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style="font-style: italic;">MechWarrior Online
officially launched yesterday to the
joy players everywhere. The matches have been fast paced and fierce. If
there’s
one thing you don’t want to be doing in the heat of combat,
it’s trying to
figure out what all those crazy symbols and dots in the user interface
are. Or
as it’s called in MWO, your HUD (Heads Up Display). As you
can see from the
image below, things can get pretty crazy. Go ahead and
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253246/_original"> style="font-weight: bold;">click here to
see the full-sized version of the image below
so
you can take a closer look and follow along as we
go over everything you’ll need to know about it.


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color="yellow" size="+2">1
– This designates which lance you’re in and the
name of
your fellow lancemates. A lance is a team of four mechs, so since each
team is
made up of twelve mechs, you’re one of three lances.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">2
– This shows which mech each individual lancemate is
running.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">3
– The match progress window. This is the only section
of the UI that changes slightly, depending on which mode you are
playing. The
screenshot above is from an Assault match (destroy all enemy mechs or
capture
enemy base). The other possible match type at the moment is Conquest
(destroy
all mechs or control 750 resources) -blue represents your
team, red is the opposing team. The number represents how many mechs
have been
destroyed on that team. So for the example here, your team has
destroyed 2
mechs while the opposing team has destroyed 3 of your team's 12 mechs.
The bars
underneath represent the capture status of your base. If a base is
being
captured, that bar will start to disappear. When it's gone, the match
is over.
If your opponent destroys all 12 mechs, the match is over. Each match
has a
default time of 15 minutes. If time runs out, the match is over (I have
yet to
see this ever happen). In Conquest, the numbers represent each
team’s resource
control status and the bars are split into the 5 different resource
points. These points are color coded to show which team has control of
each.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">4
- All warnings will show up here, such as critical
damage, incoming missile, etc.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">5
– This seemingly small section of the UI contains the
most data, so I’m going to split it up a bit.

  • The two triangles represent
    what direction the top and
    bottom of your mech are facing. The triangle with the point up shows
    the
    direction your legs are facing, while the triangle pointing downwards
    shows the
    direction your torso is facing.
  • The dashed lines are marks
    of a compass. Imagine it's a
    floating compass ball you see in some cars. It will rotate around as
    you turn.
  • The red star in the image show the direction of the enemy base. A blue star would represent the direction of your base.
  • The blue diamonds show the
    relative position of your
    teammates. The red diamonds signify where enemy mechs (that have been
    spotted)
    are. The red triangle with the yellow border is the mech you currently
    have
    targeted.
  • There are six squares around
    the torso crosshair (see
    #6). Each of these represents one of your weapons (a mech can have up
    to six).
    If one of the squares has a sideways “L”
    surrounding it, it’s the weapon that’s
    currently selected and will fire if you push your left mouse button. If
    a
    square is split in two that means it’s in a weapon group.
    Yellow is standby/ready
    (except for some weapons like the Gauss Rifle that needs to charge
    – then it
    turns green when charged), red means it’s recycling. style=""> 

     

color="yellow" size="+2">6
- This is your crosshair. By default, the system ties
your torso and arm weapons to the same aiming system, giving you a
single set
of crosshairs. When you gain more experience (and if you choose to),
you can
separate them, as depicted here. The small circle near the crosshairs
is the
arm weapon aim point.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">7
- This is the enemy you currently have targeted. The
general health of their individual compartments is shown, both front
and back.
A greyish yellow is undamaged, while the redder a compartment gets, the
more
damage it has received. In the event any of their weapons had been
destroyed,
the weapons listed beside this window would be red rather than red.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">8
- This window shows what weapons you have, their firing
group arrangements, and the firing state and remaining ammo loads of
each.
Weapons that share the same highlighted number are in the same weapon
group.
Weapons listed in red are out of commission or out of ammo.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">9
- Your central information HUD. This contains a
mini-map letting you know the location and direction of your mech, your
lancemates, and teammates, as well as any detected enemy mechs. You are
designated in yellow (the dotted line shows the direction of your legs
while
the cone represents your torso direction and field of view). Your
lancemates
are in a light green. Teammates are in blue. Enemies are in red. The
red bar on
the right shows your current heat buildup levels. The yellow bar on the
right
shows your current speed. Anything above the small green marker is
forward
momentum. Anything below it would be backwards momentum.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">10
- Your mech and its current levels of damage. Both
front and back. The "No Signal" notification means that an enemy mech
in the area in this case, our target) is using ECM to try and jam your
sensors.

 

color="yellow" size="+2">11
- Clicking the arrow here will allow you to cycle through
any available mechs so you can continue to watch the action unfold
after your
mech has been destroyed.

 


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our MechWarrior Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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