Podcast 233 - Russ Bullock - MWO, MW5 Mercs, MW5 Clans

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In this follow up episode we sit down with Russ Bullock again to discuss MWO, MW5 Mercs and upcoming Clans in detail.
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[@Rumplenutskn]

A new pvp mechwarrior would absolutely kill in todays markets. It would be ambitious, but a total war style battlefield game would be amazing. Battle armors, tanks, airsupport, and mechs would be world changing.

[@MrMurgen]

How about a Tarkov like extraction shooter. Imagine going on a solo mission with your Atlas (which you worked on for hours) finishing the mission, heading towards extraction and than getting hunted by another Lance of Lights . Could be a interesting concept. But I do not think that PGI has enough manpower to realise enough missions.

[@Rumplenutskn]

@@MrMurgen I know people roll their eyes as soon as they hear Tarkov. But think of a pvp game where you start as a light. You going on "raids" could gather more parts to get into a bigger mech. You would get salvage and cbills. Losing mechs would hurt. That atlas raid is probably a blast, but losing it would be a time invest lost so it would have weight. Add in vehicles and infantry and no one would ever play anything else ever. Haha!

[@osiris4457]

Just make an actual Mechwarrior game, not another MWO when you are stuck in small(ish) miserable arenas with nothing but team deathmatch. You know, large, open maps, proper mech scale so that you can utilize both natural and man-made cover, combined arms (no matter if AI or player-controlled), etc. You know, like a certain mod that PGI screwed over.

[@dekryptrakles8205]

@@Rumplenutskn and AeroTech :P

[@VindensSaga]

@@osiris4457 Mechwarrior Legends.

[@117Aster]

Predictions: Final mission on Luthien, DLC on Tukayyid

[@madwolf760]

No, there will be an entire Revial operation in the main campaign. This is already known. All 5 operations of the 362_storm cluster, Beta Galaxy.

[@Dazzxp]

@@madwolf760 I suspect they may do a open sandbox mod as a DLC down the line while it won't be with the shipping product at launch.

[@Rumplenutskn]

Also I gotta say. This has got to be one of the coolest ways to talk to your community. Its so relaxed, he's cheesing over his hard work (which he should) but it's still sincere. You guys are setting an example for the rest of gaming.

[@shootermcgavin2067]

To Russ' credit, he's been doing these for a long time. Has done a number of interviews with NGNG throughout the years, and SeanLang(NGNT handle) always asks good questions.

[@chungang7037]

MWO has been around long enough to see generations of content creators come and go at this point. I miss those days, and believing something would actually change, but this IP is so niche I don't know how PGI has kept the lights on tbh. I try not to blame them ,but frankly I do. The last few years every interview with Russ has been painful to listen to, especially one a few years ago where he admitted that even at the height of MWo's success they never got the numbers they truly wanted [he meant Call of Duty numbers], and when you look back at how the game was monetized it really was a failure of communication, and reading the room. Battletech and MWO never had the fanbase for those numbers he wanted, but for some reason they have held a death grip on the IP and I don't understand why. I guess no one else wanted it. I guess we should be happy we got MW5, and modders have had a go at making it into something worth playing.

[@user-et4pf]

Yup, and he is hoping Clans to ship a few million units [1:50:00]. It feels like a hail mary of hail marys~

[@drake6782]

Yes I would love another MW5M DLC7 before Clans. I personally don't see the confusion, but I'm all in. The tie in to bridge into Clans would be awesome.

[@corsairraven973]

they charge FAR too much for limited content on their dlcs!

[@drake6782]

​@@corsairraven973 Support what you love. I personally would rather have more content over no content.

[@ParjaiSkirata]

@@corsairraven973it’s Russ and PGI, everything’s always overpriced and overrated

[@andrewwiles3230]

The company's future rides on MW5: clans is a recurring theme and confirms EG7's very bleak, most recent quarterly report. Watching Russ discuss Helldivers 2 was especially entertaining. He seemed lost on the concept of a game where premade comp teams can stroke their epeens WITHOUT also griefing casual solo players.

[@Shedovv]

The "Physical Spaces" of places like the Mechlab. Sounds like what Starcraft II and Battletech did.

[@tambarlas5248]

One of the biggest issues I had with MW5:Mercs is the lack of a "engineering upgrade" path. HBS:Battletech did it really well. I hope the Science Lab has that kind of aspect.

