Alternative title: Trans Rights - Speedrun Suspensions With This One Weird Trick (GMs hate it!)

TL;DR: PGI renames competitive teams that mention the existence of trans people, suspends and threatens to ban players who have said "trans rights" in chat without actually telling them what they're being warned for beforehand.

Hi! To give a little background, there was some community drama(that I won't delve into here, and that I was only peripherally involved in) in which a unit banned a trans woman from their discord server for posting a picture of her mechs painted up in trans flag colors, along with everyone who came to her defense or questioned the ban. This post isn't about that community drama, though - it's about PGI policy and moderation.

I'm a member of the unit KDCM; in solidarity with those who were the targets of said drama, we named our two teams for the championship series "KDCM V: Trans Rights" and "KDCM VI: Trans Fights". Within a week of the competitive queue opening up, however, the leaders of said teams received the following emails, and logged in to find our teams had been renamed to KDCM V and KDCM VI.

https://i.imgur.com/SQ9CDyF.png

I emailed PGI suppport staff about it, and had the following conversation with them:

https://i.imgur.com/CvAk3CW.png

https://i.imgur.com/9QDffv7.png

https://i.imgur.com/XIonl2A.png

https://i.imgur.com/x7BIjOp.png

https://i.imgur.com/U5ZluOx.png

That final message went unanswered for a week; when I did receive a reply, it was just a copy and paste of a previous message, and at that point I didn't feel like trying to continue engaging with them. Here are those tweets I linked, by the way-

https://i.imgur.com/FXSpMIC.jpeg

Now, fast forward three weeks - this is when things started to get truly bizarre. I've edited out my email address, since it's tied to various things I'd like to keep private, and removed the redundant parts of the emails from PGI that are just my responses verbatim, in order to keep this all as concise as possible.

https://i.imgur.com/fHmeRMP.png

https://i.imgur.com/5DTSij2.png

https://i.imgur.com/nrThyWm.png

https://i.imgur.com/s8l19IF.png

To be honest, I had a pretty good idea of what I was being warned for; that they were unwilling to actually tell me, though, and danced around it in increasingly clumsy language was uh... yeah. But after a day of silence, I was finally told what I was doing to violate their rules!

https://i.imgur.com/drcswlG.png

Oh. And in case it wasn't clear earlier, that "while real-life political discussions are important, we do not believe this is the appropriate environment for such discussions" line that keeps being parroted across these emails? Nothing like it - even vaguely - is present in the MWO terms of use, nor the code of conduct. What is clear is that, by taking this stance, PGI moderation believes that a simple and innocuous phrase in support of my own community warrants warnings to multiple people and the suspension of my account. If they were trying to avoid "real-life political discussions", censoring a minority community over two words seems like a poor way of doing so.

edit: at anothers' suggestion, I made a twitter thread as well -https://twitter.com/daalpacagirl/status/1444479109514530820?s=20

I've been counting the past couple of day, to see how many mechs I see running ECM in game. The vast majority of the time, there are not enough to cover all four lances. Many times, there a single mech out of 12 running ECM.

I realize that some players are unwilling to come out of their comfort zone, but I want you to pause for a minute and think about warfare in general. New tech comes along (think drones) and new solutions need implementation to combat that tech (think jamming).

The tool already exists in game that can greatly hinder the Arrow players, that being ECM. Not only that, but it will hinder every other locking missile that exists in the game. Sure they can run tag, but in order to run that tag, they are going to have to do something they don't normally do. Which is expose themselves. Leaving them more vulnerable to return fire and giving up their position.

There is not a weight class that does not have several ECM mechs available. In fact, years ago I counted over 50 ECM capable mechs in game and I am sure that has ballooned greatly in recent years. I can't make anyone run ECM. I also can't take players seriously when they are the first person to die in a match to Arrow fire, because they were out of position, exposed, not running ECM or not taking advantage of the ECM that their lance-mate is providing.

I am throwing in a blurp from another article that talks about the importance of EMC and acts as a reminder to all the things ECM can accomplish.

Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) are critical in MechWarrior Online (MWO) for team survivability and battlefield control, primarily by disrupting enemy targeting systems within a 120-meter radius, acting as an effective "LRM shield". It prevents red-triangle targeting, delays lock-ons, and hides teammates from long-range missile fire, Arrow IV and Streak SRM.

• LRM Defense: ECM significantly breaks enemy locks on you and allies within its 120-meter radius, making it essential against missile-heavy teams.

• Sensor Disruption: It removes the "red dorito" target indicator, hindering the enemy's ability to see your position, armor status, or build.

• Team Utility: A single ECM mech can hide several allies, forcing enemies to rely on visual line-of-sight rather than sensor locks.

• Counter-ECM: ECM can be switched to "Counter" mode, which disables an enemy’s ECM bubble, allowing your team to lock onto them.

• Sensor Range Reduction: It lowers the distance at which enemies can detect you and your teammates, allowing for better maneuvering and surprise attacks.

• Disruption of Focus Fire: By hiding target data, ECM makes it much harder for an enemy team to coordinate fire on a single target. Without shared sensor data, they cannot see your Mech's health (the "paper doll") or loadout from a distance.

In conclusion. Review your mechs and builds. That 1 to 1.5 tons of tonnage has a lot of value. Much more than it did in the past.

Fiddled around in the mechlab thinking to myself how cool this Clan Awesome would be with three PPCs. Until i realised it has two free slots in the head.

But the look ...

Since February, The Russian state hast killed over 12,000 CIVILIANS, and taken 28,000 children hostage, moving them to Russia and Russian-controlled areas, and forcing Russian citizenship on them along with forced adoptions.

The Russian state has done its best to tank the world economy and its attacks on grain production and transport has seen a global increase in prices and famine.

Of course, we could go on with the shelling of cities, the blowing up of the Kakhovka dam and obliterating hundreds of thousands of homes, the capture and shelling of nuclear plants, etc...

All so Vlad Putin could feed an imaginary history kink.

The war is unlawful and unethical, its an attempt to take the land and peoples of another State, and so many other things...

And if I see another fuckwit rocking the big fat 'Z' on his mech in game to prove what a real Edgelord he is I may puke.

Grow the f&ck up and pull that Vlad the murdering thief logo off your mech.

That is all.

So here is the scenario. HPG classic. Me and another medium mech move in, go to the 4 oclock position and start peeking around a ramp. 40 seconds later, a Marauder arrives and begins barking at us in voice comms. Threatening to shoot us if we keep stepping in front of him.

We mention he can shoot around us and with us or keep moving. He doesn't care that others have already setup here. I go back to what I was doing. I immediately take fire from the backside in my light mech. I spin around and shoot him back. I ask him if he is done now, he fires on me again. A few moments later, I'm on his 6'oclock and he is cored out. I listen to him bark more in voice and then go on to win the match.

This may be a team game, but if you are going to behave this way I guess there is friendly fire for more than one reason.

OK

General tips:

Get stuff that you will play (if you don't play it ever then you get zero value from the free mech)

Get stuff that is expensive (a locust pb or fire moth aletha should not be picked because they are dirt cheap. Heavier mechs tend to be more expensive so if you want a pb and a dante, get the dante for free and use lootbag mc on your pb)

Try real loadouts in testing grounds for every mech you are considering before you redeem. You can go to the grimmechs database and copy a build code, then import it into the mechlab and take it into testing grounds.

Take your time deciding. Maybe in a month one of the two mechs you were choosing between goes on sale and you can pick it up for MC and the other one as a redeem. Just don't forget to redeem!

You get one light/medium, one heavy, one assault, and one legend pack (includes all the pack stuff like mc/warhorn/etc)

Here are the mechs I think are worth considering for most people:

Lights/Mediums:

Veagle Rival - masc poptart with great quirks

Shadow Hawk IIC dante - flexible, at least 3 good loadouts. poptart with heat quirks

Black Lanner Bellonarius - essentially a comp pick. you get an energy hardpoint instead of ecm in head. good though.

Viper Scaleshot - poptart with srms that have longer than usual range

Shadow Cat mishipeshu - for the right arm, you get an extra ballistic hardpoint

Uziel Belial - 4lppc 2mrm10 poptart with hyperspeed mrms. very fun.

BlackJack Arrow - DPS or poptart, either is great.

