At GDC 2024, developers from Piranha Games demonstrated a demo of their new game MechWarrior 5: Clans, shared new details about the project and talked with journalists. We invite you to read the translation of the interview taken by the portal wccftech.com from Piranha Games CEO Russ Bullock.
Let us remind you that MechWarrior 5: Clans is a story-oriented mecha action game based on the famous BatteTech franchise, which includes hundreds of novels, several series of games and film adaptations. In the new part, players will take control of the “Star” (a squad of five pilots) of the Smoky Jaguar clan and join a large-scale invasion of the clans into the “Inner Sphere”.
What makes this game called MechWarrior 5 and not MechWarrior 6?
Not too much. I suppose it could very well be called MechWarrior 6, perhaps in a different universe. But I think there is a tradition here. Was MechWarrior 2Then MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries. Behind MechWarrior 4 followed MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. Now we have done similar work, only in the opposite direction.
We have MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and Clans is the story version. I believe the MW5 name will be retained, but ultimately it will be a completely new standalone game since we moved from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. And of course there will be a variety of missions. This is a story-based game with a significant number of cinematic cutscenes recorded using motion capture of actors. Players will see the characters in different situations for the first time, and once you get into the cockpit, there are tons of great ‘Mechs with a ton of upgrades waiting for you.
Some things will be new even to longtime MechWarrior fans. For example, the Battlegrid system will offer a top-down view to control your comrades in battle, almost like RTS games: where to move, attack a specific target. In addition, using the radial menu you can build a queue of attacks and issue commands. And for the first time in the history of the series, the game controls as well on consoles as on PC.
Will there be a way for players accustomed to the Lone Wolf style to automate some squad commands?
Yes. Generally speaking, in most missions and battles you won’t have to command your comrades. They have their own mind, their own AI, which will choose a target and fight with it.
Is it possible to change the character you play for?
Yes, you can. And all the other pilots for whom you are not playing will be taken under the control of the AI. But since this is a five-player co-op game, you can invite your friends from different platforms: Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
Do you also have cross-save or cross-progression?
No. When I invite you to my campaign, you come to me to help me with my passage. You will not be able to transfer progress or mechs. You simply return to where you were in your campaign.
Is there a centralized server where, if you’re playing on PlayStation 5, you can upload your campaign data to it and then resume it on PC?
No.
How is your team taking advantage of Unreal Engine 5 for MechWarrior 5: Clans?
In every possible way. Fortunately, we used almost all the new “toys”. There is MetaHuman with deep customization of character models to suit our needs and motion capture technologies for cinematic game videos.
We used Nanite and Lumen, and all destructible objects are based on Chaos Destruction. We also use World Partition (allows us to split the game level into different parts to effectively work with huge worlds). At this point we have activated and used all the new “fancy things”. They make the game look much better. Even over the last month, as we’ve connected more and more of these things, the game has gotten better and better. We are very pleased to have moved from version 4 of Unreal Engine to version 5.
Are you planning to launch the game simultaneously on PC and console platforms?
Yes. This will be a simultaneous release on Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
Will there be support for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 or just current generation consoles?
Mercenaries had both, but this time we decided to make do with just the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and I guess we’ll have to support the Series S. An odd little deviation.
Luckily, it’s not as difficult as, say, trying to program the Nintendo Switch version.
Yes. I don’t think Switch will be in the plans. RAM is the biggest issue even on older consoles. We’ll see if Nintendo ever announces a Switch 2 how much RAM it has, but I’m not really hopeful that they’ll have enough.
After all, the current consoles have been in production for five years now? It took a while because of supply chain and stuff. I think the old generation lasted longer than usual. But now we’re finally seeing sales of new consoles picking up.
Will there be gamepad support on PC?
Yes, sure. You will be able to use any of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox controllers, as well as a keyboard and mouse. For regular controllers there is a new simplified control system where torso rotations and everything else are a mixture of animations. And for those who haven’t played MechWarrior before, it looks just like any other third-person shooter.
Have you considered implementing gyroscopic aiming with the DualSense controller for PlayStation 5?
Don’t know. I think it will really degrade the gameplay if you try this. For this to work, we’d probably have to make some other mode where you control an incoming airstrike or something similar.
Do you have a release window and price in mind for MechWarrior 5: Clans?
So far we have announced that the game will be released in 2024. I think more details about the exact release date will come around June.
How extensive is the customization this time? How do you go about creating furs from scratch and giving them your own personality? For example, color schemes, decals or emblems?
It’s pretty deep. It’s similar to MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. There you have a full-fledged mechanical laboratory. You can customize your mech’s weapons and equip it with different weapons. You can add radiators and everything else. Additionally, since Clan Mechs are OmniMechs, you can change your OmniPod kit. For example, Timber Wolf ‘Mechs can come with large missile racks. But if you upgrade to another OmniPod kit, you can get more energy or ballistic weapons.
There are also improvements being explored. For example, you can get a plus one heatsink on the mech chassis. Some pilot skills that can be played with, adding different skills to the five pilots.
How much will players have to worry about conserving ammo in later missions?
I think this will be addressed as we progress through the game balancing process. I would say that traditionally in MechWarrior games this is not a very important factor.
MechWarrior can be called a battle of attrition game. And when you have the big final missions, you’ll start to see field repair bases and stuff that can provide some ammo and armor so we can extend the mission to 20 or 25 minutes.
If it’s a big, deep, complex mission, we need to give the player a way to replenish some ammo. I think if you don’t have enough ammo, if you only have Gauss rifles, then it’s worth taking a PPC or energy weapon with you so that you always have something to shoot, because it’s unlimited.
