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I just finished my courses and have a bout 4-5 weeks before they start up again. So I had the perfect time available to get MW5 going.
The Good; Action packed first person sim dogfighting tanks and mechs just the way MW intended. Great graphics on tanks, mechs, etc. The landscapes are absolutely beautiful. Inner Sphere map is enormous with lots to explore. Decent merc company management tools. They got the main voice actor from Deus Ex do some work on the game. I can listen to that gravel throated dude for hours.
The bad; Steep learning curve for using the mech lab, interstellar travel, and contract negotiation. Some graphics are really bad like interstellar travel and buildings. Voice acting is generally bad. Intel officer sounds like computer generated voice from ok computer radio head album. Chief mechanic sounds like the Geico Gecko from TV...
The Ugly; The UI both in and out of combat adds a certain "nintendo hard" aspect to the game. Hard to track objectives and enemies. Nearly impossible to order around A.I. lancemates. Keeping track of target distance, ammo reserves, and torso twist is very difficult. Enemy spawning never ceases and often happens immediately behind you. (UI doesnt work like a radar should but is a vision cone???) First person avatar to walk around (incredibly slowly) the ship (which is HUGE) doesn't add much to the game and is a time sink. Story campaign is uninspiring and feels completely phoned in.
I'd say for mechheads this game is an 8/10 (despite its hopefully soon corrected issues). 6/10 for everyone else.
I cant wait to check it out.
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I do wish the lancemates had call signs instead of ranks. For example, in MW5 you have Cpt. Smith and Sgt. Jones. I would prefer they had cool call signs like Hacksaw or Longshot like in past games.
I do like that your employer gets on the radio and says things (often disparagingly) about your performance.
I too want callsigns, not real names.
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Some of Pan's pro tips:
Get lancemates ASAP! Be careful in defense missions. Your A.I. lancemates can potentially cause more damage to your base than the enemy lol! The A.I. also prefers to walk off cliffs before using jumpjets. Keep that in mind.
When purchasing/salvaging mechs, pay close attention to the model/variant#. You cant change hardpoints or size of weapons in MW5. For example, you cant drop a missile rack and move a medium laser up to a large laser; even if the tonnage allows it!
Some variants are all but useless. There is a Javelin with two SRM6. A decent punch, but completely ammo dependent; al beit CT mounted so they will be last to go. This makes fighting tanks/mech fine, but destroying buildings or other types of objectives difficult. Also, a centurion with AC20 and LRM10. That can be useful in fighting heavy/assault mechs, but man you are going to hate life with lights and tanks...
Getting your rep up with factions is huge. Currently, i'm a "hero" with Davion. That allows me to max out Cbill payments, insurance, and salvage rights. Kruita is "hostile" to me and I can barely cover repair bills for their contracts... Missions far inside a faction are easier, regardless of standing. Ones on the hotly contested boarders seem to be more difficult.
Current hangar;
Mech for fighting;
Centurion 50T; 2xML, LRM10, AC10
Mech for raiding;
Javelin 30T; 4xML
Mechs for my lancemates;
Vindicator
Phoenix Hawk
Firestarter
Jenner
Cicada
Spider
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The progression is pretty good. I like how they tiered the map areas for difficulty based on your experience. I do wish it was more open world than that, but it makes sense why its that way. I like how the tonnage allows only lights, then a medium or two, and then a heavy or two, etc...
There have been a number of odd "high reward" missions that have required me to punch well above my weight. Youch, some of the repair bills ive racked up...
Speaking of which, the A.I. gets a bit better as they level up. It's unfortunate though that they have limits and you are supposed to dismiss and hire new pilots as the game goes on. I like building up my lancemates along with my main pilot.
Anyone else delved into this?
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I recently got into this. I was forewarned about a lot of the game's problems so I loaded up on a ton of mods.
The ones I fired up were:
* MW5 Compatibility Pack - fixes minor problems and smooths conflicts.
* WeatherFixMod, Prime8s Weapon FX Changes - aesthetic improvements.
