The Art of Warfare Blogs: TAW Blogs

VANGUARD

For this edition we are focusing on the Mechs.  You can saddle up and bring the wrath with Hawken or you can go to total war with Mechwarrior Online.  Sounds interesting? Like abit of heavy metal? You want to get it on and pound some metal. Well read on…….

It’s worth noting both of these games were recently opened for general transfers.

Hawken

Hawken is a multi-player mechanical combat game in open beta.

Hawken takes place on a human-colonized planet, industrialized to the point of collapse; in which the hunt for resources has become a battle for survival

The game focuses on creating an intense battle experience that captures the feel of piloting a mech while keeping the action fast-paced and strategic. The game is about playing team-death match, death match, missile assault or siege mode. Each promotes its own variation of gameplay, from one verses all, through to six versus six team based combat.

The maps are an astonishingly pretty cyberscape based in a futuristic dystopia, with flickering neon, ash-flake filled air, and battered synthetic surfaces. Some of them have impressive verticality: layered loops with the ability to drop down and leap up stories of huge, rumbling buildings. The maps are varied, quite beautiful, and detailed.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dOU4HBJaZ-o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hawken Video embeddable and available in HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOU4HBJaZ-o

Even at this relatively early stage, Hawken lives up to the hype. As a FPS Mech game it stands out from anything else out there. The Siege mode, feel, and Pace especially, separates this free-to-play game from the crowd.

It's the type of experience that gets under your skin, making you want to come back for more. And that's exactly the type of formula necessary for a game to succeed in the free-to-play gaming landscape.

TAW MWO division

As most of you know we launched our own MWO division into TAW in December 2012, the team has grown to in excess of 60 members, and thanks to me, now shrunk to 49 members as people have moved on to other games while they eagerly wait for the game to be released.

I have to admit it is difficult waiting, when we already have so much in the game, but the developers have their own timetable and you can’t rush perfection, I guess it will just make it that much sweeter when this game is finally released with all the frills.

The division as a whole has made great strides, with 4 practices per week, regular attendances ranging from 36 members online in one practice to an average of 24 members between two practices NA and EU. Considering there are only 14 EU players, those stats are pretty good.

It grieves me whenever I am forced to remove the inactives, but you have to prune the plant to keep it growing properly, and we are stronger for it.

Very welcome news that we have been given the green light for internal transfers, especially since we still need to grow the OC division and it would be great to have some more TAW members join our EU and NA teams too.

MechWarrior online

MechWarrior online is based on the MechWarrior universe, which has itself grown to include a huge variety of mech style games, such as MW 1-4, MW mercenaries 1-2, Mech Commander 1-2, Mech Assault and a huge number of other mech games that followed. In addition to the computer games there are also several hundred books and board games for the MechWarrior Universe.

Unfortunately Microsoft ran into a copyright battle with Harmony Gold over using mech designs that were too similar to Robotec and Macros; as a result no further MW games were made.

10 years later and PGI won the copyright and started developing a free to play game called MechWarrior online. With a huge fan base, PGI posted profits of $5 million, just for the closed beta sales of the Founders mech packages. These packages were scaled Veteran, Elite and Legendary, with the top package going for $120, it gives 3 months premium bonus, 4 founders mechs, which give various xp and credit boosts and you get your name and call sign in the credits for the game.

That offer is closed, and the game is long since out of closed beta and 6 months into open beta J

Since then despite still being in open beta, the developers are still rolling out premium packs, hero mechs, new mech designs, new cosmetics and a steady stream of new content for the game, which has resulted in a growing fan base for the game.

The Game

The MWO game basically puts you in a FPS that requires something more than just point and shoot, you can use terrain to your advantage, builds, loadouts weapons etc. The game is based around playing roles, be it scouting, tagging, ecm support, brawler, medium, heavy or assault or long range, medium, support or heavy. There are a variety of weapons to choose from some are energy based, others are ballistic some are missile based.

Despite being near completion the developers are being very closed mouthed about a release date, and are continuing to keep the game in open beta, while rolling out various new expansions, new maps, new mechs, new premium packs, new camouflage on a fortnightly basis, rolling in the money and at the same time keeping the game balanced so that it is not pay to win.

Every two weeks there is a huge patch releasing even more content, and introducing new game mechanics, like ECM, or Tag which can counter ECM and allow you to paint a target for Long range missile support, or electric interference shoot energy weapons on a cloaked unit and it interrupts the ECM for a few seconds, keep firing on that enemy and they stay visible for your team.

The other nice thing about this game is it is not simply point and shoot, it requires skill, planning and whether you decide to shoot peoples arms or legs off, or just decide to snipe people in the head, all of these tactics and strategies are viable options.

