MechWarrior Tactics Previews

A handful of new previews for Roadhouse Interactive and A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games’ MechWarrior Tactics hit the ‘net today, thanks to a “roundtable” press call that was hosted by Roadhouse president Tarnie Williams and lead designer Chris Cleroux. What follows is the best source of information we have for the game to date…

GameSpy:

If you want to deploy a Mech in battle, you have to own it. If you want to arm it with a better weapon, you have to own that as well. To get new gear, you purchase randomized booster packs stuffed with Mechs, equipment, and even appearance options. You can buy them with cash, or with currency earned in-game from fighting in battles, but the one thing you won’t be able to do is say, “I want a 100-ton Atlas,” and pay money to get one. There is no definite word on whether players will be able to trade items, except that it will not be possible at launch. However, Cleroux did leave the door open, saying, “I know that if I had a lot of cards, I would want to trade them. That’s all I can say right now.”

One aspect of customization raised some red flags, however. “A laser isn’t just a laser,” Williams said. “A laser is going to be created by a certain manufacturer, and so if you have a number of components from the same manufacturer, you can actually have bonuses. So we’re driving players to actually look for and collect components that work well together.” I’m not sure item set bonuses will be worth the inventory bloat that comes from having Coke and Pepsi-flavored autocannons, but I’m even more doubtful that this will square with their intent to make skill paramount in deciding victory.

RipTen:

The game is going to be browser-based, and we confirmed that it will be fully functional on Mac and Linux along with PC. When you create your account, you’ll be handed a starter set, that provides you all the tools to get started with every aspect of the game. Boosters (called (stacks)) will be available, but price points haven’t been locked down yet. Your (cards) will come in different flavors.

Some of these will be stock mechs, ready to hit the field right out of the box. Others will be (chassis.) These are mech shells that must be equipped with different resources (weapons, heat sinks, and more). The customization will be limited by lore and the intricate technology depicted in the source material. Chassis will support different weapon types and numbers, and you’ll be able to mix and match in the mech bay to your heart’s content before ever paying a dime.

Games Radar:

For those unfamiliar with the BattleTech universe, there’s not much barrier to entry; all you need to know is that this is a world where battlefields are dominated by giant robots with guns all over their shoulders. The same goes for the basic rules Cleroux stresses that newcomers won’t feel like they have to read a 500 page manual before they can get into the action. (The learning curve isn’t that high,) says Cleroux. (That’s something we focused intensely on: making sure that the game’s accessible and pick-up-and-play. You don’t have to do any mech customization if you don’t want to, so anybody can join in.)

Though they weren’t ready to talk prices, Williams and Cleroux stated that mech’s weapons and customizations will be distributed via booster packs, which can be bought with in-game currency or real-world cash. Items will come in common, uncommon, rare, and ultrarare varieties, just like Magic the Gathering. We were a bit confused when we were told that there wouldn’t be any item trading at launch, though Cleroux did hint at an auction house system to be implemented later down the line. We would’ve liked to see these kinds of systems implemented at launch nobody wants to buy dozens of boosters in the hopes of getting the one item that they need.

Pixel Hunt:

Players may take control of stock mechs (and variants) that come pre-configured with appropriate weapons and gear. Or they can gain access to what the developers are terming as mech (chassis), which are essentially blank slates for greater levels of customisation. In order to preserve a unique feel for each mech, there will be some restrictions on the types of weapons and gear that can be equipped.

Players can also equip weapons from different manufacturers, so that even similar weapons may have different attributes. Additional bonuses can be gained if a mech only uses weapons from a single manufacturer.

And ZAM:

Taking a page out of games like World of Tanks, MechWarrior Tactics will also allow you to engage in as many matches as you want – provided you have enough mechs to field. Each asynchronous battle you partake in will take those four mechs out of your garage until that match is completed, so gamers who want to power-grind for scraps have the option to field half a dozen poorly assembled lances, while the real connoisseurs of MechWarrior Tactics will may find themselves playing only one or two matches at a time as they continue to iterate seeking that perfect strategy.

Speaking of strategy, when asked about different game objectives beyond straight combat, Chris had this to say: “The short answer is… Yes to different game objectives. We have kicked around lots of ideas, internally, about how we would reward players for those things but, at a high level, we want players to be able to engage in matches – different game modes – that are more than just blowing each other up. We want players to make critical decisions and have choices as to how they go about planning their mech construction and lance configuration to best achieve different types of objectives. We’re not going to go into any detail as to what those game modes are . . . but we are going to be planning more game modes than just a standard “death match.”” While it seems like death matches will be a staple of the MechWarrior Tactics gameplay, adding objective-based gameplay does open up a world of depth, and depth is something the MechWarrior Tactics team really wants to offer.