Harebrained Schemes to Kickstart BattleTech this Fall

[JamesBr]

You mean the first "released" and "official" turn-based BattleTech game. MechWarrior Tactics never came out (thank god. that project was shit) and MegaMek has been doing table-top-rules BattleTech for years.

Whatever happened with Mechwarrior Tactics anyway? I remember a decent bit of word of mouth, a bunch of people streamin it (and showin the tons of really bad connection problems with it), then it just sort of died.

They stole everyone's money and fucked off apparently. I didn't bother funding Mechwarrior Tactics, I already spent about $1000 in Mechwarrior Online and that game is far more fun.

Pretty much sums it up. That whole company was a clusterfuck of mismanagement and potential corruption. Fun times. I don't miss it. MWO had its own problems. Gold Mech skins for 500$? Laughed myself sick when I saw that.

 

[Corralis]

You mean the first "released" and "official" turn-based BattleTech game. MechWarrior Tactics never came out (thank god. that project was shit) and MegaMek has been doing table-top-rules BattleTech for years.

Whatever happened with Mechwarrior Tactics anyway? I remember a decent bit of word of mouth, a bunch of people streamin it (and showin the tons of really bad connection problems with it), then it just sort of died.

They stole everyone's money and fucked off apparently. I didn't bother funding Mechwarrior Tactics, I already spent about $1000 in Mechwarrior Online and that game is far more fun.

Pretty much sums it up. That whole company was a clusterfuck of mismanagement and potential corruption. Fun times. I don't miss it. MWO had its own problems. Gold Mech skins for 500$? Laughed myself sick when I saw that.

Yea I didn't need the gold skins but I have no issue with them being in the game. A few of my guild mates have them and at the end of the day it only makes my gaming experience better as they're funding the development more. I actually wish that MWO would have been released as it is right now, it really is a much better game now.

 

[Vigormortis]

"Harebrained Schemes has revealed they will seek funding for a new BattleTech game."

Gasp! Oooh! You mean we may finally get a proper, story-driven single-player Mechwarrior ga...

"The studio has confirmed that the game will feature turn-based combat."

Oh...

Well, shit. Guess I'll just have to keep hopelessly waiting for a new Mechwarrior game.

Way to get my hopes up, Harebrained Schemes.

 

[Baresark]

I love the Battletech IP. It's awesome. I used to enjoy just reading the manuals for it. I'm looking forward to this.

 

[Karadalis]

Pretty much sums it up. That whole company was a clusterfuck of mismanagement and potential corruption. Fun times. I don't miss it. MWO had its own problems. Gold Mech skins for 500$? Laughed myself sick when I saw that.

You mean the YELLOW skins? They werent even metallic gold... they where simply bright yellow... hilarious. You pay 500 dollars for a gold mech and get a taxi...

As for this project.. YES! A game that actually uses turn based combat AND has an open ended mercenary campaign? Awesome! If they allow us to use stuff like tanks and elementals too and let us manage our own merc unit im totaly sold....

 

[pookie101]

has a lot of potential and these guys i trust with their track record of delivering on their promises

 

[dangoball]

HB has a good track record and has gathered some customer good-will, here's hoping they don't mess up. I don't really have the funds to support a kickstarter for a game in a setting I know nothing off, but it does sound interesting. I'll keep my eye on this.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I haven't had a legitimately good turn-based mech game since the Front Mission series (ended).
SR: Dragonfall was quite good (good blend of gameplay and writing; though still a bit too "railroady"), so hopefully this will scratch that particular turn-based mech itch.

"Harebrained Schemes has revealed they will seek funding for a new BattleTech game."

Gasp! Oooh! You mean we may finally get a proper, story-driven single-player Mechwarrior ga...

"The studio has confirmed that the game will feature turn-based combat."

Oh...

Well, shit. Guess I'll just have to keep hopelessly waiting for a new Mechwarrior game.

Way to get my hopes up, Harebrained Schemes.

