The highlight of recent patches have been more Hero Mechs. These things provide you with another chassis variant to pilot, bonuses to your C Bill earnings, and come in super nifty custom paint schemes you cannot change. Last time we got a Commando, this time it is a great Looking Awesome. Not worth the money.
But what about this Camo Spec sale? What is this? Well, paint and camo patterns have been modified with refunds for existing purchases.
Now you can unlock one of the nice patterns for merely a single mech or for every mech of that type if not all mechs. (I could find out for sure but buying camo patterns is a stupid use of money.)
But now once one has spent C Bills or MC on a color they made use it for FREE on any mech they own. Sadly the default freebie colors have become a lot brighter than previously, so my lovely "Eternal Decay" Chaos Marine color scheme my long unplayed 40K army uses can be on my space robots cheaper but it doesn't look right any more. It is a bit easier to preview your cosmetic stuff now though.
I modified my Atlas D-DC with orange instead of blue. With the half price color sale I might as well use my C Bills and get em for 600K instead of 1200. Even the 2 I don't really use or need. Which makes my Atlas look pretty. I even upped its loadout while I was at it.
Sadly, the social stuff still isn't too great. You cannot give "Leader" over to other players, nor can you even see who is Lead if they aren't in your Friends List. I don't think we can move our mechs around in the open bay slots yet either. Disappointing.
And a pair of new limited time cockpit goodies have arrived for Chinese New Year. This snake and some hanging lanterns.
A new BIG improvement is the pre match preparation screen. Talk with your teammies and the other side, see who is out there, mission map and data, game type info, and now we even know the faction and mech chassis each of our team members is in! (Faction is now listed in game.) Great!
A recent patch now added in a voiced and animated startup sequence of your mech. It really gets you pumped for the match. Apparently the voice actress is the same one who did the computer voice in Mechwarrior 2! Classy!
Even in the in match scoreboard got an overhaul. Lookin good!
Death now shows you what happened to your mech and a little bit of statistical info. I have my TALK key mapped to Q since its handy with WASD controls and it sometimes leads me to hitting said key... You can then sit there and see your mech's corpse get circled around by the camera, or move on to see an ally still in action. Unless they die then its back to spinning.
In game friendly and enemy colors have changed a bit and the ECM indicators are a bit more visual. Otherwise its mostly just been bug fixes and performance tweaks. The game is a lot more playable now than it was for a couple of the middle months I have been playing it for. Also there is an Override command that is kind of weird and annoying as you have to hit the key, then if you shut down within 5 seconds you won't. It is kind of odd and not worth worrying about.
And our nice new post game report! Again it looks sharp and gives us the chance to talk some post game smack. Sadly not too many people are using it yet.
And now your personal stats have their own page with a nice breakdown of everything. Many of us playing tonight were hoping for more info such as what we destroyed exactly, more damage info such as who hit us and who we hit (including friends. I "accidentally" shot a Hunchback in the back with a 70 point Alpha Strike because he said LEEEROY JEEENKINS and that is stupid. Would be nice to know when your friends hit you and when you hit them! People sometimes get in each others' way when they want to shoot those nasty enemies!) and the like.
Overall the game continues to get better and better while not screwing over those of us like me who aren't willing to give the developers money hand over fist.
You better look out when we come to town:
Original animated version of this masterpiece was done by someone on the Something Awful forums whose name I forget. As a retro gamer it is MAGNIFICENT. Also as a long time Robotech/Macross fan it has extra fun value for me. I HAD TO USE IT. But I do not want to be a hosting leech so I saved a copy of my own. Which removed the animation. Oh well.
The game just keeps getting better folks. I have played more of this game in play time in the last few months than I have playing tabletop Battletech since I got into the game. In 1988.
Is it the magic of computers, or just due to Battletech gamers, especially ones here in Connecticut (the most antisocial Aspergers of the 50 Current United States of America) being their usual selves?
Little of both I think. A little bit of both...
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