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Harebrained (Shadowrun, DragonFall) bringing back BattleTech to PCs

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Those "bonus variant Mechs" smells a lot to PGI. I hope it won't go as far as on MWO... :p

The Shadowrun kickstarter had a few digital freebies for backers (the Doc Wagon stuff, a unique NPC in the base), that didn't hurt a thing.

There is nothing to suggest this is a F2P shitshow.
 

Lime

Member
It would also be cool if one of the stretch goals included getting Mechcommander Gold and Mechcommander 2 on GOG/Steam - they are free anyway, but the extra publicity and recognition will prove beneficial to the brand awareness of the universe.

I recently got back in to tabletop after a decade haitus and let me tell you, it's not a cheap hobby.

There's a rabbit hole about a mile deep you can fall into. If you value your wallet, steer clear.

Heh, I'm curious, did you ever get that Raven, ColonelSkills?
 

Havoc2049

Member
Yes!!!! I've been hoping HBS would do this! I hope they have a physical tier in the Kickstarter. I still have my physical copies of Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (ST) and The Crescent Hawk's Revenge (PC). Loved those RPGs!

chi8.jpg


The Battletech universe will make such an awesome modern RPG!
 
I know ppl like hbs, but do you think they have the chops to do a hardcore tactical game?

I'm willing to roll the dice on them.

Btw, what team is makin this? They are just wrapping up another shadowrun game and have an arpg in the works. Aren't they stretched a bit thin for what is sounding like an ambitious title?

To be honest, they're better suited to a hardcore tactical game.

Their weakness is a relatively small pool of less-experienced artists and programmers, and not a ton of licensing money to throw at middleware. Those weaknesses matter a lot less in a turn-based tactical game, which is honestly quite a bit easier to program than most modern games and can get away with much fewer (and less intensive) art assets. These type of games are mostly a trial for the actual game designers, first and foremost.

That said, many of the design challenges here have been half-solved. The "paper prototype"/boardgame mock-up of the game they want to make already exists.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
I just hope they realize how astronomically high the bar still resides, due to The Crescent Hawk's Inception. It's up there and never came down.
 

deim0s

Member
I cant wait what they're going to to do and their stretch goals in KS. Thanks Lime.

Yes!!!! I've been hoping HBS would do this! I hope they have a physical tier in the Kickstarter. I still have my physical copies of Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception (ST) and The Crescent Hawk's Revenge (PC). Loved those RPGs!

chi8.jpg


The Battletech universe will make such an awesome modern RPG!

C'mon, LAMs won't be showing up, you know it. :p
 
Pretty big interview with MMORPG.com:

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.c...New-Kickstarter-from-Harebrained-Schemes.html

MMORPG: What lessons did you learn from the Shadowrun and Golem Arcana kickstarters that you will apply towards the development of BATTLETECH?

HBS: The “6 P Principal” - Proper Prep Prevents Piss Poor Performance. The key is not biting off more than you can chew or overcommitting your studio. Kickstarters can be extremely exciting and it’s easy to get swept up in the joy of co-funding a game with a passionate audience. This can lead to scope creep as well as rewards and stretch goals that prove challenging to deliver.
Our relationship to our Backers is a critical component of the process and we believe that being up-front with them about what we can and cannot do is vital to a maintaining a healthy relationship. Kickstarter is more than just funding for us. It’s a way to stay close to the people who play our games throughout development, not just after we ship.

MMORPG: The Shadowrun: Hong Kong Kickstarter was to help add features to the final product. Is that going to be the case for this Kickstarter or is development entirely dependent upon its success?

HBS: Like Shadowrun: Hong Kong, we’re going to co-fund development of BattleTech with our Backers. Unlike Shadowrun: Hong Kong, BattleTech will be starting from a completely new code-base, so it requires a much larger initial budget. We're asking Backers to help co-fund the initial creation of the title with us, much like a traditional publisher might. We will also be presenting a variety of stretch goals which Backers can help fund to expand the game.
 

4Tran

Member
(We also love the idea that the older the tech, the more advanced it is. After centuries of war, a lot has been lost.)
The thing that we love most about BattleTech is that the ‘Mechs are essentially the armored warhorses of feudal warriors vying for an interstellar throne. Although most people come to BattleTech for the ‘Mechs, they stay for the story. The Machiavellian conflicts of the BattleTech Universe have kept players engaged for over 30 years now.
These quotes say a lot about what they're planning to do with the tone of the game. It looks like they're sticking pretty firmly to the very beginnings of Battletech, so a lot of the later material we associate with it won't be there. And they seem to be going for more of a story-oriented game than any other Battletech/Mechwarrior title since the Crescent Hawk's Revenge.