I know I'm being a pedant arse here, but...BattleTech and MechWarrior have always been clearly distinguished in their genre and purpose, despite coming from the same universe source material.

Mechwarrior was always the action game and BattleTech was always turn-based (being a tabletop; natch).

 

[Vigormortis]

I know I'm being a pedant arse here, but...BattleTech and MechWarrior have always been clearly distinguished in their genre and purpose, despite coming from the same universe source material.

Mechwarrior was always the action game and BattleTech was always turn-based (being a tabletop; natch).

Yes, I know. And yes, you are. But I've always been an avid fan of the Battletech lore, especially the Mechwarrior games, and seeing someone returning to the series to produce a single-player experience had my hopes up.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

 

[Karadalis]

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

Or how about no custimisation at all? Would make omni mechs the actual technological marvel that they where... that is if the game is even set in the age where the clans where allready a thing.

Allways irked me that in most battletech based games customization was such a huge thing when in the lore it was very very rare. Only the most famous people got their rides customized and even amongst those they tended to stick to the standard loadouts. Wich makes sense when you think about it.. the maintanence costs for customized mechs must be horrible and keeping everything stocked a nightmare for quartermasters.

What i would like to know is if they will actually dare to put some of the reseen mechs in that originaly came from macross, like the marauder and the wasp. I still dont understand how a complete redesign can be still off limits when it looks nothing like the original (marauder for example)

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

Or how about no custimisation at all? Would make omni mechs the actual technological marvel that they where... that is if the game is even set in the age where the clans where allready a thing.

Allways irked me that in most battletech based games customization was such a huge thing when in the lore it was very very rare. Only the most famous people got their rides customized and even amongst those they tended to stick to the standard loadouts. Wich makes sense when you think about it.. the maintanence costs for customized mechs must be horrible and keeping everything stocked a nightmare for quartermasters.

What i would like to know is if they will actually dare to put some of the reseen mechs in that originaly came from macross, like the marauder and the wasp. I still dont understand how a complete redesign can be still off limits when it looks nothing like the original (marauder for example)

It's a gameplay thing. People just love customizing their character. On the other hand, non customizable mechs might be a good idea. I mean budget is always an issue on KS games and customization is rather expensive. Also I assume we are going to have a good sized team of people so no customization could cut down on a lot of that complexity. (Don't take a character creation system meant for one and then apply it to a team. You will end up with way too many choices.)

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

What is the difference between Battletech and Mechwarrior? I thought they were the same setting and everything?

 

[Atmos Duality]

I know I'm being a pedant arse here, but...BattleTech and MechWarrior have always been clearly distinguished in their genre and purpose, despite coming from the same universe source material.

Mechwarrior was always the action game and BattleTech was always turn-based (being a tabletop; natch).

Yes, I know. And yes, you are. But I've always been an avid fan of the Battletech lore, especially the Mechwarrior games, and seeing someone returning to the series to produce a single-player experience had my hopes up.

You're not alone there; I'm just happy to see a BattleTech game that isn't an MMO.

 

[Fox12]

Am I the only one who thought this was going to say Battletoads?

...

I am disapointed.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

What is the difference between Battletech and Mechwarrior? I thought they were the same setting and everything?

Battletech is to Mechwarrior what X-COM: UFO Defense is to The Bureau: X-COM Declassified.

I'm hoping this game will the the X-COM: Enemy Unknown version of Battletech.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Battletech instead of Mechwarrior? Never thought I'd see the day.

Now tell my that customizing a 'mech will be as expensive, time-intensive, and chancey as it should be and I'll be working a second job for all the money I'll throw at this.

Stock mechs for life.

What is the difference between Battletech and Mechwarrior? I thought they were the same setting and everything?

Battletech is to Mechwarrior what X-COM: UFO Defense is to The Bureau: X-COM Declassified.

I'm hoping this game will the the X-COM: Enemy Unknown version of Battletech.

