Mechwarrior revival on the horizon?

I've previously posted about my avid desire to see a Mechwarrior MMO. And had been awaiting further information on developmental plans since I first heard about Microsoft selling the rights a couple years ago. It's now being reported that a new PC/Console version of Mechwarrior is in the works. Not a continuation of previous Mechwarrior games, but a full "reboot" with single/multi-player play modes.

I will of course purchase and play this game, but if this isn't to be an MMO I certainly hope they truly learn from previous failures of the series. Create a foundation that enables players and developers to introduce custom missions and player-vs-player (PVP) scenarios. One of the areas that I think was most poorly supported in previous games was the instant combat system that quickly grew stale. Enabling players to create their own scenarios and then play them would tap into a tremendous amount of developmental capacity, but also enliven an aspect of the game that had seriously lagged behind in previous incarnations.

With no information related to what the game will ultimately be like, I can envision a wide range of game play. I'd love to see something that enables one to play in a true galaxy-wide war that reenacts the invasion of the clans. Able to play from the inner-sphere, or clan perspectives you could tip the scales one way or the other. In other words, a non-linear missioning system with the consequences of each battle determining the eventual outcome of the war. How much fun would that be?

The possibilities are endless when you consider how this could work from a solo and multi-player perspective.

They could go even further by introducing new content through semi-regular patches that doesn't just introduce new units and abilities, but truly unfolds new chapters of an overarching storyline. Release would kick off with the invasion and the early struggle to hold back the clans and obtain new technology (or if played from the clan perspective, the struggle to retake Terra). Patch one could take place a year later (say 4-5 years in real-time) and would feature in the inner-sphere with newer, better technology and hellbent on pushing the clans back. Perhaps even back to the clan home-worlds. What comes after that? Who knows.

Mechwarrior meet EVE Online

My time in EVE Online this past week has, if nothing else, increased my desire to see a Mechwarrior Online MMO. In fact EVE has done more than just that, it's shown the light on a classless system that would fit perfectly into my ideal of what a Mechwarrior MMO should be like. If someone were to take EVE Online, and plunk down some development for planet side warfare with infantry and mech units and then melded it all together you'd probably have THE game of the decade.

In EVE you can seize and hold territories, which is exactly what I envision being able to do in Mechwarrior Online. However in EVE seizing territory seems to simply be about gaining access to raw materials. The best raw materials are in "low security" zones, which are the zones most fought over as you can imagine. In Mechwarrior online I'd like to see something a little more integrated. Factions should gain access to more raw resources as they gain more territory, but they should also attain strategic assets along with those territories as one would expect in real world combat. Taking a system that contains a particular foundry that offers access to a superior product with superior craftsmanship should have an impact on the overall war. Bring strategic thinking to MMO warfare and you will create a product that no MMO enthusiast can resist.

In previous writings I had envisioned a Mechwarrior MMO featuring a strong PVP and a strong PVE "end-game", but I think that might be a mistake now. Mechwarrior Online should be about PVP. That PVP should take the focus, as it does in the books, of internecine warfare between the factions and should give players the option to enlist in factional armies or in mercenary outfits.

There should also be a strong crafting and trade system, which I also look to EVE Online for as a model. A vibrant player controlled economy should be the very foundation of the game, from which the PVP and crafting and trade systems spring.

Of course a game of this nature would necessarily require a large gaming population. But what happens if you launch and find yourself with only 250,000 to 350,000 players? Is that enough that bring rea life to the war? In my view Mechwarrior online would also have to include strong NPC AI. The developer of Mechwarrior online should not fall into the same pit all previous PVP-centric MMOs have fallen into. And that is the boredom factor. PVP-centric MMOs are great in the beginning when there are lots of players. But they quickly grow stagnant and boring as players leave. The games were never designed to fill in for real players. Mechwarrior online should account for that. Players should be able to join existing battles being fought between NPCs and should be able to make real contributions to those battles. In short, a player interested in "PVP" should never go for want of it. Even if that "PVP" is actually against NPCs. Make the NPCs smart enough and he or she won't notice or care.

Mechwarrior Online

Though I'm an avid WoW fan and player, my first love in video games is and always has been Battletech/Mechwarrior. I first started playing Battletech with pen and paper back in the late 80's and very quickly bought every Mechwarrior game that came out, spending hours and hours playing. Even the old clunky Mechwarrior 1.