I do wonder how they're going to characterize the different nations. This was one of the weakest points of the original game as they tended to be tin-eared stereotypes.

Like Shadowrun: Hong Kong, we’re going to co-fund development of BattleTech with our Backers. Unlike Shadowrun: Hong Kong, BattleTech will be starting from a completely new code-base, so it requires a much larger initial budget.
Interesting. They're not using the Shadowrun-style combat, so I wonder how close they're going to stick to the board game.
 
I do wonder how they're going to characterize the different nations. This was one of the weakest points of the original game as they tended to be tin-eared stereotypes.

Feds, Lyrans, and Free Worlders usually come across okay in most media, but yeah, hopefully they aren't too awful about the Combine or Capellan folks. Though after Dragonfall's (extremely good) treatment of Germany, I think they can be trusted to avoid the worst stereotypes. Hong Kong will be the pudding with the real proof.

Interesting. They're not using the Shadowrun-style combat, so I wonder how close they're going to stick to the board game.

I am honestly expecting this to be a near-full adaptation of Mechwarrior-the-tabletop-RPG, using the Battletech rules for mechlance-on-mechlance combat. I think the most they'll do is tweak numbers to make sure everything is worth using, and who knows if out-of-mech combat will even be a thing. By and large I am expecting it to be extraordinarily faithful to tabletop. They know people have been waiting ages for a real BT tabletop adaptation and this is in some ways replacing Mechwarrior Tactics, so...
 
This is gonna be a long wait I tell you..

Reading around the internet I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one who wants to squish infantry with his mech..

I have nothing against lance vs lance, but there is so much more that can be achieved with the total warfare aspect of the game. More versatile mission, more dynamic campaing... Feeling like the king of the battlefield... The suddenly the opposing mechs drop in and you have fight at your hands..
 
These quotes say a lot about what they're planning to do with the tone of the game. It looks like they're sticking pretty firmly to the very beginnings of Battletech, so a lot of the later material we associate with it won't be there. And they seem to be going for more of a story-oriented game than any other Battletech/Mechwarrior title since the Crescent Hawk's Revenge.

I'll miss the Clan tech, but not so much the Clan storyline. Even if I fully acknowledge that the Clan tech was some (very) poorly disguised power creep, there were still a lot of bits and bobs I absolutely loved.
 

4Tran

Member
Feds, Lyrans, and Free Worlders usually come across okay in most media, but yeah, hopefully they aren't too awful about the Combine or Capellan folks. Though after Dragonfall's (extremely good) treatment of Germany, I think they can be trusted to avoid the worst stereotypes. Hong Kong will be the pudding with the real proof.
It's not the '80s any more, so they should be a lot better at this kind of thing now. Fasa did a 180 with the Capellan Confederation to the point where it was capable albeit still really goofy.

I'll miss the Clan tech, but not so much the Clan storyline. Even if I fully acknowledge that the Clan tech was some (very) poorly disguised power creep, there were still a lot of bits and bobs I absolutely loved.
It would've been pretty cool if they had a game with Clantech and Jihad-era craziness.
 

4Tran

Member
Are we expecting news for this from gamescom?
They said that they made a really premature announcement because they wanted to do the reveal at GenCon. I doubt that there will be more than a small trickle of news until the Kickstarter begins. Heck, Harebrained was at GenCon so they might not be making Gamescom at all.
 

Lime

Member
Sarna.net did a write-up of Gen Con

If Harebrained’s treatment of Shadowrun is any indication as to their dedication to an IP, I would say that every BattleTech fan on Earth should be on the edge of their seat in anticipation of this game. I know I’m even more pumped because of the enthusiasm on the faces of the HBS people at GenCon.

Here's a picture of all the different dog tags - it might indicate which factions we can expect in the game/Kickstarter

2015-08-03-17.01.23-Copy-e1438925960308-625x833.jpg


Mike and Mitch were interviewed by Sarna - it should go up this week, but still no news about it from Sarna.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Dat sarna report!
Battletechies are a special breed.. I'm glad and some what horrified about belonging to this group :D

Battletechies are like gamers from the 90s. I mean that's exactly what they are, but whereas gaming has seen an influx of new blood and gained status from it, Battletech has not.

Sarna.net did a write-up of Gen Con



Here's a picture of all the different dog tags - it might indicate which factions we can expect in the game/Kickstarter

2015-08-03-17.01.23-Copy-e1438925960308-625x833.jpg


Mike and Mitch were interviewed by Sarna - it should go up this week, but still no news about it from Sarna.


