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Basically that's the C3 computer system, with the command being the master computer and other lancemates having slave computers.

The only thing that really looks comfortable for a command role so far is the Catapult. I always imagine Command mechs being on the bigger side of things, firmly in the Medium to Heavy category. You don't want command in a Locust that gets broadsided by a Gauss barrage while snooping around. That's just demoralizing.

I seem to recall one of their role warfare interviews where they said commanders would have access to things like drones, close air support and artillery strikes. They definitely want to reward overall battlefield awareness with massive destructive capability.

I'd say that the Dragon is also a good candidate for command. It has very few distractions- weapons systems- good speed, and heavy armor.

True, the Dragon would be a good call. If I could bring myself to pilot a House Kurita creation. If I had one I'd use it, but I'd definitely be keeping my eye on something else.

The one teaser trailer has the Warhammer launching a remote drone after the Satellites get taken down, which gives him an aerial view of the fight, and allows him to survive the resulting ambush.

Till that Atlas shows up.

At least he stood his ground. I like that. He's outclassed, but he still puts up a fight. Who knows, maybe that Atlas pilot is a terrible shot? Likely? No, but you gotta give it a chance. Not like the Warhammer is a slouch, that's a pretty good mech right there. I'll put it on the list.

See, I loved the Command role in Chromehounds as well- when I actually got a team that listened to me, and didn't just have Metallica blasting over a muted game or something. And that's Chromehounds, where you had to follow orders. I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

Ouch. That's a little harsh. I agree that is what I expect from most of the online community, but what I thought Melissia was saying was she wouldn't want someone 'in command' that hid in the woods somewhere and told everyone else what to do.

A 'lead from the front' mentality is preferrable.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:

Even AC5 is going to have a 'handler'. I'm not sure how that's going to work, but I'm certainly interested.

You get an Operator, he doesn't have a mech, just a top down view of the map. He can mark locations, scan for enemies and then look up all stats on enemy AC's and relay these to his allies. He also see's anything in a friendly AC's deployed recon units. And he can just look over the shoulder of allies when it's boring on the map and just enjoy the view. Operators are going to be the distinct difference between a good team and a great team.

For offensive they can also deploy turrets of quite a few varied types including jammers.

@Soladrin - I am SO there. I love AC, and I'm not too bad at it, but that sounds like it could be fun if you get good at all the command tricks.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:@Soladrin - I am SO there. I love AC, and I'm not too bad at it, but that sounds like it could be fun if you get good at all the command tricks.

Well, if your in need of a great organized and friendly community/team. Check this place out!

http://www.reachingperfection.com/p/forum.html#

We even got acces to the japanese demo, so some of us (including me) have already been playing for weeks :3

Guessing that means PS3? Since you can skirt the region-lock by making multiple accounts and whatnot?

Opposite, xbox 360. Our leader has an account which downloaded the demo when it was out in japan.

If you then download his profile and go to his download history, you can download it again. Log off, go on your own account, and voila, you have the demo.

Brilliant! Certainly not an effort I'm willing to go through, but that's pretty clever.

And gives me higher hopes! Since I really prefer gaming on my 360 as opposed to my PS3.

Back on the topic of Mechwarrior... I'm certainly hoping Comstar becomes an option at some point. Particularly since it adds so much drama to the universe, and the battle of Turkayyid!

I mean... that's kinda a big deal.

Anvildude wrote:See, I loved the Command role in Chromehounds as well- when I actually got a team that listened to me, and didn't just have Metallica blasting over a muted game or something. And that's Chromehounds, where you had to follow orders. I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

I figure it'll be less "go here do this, they're there so you have a chance" and more "enemy is here, here and here. Sending support."

Anvildude wrote:See, I loved the Command role in Chromehounds as well- when I actually got a team that listened to me, and didn't just have Metallica blasting over a muted game or something. And that's Chromehounds, where you had to follow orders. I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

THat is so not what do.

I am glad to have teamwork. I do not, however, want to be bossed around during a game.

Teamwork needs to be intuitive, developed from experience. It is not fun if it's teamwork by shouting.

Leave that for the military or work. Not a game.

Melissia wrote:

Anvildude wrote:See, I loved the Command role in Chromehounds as well- when I actually got a team that listened to me, and didn't just have Metallica blasting over a muted game or something. And that's Chromehounds, where you had to follow orders. I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

THat is so not what do.

I am glad to have teamwork. I do not, however, want to be bossed around during a game.

Teamwork needs to be intuitive, developed from experience. It is not fun if it's teamwork by shouting.

Leave that for the military or work. Not a game.

It's not teamwork if it's shouting to begin with. If anything, to be a good commander player, in any game really, you need a cool head and just call out targets and offer advice on how to take things down.

Ah. Sorry about that Mel. But yeah, like Soladrin said, if you've had run-ins with shouty Commanders, then they weren't very good Commanders.

The role's not for bossing, but for keeping things in order. A good Commander's role is to keep track of the overall mission objectives and make sure their Lance, or Pack, or whatever doesn't run into an ambush, or is able to set their own ambush up- telling the grunts where to go and what their target priority is so that those grunts can concentrate on the important business of blowing up the enemy without being blown up themselves.

Yeah. In a lot of multiplayer games, I'm guilty of being the lone wolf at times. But that's because in so many FPS games and the like you're playing with a bunch of idiots. Teamwork is non-existant and people only use mics to scream obscenities at each other. And insult their heritage and sexual history. It's times like that where I'm perfectly happy to Mute All and treat them all like bots.

There are a few games that bring me out of that, and most are team oriented games. Trenched was fun. Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 was a BLAST when working together with friends. Planetside was another good one. Right now, ME3's multiplayer has started to give me renewed faith in people, (okay not really, but it's been a nice change of pace). I say 80% of the games I've played have had some sort of organization and feedback.

