



Upcoming Patch - 16-OCT-2018 @ 10AM – 1PM PDT Patch Number: 1.4.185.0 Patch Size: ~800 MB













You can check out the Countdown post for more details about the champion as they are released!





Order the Champion in the Store page here!









New Bolt-On added to all retrofitted 'Mech chassis:

Armor Pauldron



Drill







The following 'Mech Chassis have been retrofitted for Bolt-on support:

Incubus







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

Vindicator



Quickdraw



Kintaro



Wolverine



Highlander



Trebuchet



Orion



Warhammer







New items for Champion 'Mech pack owners:

Champion Belt cockpit item (750 MC)



Champion Microphone cockpit item (500 MC)



Champion Bell warhorn (750 MC)



Champion 'Mech cockpit item (750 MC)



Champion Belt decal (500 MC)



Warthog Teeth decal (500 MC)







New item for 2018 Tournament Supporter Pack owners:

"Word of Blake" Book cockpit item







New items for players who qualify in the upcoming Halloween Special Event:

11 new Halloween themed decals



Halloween themed cockpit item















Solaris Season 3 Reset Leaderboards have been reset for a brand new Season. (Season 2 Leaderboard Archives here)



Update to 'Mech Variants assigned Solaris Divisions (Check out the 'Mech Division here)



Solaris Supply Caches have been updated with new rewards.

Due to seasonal reseeding, the trial 'Mechs for the OSR-1V has been shifted to Division 7, while the Trial 'Mech for the UZL-3P has been shifted to Division 6.





Solaris Season 2 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.





Per Division Decal Reward MC Reward C-Bills Reward GXP Reward Warhorn Reward 1st 1st in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below except 2nd and 3rd place Decal) 5000 MC 25,000,000 C-Bills 250,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Gold Warhorn 2nd 2nd in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below except 3rd place Decal) 2500 MC 20,000,000 C-Bills 225,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Silver Warhorn 3rd 3rd in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below) 1000 MC 12,500,000 C-Bills 200,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Bronze Warhorn Top 10 Top 10 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below) 500 MC 8,000,000 C-Bills 150,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Participant Warhorn Top 25 Top 25 in Division

(and all Decal rewards below) 250 MC 6,000,000 C-Bills 100,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Participant Warhorn Top 100 Top 100 in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below) 100 MC 3,000,000 C-Bills 80,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Participant Warhorn Top 500 Top 500 in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below) 1,000,000 C-Bills 65,000 GXP Solaris 7 Season 2 Participant Warhorn Top 1000 Top 1000 in Division Decal (and all Decal rewards below) 500,000 C-Bills 50,000 GXP Top 2500 Top 2500 in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below) 250,000 C-Bills 35,000 GXP Top 5000 Top 5000 in Division Decal

(and all Decal rewards below) 100,000 C-Bills 20,000 GXP Top 10000 Veteran Division Decal 50,000 C-Bills 5,000 GXP









Overall Decal Reward 1st Overall S7 Season 2 Decal 2nd Overall S7 Season 2 Decal 3rd Overall S7 Season 2 Decal Top 10 Overall S7 Season 2 Decal

















Heat System Overhaul





Based on the results of the recent PTS series and player feedback, this month we are releasing an overhaul of the current heat system. This overhaul will have 3 major impacts over the current heat system:

Across the board increases to Heat Dissipation



Reductions to Shutdown Threshold Scaling



Unifying the behavior of all heatsinks

The net result of these changes will see higher heat dissipation rates across the board. However, for builds that exceed the initial 10 heat sinks, there will be a constriction of the total shutdown threshold. While resulting in higher overall DPS, heat spikes run a greater risk of shutting you down if they are not properly managed.







General:

The first 10 Heatsinks equipped on a 'Mech will always provide a flat 20 total points of Heat Threshold (2 per heatsink) regardless of whether they are internally mounted in the engine, or must be externally equipped in crit slots on a 'Mech.