Since I graduated to playing MMOs I've been impatiently awaiting someone--anyone--to make a Mechwarrior Online MMO. I'd be so there! And I'm absolutely sure that hundreds of thousands of others would be also. I've written about this subject at least twice before on blogs long since deleted (don't ask). While I don't have those previous posts to link back to, I've never really stopped thinking about the game I want to play above all others. So let me use this humble blog in an attempt to chide WizKids to kick it in gear, and describe how I would construct it.

First and foremost my MechWarrior online would favor PVP, though there would also be a very strong PVE end game. Set in the decade just prior to the clan invasion (classic time frame), Mechwarrior Online would be centered firmly in the intra-family wars that had been ongoing in the Mechwarrior universe for decades. PVP would primarily take place in the border regions, though that PVP could spill over into deeper zones. In fact that would be encouraged. A key component of the game would be taking and holding enemy territory and would bestow benefit to the outfits and faction taking territory. All of Mechwarrior Online would be built upon a strong player created economy, though strong central anti-inflationary measures would be built in. After all, taxes are as fundamental to life as death is.

Instead of static class systems that we see in games like WoW and other MMOs, I would instead create a system that starts with a small selection of core classes that each character would be able to choose from. Each of those core classes would have sub-specialties that players would gain access to as they advance in "level". And instead of "levels", characters would have ranks and steps. Ranks would open up technologies, assignments, and capabilities to the players, and steps would be loosely analogous to levels in current MMOs. With steps would come talent points, stat point increases, and minor abilities. There could be 10 Major ranks and each rank could have 10 steps (level 1 - 100) as an example.

Core classes could be something like Soldier, Scientist, and Tradesman. With each class enabling a vibrant career path to the player. In a PVP centric game, the obvious draw would be the soldier class, though there would be strong enticement to players to play a Scientist or Tradesman as well. The Tradesman class would be the basis for the economy, and Scientists would be fundamental assets to those tradesman by bringing new technologies and production efficiencies to the game space. I envision mercenary groups and factions keenly vieing for the services of tradesman and scientists.

As an example of how I would envision the rank/step system working, I offer the diagram below. As a new character is created you must choose one of the three core classes. If you choose Soldier, you would then be asked to choose a faction, or become a mercenary free to start your own mercenary group or become a member of an existing group. Either way you will be tied to a rank system that offers more and more to you as you rise through it.

As a basic soldier you would rise through the lower ranks until you attain an arbitrary rank, at which time you would become an infantryman, or some other sub-class. In infantry, you would continue to rise through the ranks until you again attain an arbitrary rank, at which time you could specialize in Armor, Anti-Armor/Mech, or Mechwarrior. Because Mechwarrior would obviously be the big draw here, there would have to be strong inducements to follow the Armor and Anti-Armor career paths. Those specialties would have to offer key capabilities that would be sought after in PVP.

The game would feature a strong factional system that would discourage faction/guild hopping. At character creation you enlist in one of the major factions, or become a mercenary. Mercenary groups are not tied to any one specific faction, though they're reputations are effected with the various factions depending on the contracts they take. Following that out to its logical conclusion, they could of course become de facto factional groups in this manner, though not tied directly to it.

PVE end game would closely parallel PVP end game. PVP end game is about intra-factional warfare, and the taking and holding of enemy territory. While that is envisioned as the primary goal of the game, players would not be tied to it if they did not wish to participate. For PVE players instanced battles of up to epic proportions would be created. All instanced and accessible to any faction. The faces and names of planets would obviously change depending on which faction you were, but the battles themselves would be the same.

I envision PVP being a little more on the brutal side. A la EVE online style. Destruction of a Mech means exactly that--destruction. There is a chance at salvage depending on battle conditions, but if you are on the losing side of a battle, which is run from the field salvage would most likely go to the victor. Mercenary groups and factional units would be able to recoup some of their losses through the PVE endgame however. As well as through the fees they will earn doing them. The higher stakes in PVP would encourage strategic thinking, and battle conditions more akin to reality than we normally see in video games. There are consequences to decision making after all.

As I said, I would start Mechwarrior Online in the decade prior to the clan invasion and would like to see expansions every 12-18 months. The first expansion would see the very beginning of the clan invasion and would grow from there. Each bringing new technologies and capabilities to the game. Including aero and space combat. Notice how I included Anti-Air in class graph above?

Of all the MMOs I've played and heard about, nothing rises to the level that Mechwarrior could. I'm almost positive that I am not the only person to have ever thought of this, so I can only surmise there are some legal impediments standing in the way somewhere. Whatever the real reasons might be that have apparently stopped something like this from even being thought about, I hope they are worked out sooner rather than later.