but some people have played extended campaigns where the players ran a merc unit and then the C-bill cost of things mattered quite a bit. Certainly I think pick-up games and scenarios were the more common way to play, but it wasn't universal.
There is a canonical Daishi/Dire Wolf configuration with jump jets, the S configuration. Like all the S configs, it's designed for close-quarters (primarily urban) combat. It has an LB-20X autocannon, a large pulse laser, five medium pulse lasers, two Streak SRM-4's, two machine guns and two anti-personnel pods.
Besides which, MechWarrior Mercenaries (both iterations of the game) had a robust C-Bill system for purchasing parts and supplies. Maybe Ninja Snarl P never played either of the Mercenaries games? Or Crescent Hawk's Inception (which wasn't nearly as robust, but C-Bills were important enough that you could play the stock market with them)?
As for the computer games, I've always loved the mercenary-focused installments best. There's just something about the resource management aspect of it that really clicks for me. It imbues the action with another layer of importance and urgency.
On the subject of resource management and economics, I wonder if they'll do anything with C-bill cost as a balancing mechanism for MWO. I'm sure an Atlas will cost more to buy and repair than a Jenner, but that's not relevant during the match, and anyway I doubt they'll make an Atlas cripplingly expensive to operate. (See World of Tanks for an example of this phenomenon in action; an IS-7 may cost 6 million credits but once you've bought it you can basically fight Tiger IIs with it all day.) I suppose they'll probably just stick with tonnage as the only limit on what you can bring, for better of for worse.
Some day, though, I'd like to see a game of this type give players a reason to care about cost efficiency vs. combat potency. (After all, the Russians won WWII by producing a shitload of T-34s quickly and cheaply, even if they weren't individually as good as the Panther.) It'd be kind of cool if teams had a limited C-bill budget instead of, or even in addition to, a simple tonnage limit.
Yeah, I know they've had games with salvage/C-bill systems, but that's all pretty short-term stuff meant for singleplayer. Getting more money was an objective, but wasn't so tough as to make spending the money all that meaningful. If it takes, say, a week's play in the MMO to earn a million C-bills, then buying new mechs and equipment is going to mean a lot more than running a couple of missions to make some quick cash and buy a new mech. Even on the low end of things with an Urbanmech, that's over a week to buy one dinky little mech. You just get attached more to a mech if you have to stick with it for a while. If it sucks, you'll think back that crappy whatever you had; if it's great, you'll have second thoughts about giving it up and trading it in.
Making people have that sort of long-term attachment makes all the difference in the world between people just playing a mech versus making them feel like they own the mech. And when the idea is to get people to like their mech enough that they'll buy stuff for it in an otherwise-free MMO, attachment is definitely good.
For dropship matches I'll just have a stable of different Centurions all with slightly different loadouts and different derogatory graffiti and slogans.
Allow me to reassure you that it is still absolutely jacked.
Doesn't stop the developers from posting a "What do you think of the matchmaking system? We want honest, thoughtful, polite feedback" thread on the official forums every single patch, then ignoring it when everybody says "Kindly fix the fucking matchmaking."
That seems like my kind of scouting mech. But then again, the weapons don't really scream "put some pressure on to make a getaway." Maybe there's tanks and turrets and shit that this mech can swoop in and take out, rather than being mech-to-mech combat based.
The only thing better would be a Locust reveal.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums.
I dunno, I'm from a part of the country that calls a cicada a locust, so that might be a little confusing.
Don't worry, we're dealing with pronouns strictly.
And I come from a part of the country that calls Timberwolfs Timberwolfs.
Ahahahahahha
I like your style, sir.
I come from a part of the country where we call Awesome Fuck-Awesome.
Not sure why everyone else mispronounces the name.
Joline Lovejoy: Gifted Priest/Pistoleer - Chains of Corvis IKRPG
The 3025 Locust has always been one of my favorites. But it is/(was?) an unseen, so I don't hold much hope.
Except for the part where you're a big-ass mech and anybody with half a brain cell can respond to the radar blip from activating near them long before you could do anything meaningful. At least, every Mechwarrior game I've played has done things that way. Startup ends up taking so long that you end up chewing on lasers before you can fire, thus sort of negating the whole idea of a "surprise attack".
Not to mention the problem of trying to hide a mech forty feet tall on maps designed to prevent mechs from being obscured by terrain or objects. Can't blame the engineers too much for that; they were told to build a walking tank, not the galactic champion of giant robot hide-and-seek.
Mo'fucking Hussar
30 tons, 151.2 km/h top speed... Armament? One ER large laser. Like a boss.
Is it just built to ram fools?
Steam PSN: DerWaffleMous Origin: DerWaffleMous Bnet: WaffleMous#1483
It's far to complex for someone who isn't an engineer to understand.