MechWarrior Online: Project Phoenix: Saber Reinforcement

The Project Phoenix page was updated today, August 28, with an additional package called Saber Reinforcement. Once you purchase one of the Project Phoenix packages, you can purchase the Saber Reinforcement package for an additional $30.

The package includes one hero mech variant and two normal variants of each of the 55 ton mechs, Griffin and Wolverine. So, six mechs for $30 and two of those are hero variants (unique paint job and geometry, 30% C-bill and 10% Loyalty boost). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I already have the Project Phoenix Overlord package and I'm very tempted to give myself an early Christmas present. :D

Click on images below for larger versions.

 

And I only made it about two hours before buying the Saber Reinforcements package...

 

MechWarrior Online: DHB vs DHB 24 Mech Battles in Alpine Peaks and Tourmaline Desert

Here are two 12v12 battles between two Death's Hand Brigade 3rd Battalion groups during a training session. We sync drop in Conquest mode to increase the odds of getting matched against each other. The purpose of the training is to work on communication, focus firing, and moving as a group. The overall focus of the training is combat. So, we don't intentionally cap bases.

The mech I'm piloting is an Atlas, AS7-D-DC, with an AC20, 2 Large Lasers, and 3 SRM6s.

Alpine Peaks

 

 Tourmaline Desert

MechWarrior Online: Atlas AS7-D-DC with 2 LB-10X AC in Action

This mech is a slight variation of one of my favorite builds from Closed Beta, Atlas AS7-D-DC with two LB-10X AC, two Medium Lasers, and three SRM6 with Artemis. I get 6 kills and 3 assists on 628 damage. This was also the last match of a nearly 9 hour long MechWarrior Online play session. This was arguably my best match of the day. 

MechWarrior Online: DHB vs DHB 24 Mech Battle in River City

Two Death's Hand Brigade groups face off in River City during a training session. I am piloting an Atlas AS7-D with two PPCs, AC20, and two Medium Lasers.

MechWarrior Online: Cataphract, CTD-3D, with 2 ERPPCs in Tourmaline Desert

I dust off my favorite Cataphract, CTF-3D, with 2 ERPPCs, 2 Medium Pulse Lasers, and 2 Jump Jets for an Assault match in Tourmaline Desert. I hadn't played this mech in quite a while and realized I really need to play it more. It is fun, and although not a brawler like I usually play, I am effective with it. Despite a sub-par sniper alpha strike (only 20 points) I get 4 kills and 5 assists on 460 damage. Oh yeah, one of those kills was a 700+ meter side torso XL engine kill on a Jenner (1:55 in the video). :D

MechWarrior Online: DHB vs DHB 24 Mech Battle in Caustic Valley

Two Death's Hand Brigade 3rd Battalion teams face off in Caustic Valley. This was during our first night of 12v12 training. We had dropped against this same DHB group two times earlier and they kicked our butts, but we make up for it this time. Our teamwork and communication were much better than in previous drops and it paid off.

MechWarrior Online: Atlas, AS7-D-DC with AC20 and 2 Large Lasers in Action - Part 3

While piloting an Atlas, AS7-D-DC, with an AC20 and 2 Large Lasers, and 3 SRM6s, we run into a DHB group in a Caustic Valley Assault battle. Not sure if you can see it in the in-game text chat, but one of my fellow DHB team mates put a bounty on my head if someone would team kill me.

MechWarrior Online: 3rd Person View on Public Test Server

Check out the short video below where I express some of my thoughts on the new 3rd Person View coming soon in MechWarrior Online to the people with me in TeamSpeak and on my Twitch channel.

Additional thoughts not in the video:
They need to pull the camera back some. Of the 7 or so mechs I played during the test, the Cataphract was the only one where you could see the upper legs consistently. With the others, you basically only saw the mech from the waist up unless the terrain slope changed the angle of the camera enough to force the camera to reposition to a higher angle. Of course, this totally screwed with your aiming as the reticle would also adjust to about face height for the mech.

In it's current form 3rd Person is nice because we finally get to view our paint jobs outside of the mech lab, but that's about it for me. What you give up (mini-map, unobstructed view, free movement of arms) is far too much to make 3rd Person more than a novelty. New players will probably find it useful in helping them get oriented to how mechs move, but, for experienced players, it doesn't hold a lot of appeal.