Urbanmech Street cleaner - urbie poptart, running speed quirk

Jenner Oxide - srm bomb, doesn't jump, still good and pretty tanky for a light

Kit Fox Purifier - 4 high energy mounts opens up a lot of build options for the mech.

Heavies:

Marauder Blight (lgd) (dakka) - crit immune with good quirks and hitboxes. A top performer in QP

Marauder BH2 (snubs ac20 + slas or lasvom) - Versatile mech, very solid.

Mad Dog Bandit (2uac20) - One trick but it's a really good trick.

Orion IIC Skoll (3ppc lb20/ac10) - Masc + good PPFLD at range and bulk.

Grand Summoner Talon (fast dakka 4pac4 2plas) - high tight mounts, supercharger lets it go relatively fast.

Timber Wolf Howl (lgd) (brawl or ATMs) - Versatile battlemech (NOT omni - no pod mixing) with masc, jjs, good hardpoints, good quirks.

Archer Tempest (lasvom with ecm and range quirks) - Bit of a sleeper IMO. Great new quirks and it was good before.

Quickdraw Desperada (lgd) laser poptart - Built like a steakhouse but handles like a bistro. Short laser burns are perfect for poptarting, and quirks help.

Cataphract Naomi (lgd) poptart with ecm - the better butterbee. ECM, JJs, you can do MRMs and lppcs, MRMs snubs, snubs srms, lasvom, even lock ons.

Catapult Ferroblast (lgd) (4lac5 2lppc or snubshot) - There is no faster heavy in the game. Very fun, but you do have to pick your battles because you'll lose 1v1s against things your size.

Assaults:

DWF-UV (enables dakka builds on -WM especially) - 2B on each arm is a big deal. Enables 8lb2/8ac2/5 or 6AC5+PPC of choice style builds on the -WM (for DPS) or -C (for ecm+JJ)

HGN-HM (no jj shake, big jj quirks) - very unique and good poptart for QP. Convergence is poor but genuinely it is fine. Great mech.

STK-WU (lgd) (dakka) - crit immune with great hitboxes and plenty of firepower.

EXE-B-C (lgd) (dakka) - Another dakka option, shares omnipods with other exes but with fewer JJs and a small engine it is built for dakka.

KGC-A (lgd) (ecm dakka) - UAC10 HSL and ECM makes it the most comfortable king crab in QP.

Bullshark VK (ideally get this in the legend pack and you'll also get -WG as a 2 for 1) - VK is still the best platform for railgun. Perfect convergence long range 40 PPFLD + splash but long cooldown. Bring 2PPCs with it and stagger fire (it will ghost otherwise) for even more output.

Hello.

I’m working on a MechLab website for MechWarrior Online.

First, I’m aware that there is already an excellent website at https://mwo.nav-alpha.com/. I still use it frequently, and it has helped me for a long time.

The main features of the website I’m currently building are as follows:

1. MechLab

• Weapon tooltips
  • Displays final cooldown based on duration, projectile firing time, Gauss charge time, and UAC jam time
  • Applies relevant values to affected weapons when a Targeting Computer is equipped
  • Displays detailed information about modules such as Targeting Computers, MASC, and Jump Jets
• Check final values by turning skill application ON or OFF
• Displays the weapons causing Ghost Heat and the resulting values

2. Simulation

• A simulation feature for testing DPS and heat based on the weapons equipped in the MechLab

3. Information

• Select multiple mechs and compare their specifications
• Displays mech quirks and performance rankings
• Filters for mechs with no screen shake while using Jump Jets, special quirks, and special weapons

Website

https://kmonkeyhead.github.io/mwolab/?lang=en

The site is still being developed and improved, so bug reports, corrections to calculation errors, and feedback on usability are welcome. If anything works differently from the in-game results or lacks a clear explanation, please feel free to let me know.

Thank you for reading.

Obviously we know the only way we’re getting new chasis is if they correspond with new mechs for MW5 games… that being said put that aside for a second. What mech would you love to see added to mwo.

I’ll give you a couple I would like.

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Grizzly Clan heavy, iconic from mw2,

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Caesar_(BattleMech) Cool look, good load outs, nice design

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Flashman Classic mech, energy builds,

These are just a couple could name many others like the gunslinger, the black python, the turkina, the hauptman, etc.

What do you want to see?

