New ECM locust Next Tuesday!

Full disclosure: As someone who is a marketing major and a lifetime founding member of NGNG - I encourage you to take what is said with regards to my opinion with a grain of salt.

If going by his own word in this reddit thread; (Edit: I see he has removed every reply he has made... thats no good.)

He was removed from the testing project - but he has found a way to blunt force himself into the client even when he cant login due to not having access. My personal theory is that he downloads the patches - puts them in another client and then runs it via scripts and command prompts since the files would be in the proper folders.

He gets access from datamining the private servers used for internal testing - which he once had access to but was removed from them. As such he still has the client downloaded but one assumes he still can download the patches to datamine even without access.

 

*giggles and points finger at Midnite* He called a Locust PTW........

In all seriousness I'm presuming you're being sarcastic as the ECM isn't unique equipment in any way its carried on Commandoes, Spider's, Kit Foxes, Raven's, Cicada's, Atlases... and soon 2? more clan chassis.

 

Say... if they have a Heavy ECM Hero with all the outfits then maybe it is p2w. But as it stands a Hero ECM LCT is just fine. There are other ECM lights to choose from, the the closest one is a COM-2D which is not much heavier and much better.
If they would release something like a ECM Hero Shadow Hawk then maybe it is p2w, as there are no cbills similar ECM mech of similar weight and ability. But a LCT is fine.

 

Got lost in translation I guess.... check, check.. nope, my english is still there.
I don't mean a Locust could ever be PTW. It's fun to drive and unique on it's own, but far from OP even with installed ECM.
My concern is the following: IF a piece of equipment that can grant a certain chassis an advantage over the other variants is exclusive to MC, even if it's only a Locus in this certain case, is allowed... what would stop PGI from doing similar things with upcoming (thus heavier) Mechs?

I would make comparisons with historical events which were categorized as nothing more than a nuissance or a lesser evil and later turned out to be a great disaster, but no... I guess you get my point now.

 

You are worried that this will set a precedent

 

Can someone make a quick summary of who this "Squirrel" is and what did he leaked? for those like me not aware of all the dramas

 

Quick TLDR;

"Former Squirrel" is a handle used by a member who does not post using his real MWO handle and was once part of the MWO player testing team - he was removed but still had the client downloaded. As such he could DL patches of upcoming testing information and files before they go live in public. He would data mine those private server information and post what he found. These include mechs, maps, balance changes, etc.

He now also has found a way to breach past the required client login - so he now has access to in game screen shots and maps which he has been recording and putting online before anyone else, even PGI, since they would want everything looking and tested before releasing.

Contrary to his own statements that he would stop if PGI talked to him about leaks of information - he has yet to do so even though he himself confirmed people from PGI contacted him to ask him to stop.

This has caused a good number of people to be upset for multiple reasons, but has also made a number of people excited for a number of reasons.

 

Thank you!

 

I do understand your point.
Basically you don't want another Ilya to happen, a Hero variant that is actually better than the rest of the variants, rather than just being different, and looking way cooler.

Obviously a Hero variant should look way cooler, and I expact it to look way cooler, as it should. I mean, I am buying the hero mostly for looks, and looks does not unbalance gameplay.

But I do understand that while this ECM variant may not be the best LCT variant in this case, ECM on some other hero mech would put it way better than the rest of the variants. On this I think that the bonus on SL is deliberate, to balance things by having people use the half bonus on ML. (you can use 4x SL, 2x MG but you will have to get really close, not useful for a locust) Same goes for the AC2 quirk, you can use half bonus on MG at best, since AC2 sucks as a single weapon on a locust.

Guess we will wait and see on this.

 

*Blink* I ran quad SL and dual ML on the 1E I think it was pre quirk... loved it.

I'm lost as to why anyone thinks ECM is powerful currently. Why?

Coincidentally I'd argue that every hero mech should have a distinction that sets it apart and makes the ability to grind c-bills in it worthwhile or interesting. The skin is just a bonus. Lets be honest I'm earning 250-300k+ in my Dragon-1N atm per match. If the Hero version including the 30% bonus can't even earn 200k regularly its totally useless unless its FUN. The Yen-lo-Wang and Oxide were fun and unique among the Centurions/Jenners. Those were good hero mechs.

PS: Unless its an enhanced version of a module/weapon its not P2W for me coincidentally - gold ammo in WoT ... that was P2W!

 

But that's exactly the point I'm aiming at. It's not about ECM in itself. ECM was already overrated prior to the BAP-buff. Adapting is the usual key.
It's about where to put the line on what the difference between a hero and a standard variant should be.
What would you say if all of a sudden Col. Renard's jumping Atlas would appear as a hero? This would make it the exclusive variant to use JJ's. Unfair or not? Is this PTW?
I'm just beeing cautious on such a delicate matter. You all know how ferocious the community can be.

And for the record: True, I'm not buying any heroes (yet), so I might be a bit biased on this matter, but I bought every package since legendary founder and I love this game so far and the path it's taken in the last weeks enough to put (a lot of) my money on it. I DO care.

 

See sometimes bold moves are necessary and listening too much to a community can be a bad thing. I didn't like that PGI asked the reddit community to give them feedback on the Quirks. Even the forum poll regarding the match maker voting system was dumb, such matters should be handled by a in-game voting system of sorts that every player can see.

I got pretty worried when I was reading the Quirk comments on reddit.. Seems like most people there are power-gaming tryhards and real pros but if that's going to feed the PGI reaction chain.. you know what i mean. That would be a bad thing.

ECM hero.. meh. Really i don't care about that one.

 

If the mech appeared it really wouldn't bother me.. besides it would be an act of contrition for the Boar's Head.

I mean if we're ok with Highlanders and Victors having jump jets then why not lore based Atlases that had them?

(that's an actual question its not rhetorical)

Not getting at you Midnite but in general it irritates me when people argue that a hero mech should be worse than a main mech because that's what people generally mean when they argue against a lot of hero ideas. It's almost always needless to say people not buying hero mechs who are actually saying - I want the winning card to be what I have and don't want competition. If you have a Raven 3L as a normal mech then imo yeah the Hero should be just as viable. It shouldn't all be about the paint job because otherwise that Oxide really wouldn't have much.

Everything in the post quirk world has a value and that I like (its just not remotely balanced yet but I live in hope).

PS: Yes I know technically I'm just arguing that all mechs should be interesting and viable.

 

I buy Hero Mechs for looks AND unique Hardpoints for unique effective Builds, like the YLW, Ilya, Firebrand, Misery. If it is only about the Looks (Camo right?) i would never pay 10-20 Bucks for a Mech. Buy the Cataphranken Camo and use the colors Black, Bloodred & Yellow/White and you have your Monster Looks for some little money.

 

Not a bad thing to argue... otherwise what would be the point of having them.

 

I'm totally with you Rem. I don't want heroes to suck, on the contrary... as they are bought with real money they need to be worth it. I never had issues with the Ilya for example, even though it was technically a c-bill printing machine. This is just about balance in-between MC and C-bill Mechs.

 

Hey Cattra, any News about upcoming patches/content/events besides the two Heroes before Xmas by Pgi you know and can share with us? Would love to get a jumpy Thunderbolt Hero which can go Zombie!!! Any Chances?

 

... or Wolverine hero with jj, 8x Ballistic and 3 energy on each hand.
Oh, you have to cover it in yellow spandex.

 

Sorry mate, I unfortunately cant say.

 

6 MLas, 8 MG?

And... no. Just. No. For the love of Blake, no.