Most of my must-have mods updated (YAML, YAEC, etc) for Mechwarrior 5: Mercs, so I decided it was time to take a break from all the bugs in Star Citizen 4.8 and review the latest DLC for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries.
The problem is, of course, that I said most of my must-have mods have updated; A handful (such Yet Another Special Variant) have yet to update, negating using any of my old saves in order to get me closer to playing the new content (which starts pretty late in the timeline).
Sure; The game does provide career starts that give you a bunch of mechs and start at the correct timeline, but.. Those mechs aren’t my mechs. They aren’t crafted with love and death-bringing.
So, I started from the very beginning in career mode. Again.
I’m not complaining, though, because I have to confess.. I love starting fresh in Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. I love coming up with new challenges and experiencing the chaos that reigns (badump-tss) with the randomness of the universe.
This time, of course, I’m not doing a “challenge” run (although I’m already planning to do an assassin-mech only lance run where I only do Arena combat and assassination missions), but I am focusing on the mechs that will get me where I need to be for all the DLC campaigns as quickly as possible; Mech builds that I have honed over the years that are absolute beasts; The Locust 1VB with an NSS and Clan H S lasers? You bet. My Dragon SDW stealth sniper? A mainstay. I’ve also got my PPC-X-only Nightstar, a gauss-loaded King Crab, and a laser-vomit Marauder II as my personal beasts.. And we haven’t even talked about what I’m sticking my lance-mates in, of course.
This is all thanks to mods like Yet Another Mechlab, which make building the mechs just as fun as fighting them.
Anyway, I do have a couple little things to note about the update and new DLC that I can already share.
First off: There is a hilarious bug where the Locust’s right “arm” (weapon mount) will either point straight up, or straight down. It appears like that arm got some exponential calculation error in it’s positioning, and every time I drive it I feel like the thing has a single lazy eye or something. Note: This doesn’t actually change point-of-impact or anything, as it’s purely a visual bug. My little Locust 1VB is still a cute little plague-bringer.
Beyond that, though, the game did add some equipment and weaponry that was previously covered by mods; Things like the Arrow IV are in the game, which is making people shit bricks when they encounter it (I have yet to); The Clan Heavy S lasers added by CR actually feel more powerful than the ones provided by mods, too, which is a surprise.
They’ve also fixed some AI quirks that were driving me bananas previously, like the one where Scrapyard Scuffle foes would just.. Stay in their stall until you engaged them (this is why I built the 4x PPC-X Nightstar – it deletes most foes in 1-2 hits, but is only useful for close-range engagement and isn’t super quick).
So, hopefully here in a week or two I’ll finally have progressed enough to review the new DLC for you; I will note posting will be sporadic for a while, as I’m also working on evaluating a new platform for the site and want to have more time to focus on building that out.
Plus, I wanna hurry up with this career so I can start my new Assassin’s-only career 😀