When a heatsink must be externally mounted to meet the 10 heat sink requirement, its provided threshold is increased up to 2, overriding the stated value in the 'Mechlab.



Any heatsink equipped passed the required 10 base heat sinks act as stated in the 'Mechlab.



When a heatsink is destroyed, only the threshold value stated in the 'Mechlab is deducted from the total shutdown threshold pool. This is a buff over the previous behavior for when a heatsink from a sub 250 engine 'Mech was destroyed and ensures consistency in penalties regardless of which heatsink was destroyed in-match.







Heatsinks:

Dissipation rate increased to 0.14 (from 0.13)



Heat capacity reduced to 0.75 (from 1.3)

Double Heatsinks (Both Inner Sphere and Clan)

Dissipation rate increased to 0.22 (from 0.15)



No more division between engine and externally based heat sinks. All dissipation rates are now at a consistent 0.22 per-heat sink.



Heat Capacity reduced to 0.5 (from 1.5)







Known Issues

Due to how these heat system changes alter fundamental interactions within the game, a number of known issues have been identified. We will be looking to address these issues in upcoming patches:





Heat Containment Skill Tree Skills

Through our investigations into these heat system changes, we have uncovered that there is a bug in the way that heat containment skills are distributing their benefits. As they currently operate, they are unevenly distributing their benefits towards external heat sinks over internal heat sinks. With us constricting external heatsink heat capacity values, these skill tree nodes will feel less impactful in the incoming heat system overhaul compared to what they are now, or through the PTS series. Although they will still provide some benefit over not taking them at all. We will be looking to address this behavior and ensure that it's benefits will be more evenly distributed towards all 'Mechs in a future patch.



Stealth Armor

Because stealth armor completely negates dissipation and relies on a 'Mechs total threshold in order to effectively operate, the changes being pushed for heatsinks drastically affects the current mechanics regarding stealth armor. We will be targeting changes to the stealth armor in a future patch to ensure that it is better tuned to account for the new heat system overhaul.





Flamers

Changes to shutdown thresholds as well as increases to heat dissipation will end up putting flamers, a weapon specifically tuned to the current heat system settings, directly under the microscope, and may need further changes to account for the new heat system. Unlike the previous two entries, we will not be targeting changes for the flamer immediately, but instead closely observe both it's post launch performance, as well as player feedback regarding it's role moving forward. We will be closely monitoring player feedback on this matter and won't rule out potential changes in the future if we feel they are needed.





Further Design Notes: Observers of the previous PTS Roadmap and PTS testers will note that we make no mention of any base heat changes. We have decided to keep the base 30 heat and instead change the base 10 heatsink behavior to provide a flat 20 value regardless of source. This will still produce the total base 50 heat threshold that was observed during testing regardless of how heatsinks are assigned, but keeps a value tied to heatsinks for the purpose of threshold reductions through Heatsink destruction, and side torso destruction penalties for 'Mechs with either Inner Sphere light engines, or Clan XL engine's in their 'Mech. Due to the testing nature of PTS, these destruction penalties where not present in the PTS series, but will be present in the final release.









The Inner Sphere Light and Clan XL engine side torso destruction penalties do not gain a mention in the notes above because the net effect acts identically to how they previously functioned in the game. The only alterations coming from minor back-end changes needed to account for the new tuning to how we track the base 10 heatsink's values. While they will operate identically to how they have worked before, we must note that due to the constriction of added heat capacity through external heat sinks, 'Mechs that before could rely on extensive amounts of external heatsinks to pad the impact of a side torso destruction penalty when using Inner Sphere Light engine, or Clan XL Engines will feel a bit more attrition is lost through torso destruction's compared to how it previously impacted performance. Chiefly due to how external heatsinks now provide significantly less additional threshold.





Additionally, we want to reiterate that the Heat Containment Skills are currently bugged, so builds from PTS that relied on maxing out all heat based skills including Heat Containment, will appear to run a bit warmer then they where on PTS for the time being. We will be correcting this in an upcoming patch.









