MechWarrior Online is a free-to-play, tactical Sim stomping onto your PC

I know you were just sitting there, staring blankly into your Halloween candy and thinking to yourself, "There just aren't enough big giant robots in the world."  You took a bite of candy, but even its sweet lusciousness could do little to wipe the forlorn look from your face.  You've downed piece after piece, hoping that eventually even just the sugar rush could replicate that small ray of sunshine that glimmers off the hulking mass of a shiny Mech. But no rays of sun came. "Not enough robots in the world."

The world is about to change.

Today Piranha Games have announced Mechwarrior Online, a free-to-play, team based, mech sim in the vein of Mechwarrior 4.   We're talking possible joystick support and all.  Piranha President Russ Bullock laid out the groundwork. “I think it’s really the Mechwarrior you know,” Bullock says. “It’s fully first-person. It’s not a new interpretation. We’re modernizing things a little bit, I think we’ll get to those questions, but certainly it’s Mechwarrior.”

A lot of focus will be on the team aspect of the game, which will allow players to form into mercenary squads with their own HQ, and the ability for them to be available for hire. Mechwarrior Online creative Director Bryan Ekman explained. “Players will be able to band together in the format of a lance, which is four, and they’ll be able to band together as a mercenary corporation for hire. That’s not unlike a guild. We have a whole editor and mercenary HQ for players to explore that allows them to customize the look and feel of their corporation, their membership, the structure of how they enter battle, the lances, their names, ranks, and all kinds of things.”

It almost seems like Mechwarrior Online is following the EVE Online model of competitive corporations and persistent worlds, which has produced a truly thriving player economy in the EVE Universe, and could add some extra depth beyond the Mech combat we've all grown to love in the Mechwarrior games.

The first official Dev Blog has also given more details of what we can expect:

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.

You can sign up for Mechwarrrior Online now at the official website and reserve your pilot name while you're there.

[Source: PC Gamer]