I am kind of hopping for a more classical form. To do mechs right, I think you need to have more complexity with elements like facing and limb damage. (But then you also have to go farther to make sure this complexity means something. In classical XCOM it was some times complexity for complexity's sake.)

 

[Slycne]

Allways irked me that in most battletech based games customization was such a huge thing when in the lore it was very very rare. Only the most famous people got their rides customized and even amongst those they tended to stick to the standard loadouts. Wich makes sense when you think about it.. the maintanence costs for customized mechs must be horrible and keeping everything stocked a nightmare for quartermasters.

Well the rank and file were not getting customization, unless you count jury-rigged field repairs, but I think the general idea of most games is you're playing better, more highly ranked, pilots than that. Hell, some of the mercenary outfits were even capable of producing newly designed mechs.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Allways irked me that in most battletech based games customization was such a huge thing when in the lore it was very very rare. Only the most famous people got their rides customized and even amongst those they tended to stick to the standard loadouts. Wich makes sense when you think about it.. the maintanence costs for customized mechs must be horrible and keeping everything stocked a nightmare for quartermasters.

Well the rank and file were not getting customization, unless you count jury-rigged field repairs, but I think the general idea of most games is you're playing better, more highly ranked, pilots than that. Hell, some of the mercenary outfits were even capable of producing newly designed mechs.

Depends on the era too. Jury-rigging, retrofitting and "kitbashing" mechs was practiced more in the Inner Sphere prior to the Clan Invasion due to the value of Lostech. On that note: Clans don't kitbash much because their first line mechs all use omnitech.

Clans have plain battlemechs, but they're almost exclusively used as reserves and back line duty.

 

[Karadalis]

Allways irked me that in most battletech based games customization was such a huge thing when in the lore it was very very rare. Only the most famous people got their rides customized and even amongst those they tended to stick to the standard loadouts. Wich makes sense when you think about it.. the maintanence costs for customized mechs must be horrible and keeping everything stocked a nightmare for quartermasters.

Well the rank and file were not getting customization, unless you count jury-rigged field repairs, but I think the general idea of most games is you're playing better, more highly ranked, pilots than that. Hell, some of the mercenary outfits were even capable of producing newly designed mechs.

Only the merc unit Wolfs dragoons was able to do that and they had clantech that at the time no one else had access to. And only in limited quantities.

None of the other big names where capable of producing their own mechs, nor did they customize them.

Northwind Highlanders, Kellhounds, Gray death legion... they where the biggest and baddest around and they did not used anything customized. Heck most of them even owning their own planets. (never got behind the whole owning a planet thing.. you have the complete resources of an entire world at your disposal.. and yet you still feel the need to take on mercenary work?)

Even house leaders who had their own rides rarely had them customized. Prince Victor Davion THE goodguy of the Battletech universe "only" piloted a stock Victor early on and later a clanner Daishie, bot of them not customized.

Yet in every mechwarrior game you can make extensive loadout customisations even going so far to completly exchange the reactor of a mech, while at the same time playing as either a common soldier or the leader of a tiny mercenary force in most cases. (MW4 vengeance stands out since you play as a noble attempting to take his planet back from steiner occupation)

Where you would find tons of customized rides thought would be the planet solaris, where mech jockeys would fight in gladiator matches. But then again a solaris mech jockey would never have to worry about field repairs and keeping the right parts stocked.

Add to that that the rules for customisation up to mw3 where actually the "build your own mech" rules, customisation to that extend is actually impossible in the battletech universe. You have to worry about alot more then total weight and number of heatsinks... balance, internal placement of ammo canisters and internal ammo feed routes. Heck with the old rules it was possible to put the ammo for shoulder mounted missle launchers into the feet of your mech... something thats even possible in mechwarrior online today.

Someone please explain to me how the missles stored in the legs can make their way up through all those moving parts into the shoulders of a catapult mech save and sound? XD

 

[Buckets]

I loved the Mech Commander series but was not so happy with the Mech Warrior, something about the first person really turns me off that sort of game. RTS however, if its anything like that then I'll buy it.