BattleTech (MechWarrior) RTS Concept?

[Eclectic Dreck]

I wouldn't call MechCommander a STRATEGY game, it was more Tactics. You controlled at most 3 lances of mechs at a time, and it had little in the way of resource management. I was thinking on a larger scale.

MechCommander was a kickass game, by the way.

I have to disgree. Mechcommander involved both tactical decison making (i.e mech X should go to position Y and fire at target Z) and strategic decision making (i.e. where to use that fancy salvanged clan ER PPC, what mechs do you want to risk on a battle etc.). The first game was brutally hard, the second was laughably easy. Both were incredibly fun.

 

[yonsito]

I'd rather see a turn based game, preferably on hexes and in 3D.
Mech Commander is fun but quite different from the board game.

btw, this site claims that MS released the Mech Commander series for free:
http://mechcommander.org/
I have no idea whether this is actually true but you can download both games from that site.

 

[Calax]

I wouldn't call MechCommander a STRATEGY game, it was more Tactics. You controlled at most 3 lances of mechs at a time, and it had little in the way of resource management. I was thinking on a larger scale.

MechCommander was a kickass game, by the way.

I have to disgree. Mechcommander involved both tactical decison making (i.e mech X should go to position Y and fire at target Z) and strategic decision making (i.e. where to use that fancy salvanged clan ER PPC, what mechs do you want to risk on a battle etc.). The first game was brutally hard, the second was laughably easy. Both were incredibly fun.

The level of strategy in MechCommander was akin to saying in COD4 "Do I want to hide behind this wall or that one? and which gun is better?" Everyone I know who played MechCommander would simply reload if they got an unlucky hit and lost Hunter or that other super good pilot that they tossed in a MadCat, rather than deal with dead pilots and unsalvagable MadCats.

I would love to play as the Clans in either the Refusal War, or one of the Trials of Annihilation or Absorption (Annihilation was on the Wolverines because they used a Nuke to kill off an entire stockpile of geneseed, Absorption was on only 3 or so other clans). Actually the Clans have built us a way to explain how we could see the "tactical view" already with the Holotanks (a box that projects holograms into a 3d space that people can manipulate.) Of course just being me I'd like to see something done to the scale of supreme commander (I guess for "production facilities" you'd have to have dropships parked there and rather than construct, you just use resources to make certain mechs combat ready).

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The level of strategy in MechCommander was akin to saying in COD4 "Do I want to hide behind this wall or that one? and which gun is better?" Everyone I know who played MechCommander would simply reload if they got an unlucky hit and lost Hunter or that other super good pilot that they tossed in a MadCat, rather than deal with dead pilots and unsalvagable MadCats.

Just because you have the option to reload doesn't diminish the fact that the game involved both tactical and strategic decision making skills. If I'm not mistaken, I have the option of saving and reloading in most any strategy game. In Rome: Total War, I've been known to have to reload a save from hours before because of unintended consequences of my actions previously (i.e. I did something stupid and ended up in a bad spot as a result). Does the fact that I'm given the opportunity to do it better next time make it any less of a strategy game? Not really.

That said, there is at least some merit to be had with an argument that the single player games are less strategic than many. Afterall, in either game the basic strategy of the enemy remains unchanged in each level. Positions of enemy mech's more or less remain the same and each level almost certainly has a "correct way" to be played. Multiplayer the strategy is certainly there AND it's variable.

I would love to play as the Clans in either the Refusal War, or one of the Trials of Annihilation or Absorption (Annihilation was on the Wolverines because they used a Nuke to kill off an entire stockpile of geneseed, Absorption was on only 3 or so other clans). Actually the Clans have built us a way to explain how we could see the "tactical view" already with the Holotanks (a box that projects holograms into a 3d space that people can manipulate.) Of course just being me I'd like to see something done to the scale of supreme commander (I guess for "production facilities" you'd have to have dropships parked there and rather than construct, you just use resources to make certain mechs combat ready).

I never did care for strategic commander, and the reason basically boils down to the fact that the focus is almost entirely based around strategy. The scope of the game is often far too great to focus on the minutae of battle and I spent a great deal of time placing buildings and then watching the map from a few hundred miles up, shifting huge blobs of my troops to counter huge blobs of the enemies. Even my super weapons were fairly weak and I never felt I gained anything by assigning specific targets.