* Remove JumpShip Animation - this unskippable animation goes on for ages for no reason.
* BetterPerformanceFPSDropFix - kills an annoying memory leak bug that causes framerate to drop the longer a mission goes on.
* TTRules - AI Lancemate - an ESSENTIAL mod which fixes your lancemates' brains. They no longer trash facilities they're supposed to be defending and will target the nearest enemy mech or the most dangerous. They also react a bit better depending on their skills.
* TT Rules - Enemy Lance AI - makes the enemy AI somewhat less braindead, so they will now, for example, actually use LRMs or jump jets.
* MaxTonnage - a controversial mod for balancing reasons but it raises the max tonnage for all missions to 400 tons (meaning you can bring 4 assault mechs on all missions). Essential for those who like things to be logical, but it can make early level missions an absolute curbstomp. Mid-game missions are improved, though, because the game's balancing takes your tonnage into account when determining enemy force composition (so you may see Assaults and Heavies showing up in lower rest systems than previously if you rock up with a full Assault squad). Later missions (which often have 400 limits anyway) aren't affected.
* MechAvailabilityDateFix - makes it so mechs appear properly in the timeline (no more Atlas Xs showing up pre-3049).
* MW5 3D HUD - I would say this is an ESSENTIAL mod, as it moves your weapons and feedback away from a dull list to dynamically arranged around the HUD, placing weapons on their correct hardpoints. This improves feedback by around 500% as it means you can instinctively and immediately see what weapons are on what hardpoints and what it about to get blown off by enemy fire (the number of times I've saved a rare weapon in the red by turning away from the enemy and getting my lancemates to cover me).
* Better Spawns - probably the single greatest mod in the history of video games. Enemy units can no longer spawn right behind you out of thin air. Instead, they MUST be dropped into battle by dropships and can only be dropped in at certain map locations. Aircraft and tanks are also physically prevented from spawning in within about 2000 metres of your position. No more enemy cheesing you.
The combined impact of these mods I think raises the game from a 5-6/10 to easily an 8/10. All of the biggest issues with the game are fixed apart from the slightly grindy nature of the early game and the issues with the radar, which are hardcoded and can't be modded. However, the radar is apparently being reworked for the upcoming official HEROES OF THE INNER SPHERE DLC (accompanying the console and Steam release of the game in a few weeks).
Also a warning that HEROES might break the existing mods, so get your current game done quick before that happens.
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Most of them are on the Epic Game Store's mods page so can just be installed immediately.
Two of the other ones are available on the game's Nexus page. You have to install the mods and then activate them on the game's mod menu when it first loads up.
I wrote an article about modding the game here:
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2021/04/modding-mechwarrior.html
Yeah, that's the most important one, so it's odd that they left it off the Epic Store page.
The mods save the game, really, which makes me wonder how they're going to handle the Xbox version of the game.
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I am still bummed that the pilots are expected to be hired and dismissed as you level up, so to speak. I really miss the cool call signs instead of random military rankings. All the voice acting aside from Elias Toufexis is pretty bad. Seems computer generated? Seems capturing things, using repair bays, staring up turret generators was an idea completely given up on. A shame.
It does the action sim part really well, and its not Nintendo hard anymore with the mods! Wish we had a few more mission types to toss in the mix. I'll be keeping an eye out for any expansion DLC info.
The expansion HEROES OF THE INNER SPHERE is out on 27 May. Adds a new biome (airless moons), a new campaign where you have to track down and kill a series of elite mechwarriors and a number of new mechs and LosTech (including chemical lasers). There's also artillery (allied and enemy) to deal with, and new mission types, including ones where allied dropships can bring in reinforcements as you advance across the map and secure territory.
There's also a new Career Mode (based on BATTLETECH's) where you can start in one of five or six new starting warzones with a bunch of pilots and mechs customised around the station faction (so if you start in Lyran space, you already have a reputation with House Steiner and mechs based on what Steiner uses) and you can play from there rather than following the original story campaign. To help that there are balanced warzones all over the Inner Sphere now, so rather than there being big circular route starting on the Davion/Kurita border with Reputation 3 and ending up on the far side of Kurita space with Reputation 15, the warzone difficulty will be all over the place, all over the map for greater variety.
