MechWarrior Online delves into the art of role warfare

Last week, we got to take a look at MechWarrior Online's freshly introduced CN9-A Centurion BattleMech. This week, however, the folks at Piranha Games want to give you some insight on what to do once you're seated in the cockpit of your giant robot, so they've dropped a new blog post titled Role Warfare for fans' consumption. The post first introduces players to the various roles available to MechWarrior Online players: scouting, assault, defense, and command. The roles are exactly what they sound like. Scouts gather intel, while assault 'Mechs assault and defense 'Mechs defend. Command mechs, believe it or not, command their respective teams.

But how do you customize your 'Mech to fill one of these roles? As players progress through their matches, the BattleMechs that they use in battle will gain XP according to their battle performance. This XP can be spent to unlock upgrades in the BattleMech's tech tree. Each BattleMech will have its own distinct tech tree, and therefore its own distinct upgrade options. At certain points within the Tech Tree, players will receive Pilot Points, which are assigned directly to the player's pilot avatar and are used to purchase pilot abilities in the Pilot Skill Tree. Finally, players can purchase BattleMech modules with their C-Bills, which allows for the final layer of specialization on the customization cake.

For the full details on the game's customization and upgrade system, and to get a run down of some recommended loadouts for various roles, click on through to MWO's official site below.