Since moving to a bi-weekly update schedule, pilots have had to become more patient for additional content and bug fixes in MechWarrior Online but the payoffs so far have been worth the wait. Every two weeks we see a new mech and new features and this first April update is no different.
A brand new, gigantic 90-ton hero mech is now purchasable in-game (requires real-money bought MC points), alternative vision modes (night & thermal) have been redesigned, and a variety of air strikes have been added.
The "Heavy Metal" pink Highlander-class Assault mech is now available in game. It's not only the first Assault hero mech, but marks the first time a mech class was added first as a hero before its main variants release. The reason for this? Money. Only players who purchase MC points with real money can acquire this mech until the regular variants release in the next patch two weeks from now. That's Piranha taking advantage of the the free-to-play model. What's really special about this mech, aside from the extreme paint colors that make it the biggest target in-game, is that it has speakers attached to its head that play music when it kills someone.
For players worried about the uncustomizable designs of hero mechs, the devs say that an upcoming patch will allow players to adjust color schemes on hero mechs (read the full patch notes on page 2).
Highlander "Heavy Metal" HGN-HM
- Tonnage: 90
- Engine: 275 XL Top Speed: 49.5 kph
- Max Engine Rating: 330
- Torso Movement: -
- 90 degrees to each side
- 20 degrees up and down
- Arm Movement:
- 20 degrees to each side
- 30 degrees up and down
- Armor: 544 (Standard)
- Weapons & Equipment:
- Left Arm: 3 Medium Lasers
- Left Torso: LRM 20
- SRM 6
- Right Arm: Gauss Rifle
- Internal Structure: Standard
- Hardpoints:
- Left Arm: 3 Energy
- Left Torso: 2 Missile,1 AMS
- Right Arm: 2 Ballistic
- Heat Sinks: 13 Double
- Jump Jets: 5 (5 Max)
- ECM Capable?: No
- Module Slots: 2
- 30% C-Bill Bonus
- Plays a music clip from its head-mounted external speakers after an enemy kill
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The big change however, comes from the next set of consumables, first introduced in the last patch with cooldowns. Now, mech teams can call in support from the air:
New Consumable Modules:
- Each team has a separate global cooldown timer governing their use of artillery and air strikes
- No one can activate an artillery or air strike while their team's cooldown timer is counting down
- At the start of the match, each team's cooldown timer counts down 60 seconds
- When a player activates an artillery or air strike, his team's cooldown timer starts to count down for 10 seconds
- Artillery Strike
- Calls in a barrage of long range artillery.
- Press [Home] to target the area under your crosshairs with an artillery strike.
- After a 5 second delay, 6 shells drop into a 50 m radius around the targeted area. Each shell does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Artillery Strike, Improved Artillery Strike, or Priority Artillery Strike module.
- Upgradable to Improved Artillery Strike.
- Priority Artillery Strike
- Calls in a barrage of long range artillery.
- Press [Home] to target the area under your crosshairs with an artillery strike.
- After a 4 second delay, 10 shells drop into a 50 m radius around the targeted area. Each shell does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Artillery Strike, Improved Artillery Strike, or Priority Artillery Strike module.
- Air Strike
- Calls in a fighter air strike on a targeted zone.
- Press [End] to target the area under your crosshairs with an air strike.
- After a 5 second delay, 6 bombs drop along a 100 m strip, starting at the targeted area and moving away from your location when you activated the strike. Each bomb does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Air Strike, Improved Air Strike, or Priority Air Strike module.
- Upgradable to Improved Air Strike
- Priority Air Strike
- Calls in a fighter air strike on a targeted zone.
- Press [End] to target the area under your crosshairs with an air strike.
- After a 4 second delay, 10 bombs drop along a 100 m strip, starting at the targeted area and moving away from your location when you activated the strike. Each bomb does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Air Strike, Improved Air Strike, or Priority Air Strike module.
New Support Modules:
- Air Strike Accuracy - Decreases the radius of the targeted area by 20%.
- Artillery Accuracy - Decreases the length of the bombardment zone by 20%.
New Consumable Module Upgrades:
- Improved Artillery Strike
- Upgrades the Artillery Strike module.
- Increases artillery shell count by 4, and decreases flight time by 1 second.
- Does not need to be equipped to a BattleMech.
- Improved Air Strike
- Upgrades the Air Strike module.
- Increases air strike bomb count by 4, and decreases flight time by 1 second.
- Does not need to be equipped to a BattleMech.
During GDC, the dev team confirmed that within the next "60 days" 12 vs. 12 matchmaking will be added, leading up to the full launch of this game this summer.
Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Source: PGI
Open Beta Update #14
Upcoming Patch - Tuesday April 2nd @ 10AM — 1PM PDT
Patch Number: 1.2.209
Change Log
UPDATE
Greetings MechWarriors
Yesterday was April Fool's day but these patch notes are no joke!
First is our Hero BattleMech Heavy Metal! Yes this 'Mech is pink and does really play music when you get a kill! This is the first time we have released the Hero Mech before the base variants (coming April 16th). Don't let the color stop you from buying it, though, we will eventually add changing Hero 'Mech colors.
Next we have added air-strike and artillery consumables. I think Conquest mode just got more interesting! Here is a pro tip: Use them for when a light is capping your base on Alpine and save yourself a walk back to your spawn!
