MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries by Piranha Games - now on Steam and GOG

[Matalarata]

Found a nice audio overhaul:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/438

Lots of heavy machinery and industrial fx. I especially like what he did with gyros and other internal sounds. What I don't like is the changes to comm chatter and pilot voices, I came to actually appreciate some of those shitlords...

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Found a nice audio overhaul:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/438

Lots of heavy machinery and industrial fx. I especially like what he did with gyros and other internal sounds. What I don't like is the changes to comm chatter and pilot voices, I came to actually appreciate some of those shitlords...

I personally preferred this ( https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/236 ) between the different audio revamp mods available. Weapons sound fucking awesome with Mork's. PPCs make that slick "thwoomp" with a hint of actinic crackling. Less of that deep bassy punch than SoSW but still awesome.

 

[someone else]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

They were developed by Clan Hell's Horses for their vehicle fleet as a low heat sink alternative due to how vehicles interacted with energy weapons. I have never seriously considered them for 'mechs, but then again, I tend to design my 'mechs to be heavy on double heat sinks.

Found in MW5 news, the Chem lasers in MW5 are low-tech and inferior to clan version since MW5 takes place before clan invasion, news mysteriously stop at 3050.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Laser#Chemical_Lasers mentions low-tech version.

Found a nice audio overhaul:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/438

Lots of heavy machinery and industrial fx. I especially like what he did with gyros and other internal sounds. What I don't like is the changes to comm chatter and pilot voices, I came to actually appreciate some of those shitlords...

Tried it, yeah the lowered comms is annoying but computer voice is still the same and they share the same volume control, MP lasers are also very soft.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Kind of wish I could have gotten the MW2/MW3 Bitching Betty mods to work right with Mork's. Kept running into mod conflict issues that the mod loader tool didn't resolve.

 

[Matalarata]

Tried it, yeah the lowered comms is annoying but computer voice is still the same and they share the same volume control, MP lasers are also very soft.

Beware, there's a vanilla bug that sometimes will shut down cockpit sounds. That's the best part of this particular overhaul, if the bug kicks in you could not notice it and lose 90% of this mod's value!

If standing still you cannot hear any gyro or other intrnals by just moving your torso around, power down your 'mech and then power it up again. The bug persist through saves, btw. I personally like the pulse lasers though, I was using another overhaul previously that, while pretty decent, gave lasers in general very muted sounds, so my perception may be skewed.

 

[Cael]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

They were developed by Clan Hell's Horses for their vehicle fleet as a low heat sink alternative due to how vehicles interacted with energy weapons. I have never seriously considered them for 'mechs, but then again, I tend to design my 'mechs to be heavy on double heat sinks.

Found in MW5 news, the Chem lasers in MW5 are low-tech and inferior to clan version since MW5 takes place before clan invasion, news mysteriously stop at 3050.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Laser#Chemical_Lasers mentions low-tech version.

Ugh. More made up shit by lore raping cunts.

 

[Matalarata]

Ugh. More made up shit by lore raping cunts.

K', let's scientifically try and have Cael lose his shit. All in good faith, obviously!


Ahem... Do you know why me, someone else and others are surprised by the performance of 'mech rifles? Because piranha games decided the damage penalty for firing low-tech weapons against 'mech armour wasn't such a big deal and they simply removed it. In their wisdom, they left the damage unchanged though and now Heavy rifles outdamage Gauss rifles, can reach moderatly decent ranges (due to different tier of weaponry being just better all around, they get a 25% range increase at level 5) which can be exploited even more by using their 'quirks' system. Quirks can give an humble heavy rifle an additional (15+10+7.5)% range and +20% damage, which skyrockets them above Gauss in damage even more!

Newbs on steam are currently arguing the value of even having a large balistic slot, since Heavy rifles are medium and many of them cannot into long range Gauss sniping.

 

[Cael]

Ugh. More made up shit by lore raping cunts.

K', let's scientifically try and have Cael lose his shit. All in good faith, obviously!


Ahem... Do you know why me, someone else and others are surprised by the performance of 'mech rifles? Because piranha games decided the damage penalty for firing low-tech weapons against 'mech armour wasn't such a big deal and they simply removed it. In their wisdom, they left the damage unchanged though and now Heavy rifles outdamage Gauss rifles, can reach moderatly decent ranges (due to different tier of weaponry being just better all around, they get a 25% range increase at level 5) which can be exploited even more by using their 'quirks' system. Quirks can give an humble heavy rifle an additional (15+10+7.5)% range and +20% damage, which skyrockets them above Gauss in damage even more!

Newbs on steam are currently arguing the value of even having a large balistic slot, since Heavy rifles are medium and many of them cannot into long range Gauss sniping.

And that is why I don't pay money for MMO shit. Introducing zoomers and millennials to established settings is always a mistake.

