Exciting Times in MWO!

It has been an exciting time to be in BWC's Mechwarrior Company over the last couple months. PGI has hosted several events, giving players the opportunity to earn free items, in-game currency, mechs, and premium time. BWC Pilots have taken full advantage by leading daily operations, from serious to casual. Running anywhere from two to five lances a night, we have get the chance to play against other BWC members in "Brother vs Brother" matches. The added incentive, to sharpening our skills and earning bragging rights, of free loot has encouraged MWO members to show up in even greater numbers, pushing our lance count even higher. The multitude of members attending gives rise to various play styles and the occasional call for "Shenanigans" as pilots or lances will go off script and just play off the wall tactics just for fun, making our comms lively with highlights of matches, advice on mechbuilds, and general banter.

BrokenArrow, the MWO Commanding Officer, spoke about the recent surge in participation:
Since July, MWO has seen two major events centered around collecting "Loot Bags," where pilots could earn rewards based on their match score or damage dealt. These events not only boosted operation tempo but also significantly influenced attendance for each operation. During this time, 12 recruits joined our ranks, with the events playing a key role in retaining these new members. These Loot Bag events also bolstered company morale, because let's face it—who doesn't love free stuff? As the year comes to a close, PGI's annual loyalty program has added to the excitement. This program rewards players for their dedication to the game, as well as their financial contributions, throughout the year. For some of our pilots, it felt like Christmas came early, as they eagerly awaited the free mechs that the loyalty program delivered.

The time has never been better to check out MWO if you've ever had an interest. With new friends, free in-game items and mechs, and a team that is regularly on, what more can be asked for? The time is now to join in MWO's nightly gaming operations and maybe check out what more BWC has to offer new members, as well!

Written by Ciderstien

Calling Warriors of Light!

Get ready for the next adventures in the Source as your venture into the lands of Tural. Filled with arts and cultures this expansion expands into more depth with our crafter/ gatherer senses. Take on new dungeons and raids as you explore the great wonders of a new realm on the legacy passed on.

Starting with Dawntrail, get prepared for the unlock of Level 100 classes as the difficulty gets ramped up and not one but two new classes: Pictomancer and Viper. Both being DPS classes, Pictomancer takes on a caster role and was first introduced in FFVI with FFXIV being the first time it is reappearing as well as Viper being a dual wielding ninja-like melee class. Lastly, along with an entirely new adventure and story, the FFXIV dev team has completed a comprehensive graphical overhaul. Many quality of life changes have occurred such as lighting and shadows as well as creating more realistic and natural facial features. Make sure to complete your complimentary FFXIV Dawntrail benchmark test to make sure your PC is ready to go and see you fellow adventurers in the New World.

CitizenCon 2953 in Review

Well what an absolutely killer CitizenCon this year! First time we have had a full two days of content, and they jam backed those two days with a mind blowing amount of detail! As an Aussie, this poor writer wasn't able to get up at the 4:00 am start time each day, but you best believe that the moment I was able I was catching up on the stream, and since then I've rewatched the content at least half a dozen times, especially with all the high quality YouTube videos the team has been dropping of the panels!

Chris Roberts is the man that started it all, and while he's certainly been the centre of some controversy over the years, it was great to see him back on stage introducing the show on Day 1. While Chris has never really been the most polished orator, the man was clearly feeling a bit overwhelmed with the emotion of it all and what he knew his team were going to be showing to us over the following 48 hrs, as he became almost lost for words a couple of times. And he had reason to be excited!

One of the stars of the show was the Star Engine tech demo reel, which was also our initial introduction to all the hard work the team has been doing, and it was a kaleidoscope of gorgeous visual improvements, which were expanded upon further throughout the 2 days of panels which followed. The entire swath of improvements that we dove into with the team over the two days including new volumetric clouds and ground fog, with light rays shining through beautifully, dynamic fire that responds to the world around it, physically simulated water surfaces with correct illumination of objects below the surface, grime and wear build-up on your weapons, and even physically simulated blood, sweat, & tears on characters!

All of which is just scratching the surface.

But I think of the whole two day show, the break-out star attraction was the demonstration of working Server Meshing. The holy grail of Star Citizen development, that they've been working on from the beginning of the project! Seeing server meshing in action was absolutely astonishing, especially the incredible smoothness of transition as items and players were handed off from one server to the next while traversing an area. Combined with Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), which is what lets players leave objects in a location, or return to the sight of battle to find the destroyed ships for salvage, and the replication layer, which grants us live active-active failover of game servers, for zero client downtime in the event of a server crash, Server Meshing puts the final capstone on the key pillar technologies of what will make Chris's dream of the game possible, allowing hundreds, if not thousands of players to exist within the same "server" at once, with load shared across a meshed system of servers, presenting the players with absolutely seamless, loading screen free gameplay, and epic space (and ground!) battles!

It really is hard to follow up on the news of Server Meshing with just about anything else, but there really was an absolute bucketload of other content, way too much to do justice to here.

