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Battletech |KS| Turn-based tactical mech combat, Harebrained Schemes, Summer 2017

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In honor of your Decisive Victory, we now reveal the GBC’s FIRST WEEKLY BONUS CHALLENGE. And who better to announce it, than Jordan Weisman, creator of BattleTech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXb8OPf0hJs&feature=youtu.be

In this video, Jordan shares one of his favorite BattleTech Memories. Now we want to hear yours! Using the hashtags #BTmemory and #BATTLETECH, tweet us your memories of playing tabletop with your pals, attending conventions, hanging out in the BattleTech Centers, reading books - whatever makes your fusion engine hum. Tag your BattleTech lovin’ friends - we want to hear their memories too! #BTmemory #BATTLETECH

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i'm rather biased to shadowrun and cyberpunk but i really think that even all of that bias aside, HBS is one of the most impressive and promising new development studios around. from a pure development and even a management and public relations pov... SR Returns and then Dragonfall were top notch. setting or theme bias or nostalgia aside, I think I'd be excited for their next major project based purely on their merits as a studio.
 

Lime

Member
This didnt happen with Hong Kong though. But its likely they rushed it to meet their deadline. Battletech seems like it will be getting a fairer shake in terms of dev time.

That's true. Hong Kong was from a technical standpoint pretty underwhelming. Perhaps I shouldn't have played it at release, but the bugs, the UI backsteps, the incredibly long loading times, and the lack of polish made it seem rushed and unimproved. They should have postponed the release, imo, but maybe the mini-campaign will fix most of issues.

Maybe starting over with the same basic framework (Unity) and making a new toolset will make things easier? I thought Hong Kong wouldn't be deterred by Returns' tablet design, but it still seemed to have a lot of interface drawbacks and performance issues.

Hope it's not front loaded like Bard's Tales

But Battletech has been so mismanaged for such a long time, the hunger is ferocious

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Damn, I did back it but never followed it afterwards. What was the reason for this lack of support? Bard's Tale is supposedly that niche?

I don't think Battletech/Mechwarrior/Mechcommander is that niche however. The X-com aspect should be sufficient for the uninvited and it's not like single player mech games are a dime a dozen these days.
 
Well, we already know that we're not getting command of any of that. Just 1 lance of mechs.

Still gonna be fun stomping on some crunchies again.

Not to command, but at least they'll be on the battlefield.

$250,000 - Combined Arms: We'll add a healthy roster of non-'Mech AI opponents to the Base Skirmish Game including tanks, hovercraft, support vehicles and more. But be careful - even the lightest of combat vehicles can still wreck your 'Mechs under the right conditions.
 
Well, we already know that we're not getting command of any of that. Just 1 lance of mechs.

Still gonna be fun stomping on some crunchies again.

Yet.

Where was the quote that they have a plan that was divided for 3 games.. of which this kickstarter is the first.

So one can at least dream of mission editors and all things battletech! :)
 

Steel

Banned
Well... yeah, that's what I said.

But that's always been the case, so I'm a little confused about the "mech-brawler" thing.

Yeah, even mechassault had tanks and vtols. Hell, mechassault 2 even allowed you to pilot tanks and Vtols. I can't think of a mech game that didn't have tanks and other vehicles under the enemy's control.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
By the way, are there any notable examples of Unity 5 from a graphical/visual standpoint?

Satellite Reign uses Unity 5, though it was originally built with Unity 4 and they switched over like 3/4 of the way into development. It's a nice looking game, though it's got the requisite ridiculous load times that are part and parcel with Unity.
 
Well... yeah, that's what I said.

But that's always been the case, so I'm a little confused about the "mech-brawler" thing.

The major titles have been what i would call "mech-brawlers", with the few exception of having other things in the battlefield as well.

But MegaMek is what I'm looking, but with better production value... like with actual budjet :)

It basically is battletech, with practically all the units, including aerotech and space battles, and the new catalyst stuff. Mission editor.. Campaign tools for upkeeping your stuff and the galaxy map with detailed info on planets and route plotting... it also has multiplayer and you are able to use it to play online games with being able to control armies conquering planets and systems etc.. you know the whole deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E7uri-yg1A

http://megamek.info/


But all it would need is better interface and some random generators for campaign and stuff...

Everything else is pretty much "mech-brawlers" imo.
Which are great as well, but why not have it all :)
 

Lime

Member
Thanks for the examples.

I looked at some recent videos of Unity 5, such as the Lighting demo and the Pamela gameplay demo. The lighting seems kind of flat and unimpressive compared to the fidelity of UE4. Don't get me wrong, Unity is a great engine with some great tools and a lot of support and ready-to-use assets and code. I'm just wondering if a case like UE4 automatically gives developers better visual representation by virtue of its different features. It would be too bad if this game ended up looking subpar and outdated due to the limitations of the engine.

Contrast the above examples with the visual prototype video of Bard's Tale that's made in UE4.

But then again, Unity makes things easier for HBS and when things are easier in game development, a better game will be more likely. The Pamela video I mentioned looked pretty decent, so I guess there's that. Maybe by the time the game releases there'll be a host of updates to Unity 5 in its lighting department, who knows.
 

