Upcoming Patch - Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019 @ 10AM – 1PM PDT

Patch Number: 1.4.193.0

Client Patch Size: 303 MB

Please note that due to compression differences the Steam patch size may be larger than the standalone client patch size.

The following 'Mech chassis have undergone 3060's weapon retrofits:

Solaris Season 4 Reset

Solaris Season 3 Rewards:

To qualify for the prizes, players must have played a minimum of 25 matches in the given Solaris 7 Divisions. Note that these rewards do STACK if you participated in multiple Divisions.

Solaris Season 4





Solaris Spectator Mode changes:

Alterations made to Solaris spectator mode back-end in order to have more matches populate the list.



Match ups will still require a certain threshold between players to populate the list.







Solaris Design Notes: While there will be no major change in format for Solaris Season 4, we did want to put out this design note. At Mech_Con we received a large amount of feedback revolving around the Solaris game mode from numerous attendees including some of the higher ranked Solaris competitors. While there was a lot of constructive feedback that we have been investigating internally, due to the holiday season, there was not enough time to adequately implement any changes for Season 4, even on points that we would like to target for improvements in the future. We wanted to put out this note to say that while Season 4 will maintain a similar format to season 3, we are investigating feedback that we have received at Mech_Con and on the Forums for potential improvements in future Solaris seasons.









Weapon Changes





Ballistic

Auto cannon 2 / Ultra AC 2 / LBX 2 (Clan and IS.)





Velocity reduced to 1800 (from 2000)

Autocannon Design Notes: While long range, sustained DPS is the cornerstone of where we wish to see the AC/2 occupy in the overall weapon line up, we want to make it a bit more challenging to continually target individual components at range. Especially against more agile targets.





Missiles

Streak Missiles:





Streak missile weighting altered to have missile location targeting distributed more across a bell curve rather then equal distribution across all locations. With the Center Torso location having the heaviest weighting, and extremities as the lightest weighting.

Streak Missile Design Notes: While released with a patch targeting a number of LRM based changes in August 2018, the tightening of the lock on assistance angle was equally intended to affect streaks as it was longer ranged weapons. The previous implementation gave too much leeway for lock on weapons to target highly mobile and maneuverable mechs, which in turn, placed a very easy to use hard counter to high mobility Light and Medium Mechs in a way we felt discouraged their use compared to slower, heavier chassis'. While this change has made their overall use against lighter faster targets more fair in that it requires a bit more attention in order to both acquire and maintain locks against faster targets, after months of observing to see how they have settled into the overall game, we felt that they could use a bit more of a boost to provide more of a payoff for needing to adapt to the added challenge of acquiring locks due to the lock on assistance changes and Artemis loophole closures.





For this, we are choosing to tune the weapon to act similarly to how it operates within the lore, with components being weighted towards more of a bell-curve distribution of how the missiles attempt to seek components. With the Center Torso weighted the most heavily, and tapering out to the Arm and Leg components which are weighted less heavily then the torso's. While this weighting will affect how the missiles attempt to seek components, it's important to note that the missiles do not automatically hit the location that they are seeking, but will travel along a path and damage the first thing they come into contact with. Torso twisting, or being mindful of your orientation to the firer will greatly affect the final distribution of how the missiles impact the target.









'Mech Quirks





Javelin

JVN-11A:

Medium Laser HSL +1 quirk added



Medium Laser Heat Gen Quirk removed



Right Arm Defensive bonus removed





Hunchback

HBK-4P

Medium Laser HSL +2 quirk added



Energy Cooldown -5% quirk removed



Energy Heat Gen -5% quirk removed





Javelin + Hunchback Design Notes: With these two 'Mech variants, we want to explore the impact of shifting existing quirks over to the HSL quirks in order to inject some more unique flavor into these variants that cannot be found elsewhere at the moment. We will monitor reactions and performance of these changes and may expand this into other variants depending on the impact.





Panther

PNT-10K:

Range +10% quirk added



PNT-10P

Heat -10% quirk added



PNT-8Z

Energy Range consolidated into a global range quirk



Large Laser -5% Heat quirk added



PNT-9R

Energy Range consolidated into a global range quirk



PNT-KK

Range +10% quirk added





Blackjack

BJ-1:

Heat Dissipation quirk removed



10% of Ballistic and Energy Range quirk consolidated into a global quirk



Ballistic heat gen quirk consolidated into a universal Heat -10% quirk



BJ-1DC:

