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

M

More_Badass

Member
From the USGamer article
On the Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter, when we hit the $1 million total, fans asked 'What's the next stretch goal?' We came back and said 'There is no more.'
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You have to respect devs who have that restraint. All too often, you see devs pile on goals, bloating the scope. Being able to keep the scale manageable and not adding new goals for the sake of adding new goals, and staying true to the scope of your original vision, is good to see
 
M

Memory

Member
Bladelaw said:
In for $25

I understand why they picked this time frame but I'd love a Clan Wars expansion at some point. Also add me to the list of people really hoping they hit $1.85 million.
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I'm hoping they will follow the Shadowrun formula and release a couple of follow ups with the same engine if the 1st is a success.
 
G

Granjinha

Member
More_Badass said:
From the USGamer article

You have to respect devs who have that restraint. All too often, you see devs pile on goals, bloating the scope. Being able to keep the scale manageable and not adding new goals for the sake of adding new goals, and staying true to the scope of your original vision, is good to see
Click to expand...

Yeah, after Shadowrun Returns nearly bankrupted the company they learned how to manage the scope of their games and have been doing pretty good.

Playtonic did this with Yooka Laylee too. They had some stretch goals planned before the game went live and didn't add anything that would make the game go beyond the initial idea.
 
L

Lime

Member
"The gyro and actuators you put in should have an impact on your performance," he explained. "I want to get into things like turning radiuses; the sharper your turning radius, the more the mech has a chance of falling over. Having your gyro have an impact on not just your turning radius, but also your chances of falling over when you take hits, which depends on your gyro-to-mass ratio. With a turn-based game, we can really express more axes of performance than we could in MechWarrior as a real-time sim. We can get to that kind of depth without it being cumbersome."
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Hmm, this quote from the US Gamer article seems interesting. I have no idea how this will play out during gameplay in regards to turning. Hits make sense as that was implemented in the Mechcommander in 1998, but turning I have no idea.
 
D

Dennis

Banned
More_Badass said:
From the USGamer article

You have to respect devs who have that restraint. All too often, you see devs pile on goals, bloating the scope. Being able to keep the scale manageable and not adding new goals for the sake of adding new goals, and staying true to the scope of your original vision, is good to see
Click to expand...

Just hit that $1.85 million and we are good.
 
T

The Yo Tornado

Member
More_Badass said:
From the USGamer article

You have to respect devs who have that restraint. All too often, you see devs pile on goals, bloating the scope. Being able to keep the scale manageable and not adding new goals for the sake of adding new goals, and staying true to the scope of your original vision, is good to see
Click to expand...

Worked out well for them too. I think with Dragonfall they found their working formula and knew the constraints they could work under to produce a quality title, at least when it comes to Shadowrun. Both Dragonfall and Hong Kong are notably better than Returns was, so I guess sometimes less is more.
 
L

Lime

Member
More_Badass said:
From the USGamer article

You have to respect devs who have that restraint. All too often, you see devs pile on goals, bloating the scope. Being able to keep the scale manageable and not adding new goals for the sake of adding new goals, and staying true to the scope of your original vision, is good to see
Click to expand...

Yeah I totally agree with you. What Jordan says before that also piques my interest:

. "When I laid out 'Here's all the things I want to do with BattleTech,' Mitch and Mike were like, 'Okay, well that's game three in the series. This is in game two. Let's just deal with this stuff in game one.' My hope is the game is embraced and that allows us to continue down the line to explore all the things I really want to do."
Click to expand...

i wonder what other features he was thinking of. I can't wait for game 2 or 3 :D
 
W

Weebos

Banned
Harebrained Schemes is one of my favorite devs. I've never played one of these games, but I love mechs, turn-based tactical games, and these guys. I'm in.
 
L

Lime

Member
Bebpo said:
How likely is it that they'll hit the 1.85 million? Not too familiar with trajectories on these things.
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These things usually slow down a lot after the first couple of days. Then there's a slow period for a long time and many people get scared and worried, and then the thing picks up again.

