Mobile Weapon is a series of 3-dimensional role-playing game developed by Tyler Projects. This series is comprised of Mobile Weapon Zero, Mobile Weapon Episode 1 (Beta) and has spin-off titles like the Mobile Weapon Assault. In this game, players take control an armed robot designed for combat, called the "Mobile Adaptive Weapon", and completing quests that require them to travel around the game world. The character starts off in a very limited robot, and has to upgrade his / her machine from time to time. The further the player ventures into the game world, the enemies in game becomes harder to fight with--but they also yield higher rewards.

Mobile Weapon Zero

A screenshot of Mobile Weapon 0. It is shown during a battle scene.

In this game, the player takes up the role of a MaW pilot in Sios, which is currently in chaos thanks to the Maverick MaWs wrecking havoc around the area. The player is tasked with defeating the Mavericks. As the player ventures away from the city, the enemies generally become tougher and tougher to fight, demanding more upgrades to be installed on the player's MaW. Image File history File linksMetadata Mw0-battle. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Mw0-battle. ...

The player is ranked by his fame, which in turn determines the player's class. The amount and class of the enemies defeated also affect the player's cash gained, which is trivial to purchase upgraded weapons.

Gameplay

The player's MaW is called Avenger(the name can be changed), and has two weapons and one armor that are equipped at all times. The Avenger starts off extremely weak, and the player must rely on victories in battles to increase the hit points of the MaW and the player's money. In many wargames, role-playing games, and combat-oriented video games, hit points are an abstraction for the amount of damage an object or player in the game can take before becoming ineffective. ...

There are optional quests, ranging from attaining a certain amount of fame, to defeating a particularly tough MaW pilot living in somewhere else. Completing these quests allows the player to gain substantial fame, money, and sometimes enhanced equipment.

In order to deal more damage (and survive the stronger opponents' attacks), the player can purchase equipment from equipment shops scattered over the world. The game has up to 4 pieces of equipment in each class (melee, ranged and armor) that can be bought. However, there are some pieces of equipment that can only be gained by completing sub-quests, or reaching a certain amount of fame.

There is a bank on the map, allowing the player to save credits into his account. While providing a safe environment to keep his spoil, this, obviously, means that the player has to backtrack should he wants to withdraw the credits and buy things.

Combat

The game portrays combat as a one-on-one battle, and both sides take turns to attack each other (The game implements a system like the active time battle to determine the sequence of actions, but due to the one-on-one nature of the game, it is not easy to spot). Picture showing the ATB in Final Fantasy IX The Active Time Battle (ATB) system in a computer role-playing game is an alternative to a turn-based system. ...

When the player takes a turn, he is presented with three options:

• Blade (Melee attack. It does lighter damage, but recovers quicker for the next turn)
• Ranged (A shooting attack, dealing more damage at the expense of recovery speed)
• Escape (Escape from battle. It doesn't always succeed)

The character in bold represents the keystroke to press in order to perform the said action.

Winning a battle allows the player to carry away the spoil, which includes money, fame and scrap metal. The money and fame are added into their respective pools, and scrap metal allows the MaW to be enhanced with extra health.

The player can also lose the battle by getting destroyed. Losing a battle causes the player to lose money and fame.

Secrets

There are three pieces of equipment that can only be gained by completing sub-quests. These three pieces of equipment allows a substantial increase of the MaW's performance.

• Defeating the MaW pilot at the Dragon's Horn, then talking to the barman in the Oasis Bar will allow the player to take the Meteor Launcher. It is the best ranged weapon in the game, dealing over 200-300 points of damage in one hit.
• The landlord in the three-storey building in the city is willing to give the famous ones extra equipment. If the player has 30 fame when he visits the landlord, he is rewarded with some cash.
• If the player visits the landlord when he has 300 fame, he will be awarded with the Celestial Armor, also the best one in the game.
• At midnight (12:00 a.m. on a 12-hour clock, 00:00 on a 24-hour clock) on the computer clock a Maverick MaW appears at the Oasis. When the player has attained Elite class and talks to it, the Maverick will give the player the strongest melee weapon, the Phantom Claw.

The player can continue playing even after defeating the final boss. The game places the player in front of the Maverick's camp, along with the equipment, (increased) cash and fame. The 12-hour clock is a timekeeping convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem (, Latin for before noon) and post meridiem (, Latin for after noon). Each period consists of 12 hours numbered 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... The 24-hour clock is a convention of time-keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, numbered from 0 to 23 (and 24 in the day-ending midnight). ... A clock (from the Latin cloca, bell) is an instrument for measuring time. ... For other meanings of the term, see melée (disambiguation). ...

Mobile Weapon Episode 1

A screenshot of Mobile weapon Episode 1. It is shown during a battle scene.

Mobile Weapon Episode 1 is currently under development, and only a beta public release (Beta V. 0.46) is available. The authors of this game, as indicated in their blog, are planning to release this game on November 10th. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (804x603, 146 KB) Summary A screen capture of Mobile Weapon Episode 1, resized. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (804x603, 146 KB) Summary A screen capture of Mobile Weapon Episode 1, resized. ... Software development stages Development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ...

In this game, the player controls a team, up to three MaWs in different classes to perform several quests in the game world. As the player emerge victorious from various battle, he / she may gain experience that can in turn enhance the pilot, and money to enhance the machines.

The health of the machines in this game does not reset after the battle, demanding the usage of repair kits (health potions in essence) after, or even during the battle if there are no repair stations around.

