MechWarrior Online Adds Conquest Mode, Eliminates Need for Repair and Rearm

Piranha Games saw fit to shower its fans with an early Christmas present this week. The studio released the latest update for their megaton FPS MechWarrior Online, which adds an equally large amount of new content and tweaks that's sure to peak interest for old and new players alike.

The first part of the update adds the highly requested game mode Conquest. Up until now players could only participate in a sort of "last man standing" style of mode where victory was determined when one team was destroyed or whoever could infiltrate and stand in the enemies base the longest. The new mode has teams scrambling to capture 5 points on a map in order to generate resources, the more points a team has the faster that team generates resources. First team to 750 resources wins. Interestingly, a team can still win by destroying all enemy mechs. Looks like fans hoping for a mode with respawns are out of luck for now.

Beyond the new mode, several new mechs have also been introduced including two new twin "Hero" mechs named Fang and Flame. What is really interesting about the update though is the removal of the need to repair and rearm your mechs. Previously after every battle a mech needed to be repaired and resupplied with ammo before heading back out into battle. This cost C-bills (the game's currency) to do and Piranha Games found that players would often choose not to repair or rearm their mechs before battle, potentially harming their team. Now all C-bills you earn in-game are yours to keep, allowing you to spend C-bills on new mechs and mech parts more frequently. A very nice change in my eyes and something I wish more games like this would do (I'm looking at you World of Tanks).

Trial mechs have also had their C-bills and mech XP amounts boosted to 100% meaning players who don't own their own mechs will no longer earn less then those who do. New festive customization items have been added, along with some key performance and stability issues addressed to close out the game's last planned patch of 2012.

What do you think of the changes and new additions?