 

[bkd69]

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.

The tabletop rights are firmly in the hand of Wizkids, and the digital rights ar firmly in the hand of a studio that Jordan Weisman formed for developing digital games.

The month after MS closed up FASA Interactive, Jordan announced that his studio licensed the rights from MS. I rather suspect that the initial acquisition agreement had a relicensing option in there. Jordan strikes me as pretty sharp that way.

The limiting factor on whether we see new digital titles are the details of the license, as they're closed, and we have no idea whether there's any sort of time limitations or suchlike, and Jordan's ability to deliver a new product. To date there's been precious few updates.

Edit:
For those who want hexes:
http://megamek.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main

 

[Elim Garak]

Sounds to me you were just expecting an AoE type. And were rudely surprised.

Nah - I hate AoE. I may have sucked at it, but the difficulty curve on the game was too steep. Although I am also a perfectionist, and that game may have offended my sensibilities.

 

[geldonyetich]

ShadowBane video game was an insult... it was like a MOD for Counter Strike.

You mean Shadowrun, and yeah, it was a gross misuse of the license to take a unique RPG setting and turn it into Counterstrike. We yelled at the developers from beginning to end on that one, but they stayed the course.

There actually were some people working on a Shadowrun MMORPG, but I expect they were stonewalled since they were going about it without permission to use the license. Their website is still up and getting updates [http://awakenedmmo.org/]. The rationale behind the project [http://awakenedmmo.org/wiki/Members_Charter] bugs me -- they have a dogged determination to brute-forced together a game, wholeheartedly expecting those who hold the IP to look the other way. I admire their drive, but it seems to be a drive straight off a cliff.

 

[yonsito]

The tabletop rights are firmly in the hand of Wizkids, and the digital rights ar firmly in the hand of a studio that Jordan Weisman formed for developing digital games.

Edit:
For those who want hexes:
http://megamek.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main

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.

 

[mattttherman3]

I just realized, you could take ANY Gundam series and do this, always plenty of grunt units and leader units, WHY HASN'T THIS BEEN DONE YET?!

 

[todd10k]

I like what your thinking. It would be fun to turn the Battletech universe into something like Hearts of Iron only using the inner sphere instead of WW2. You pick a side and attempt to reestablish the star league thru diplomacy espionage and combat mostly combat. It'll never happen because games like that just aren't popular to do anymore.

Honestly I would prefer a Dawn of War game more than HOI game (both would be fun however)

I would also LOVE to see another Mechwarrior game for the PC.

Same here. Mechwarrior 3 was the first game i ever played online, competitivly. I loved it. I was an angel( if you get the reference ). MSN Zone sucked though, i hated it. I would love to play that game again.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Sounds to me you were just expecting an AoE type. And were rudely surprised.

Nah - I hate AoE. I may have sucked at it, but the difficulty curve on the game was too steep. Although I am also a perfectionist, and that game may have offended my sensibilities.

>_> that was just an example.

And yes, Megamek is an exacte digital replication of the tabletop game, it's awesome.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

...My copy of Mechcommander was washed away in the hurricane a few years back...Never could find another copy. I thought it was a pretty good game. I never knew they made a sequel though.

Myself, I'd be happy with ANYTHING new to come out of the BattleTech/MechWarrior franchise. ANYTHING! A good chunk of my childhood was spent playing MechWarrior games, and it saddens me that we don't have any new ones. Does anyone even have the rights to BattleTech anymore? What is the latest in the way of news regarding potential revivals of BattleTech/MechWarrior in the video game scene?

Same here, I remember when I would play Mechwarrior 4 with my Dad and his co-workers. It was always a battle between their Daishi's and my Mad Cat Mk II (My personal favorite). However it has to be Mechs only, none of that Mechassault crap.

 

[Calax]

It was interesting back in the days of Mech2 and Netmech (yes, it was the FIRST internet Mechwarrior, with a modem to modem connection rather than running through something like battlenet) I remember facing off with a friend (who was in an elemental) with a tarantula (the only mech in the entire series to have more than two legs) and I got eaten for breakfast because he shot off all my jumpjet ports (removing the legs too). so I was left unable to move as he zipped away and blew up what I was trying to defend.

