PS: Do you find Cryengine 2 easy to work with?
MWLL-AoP: Once you know your way around in Sandbox 2, it's a very powerful tool. Whether or not it's easy to work with isn't that easy to say. We have a few different level designers who are very talented in invdividual displines and they work together to create the maps for mwll.
PS: What made you decide to use Cryengine 2?
MWLL-AoP: In our opinion it is an extremely powerful and flexible engine that suits our needs and fulfills our expectations better than any other engine we tested early in the project. The engine features many advanced graphical, physical and animation technologies that we have used to the fullest.
PS: Are there any plans to add a single player campaign?
MWLL-AoP: We would like to have a campaign mode in at some point, but there are no concrete plans at this time. MWLL is purely designed as a multiplayer experience.
PS: How many vehicles are planned to be ingame?
MWLL-AoP: In the full release, there will be 14 Mechs and 11 other vehicles per faction, equalling a total of 50 unqiue vehicles for the player to take to battle.
PS: Can you play as infantry? If so what weapons do they use?
MWLL-AoP: While we had originally planned to have infantry in the mod, we later had to realise that with about 24 to 40 players per server, infantry would be nothing but cannon fodder and decided to drop all plans for it for balancing reasons.
The closest experience to infantry combat will be playing as battlearmor. They have a wide range of anti-vehicle and anti-personel weaponry at their avail, including not only ballistic, missile-based and energy weapons, but also explosives. In addition, they're using jumpjets to move faster and quicker than simple infantry ever could. This of course increases their chances of surviving an encounter with enemy vehicles.
PS: How closely will the mod follow the MechWarrior Universe?
MWLL-AoP: We stay true to the spirit rather than the word of the original rules. With that said we keep as close as possible without giving up game balance and fun gameplay. However, as some of the TRO artwork would have resulted in completely impractical and unusable vehicles and Mechs, we've taken some artistic liberty on some of them, but you'll still be able to recognize all of them.
PS: Can I jack mechs like mech assualt 2?
MWLL-AoP: No, you cannot take a currently piloted mech from someone. At this time it's not possible to kill an enemy pilot in the cockpit and it's not possible to jack enemy Mechs and vehicles right after they've been purchased.
PS: Will it be set in a certain period in relation to official games?
MWLL-AoP: As of now, we are not planning to limit the mod to one specific era. If you wanted to place our setting in the time line it would be during the middle years of the clan invasion of the Inner Sphere. However, it's important to note that some of the more advanced Inner Sphere technology seen sometime after or to the end of the Clan invasion will be included not only for balance but also to make things more interesting.
PS: Will there be an open Beta?
MWLL-AoP: There will be an extended beta phase with many participants. However, to which extent it'll be 'open' is yet undecided.
PS: Will it be default FPS controls or can you turn the upper body separately from the rest like in MW games?
MWLL-AoP: Yes, torso twist is included. We have worked extensively on keeping the controls intuitive to both FPS and simulation players. Though it will take some practice to learn some of the advanced features basic play will be VERY intuitive.
PS: Is there any possibility of negotiating with Microsoft to make this a full retail product?
MWLL-AoP: Please understand that we can not comment on this.
PS: Will the mechs/vehicles you buy be persistent? As in you get to keep them and deploy them at will whenever your team acquires the means to assemble them.
MWLL-AoP: No. In MechWarrior: Living Legends, every round is a whole new beginning.
I would like to thank MWLL-AoP for his time answering our questions. You can visit the Mech Warrior: Living Legends site here: