A new scouting mech has been released to the general public: The Commando! Equipped with an SRM-6, SRM-4, amd Medium Laser (missils and lasers, essentially), this mech is less about bringing destruction to the field and more about scouting enemy movements for commanders to do just that (rain destruction).

Given how many players have expressed great interest in playing scouts of some kind in the MechWarrior Online universe, how many of you are excited to be hopping into the Commando? Maybe you can spot for my CPLT-C1 Catapult!

Read up on the full Commando reveal on the MechWarrior Online website!

MechWarrior Online developers sat down again to answer another round of questions from the fans in their latest blog post. Giving us some insight on Pilot Points and Role Warfare is Lead Designer, Paul Inouye. He is joined by Game Designer, David Bradley and Community Manager, Garth Erlam.

In this Q&A, Paul and David address a lot of concerns with the skill progression system, mech customization, and the ability to respec. One concern addressed was if a fully leveled up mech was eventually destroyed or for some reason sold, we would still retain all Battlemech Tech Tree points gained for that mech once we obtain it again. Other concerns were largely about players being forced into specific roles for matches. However, Paul did come out and say "We will not force anything on to the players in terms of roles. It would just be highly beneficial to take advantage of the perks that each role provides."

For the entire Q&A be sure to check out the latest blog post!

In this five-part miniseries, we sat down with the developers behind the highly anticipated MechWarrior Online to talk about everything you want to know about this upcoming action title. Be sure to check out our previous interviews in the series:

• Brian Ekman, Creative Director
• Russ Bullock, President
• Paul Inouye, Lead Designer
• Matthew Craig, Technical Director
• Dennis de Koning, Art Director

If there's one thing that's consistently impressed me about MechWarrior Online so far, it's just how much information Piranha Games has been throwing out in their developer blogs and community Q&As. That said, there's just nothing quite like getting one key member of the Piranha Games team to sit down for an interview, and we've done just that, but with five different members of the Piranha Games crew! This marks the second interview of our MechWarrior Online Interview miniseries, and up today is... the President of Piranha Games himself, Russ Bullock!

It's time for MechWarrior Online's Developer Interview #4! Up today is Software Engineer Omid Kiarostami, Level Designer Thad Jantzi, and general Game Artist Kevin Meek. In today's big developer interview, all three individuals wax lyrical about the many joys associated with working on MechWarrior Online and at Piranha Games.

Some particularly juicy bits of information that did stand out from this interview were the fact that the team is really working hard to accentuate the difference between Light, Medium, Heavy, and Assault Mechs, and that the levels in MechWarrior Online are huge, by which Kevin Meek says they are "multiple kilometers huge." As to how this translates to legitimate gameplay remains to be seen. Take a read of the full dev interview (warning: it's long) over at the MechWarrior Online website!

A huge torrent of information today from the devs over at MechWarrior Online. In their Dev Blog #4 - Role Warfare, the team highlights BattleMech efficiencies, experience points (and how to gain them), and even gives some in-depth information on the various specialty pilot skills players can take on.

Of particular note is really how powerful each individual skill tree is. For example, in the top tier Assault / Defense skills, players can get the ability to receive critical shot information from nearby scout Mechs, as well as being able to automatically know if any nearby friendly BattleMechs are taking damage.

All in all, there's a lot of information packed into this little blog post, so scuttle on over to the MechWarrior Online website to read more.

In this five-part miniseries, we sat down with the developers behind the highly anticipated MechWarrior Online to talk about everything you want to know about this upcoming action title. Be sure to check out our previous interviews in the series:

• Brian Ekman, Creative Director
• Russ Bullock, President
• Paul Inouye, Lead Designer
• Matthew Craig, Technical Director
• Dennis de Koning, Art Director

If, like me, you're ancient enough to remember the BattleTech cartoon, the recent news of the Centurion's inclusion in the forthcoming MechWarrior Online (MWO) will have your old man suspenders in a knot. Valten Ryder fans can rejoice because everyone's favorite medium-class Mech is getting some love. Responsible for "some of the most reckless displays of Mech-jockeying ever seen," Valten Ryder and his father's beat up Centurion made the series what it was; so this piece of news has the twelve-year-old boy inside me jumping for joy (and I just realized how bad that sounded).

