BattleTech (MechWarrior) RTS Concept?

[dr_scitt]

To me the discussion is fairly pointless. Any fool making another walking God-Machine game is going to have to do 40K Titans.

This puppy is just a warlord, the bigger, meaner imperator class engines can put the fear of the Ommnisiah into continents

*Ultradrools*

Actually, thats a Reaver titan. Warlords are even bigger (scale is Warhound>Reaver>Warlord>Emperor).

 

[Rolling Thunder]

You can actually get Mechcommander I and II perfectly legally on www.mechcommander.org

All you need is Daemon Tools to mount them and an UnRAR to unRAR them.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

To me the discussion is fairly pointless. Any fool making another walking God-Machine game is going to have to do 40K Titans.

This puppy is just a warlord, the bigger, meaner imperator class engines can put the fear of the Ommnisiah into continents

*Ultradrools*

Wow! where can I get one of those! Go crashing through the streets in style!

 

[lightingbird]

Yea I loved this game. Id enjoy a new RTS on this game.

 

[bkd69]

And what Wizkid calls Mechwarrior appears to be some sort of card game with miniatures (haven't tried it). I have no idea who is responsible for "classicbattletech" nowadays. The rights are with Wizkids but I'm not sure they care much. I don't want to be pessimistic but I think the chances for new Mechwarrior games are slim.
Maybe a Heavy Gear game? I remember that I liked that game better at the time.

I've tried MegaMek before and found it a little dry.

You know what's funny? Typing "classicbattletech" into your address bar or a google would have taken you to Catalyst Game Labs:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/

But wait, it gets better...this is from their faq:

Who owns Classic BattleTech?

WizKids LLC (www.wizkidsgames.com), the makers of Mage Knight, own the BattleTech intellectual properties. They have licensed Classic BattleTech to Catalyst Game Labs (http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/).

What else does Catalyst Game Labs publish?

In the U.S., Catalyst Game Labs publishes Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun (www.shadowrun4.com).

What happened to FASA?

After 25 years of semi-successful operation in a struggling game industry, the owners of FASA decided to quit while they were ahead, close up shop and move on to other things. Most of FASA's staff was let go in January 2001, and they have either moved on to WizKids, FanPro, freelancing or jobs outside the game industry. Most of the intellectual properties for FASA's game lines were sold to WizKids LLC.

What happened to the other games FASA published?

Microsoft owns the Crimson Skies properties. There is nothing currently in the works for either VOR: The Maelstrom or Crucible. FASA still owns the Earthdawn RPG, though it has been licensed out to Living Room Games (www.lrgames.com), who have published a second edition and several other books.

As far as MW games on the PC goes, that all depends on the terms of the license, and Jordan's ability manage a studio through to product delivery. The market is certainly there.

 

[Valiance]

Yeah, I've thought of this. I'd like to play one, but I doubt that they actually will ever make one.

Sounds great though. You know me, I love clan warfare.

We ply blue skies with flashing eyes--
Look up all foes and watch us soar!

 

[Free2game]

It was called MechCommander [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/mech-commander]. It even had a sequel [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/mechcommander-2].

What the OP is suggesting is a little different. Mechcommander was Inner Sphere versus the Clans, while what he's suggesting is something more akin to Shattered Galaxy [http://www.sgalaxy.com/] except with an Inner Sphere conflict.

I'm not sure there's a snowball's chance anything like this will happen, though. The Battletech IP is in limbo - split between Microsoft, Wizkids, ect. I think what Microsoft has is the right to make any old FASA properties as a computer game, while Wizkids has board game rights. If so, Microsoft would have to decide they want to drag the Battletech property out for more games.

You could always come over to BYOND [http://www.byond.com/] and make your own. They haven't been sued for flagrant copyright infringement... yet.

Actually I believe a company of Ex FASA people have the rights to Mechwarrior and likely Mechcommander along with it. They actually ok'd that mod for Crysis Mechwarrior: Living Legends. In addition to all of this they secured the rights to Shadowrun and Crimson Skies.