What needs to happen with this Kickstarter based on the initial info is having a lot more tiers in order to get maximum funding. Like what Sinatar and Fairfax posted earlier.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Weebos said:
I've never played one of these games,
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Everything you need to know in one picture:

CAT35306_Wars_of_Reaving_Wallpaper_1680x1050.jpg
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Lime said:
Hmm, this quote from the US Gamer article seems interesting. I have no idea how this will play out during gameplay in regards to turning. Hits make sense as that was implemented in the Mechcommander in 1998, but turning I have no idea.
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They said they'd like to do free grid-less movement so I could see how turning could work in that aspect. More so than on a hex-based or tile-based map
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Snaku said:
On my phone so I can't easily copy paste especially since the titles are on the covers and not in the description.

https://mobile.audible.com/search.htm?type=search&cache=1&keywords=battletech
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Unfortunate these seem to be abridged but perhaps that is common for audio-novels? I don't know, i just read books.
Anyway, recommendations:

Wolves on the Border is generally held to be the best individual BT novel.
I liked it OK. Recommending it because others recommend it.

And the Collection 1: Blood of Kerensky tells the story of the Clan Invasion, one of the biggest moments in Battletech history.
Honestly think it is kind of meh as books go. But given the limited options and the importance of it, i recommend it.

EDIT And if you do read, err, listen them, do listen them in order: Wolves on the Border first, then Lethal Heritage (part 1 of Blood of Kerensky trilogy).
 
S

Snaku

Banned
Woorloog said:
Unfortunate these seem to be abridged but perhaps that is common for audio-novels? I don't know, i just read books.
Anyway, recommendations:

Wolves on the Border is generally held to be the best individual BT novel.
I liked it OK. Recommending it because others recommend it.

And the Collection 1: Blood of Kerensky tells the story of the Clan Invasion, one of the biggest moments in Battletech history.
Honestly think it is kind of meh as books go. But given the limited options and the importance of it, i recommend it.
Click to expand...

Abridged books used to be more common when audiobooks were released on cassette, which I'm assuming is when a lot of these were published. Thanks for the recommendations.
 
A

ArjanN

Member
mcz117chief said:
Well that would be great. MW:O is a fine game but I am looking for another Battletech universe game with a good story and music ala MW4 or MC2
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I understand. I'm pretty much only there for the single-player story.

Really, it's over 500K in 4 hours. It'll probably hit 1M in the first day or two, let alone over the entire campaign.
 
S

Sumio Mondo

Member
ColonelSkills said:
It...says turn based right there in the title.
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I can see that, just if it was grid-based, free movement etc, just trying to get more details than just "um, it's turn based" which tells me nothing. I just saw More_Badass's most recent post saying it's free movement just now after posting my previous question. Like I said I've never played these games before and don't know how they played. Thanks for the detailed post though, now I know what they play like...
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Snaku said:
Got it.
Click to expand...

Technically Heir to the Dragon is between Wolves on the Border and Lethal Heritage, and is kind of important, as it is the only book that covers the War of 3039 and sets up some things for Lethal Heritage. But i found it so boring i just skipped parts of it, until i decided to skip rest of the book. That said, i knew everything that would happen in the book before-hand.
For a BT-newbie, perhaps it works.
So you may want to add it to the list.
 
L

Lime

Member
mcz117chief said:
Well that would be great. MW:O is a fine game but I am looking for another Battletech universe game with a good story and music ala MW4 or MC2
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I imagine that there's a high probability of PGI using all their code and assets from MW:O to do a Kickstarter for a singleplayer campaign once MW:O is no longer sustainable.

I would prefer they got some more/better talent if they did decide to go that route, as I don't think that they are capable as a developer to do well-crafted video games (look at their UI work as a good indicator for how mismanaged things are).
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Sumio Mondo said:
I can see that, just if it was grid-based, free movement etc, just trying to get more details than just "um, it's turn based" which tells me nothing. I just saw More_Badass's most recent post saying it's free movement just now after posting my previous question. Like I said I've never played these games before and don't know how they played. Thanks for the detailed post though, now I know what they play like...
Click to expand...
To be clear, they're prototyping different systems, but would prefer free movement if they can make it work
 
C

ColonelSkills

Member
Sumio Mondo said:
I can see that, just if it was grid-based, free movement etc, just trying to get more details than just "um, it's turn based" which tells me nothing. I just saw More_Badass's most recent post saying it's free movement just now after posting my previous question. Like I said I've never played these games before and don't know how they played. Thanks for the detailed post though, now I know what they play like...
Click to expand...