So, I'll finish up by saying we got a cool new Scout variant for the Drake Cutlass, along with a teased 3rd variant which we'll hear more on later. The RSI Zeus MkII was announced in 3 flavours, all of which look incredible, and this writer wants them all! And last but certainly not least, the Ship team dived into an apology and explanation of the holdups and setbacks they've had to overcome in recent times, but showed how they have been able to push through them, build from them, and are now well on track to deliver not one, not two, but three big RSI ships to us over the next 12 months; the Polaris, the Galaxy, and the Perseus! This is made possible through the asset sharing that occurs among ships from the same brand, allowing them to "batch produce" ships of the same manufacturer in parallel, greatly accelerating the speed with which they can be delivered into player hands. And finally, we got a ship silhouette slideshow teasing all of the ships we can expect to see in the 'verse within the next 12 months, which included a few unfamiliar silhouettes which have had fans arguing over what they could be since!

Wrapping up, CitizenCon 2953 absolutely knocked it out of the park. We had heartfelt apologies from the team where they were needed, amazing updates on features we didn't even know they'd been working on, and announcements of key technologies being completed. And the reactions from the crowd at the show echoed across the world.

Oh, and not to bury the lead, but Squadron 42 is now feature complete! Which also means many of the staff whose attentions were diverted to it to get that done, are now moving their focus back to Star Citizen!

If the team over at Cloud Imperium can deliver even half of what was shown in the next 12 months, 2024 is going to be an amazing year for fans of the game.

This fan is certainly hyped!

Summer Bash 2023

With the end of the season drawing near, we here at the Black Widow Company hope you had the opportunity to spend quality time with friends and family. As per tradition, we will be helping bring an end to the summer festivities with our yearly Summer Bash. This is an amazing opportunity to get together with fellow community members and have some competitive fun. The Summer Bash boasts games from all of our major company games as well as a few expeditionary games to help bring our community together.

To start off the festivities we have another Death Race hosted by Planetside2 at 1900 on the 25th. This is a two-man race where anything goes as long as it's in a Harasser- points for survival and killing across the continent. Following the race will be yet another Planetside2 operation with more standard gameplay, this operation is geared towards new players with tutorial sessions in game to allow all members to participate.

Moving into the 26th we begin with some Destiny 2 gameplay. As with the Birthday Bash celebration, we will be doing F2P content to allow all members to participate. This time the scene will be Vault of Glass, as this raid allows easier entry compared to most. D2 mains will be spinning the Wheel of Handicap to create more challenge in their run. Be prepared for the suffering.

The next event on our weekend itinerary is a tribute for our fallen member, Bromines. The memorial will be hosted directly in Final Fantasy 14 where new players will be taxied to the venue in game. This will allow time for everyone to say their peace and share memories and experiences that they had with Bromines. We hope everyone will be able to participate as we give a final send off to our dear friend.

With the transition within the game, FFXIV will move onto its Summer Bash operation. As per tradition, we will be hosting another Deep Dungeon run with Palace of the Dead. This dungeon allows for a low bar to entry at only level 17 (and completion of a singular side quest) while creating loads of fun competition among players.

Finally ending the 26th is a Battlebit operation hosted by our lovely Shims. What will we be doing exactly? No clue! You'll simply have to join to see what is in store for you. If you dare? Not trying to peer pressure you or anything though. I would never think to do such a thing. Nor would Shims. The nerve! That you would possibly think that!? I simply cannot.

Ending the Summer Bash on the 27th we start with our Diablo IV operation. For fun in the sun, D4 will be doing dungeon races (teams must have matching world tier) as well as Mount races across the zones and will finish it off with "To Catch a Dartangan" where he is alone in the PVP zone and everyone else tries to kill him. Followed by our First Sergeant's Association hosted social. Please drop by to hear about recent promotions, awards, and other current and upcoming news within BWC.

It wouldn't be a Summer Bash without Mech Warriors Online though. As one of our most active and dedicated companies within Black Widow Company there is sure to be lots of mech destruction and playful banter in store. Not to mention with the game being free to play- you really don't have an excuse not to join.

Finally, we have our newest members to the expeditionary games with an operation hosted by Star Trek Online. Buckle up because you're in for an epic experience. This operation is geared specifically to new players to help them get into the game with a fun speed running challenge. See who can get their team's captains to align with Starfleet or Klingons fastest with a two hour time cap.

And you can't have a festival without awards now can you? This year there are six tiers of awards for participation in the Summer Bash. These medals are awarded for each SB operation you attend going from 1-5 operations all the way to the "King Daddy- Ring to Rule them All" medal for participating in every operation over the weekend? Will you be able to down the crown yourself?

Can't wait to see you all there! Have a great one and remember- One Team- One Fight!

Memorial Day 2023

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it... it flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did.
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
To the veterans like myself, I want to tell you this: You are not alone, and you having nothing to be ashamed of.
Today is the day we should reminisce for those who fought valiantly for the pride, honor, and freedom of our country.
We don't know them all, but we owe them all.