Far out. Those ironwind sculpts are fucking shit. Terrible stuff. The only one that looks halfway reasonable is the Warhammer, and that's because it's not Ironwind. Come on... in this day and age of 3D modelling,. having such poor proportions and aesthetics is just inexcusable... but for the blinkered Btech fanboy that has no awareness of the progress in the art of miniatures in the last decade, I suppose they'd be passable.

Only way I'd dip my toes back into the table top game is if they redid all their miniatures in the style of the Warhammer based off Alex Iglesias' designs in MWO.
 

Lime

Member
Battletechies are like gamers from the 90s. I mean that's exactly what they are, but whereas gaming has seen an influx of new blood and gained status from it, Battletech has not.

I wonder if Battletech will just pass away or die whenever "our" generation goes down and under. I don't see much new blood on the horizon, although stuff like this game might pull in new blood.

Far out. Those ironwind sculpts are fucking shit. Terrible stuff. The only one that looks halfway reasonable is the Warhammer, and that's because it's not Ironwind. Come on... in this day and age of 3D modelling,. having such poor proportions and aesthetics is just inexcusable... but for the blinkered Btech fanboy that has no awareness of the progress in the art of miniatures in the last decade, I suppose they'd be passable.

A painted prototype by Camospecs at GenCon:

2015-08-01-10.57.12-625x469.jpg


Only way I'd dip my toes back into the table top game is if they redid all their miniatures in the style of the Warhammer based off Alex Iglesias' designs in MWO.

Since HBS is using his designs, perhaps there will be more in across the board in the future.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
I wonder if Battletech will just pass away or die whenever "our" generation goes down and under. I don't see much new blood on the horizon, although stuff like this game might pull in new blood.



A painted prototype by Camospecs at GenCon:

2015-08-01-10.57.12-625x469.jpg




Since HBS is using his designs, perhaps there will be more in across the board in the future.

Yeah, even with that piss poor paint job, it's a good looking miniature. The proportions are good, the details are good, and the pose is subtly dynamic.

Traditional Btech miniatures are just ungainly and awkward. Some are charmingly so, but most are just really dumb looking. I mean, look at the urbanmech in those Ironwind shots... whatever proportional stylization that made the urbanmech 'cute' is just completely trashed in the miniature rendering - and ends up looking like it was designed by a rank amateur that completely fails to understand proportion, design, aesthetics or the original appeal of the mech that its attempting to render in 3D.


Just look at how terribad that all is! The urbanmech I'm complaining about looks like someone stacked 3 cans on top of each other and called it a day. Not even good looking cans.
 

Lime

Member
Audio interview with Mike McCain. He mentions some of the same info we have gotten earlier, about playing mercenaries, upgrading mechwarriors, having a lance, 3025, etc.

New info:
  • They are looking into multiplayer as a Kickstarter goal. PvP arena on Solaris VII.
  • Not using the same engine as Shadowrun Hong Kong. Something completely new with Unity 5 - a "fully 3D title" ( I would have preferred UE4 from a fidelity standpoint, but Unity 5 is serviceable).
  • Where Shadowrun is an RPG with turn-based combat, Battletech is turn-based combat with RPG elements, so they're reversing the priorities.
  • With Battletech it is much more the story of the world and the great houses and a more macro-level narrative than Shadowrun's personal stories and exposition-heavy narrative.
  • Story will be leading up to the 4th Succession War
  • They are currently early in prototyping and gearing up for the Kickstarter
  • Right now they are only focusing on PC and most likely Mac and Linux
  • Target audience: Same thing like Shadowrun, they want to please the passionate fans and at the same time freshen the look of things in the world and getting back to the roots of Battletech with the feudal conflicts.
  • Mike McCain is a big fan of the Battletech franchise and one of his first PC games was MechWarrior 2. Along with Jordan Weisman (Battletech), and Mitch Gitelman (Mechcommander), the team is inspired for this title.
 
Fully 3D title, interesting.
It'll be somewhat similar to Original Sin or X-COM, then?
I'm leaning towards X-COM due to the "turn-based combat with RPG elements".
 

Lime

Member
Fully 3D title, interesting.
It'll be somewhat similar to Original Sin or X-COM, then?
I'm leaning towards X-COM due to the "turn-based combat with RPG elements".

I imagine it'll be a 3D title where it is possible to manipulate the camera angle in some way or another.