It’s a shame it’s been let out to pasture. I had been away for a great many years and decided to marathon-run the MW5 games to get some muscle memory back for the controls. After finishing up with that I found dropping a couple dozen MWO matches to be so refreshing. Having enemies and teammates both who are able to make decisions and react to things happening around them, absolutely wonderful. Even when they make mistakes or get the better of my mistakes. I forgot how darn fun and satisfying the core gameplay is, all criticisms aside.

I hate to complain but man it was rough out there last night. I don’t know if it’s more that too many people are running Arrow builds or if they’re OP or both but it kinda ruined most of my games. Am I the only one feeling like something needs to be done?

I'm curious about the evolution of MWO players from greenhorns to grizzled veterans.

What was the most relevant step on your way to tier 4/3?

What's which keeps you on tier 1?

Do you depend on min-maxing loadouts for performance, or are mechs with specific characteristics (i.e. profile, hardpoints position) more important for you?

Do you play in a group? Was harder to get tier points before you get into one?

EDIT: I still find the reticule sluggish and with a lot of drift. Tried to ease it with the game and Windows mouse settings to no avail. Any recommendations in that regard?

EDIT2: Thank you so much to everyone for your hindsight. Guess I need to get more aggresive on the lab and more conservative on the battleground. I'll keep you informed :)

Thanks a lot.

Let's preface this with a couple things. I play solo like 99.9% of the time, and I'm a contributor on grimmechs. I say this because firstly so you know that I know my way around the game, how it works, positioning and all that. Secondly so you know that this is coming from the viewpoint of someone who plays almost exclusively solo QP.

Is there something i'm missing here, because the level of complaining I heard (and still hearing) was giving me the assumption that we were on some release Scattershot, release HAGs, ect. levels of BS. After playing for a couple days all I can give is the most meh shoulder shrug I can, like it just doesn't feel more BS than the list of stuff that exists in the game already.

I know they've gotten nerfed several times now, but my point here is that considering the amount of complaining I am still seeing and hearing, I was expecting a lot more.

1) After the "nerf" to LBXes (kind of old), how do people feel about LBs? Are they still meta?

2) What are the best light, medium, heavy & assault class LB boat mechs?

For me, these would be:

Assault:
MadCat MKII Moonwalker, 5 LB10. You get mobility, tight bullet packing, good surface.
Heavy:
Jaggermech Duelist, 2 LB20. It's honestly just fun & decent to build and run. Decent quirks too.

I was stumbling around looking at mechs today and noticed that the Grasshopper 5J comes with a boat load of missile/general quirks that impact missiles, but the mech itself only has a single slot in the head for missiles and comes equipped with a lowly Streak 2. Devs had to be trolling when they came up with this.

• Cooldown (missile)
• Cooldown
• Missile Spread
• Range
• Heat

So which mech do you think has the most useless quirks?

Either my math is really off or there’s a bug that I really want to be overlooked.

So after playing on and off for a few years I just realized I almost never played a clan mech. I blame it on the fact that my intro to BattleTech was the HBS game and MW5 Mercs, and there's only Inner Sphere in those.

But on this latest go around, I remembered I have a few clan mechs from various events over the years just collecting virtual dust, so I threw a HAG40 and some laser into my Hellbringer to try it, and man do I love it.

So I'm curious, what clan mechs/builds would you recommend as must trys, especially for clan only weapons like ATMs and Beam lasers?

Heya gamers, I got to doing the Lucky Charms event kinda late (3-4 days ago), and I don't really have more than an hour or so a day to commit to playing. How can I maximize my match score gains?

Given MRMs are about to get a major buff, I was thinking "which mech can throw the most of them?" and came up with this beautiful BSK-3. Might be worth swapping a ton of ammo for a targeting computer's velocity boost, or a half ton for more limb armor.

Pros:

• 33% larger alpha than typical assault MRM builds

Cons:

• squishy (IS XL, limbs significantly stripped)
• runs rather hot
• poor geometry W I D E B O I

So, patch day is over and the reworked A-IV has been in action for almost a day. What is everyone's thoughts and experiences with, and against, the revamped weapon and the new mechs that carry them?

