MWO Hatchetman preorders announced

[martian]

Hatchetman

Pre-Order The Hatchetman

The Hatchetman will be added to MWO on Dec 13th Patch.
    MC Release Date: March 21st 2023
    C-Bill Release Date: May 16th 2023

Unfortunately, the Hatchetman does not have a melee ability. Melee is not a feature supported by MechWarrior Online.  We are not looking to add Melee to MWO at this time.

5 Standard 'Mechs
    - HCT-3F
    - HCT-5S
    - HCT-6D
    - HCT-5K
    - HCT-7R

Hero 'Mech
     - HCT-TM (TINMAN)

[BATTLEMASTER]

It's a nice model, but I won't bother with it since melee in MWO still won't be a thing.

[Wrangler]

It's a nice model, but I won't bother with it since melee in MWO still won't be a thing.

Yeah, unless they plan to change the base code to allow for hatchet to work.  Its not worth buying.  Still nice they reverse order allow mechs to be in each other's games it first appeared in.

[Cyc]

Even if the hatchet doesn't swing, wish they did it as a weapon, just held out hatchet and super short ranged on the right arm with no visual.

[Akamia]

Unexpected! I may buy it just to have it, but as the entire point of a Hatchetman is to melee, I very probably will never actually play it beyond the inevitable release event.

Still. A neat novelty piece, if nothing else!

[Cyc]

Interested in the variant choices. The 5K means a C3 Slave swap and I guess more ammo for MRM but the HCT-7R...

I can tell why picked (that right arm) but what are they going to use the weight saved from dropping the hatchet and AES? Also is that the first proper actual Dark Age variant in MWO?

[Akamia]

I wager most Hatchetman variants will go the Yen-Lo-Wang approach of putting any weight lost by the absence of a functional hatchet into armor. Somehow, I doubt we’ll get extra ammo bins, and I think replacement guns a la MWO!Crael are a long shot. But we’ll see!

[martian]

Interested in the variant choices. The 5K means a C3 Slave swap and I guess more ammo for MRM but the HCT-7R...

They did it on CRD-5K. One additional ton of ammo.

[Deadborder]

Interested in the variant choices. The 5K means a C3 Slave swap and I guess more ammo for MRM but the HCT-7R...

I can tell why picked (that right arm) but what are they going to use the weight saved from dropping the hatchet and AES? Also is that the first proper actual Dark Age variant in MWO?

There have been several allready; the Warhammer IIC 10, MAD-4L and MAD-6S Marauder II come to mind

[martian]

HATCHETMAN QUIRKS

All variants (Except HCT-7R):
+16 LT, CT, RT Armor
+12 LA, RA, LL, RL Armor

HCT-3F:
-10% Ballistic cooldown
-10% Heat
-30% UAC Jam duration

HCT-5S:
+10% Range
+30% Ballistic velocity
-15% Ballistic cooldown
-20% LBX Spread

HCT-6D:
+20% Weapon velocity
+10% Ballistic Range

HCT-5K:
-10% Missile spread
-10% Energy Cooldown
-10% Heat
+10% Range

HCT-7R:
+8 LA, LT, CT, RT, RA Armor
+6 LL, RL Armor
+12 RA Structure
STD/ER Medium laser HSL +1
Medium pulse laser HSL +1
-10% STD/ER Medium laser duration

HCT-TM 'TINMAN':
+16 CT Structure
+10 LL, RL Structure
-10% Heat
-10% Missile spread
-10% Ballistic cooldown
+20% Ballistic velocity

[Cyc]

I amazes me how quick its coming out, a benefit to the reuse I guess despite the hatchet situation.

[martian]

I amazes me how quick its coming out, a benefit to the reuse I guess despite the hatchet situation.

Well, this is a low-hanging fruit for PGI. 

They created the 'Mech model for MW5:Mercs a year ago, so now they can offer in MWO as well (with some adjustments). I guess that PGI hopes that they can find some MWO players willing to spend their cash on the Hatchetman.