In regards to mechanics, I think it is safe to say that it will have:
  • Mech pilots who gain XP and have different skillsets (sensors/weapons/jump jets) similar to what Mechcommander did in 1998
  • Mech loadouts and customization
  • Subsystem/hardpoint targetting during combat (legs/torso/arms/cockpit)
So yeah, in principle what Mechcommander did with its "RPG elements". That's my guess, but who knows.
 

Lime

Member
I did some digging and if you look into the 3025 Record Sheets, these are the mechs we might expect to be in the game. All of the below have Alex Iglesias designs for MW:O:

  1. Locust: LCT-1E, -1M, -1S, -1V, -3V
  2. Commando: COM-2D, -3A
  3. Spider: SDR-5D, -5K, -5V
  4. UrbanMech: UM-R60, -R60L
  5. Firestarter: FS9-H, -M ("Mirage")
  6. Jenner: JR7-D, -F
  7. Panther: PNT-9R
  8. Cicada: CDA-2A, -2B, -3C
  9. Blackjack: BJ-1, -1DB, -1DC
  10. Vindicator: VND-1AA ("Avenging Angel"), -1R
  11. Centurion: CN9-A, -AH, -AL, -YLW
  12. Hunchback: HBK-4G, -4H, -4J, -4N, -4P, -4SP
  13. Griffin: GRF-1N, -1S
  14. Kintaro: KTO-18
  15. Shadow Hawk: SHD-2D, -2H, -2K
  16. Wolverine: WVR-6K, -6M, -6R
  17. Dragon: DRG-1C, -1G ("Grand Dragon"), -1N
  18. Quickdraw: QKD-4G, -4H, -5A
  19. Catapult: CPLT-A1, -C1, -C4, -K2
  20. Jagermech: JM6-A, -S
  21. Thunderbolt: TDR-5S, -5SE, -5SS
  22. Black Knight: BL-7-KNT
  23. Orion: ON1-K, -V, -VA
  24. Awesome: AWS-8Q, -8R, -8T, -8V
  25. Victor: VTR-9A, -9A1, -9B, -9S
  26. Zeus: ZEU-6S, -6T
  27. Battlemaster: BLR-1D, -1G, -1S
  28. Stalker: STK-3F, -3H, -4N
  29. Cyclops: CP-10-Q, -10-Z
  30. Highlander: HGN-733
  31. Banshee: BNC-3E, -3M, -3Q, -3S
  32. Atlas: AS7-D
  33. King Crab: KGC-0000

The Warhammer and Marauder might return by popular demand, since they're back again.
 

Lime

Member
Didn't want to make a new thread, but Sarna.net posted an interview with Mitch and Mike - let me know if it's worthy of a new thread:

On HBS' desire to work on Battletech:

Nic: How long have you guys been scheming to get BattleTech onto the books?

Mitch: 4 years.

Nic: Since the beginning?

Mitch: Yeah, since we formed HBS we’ve talked about BattleTech forever. It’s just a matter of licensing, which is its own issue.

Description of the planned gameplay:

Mike: Both! We’re making a turn-based, tactical squad combat game. You’re going to command a lance of 4 ‘Mechs on the battlefield. It’s going to be a single-player mercenary-style campaign. MechWarrior 2 is a good reference for that. You’re going to choose which missions you want to take. You’re going to hire new MechWarriors, upgrade your ‘Mechs, get salvage. All that good stuff, from mission to mission.

Mitch: And develop your MechWarriors too.

Mike: Yes! MechWarriors will grow. We’re careful not to guarantee specific features here, but we’re looking at MechWarriors with different quirks, personalities, strengths and weaknesses that might manifest over time.

Singleplayer + Multiplayer as a stretch goal

Mike: The initial game we’re taking to Kickstarter is a single-player, open-ended campaign. We are hoping we’ll do well in Kickstarter, so we are talking about multi-player as a stretch-goal. We’ll have more details about that as we get closer to Kickstarter, in the next couple of months.

Some tidbits about plot possibilities

Nic: So you mentioned briefly the 3025 setting. Are you going to be sticking with already well-developed plotlines, or are you going to be developing your own within the existing canon?

Mike: There’s going to be a mix. We’re not ready to talk about any specifics, and to be frank, we’re still working on the pre-production of a lot of that stuff. I will say that the backdrop of whatever happens in our game will be the canon you’re familiar — for example the Davion Steiner wedding is being planned.

[...]

Mike: You’ll be commanding a small mercenary outfit in the game. That’s one of the things we think is cool about the 3025 era. You’ve got “peace time”, but it’s not really peace time. As a mercenary, you a deniable asset for a variety of the great houses, so there will be all sorts of interesting, cool story lines. We’re talking about developing the periphery in some ways too.