Gameplay

The player plays Jin, a MaW pilot that lives in the Tikila Village, Acero Isle, where the game world lies on. He / she (the player is allowed to customise Jin's appearance, including name and sex) performs various quests as directed by Jin's uncle, Ron. Throughout the game, the player controls a party of up to 3 MaWs of different classes.

Separated leveling system was introduced in this game. After victory in a battle, each member in the party is awarded with experience points that contributes to their level, and money for buying more expensive and powerful weapons, armor and clothing.

Each (controllable) character has three attributes, namely

• Reflex, which determines the chances of evasion (an attacking opponent will miss), and the ability to use various melee weapons.
• Accuracy, which determines the chance of hitting when using weapons. It also determines which light ranged weapons a pilot can use.
• Technique, an attribute that determines the amount of damage inflicted in one strike and which heavy ranged weapons a pilot can use.

When a character gains a level, he / she also gains 3 attribute points that can be freely distributed between these attributes. Various pieces of clothing can also be used to enhance an attribute.

On the other hand, in order to enhance MaWs the player can augment them for more health, and equip stronger weapons and armor to enhance the combat statistics.

Combat

The combat system changed significantly since MW0. Instead of having one-on-one battles, the battle now becomes a matter of team versus team. The game implements a time-bar determined system, called "Energy Time System" (ETS) according to the related discussion, to determine the sequence of actions of each character.

ETS determines the sequence of action by placing an "energy bar" (it differs from the health bar) on every character participating in a battle (only the energy bars for the friendly characters will show though). The energy bar recharges over time, and causes the corresponding character to be ready when it reaches 100%. As the character performs an action, it will cost the appropriate amount of energy, and drops the energy bar back. The whole sequence is repeated.

The battle sequence for each character can be briefly described as:

1. Wait phase. The character waits until the energy bar fills up. The energy bar recharges by the energy rating of each character, per second.
2. "Stand-by" phase. It is presented when a character has a 100% energy bar. The character can choose an action to perform. Once the energy bar reaches 100%, further waits will increase the energy bar 1% per each second, up to 125% for a special attack.
3. Action phase. The character waits until the current action queue is clear, then makes his / her move. The energy cost of the action is deducted from the energy bar, and the character enters wait phase again until he / she is ready again.

Battle ends when:

• The player's party wins by defeating the enemy party.
• The player's party escapes, which causes them to receive no experience points and money whatsoever.
• Getting defeated. This causes an instant "game over".

When a friendly character has a turn, the player can choose the following options. The command is in caps, and the corresponding hot key is bolded.

• Attack (with a equipped weapon--use numbers 1-3 to choose), and choose an target to attack. It costs the corresponding energy points specified on the weapon used. Notice that the weapon / armor must be equipped in advance before entering a battle to make them usable.
• Defend causes the character to assume a defensive status, cutting the incoming damage by half at the expense of essentially "wasting" a turn. 50 energy points in expense, and the character assumes the defensive status until the next turn.
• Use an item (a repairkit so far), recharging the character's health by a certain amount of points. 20 Energy points in expense.
• Escape causes the team to attempt an escape. Once selected, the entire team commits to escape, forfeiting the entire amount of energy points they have so far. The time for the team to escape is random, and the team can take damage while trying to escape.

When the player's team win a battle, each member is awarded with the experience points, the items and the money dropped by the enemy. They add the experience into their respective pools.

Equipment

There are two groups of equipments in the MW1 world. Clothings are equipments for the pilots, and the actual weapons and armors for the MaWs.

Clothing

The following clothes are sold at Elyssa's store in Tikila Village. They fit into the slot shown in "Clothing category".

Weapon / Armor

These are currently available at Ron's garage, also located in the Tikila Village. They range from various melee, light and heavy firearms and the armor.

Below is a brief list of equipment that can be mounted on a MaW. When bought, they must be installed on the MaW by opening the options screen and equipping them manually.

The armor available include:

The weapons that can be equipped include

Release Date

While the Mobile Weapon 1 game is out now, it is actually only in its beta testing form. The set release date for the full version of MW:1 is November 10, 2006, decided after it was clear that the full version could not come out in September, as fans hoped.

Sub-Chapters

In addition to the main games of the series, the creators also intend on realeasing mini-games, or sub chapters, that have no bearing to the main 10 chapters that are planned.

Mobile Weapon: Assault

MW:A is a sidescrolling shooting game. It starts off with the player in a basic MAW, progressing through stages found in MW:1. The player is able to upgrade the armor, firing speed, and moving speed of this MAW as well as buying ammo for two guns that can be used instead of the basic one. These guns are:

Plasma: More powerful then the original gun and is unaffected by projectile motion

Homing: Locks on to an enemy and follows it. The rounds fly off screen when the target they were following is destroyed.

Once the player completes the game, they are granted a different MAW and are able to start again. Three MAWs are available in all.

The Mobile Weapon Forum

Mobile Weapon is not just a video game. It also has a forum dedicated to it. The forum can be found at Mobile Weapon Forum. There are the MaWderators (A pun to Mobile adaptive Weapons or MaWs).

The names of some of the forum members are also the names of some villagers found in Acero Terminus, a city in Mobile Weapon: Episode One.

External links

• Official website
• Mobile Weapon Zero
• Mobile Weapon Assault
• Mobile Weapon Episode 1 Beta
• Mobile Weapon Legend of the Green Dragon Mod
• Tyler's blog
• Mobile Weapon Forum