[@gunraptor]

So, I have a feeling Mr. Bullock will see this, so I want to be honest. I play MWO...a lot. I barely play MW5. I purchase the DLCs to MW5 *because* of the continued support for MWO. It's quite clear that MWO and MW5 feed each other in terms of asset development, and I've bought every Platinum Pack, every Legend, every Booster Pack, and every Mech Pack since the Bloodname Pack, plus a few earlier ones that I went back for (eg: Black Lanner, Incubus). PGI has done a great job of supporting the community through what I might call "marketing through continued support." I'm big on the mech collecting aspect of MWO, and due to the continued support, I'm comfortable spending money on MWO and MW5, because I'm assured that it's not all going to just vanish because someone decided to shut the servers down. I know that one day MWO will end, but I have a decently historically supported hope that, in some fashion, my mech collection on MWO will transition to the next game in some way...be it as the mechs themselves being represented in-game, or some kind of representation of my collection (eg: cosmetics, models, special variants, etc). So I wish to encourage PGI to keep supporting MWO and furthering the development of the ecosystem that the PvP and PvE products create. PGI is getting to sell its product to the same customers twice, and we're loving them for it.

[@_ENOVA]

thank you. u helping mwo stay alive and thus letting me keep playing it

[@gunraptor]

@@_ENOVA I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to spend my fun money on it. Thank you for being in the game, because it wouldn't be worth spending money on without the community.

[@TMC_]

Nice interview!🎉

[@arsarma1808]

I think that a lot of the games have started off a little rocky. MWO really expanded itself (I stopped playing after the Civil War update but mostly because a lot of my friends weren't sticking around and we were interested in other games likw Destiny 2 and Mercs). Mercs start is a little rocky in my opinion, but the DLC open it up with a lot of good mission chains and mechs.

[@TimberWulfIsHere]

MWO is a lot better nowadays

[@Linkous12]

I'm going to have to buy a new PC to play it, but I'm still excited. More excited for Clans than I was Mercs.

[@Kanajashi]

When talking about accessibility and third person support @28:00 I really wish they would go back and fix the horrible third person reticle in MWO. It jumps around in a nauseating way due to the fact that the reticle is still being drawn from the first person perspective of the mech's cockpit even though your perspective has changed to third person. This would be a really simple fix to change it to drawing from the third person perspective and would actually make third person usable in MWO. Along with that they could: - move some of the cameras higher up and slightly to the side to improve visibility of your target - allow me to keep my minimap while in third person - allow me to unlock my arms while in third person MW5 doesn't have these issues so I know they can do it.

[@blueeyes1991]

The reason it is like that is that they were concerned that the 3rd person camera would give players an advantage in close combat. While I think the advantage is overstated, It was a compromise. I do remember there being a lot of people in the forums vehemently telling PGI not to add it.

[@Kanajashi]

@@blueeyes1991 I was there when third person was added. To counter the advantage of third person they made it so enemies could see your drone behind the mech, letting them know you were corner peeking. Also they made it so when you moved your mech right up against a wall or piece of cover the drone pulled in close and made it harder to peek over the top. The issues I pointed out are not part of the planned compromises for potential advantages, they are just sloppy implementation that made third person so nauseating and unwieldy that no-one uses it. At this point having such a poor implementation of third person just makes the developer look incompetent.

[@chungang7037]

Hey Kanajashi, just wanted to say thanks for your videos on mwo back in a day, what seems a lifetime ago now~

[@ricky6608]

I think a cool MMO could be MW5 co-op for the combat but then you have a galactic war like in helldivers 2 except you still have factions and completing missions for factions helps them take territory (like in the rogue tech mod for HBS Battletech) that way players can join opposing factions but still have an option if they don’t want to PvP

[@andrewt3768]

I always wanted to love MWO. I enjoy it sporadically for short bursts, but it never really grabbed me. I do still enjoy MW5, and I'm really hopeful for Clans. I loved the hand-tailored missions of the previous MW series, so if Clans can pull off that same quality, it will be exactly the MW game I have been wanting for so many years.

[@jimh2067]

Great interview and I hope Clans has great commercial success. I hope they allow mods into the game because the MODS are what has kept me playing MW5 for 1380 hours so far. Steam can tell which are my favorite games.

