Spoiler



Preamble: For the day will come and our kin will stand on Terra's firm soil. Ready to rebuild the Star League with their hearts and hands. But who shall lead? Upon whose shoulders will the burden lie? The answer is the test; the test is the journey. Whichever clan carves its way through the barbarians to reach that fabled cradle of us all, shall be the vehicle of the League's rebirth. Upon the Star League throne shall sit that clan's wisest Khan. So should it be. So shall it be.



Hey everyone, this is Daeron, also known as Bombadil from No Guts No Galaxy and I'd like to welcome you to the MechWarrior Online Dev Vlog #5. This is our chance to get to know the Devs and hear directly from them on the past, present and future of MechWarrior Online. In this episode, we'll hear from the Devs on such topics as Clan battlemech cockpits, general game balance, as well as updates on the matchmaker system. So let's jump right in with our first question for Lisa Sapinsky, 3D artist for MechWarrior Online.



How did you approach the design of the Clan cockpits, and what makes them different from their Inner Sphere counterparts?



Well our goal with the Clan cockpits was that you would immediately know you're in a Clan cockpit, or in Clan Mech as soon as you dropped into a map. So even if you didn't know what Mech you were watching or were in you would know immediately whether you're in a Clan or an Inner Sphere cockpit. So what we ended up doing was doing a more sleek design with a lot more organic shapes, so things like the frame are rounders, and we have all new monitor pieces and dashboard pieces. The dashboard got a complete overhaul with a completely new style, and we also added a whole new material system to it so we have more unpainted metals, thinner looking metals, and make it feel more modern. In general they feel a lot more cramped than the Inner Sphere cockpits but they have optimal visibility, so a lot more windows than a lot of their original concepts. And also we wanted to make sure that they still felt they belong to the same universe, but had entirely new technology. My personal favourite is the Kit Fox, I like the original T-shaped window design for that one.



And next we'll get a matchmaker update from Karl Berg, Senior Systems Engineer for MechWarrior Online. How will the code prioritize MatchMaking, and how soon will the new system be implemented?



Currently it looks like group size, elo, weight class and age (time waited in queue). Additionally we're going to try to get faction and tonnage matching into there as well. Right now, 4x3 is working in testing. Additionally just to guarantee it works, we have what are called release valves built into the system. Those release valves essentially look at the incoming player counts, determine whether or not 4x3 is going to continue to be viable, and we'll relax those constraints over time just to guarantee we continue taking matches no matter what happens.



Currently we have an external process which can simulate actual production matchmaking data. That includes game filter selections, game modes, the Mech selections, several other factors as well and replays those at various rates, including group sizes. So I can actually play with those input values quite a bit, to simulate specific edge cases and degenerate cases, including up to taking out weight classes completely from the system just to verify that under all situations the matchmaker continues to function correctly.



They're currently nearly complete, I'm working on the stretch goals right now. Hopefully I should be done by the end of this week in fact, so by the time you see this video. Well if I hit my stretch goals and finish by the end of this week I'll hand it off to our QA department Ricky Cheung and hopefully sometime after that we'll be able to see something on Public Test or something we'll discuss for sure.



Realistically we'd be looking at July 1st at the earliest. That would involve a mandatory 2 week QA time to go through Stable and Stage. So that's really the earliest you'd see it on Production.



And just for fun, Alex Iglesias and Ricky Cheung tell us which is their favourite new Clan battlemech.



My favourite Clan Mech is the Stormcrow. It's fast, it carries a good amount of firepower, it looks sort of like a tact chopper on the legs and it's got like little weird claw kind of hands, I don't know they look neat.



My favourite Clan Mech is the Nova, it's fast, it's got Jump Jets and you can put 16 weapons on it.



And finally, Paul, Lead Designer for MechWarrior Online shares some information on upcoming changes and general game balance.



Ok let's talk about weapons, SRMs are tuned very well now. The "Brian Buckton" fix was investigated like we mentioned last time, it is now in the build ready for June 17. We're going to expect an increase in probably damage being dealt around maybe 15-17% somewhere in that neighbourhood. We're going to be keeping an eye on it, just to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Since the tournament we've been looking at the air and artillery strikes, and we made those few adjustments about the spacing of the shells and the amount of damage that they were doing. We're still maintaining a good constant eye on them, make sure that they're not doing crazy amounts of stuff. We're looking into the splash damage overlap. We are also looking into possibly, now you guys were asking for this, we're possibly looking into reducing the amount of damage the head takes from those explosions. Even if it's a direct impact, we're still going to take a look at reducing the amount of damage that the head takes.



So Clans, we are nearing our first set of usable numbers on the weapons, the overall balance, I've got to tell you they feel very very powerful just because the sheer amount of weaponry you can bring onto the battlefield. The way the new mechanics are going to be working out, as explained in my last Command Chair post, the Mechs feel dangerous on the battlefield. But I'm going to tell you this, you're going to have to bring your skill to pilot those things properly. And if you're a good player in a Clan Mech you're going to be devastating on the battlefield. Now don't get cocky though, because Inner Sphere Mechs still have that capability of just tearing you apart if they catch you alone, so teamwork is going to become very essential for both Inner Sphere and Clan players. We had a test match where we had nothing but Inner Sphere vs Clan Mechs and it was such a nail-biting experience that people were sweating and shaking after the test was done. It's going to be a very exciting time, so hope to see you guys out on the battlefield!



And that concludes the MWO Dev Vlog #5. Be sure to stay tuned for future Vlogs, including more information on the development of MechWarrior Online, Community Spotlights, and the exciting future of the MWO competitive scene. Speaking of which, I'd like to congratulate House of Lords for taking first place, and Steel Jaguar Gaming for taking second place in the MWO Tournament: First Engagement. On behalf of Piranha Games and No Guts No Galaxy, thanks for watching and until next time MechWarriors!