Equipment Changes





ECM:

Weapon Lock on Time penalty effect now only affects indirect weapon locks when the firer has no LOS to the target under ECM.



The "low signal" ECM effect now disables the ARTEMIS system's benefits.







ECM design notes: The recent removal of the ARTEMIS loophole, the constriction of the weapon lock angle, as well as the recent buff to ECM range has made ECM a low tonnage item have all contributed in hampering the use of lock on weapons, even in direct fire situations. With this change, we want to provide Lock-on weapon users with a more direct counter-play option against opponents under ECM provided they are willing to expose themselves to acquire their own locks, while still continuing to hamper indirect fire. This will also make it to where ECM does not make Streak and ATM launchers so difficult to utilize against targets within LOS and under ECM at close ranges. Although it should still be noted that ECM will counter their ability to lock onto targets if an ECM 'Mech puts an opponent into a low-signal state.





When it comes to countering Artemis, this is functionality that ECM has in the lore that we want to implement here in order to provide a more direct risk-reward factor when using Artemis specifically for SRM Artemis play which often is seen as a direct upgrade over standard launchers. While also providing a bit more incentive for offensive ECM usage to put an opponent into a low-signal state.





ARTEMIS:





Spread Bonus Increased to a 30% spread reduction (from 25%)



Tool tip description has been updated to describe its new interactions with ECM, as well as it's dependence on LOS in order to function.

ARTEMIS Design notes: With the new ECM functionality that provide more direct give and take to Artemis play, we are giving it back a bit more of its previous bite. We will be closely monitoring the impact of this change as we do not wish to see a re-introducing of these values act as a raw performance wall that sees it as a barrier to entry for all missile usage.









Weapon Changes





Energy:





ER Large Laser



Heat increased to 8.75 (from 8)



Clan ER Large Laser

Damage reduced to 10.75 (from 11) Heat increased to 11.8 (from 10.8)





Clan ER Medium laser

Damage reduced to 6.5 (from 7)



Clan Medium Pulse Laser

Damage reduced to 6.5 (from 7)





Clan Heavy Large Laser



Damage reduced to 16 (from 18)





Laser Design notes: The core goal of the PTS series was to find an acceptable way to bring Clan laser weaponry into closer parity with their Inner Sphere counterparts. While our heat system overhaul looks to improve the dynamic between mass alpha vs. sustained fire, this alone did not produce the closer parity that we where looking for through the testing process. Our testing, combined with the recommendations from the community suggestions document, will see a reduction to these weapons damage values similar to what has been suggested to us by the community through the community document.





While the community document has also called for additional reductions in heat for many weapons such as Clan ER Medium Lasers, and Clan Heavy Large lasers, based on the overall feedback gained from our PTS wrap up and roadmap where a number of players feel that the incoming heat changes will amount to an overall buff to clan lasers despite these damage reductions, we are holding off on implementing any additional heat reductions until we monitor the impact of the incoming heat changes. Although we are not opposed to providing additional heat improvements to correspond with these changes should we feel that collectively, clan lasers have swung too far in the opposite direction of their IS counterparts.





In regards to the ER Large lasers, while we agree with the overall point that the previously sent community doc put together regarding the ER Large Laser being a bit too "spammy," and we ourselves feel that it can sometimes cover too many bases on it's own, we only find it to really be problematic as you go up in the tonnage range. With lighter tonned 'Mechs able to use the weapon, but not to the same effect that you see in the Heavy and Assault weight classes.





We are targeting Heat and Clan Damage to keep the focus towards its performance more on the higher end of the spectrum. Accounting for the incoming threshold changes where the extra heat burden will put more pressure on heavier 'Mechs that carry a larger amount of them, but still giving them enough DPS potential to where lighter 'Mechs that can only take one or two of them can utilize the weapon as an effective supplement to their builds, and not have it become a weapon that can only find effective use when you go up into the heavier weight chassis'.





We won't rule out cooldown changes in the future if these changes do not produce the intended results. But for now, we want to target something that would specifically put more pressure on the higher tonnage 'Mechs over the lighter tonnage mechs.









