Let me whet your appetites even more....
When constructing your mech you have hundreds of parts to choose from. In the online war, the only parts you can purchase are from your country, though you can enter a lottery to get captured and experimental parts.
Constructing a mech is easy. Perfecting it is in depth. It takes a while to know what all the numbers mean but you have to balance weight, power, fuel, armaments, and if the actual shape will fit together.
There is no one perfect mech. Mechs are divided up into broad roles that let you know what they do on the battlefield. As you build your mech, the guide will tell you what role it is best suited for or if it works as a mix of roles. This makes it easy to tell your squad what kind of mech you're taking so you can make sure you have a balanced force.
The roles are:
Fighter, Defender, Heavy Gunner, Sniper, Scout, and Commander.
There are three ways to win the standard game.
1) Destroy the enemy's base.
2) Eliminate all opponents.
3) Have the most captured COMBASes when time is up.
COMBASes are big radio towers you need to communicate (the backstory justifies them). Each projects a bubble around it called a Network Area. Only within the Network Area can you communicate with you team, otherwise your radio doesn't work. As you capture more and more towers the areas overlap so you can communicate large distances.
A Mech who is a Commander actually projects his own Network Area. As the Network Area spreads he is the only one able to see both friendly and enemy mechs on the move. He'll call out grids of the map the enemy is in so you can find them. It's pretty fun to play.
The other roles have various duties:
Fighter- Average firepower, armor, and speed, these mechs are probably the most versatile.
Defender- Heavily armed, armored, and slow, they tend to be the masters of short range combat.
Heavy Gunner - Extremely heavily armored, armed and terribly slow, these guys are the artillery. Depending on the weaponry they can fire the length of the map. Better have a spotter tell you where the shot lands if you do.
Sniper - Support mechs. Can lend serious firepower from afar though they're usually lightly armored and fairly slow.
Scouts - Speedy, lightly armed and armored guys whose main objective is to capture COMBASes.
Commander - as above.
Like I mentioned, you can mix and match weapons, chasis, armor and such to get just about any balance of role.
Like I said, I'm addicted. Great game.
