If you wish to get together on the MechWarrior Online beta, you can get some keys for the game here. I've already gotten mine and am looking for others to play with.

http://www.mmobomb.com/giveaway/mechwarrior-online-beta-keys (Yes, you have to sign up for the site, it's annoying, but the site at least produces decent video content in the form of First Looks and a weekly Podcast)

I got one, I'm in. Surprisingly easy.

This actually looks like a real beta. Kind of barebones, no music or menu sounds. Still very impressively stable and fast to get into. I am so glad to see someone else using the CryEngine. It loads ridiculously fast and looks great.

Have you played much Edge? I am a little lost as to how I manage my weapons. It just seems like they all go off at the same time so I overheat constantly. I cannot seem to configure the weapon groupings in the mech lab or in-game. It looks like once you play a bit you can build your own mech so maybe that is where the configuration comes in?

Also, what is the "online" portion of this aside from MP and F2P? I was kind of hoping for a big over-world with contested zones and organized conflict (something like planetside).

Currently as you said it's in real beta(more like development alpha but let's not get lost over terminology). Technically we're not supposed to talk about it outside their forums, breaking the NDA and all.

Right now you have to set weapon groups up during a match. Select the group/weapon you want with the arrow keys and right ctrl to toggle. Message me on Steam for more info.

...So they decided to have the game go into Open Beta next week. I'm so damn worried because the game is in no real state to be released, let alone allow people to actually pay for things. I really wanted this to be a great game. The combat's fairly solid but there's not much beyond the mech to mech combat...Guess I have to either go back to MW4 or pray From Software actually makes Chromehounds 2 and puts it on PC.

In Reply To #5

Wow.

I played 5 whole minutes of it a week or two ago, and quit rather quickly after deciding it needed a lot more work. Open Beta... I hope it's a long one.

In Reply To #6

Yeah...like everything else these days Open Beta is code for "We need to release this game and start charging you now else we'll be even more broke than we are. Even if we get money there's probably a good chance we'll never fix what needs to be fixed so...fuck you!"

I still jump into this every now and then. I like it because it is very fast to get a game going and it doesn't take too long, but it does feel persistent to some degree and it just looks freaken great.

I think I almost have enough credits to actually rig my own mech up too, so I look forward to that. But really, the main draw is seeing clouds of bee-like LRMS smoking through the sky, lasers and PPC bolts slamming into big hulky robots. CryEngine is great.

In Reply To #8

I would honestly say skip the Commando and save up for a Jenner. Commandos blow hard...a stiff breeze knocks them on their asses and all the hard point configurations of all the variants suck. If you do decide to get one, get one that has the 2 missile points in the chest and load it up with Streaks. Sadly one of your arms with that same mech is useless.

The 6 energy weapon Jenner is really fun, just load it up with all small lasers and drop a few jump jets for heat sinks. You'll be a really nasty ankle biter. Avoid Centurions, they're just slightly less shitty Commandos.

So this game just blew wide open for me because of Teamspeak.

I found the unofficial teamspeak server which has 'dropship' groups as well as a bunch of clans and 'tutorial' channels. Working with a coordinated squad makes everything soooo much better. It moves far beyond just some mech-deathmatch into a really enjoyable tactical showdown.

And I learned all sorts of things like LRM's need to arm and don't work under 180m, twist your torso before impact to absorb damage away from your core, PPCs reduce effectiveness under 90m, jenner's are ballin' and how to spot and not die.

Oh and the NDA is gone.

Yeah, and then Open Beta was supposed to be the 16th and then they screwed that up with releasing a major engine patch with shit ass ton of film grain which got fixed by a modder who took a few seconds to make a transparent image in Photoshop. So now it's pushed back indefinitely though probably soon as they'll need the money.

I've actually re-installed MechWarrior 4: Mercs(which is a free download, look for the Mektek version). Gonna wait for Open Beta to play again because I really don't feel like playing since there's gonna be another wipe as it starts. Would like to see more medium and heavy mechs implemented, the next one is another light, the Cicada.

Correction: the game classifies Cicada as a medium mech despite it being classified as a light in TT.

Well Open Beta has launched, so anyone can play now. Hit me up on Steam if you want to form a group.