MechWarrior Online Developer Q&A #1

The official MechWarrior Online forums are home to a new developer Q&A that offers up answers from a half dozen members of the game's development team: lead designer Paul Inouye, creative director Bryan Ekman, art director Dennis DeKoning, technical director Matt Newman, and designer David Bradley. Lots of good information in here, though the last answer I quote is a real bummer:
What are you doing to get the sense of scale right for piloting a giant BattleMech?

[DENNIS] Right from the beginning, the importance of accurately representing the scale of the '˜Mechs was evident. Depending on the world assets alone for size comparison was not enough; the '˜Mechs had to be able to stand alone and still be convincing in their scale. Adding a variety of smaller, ancillary objects achieved this goal as long as they were recognizable and therefore bases for comparison against the overall bulk. I.e. Ladder rungs, hatches, tie-down cleats etc. provided they were to the appropriate scale and appeared to be usable to a human. Another way was through the use of appropriate texture scale such as scratches, gouges, paint patterns and details too small to justify geometry.

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How much attention is being given to audio fidelity and is there a particular MW game you will be drawing sound effects from?

[MATT C] We are very focused on giving MWO the best audio fidelity within the project constraints; we don't plan to pull sound effects from any particular game. As with most aspects of the game we are drawing from the best that has gone before and then adding our own Piranha twist.

[PAUL] I'll add that we firmly believe that nothing will kill the gameplay experience faster than bad game audio. We will be generating all new audio content for MWO. Remastering old sound from previous MechWarrior® titles would not do MWO justice and it wouldn't be too appealing to you the player either.

[MATT N] What was that? I can't hear you over the sound of my Hunchback's AC-20!

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Will you have PvE elements on MechWarrior Online?

[PAUL] I may or may not pass out depending on Bryan's answer to this.

[BRYAN] Not at launch. We're looking at ways to incorporate PVE post launch and withing the framework of the MWO concept.