So does FtB go Mercenary, or go House unit?


I'd imagine Mercenary....... The Von Badass Legion

If we put it to a vote I'm sure Stiener would win 'cus, you know, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Small Penis, Atlas.

To be honest, I tend to stick with 3025 mechs so I've never taken a 25 ton Stiener small Penis on a recon mission. The thin armor and single short range gun do not appeal to me. It also stands out when its on patrol and is about as stealthy as a rhino. In a hairy situation, the power supply sometimes over heats and the whole unit goes limp.

I'll stick to piloting a big cyclops.

[Running and ducking]
--
TAZ

The plan for the mechs, from what I understand, is that everyone has access to everything, for a price. They're only going to have a limited ammount of mechs at the open, expanding as things progress. Also, it should be a year until the dreded Clans arrive, so whenever they do, as salvage gets taken, could influence what goes out on the market. I'm just stuck for a few years before I get my bushwacker, which sucks, but what are you gonna do?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03 ... more-99027

A 1st blush.

Also, game play trailer:

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/13/mechw ... er-online/

Other little tidbits:

I caught a Tweet by Bryan Ekman in January and started a thread here http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/3212-m ... est-today/ in the MWO forums.
Every Friday they have playtests for the whole staff to checkout the latest build and have a few beers. Many times the Devs will drop info in the thread or give us an after action report.

Some info they've dropped....

Although they plan on other game modes post launch the 2 that are in currently are a TDM mode (with objectives) and something they call Dropship mode where you have a Dropship with 3 additional mechs, you lose the one you're in, you hot drop in with the next one.

In the Trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyASZYO9HA at the :37 the Mech seen across the Dropship was confirmed to be a "Swayback" Hunchback 4P Variant. So Variants are in.

It's currently 12v12



Garth (Community Manager): "Playtest fridays are hilarious. I watched Thomas (look for him in the interview this month) overheat his Swayback to explosion four times in"

Paul Inouye (Lead Designer) : "As for today's play test. It was incredifun. I'm heavily starting to enjoy the nuances of the Jenner over the heavier class Mechs. Life expectancy isn't that long but if you know how to pick and run, boy are you going to be a pain in the arse on the battlefield. Just make sure you keep one eye open for those AutoCannons and such."


Paul : "Just a heads up.... RUSS F'N CHEATS!!! "


Paul: Adridos:The more he posts, the less he plays. His own fault. B)

"Nah.. I just quit out to mock you guys... now I have to wait cause server is full. I wonder how many people that is? "


Paul: "p.s. If you're wondering if a light mech is viable against a heavy... ask Russ.... MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!! "


Paul: "Two things I learned from this playtest today...

1) Looking at the glare of the sun does not help you with targeting a scout.
2) Drunk programmers are reallllly easy to kill. "


Paul: "That aside... today's playtest was Atlaspolooza!

Dave B still has some tuning to do to make it feel right when you have a map packed with Atlases... Atlussi...Atlas'z.... and all you see is salvo after salvo of LRM's dropping down on the battlefield. LOS and the new bits and bobs that were added are really working out well. We're well on our way to having some really cool stuff to show off in a few weeks time.

3 people in testlab: "I killed that Atlas!!" "I helped!!" "I helped too!!!"
Paul: "All 3 of you can go screw your hats!!!!" *flips table and storms off* "



Paul: "Well well well... guess who didn't show up? Garth!

Today was one of the most dramatic playtests to date. Dramatic meaning ... OH MY FLIPPIN GOD!!!!

I picked an Atlas and started navigating around, waiting for enemy signals to pop up from my team mates.. all of a sudden my cockpit is rocking back and forth and the damage indicator is flashing. I'm spinning around looking for the source and can't find it. Then just in the corner of my view port, I see the top of a Jenner running circles around me. This is shortly followed by Russ yelling... "I'm so kicking your arse Paul!!".

Well I can't have none of that so I reverse gears and change my circle direction and look who's exposed. Every weapon system on my 'Mech fires. SRMs, LRMs, MLs... BLAM!!! Oh look who's running away. I start chasing after Russ and Bryan starts laughing at how effective Russ is at dodging my fire and running away.

BOOM! Oh look.. .Russ is a smoking pile of metal. I turn around and there's 3 Jenners running around me taking pot shots left and right. FINALLY one of my team mates shows up in a Hunchback and starts laying down the smackdown. I'm crippled but still effective. I take the ML off the side of a Jenner in a big explosion of smoke, metal and sparks and he runs away. All of a sudden I'm taking heavy fire again by someone close.

Matt Craig is sitting next to me.. "You in that Atlas?" I respond "Yeah." He responds... "DIE!!" So for the next 3-4 minutes I'm dealing with him running around me in a Jenner while I'm trying to target him in my now smoking Atlas. I'm hammering T to target him and my weapon systems finally lock on. "You're a dead man now!" I yell straight into his ear. My lasers are firing non-stop. Heat is critical but screw that... I'm not letting some engineer take me down.

Then it happened.

BOOOM!!!!!!

...

...

My Atlas is now a smoking pile of metal and glowing molten armor. There's a rather large plume of smoke where my head used to be.

Very intense time had by all. This was a great session!

p.s. Russ is still whining about me in an Atlas and FD is bragging about his 7-3 K/D ratio. I finished the day with a 6-2 K/D. So I figure I win. "

(Later he added that respawns and K/D ratio where turned on for testing purposes)



Via Twitter:

@bryanekman Just played 2 v 2 - @russ_bullock and Jordan Weisman vs Me and @mattneutron

@Matt_Neutron @bryanekman oh Hey Bryan My Twitter is @Matt_Neutron. Was a pleasure scouting for you. I can't believe I got killed by Jordan Weisman!




Bryan Ekman ‏ @bryanekman

So I saw the flamer in action yesterday.



And Finally, last nights response by Paul, about the playtest.... He loves to Troll the community... and hates to lose. So I think it didn't go too good for him.....

Q: Anything new in the build?
None of your business

Q: Any new 'Mech chasis added?
None of your business

Q: Were flamers used?
None of your business

Q: Did Paul cry like usual?
Guess you don't want in Beta

Q: What maps did you play?
Forest

Q: What new gameplay mechanics are online?
None of your business

Q: Does Matt N look pretty in his tiara?
Don't be silly. Matt doesn't walk around wearing a tiara. Just a hula skirt and it's not pretty.

Gotta say that does look amazing. So will there be an official Booter merc clan I can join? I'm happy to fight for anyone as long as its not house marik