[@adrockpt3860]

Been a PlayStation user for years now and I love every seeing playing with it, so thank you for giving me that opportunity to get back on the cockpit

[@Stouts_]

I would love to see the next game after clans be a relaunch of the MW brand/franchise. I agree 💯 that the lore/narrative of battletech is untapped with MW games. MW relaunched into a broader mainstream audience as a crossplatform PvEvP game would be amazing levering the core combat mechanics with the narrative/world of Battletech.

[@allbrowrestlingtv6387]

If no new mercs dlc, can we at least get a patch for AI and glitches with not being able to complete Solaris missions because the number of mechs it tells you to eliminate aren't on the map.

[@andrewbergheim5238]

That sounds more like a mod conflict. Some clan mech mods include stealth mechs that could be really hard to find in Solaris.

[@charlestaylor8344]

​@@andrewbergheim5238 it isn't, it happens on vanilla. Solaris missions are especially bugged ATM in regards to AI and stuff

[@allbrowrestlingtv6387]

@@andrewbergheim5238 no...I unfortunately play on vanilla console. What happens is on some Solaris maps it will say like you have to eliminate 9 mechs, but after the 6th one, there are no other mechs. They don't show on the radar or anything. I have spent an hour walking around the map to see if they were stuck. If you restart the mission the same thing happens over and over.

[@baz44331]

Ive played MWO from Beta, Ive played MW merc and love it. Now i feel like we leave all it behide, Russ.. please link it to MW Clans, do what total war did, or make a 3rd game and call it Operation REVIVAL p2 , dont leave all that epicness behide

[@GalmLead]

I personally would LOVE to get two questions of my own answered! First: Is there a bidding system in MW5 Clans that match how the Clans operated at the start of Operation REVIVAL? Second: What can we expect out of the length of the game? Are we expecting like very grandiose battles such as the Battle of Tukayyid or even the battle of Black Luthien? Or should we expect it similar to what MW5 Mercs had for scale and scope?

[@igorbukovy4313]

Thanks for sharing.

[@igorbukovy4313]

I hope that enemy units will not spawn in line of sight out of nowhere. Enemy units should be present on the map (powered down/ guarding or patrolling) or they should be dropped by dropships. Nothing else.

[@Dar_K_Stuff]

ngl I'm sad we cant walk around in Clans like in mercs, yea it's pointless since you can press Tab, but I always went out of my way to walk around because it immersed me more, only using tab when I need to do quick changes, so I"m sad to have lost that option

[@mattjohnson8585]

Hope MWO stays on for a good while. Still not much of anything like it

[@jamessmith5666]

If MW5 Clans will have enough animated character contents to make a feature film, or 2-3 part mini series with in game combat footage (which sounds absolutely fantastic) why leave it to the fans to piece this together afterwards? Wouldn't it be better, if your studio assembled and produced this movie/TV show then pitched it to a streaming platform say 6 months after launch? Wouldn't that generate more revenue and also recruit new fans as well?

[@mjrmarkov6950]

What's that? Smoke Jaguars might not be the bad guys? Does this mean its possible to get the real truth on the Capellan Confederation? Play them for once and see it from their perspective?

[@mooncloud6563]

I'll get more excited with some more gameplay

[@KHETTIUS]

Ohhh i wonder if we will come across Phelan/Natasha or Ulric at some point, there was some pretty important events that took place that resulted in Clan councils.

[@Pizzoots]

Commenting on stuff as I watch but hearing about how many cinematic there are and the length of it all would usually put me off of a game but in a IP that is so rich in lore, it has me really excited. Hopefully the story is actually good because a well written Battletech narrative with great gameplay that goes mainstream could do a lot in pushing Battletech in line with WH.

[@michael8985]

Biggest thing I find frustrating and maybe it's intentional but the lack of information coming out I literally can't wait for clans but have so many questions. Biggest ones mech lab and pilot progression skills etc

[@megasupernewbie]

i dont give a fk about cinematics... does the armor melt off a side of a mech and stream to the ground as hot lava when I lash it with my large lazer? or does it gust splat a decal on a side and call it a day?

[@Baron-gn3ty]

Bumping into the same people is great, thats community :p

[@TimberWulfIsHere]

Nah Sean, a long game is a 50+ hour game. 5-10 hours is short and 10-50 maybe 45 hours would medium tier.

[@michael8985]

I would love like a story where you go from place to place taking over the inersphere and maybe there are other players taking over different places but you can take over there stuff etc but would be hard with the lore being the lore.