I'm hoping MWO online proves to be another good outlet for well organized, intelligent gamers. It would help if they didn't suck too, but I'd rather have someone on my team who sucks and knows it but tries hard anyway than someone who just whines about getting robbed or the game being broken to mask their failures.

Just read through this whole thread... thewwww.

I last played mw2 a long time ago. I got very excited by what i have read today.

Looks very interesting assuming that the wallet effect doesnt balls it all up as with most free to play mmo games (with money stores). Ive seen this loads of time in world of tanks.

That's actually my main worry with this game.

I don't mind paying for a particular Mech, I do mind it when that mech is gonna be better then anything else purely on the basis of it costing (more) money.

Mechs should all be the same price (unless their overly specialized or crap) since they all have a use. Power in Free to play games should in no way be related to your wallet size.

Mechs should all be the same price (unless their overly specialized or crap) since they all have a use. Power in Free to play games should in no way be related to your wallet size.

Yeah, but it is.

As much as everyone wants to say it isn't, some things will be fundamentally better. If this wasn't the case, why would you bother buying the packs? To continue mediocrity and fair play? No! You want that fancy ammunition for your LBX/Autocannon, or that newer, more efficient heat sink, or whatever.

I definitely believe things can be 'fair', but balance we'll just have to wait and see. I wouldn't be adverse to dropping twenty bucks out of the gate to horde some gear and give me an edge early on. Because that's what I'm paying for, more stuff to customize something that fits my playstyle so I can brutally murderize the other team faster.

My point is more, money should get you different things, not better.

The good stuff should be unlockable or something, not buyable.

What you should be able to buy is different mechs for different playstyles.

My view on the commander (whoever that may end up being):
They should be the ones with the overall picture, general areas to scout, when to bring up this group or that group, or pointing out priority targets. What we don't need is someone who tries to micromanage every player. What we *do* need is 1 (or two) people calling out things like where the enemy is.

Right, and gathering information, keeping a good link with whoever's scouting ahead, and listening to his team regarding where and when to use special abilities.

If you Scout is in a near panic because he just stumbled over a team of heavies, the Command should be able to single out the area, guess some ranges, and either direct others in the area or call in a strike of some kind.

Again, we'll have to see what all the abilities are for a commander. Maybe they'll have some passive buffs and things as well.

Soladrin wrote:

Melissia wrote:

Anvildude wrote:See, I loved the Command role in Chromehounds as well- when I actually got a team that listened to me, and didn't just have Metallica blasting over a muted game or something. And that's Chromehounds, where you had to follow orders. I have a feeling most Mech pilots are going to be much more like Melissia- lone wolves that you're lucky to keep from firing on their own lancemates.

THat is so not what do.

I am glad to have teamwork. I do not, however, want to be bossed around during a game.

Teamwork needs to be intuitive, developed from experience. It is not fun if it's teamwork by shouting.

Leave that for the military or work. Not a game.

It's not teamwork if it's shouting to begin with. If anything, to be a good commander player, in any game really, you need a cool head and just call out targets and offer advice on how to take things down.

This is what killed Alien Swarm for me (A free game, btw). You HAVE to work together to get along the later stages on hard difficulties, but people were more interested in bossing people around. About 90% of the games would include one person telling, not asking, other people to fill roles, and if you didn't want to fit the exact role (I'll play a Tech and open doors, I will NOT play a Medic and heal people....) you were labeled "A Fething Idiot who was the reason Valve hadn't updated the game!"

I have no problem following orders, but I am not going to be bossed around.



Also, a Lance is five mechs, right? Are we going to start dividing ourselves into Lances, like the Guild Wars 2 Dakka Korps are doing?


Edit: What's all this talk of money and buying things? I thought this game was going to be F2P.

It's Freemium, if I'm correct.

And there's a thin line between bossing and ordering- one that basically consists of how well each of the people trust each other- which is nill when they've been thrown together for the first time, and can only be grown if they either already know each other, or are forced to work together long enough to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses and use them correctly.

I believe that an IS Lance is 4 mechs.

Also on the "Command" mechs....

So there is no official Commander role, there are simply people who have installed Commander modules on their ’Mech. If someone has three module slots on their ’Mech, they could install three Commander modules, one Commander module and two Scout modules, or any other sort of combination. As a result, the game does not officially enforce, or even recognize, any sort of strict Commander role. It will be up to players to decide who should bring which Commander modules (as well as any other modules) into the match, as well as establish any sort of chain of command they wish to follow.

So like ChromeHounds, where you were only a Commander if you had an NA Maker on your Hound. Interesting.

Do we know if Target Mark is a Command Node?

A lance is 4. This is the Inner Sphere designation.

A star is 5. This is the Clan designation.

This is from Dev Blog 4:

Commander Skills:
• Order View – Allows the pilot to right click and request friendly BattleMechs to attack or defend areas/objectives on the BattleGrid
• Command View – Provides a layer of information over the BattleGrid including objectives and any intelligence information passed back by scout Mechs on the front line
• Call Air Strike – Calls in an air strike that does AOE damage in a straight line
• Call Artillery – Calls in a land based artillery bombardment on to a target area
• Call Naval Bombardment – Calls in Naval artillery bombardment that has a larger and more powerful result than regular artillery
• Call UAV – Calls a UAV that passes overhead of the battlefield and relays ALL enemy positions to the command pilot
• Call Predator Drone – Drops a heavy explosive device on a targeted area
• Call Satellite Sweep – Full detail information is passed to the command pilot including enemy location/direction/speed
• Danger Close – A short range radar detection system that lets the command pilot know of any nearby enemy BattleMechs

No info on specific modules that will be available/unlocked by what skills.