BattleTech Kicks Butt, Reaches Kickstarter Goal in 53 Minutes

[StewShearerOld]

BattleTech Kicks Butt, Reaches Kickstarter Goal in 53 Minutes

[kickstarter=webeharebrained/battletech]
Jordan Weisman's new BattleTech Kickstarter raised more than $250,000 in under an hour.

Originally released in 1984, BattleTech was, for many gamers, their first introduction to the wide and wonderful world of giant robots blowing stuff up. Influential as the game was however, the franchise and its <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138304-Ryan-Bowdens-Father-Son-Mechwarrior-Costume#&gid=gallery_3432&pid=1>MechWarrior offshoots have fallen somewhat to the wayside in recent years. While MechWarrior Online has provided some relief for the mecha-inclined, it's been years since fans of the franchise have received anything even resembling the deep and addictive solo experiences that originally defined it. Thanks to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141804-BattleTech-Kickstarter-Announcement>a KickStarter launched by BattleTech creator Jordan Weisman however, that may soon no longer be the case.

Launched yesterday, Weisman's campaign was aimed at raising 250,000 dollars to fund the creation of a new PC-centric BattleTech game. Response from fans was intense and immediate. The campaign reached its goal in a mere 53 minutes and, in the hours since, has continued to raise money hand over first. At the time of this story's publication it had already climbed past the 900,000 mark with more than 13,300 backers.

The game itself will be "a single-player, turn-based, tactical 'Mech combat game." Weisman and his team intend to use their Kickstarter funds to create a full-fledged story campaign in addition to an already funded skirmish mode. If the campaign can reach a 1.85 million dollars stretch goal, they will also add in side contracts and procedurally generated missions. A final 2.5 million dollar stretch goal will also unlock a PVP multiplayer mode "in the famous arenas of Solaris VII." The game will be built with Unity 5 and developed by Harebrained Schemes.

Normally, we'd say something along the lines of "time will have to tell if it makes it that far." In this case however, we'd be surprised if it didn't raise that much. In the 25 minutes it took to write the rough draft of this news story, the campaign's funding climbed another 15,000 dollars. Granted, the influx of backers might eventually taper off, but we somehow get the feeling that that won't be happening anytime soon.
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Source: <a href=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech>Kickstarter


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[Albino Boo]

Looks like a cross between Mechcommander and Panzer General. Seeing I loved both games, I'm looking forward to this one.

 

[shintakie10]

Huh. I thought PGI had the rights to all things Mechwarrior related on the PC.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Huh. I thought PGI had the rights to all things Mechwarrior related on the PC.

I think this is a separate thing because its turn based tactical whatever as opposed to actually piloting a mech.

 

[Piorn]

Looks cool, but for me to be interested, it needs two things.
Firstly, an endless campaign like in Mount&Blade. Everyone can slap together a linear, finite story. That doesn't affect anyone anymore, nowadays.
Secondly, 4 controlled units at a time is not much, so it needs tactical depth to be interesting. This includes localized damage, enviromental things, customizability, and just in general tactical options.

I'm fairly certain these are reasonable demands.

 

[Albino Boo]

Huh. I thought PGI had the rights to all things Mechwarrior related on the PC.

As far as I understand PGI only bought the rights to publish Mechwarrior online from Infinite Games in September last year. Infinite Games was developing a turn based game called Mechwarrior tactics but Infinite Games went bust at the end of last year. It looks Jordan Weisman bought those rights and they have come full circle after he bought them back from Microsoft and sold them to Infinite Games

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Freakin' awesome. I spent a good chunk of time at London's Virtual World as a teenager, good to see BattleTech up and running again.

 

[Randomvirus]

I wish people would stop conspiring to take my money away

 

[Slycne]

A new BattleTech game reaches its goal in less than an hour? I have only one thing to say.

Spoiler: All Systems Nominal

 

[Wiggum Esquilax]

localized damage

Location specific damage is one of the core premises of Battletech. A baseline mech has separate hitboxes for the head, arms, legs, and six torso sections.

enviromental things

Things like terrain cover, concealment, dug-in infantry, and turrets? All Battletech.

Previous Battletech games have had destructible turret generators. Buildings and terrain that block line-of-sight for direct fire weapons, but allow arcing weapons to pass overhead. Naval units predictably restricted to the water, helicopters that like to pop-up from behind hills, roads that increase movement speed, and hovercraft that can go almost anywhere.

customizability

Battletech has a variety of weapons. There are three basic types of ranged weaponry: energy, ballistics, and missiles.

