Quick update - we’re moving the release date for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Chaos Reign to May 26th at 11 AM Pacific Time. It was previously set for May 13th.  We’re taking a bit more time to make sure everything hits the quality bar we’re aiming for and that the DLC is ready across all platforms at launch.

 

We know delays aren’t ideal, and we really appreciate the patience. It’s important to us that Chaos Reign lands in a solid place on day one.

 

We’re excited for you to experience the full DLC the way it was intended.

 

 

In the meantime, consider this your batchall: 

Wishlist Chaos Reign on your platform of choice… you wouldn’t refuse, would you?

 

WISHLIST HERE

and get the Hired Steel Hunchback collaboration mech in MWO.

 

 

PREVIEW PATCH NOTES

 

Since we are making you wait 13 extra days to play MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries - Chaos Reign we have decided to release a Patch Notes Preview to keep your hype levels from dipping.

 

 

Features and improvements

• Added Jump Jet vector thrusting .
  • All Jump Jets now have vector thrusting and increased mobility allowing you to adjust midair with WASD+JJ/Analog sticks.
• 'Mech Database Rework
  • Database button added to the Top Menu Bar.
  • Players can now find 'Mech intel in Missions, Loot Caches, Cantina Jobs to fill out the Database. Discovering intel provides clues on where to encounter 'Mechs.
  • Encounter rates are now shown for all Factions, Mercenaries, and Arena Groups that use a 'Mech.
  • The number of identified 'Mechs in a system are now displayed on the Starmap, View Intel and Post Mission Screens.
  • Revamped the screen to better showcase and sort your collection.
• Improved missile flight paths
• Increased the Zoom levels from 1.5x/2x to 2x/4x
• Counter Torso Rotation option in Settings
  • Allows users to enable counter torso rotation while zoomed in.
  • Adjustable from All Zoom levels to Max Zoom Only.
  • Default disabled for PC and enabled on Consoles.
• Added a year selection to Instant Action to specify which era to play
• Improved the Instant action keys to include Mission Variant Data
  • Note that some old IA keys may have changed.
• Added new Ryana lines for proc missions to increase dialogue variation
• Adjusted Night Vision
  • Removed vignette, reduce scan line size.
• Added Eject Pilot Options
  • Unbound by default in the settings, you can set the keybind to eject your 'Mech and save it from additional damage when needed.
  • Toggle in Settings available for Lancemates to automatically eject when out of weapons.
• Added a system that disables Codex Tutorial popups in subsequent campaigns
  • Automatically hides the Codex Tutorial prompts in new games once you have a save that has seen them.
• News Stories updated to year 3058
• New Pilot Traits for DLC8 Weapons and 'Mechs
• Sound Mix pass for all areas of the game
• Other UI improvements
  • Starmap and View Intel Screens have been updated to showcase more information on the selected system.
    • Now displays Rival Merc faction affiliations and lists the factions engaged in a conflict zone.
  • Added a Bulk Purchase and Sell option in the Equipment Marketplace.
    • Able to Sell or Buy large amounts of Weapons or Equipment or Quick sell up to 5x items at once.
    • Purchase and Sold flyouts have been condensed when multiple items are traded.
  • Improved messaging on contracts when accepting one would cede travel for X days.
  • Added Tier 6 to the sorting options on the BattleMechs menus to filter Clan weapons.
  • Updated and polished all priority transmission screens for all DLCs.
  • Updated and polished Home Menu Buttons and updated various UI icons.

AI Improvements

• Target Sharing changes.
  • Lancemates now share known hostile targets. Hostile enemies now share their allies/squad targets.
• AI Weapon Planning when targeting low health enemies.
  • Adjusted the way 'Mechs fire weapons in a weapon group. If a target is low health and a weapon group is selected to fire, it will only shoot the number of weapons it needs to destroy the target. In regards to 'Mechs, this means it'll only try to do enough damage to the destroy the component it's targeted rather that fire everything and waste heat/ammo.
• AI are now able to continuously fire low cooldown weapons such as Rapid Fire ACs and UACs
  • AI are now able to double tap UACs allowing them to fire on cooldown and jam
• Arena Missions - Fixed an issue that was causing the AI to get stuck in a weird loop of logic when the attack/move command wouldn't finish properly.
• Fixed a variety of issues with navigation in bespoke arena levels.
• Implemented navigation recovery when 'Mechs get stuck
  • This should allow mechs that get stuck on nav mesh islands to recover.
• Enemies with Jump Jets no longer get caught up inside DropShips when hot-dropping

Weapon Balance

• Autocannon balance adjusted to make value more consistent across variants.
  • AC/2 RF now fires twice per cycle with a slightly longer cooldown.
  • Increased velocity of burst fire and rapid fire autocannons.
  • Adjusted recoil for a variety of ACs to be more in line with their projectile size (ie, lower recoil for rapid and burst fire compared to single shot versions.)
• Lowered chance of longer jam durations on Clan Ultra Autocannons.
• Artemis equipped missile launchers now will have a single missile that always hits near the middle of the cluster, while non-artemis launchers will not.

