The Glade 4.0

The most time it will require is downloading and installing the game. It is fun in spurts. Have a half hour to kill, you can get in at least two matches. You are not required to spend hours and hours of time on the game. There are four very well fitted (most of the time) trial mechs that you can use at no cost. I have gone days without playing but it is still fun when I have the extra time.

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Raell Kromwell

What Raell said. The trial mechs are fairly solid, though you'll have to maintain more fire discipline and be mindful of engaging and disengaging to manage your heat moreso than if you go hog wild with endo-steel and double heat sinks to fit a loadout which can just lean on the trigger.

In addition, as a new player, you get a healthy C-bill (in-game money) bonus to your first 20 (or is it 10? they added the newbie bonus after I'd already completed my share) matches or so -- it's entirely likely that you'll have enough to buy a heavy mech of your choice within the first 4-5 hours of play, and then you can start outfitting it to your tastes from there.

I usually hop on for a match or three in the evenings, takes half an hour. If I can drum up my brother or step-brother to drop with me, we'll play for 2 or 3 hours, instead.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Still playing a few matches a day, mostly to capitalize on the x2 XP bonus for my Catapult C1, which I'm closing in on finally mastering. Which is ironic, because I still only have one module, lol. I'm getting close to enough XP for the second module, and finally mastering the C1 so I can start converting XP ought to speed up the process.

I'm loving my 2x Artemis LRM15 + 2x MPLas + Tag build, though. The targetting decay module really gave me that last piece of the puzzle to make it fall into place.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've been on some almost every day for the last few weeks (~since Phoenix mechs). I like the Shadowhawk and Thunderbolt well enough, and have taken all my varients of them through Elite. The Locust seems useless though and I have yet to clear basic on any frame. Lights are not my normal preference, although I do have fun in my Jenners with JJs.

Yeah, once I finish up the C1, I'll probably set in on my Shadowhawk and Thunderbolt.

The Shadowhawk will probably save me from having to Elite out the Hunchback variants I've been avoiding and still get the one I like to Master someday.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

They just announced Clans. Coming in June/14.

Awesome! Until you see their pricing.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Yeah, they're smoking something. At least now they've relented and offered a la carte options instead of just sticking the Timber Wolf in the $210 tier and going "haha! Somebody's going to pay it..."

Also, keep in mind, those are for C-Bill bonus versions, akin to the Hero mechs. And each option is 3 variants included.

Still, it remains one of the pricier F2P models around if you choose to buy stuff.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The thing I don't like though, is they want the clan mechs to be balanced with the IS mechs.

That's patently ridiculous. The Clans were the most ridiculously OP thing to hit the IS since the Star League.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Which is a fine thing to say when each player is responsible for multiple mechs that can be balanced against individually stronger or weaker media as a squad, but is a list idea when the guy with the inner spotter mesh only gets one weaker mech to play as and then had to sit the rest of the round out after he loses his one on one with the clan mech that, hey!, he at least weakened for the rest of his squad to finish off...

That's a great way to get everybody to drop the inner sphere.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

So...after a few months of not touching this, I patched up and ran a few matches. Talk about changes! While the game play is the same, everything else changed. The Mech bay screen got worse, much worse. While I am sure it will just take some getting used to, I don't like it at all. Also, while I have not had any PC changes, the game looked like complete dog crap. I figured they changed something but I could not figure out what. I tried to ramp up the video but it didn't change anything. I tried to update the driver on my video card, just for S&G, there was no improvment. Maybe it is a DirectX thing, I am not sure but everything from the UI to the world I can see looks like garbage.

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Raell Kromwell

Out of curiosity - anyone still playing ... or playing again?

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

I mean, there's nothing *stopping* me from playing. Except time. Time is a *****.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I might have to fire this up again soon. Seems it's been 6mo. or so. I'm sure all my mechs are out of date in the current 'meta'.

I had been out since around August 2013, and I'm doing ok. I'm sure you'll be fine

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister