Beta Report:
Mostly awesome.
Right now all matches are 100% random so no pre-setting teams, so you can't coordinate fits or mechs or even strategy really. More like a slower paced random team deathmatch than what we'll get with the full game.
1. Overall - Having a lot of fun. Beta matches are running about 10 minutes each, so a lot of instant gratification. Log in, jump on, explode giant robots. Controls are suitably complicated but nothing at a TIE FIGHTER level. You can expect to be walking around and shooting people pretty quickly once you get the handle on the differences between where you are looking, and where you are traveling. the HUD has a great display for the direction you are walking vs pointing, so it's much much easier to coordinate than from what I remember of the old old pc game.
2. Combat - The pacing feels about right for my tastes, with the larger mechs lumbering along and the small scout mechs able to run 3 or 4 times as fast, and if piloted well run rings around the larger mechs and gnatting them to death, much like a frigate soloing a buffer fit BS in eve under the right circumstances. Now I've done this a few times already, but if one of these scout mechs gets complacent and continues to orbit in the same direction, you can always 'stop chasing' and wait for him to cross your field of fire, and then open up with an alpha strike (on something like an atlas), and explode him nice and good.
Weapons - Lasers have huuuuge heat penalties, if you are shooting with more than a few for more than one volley you will overheat and temporarily shut down your mech. I love that the game designers are not making it easy on you with lasers. You try and load up a lot of large lasers and spam people you will be useless in combat. You really have to pace yourself and not get too antsy when using laser mechs or you will die while overheated.
Projectiles - Love them so far, but you really must watch your ammo
Missiles - Long Range Missiles will be a problem depending on how they adjust anti missile systems and jamming/whatever. Right now all you need is a scout to run up and lock onto a target, and you can have a whole squad of long range missile mechs a million miles away and launching ridiculous volleys. You can defend yourself with terrain, etc. but long range open field type maps will be a shooting gallery. Picture 100 caracals at 100 km in eve and spamming you to ruin.
Sniping: I think if they don't tune this right it will be a problem. A few mechs with long range projectile cannons can really ruin your day quickly if they are coordinated. I think coordinated teams on teamspeak with missiles and sniper guns will ruin most teams on larger maps. Don't expect to get a big hulking mech anywhere near these guys and not die if they know what they are doing.
Armor / Survivability - I'd like a bit of an HP buff across the board, I think you can explode people a little bit too fast. Overexposing yourself and walking around a corner into a few enemies can be immediate death in something slow. Maybe that's intentional.
Balance - They will need to implement a point system of some sort for competitive PVP because right now its pretty much the Atlas parade on a lot of my matches. I think for the 'real' game when you are losing real money for these mechs it might balance out, much like in eve you dont see all-bhaalgorn fleets every day. The larger mechs will be much more expensive and that might help.
I won't say the Atlas is OP per se, but much like a Bhaalgorn anything getting within a certain distance is going to die, generally speaking.
Maps - I think they are a little generic right now, but I think they are planning on adding many more. But some nice and open and some with more obstacles.
Jump Jets - I haven't found these useful for 'escape' so much but good for getting around. What goes up must come down and you can just hold your reticle over where they are going to land and blast them to ruin on the way down.
Fitting - Similar to EVE with slots and weight availability, and also restricted like eve that certain types of weapons only in certain slots. Each mech has 'variants' that can fit different types of weapons in those slots. So you can get a 'laser' version of this mech and configure those how you want, but you won't be adding giant railguns to it unless you buy the mech that supports those.
So in conclusion it looks very promising, and I think with coordinated and dedicated teamwork will be an extremely tense and also fun game. Mindless fun with random deathmatches but potential for some serious fit-fu and fleet commanding.
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Topic: MechWarrior MMO (Read 18020 times)