Bug Fixes

• Missions/Gameplay

  • Fixed issue with unit selection in missions against Clans that was causing light mechs to be over represented.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes Scorched Earth scenarios would fail to generate.
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes a base capture objective would cause enemy reinforcements to spawn on the player's team.
  • Removed the KCG-CAR from the Mech Hunter Job List.
  • Optimized electrical explosion VFX on destroyed structures.
  • MASC option now properly appears on the gamepad menu if you do not own DLC1.
  • Fixed floating assets in newly added Garrisons from Shadow of Kerensky.
  • Removed restriction on mission types that spawn against Clan factions.

• Mechs

  • Added new indicators for rare and hard to salvage 'Mechs.
  • Updated the rarity of 49 'Mechs to Rare to reflect the difficulty of acquiring them. Their actual encountering criteria was left unchanged.
  • Fixed slot tool tip numbers on the Koshi Prime.
  • Increased base heat capacity for mechs that come with Double Heat Sinks. In most cases, this increases capacity from 40 to 50.
  • Yen Lo Wang skin/geo updated on both variants.
  • Shadow Cat - Fixed floating asset when arm armor destroyed.
  • Adjusted ADR-S Heat Dissipation to 2.
  • Adjusted Atlas II Heat Dissipation to 2.8.
  • HTM-26T-S torso slots now display correctly.
  • Fixed the TBR-Prime torso weapon firing locations.
  • Fixed the MLX-P Stock Loadout.
  • Adjusted the falling animation for the Victor and Assassin.
  • Fixed Highlander reverse walking animations.
  • Adjusted MMD-A SRM convergence.
  • Adjusted Banshee RA hitbox.
  • Fixed an issue where the Grasshopper Head Hitbox breaks after arms are destroyed.
  • Adjusted Wolfhound ragdoll.

• Pilots/Traits

  • Adjusted the frequency of Hero Pilot TOIs so they are more in line with Hero Mech TOIs.
  • Arena Master trait now properly gives bonuses to Rifles, PPC-X, Binary Lasers, Chem Lasers and SRMs.
  • Fixed a bug where some traits were only applying to one weapon in their list.
  • Autocannon Master traits now apply to all ACs/LBXs/UACs in their class (ie, AC/10 Master now applies to AC/10s, LBX10s, and UAC/10s, including variants.)
  • Weapon Master traits now reduce cooldown instead of increasing it.
  • Heat Management Skill now functions properly.
  • ‘Mech Affinity traits now also apply to IIC versions of the chassis.
  • Trigger Discipline now also reduces jam chance for UACs.

• UI

  • Fixed an issue where you could get stuck on the Bounty Hunter Transmission after going back and forth on the Post Mission Screens.
  • Adjusted the contracts screen to fix cut off or overlapping elements.
  • Fixed an issue on the Bounty Hunter Intel Screen which had the Clans present.
  • Updated academy data assets so they have varied prestige.
  • Fixed an issue on gamepad where sometimes actions did not function properly in the Equipment Market.
  • Fixed an issue with gamepad in Academies where you could not select pilots for training if there was only one pilot eligible.
  • C-LRM Damage numbers now displaying correct values.
  • Various Localization and Text fixes.

• DLC7: Shadow of Kerensky Campaign

  • The Shadow of Kerensky campaign has been altered. Now requiring players to complete the sandbox portion of the campaign within a fixed amount of time. (To guarantee campaign completion before the events of Chaos Reign)
  • Failing to complete the sandbox portion of the campaign within this timeframe will now result in an automatic abandonment of the Shadow of Kerensky Campaign
  • New transmissions alerting players to this behavior and periodic reminders that they are on the clock have been added.
  • Previous saves that have triggered or entered the final act of the Shadow of Kerensky campaign will be allowed to play through the remainder of Shadow of Kerensky regardless of newly implemented time restrictions. But they will be unable to accept the Chaos Reign priority mission unless they complete or abandon the Shadow of Kerensky campaign before the Priority transmissions' expiry date.

(Design Notes) With the Chaos Reign campaign being a direct continuation of the events of Shadow of Kerensky, it was important for us to maintain internal continuity in the game's story and avoid errors that could arise from overlapping fixed quests.

• Console

  • Improvements to console memory performance

• Modding

  • Open up additional assets for Modding.
    • MWWeaponDataAsset
    • MWAmmoDataAsset
    • MWEquipmentDataAsset
    • Opening up Weapon Ammo Component
  • Allow MDAs to opt-in/out of having Base Chassis Cost from being auto calculated on save.
  • Allow Unitcards to not require a CSV file to appear in the Mech Database.
  • Fixed an issue with the LeopardHotDropEncounter that was causing some units to fail to spawn properly.