Well, I don't mean to be snarky, but turn-based answers the real-time with pause question. Which is what you asked.

Free movement as in gridless doesn't imply any sort of turns or real time functionality by itself, in any case, but it appears to be what they're aiming for. (Livestream mentioned the potential for hexes depending on how prototyping goes, though.)

Edit: Think any sort of tactical unit based wargame and you'll have the basic idea. Turns, not real time, unit per unit granularity, maps, terrain considerations, that sort of thing.
 
L

Lime

Member
MichaelFassbender said:
Guys.

What if...and this is just a hypothetical....what if they somehow convinced Jeehun Hwang to do some tracks for the OST?
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I hoped for it before the launch, but I think their comments on it from yesterday's stream is that they will do work with Jon Everist, because they're used to his work.

I would splooge if Hwang got on board though. I wonder how he is after 20 years since he did the MW2 soundtracks. :lol
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
ArjanN said:
I understand. I'm pretty much only there for the single-player story.

Really, it's over 500K in 4 hours. It'll probably hit 1M in the first day or two, let alone over the entire campaign.
Click to expand...

Well, but the MechWarrior community is very small and dedicated. I am sure that the majority of people who are interested in this game have already backed, that is why I am a bit afraid if we even reach that one million. Your average Joe will probably not spend his money on a MechWarrior KS. I would love to be wrong but I am afraid that even reaching that one million could be a struggle.
 
M

Mr. Nice_Guy

Member
You had me at mechs. Will end up backing before it's all said and done. Probably $35 just because I doubt the betas will be available on Mac.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
mcz117chief said:
Well, but the MechWarrior community is very small and dedicated. I am sure that the majority of people who are interested in this game have already backed, that is why I am a bit afraid if we even reach that one million. Your average Joe will probably not spend his money on a MechWarrior KS. I would love to be wrong but I am afraid that even reaching that one million could be a struggle.
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Harebrained is what would likely attract those outside the community. That's the strength of having delivered recent critically-acclaimed Kickstarted games. The name is known among a larger audience than just the fanbase

I never would have backed this if it wasn't Harebrained. No nostalgia for the franchise, never even heard of Battletech before the KS was announced. And I never back campaigns that only have concept art

But I'll make an exception for Harebrained. I know they'll deliver
 
L

Lime

Member
mcz117chief said:
Well, but the MechWarrior community is very small and dedicated. I am sure that the majority of people who are interested in this game have already backed, that is why I am a bit afraid if we even reach that one million. Your average Joe will probably not spend his money on a MechWarrior KS. I would love to be wrong but I am afraid that even reaching that one million could be a struggle.
Click to expand...

Mechwarrior Online supposedly did $5M in crowdsourcing, but that's a different audience and our thirst back then was very, very real (10 years without a Mechwarrior game made its mark).

Meanwhile, HBS managed to secure $1,8M for Shadowrun Returns, and now they even have a great pedigree. I'm not worried about reaching the funding levels, and MP isn't particularly important to me.
 
G

Granjinha

Member
mcz117chief said:
Well, but the MechWarrior community is very small and dedicated. I am sure that the majority of people who are interested in this game have already backed, that is why I am a bit afraid if we even reach that one million. Your average Joe will probably not spend his money on a MechWarrior KS. I would love to be wrong but I am afraid that even reaching that one million could be a struggle.
Click to expand...

Don't know about 1.85 million, but this will get to 1 million pretty easily. No struggle, really.
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
Oh man look at that beautiful swag that you can get for $125. So insanely temping to have a Kurita cap, banner, pin, patch... oh my Lord! I had better save up :)
 
A

akira28

Member
I might just run the Steiner banner again.

Here's the thing though. I need them. I NEEEED THEM to get the lighting and the shading as close to that concept art as possible. I want a foggy grey battlefield with mist to look just like that.
 
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