• BattleMech Inventory
• Item Inventory
• C-Bills AND MechWarrior Credits (MC)
• Premium Account Time
• Mech XP and all Mech Trees (Efficiencies)
• Pilot Trees (Modules)

• Founder’s Packages
• MC Purchases
• 75% of your C-Bills earned since Sept 18,2012
• Mech XP earned since Sept 18,2012

• User accounts, friends lists

• Jenner JR7-K
• Raven RVN-3L
• Cicada CDA-2A
• Cicada CDA-2B
• Cicada CDA-3C
• Cicada CDA-3M
• Awesome AWS-9M

• Configure button is now removed. Configuration is now done through the section tabs
• The section tabs (Loadout, Modules, etc.) are now directly accessible after selection of your ‘Mech
• The section tabs can now only be accessed one at a time (you must save or cancel to go to another tab)

Engine heat sinks

• Engines with a rating of 275 or greater can contain one or more heat sinks inside of them without taking up critical slots.
• There is now a mechanism to add/remove these heat sinks (previously these heat sinks were fixed within the engine). The number of spots available and the number of spots taken are shown in the equipped engine
• When removing an engine, any heat sinks within the engine are also removed
• The number of heat sinks the engine is capable of holding is the same regardless of whether the ‘Mech uses single or double heat sinks

• Armor (currently selectable are Standard and Ferro-Fibrous)
• Changing your armor type automatically replaces all of your armor with the new type
• Cost of the upgrade is a fixed price for the conversion (based on max tonnage of the ‘Mech) plus the cost of whatever armor of the new type you need to buy. Having an amount of armor of the proper type in your inventory will therefore reduce the cost of the upgrade
• Armor types other than Standard take up critical slots (14 for Ferro-Fibrous). These slots will be floating (see below)

• Cost of the upgrade is a fixed price based on max tonnage of the ‘Mech
• Structure affects tonnage of the ‘Mech (Endo-Steel is lighter)
• Armor types other than Standard take up critical slots (14 for Endo-Steel). These slots will be floating (see below)

• Selects whether your ‘Mech may use single or double heat sinks. Only one type of heat sink may be used on a ‘Mech at a time
• Cost of the upgrade is a fixed price
• Engines are also automatically upgraded to double the heat sink capability
• When heat sink type is changed, all heat sinks are removed from the ‘Mech and new heat sinks of the proper type must be installed (and bought if necessary)

• Some upgrades take up critical slots. These slots are auto-flowed into available empty slots
• If a floating slot appears in white, other items can be dragged on to it and it will be moved to an available slot somewhere else on the ‘Mech
• If a floating slot appears in yellow, then there is no open empty slot that it can be moved to and so can not be used for other items
• Floating slots are ignored in the critical hit system

• Running into another Mech will no longer knock it down.
• Line of sight check now higher on Mech so targeting can occur when only 25% of the mech is visible over a hill instead of 50% 
• Explosions explode on the surface of the water and spawn water explosion effects 
• AC/Gauss/PPC type weapons now pass through water and deal a reduced amount of damage depending on depth of the hit 
• Laser water hit effects spawn at the correct location on the surface of the water and deal a reduced amount of damage depending on depth of the hit
• Added Picture in Picture Zoom module. (Default mapped key for advanced zoom is 'V')
• Added Current active Vision mode status in HUD
• Extend range finder to 2500m( was 1500m )
• Cockpit light will now flicker after taking hard hits

• Animation shaking under various circumstances
• ‘smoother’ jump jetting behavior
• Weapon hit detection more in-line with where you see the mech on your screen (don’t have to shoot infront of your mech so much) especially at lower frame rates were the problem was the worst.

• Two AMS on a Mech (AS7-K) now correctly destroy double the missiles
• PPC’s will no longer cross at extreme ranges
• Players are no longer able to zoom or change vision modes when a Mech is shut down  
• Zoom and Vision modes are tuned off when a Mech shuts down
• Target hit indication for missiles now correctly only goes off when explosion damage is dealt 
• Users can no longer specify an FOV less than 60.0 degrees in the user.cfg

Greetings everyone!
 
We wanted to give you an update on how everything is going, and to thank you for being here with us!
 
Firstly: Open Beta is on schedule and will be beginning quite soon (12 noon PDT, Monday!) This means we’re very close to getting the final phases of the main beta features coming in. On that as well, Open Beta is our final reset. Once it happens, we will not be resetting everything again. We will be resetting C-Bills, MC, XP, GXP, Mechs, and inventory. The only thing you’ll keep is your friends list. However, if you have a Founders pack, everything will be added from that pack. Also anything you’ve purchased (with MC) will be added back.
 
Also, we’ve added the Cicada, which is currently my favourite Mech. It’s a lot of fun, and if you have the chance, I seriously suggest you try it out. We also added new variants to the Jenner (JR7-K); Raven (RVN-3L); Awesome (AWS-9M). And for your Mechs equipment, we added Ferro-Fibrous armour, Endosteel structure, and Double Heat Sinks. I’m feeling more and more a kid in a candy store in the Mechlab. On top of that, we added our first hero Mech, the ever-iconic Centurion, Yen-Lo-Wang! Sporting an AC/20, two medium lasers, 30% C-Bill boost, and a very cool paintjob, the Yen-Lo-Wang certainly stands out on the battlefield! (Check it out in the Mechlab for more info.)
 
Ah, and one more thing – we’re adding the Premium Account Button for Founders purchasers. What does it do? Shortly after Open Beta hits, Founders purchasers’ premium time will be reset once more and a button will be added. If they press this button, their time will begin. This will be a one-time deal, so use it wisely!
 
For more information on all of this, please feel free to read this post from Piranha Games President Russ Bullock.
 
Thank you for reading, and we hope you enjoy the game.

MechWarrior® Online™

Welcome MechWarrior!

Piranha Games is proud to bring you the next instalment in the MechWarrior® franchise. It has been a long time coming and this synopsis will help to answer some of your questions. If you've read through Dev Blog 0, you'll know that we are a premium Free-To-Play game based on the bestselling BattleTech® Universe. When coming up with the core game features for MechWarrior® Online™, we create and focused on four pillars of design and player experience. These pillars include:

• Mech Warfare – The embodiment of Mech to Mech combat.
• Role Warfare – The ability for player's to customize their experience to suit their own style of gameplay.
• Community Warfare – The ability to let the players take part in epic combat for territorial control.
• Information Warfare – Bring a new element to the battlefield that incorporates information technology to help control the fight.

Mech Warfare:

We want to make sure we bring the roots of the MechWarrior® titles back to the surface and also incorporate the basic rules from the BattleTech® Universe. Players will be able to customize their BattleMechs with weapon and armor upgrades as well as customize their cosmetic appearance in the MechLab. This means players can look unique or fall in line with their Merc Corp colors and truly represent themselves in combat. The next part of Mech Warfare is controls/piloting a BattleMech. Since our key platform is the PC, it only makes sense to really bring the simulation control system back for seasoned players, with the option to have easy access configurations for newer players. When dealing with controls, we really want to bring skill back into combat rather than heavily assisted combat as seen in most modern day first person shooters. The interface between the MechWarrior® and the BattleMech is being revisited as well. A new 3D HUD system is being designed for the neurohelmet pilot information display. The view point of the game is from the pilot (MechWarrior®'s) point of view. Players will be able to look around their cockpit and even customize the interior to suit their tastes.

Role Warfare:

When it comes down to play style for any given player, we want to make sure that we have as many options as possible to cater to as many player types as possible. This is where things get really interesting. Everything from choosing a BattleMech to how a MechWarrior® is trained, will allow a player to truly customize their own personal game experience. What is a player's preferred role when playing MechWarrior®? Scout? Attacker? Defender? Commander? Whatever it is, a player will be able to train their MechWarrior to specialize in their style of gameplay. Players are highly encouraged to participate in team based gameplay. The fast manoeuvrable scouts will be able to relay information back to the commander units who in turn relay that information to the attacker and defender units. As players advance their MechWarrior in a role, more skills and abilities related to their role will become available. Remember, a team who plays together will always win together.

Community Warfare:

MechWarrior® in all of its incarnations has always had a loyal following of players in one of the strongest on-line communities in gaming history. Piranha-Games hopes to bring this community together in a friendly conflict of universal control. This may sound a little odd, but it is the fun competitiveness that will keep the game alive and kicking for years to come. Utilizing the BattleTech® Inner Sphere, we plan to have skirmishes amongst the Great Houses in BattleTech® lore. Allowing the player to have an active part in this conflict is one of our key directives in designing this game. Players will be able to create, manage and customize their Merc Corp's player base and appearance, while banding together to really delve into the Inner Sphere conflict where House alignment reigns supreme. Merc Corp leaders will bid and fight for occupation rights to some of the most valuable planets across the Inner Sphere and challenge other Merc Corps for control of planets reaping large rewards.

Information Warfare:

Evolving the MechWarrior® experience required a new layer of gameplay. Instead of large open expanses and circle strafing parties, we wanted to examine the core play experience of the previous MechWarrior® titles and see if we could bring a more tactical/strategic experience to MechWarrior® Online™. Relying more on line-of-sight and incorporating information technologies, we feel that information warfare will bring a new level of realism to the fight and help enforce the idea of team based multiplayer even more. Another aspect of Mech Warfare, something that we can do with new technology, is urban combat. The battlefield is no longer open areas with mile long sightlines. . Tactical manoeuvres will be required now more than ever and the key to success is using InfoTech alongside great team play. The newly implemented Battle Grid will give commanding units a bird's eye view of the battlefield and scouts will be able to feed real time recon information to them. The battlefield commander will be able to call in air strikes, artillery strikes and other support unit requests.