 

[lightbane]

I wish we had a BTech game where you play in service of one of the factions and went of to conquer the entire Sphere. The franchise needs a TW-esque game or strategy game of that kind.
Extra points if playing with some of the most deranged/evil factions (ie: Kurita or Liao) ends with your character being killed, because someone in the higher-up was feeling paranoid or didn't want to pay you.
Or play in the earliest eras of the setting and try to change history and prevent the ridiculous centuries-long wars from happening.

 

[Cael]

I wish we had a BTech game where you play in service of one of the factions and went of to conquer the entire Sphere. The franchise needs a TW-esque game or strategy game of that kind.
Extra points if playing with some of the most deranged/evil factions (ie: Kurita or Liao) ends with your character being killed, because someone in the higher-up was feeling paranoid or didn't want to pay you.
Or play in the earliest eras of the setting and try to change history and prevent the ridiculous centuries-long wars from happening.

That would require the Camerons not being dicks in the first place, which isn't likely to happen...

 

[lightbane]

In a strategy game where there's no plot-locked outcomes that wouldn't be an issue.

 

[randir14]

Found a nice audio overhaul:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/438

Lots of heavy machinery and industrial fx. I especially like what he did with gyros and other internal sounds. What I don't like is the changes to comm chatter and pilot voices, I came to actually appreciate some of those shitlords...

I like this one. One issue is the machine gun sounds too "video gamey" and the sound cuts off as soon as you stop firing, but the modder said he's going to fix it.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Ugh. More made up shit by lore raping cunts.

K', let's scientifically try and have Cael lose his shit. All in good faith, obviously!


Ahem... Do you know why me, someone else and others are surprised by the performance of 'mech rifles? Because piranha games decided the damage penalty for firing low-tech weapons against 'mech armour wasn't such a big deal and they simply removed it. In their wisdom, they left the damage unchanged though and now Heavy rifles outdamage Gauss rifles, can reach moderatly decent ranges (due to different tier of weaponry being just better all around, they get a 25% range increase at level 5) which can be exploited even more by using their 'quirks' system. Quirks can give an humble heavy rifle an additional (15+10+7.5)% range and +20% damage, which skyrockets them above Gauss in damage even more!

Newbs on steam are currently arguing the value of even having a large balistic slot, since Heavy rifles are medium and many of them cannot into long range Gauss sniping.

A rebalance mod will fix it.

Maybe.

I'm not surprised PGI went this route, their MO for peddling new things in MWO was typically to roll out overpowered shit that came dangerously close to P2W, game balance for balance's sake was not really a consideration - it was just another carrot/stick to chase players into buying stuff. It's funny to see it being translated to a single-player game DLC, I'll admit. It's also pretty funny that they decided to use things like Rifles for this. Not sure anyone expected them to try to dust off/reinvent Primitive tech as a new hotness.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Well, it's weird. The obvious route is stuff like Clan tech and mechs or Star League caches or something.

 

[lightbane]

I bet the reason is because players are tired of seeing the same shit in Btech games over, over and over, so anything fresh to some degree is welcomed.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I bet the reason is because players are tired of seeing the same shit in Btech games over, over and over, so anything fresh to some degree is welcomed.

This is probably true, but it's not exactly like Battletech is an overserved franchise with much recent out for it.

 

[lightbane]

I bet the reason is because players are tired of seeing the same shit in Btech games over, over and over, so anything fresh to some degree is welcomed.

This is probably true, but it's not exactly like Battletech is an overserved franchise with much recent out for it.

Yes and no. All of the games share similar things with some variation, but if you played all previous MW games, you might wish for something new, no matter if it's made-up, or rescued from older lore. The setting itself is to blame to some degree since ever since the Dark Age era, things haven't moved much, and the games re-thread known ground, such as the clan invasion era*.

A MW where you played as a Solaris gladiator where you have to defeat your opponents in cool, unpractical but flashy ways (ie: using melee weapons only) would be quite a new change IMO. Or make it set at the start of the setting, when the first Mechs appeared and they were still a new thing everyone was willing to experiment with.

*After seeing the constant lore rape and textbook fanfiction-tier writing of the 2018 Btech game, this might have been a good reason after all.

 

[Cael]

I bet the reason is because players are tired of seeing the same shit in Btech games over, over and over, so anything fresh to some degree is welcomed.

This is probably true, but it's not exactly like Battletech is an overserved franchise with much recent out for it.

Yes and no. All of the games share similar things with some variation, but if you played all previous MW games, you might wish for something new, no matter if it's made-up, or rescued from older lore. The setting itself is to blame to some degree since ever since the Dark Age era, things haven't moved much, and the games re-thread known ground, such as the clan invasion era*.

A MW where you played as a Solaris gladiator where you have to defeat your opponents in cool, unpractical but flashy ways (ie: using melee weapons only) would be quite a new change IMO. Or make it set at the start of the setting, when the first Mechs appeared and they were still a new thing everyone was willing to experiment with.