Hiring and firing pilots is funny, and bit of a contrast to BATTLETECH where you'll pretty much carry Glitch and Behemoth through the whole game, though Dekker only if you want to save scum like a lunatic or are really lucky. But I like the idea of some pilots having a maximum potential and once they've hit that ceiling they're not going to get any better no matter how much experience they get. It's up to you to then keep them on as reserves (given how rarely pilots get injured, at least compared to BATTLETECH, that's not really a problem) or fire them.
Money in MECHWARRIOR 5 is like air though (I finished the campaign with 100 million K-Bills and finishing off the story side-quests got me to almost 150 million), so you're not really penalised for keeping a bunch of pilots around and not using them, though it'd be nice if maybe they showed up on the dropship (something BATTLETECH handled much better).
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There's also a new Career Mode (based on BATTLETECH's) where you can start in one of five or six new starting warzones with a bunch of pilots and mechs customised around the station faction (so if you start in Lyran space, you already have a reputation with House Steiner and mechs based on what Steiner uses) and you can play from there rather than following the original story campaign. To help that there are balanced warzones all over the Inner Sphere now, so rather than there being big circular route starting on the Davion/Kurita border with Reputation 3 and ending up on the far side of Kurita space with Reputation 15, the warzone difficulty will be all over the place, all over the map for greater variety.
This was supposed to be in the original launch. There was discussion around space being so vast that your career would pretty much be on a single border war zone (I.E. Davion-Kurita). You would find certain mechs and variants plus weapons unique to that region. This was supposed to give the game a lot of replay value.
Any word on multi-player expansion? Not that I know anybody who has this game or plays it, but it would be fun to co-op with a friend someday. Though, one player being the driver and the other basically just controls a mech was a little too limited for my taste. I was hoping a player could get more control. Ultimately, it would be great to have each player run their own merc outfit and do joint contracts. That would be killer!
This was supposed to be in the original launch. There was discussion around space being so vast that your career would pretty much be on a single border war zone (I.E. Davion-Kurita). You would find certain mechs and variants plus weapons unique to that region. This was supposed to give the game a lot of replay value.
Any word on multi-player expansion? Not that I know anybody who has this game or plays it, but it would be fun to co-op with a friend someday. Though, one player being the driver and the other basically just controls a mech was a little too limited for my taste. I was hoping a player could get more control. Ultimately, it would be great to have each player run their own merc outfit and do joint contracts. That would be killer!
They're not going to do a full PvP mode because they want people to use MECHWARRIOR ONLINE for that (some rumours that MWO is going to get an upgrade to bring it more in line with MW5).
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They're not going to do a full PvP mode because they want people to use MECHWARRIOR ONLINE for that (some rumours that MWO is going to get an upgrade to bring it more in line with MW5).This was supposed to be in the original launch. There was discussion around space being so vast that your career would pretty much be on a single border war zone (I.E. Davion-Kurita). You would find certain mechs and variants plus weapons unique to that region. This was supposed to give the game a lot of replay value.
Any word on multi-player expansion? Not that I know anybody who has this game or plays it, but it would be fun to co-op with a friend someday. Though, one player being the driver and the other basically just controls a mech was a little too limited for my taste. I was hoping a player could get more control. Ultimately, it would be great to have each player run their own merc outfit and do joint contracts. That would be killer!
Im talking co-op PvE in MW5, independent of MWO.
Im talking co-op PvE in MW5, independent of MWO.
Oh right. I don't think so. You can co-op the whole game with friends controlling the other mechs in your pre-existing lance, but not with players controlling individual lances.
Interestingly I just saw that people have found a way to play BATTLETECH as a co-op game:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/hh5fu2/fyi_you_can_now_pla y_battletech_coop_via_steam/
Playing MECHWARRIOR 5 did inspire me to reinstall BATTLETECH and yikes that game is way harder than MW5.
