15:20 (BST), 29/04/2008

NCsoft announces the third Exteel diary highlighting Frontliner Mechanaught and detailed weapon highlights. 

Once most Exteel players complete the full range of tutorials and finish a few matches they probably won’t want to stick with the Pinkett very much longer. Most players by this time should have enough in-game money (credits) to purchase something new, or at least acquire some different Mechanaught parts.

One of the Mechanaught sets available for a reasonable sticker price is the Frontliner, a medium Mechanaught design that is built for battling other Mechanaughts on the front lines (hence the name) and absorbing greater amounts of punishment. It’s a popular purchase among new players, who want to stand and fight the enemy straight-up, rather than run away at the first signs of danger. The heavier armor of the Frontliner means it’s a bit more armored than a Pinkett, but the Frontliner has superior energy generating and heat regulation capabilities without really slowing it down. Both the Pinkett and Frontliner have one MPU or Mechanaught Processing Unit, which dictate how many special skills you can equip your Mechanaught with at any one time.

Pilots upgrading from a Pinkett should take note however that the Frontliner does have a durability rating, meaning it’ll degrade over time until it is either unusable or gets repaired.

• – The –C model of this large two-handed underslung cannon is awarded to players for finishing the “Cannon Training” advanced tutorial. It fires large energy rounds at opponents and while the damage may not as great as other two-handed weapons, its ease of use and wide lock-on ability, coupled with a relatively low overheat rating, means it’ll be a favorite for starting pilots who wish to yield the really big guns.

• – Defenders belong to a set of non-weapon items that essentially are shields. The Defender itself looks like a police riot shield. While Mechanaughts can be armed with shields, the shield has to actually be in use (that is, you’re clicking on the mouse button to bring it up to a shielding position) in order for it to work. Shields absorb damage from incoming fire—they more they absorb, the more heat they generate until they overheat and become unusable until the heat dissipates. Players commonly use a shield with a melee weapon since at close range it’s easy to shield yourself from a melee attack, but other combinations are certainly possible (flag carriers in CTF matches for instance have been known to equip two shields at once).

• – The Death Hurler is a low-cost two-handed weapon similar to the cannon, except it fires high explosive-armed rockets. Rocket launchers have some distinct advantages over cannons as they don’t generate as much heat or take as long to reload. Pilots can also fire a rocket launcher while moving or jumping, while cannon users have to remain standing still. The downside is that the rocket launcher requires manual aim; there’s no locking on to an opponent, so the pilot must be very accurate when firing. Plus, a rocket launcher doesn’t pack nearly as much punch as a cannon.

• – One of the most popular SMG types in Exteel, the Beam Spitter is an excellent weapon in the hands of even a novice pilot, with exceptional range for an SMG and very good ratings for accuracy and reloading. Many pilots that wind up in close-range battles switch to the Beam Spitter for the kill. Like many SMGs, the Beam Spitter fires a one-second burst at a target with the single pull of the trigger.

Practice Mode offers you the ability to try out weapons and skills in a circular arena without having to attack other players, or worrying about other players attacking you. The arena is populated by four standing Mechanaughts, replicas of your own Mechanaught, that can be targeted and attacked, but not destroyed. Here you can practice how long it takes your weapons to overheat, how certain skills can be used, and you won’t get penalized for leaving (in regular matches you get penalized 200 credits for leaving early).

Exteel offers one of the most traditional online multiplayer game modes in the world: the classic deathmatch. Battles can have as many as sixteen players, and the purpose of the deathmatch is simple: accumulate the most points and win. You accumulate points by destroying other Mechanaughts, or assisting in their destruction (meaning you delivered a significant amount of damage but did not make the fatal blow). Players can respawn from generally four different areas on the map, which is usually where the bulk of the fighting is. There’s no healing here; once the damage is taken, it stays that way until your Mechanaught is destroyed and you have to respawn.

Deathmatches can be very intense as everyone is pretty much out to get you, and being successful means being a little careful about which local fights to get into, where you are, and how absorbed your enemies are in each other. A gaggle of Mechanaughts engaged in a giant melee fight can be easy pickings for someone at long range.

The structure of Team Deathmatch is similar to Deathmatch; instead of a free-for-all it pits two teams of players against the other, and the team with the most accumulated points wins. The tactics of Team Deathmatch are of course very different from Deathmatch. Pilots need to stick together in clumps, where the combined firepower can overwhelm singular enemies easily. Since there are no healing pads like other team matches, those equipped with rectifiers will be extremely useful. Team Deathmatch is all about working together to rapidly defeating the opponents without having the same thing done to you.