Missiles:





ATM 3

Spread decreased to 2.5 (from 3.2)





ATM 6

Spread decreased to 3 (from 3.2)





ATM 9

Spread decreased to 3.5 (from 3.7)





ATM 12

Spread decreased to 3.5 (from 3.7)





ATM Design Notes: In Battletech lore, all ATM launchers are fitted with self contained ARTEMIS guidance systems independent of the systems found in SRM or LRM counterparts. As we have explained in an earlier missile thread, because ARTEMIS is supposed to come pre-packaged within ATM launchers, we have rolled ARTEMIS' behavior into the core ATM stats independent of whether a player selects the ARTEMIS upgrade or not. These reductions in spread coincide with the 5% buff that the ARTEMIS system is receiving this patch. With the ATM 3 launcher receiving a bit more of a buff to make it a tad bit more potent compared to it's previously set values.









'Mech Quirks:





New Quirk Type: Heat Scale Limit (HSL)





Being introduced with this patch, the Heat Scale Limit quirk adjusts the value in which individual weapons contribute to their Heat Scale penalty trigger. For instance, the natural limit for a standard PPC's heat scale is 2 PPC's fired within a 0.5 second period of time without penalty. An AWS-8Q assigned with a "IS PPC HSL+1" quirk is instead allowed to fire 3 standard PPC's within a 0.5 second period of time without penalty (+1 from the weapon's standard penalty trigger.) If the AWS 8Q were to fire a 4th PPC within 0.5 seconds, it will trigger a heat scale penalty as if it only went 1 over the limit rather then 2. This will allow us to assign a number of flavor quirks based on various 'Mechs core roles within the lore.





The following 'Mechs will be provided this new quirk type:

AWS-8Q: IS PPC HSL +1



AWS-9M: IS ER PPC HSL +1



NSR-9J: IS ER PPC HSL +1 (This will allow it to utilize the ER PPC with the Gauss Rifle to allow for Gauss / PPC simultaneous fire.)



HBK-IIC: Ultra Autocannon 20 HSL +1







Heat Dissipation Quirk Phase Out:

With the incoming changes to heatsinks, we will no longer need to rely on the compulsory Heat Dissipation quirk assignments in order to offset the baseline 10 heatsinks operating at an inefficient level for 'Mechs with a sub 250 engine cap. Because of this, we will be largely phasing out this quirk on 'Mechs that where previously assigned it due to a sub 250 rated engine cap. Although we will retain it in a limited capacity on a handful of 'Mechs as a part of their flavor quirks.





List of 'Mechs that will have this quirk removed:

Flea



Locust



Commando



Piranha



Mist Lynx



List of 'Mechs that will retain this quirk as a flavor quirk:

Urbanmech: 5%



Blackjack: 5%



Vindicator: 5%



Kitfox: 7.5%



Adder: 5%



Cougar: 5%







Inner Sphere Defensive Quirks





Considering the changes to Clan damage outputs, their current performance in the live game, as well as their performance across the various PTS', we feel it is time to consider a handful of defensive quirk scale downs for a limited number IS 'Mechs. PTS 1.1 tested these quirk scale downs with no overall negative impact against the 'Mechs tested, and monitoring their subsequent performance within PTS 2.0 and PTS 2.1 in which many of the 'Mechs received performance boosts through the increased Heatsink Dissipation with the defensive quirks still in-tact, we believe it is time to begin ramping down some of the more aggressively quirked 'Mechs. We want to stress that those that need quirks as part of Geometry or particular flavor quirks will still receive them. But the current scale on the defensive quirks will be tightened up a bit to where they offer flavor, or counteract bad geometry, but don't act as a barrier to entry against clan counterparts.





At this time, we will only be releasing this scale down with what was explicitly tested through the PTS. The exact release values may slightly differ from those that where tested on PTS, but only those 'Mechs tested on PTS will be receiving defensive quirk reductions.





Those 'Mechs include:

Annihilator



Fafnir



Cyclops Sleipnir



Bushwacker



Mobility Increases

Continuing our increases in baseline 'Mech Mobility per our PTS testing, the following 'Mechs will be receiving mobility increases this month:





Javelin (JVN-10N, JVN-10F, JVN-11B, JVN-HT)



Raven (All Variants)



Enforcer (All Variants)



Cataphract (All Variants)



Zeus (All Variants)



Nightstar (All variants)



Incubus (All Variants)



Cougar (All Variants)



Arctic Wolf (ACW-A, ACW-BK, ACW-P, ACW-Prime)



Gargoyle (All Variants)



Executioner (All Variants)







Mobility Increases Design Notes: While the Incubus and the Arctic Wolf where not tested on PTS, we wanted to provide them with additional mobility increases. In the case of the Arctic Wolf, we wanted to provide the Omni-mech and hero version a bit more flexibility accounting for them being a bit more restrictive to utilize compared to the ACW-1 and ACW-2





For the Incubus, we felt that upon release, the 'Mech was still lagging behind when it comes to overall close quarters mobility when dueling individual 'Mechs, which is something we wish this 'Mech to excel at provided its role in lore was that of a duelist. We are providing a modest bump to mobility to assist it in being better able to utilize its speed and mobility in tight, close quarters combat.





A full breakdown of the quirk changes is available through this PDF release.

















Fixed an issue where the Battlemech Store always displayed "All" 'Mechs when returning from "View in 'MechLab".



Fixed a HUD issue where the Hero 'Mech names were missing in the chassis name on the player's HUD view.



Fixed a text bug were the Faction Play War Log text was cut-off if the per match percentage was over 10%.



Fixed a bug where a Clan member could drop into an Invasion match with Inner Sphere members.



Fixed a bug in Comp Play where team mates appear to revert to "Not Ready" state while waiting in queue.



Fixed a bug where the Select 'Mech screen would shift its current row to the bottom of the screen when selecting a 'Mech



Fixed an issue where rapidly clicking on Titles or Badges would cause the headers text to change and flicker.



Fixed an issue where the Commando Hero's arms did not visually move with arm lock turned off.







Art Fixes:

Rubellite Oasis structure beam hitboxes have been reduced in size in location cell F6.



Fixed an issue where the Rifleman 'Mech's Heavy PPCs did not appear attached to the right torso or left torso when equipped.



The new colors from recent 'Mech packs are now properly listed in their respective color filters.







New known issues to be fixed in an upcoming patch:

The Highlander 'Mech's Mountain Line camo has reversed primary and secondary colored areas.



The Highlander HGN-733 'Mech LRM/MRM 10+ missile pod attachments on the left arm and torso are not colored.



The secondary and tertiary color channel of the new Champion Chassis 'Mech base camo pattern are non-functional.









Patch Files (Direct Download)





To make the patching process easier for players with limited download caps, we'll be providing direct download links for the patch file(s) that comprise this patch. This will allow you to download the patch file(s) elsewhere, for manual injection into the MWO patcher through a Patch Cache folder.

Aside from allowing you to download the patch file(s) elsewhere, on another connection, there are no additional benefits to performing the patch this way; the patching process itself will be the same.

This direct patch download process will only work for players running the standalone client. It does not apply to players running MWO through Steam.









How to use these patch files

• Download the above file(s)

• For sake of ease we recommend creating a dedicated folder for the patch file(s), such as 'MWO Patch Cache'

• You do not need to unzip or unpack the patch file(s)

• Launch the MWO Portal

• Select the three horizontal lines in the top left of the Portal Window

• Choose the 'Specify Patch File Cache' option

• In the field that appears, paste or enter the location in which you saved the patch file(s) and hit OK

• For example, C:\Users\<username>\Documents\MWO Patch Cache

• Click the blue Patch button

• The launcher will now check the Patch Cache folder you defined. If it locates the required patch files, it will unpack and use those files to apply the patch.

• Once the patch is complete, launch the game



