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[Lime]

I can't recall about MekTek but in Living Legend's case, it was highly suspicious. It sure seemed like PGI's pressure, even if it wasn't.
Though wasn't Infinite Games handling stuff then? I recall something about them being the real problem.

Straight from the horse's mouth:

Greeting Living Legends!

In light of recent confusion and rumors, the co-owner of Wandering Samurai Studios and I are here to clear some things up.

First and foremost there has not, nor has there ever been, any legal action or threat of legal action leveraged against the MechWarrior: Living Legends development team. This was an assumption of a small amount of volunteers based on incomplete information.

To clarify, the decision to discontinue development of MechWarrior: Living Legends was made by the founders and owners of the project. On behalf of all the people involved in MechWarrior: Living Legends we must sincerely apologize to all parties affected by this miscommunication.

In closing, development on this project has officially come to an end. We thank you for your support and express our hope for the continued success of the MechWarrior franchise.

http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/2013-01/message-from-the-founders-3/

 

[LelouchZero]

This looks amazing!

 

[Woorloog]

Straight from the horse's mouth:



http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/2013-01/message-from-the-founders-3/

Would they really say if it was legal pressure? The timing was odd enough i just can't help it but wonder.

Sure, mod projects often end before they're finished but they also rarely have what amounts to a direct competitor who actually holds a license...

 

[LightningXCE]

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL was all I needed.

I KNOWWW HNFDGHDHFG

SO STOKED FOR THIS

 

[Arulan]

What?!

I find it a little hard to believe we're not only getting a Battletech strategy game, but a Mechwarrior game as well.

 

[curiouscharles]

dear Piranha, 2016 thanks you, for brightening its legacy just a little bit.

[HOLY FUCK MECHWARRIOR IS BACK CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIT BOYS AND GIRLS?!?!?!?!?!]

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

The more like Steel Battalion the better.

 

[Banderdash]

If the game is set in 3015... why is there a Raven in the trailer?

 

[Lime]

If the game is set in 3015... why is there a Raven in the trailer?

Probably spans several years if not decades à la MW2:Mercs

 

[Woorloog]

Probably spans several years if not decades à la MW2:Mercs

Or PGI simply fucked things up. Not impossible... I mean, they're playing somewhat loose with MWO 'Mechs (though admittedly that is a special case with kind of indeterminate time point).

Or the Raven's a placeholder for whatever reason.

 

[Spectone]

My hype for this is not nominal.

 

[Teknopathetic]

Didn't see it here, so here's a post from the HTC Vive thread

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=226009839&postcount=7636

In short, VR is go.

 

[HariKari]

Was hyped until I saw Piranha Games was making it... good art but don't expect much else.

 

[Shadynasty]

Played Mechwarrior on my first PC. I am beyond hyped for this.

 

[Orayn]

Was hyped until I saw Piranha Games was making it... good art but don't expect much else.

I dunno, I'm plenty excited. A lot of the complaints about MWO have stemmed from balance, monetization, and all the other things that come with being a free to play competitive game. It's not like they fundamentally misunderstand MechWarrior gameplay, they just need to implement it in a very specific way that leads to lots of compromises. That will no longer be the case with a brand new SP game.

 

[Teknopathetic]

"I dunno, I'm plenty excited. A lot of the complaints about MWO have stemmed from balance, monetization, and all the other things that come with being a free to play competitive game. It's not like they fundamentally misunderstand MechWarrior gameplay, they just need to implement it in a very specific way that leads to lots of compromises. That will no longer be the case with a brand new SP game."


Agreed.

 

[Woorloog]

I dunno, I'm plenty excited. A lot of the complaints about MWO have stemmed from balance, monetization, and all the other things that come with being a free to play competitive game. It's not like they fundamentally misunderstand MechWarrior gameplay, they just need to implement it in a very specific way that leads to lots of compromises. That will no longer be the case with a brand new SP game.

Watch them simplify the game because "more accessible".
Watch them ignore several interesting systems (such as gyro damage or melee) because "complex engineering" or something like that (read, "we haven't hired anyone who can actually implement these").
And finally, watch them lack comprehensive vision, with aspects that do not fit the whole well.
(I don't actually accuse MWO of the first one, because it isn't actually simplified exactly. But i sure accuse them of the other two.)

 

[Syf]

Didn't see it here, so here's a post from the HTC Vive thread

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=226009839&postcount=7636

In short, VR is go.

If the game is good this will probably be the thing that makes me hop on the VR bandwagon.