[@Dazzxp]

There you go, I was right that they upgraded the engine it was without a doubt they would do that since going from UE4 to 5 is quite easy to port which I said in the first announcement trailer of MW5 Clans. If anything the UE5 tools is more user friendly, and UE5 has more options like frame generation and easy plugin support for DLSS/FSR/ExSS better CPU utilisation on threads, ray tracing efficiency. UE4 had pretty bad Ray tracing optimisations which kind of makes even my RTX 4070Ti Super cry with DLSS balanced! It's not like it's high resolution either just 1440x3440. Although pretty sure the mod WAR_FX is a pretty big cause of it but can't live without that mode it just adds so much realism same with Von Bio domes and YAML. As for hours in MW5 I have so many hours in that game far more than hundreds to the point I am too embarrassed to admit how much time I have sunk into MW5, needless to say I have well got my monies worth out of the game and it's expansions! I am quite excited about the motion capture and cut scenes being around 100mins, it would be great to see from the bad guys and how they justify their actions from their perspective.

[@shootermcgavin2067]

Did Russ bring a tear to Philz eye when talking about how much cutscene content there is? 55:05

[@Teuts2000]

I really hope Clans will include a real reason to play multiplayer. I barely touch Mercs for this reason. I want to play a co-op campaign where we can all progress together.

[@xXSpaceMexicanXx]

Im cautiously optimistic, im hoping they have enough time to let Clans cook yknow? I hope with everything MW5 went through, that its applied to Clans.

[@seanbarber6283]

I really hope elementals will be included

[@IshanDeston]

Still waiting for that Steam Key i was sold with my Preorder for Mechwarrior 5. Until i get that Piranha won't see a single cent anymore.

[@Stouts_]

I am super excited for MW5 Clans. As a returning playing last year since MW3 im looking forward to jumping into a new MW game and experience it as its grows and dlc are released.

[@drake6782]

Cool

[@dekryptrakles8205]

Quad Mechs confirmed!

[@madwolf760]

Seriously? Will there be Quad 'Mechs in the Clans? Just like in MW2: 31 Century Combat. Another reference and a gift to the veterans of the series.

[@dekryptrakles8205]

@@madwolf760 haha no. This is a decade long running gag to torment the Battletech/Mechwarrior devs because it is very hard to implement another axis in form of tending the mech or at least to adapt the legs to the environment :)

[@anathame3649]

will mw5 clans have hero / legendary mechs?

[@steelshanks1265]

Hope not. God awful ideas...

[@Mokkor_]

If Clans won't have heat vision and advanced zoom out of the box - that would mean PGI never learns on it's mistakes. I'm getting sick of game being released unfinished, just for modders to do all the work.

[@baz44331]

Think about this. Without Russ we would not have any Mech warrior games. He did MWO which is epic. His team made mercs, now there on the road to success, now clans which looks epic. What's next I can't wait. He needs to keep moving in order to keep it paying the bills. I wonder will clan me coop. Me and my son play alot of Mercs, he is on playstation and I'm PC.

[@larslaufer301]

For all the flak Russ received and sure there where some questionable decisions, I have to say he dosn't get enough respect for keeping the lights on for this long of a time and even getting things to improve. Is it AAA ? No, well maybe not yet, we have to see what Clan brings to the table but I have had a good time with MWO and MW5. So thanks for keeping MWO running, also most companies would have shut it down some time ago and for putting the money and time into MW5 and now MW5 Clans.

[@feeWAIVER]

I think Russ is underestimating how popular MWO2 would be in Unreal 5. He says nobody is releasing these types of games now, well clearly there is a void in the market to fill. Look at the success of Street Fighter 6. People still want pvp.

[@steelshanks1265]

Agreed. But CoD style is idiotic... Should be BattleField Style combat...

[@dmora2386]

He's not wrong. When it first came out mw5 was doodoo. I straight up said, buy it on sale. Fast forward, it got to the point where I would blindly buy the dlcs's and have all of them and want another. I have* 810hours in mw5(ps5) only thing more was gran turismo 7.... And let meee tell you, I was not happy with mw5 at launch. Mw5: clans I'll buy no questions. I prefer it not launch a buggy mess, but if it does and over time they fix it like they did mercs, I'm good. I do hope there is some sort of infinite game loop and not just a flat campaign, that would kinda suck. I didn't like procedural for campaign itself but just flying around hunting for mechs and cbills is/was a lot of fun.

