#mechcon

A small selection of pics from MechaCon Omega. As of yesterday at 5PM, MechaCon is officially over and closed for good. It's been an amazing 16 year run with 15 conventions. I'm glad to have started going and never stopped going since year 2. It honestly didn't really hit me until late last night when I was home by myself and away from everything that this was really it and it really is all over. I had and still have a lot of feelings about this con and how special it was to me and so many others. It's hard to really put into words. There really was something special about this con that drew so many of us back to it year after year and fostered so many lifelong friendships. We all had so many good times, lots of laughs, and made amazing memories. It really is so hard to believe it's all over.

Hey! We were at mech-con today in Vancouver~ We were the tall guy in dress clothes, and the short asian lady wearing the Getter Robo t-shirt!! Hello if we met you! 

Anyways! we both got to play Mechwarrior 5 today. I (short lady) got to play mouse and keyboard, and him (tall guy) got to play in the sim-pods. 

Its... Not great. The basic movement feels nice, much more weight and sense of motion than mechwarrior online. And the weapons generally have much more impact and punch. But other than that. Its just... Kinda mechwarrior online all over again. Very, VERY little hands-on with your mech. No radar modes, no toggleable systems. A very, very basic command system for your lance, which won’t be anything near the levels of mechwarrior 3. The customization is going to be identical from what I hear, which is... Fine, I guess. (no 40 machinegun builds like mw2 and 3) 

But I think the biggest disappointments come from the designs. The mechs look awful, the cockpits look terrible, the UI is ATROCIOUS. Its all very generic 2010s sci-fi garbage. Which is to be expected, since its the same lead artist as mechwarrior online. Every mech feels the same. (we both got to use all 4 mechs present) Other than speed, they all function basically identical. Which is one of the biggest problems of mechwarrior online. They all look the same too. Every mech looks like it walked off the same production line, from the same factory, from the same faction, on the same day. Despite these mechs being hundreds of years apart in design, and being designed by factions from differing planets. 

It’s bad. The cockpits are worse. The controls are all painted on, and look like they were placed with a shotgun. Nothing in the cockpit is functional, or even remotely where it should be. No warning light board, or MFCDs. Or even a map screen. Or even... An “on” light. Or anything. At no point do you feel like you’re sitting in a cockpit. 

Again, the mechs all feel the same. The dragon has a fully articulated arm instead of a gunpod, like it should in lore. Walking through buildings does nothing. Doesn't even slow you down. They keep acting like this is a cool new feature, but it adds almost nothing to the game. 

Graphically its. Okay. 

I won’t be too hard on it. Its a new mechwarrior. Its not going to be steel battalion (or even chromehounds) 

We’ll always have mechwarrior 3.