Greetings MechWarriors,

UPDATE: Phase 2 of the Re-Balance PTS has ended! We will be running another phase of the Re-Balance PTS soon!

Starting October 14th at 3:00 PM PDT (10:00 PM UTC) the Public Test Server (PTS) will be activated for a new phase of the 'Mech Re-Balance Public Test session.

This Phase of the Re-Balance PTS is intended for testing a specific set of isolated changes from what is currently present in the Live environment:

• Overall increase to the Health value for all Equipment and Weapons.

• Reduction in the Maximum Range for all Clan Lasers.

• Adjustments to I.S. and Clan Heat Sink values.

• Change to fundamental ECM behavior, including effective radius.

• Adjustments to Information Warfare mechanics such as Sensor Range, target acquisition rates, information sharing, and reticle/targeting behavior.

• For the purposes of this test phase, all 'Mech and Weapon Quirks have been removed.

The exact changes detailed further in this post should not be taken as the entirety of what the final re-balance will entail, nor are the changes listed here necessarily ‘locked in’ for any final release.
The end-goal of these public test sessions are to work toward a complete re-balance of the game’s core combat systems.

This PTS Phase is scheduled to run until further notice, and will be followed up with additional phases to allow for adjustments based on your feedback and new changes.

If you have already participated in a previous PTS session and still have the client installed, you will only need to apply the latest patches. Otherwise, accessing the PTS will require that you download and install a separate instance of the MWO client.

The download link for the PTS installer can be found here.

The Focus of this Test Phase

The first component of this test phase covers the implementation of certain ‘Information Warfare’ technologies and gameplay mechanics, such as how your weaponry and your targeting HUD react to your target state, the range at which you can acquire targeting data from enemy ‘Mechs, how targeting data is shared with your allies, and the overall implementation of ECM.

The most significant change to the Information Warfare components featured in this test phase concerns the implementation of ECM.
On the current Live server environment, ECM provides an ‘always-on’ bubble of protection from enemy target-lock for any ally ‘Mech within its 180m radius. The only way for an opponent to override that protection is to counter it with a TAG laser, NARC beacon, PPC charge, BAP coverage, or with an ECM suite in 'Counter' mode.
The implementation of ECM during this testing phase differs from that current system in two significant ways:

1) The radius of ECM protection has been decreased from 180m to 90m.
2) ECM no longer prevents target-lock altogether; it simply delays the time it takes for an enemy to achieve target-lock on a 'Mech within ECM radius.

TAG, NARC, BAP, PPC's, and an ECM suit in 'Counter' mode can still be used as ECM-counters; they will simply negate the targeting delay enforced by ECM coverage.

The second component of this test phase covers some of the initial steps that we are taking toward bridging the technology gap that exists between Inner Sphere and Clan ‘Mechs. Heat efficiency is one of the biggest disparities between Inner Sphere and Clan tech, and is one of two aspects covered in this test phase. The second concerns the extremely long range of Clan Lasers relative to their Inner Sphere counterparts.
Those changes, detailed below, are just the first of many that will be coming down the line in future PTS sessions.

What we hope to achieve with this test phase is for you to try out the outlined changes and provide constructive feedback regarding how these changes feel in a match and whether they affect your personal play style.

Please keep in mind that all of the changes listed below are a ‘first pass’ set of values, and adjustments can be made as needed in any increment. The changes featured in this PTS phase are not going to end up on the Live production server any time soon!
For now, we simply want you to experience these changes, test the values, and monitor our progress as we work toward our goals of a) re-balancing the ‘Mechs across the board, and b) effectively integrating Information and Role-based Warfare mechanics into MechWarrior Online.

Specific Changes

Quirks

• For the purposes of this test phase, all existing Quirks from the Live environment have been removed.

• The only Quirks that are in place for this test phase are related to Sensor Range.

Modules

• The number and type of Modules in this Phase are the same as what is currently present in the Live environment. The changes made to available Module slots and types that were seen during the first Re-Balance PTS are not present in this phase.

ECM

• ECM radius has been decreased to 90m (down from 180m).

• ECM no longer prevents lock-on for 'Mechs within the radius. It only delays the amount of time it takes to achieve lock-on by 3 seconds.

• The target-lock delay provided from ECM can still be overridden by TAG, NARC, BAP, PPC's, and ECM suites set to 'Counter' mode.

Equipment and Weaponry

Equipment/Weapon Health

• The Health of all Equipment and Weapons has been increased to 15 (up from 10).

Inner Sphere Single Heat Sinks

• Chassis-equipped Single Heat Sink cooling rate increased to 1.1 (up from 1).

• Engine-equipped Single Heat Sink cooling rate increased to 1.1 (up from 1).

• Chassis-equipped Single Heat Sink heat capacity increased to 1.1 (up from 1).

Inner Sphere Double Heat Sinks

• Chassis-equipped Double Heat Sink heat capacity increased to 1.5 (up from 1.4).

Clan Double Heat Sinks

• Chassis-equipped Clan Double Heat Sink cooling rate increased to 0.15 (up from 0.14).

• Chassis-equipped Clan Double Heat Sink heat capacity decreased to 1.2 (down from 1.4)

Clan Laser Maximum Ranges

• Maximum Ranges for all Clan Lasers have been reduced by 40%.

Targeting Mechanics

Weapon and targeting reticle mechanics when target is not locked

• The targeting reticle will no longer flash when a hit is detected on a ‘Mech that is not target-locked.

• Lasers will not do full damage when striking a ‘Mech that is not target-locked from a range greater than 60% of the Laser’s Optimal Range.

• The original post text here referred to "...60% of the Laser's Maximum Range", which was not correct.

Reticle mechanics when target is locked

• The targeting reticle will now change color and shape when a hit is detected on a ‘Mech that is target-locked.

Sensor Range

All ‘Mechs start with a baseline Sensor Range of 500m. Through the application of Sensor Range Quirks on a per-variant basis, individual variants can receive an increase to their baseline Sensor Range.

Post-Quirk Sensor Ranges will generally fall into the value regions listed below, according to weight class:

• Light ‘Mechs: ~900m Sensor Range.

• Medium ‘Mechs: ~800m Sensor Range.

• Heavy ‘Mechs: ~700-750m Sensor Range.

• Assault ‘Mechs: ~500-650m Sensor Range.

Target Acquisition Rate

• The Target Acquisition Rate for all ‘Mechs during this test phase is 0 seconds.

• Target Acquisition Rate can be quirked on a per-variant level, but there are no Target Acquisition Rate Quirks in place for this test phase.

• Target Acquisition Rates are affected by ECM.

• The Target Acquisition Delay caused by ECM for all ‘Mechs during this test phase is 3 seconds.

Target Information Sharing

• Target information sharing is now based on the distance between the target and the first teammate, then from the distance of that teammate to all other teammates.

PTS CLIENT INSTALLATION STEPS

• Download and run the PTS installer (if a previous install of the PTS Client is not already present on your system).

• Run the MechWarriorOnline.exe, located in your C:\Program Files (x86)\MWO Public Test\MechWarrior Online\Bin32 folder (default install location).

• Click the Patch button.

• Accept the Terms of Use.

• The PTS Client will then proceed to download the MWO install base, which is roughly 7 GB in size.

• Once the Install Base has been downloaded and installed the launcher will then download and apply any necessary patches.

• Once the patches are downloaded and installed, you should now have access to the Play button.

• Click Play!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This is just a test. The 'Mech Re-Balance is still a work-in-progress.

• The core build used for this PTS build was derived from the September 22nd patch. As a result, this PTS build does not include any of the content, fixes, or changes released in the October 6th patch.

• There is currently no set end-time for this PTS session.

• Attempting to access the PTS session prior to October 14th at 3:00 PM PDT (10:00 PM UTC) will result in a 'Servers Undergoing Maintenance' message.
• The sole purpose of this PTS session is to test and experiment the specific aspects of the 'Mech Re-Balance listed in the previous section of this post.

• Solo and Group queue match services will be available through the PTS client during this PTS session.

• Community Warfare will be available through the PTS client during this PTS session.

• The standard Live client will continue to function as normal.

• Your login information for the PTS client will be the same as your Live account login information.

• Any actions you take inside the PTS client, such as spending MC/C-Bills or customizing your 'Mechs, will not carry over to your Live account.

• All PTS accounts will be provided with boosted C-Bill, MC, and GXP values to allow for full testing of any desired builds. Those boosts will be provided in the PTS build only.
• The account that is used for your access to the PTS client is a 'snapshot' of your standard Live account. Any changes you make to your Live account while we are running the PTS session may not necessarily carry over to your PTS 'snapshot' account.

We request that you please only use the Re-Balance forum for constructive feedback and discussion of the Re-Balance PTS.

Please do not submit any support tickets regarding issues with the Re-Balance PTS.

Download link for the Public Test Server installer!

Discuss the Re-Balance and post your feedback in the Re-Balance and Chassis sub-forums!