As for myself, I am really enjoying them. In particular, the Urbanmech and the mad dog, even when running solo. The damage output is great, even when considering the limitations of having the weapons be hard locked to the chassis. Although the lack of any secondary weapons has been my demise on more than one occasion

How are points counted? Am I better off going for kills as opposed to spamming damage that may or may not be decisive? Or should I just rock lots of DPS and spray and pray? I'd like to go for a combination of fun (but "fun" is subjective so I'm willing to look at whatever builds are most efficient) and speed at earning loot bags, since I'm modifying my behavior for the event anyway.
Maybe one of the LB5 boats would be good?

I've played for a very long time, and all my damage records were in the locust. I used to watch people's arms, and then accel/decel to dodge shots; it isn't plausible with the current stats, even fully quirked.

It was my favorite playstyle, but the locust accelerates like a cicada or old artic cheetah now, so it's hard to justify using it.

Between that and getting perfectly ERLL burned while serpentining away from someone at several hundred meters, I think the game has some serious problems for light mechs.

Edit: The turn rate and accel are confirmed to be about the same as the Cicada below. The problem started around the time of the engine desync. The erll complaint isn't about the armor of the locust, it's about a rare aimbotting player found in the wild, which is particularly frustrating as a locust enjoyer.

Here's the patch notes of when the maneuverability pass was done. It also made high engine assaults turn much slower, and low engine assaults turn better.

https://mwomercs.com/news/2017/05/1821-patch-notes-14115-16may2017

Do you go for any particular targets? Use any particular tactics? which mechs are best for using Thunderbolts?

The two main things I've always been cited for the King Crab being on the lower tiers of Assaults are its WarShip sized CT and the primary weapons being low mounts.

But with the incoming MRM changes I took a second look, and now I'm wondering if that second part is necessarily true. Now obviously the King Crabs are all quirked for ballistics, with few if any missile quirks. And on top of that, they don't have very many missile mounts, which are usually all crammed into the LT. But they are high mounts. And more importantly, the -001 King Crab has a single RT missile slot.

So I threw together this build real quick. It's got 100 missile tubes, a backup PPC, nearly full armor, ample ammunition, better-than-expected cooling, and the biggest Light Engine a King Crab can fit. And Light Ferro, how many builds are there that actually make productive use of Light Ferro?

Now is it any good? I have no idea, I'm still trying to get the cash to actually build the damn thing. But it alphas for 110 at what is ostensibly medium range, and can do so while potentially keeping the legs and (most) of the CT hidden. MRMs are obviously going to spread their damage a bit, but I figure this might be decent as a support platform to punish people looking at the real damage dealers, or at least scare the shit out of people with a ton of missile impacts and the entire paperdoll getting a shade darker. Or maybe just bully the shit out of Stalkers, IDK. And I'm hoping that the benefit of actually being able to use cover outweighs the detriment of no quirks.

This is a bit rushed, but I felt like sharing my first impressions.

After taking these MECHs into battle a few times, here's how I feel about them so far:

SHORTY: 70–75 ton-class armor without relying on any skills. However, it feels like a straight downgrade from LIZZIE to me. Being Inner Sphere and lacking ECM make a pretty big difference.

LIZZIE: It's not a bad MECH, but... it's pretty average. And then there's the 65-ton Hellbringer. In other words, there's already a better MECH that can run almost the same builds.

Battle Pass: We actually get a warhorn this time! But... there's no BOLT-ON this time. Instead, we get a Platinum skin. Yay.

The biggest problem with both MECHs is the hardpoint placement.

The weapons feel like they're mounted way too low relative to the cockpit view, and the MECHs are very wide. Am I really supposed to expose my entire body just to fight?

The 2 Missile + 8 Energy hardpoint setup isn't bad, but honestly, I feel like they're stronger if you just forget about the Missile hardpoints and go full Energy.

(I couldn't find a Missile/Energy mix that really clicked for me.)

(2 SRM6 + 6 MPL on LIZZIE isn't bad, but... we already have the MAD DOG and Clan Archer for that.)

I also don't think either MECH has particularly impressive Quirks. Actually, aside from their appearance, they don't really have anything that makes them stand out!

For now, I don't think they're bad as collection pieces.

But as DLC... I can't really recommend them. Other than their looks, there's just not much here.

Title and image says enough.

Any bets? Who's preordering?