Another day and another huge patch! Seems to be that time of year, after Valve releases details for the DotA 2 patch 7.00 (which we reported on here), and ARK releasing patch notes for their upcoming phase one of Tek Tier – and now Piranha Games finally releasing Mechwarrior Online patch notes for their December update. Well, it is the season for giving!!

This update is going to be big for the Mechwarrior Online community. For starters, those that pre-ordered the Marauder IIC will finally get their hands on the 85 ton assault ‘Mech. On top of that, many ‘Mechs will be receiving small quirk changes; some of these simply being nerfed or moved in favor of changing the base weapon stats, but others to balance out these behemoths to bring some under-performers in line with those that are shining above the rest.

Some of the other minor changes include things like:

• A new 1v1 Map for those that want to duke it out and prove their skills
• Changes to heatsinks
• Heat penalty increase for Shot Ranged Missiles
• Ballistic weapons being balanced out
• More specifically, the machine gun getting a huge buff.

Talking about the machine guns in Mechwarrior Online, they have been a little under-powered, but it appears that will change shortly – and not in a way that will make them too strong, but just a slight damage buff, and the decreased spread (pictured above) will give them the ability to shine the way they always should have.

Another huge change will be the new “Escort” game mode; and this is exactly what it sounds to be. One team will be defending an AI controlled Atlas ‘Mech, trying to get it from point A to point B, while the other team is trying to kill the target. This is particularly exciting as it brings up the number of quickplay game modes to five, as well as being completely separate to the other game modes. While each game mode has its own objective, such as skirmish being to kill all enemy players, or conquest being to cap and hold points until you reach 750 resources – they all tend to end the same way: winning by eliminating all enemy forces. This will be different. You NEED to destroy the AI ‘Mech or you will lose. It will be a nice change of pace and something that’s needed to keep Mechwarrior Online going strong.

And finally, the biggest and most anticipated change of the patch is the Faction Play. This was always an exciting concept and something many people looked forward to, but sadly Piranha Games always missed the mark, no matter what they did, leaving the Faction Play an almost desolate part of the game, with it often taking people hours to find games, if at all.

The core change seen in Faction Play Phase 4.1 is the introduction of a unified Clan vs Inner Sphere front. Faction Play is now distinguished by a perpetual Conflict pitting the entirety of Clan invasion forces against all Inner Sphere Factions.

In addition to the new Clan versus Inner Sphere Conflict, Faction Play also supports special Factional Conflicts. Modeled after the ComStar Intercept campaigns we previously ran for a time, these Factional Conflicts will be manually-designed events within the Inner Sphere. Additional improvements to Faction Play in 2017 will see these Factional Conflicts provided with greater complexity and lore details in future patches.

While there are still several factions to chose from, you will no longer have to worry if the faction you chose is going to be active against one of your enemy factions – this is what often hindered the Faction Play, but with this new unified front, you will always be able to get into the fight, hopefully reducing queue times. They will also be implementing a voting system, so anyone playing in the Faction Warfare will be able to have a say in which planets will be attacked, instead of having them randomly assigned – something that upset more than a few players who felt they had no control over something that is supposed to be “run” by the community.

The new Tug Of War system for the Mechwarrior Online Faction Play will also be changing how control of a planet is determined when it is being invaded by an enemy force – instead of the same game mode being played several times over one planet to see who earns territories (and eventually the planet), players will now fight for the planet in 5 stages, and these stages will go backwards and forwards depending on who wins. This is a much needed change and gives players a chance to win on their favoured game modes, giving the push needed for the faction they side with.

What are your thoughts on this patch? Are you happy with the changes and new additions or do you want something else? Maybe you’re more interested in the recently announced Mechwarrior 5? Let us know in the comments.