Ah netmech, you were such a disaster. you had an extra mech that you wouldn't let us play (the battlemaster)

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

Sweet tight-fisted monkey style! I had no idea they made Mechcommander II! I loved Mech Commander / MC Gold. No, it wasn't the RTS I was hoping for, more a real-time tactical, but I immensely enjoyed that game.

You can probably find it for less than $10 on Amazon these days. I actually had to buy myself a replacement a while back.

Anyway yeah I don't know when we're going to see any new Battletech/Mechwarrior stuff due to the property being divided up by not only Wizkids and Microsoft, but another company run by the guys who did Mech Assault and Crimson Skies.

correct me if I am wrong, but that sounds like FASA studios, who have been involved in every mechwarrior since 2.

 

[Raven28256]

...My copy of Mechcommander was washed away in the hurricane a few years back...Never could find another copy. I thought it was a pretty good game. I never knew they made a sequel though.

Myself, I'd be happy with ANYTHING new to come out of the BattleTech/MechWarrior franchise. ANYTHING! A good chunk of my childhood was spent playing MechWarrior games, and it saddens me that we don't have any new ones. Does anyone even have the rights to BattleTech anymore? What is the latest in the way of news regarding potential revivals of BattleTech/MechWarrior in the video game scene?

Same here, I remember when I would play Mechwarrior 4 with my Dad and his co-workers. It was always a battle between their Daishi's and my Mad Cat Mk II (My personal favorite). However it has to be Mechs only, none of that Mechassault crap.

Ha, those were both two of my favorites. Though, I'd say my favorite heavy mech of all time was the Cauldron-Born. The Thor was pretty freaking cool too.

Man, I miss those games...I'd love to re-visit MechWarrior 3, but it plays like shit on XP. I'd play for about 15-20 minutes and it crashes. I can't find MechWarrior 4...After the hurricane we had to move a lot of our stuff out, then move it back in once the house was fixed. Somewhere between those hectic nine months, MechWarrior 4 disappeared. But it doesn't matter much anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't MechWarrior 4 also not play too well on XP? I can't remember, but I thought it had compatibility issues too.

Speaking of awesome old mech franchises, what the fuck ever happened to Earthsiege/Starsiege? Tribes survived for a while, but we haven't seen any mech-based installments since Starsiege in 1999. I spent a lot of my childhood playing those too. Oh! And Heavy Gear!

Meh...I miss the days of good old Western Mech sims. Now we are lucky to get the occasional cheap, piss-poor Gundam game. Don't get me wrong, I like the anime (It being one of the ONLY animes I like) but most of the games are pretty mediocre. At least, the ones that get released outside of Japan.

 

[Calax]

Sweet tight-fisted monkey style! I had no idea they made Mechcommander II! I loved Mech Commander / MC Gold. No, it wasn't the RTS I was hoping for, more a real-time tactical, but I immensely enjoyed that game.

You can probably find it for less than $10 on Amazon these days. I actually had to buy myself a replacement a while back.

Anyway yeah I don't know when we're going to see any new Battletech/Mechwarrior stuff due to the property being divided up by not only Wizkids and Microsoft, but another company run by the guys who did Mech Assault and Crimson Skies.

correct me if I am wrong, but that sounds like FASA studios, who have been involved in every mechwarrior since 2.

I think FASA are the guys who OWN the property as a whole, and everyone else purchased rights to Battletech from them.

 

[Ultrajoe]

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*

 

[AceDiamond]

Sweet tight-fisted monkey style! I had no idea they made Mechcommander II! I loved Mech Commander / MC Gold. No, it wasn't the RTS I was hoping for, more a real-time tactical, but I immensely enjoyed that game.

You can probably find it for less than $10 on Amazon these days. I actually had to buy myself a replacement a while back.

Anyway yeah I don't know when we're going to see any new Battletech/Mechwarrior stuff due to the property being divided up by not only Wizkids and Microsoft, but another company run by the guys who did Mech Assault and Crimson Skies.

correct me if I am wrong, but that sounds like FASA studios, who have been involved in every mechwarrior since 2.

I think FASA are the guys who OWN the property as a whole, and everyone else purchased rights to Battletech from them.

FASA was bought out by WizKids a long while ago, they just still keep the name around.