Anyway, to add to the excitement, we recently had the opportunity to speak with Bryan Ekman, Creative Director at Piranha Games, to talk about all things MechWarrior. Ekman clued us in on what to expect from MWO when it is finally released in 2012, and we also got to talking about  the state of the series, inspirations, in-game currency and how the game will play. So buckle up, prepare your mind grapes and get ready to see the same three MWO pictures you've been looking at for the last few months (we'll work ong getting you some new art assets) because, without further ado, here is part one of ZAM's exclusive five part interview with the team behind MechWarrior Online.

It's official. I am now into posting concept art to herald the advent of MechWarrior Online news, and that's never a good sign. We need more art, Piranha!

Anyway.

February has been designated "Role Warfare Month" in MechWarrior Online, and this means we should expect to see some huge, steaming piles of information being left on our doorstep as early as next week. We'll learn about Pilot Trees, Modules, and the BattleMech XP system, as well as speaking to Piranha Games' engineers, level designers, and art department. Finally, the team promises that their extra wednesday is going to be "pretty freaking awesome," and while it's not the announcement of Closed Beta Testing, they're saying it's going to be a big one. Fingers crossed.

New 'mech reveals from the MechWarrior Online team always fill me with happiness and a little bit of trepidation. Happy, sure, because it's a new 'mech and you can't not get excited. Trepidation, however, because I'm just not familiar enough with the MechWarrior universe to understand these weapons. AC/10? LRM-10? Medium Laser? Alright, maybe I can guess that last one. The middle one is... a Long-Range Missile, yes? And AC is... Well, you get the point.

Regardless, today's new 'mech reveal is a whole lot of sleekness combined with some heavy firepower. A medium 'mech in every sense of the word, the CN9-Centurion packs a very balanced breakfast weapon loadout with a mix of long-range, mid-range, and close-range weaponry. Additionally, it looks cool. Very cool.

Check out the official reveal with some lore descriptions over at the MechWarrior Online website!

Alright, it's official, I'm completely out of art to supplement these news posts with, and those guys over at Piranha Studios are just not slowing down with their information overload. Now you get repeats.

Anyway, MechWarrior Online's Community Q&A #3 is now up, and with its focus on Information Warfare, there are a lot of things covered. Some of the information gets a little too detailed for most, but to distill it down to layman's terms, MWO's pilot modules will be focused almost entirely on augmenting the actual piloting abilities of the player as opposed to bolstering the abilities of the BattleMech itself. One example given was a Nightvision Module that grants... well... Night vision. Thus, a smart pilot could properly utilize this to gain an advantage at night (this is getting rather obvious), while the BattleMech itself may not benefit as much because it relies heavily on the player's observation skills. More information on pilot specializations will be available during Role Warfare Month, although the team has not yet indicated what month that will be (guesses are February).

Lot of information here, so go take a look at MechWarrior Online's Community Q&A #3!

After reading all of the questions and answers posed in this month's Developer Interview, I have but one question to ask... Do these guys spend more time answering questions than actually working on the game?

Jokes aside, this latest MechWarrior Online interview is a huge one, with developers Paul Inouye, David Bradley, and Bryan Ekman taking the stage to talk about their gamer biographies, their many favorite 'Mechs and weapons in the MechWarrior Universe, and much, much more. One thing that particularly stood out was Paul Inouye's role in the MechWarrior Online team, as he notes that his job is to ensure the proper injection of the F2P development model into the franchise. In other words, Paul could be considered a F2P specialist, which raises all sorts of weird industry evolving questions. Questions like... F2P specialists exist?

Apparently so.

Either way, check out the massive wall of developer interview text over at the MechWarrior Online website.