The game is based on teamplay, if you want to run around chasing kills while your team dies, you can try and do that, chances are WE TAW will pick you off one by one and you can start crying about how OP we are J

In MWO, it takes a lot to take you down, assuming you don’t get an alpha strike in the face from a 100 ton Atlas, or assuming you are not busy sniping and in turn get shot in the head, but using cover and varying team tactics, you can last quite a while or not depending on your play style J

This is DavrosDalek our TS who despite losing both his arms and one leg, cored in the chest with just two energy weapons still managed to win. We fight hard, we die hard and no matter what we win, Victory in death! J

Dying

A match takes 15 minutes, and if you die, you are dead, there is no respawn until the end of the match.

Resupply

Only what you take with you, part of choosing the right weapons, builds loadout etc, something we excel at, but don’t worry it will all be over quickly, or not J

Map grid references

Just to use an example that Zeh posted on the TAW forums for the Alpine map, one of the annoying things about Tribes Ascend is you spot an enemy and there is no clear detail as to where the enemy is approaching from, yes, you can give basic descriptions of terrain etc. but chances are half your team at looking the wrong way when you give the references.

Not so MWO, in addition to a standard radar with a zoomed in grid reference in front of you, there is also a map function which allows you to track enemy movements on the map and zoom in and concentrate fire on specific targets which are pre-assigned letters A through H (Alpha to Hotel).

Hero Mechs ((http://mwomercs.com/media/video/2sYajupi15I)

Light, medium, heavy and assault chassis

Please note each chassis has 5 or 6 variants to it, some are good for ballistic, others for energy, others for missiles

Skill, strategy, Tactics, Nerves

Even if you are piloting a 25-35 ton mech and you run into the whole enemy team, if you keep your wits about you, you can still run out the other side, if you use tactics to your advantage, be it jump jets, terrain, ecm, tag, prayer or dodging around the cumbersome heavy mechs and getting them to shoot each other, you have options, don’t just give up and stand still.

March 5^th Patch

·         New single player training grounds

·         New maps

·         New mechs

·         New hero mech

·         Even more cosmetic paints etc.

Some existing features

·         Advanced Cry Engine 3, tweaked for max performance

·         Ingame VOIP, (why would you want that J)

·         Map grid references and assigned targets

·         8 man random drop for 1-4 people with up to 7 random pugs, yuck!

·         4 man team drops with 4 random pugs, oh well at least I have 4 TAW team members

·         8 man drops against other guilds and premades

(12 vs. 12 in development)

·         Currently two game modes, Conquest and Assault (Death match next in development)

·         Elo system using player skill and stats to ensure I get noob pugs, freaking irritating

 (pugging is no fun when you have high stats, believe me)

·         ECM, tagging, beagle active probes, NARC, Anti-missile system (AMS)

·         Experience points earned from matches allow unlock of additional skills and abilities

·         Modules on mechs adding advanced sensors, additional zoom functions, high speed base capping etc.

·         Small, Medium, long range energy weapons, advanced heat sinks that dissipate heat

·         Ballistic weapons that require ammo be carried

·         Missiles weapons that require missiles be carried

·         Advanced armour such as a Ferro Fibrous, advanced lightweight structures such as Endo Steel

·         Single and double heat sinks to add 40% reduction in heat

·         Fortnightly update with new mechs, hero mechs cosmetics etc.

·         Paint your mech pink if you want, once you buy the colours you can use them on any mech.

·         Novelty items like Hula dancing girls, dice, dog tag, air freshener, all the useless junk people actually buy for real money

Upcoming features

·         More maps

·         More mechs

·         Fortnightly patches with new content

·         12 vs. 12

·         Team Deathmatch

·         Guild tags

·         Community Warfare (http://mwomercs.com/game/factions)

Feel free to bump our forums J

Whether you’re thinking of joining us or happy in your division, feel free to let others in the MWO community know how much you enjoy playing in TAW and post a comment in our recruitment thread at http://mwomercs.com/...now-recruiting/

A spin up meeting for World of Warplanes has been set for Saturday 16th at 20:00 GMT.

This is an open meeting so anyone  interested in the game is welcome to join.

Anyone unable to attend that has any questions should direct them to the MrHazz the SUL for WoP or direct to the VG staff.

Vanguard are happy to announce that  Hawken and Smite will now be open for internal transfers.  Although the game has not be released fully the game  can be downloaded from any good game site , it is free to download and free to play. If you are interested in this game please contact your CoC to apply for a internal transfer. Any questions feel free to ask  the VG staff.

I am really pleased to announce that Ikon, formerly the DO of Dota has accepted the DC position of the Vanguard Horizon division.

Having worked with Ikon whilst Dota was a spin up team in Vanguard previously I can say that his addition to the Vanguard staff will make us stronger and help ensure the high standards we strive for are maintained.

In the time ahead, the extra pair of hands he will provide will really help as Vanguard ramp up the games that we look to bring into and spin up for the benefit of TAW.

Vanguard is happy to announce that WarZ has now become a full spin up division.

As this game is released, this will also mean it will now be open for general transfers.

Anyone with any questions or queries about the games should contact Kronos the WarZ SUL.