Steam
Steam players account for roughly half of the player-count in MWO most of the time.
Steam launch has been like re-launching the game "plus quite a bit". Total MAU count hit is well over double what they hit when they launched the game the first time
Average day playercount right now is at least 25-50% higher on average on the week and weekends is higher than it was during Closed Beta, Open Beta, or the initial Launch
They do plan to release more DLC items on Steam for MWO but they are not sure yet if the existing packs will stick around or will evolve over time; dropdeck packs are also being considered in concert with CWv3 dropping
Patches, Roadmap
Going forward, aiming for monthly patch cycle rather than bi-weekly; much easier on development and better quality patches with more feature improvements and bug fixes included
Roadmap for February 16th patch
Rifleman mech
3-4 new maps being released only available in private lobby, untextured, and intended for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 but you could put as many players in a match as you'd like on any of them. Solaris-like maps being used as a testbed for competitive PvP ranked gamemode they are currently planning, potentially located under a "Solaris" tab in the client
Time of day selection in private lobbies
Balance changes (details will be in patch notes): Clan TCs have been buffed to make them more worth the tonnage they require to mount , MASC has also been buffed w/ greater speed and maneuverability increase and the "decharge" rate was cut in half so it should last twice as long or recharge twice as fast(? Phil unclear on this point), quirks - too much to talk about but mostly focused on the underperforming Clan mechs (yay!), says some still need new quirks that aren't available right now related to jumpjets or ammo that they hope to add at some point, they also removed all the negative quirks on the top-performing Clan mechs (cool), IS mechs they did not change a lot beyond reducing the structure buffs on the BJ-1X and BJ-3 (aight), and IS energy range quirks are being slightly reduced as Russ doesn't want IS range buffs to be more than 10% on any of them (sadface). Says they still have their eye on a few other things but that's the gist of the changes for February.
Flamer has been changed! New visual effects that don't blind the target quite as much (boo lol), but better mechanics now related to how it heats up the enemy mech and does damage etc. Thinks it might make them somewhat interesting. Details in the patch notes
Ability to remap the spectator controls. More tweaks to spec tools coming over the next few months
Stalker visual mechlab retrofit
Caustic Valley map getting some improvements like V.Bog did as far as "pebble control" to help ease the pain of little junk on the ground
Lots of bug fixes
Post-February: * New pilot model (in March?) * Union-class dropship model mentioned, too
New mech announcement
Talks about one-off mech packs that they've done recently, wants to do something on the Clan side this time
Another classic mech (aka unseen/reseen)
Goes up for sale next week
Kodiak I love you Russ
Kodiak chassis release will include the very first Clan hero mech
Kodiak not an omnimech so will behave more like the IIC mechs, engine swapping etc
Provides second 100t Clan chassis
Lots of talk about how amazing the concept art is (we should see it soon) - Russ will tweet it as soon as it's finalized
Hero build will be a MASC build. Less hardpoints (~7) but Russ thinks the combo of hardpoints with MASC will make it pretty exciting
Follows the new package system for the classic/unseen mechs ($20, $40, $15 for hero add-on)
Releasing the Kodiak as a one chassis release, with one more to follow it on the IS side, then likely going back to the 4-mech package concept if sales and feedback aligns with that plan
Community Warfare v3
When: Originally targeting March. Content complete by late February. Probably QA complete just a little too late for March patch code-complete date, so to be safe Russ says April, so 80-90% likely it will be in April 19th patch
Splitting solo vs group queues in CW: Russ has evolved his stance on this (originally said they'd never do it). He now realizes that it would likely help a lot for new CW player experience and has a technical solution in mind for how they could pull it off; still has concerns around wait times due to small percentage of population currently playing CW
All players without unit tags can play in the Solo queue and groups are not allowed into it. Both loyalists and freelancers (CWv3 terminology) will be in the solo queue, but not any pre-set groups of players who are part of a unit
Group aka Unit queue is any player with a unit tag and any pre-set faction groups of players. If you want to play in this queue solo, create a unit and you can then be playing in this queue instead of the Solo queue
MC earnings will be per planet per battle and a lifespan for the planet (perhaps for 30 days after it is a contestable planet) to earn MC so planets way behind faction lines will not earn MC indefinitely. This feature is only available in Group play queue (aka Unit play). Unit leader can assign the MC to any player in the unit however they see fit
They decided against putting hard unit limits in (good), but figures some of the new features like MC might encourage units to split more to get a bigger piece of the rewards per pilot
Total number of planets contested at a time will be reduced (probably around 10 max)
Faction loyalists will get a vote as to who their faction is at war with, and whichever faction they are at war with is the front along which planets will be contested
Russ wants to see the "all IS can defend against Clans and vice versa" setup brought to an end, with just each faction defending its own space, but recognizes this could be problematic if nobody there to defend. For now this is not changing but it's something he's ruminating on
To help combat unit hopping, contracts are now just 7 days no other intervals, except loyalists are loyalists and breaking loyalist perm contract is 7-day cooldown. If you are a big unit, he would like to see them pick a faction and an area of space to own, so when a merc unit changes faction contract, their tags disappear from planets they owned under the previous contract
Unit recruitment costs discussed as something that will impact larger units if players leave and then come back - already-large population units gaining additional members will cost more
Rambling about 3 ceasefires concept, timezones, playerbase geography, etc
Scouting 4v4 gamemode and impact on the other modes
Re-done UI
-Russ announces he is only about half-done on his list for tonight so far-
Mech rescaling
Rescaling takes a ton of resources and time due to rejiggering animations and rescaling textures, etc. Estimates a minimum of 2-3 "man-months" of effort on the art team (roughly one full work-day per mech, 20 workdays per month). Unclear how that converts to lady-months
Russ estimates they will target only the worst offenders due to the burden of rescaling; figures upwards of half the mechs could be getting at least some level of rescale though, so this will be a major effort
And this means they will need to look at the quirks again on these mechs, for example the Nova which will be shrinking something like 18% smaller volume
Crab is too small, 5% global upscale to be correct (but says take this with a grain of salt because other mechs changing their volumetric size may impact how much other ones have to change
Catapult 88% of its current size. These are volumetric shrinks so 10-15% difference is "huge"
Second Catapult hero mech coming. Butterbee "More of a missile-boat hero mech"
Sarna: The personal ride of MechWarrior Jenny Templeton, this variant of the Catapult replaces the standard arm-mounted LRM-15s with a quartet of SRM-6 missile launchers, two in each arm.
Tournament
All Russ is saying for now is they are committed and preparing for it, will be releasing a new section of the website for this World Championships 2016 official tournament as promised at the Steam launch party. Q1 2016 "no later than late March" it will go live with team sign-ups, layout of timing, etc. They are still open to suggestions, advice, hints, on what maps, tonnage ranges, criteria to set for the tournament. Looking particularly to those who have been running player-led tournaments over the past few years for feedback.
Finals on-site in Vancouver
Critical decision: Is it a 12v12 tournament or not? Russ initially thought yes, though he appreciates the 8v8 preference, especially with the challenges to get together larger groups for 12v12 viability. Likes that 12v12 is more epic, fills the battlefield better with 3 lances per side. But in researching comp play in other games, Russ notes that other games (WoT mentioned) have comp play in smaller numbers than their open public/casual play (15v15 casual vs 7v7 comp in WoT). Still undecided but leaning strongly toward competitive MWO being 8v8 rather than 12v12