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I think Harebrained are doing something else (smart money is either a SHADOWRUN CRPG with a higher budget and 3D engine or a new CRIMSON SKIES game) but have said they do want to do a sequel, and it certainly did well enough to justify it.
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Thinking about Battletech is giving me thoughts on things I wish MW5 included. Like a variable mission system. In BT, missions are rated by challenge, but can vary up or down a level. Your intelligence officer gives you some insight into which way it could go. It would be great if MW5 did the same.
Going further, it would be interesting if you had a pool of payroll that you had to manage between non-pilots. Spend most your cash on an ace mechanic to get you back in the action quicker comes at the cost of an intelligence officer that can warn you about suicide missions and give useful strategic advice.
Inevitably, the new MechWarrior 5 DLC broke the mods. Some of the minor ones are being updated and should be fixed in the coming days, but surprisingly the really big one (Reloaded) is not being updated. One of the devs has broken off to do his own successor mod with a new team.
Also reports that the DLC has wiped people's cold storage files, and it's unclear if they can be recovered, so if you've been collecting hero mechs it's probably a good idea not to start a game until that's been fixed.
Have you been able to play and thus review the DLC? I just ran thru the game again and can probably wait some time before jumping back in.
Nope. I'm not touching it until, at least, they re-enable the Tonnage Limit, 3D HUD, Friendly and Enemy AI and Better Spawns mods. Those are pretty much deal-breakers at this point.
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Have you been able to play and thus review the DLC? I just ran thru the game again and can probably wait some time before jumping back in.Nope. I'm not touching it until, at least, they re-enable the Tonnage Limit, 3D HUD, Friendly and Enemy AI and Better Spawns mods. Those are pretty much deal-breakers at this point.
wise. I'll never forget life before the better spawns mod. Mountains in the distance would kill me.
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wise. I'll never forget life before the better spawns mod. Mountains in the distance would kill me.Have you been able to play and thus review the DLC? I just ran thru the game again and can probably wait some time before jumping back in.Nope. I'm not touching it until, at least, they re-enable the Tonnage Limit, 3D HUD, Friendly and Enemy AI and Better Spawns mods. Those are pretty much deal-breakers at this point.
I used to cry whenever I had to do a demo mission...
Better Spawns should hopefully be updated by the end of the weekend, according to the creator.
Waiting to hear on Tonnage Limits and 3D HUD. Reportedly some of the AI improvements from the two mods (Enemies and Allies) have been integrated into the base game already.
Whats up with the tonnage limit? I think the limits in game align perfectly with pilot advancement. Does it just allow you to start with assaults' instead? Im not sure why tonnage is so popular?
It just seems bizarrely illogical that the game arbitrarily tells you not to bring your best mechs on certain missions. So you've spent a ton of money on an Atlas, Stalker, Highlander and King Crab and suddenly being told you can't take anything heavier than a Shadow Hawk on a mission. It's a bit weird. BattleTech at least tried to justify the same limitation (you can only drop Lights due to the need to move really fast, or Mediums to lure the enemy into a false sense of superiority before hitting them with Assaults on the next mission).
The Tonnage Limit mod pushes the limit up to 400 tons for all missions (which is effectively unlimited, since the maximum mech size is 400 tons and you can only deploy four mechs). I believe it also interfaces with the way the game auto-generates enemies, so enemy tonnage is no longer limited either and you may run into Assaults (if only one or two) on low-difficulty missions, to balance things out.
You don't start with Assault mechs, but now there's nothing stopping you grinding out say 30 million C-bills in a few hours, flying up to Lyran space, buying four Assaults, and then running the rest of the game with them.
I'm a fan of starting with one of each because of how this game works.
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You don't start with Assault mechs, but now there's nothing stopping you grinding out say 30 million C-bills in a few hours, flying up to Lyran space, buying four Assaults, and then running the rest of the game with them.