Heat Dissipation quirk removed



Weapon Heat -10% quirk added



10% of Ballistic and Energy Range quirk consolidated into a global quirk



BJ-1X

Energy range converted into a universal range quirk



Weapon Heat -5% quirk added



BJ-2

Heat Dissipation quirk removed



Weapon Heat -10% quirk added



BJ-3

PPC Family Heat Gen -5% quirk added



BJ-A

Heat Dissipation quirk removed



Energy Range Consolidated into a Universal range quirk



Weapon Heat -5% quirk added





Blackjack Design Notes: While the recent heat sink changes gave many low engine cap Mechs a bit of an overall performance boost, we felt that the Blackjacks didn't receive as much of a boost as we would have liked to have seen compared to other similar 'Mechs. We have opted to give it a bit more of a sustainability boost by converting many of the existing heat dissipation quirks into global weapon heat reduction quirks, as well as provide a handful of other quirk changes and consolidations to have it better fit into its light weight ranged support role.





Hellspawn

HSN All Variants

Moderate boost to all Agility Stats



Hellspawn Design Notes: Although the Hellspawn received a recent mobility boost, we feel that as we rolled out further mobility boosts in later months, it did not hold up to the boosts we previously provided for it, so we will be targeting further boosts to the 'Mech's mobility.





Jagermech

JM6-A:

10% of Ballistic Velocity rolled into a new Universal Velocity quirk.



LRM Spread -5% quirk added



Jagermech Design Notes: For a number of months, the JM6-A has begun to lag behind the other Jagermech Variants. We are providing it with a slight boost to it's offensive capabilities to bring it into line with it's alternative variants.





Piranha

PIR-1

Bonus leg structure removed



Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)



PIR-2

Bonus leg structure removed



Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)



Base Torso Pitch reduced to 20° (From 25°)



Acceleration and Deceleration reduced



PIR-3

Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)



Base Torso Pitch reduced to 20° (From 25°)



PIR-B

Bonus leg Structure Removed



PIR-CI

Bonus leg structure removed



Base Torso Yaw reduced to 100° (From 120°)

Piranha Design Notes: While at Mech_Con, the Piranha was easily the top 'Mech that was commented on by a number of attendees. With a strong sentiment along a number of people spoken to that the current "Glass Cannon" nature of the Piranha still leans a bit too far into the reliable side, especially within the various Public Queues in the game. Monitoring the performance of the 'Mech series since the last time we touched it, we are inclined to agree with this position. We still find it's performance to be a bit too reliable and easy to do well in, even in pitched battles where a defender is actively attempting to destroy the 'Mech, and not simply trying to run away. As the Piranha's core theme is built around it's massive weapon loads for a 'Mech of it's size, we will not be doing anything to disrupt its offensive output, but supplementary bonus' present on it will be phased out of many of the high offense variants and mobility further reduced to be a bit more on the restrictive side for a 'Mech of it's size to offset the large offensive advantages it continues to maintain.





Regarding the PIR-2, while we opted to take a wait and see approach with the last round of changes to the PIR, given their performance after the micro-laser change has brought them into better alignment with alternative variants on the 'Mech, we will be providing it with attributes that mirror the PIR-1.





Arctic Cheetah

ACH- All Variants

Slight boost to global Mobiliby



ACH-A

Torso Omnipod Structure bonus' converted into Armor bonus'



Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod



Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod



ACH-B

LT + RT Turn Rate bonus increased to 10% per Omnipod (from 3%)



Added Target Decay Duration +1 quirk to the LT Omnipod



Added Sensor Range +100 to the RT Omnipod



Arctic Cheetah Design Notes: In addition to the mobility boost we have provided most lighter chassis, we wished to provide the ACH with additional benefits on some of its blank torso omnipods to provide more scouting skill based options on the clan side.





Executioner

EXE - All Variants

Base Torso Yaw increased to 80 (from 70)



Turn Rate and Torso Turn speed moderately increased.



EXE-A

Energy Range quirk removed



C-Large Pulse Laser HSL +1 Quirk added in it's place.



Executioner Design Notes: It was brought to our attention that a particular torso yaw setting for the EXE that was vital to its use as an assault that relies purely on its mobility to survive was not rolled into its base stats and that the chassis has suffered with its absence. Overall torso mobility on assaults is something that we intend to keep tight control on as there are ramifications when this attribute is too generously tuned results in Assaults easily tracking, and often killing, lighter targets. But in the specific case of the Executioner, because it is explicitly designed for high mobility and contains a high amount of locked equipment that further forces it into this role, we feel that both added torso yaw as well as boosted turn speed and torso turn speed play into the high mobility role this ‘Mech should occupy in the overall roster.





Review the Quirks Documentation PDF here!