Nic: So you mentioned briefly the 3025 setting. Are you going to be sticking with already well-developed plotlines, or are you going to be developing your own within the existing canon?

Mike: There’s going to be a mix. We’re not ready to talk about any specifics, and to be frank, we’re still working on the pre-production of a lot of that stuff. I will say that the backdrop of whatever happens in our game will be the canon you’re familiar — for example the Davion Steiner wedding is being planned.

Release date to be 2017, depending on how many features needed to be added.

Nic: Without giving us any commitments, Shadowrun took about a year from funding to release. Are you guys hoping for a 2016 or 2017 release?

Mike: 2017. We’d like to think we learn a little bit from project to project. Shadowrun Returns was a blast and we’re really proud of it. We also want to make sure we have enough time. We’ve done this with Shadowrun and Golem Arcana several times now. We have a pretty good idea, on BATTLETECH we want to start with a new fully 3D engine so we’re going to make sure we do it right. We’re looking at early 2017.

Possibility of destructible environment?

Nic: Is it going to be based on any of the Shadowrun engine at all, or are you starting from scratch?

Mike: No, for the most part it’s from scratch. ‘Mech combat is such a different beast. Shadowrun is hide behind cover, ‘Mechs is not so much.

Mitch: I think the experience is more destroy cover. That’s one of the things I loved about MechCommander. You could just blow stuff up.

More here: http://www.sarna.net/news/interview...es-about-the-upcoming-battletech-kickstarter/
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Cover destruction would be a big boon to Shadowrun as well. One of the most important offensive plays you can make in XCOM is cover destruction and you can definitely feel its absence in Shadowrun.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Cover destruction would be a big boon to Shadowrun as well. One of the most important offense plays you can make in XCOM is cover destruction and you can definitely feel its absence in Shadowrun.

Indeed, this would be huge if cover could be destroyed with grenades, rockets, some of the spells, etc...
 

4Tran

Member
Mike: Both! We’re making a turn-based, tactical squad combat game. You’re going to command a lance of 4 ‘Mechs on the battlefield. It’s going to be a single-player mercenary-style campaign. MechWarrior 2 is a good reference for that. You’re going to choose which missions you want to take. You’re going to hire new MechWarriors, upgrade your ‘Mechs, get salvage. All that good stuff, from mission to mission.
So they're going with small lance-level engagements. I wonder if this means that they're going to go with more detailed combat.

Mike: And I don’t think the Inner Sphere’s fiction has really been the focus of a PC MechWarrior in a long time. MechWarrior was all about the Clan invasion. So having the opportunity to really tell those classic Inner Sphere Machiavellian stories is really exciting. Especially coming off of our storytelling experience with Shadowrun.
Yeah! Clan era stories are all sort of samey and they've been done to death. In comparison, we never really got to explore the Third Succession War era.

Mike: That was definitely something on the art direction side of things I want to make sure we’re able to make ‘Mechs look really big, and have that kind of weight and power about them. Expect lots of things to step on and explode.
Double Yeah!

Cover destruction would be a big boon to Shadowrun as well. One of the most important offensive plays you can make in XCOM is cover destruction and you can definitely feel its absence in Shadowrun.
That sort of goes with the setting though. You're not going to have mass destruction without military-grade weaponry, and that stuff doesn't fit the scope of Shadowrun games.
 
There is nothing about that interview I don't like. Every time that they drop more info I get just a little more excited. The wait is going to be tough.
 

Lime

Member
There is nothing about that interview I don't like. Every time that they drop more info I get just a little more excited. The wait is going to be tough.

2017. That's a long wait. Better to just put in the back of our heads.

Or just play Mechcommander to shorten the wait. :)
 

4Tran

Member
There is nothing about that interview I don't like. Every time that they drop more info I get just a little more excited. The wait is going to be tough.
It's obvious that they've given the project a lot of thought. What's impressive is that they seem to have managed to weed out all of the bad ideas and we're just left with the good stuff.
 
It's obvious that they've given the project a lot of thought. What's impressive is that they seem to have managed to weed out all of the bad ideas and we're just left with the good stuff.

More than almost any developer who's gone the Kickstarter route, I think they've learned the lessons of crowd funding and have mastered what works and what doesn't.
 

ArjanN

Member
That sort of goes with the setting though. You're not going to have mass destruction without military-grade weaponry, and that stuff doesn't fit the scope of Shadowrun games.

There are already ways to knock people out of cover anyway in Shadowrun.
 
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