[Wrangler]

I don't think they'll get much out of it.  The signature thing does nothing.   If it were perhaps the Axman, which is beefer and has better armor. It would be more popular, but the original Hatchetman without it's signature gun and it's dismal armor won't be as big seller without the Ax.

[martian]

I don't think they'll get much out of it.  The signature thing does nothing.

I share your opinion.

If it were perhaps the Axman, which is beefer and has better armor. It would be more popular, but the original Hatchetman without it's signature gun and it's dismal armor won't be as big seller without the Ax.

I do not think that the results would be much better with the Axman. The IS 65 ton niche is quite full: Thunderbolt, Crusader, Catapult, JagerMech, Roughneck.

And of course, the Axman would have the same problem: Running around with the Axe that does nothing. 

[Akamia]

Doing the event objectives for the Hatchetman's release.

I dunno how to feel about it, to be honest. Aside from the fact it's a melee ’Mech in a game with no melee attacks, of course.

I think it's an alright ’Mech in its own right, but that bolt-on hatchet eliminates an entire sight line. It's not quite as bad as a Hunchback torso cannon, because at least the arm will move if you don't use arm lock, but if one were to use this thing in any serious setting, you should probably take the hatchet off.

In my QP games, at least for as long as I care to use this ’Mech, though, the hatchet stays on. It is fun to play, at least for my idea of "fun", but it doesn't really strike me as a ’Mech for the performance-minded. The only variant that I think might attract a performance-minded player is the Tin Man, and that's only because of all the missile hardpoints in the torso, which they can use to turn the ’Mech into a potentially devastating SRM bomber. It kind of already is an SRM bomber in stock configuration, but there's room for improvement. YMMV, of course.

EDIT: Also, there's an amusing bug at the moment where the Hatchetman falls apart when it dies; the torso falls off the legs and everything. Really funny to see, because no other ’Mech's corpse does that. They usually just ragdoll. I heard a report that Streak SRMs used by the Hatchetman will always go to enemy CTs, but I have neither been victim to such attacks nor used them myself in my games so far. If this bug can be confirmed, I would expect it to be patched with haste; probably a lot faster than the bug with the ’Mech's ragdoll.

[Cyc]

Streaks only hitting CT bug has been hotfixed away, and apparently the devs find the ragdoll animation hilarious. Neither showed up on development, only occurring on live servers.

I still feel the Hatchetman hitboxes are borked, especially from the rear. But it is somewhat depressing so few of them about even in comparison to other recent packs. Unsure if its the population drop or lack of melee killing interest for some people.

[BATTLEMASTER]

I doubt it's the population drop.  That's probably seasonal considering no one is on summer break anymore   I'd rather play the Hatchetman in MW5 that way I can chop at things instead of having a nifty bolt-on!

[Wrangler]

I've been playing a little more since we have the Christmas drops and stuff like that happening.
I have seen the hatchet man in the wild a couple of times. It's sort of looks kind of odd to me it looks more like an Axeman than actual Hatchetman.

I don't know if it's been that popular of a buy, the acts kind of looks pathetic actually lol

[Akamia]

The hatchet, and all the other melee weapon bolt-ons available to the Hatchetman, are visually identical to their appearance in MW5Mercs. But since there's no melee in MWO and no plans to add it to the game, the hatchets and other similarly-shaped melee weapons, being bolt-ons here, do literally nothing except block sightlines.

That being said, after spending some time with each variant as I completed the launch event, there are definitely some clear winners. Tin Man and the HCT-6D are easily the two best variants, with the HCT-5K being the runner-up. The HCT-7R is probably the weakest of the lot, with literally all its firepower being in the right arm. Unless there's some mounts in the torsos I missed, you're gonna get "sticked" very often in that thing, unless of course you are exceptionally adept at protecting your arms compared to most players.