 

[dustrider]

Actually the old FASA tabletop game IP has gone to catalyst:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/

Megamek is basically the tabletop game on pc, megamek.net is megamek with a persistant online world.

Mechcommander was nice, but very limited and tactical, and I reckon didn't quite satisfy the need for an rts, which if you think about the canon, there's loads of material for.

Personally my favourite mechwarrior game was mercenaries, because I prefer that kind of gradual growth over the typical rts, start your base from scratch every level stuff.

Lots of room for cool stuff here, and it seems no one really bothers that much over protecting the IP by the number of free/open btech games out there:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=2835.0

 

[Valiance]

Actually the old FASA tabletop game IP has gone to catalyst:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/

Megamek is basically the tabletop game on pc, megamek.net is megamek with a persistant online world.

Mechcommander was nice, but very limited and tactical, and I reckon didn't quite satisfy the need for an rts, which if you think about the canon, there's loads of material for.

Personally my favourite mechwarrior game was mercenaries, because I prefer that kind of gradual growth over the typical rts, start your base from scratch every level stuff.

Lots of room for cool stuff here, and it seems no one really bothers that much over protecting the IP by the number of free/open btech games out there:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=2835.0

I have DREAMED, I say, FANTASIZED, theorized, and wished for a remake of Mechwarrior 2, and following a few of those links and with a few google searches, I now have one called Assault Tech 1.

Thank you for bumping this month old thread with helpful information.

 

[nano_tech]

You just missed the call for beta testers for AT1:BT over at MekTek.

Smith & Tinker have licensed the electronic entertainment rights to the MechWarrior IP(and other old FASA/Jordan Weisman properties) from Microsoft. The MechWarrior community is expecting them to do something with the IP, eventually. Right now S&T is focused on a new game IP called Nanovor, another Jordan Weisman creation.

 

[JessicaPrice]

Actually I believe a company of Ex FASA people have the rights to Mechwarrior and likely Mechcommander along with it. They actually ok'd that mod for Crysis Mechwarrior: Living Legends. In addition to all of this they secured the rights to Shadowrun and Crimson Skies.

Hi everyone,

My name is Jessica Price, and I am an employee at Smith & Tinker, a company started by FASA founder Jordan Weisman. (As I'm well aware that there have been numerous incidents of people posting on various forums claiming to be employees of S&T, or to have inside information from S&T, I've given you my real name, and you can see my bio on the company site here: http://www.smithandtinker.com/about/team/ ).

There's a lot of discussion in this thread (and others on other forums) as to who created the Battletech/Mechwarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies universes, who currently owns the rights, and what is and isn't authorized by various rights holders, so let me try to clear it up.

The above-referenced IPs were first created by FASA Corporation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA_Corporation], a pen-and-paper roleplaying game company started by Jordan in 1980. Later, Jordan started FASA Studio/FASA Interactive, which was a videogame company. They made videogames based on a number of the IPs created at FASA Corp, and were acquired (along with the electronic games rights to those IPs) by Microsoft. Rights to RPGs, board games, novels, miniatures, etc. reside with other companies (such as Topps/Wizkids, Catalyst, etc.)

Yes, I am aware that it's crazy complicated.

A few years ago, Smith & Tinker licensed back these rights [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16535] from Microsoft. We have an exclusive license to make electronic games using these IPs.

We have not sublicensed, sanctioned or in any other way given permission, tacit or explicit, to Mechwarrior Living Legends, the Shadowrun Awakened MMO, ISWars, or any other project, commercial or non-commercial, to use our intellectual property.

Anyway, I hope that clears up some of the questions and rumors flying around. It's very cool that so many people care so passionately about these universes, and I just wanted to give you guys some accurate information about the rights.

Please feel free to copy and repost this elsewhere.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled foruming.