Just for energy, and just off the top of my head, I can think of:
-Short, medium, and large lasers, each with multiple variants.
-Plasma flamethrowers.
-Particle projection cannons of multiple sizes and ranges.
-Targeting lasers that facilitate target locks in general, and missile locks in particular.

and just in general tactical options

Battletech isn't just mecha. Tanks, ground vehicles, watercraft, aircraft, hovercraft, infantry, turrets, and artillery are all available. Honestly, it's TBD how many other assets will actually be in-game, but the possibility's definitely there.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

A giant robot tactics game developed by my favorite new company? Good lord, I might actually donate to a kickstarter

 

[JustAnotherAardvark]

Marik or Kurita, Marik or Kurita ... decisions, decisions!

Edit: holy poop, batman! I was just thinking "I still have the Wolf's Dragoons trilogy from Stackpole on my shelf, wonder what he's doing these days..." and boom! there he is in the project. /fangasm

Edit of Edit: Backed! Thanks, Escapist.

 

[Silverbeard]

So the sequel to MechCommander 2 is finally here. Go get 'em, Weisman!

I really like how large the mechs look on the concept art. Even if they only look that way in-game on a close zoom in, it'll be nice to have a game that presents mechs as massive constructs. Even the MechWarrior games didn't really manage that. Everything felt knee high and unsatisfying.

P.S: Go House Steiner. Nothing bets the Rabid Foxes. Nothing.

 

[Mechamorph]

Great news indeed and they certainly have some of my money. Not only is this project headed by (one of) the original creators of Battletech but its also set in the "classic" Battletech era sometime between the Third and Fourth Succession Wars. As an old school Battletech fan, I do admit that this particular era has a certain special place in my heart. Don't get me wrong, the subsequent "expansion" eras like the Fourth Succession War and the Clan Invasion were great although I did not like the Dark Age era very much. The mid to late 3020s however were when many of us first fielded mechs and shot at each other over the tabletop. Fingers crossed for having missions based around events like the Silver Eagle Incident or fighting storied units like the Genyosha and Wolf's Dragoons.

 

[Karadalis]

Just for energy, and just off the top of my head, I can think of:
-Short, medium, and large lasers, each with multiple variants.
-Plasma flamethrowers.
-Particle projection cannons of multiple sizes and ranges.
-Targeting lasers that facilitate target locks in general, and missile locks in particular.

Nitpicking here:

- Since the game is set in the 3025 timeline we wont have: multiple variants of lasers.. there are only the 3 standard lasers

- there is only one size of PPC... and even later there are only 2 sizes.. normal PPC and snub nose PPC

- no targeting lasers either in 3025 and targeting lasers are used for artiller and Arrow IV since LRMs are actually NOT guided missles in Battletech.. they are either a directfire or area saturation weapon... and are only called LRMs because they have a longer range then the equally dumbfire SRMs wich both operate under a shotgun like effect. A LRM salvo of 20 missles for example might hit 4 different locations on a mech in 5 point damage packages. (1 LRM = 1 point of damage) and that is IF all missles hit... wich they never will.

Furthermore there will be no:

Pulse lasers of any kind

Ultra autocannons (doubletap cannons)

Gauss cannons (coilguns)

Any ER weapons (energy weapons with extended range)

MRMs (medium range missles)

Rocket Launchers

C3 computers (advanced computers)

Omni mechs (mechs that can change their loadout on the fly thanks to a modular pod system)

LBX autocannons (shotgun cannons)

Targeting computers

Battle armor (power armored infantry)

XL engines (bigger but lighter engines.. dont ask me how that works)

no double heatsinks

And any mechs that are carrying the above including clan mechs.

This game will only feature content from the Classic battletech era wich was pretty limited but much better balanced then the later time period.. wich made for good reading.. but terrible unbalanced gameplay.

 

[Chosen_Chaos]

Looks cool, but for me to be interested, it needs two things.
Firstly, an endless campaign like in Mount&Blade. Everyone can slap together a linear, finite story. That doesn't affect anyone anymore, nowadays.
Secondly, 4 controlled units at a time is not much, so it needs tactical depth to be interesting. This includes localized damage, enviromental things, customizability, and just in general tactical options.

I'm fairly certain these are reasonable demands.

Thirdly, they get together with Paradox to create a grand strategy version where you can play as anyone ranging from someone controlling a single planet as a vassal of one of the House Lords to one of the five House Lords themselves, having to deal with not just the other Successor States, but the internal politics of your own Successor State. Make the earliest possible start date the Amaris Usurpation, and have bookmarks for things like the start of each of the Succession Wars, the Clan Invasion, Operation Bulldog and the FedCom Civil War, and you'd be onto a winner there.