Lime

Member
Mitch is currently doing a Q&A on the comments section of the Kickstarter. Here's what he had to say about the old games:

Hey William Karnesky! >>>rerelease of older battletech/mechwarrior going on GOG or steam?
Oh man, I wish. We don’t have the rights (or the code) for those.

It would be cool if someone tried to do something about it though. Like that company did with System Shock 2.
 

Granjinha

Member
By the way, are there any notable examples of Unity 5 from a graphical/visual standpoint?

Ghost of a Tale looks pretty amazing.


I'm not really worried about the visuals. Unity 5 was a nice step up and with the right teams some amazing looking things can happen with the engine. It just kinda sucks for performance.
 

Lime

Member
Hey Fairfax (and Sinatar for referencing it), you guys are famous at the HBS offices. Someone posted the analysis of different tiers:

>>will there be new tiers?
Mitch: Thanks for posting that article. Someone passed it around the office when it came out. The trick is the balancing act - yes, you can make more money but at what cost? I can stop some members of the BattleTech pre-production team and brainstorm more reward levels and how we’d fulfil them but that would take away from their prototyping time. I’d step away from the comments page, too.
Then, if we decided to do more stuff, I’d have to eventually pull some of them away from making the game to make the stuff.

That’s not to say, “forget it”. We’re totally listening, want to run a great Kickstarter, and want to do a great job for our Backers and the game. But it’s a balance and I want you to know the truth.
 
Dang, I blink and they've added a couple more Mission Rewards. Eridani Light Horse and Kurita Sword of Light, mitches! (that's "Mechwarrior Bitches". I just made it up.)

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Memory

Member
Is there any other Mechwarrior turn-based game I can see a video just to have an idea of how it will play?

Tactics but that will be nothing like this game. At this stage none of us know what to expect but the pedigree is there to make a great tactical combat game.
 

4Tran

Member
Is there any other Mechwarrior turn-based game I can see a video just to have an idea of how it will play?
There isn't any other game; which is why there's so much anticipation like this. The only thing that old tabletop players have had for years was MegaMek, but that probably doesn't even count as a game.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Satellite Reign uses Unity 5, though it was originally built with Unity 4 and they switched over like 3/4 of the way into development. It's a nice looking game, though it's got the requisite ridiculous load times that are part and parcel with Unity.

Whoa, I need to check this game out.

fake edit: whoa, it's reviewed extremely well on Steam, too
 

~Kinggi~

Banned
This is doing way better than i imagined. Closet battletech fans coming out of the woodwork. Not a peep on GAF for years, years i tell you!
 

Steel

Banned
Seems like things have slowed down. Next major push will probably be the last few days. Though, if we keep getting about 100k a day it'll be fine.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
I would gladly pay for a remake of MechWarriors 2:Mercenaries. How come no one makes these kind of games anymore. I tried the Armored Core series and didn't like it at all. Heavy Gear 1 and 2 were pretty fun as well.
 
Mitch is currently doing a Q&A on the comments section of the Kickstarter. Here's what he had to say about the old games:



It would be cool if someone tried to do something about it though. Like that company did with System Shock 2.

Who does? I want to pester them to death.
 

mrpeabody

Member
Do these backstories affect gameplay at all? If it's just choosing a paragraph during character creation, that's a pretty weak stretch goal.

Only way this could be better is if you could play as a noble house and acquire territory yourself

Hopefully in Battletech 2 or 3.
 
It would also be interesting to see how Battletech compares to the other Harebrained Schemes Kickstarters.
Blows them out of the water

Returns made $1.8m and reached $1m about halfway through the campaign

Golem Arcana only made $500k

Hong Kong made $1.2m and reached $1m during the last few days of the Kickstarter

Battletech will likely pass $1.2m by tomorrow and reached $1m in a little over 24 hours
 

deleted

Member
Blows them out of the water

Returns made $1.8m and reached $1m about halfway through the campaign

Golem Arcana only made $500k

Hong Kong made $1.2m and reached $1m during the last few days of the Kickstarter

Battletech will likely pass $1.2m by tomorrow and reached $1m in a little over 24 hours

Great :) I like those guys and I think they are one of the few that really get Kickstarter.

Hopefully the writing has the Shadowrun RPG feel in this game. I'd love to have branching dialog, even if it wouldn't make too much sense to be able to skip most battles through talking here :p
 
Great :) I like those guys and I think they are one of the few that really get Kickstarter.

Hopefully the writing has the Shadowrun RPG feel in this game. I'd love to have branching dialog, even if it wouldn't make too much sense to be able to skip most battles through talking here :p
I don't know if I'd expect that level of RPG-ness
"If you look at Shadowrun, Shadowrun's an RPG with a really strong tactical game underneath it. This is flipped, BattleTech is going to be a tactical game with a lot of really great storytelling underneath it
The devs said on Twitch that the choices will be made more through the gameplay rather than mainly in dialogue. Like working for one house rather than the other, or taking on a contract against a rival house, or accepting some secret objectives during a mission. I think that aspect will be more important when the expanded campaign goal is reached
 
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