Hmm, I'd totally miss my favorite light/mediums/heavies. So I wont miss the tonnage mod.
A surprise-drop of a whole new expansion next week. LEGEND OF THE KESTRAL LANCERS has you taking part in the Fourth Succession War, a major conflict between all the major factions of the BATTLETECH universe.
The expansion also introduces megacity biomes and melee combat.
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I'm excited. Slightly.
Also, play BTA is where it's at.q
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A message from the guy who created the original mod:
This mod can not just be "updated"... it needs to be re-made. The game that was released in 2019 was an under-development alpha version, PGI continued to develop it further. A lot has been changed on the foundation of this game. The modded assets are not simply added to the game, they replace original assets in the game file... and when original assets go through major updates, then your old modifications replacing the new files will often lead to crashes, since the modded assets does not include the updates PGI made. The changes to modded assets can not be "copy/pasted". That's not how UE4 works. You need to create functions, address variables, modify original code and BP graphs... none of which is "copy/paste-able"
Back in early 2020 I had free time and could work 5 hours a day on mw5 mods. This is not the case anymore. I am neck deep in work projects and don't even have enough time to sleep. Even through weekends. I can't take hours off, and I can't accept donations or have any financial problems. Simply, I don't have enough time on my hands. Certainly not a full month of full time every day work that's needed to remake this.
This is going to be the situation at least for the next 7-8 months. After than, I'll have to wait and see.
There have been some other UI mods but they are pretty bare bones in comparison. The original mod was a work of art and it's a shame it's no longer compatible with the current version of the game.
A message from the guy who created the original mod:
This mod can not just be "updated"... it needs to be re-made. The game that was released in 2019 was an under-development alpha version, PGI continued to develop it further. A lot has been changed on the foundation of this game. The modded assets are not simply added to the game, they replace original assets in the game file... and when original assets go through major updates, then your old modifications replacing the new files will often lead to crashes, since the modded assets does not include the updates PGI made. The changes to modded assets can not be "copy/pasted". That's not how UE4 works. You need to create functions, address variables, modify original code and BP graphs... none of which is "copy/paste-able"
Back in early 2020 I had free time and could work 5 hours a day on mw5 mods. This is not the case anymore. I am neck deep in work projects and don't even have enough time to sleep. Even through weekends. I can't take hours off, and I can't accept donations or have any financial problems. Simply, I don't have enough time on my hands. Certainly not a full month of full time every day work that's needed to remake this.
This is going to be the situation at least for the next 7-8 months. After than, I'll have to wait and see.
There have been some other UI mods but they are pretty bare bones in comparison. The original mod was a work of art and it's a shame it's no longer compatible with the current version of the game.
Took the words right out of my mouth. I would kill for that particular mod to work at the moment but I don't know if it will ever happen.
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Cool, I didnt realize this update was so recent. I just decided after a long time of not playing to fire it up again. Better Spawns 2.0 and Lancemate AI 2.0 are working still. As far as I can tell.
The update includes melee, which is nice when your mech is hot, hot, hot! Also, there are weapons caches laying around in missions you can mark for pickup.
Better spawns 2.0 is going to crash at some point, you need 3.0. Unsure about lancemate AI.
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Anybody got console experience with MW5? I'm trying to talk my buddy into picking up a copy and I'm 90% cure he'll go PS4/5 with it. Im curious about co-op mode and cross platform?
In other news, still jamming on this. The update has added some nice things, and lancemate AI and spawns are much improved. Seems they even put some thought into AI behavior. Seems like enemy mechs will try and pull you away from bases during defense missions. Pretty neat.
They also added some more maps and new ambiance things like massive anti-aircraft cannon that will shake your mech if you a nearby and throw off some of your shots if not ready. Also, pretty neat.
No console experience I am afraid.
The PC version is so much better due to mods.
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Yeah, vanilla MW5 is solid but flawed. With mods it becomes a work of art.
Yeah, vanilla MW5 is solid but flawed. With mods it becomes a work of art.
It will never be MW3, however. That makes me sad.