[@dmora2386]

Russ is trying so hard not to say too much 😂😂😂😂 half the time you can tell he's even questioning via his body language, shifting in his seat, touching his nose/mouth(yes also common with general nerves)

[@oleksandrrogozhnikov5525]

About replayability: as I remember Russ said, that there will be kind of "New Game+"(closer to the end of podcast). So I would assume that we could have 2 or 3 "exciting" playthroughs of campaign and New game+ (and probably more replays with DLCs, because I replayed MW5: Mercs for about 3 or 4 times in total, when the new DLCs been dropped).

[@dekryptrakles8205]

@@dmora2386 his body language tells me they are working on Quad Mechs, for sure it must be that

[@dmora2386]

@@dekryptrakles8205 dude I'm hyped, so hyped that I'm conditioning myself now to just be disappointed so that if it's anything better than crap, it'll be good! Straight up reverse psychology-ing myself 😂

[@dring83]

i think they atomic bombed the mechlab inMW5, thank God for mods!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@charlestaylor8344]

Mercs is amazing...APART from the AI. Its absolutely unforgivable

[@charlestaylor8344]

@KOBRA_SHADOWWARS will do. Does it make that much a difference? Even with solaris missions?

[@Zathul4198]

@@charlestaylor8344 I've used the TT mod for a very long time and noticed no discernable difference. The AI is slightly more active, but it isn't any smarter about how it engages you.

[@aaronbosen6743]

Maybe you should stop banning people for trying to report bugs or pathing issues with the games Russ. That'd help a lot.

[@steelshanks1265]

Agreed. Pretty stupid.

[@normanred9212]

Sigh, I think PGI is making a HUGE mistake with not releasing a DLC 7 that helps setup Mech 5 Clans before the game hits. They need to understand that the massive majority of players and people interested in playing, and they have ONLY play or know Mech 5, have no idea what a Clan is or what a Smoke Jaguar is. PGI NEEDS to setup what the Clans are in Mercs so people get a better understanding and get hyped to be able to play AS the Clans. Otherwise you will be throwing them into the unknown and people WILL get confused and wonder where Mason is etc etc. I myself know what the Clans are but I'm telling you the majority do not and a DLC 7 will help that.

[@WhatTheScoots]

Pretty sure that most people who actively play MW Mercs know by now what Clans are and read through the history a bit or saw some youtube lore videos. And the people who are new will learn. They will explain what clans are in the intro and in the story. It is not rocket science

[@registheron9752]

​@@WhatTheScoots as they say often, "Welcome to the DropShip fuckhead. Grab a helmet, it's gonna get messy."

[@Adolf-Rizzler]

Did new players know what the inner sphere was befits mw5:m released?

[@cyanidecologne9018]

They set it up in the plot with nik and the final campaign mission, you can introduce them and learn the mystery through narrative and let people make the connections / add reveals about the mw5 mercs "plot" and fill in the backstory

[@cyanidecologne9018]

Russ looks like he's been locked in a basement and tortured. Is he a clan bondsman being forced to make propaganda for intelser

[@sanders2strong]

13 years too long. everything about MWO/ mercs5 is garbage. im an early legendary founder and been disgusted since. russ has me blocked on twitter cause he cant take criticism. they need their MW license taken away

[@chungang7037]

the joke was on us because the IP is so niche no one cares to outbid PGI for the license

[@thunderhawk8194]

Mechwarrior is dead. Period.

[@griffingamer8624]

What?

[@thunderhawk8194]

@@griffingamer8624 I'm just expressing my opinion. But it's clear to me that the game is going by way of the dinosaur, both console and PC. Cause VR is the future of gaming according to most sources. Namely with AI on the rise. So face it. Even if EG7/PGI make even with say 500k units sold. The game is still dead.

[@griffingamer8624]

@thunderhawk8194 you're on that goofy gas, I see.

[@TeleportRush]

@@thunderhawk8194 ai has little to do with vr, and also you could probably eventually play this new game with vr like you can the old one (via mods or maybe, if the devs want to be super cool and waste some dev time on it, officially)

[@gunraptor]

@@thunderhawk8194 It's okay, you don't have to be ashamed that you can't see past the end of your own nose; there are lots of people who lack intelligence and perception in equal measure, while also lacking self awareness. Wait, no, that is something to be ashamed of....