*After seeing the constant lore rape and textbook fanfiction-tier writing of the 2018 Btech game, this might have been a good reason after all.

No. Oblivion was fanfic tier. The HBS game is... something else. Bargain sewer basement under buried Pompeii tier, perhaps.

 

[Chippy]

I haven't been following this at all, but I expect there was some sort of outrage over the fact that it's £25 for the standard edition and £40 fo an edition with the OST, some high res backgrounds, and a tech manual?. Isn't that the official description of stripping parts of the game out before release?.

Good for you for all supporting the game. It's nice that a game like this has come back after almost 20 years, but I can wait a bit more for it to go on sale.

 

[lightbane]

There's also the fact it was an Epic exclusive to boot.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

which speaks volume about its base quality.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

There's also the fact it was an Epic exclusive to boot.

which speaks volume about its base quality.

Not only did it launch as an EGS exclusive, it being an EGS exclusive was a massive bait-and-switch that got a lot of people angry enough that PGI agreed to offer refunds.

PGI. Offered. Refunds.

 

[Matalarata]

Spoiler

Acshually don't care. As you can see, MAD-BH2 is better at headshotting

 

[someone else]

If you are talking about the pickup leopard, it doesn't fire, only your drop-off leopard does, like what the ppl in the mod discussion say.
Pre-DLC leopard was a lot more passive, I was surprised at how fast it blows up stuff when I started the DLC as I don't remember it shooting so much.

DropShips had always been like that in BTech. Attacking military DropShips is no joke, and only taken by 'mechs under great planning or intel that they are inert. A typical Union-class, for example has more than 6 times the firepower and armour of an Atlas. Even a Steiner scout lance would have a problem against one.

The computer games made DropShips into unarmed transports that are nothing but glorified targets. That has always been the wrong interpretation of it. Noobs bought into that because they are used to MW or the HBS masquerade game, but they then go around acting like authorities on the subject.

I know dropships are well armed, I'm familiar with the table-top books, I was surprised because the pre-DLC leopard doesn't fire much and they changed it.
The enemy leopards still don't fire.

It didn't in vanilla. Was kind of annoying because they were wasting shots. Kind of wonder if they were targeting the mechs inside? Not sure.

Both enemy and friendly AI will fire at empty dropships so it is not the mechs inside.
I have to tell my lance to hold fire, then target a mech or they may start shooting the enemy dropship.

K', let's scientifically try and have Cael lose his shit. All in good faith, obviously!

Ahem... Do you know why me, someone else and others are surprised by the performance of 'mech rifles? Because piranha games decided the damage penalty for firing low-tech weapons against 'mech armour wasn't such a big deal and they simply removed it. In their wisdom, they left the damage unchanged though and now Heavy rifles outdamage Gauss rifles, can reach moderatly decent ranges (due to different tier of weaponry being just better all around, they get a 25% range increase at level 5) which can be exploited even more by using their 'quirks' system. Quirks can give an humble heavy rifle an additional (15+10+7.5)% range and +20% damage, which skyrockets them above Gauss in damage even more!

Newbs on steam are currently arguing the value of even having a large balistic slot, since Heavy rifles are medium and many of them cannot into long range Gauss sniping.

They haven't played the DLC and they are lapping your info up.

The upgrades work for both gauss and rifles, you make it sound like it only benefits rifles.
Heavy Rifle has poor heat, lower ROF and lower ballistic speed making it difficult to do precision shots at long range, it does not pop heads as easily as gauss.
This is the top tier Heavy rifle, the lower tier ones have much worse ROF and heat issues.
Heavy Rifle ammo is 12 shots per ton.
Gauss ammo is 26 shots per ton.
I now bring 8.5 tons of heavy rifle ammo on my triple H. Rifle Cataphract because it is so inefficient.

The LBX10 is the usual gun for my lance.
When I see an enemy mech with Heavy rifle, I go "meh low threat", when I see one with LBX10 I go "take it down now!"

 

[Matalarata]

I admit I have exagerated my story ( for the sake of science, mind you ). But the point still stands. I know the quirks and the tiers benefit everything, but in case of the Gauss this means overkill range and velocity, you very rarely get to shoot at targets so far away. While the heavy rifle, (which maybe you forgot but should be a sub-par 'primitive' weapon, only used against 'mechs in the direst of circumstances) gets a much larger effective increase in rate and damage. I'm not saying it's better than a Gauss but it's half its weight, slottable in a medium and does more damage on an alpha strike which, 75% of times, is all you need to strike down a target, making its slow reload moot.

You have a point in saying that the increase in stat is linear across the board but they (those I call newb) also have a point. PGI took a random piece of outdated tech and turned it into something that can stand against one of the most powerful weapon in the game. If heavy rifles weren't outperforming Gauss for the general public, they wouldn't be as popular as they are, am I wrong?