New Thermal and Night Vision modes are in! They look amazing and are balanced for game play! No more BlueWarrior for you!
We also have cool new digital camo patterns for your 'Mech and more 'Mech Statues for your cockpit! Keep reading for other fixes and tweaks!
See you on the battlefield!
Matt Newman
Important Known Issue
During testing we ran into a crash issue that only occurred using Nvidia 311.xx drivers, drivers before 311 tested fine as did drivers after 311. The 311 drivers have since been removed from the Nvidia website. If you are using 311.xx drivers YOU MUST UPDATE YOUR DRIVERS failure to do so will likely result in a low frequency (3 out of 10 games from our tests) crash when playing the game.
Content
New Hero Mech
“Heavy Metal” HGN-HM
Highlander HGN-HM
- Tonnage: 90
- Engine: 275 XL Top Speed: 49.5 kph
- Max Engine Rating: 330
- Torso Movement:
- 90 degrees to each side
- 20 degrees up and down
- Arm Movement:
- 20 degrees to each side
- 30 degrees up and down
- Armor: 544 (Standard)
- Weapons & Equipment:
- Left Arm: 3 Medium Lasers
- Left Torso: LRM 20, SRM 6
- Right Arm: Gauss Rifle
- Internal Structure: Standard
- Hardpoints:
- Left Arm: 3 Energy
- Left Torso: 2 Missile, 1 AMS
- Right Arm: 2 Ballistic
- Heat Sinks: 13 Double
- Jump Jets: 5 (5 Max)
- ECM Capable?: No
- Module Slots: 2
- 30% C-Bill Bonus
- Plays a music clip from its head-mounted external speakers after an enemy kill
Trial BattleMechs:
- Raven RVN-4X
- Centurion CN9-A
- Dragon DRG-5N(C)
- Awesome AWS-8Q
BattleMech Cockpit Items:
- Jenner Statue
- Cataphract Statue
- Centurion Statue
BattleMech Skin:
- Digital Skin
New Consumable Modules:
- Each team has a separate global cooldown timer governing their use of artillery and air strikes
- No one can activate an artillery or air strike while their team's cooldown timer is counting down
- At the start of the match, each team's cooldown timer counts down 60 seconds
- When a player activates an artillery or air strike, his team's cooldown timer starts to count down for 10 seconds
- Artillery Strike
- Calls in a barrage of long range artillery.
- Press [Home] to target the area under your crosshairs with an artillery strike.
- After a 5 second delay, 6 shells drop into a 50 m radius around the targeted area. Each shell does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Artillery Strike, Improved Artillery Strike, or Priority Artillery Strike module.
- Upgradable to Improved Artillery Strike.
- Priority Artillery Strike
- Calls in a barrage of long range artillery.
- Press [Home] to target the area under your crosshairs with an artillery strike.
- After a 4 second delay, 10 shells drop into a 50 m radius around the targeted area. Each shell does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Artillery Strike, Improved Artillery Strike, or Priority Artillery Strike module.
- Air Strike
- Calls in a fighter air strike on a targeted zone.
- Press [End] to target the area under your crosshairs with an air strike.
- After a 5 second delay, 6 bombs drop along a 100 m strip, starting at the targeted area and moving away from your location when you activated the strike. Each bomb does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Air Strike, Improved Air Strike, or Priority Air Strike module.
- Upgradable to Improved Air Strike
- Priority Air Strike
- Calls in a fighter air strike on a targeted zone.
- Press [End] to target the area under your crosshairs with an air strike.
- After a 4 second delay, 10 bombs drop along a 100 m strip, starting at the targeted area and moving away from your location when you activated the strike. Each bomb does 10 points of damage.
- Consumed on use.
- Cannot be equipped to a Mech that already contains an Air Strike, Improved Air Strike, or Priority Air Strike module.
New Support Modules:
- Air Strike Accuracy
- Decreases the radius of the targeted area by 20%.
- Artillery Accuracy
- Decreases the length of the bombardment zone by 20%.
New Consumable Module Upgrades:
- Improved Artillery Strike
- Upgrades the Artillery Strike module.
- Increases artillery shell count by 4, and decreases flight time by 1 second.
- Does not need to be equipped to a BattleMech.
- Improved Air Strike
- Upgrades the Air Strike module.
- Increases air strike bomb count by 4, and decreases flight time by 1 second.
- Does not need to be equipped to a BattleMech.
Notable Enviornment Changes:
- Changed HDR eye adpatation numbers to reduce amount of HDR blooming, and speed the recovery rate.
- Tweaked lighting in all levels to minimize lighting differences due to HDR eyeadaptation changes.
- Extended LOD distances in River City on many large buildings.
- Reduced strength of parallax occlusion mapping on some snow terrain textures to help reduce "crawling" terrain textures.
Gameplay
- New Night and Thermal vision modes
- Thermal vision is now "white hot" and is restricted to normal view distances. i.e. Players can no longer use thermal to view long distances.
- Night Vision is now monochrome green and shows greater detail in the surroundings.
- Players will notice that Night Vision is more useful for navigation and Thermal Vision is more useful for seeking out Mechs.
- More tuning will be done but these vision modes are on target for final implementation.
Bug Fixes
- Artemis Line-of-sight check is now more accurate
- EMP will now turn off ECM in Counter Mode
- Mech damage glow now fades away after they die
We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!
The MechWarrior® Onlineâ„¢ Team