As closed beta draws to an end we would like to take this moment to thank those that participated, without their help we could not have gotten this far.

At first hearing about the Open Beta launch many of our players will feel concerned and say to themselves â€œWhy go open beta now?â€ or â€œwait itâ€™s not ready yet because â€˜Xâ€™ feature isnâ€™t implementedâ€. Therefore we would like to explain as best we can as to why the time is right to enter open beta.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain things is that we feel our closed beta players have done all they can and simply they are fatigued by closed beta. What I mean by this is that closed beta can be trying mainly because all of their hard work gets wiped on a regular basis and even though we continue to have tens of thousands of unique players playing each day there are many that are waiting to spend their time when it really counts. There are many other reasons but that one is reason enough, it has become time for us to open our doors and allow all of our great players to start progressing towards advancement that they can keep. Also to that point it has become time for us to let in an entirely new batch of players to continue to help us generate the metrics and data which will help us craft the best game possible.

In no way does going open beta mean we are slowing down with our development and improvement of MechWarrior Online. I can assure you we have identified an unlimited amount of work and improvements were working through week by week and day by day. An example of that content plan:

Greetings Mechwarriors!

With Open Beta nearly upon us I wanted to take time out to you about some of the cool new features and content we're going to be releasing.

Camo Spec

In early November we'll be rolling out the first pieces of our visual customization feature set. First out the gate early in November will be a new section inside MechLab called Camo Spec. Players will be able to customize the base skin and up to three colours using a simple graphic interface. Each application or change will have a range of costs, with premium content costing a small amount of MC. Players will have access to free base colours and a default skins to start with premium content being rolled out with each new update.

Cockpit Items

In addition to customizing the outside of your BattleMech, players will be able to decorate the inside of your cockpit with some cool decorative items like fuzzy dice and the familyâ€™s hula girl.

Decals

By early December, players will be able to apply pre-made decals, and soon after that, their own player created art! The decal feature will roll out with the first parts of Community Warfare. Yes I'm teasing you, yes I'm sorry. More details will have to wait for a later post this month. In late October and November we'll see more content in the form of the Cataphract, a new alternate map, the remaining BattleTech gameplay features (Artemis, Active Probe, ECM) new skins and colours, along with a new game mode called Conquest. Oh and let's not forget our first Hero BattleMech. It's the < REDACTED >!

Weâ€™ll see you on the battlefield,

Bryan Ekman and Russ Bullock