 

[Steel]

Didn't see it here, so here's a post from the HTC Vive thread

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=226009839&postcount=7636

In short, VR is go.

Mmmmmmm. This is the perfect game for VR. And you'll even get a simulation of how hot and muggy a mech cockpit is with the VR headset.

 

[Robottiimu2000]

Piranha 🤔. Cautiously optimistic

Pretty much this.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

Whoa, the future is bright for VR if this game is any good.

 

[Lime]

Didn't see it here, so here's a post from the HTC Vive thread

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=226009839&postcount=7636

In short, VR is go.

:O

 

[Akhe]

Hold me!! Omg yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!

 

[Lime]

Not sure if the same people care about this, but resin models of the new mech designs will be for sale after Topps approved the sale of merchandise:

 

[Sakwoff]

Fucking hell.

I've somehow missed this.

Holy shit.

Well, that's a reason to plop in some Mechwarrior 2 again.

 

[Lime]

For people who can't wait to play some Mechwarrior/-Commander, check out the Battletech game, which has a beta in January/February and a full release Summer 2017. Turnbased tactics à la X-Com, singleplayer campaign coupled with procedural missions, full mech customization, and so forth.

That game is set in 3025 and if the game is sufficiently successful, there is a high likelihood that they'll go ahead with a Clan campaign, judging from the comments by the leads

 

[DouglasteR]

Reactor online, sensores online, weapons online, HYPE IS ONLINE !

 

[Lime]

PC Gamer Interview with some hints & tidbits:

Expectations:

Bullock is quick to stress that, outside from the live demo that prefaced the announcement, MechWarrior 5 is still very early in development and that many of its features are still being pieced together. "One thing we've learned over is just to be cautious with expectations with our playerbase," he says. "We want to make sure we're really certain about things before they go out."

Level of freedom

While the nitty-gritty details will have to wait until MechWarrior 5 is further along in development, what we do know is that Piranha Games is working to evoke the unfettered sense of scale and freedom of the first MechWarrior game released in 1989. Players will take charge of a struggling mercenary outfit in the Inner Sphere, the massive region of space surrounding Earth. While there will be a loose story and some pivotal story moments during the campaign, MechWarrior 5 is first and foremost a sandbox-esque game where players have the freedom to choose where to go, which houses to fight for, and how to equip their soldiers.

One premium game

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is completely standalone and won't have any microtransactions, Bullock tells me. Instead, the game will be a "you pay full price, you get the game, you're done" kind of deal. Developed in Unreal 4, MechWarrior 5 is being made by a separate team than the one working on MechWarrior Online at Piranha, which has been publicly available since late 2012. It will be self-published, and there is no plan to utilize a platform like Steam's Early Access to release the game in an unfinished state. "I can't really see anyway that will work for this game," Bullock says.

Timeline:

Set during the Third Succession War of 3015, MechWarrior 5 takes place much earlier in the timeline than what some fans may be used to. During the live demo, a character remarked that the Shadowhawk Bullock piloted was more than 500 years old, highlighting that, at this point in the timeline, mechs are relatively rare. But MechWarrior 5 won't stay stuck in 3015 either. The campaign will take place over the course of 34 years.

"We want to go from 3015 right up to the clan invasion of 3049," Bullock tells me. "What this allows us to do is to have players experience being a startup, floundering mercenary business. You can think of it like you're brand new and green and you have this half-working mech and just enough resources to take on your first mission. But by the endgame, the timeline has moved along up to near the clan invasion and you have maybe an entire company of elite mercenaries and BattleMechs and you're taking the hardest missions the houses can throw at you."

Amount of AI in a mission

Obviously the big difference is that players won't be battling against human opponents. Bollock wasn't able to confirm the exact scope of combat missions, but did say that he has "minimum desired goals" of 12 versus 12, company-on-company combat—the same size offered in MechWarrior Online. Until they start building the AI that'll pilot those mechs, there's no guarantee that MechWarrior 5 will hit that target, however. With the countless planets of the Inner Sphere to fight on, MechWarrior 5 will use "seeded" levels which will generate terrain dynamically based on a variety of factors. Mechs won't be the only thing melting under your alpha strikes, either. Combat missions will feature ground and flying vehicles and potentially infantry.

Football Manager as inspiration

What players will have access to is a large swathe of the Inner Sphere to travel through and fight for. While later singleplayer MechWarrior games seemed to narrow in focus, MechWarrior 5 looks to blow the series wide open by pairing its nuanced, strategic combat with an equally complex management simulator. "Our goal is to create a very in-depth manager experience," Bullock says. "It's sort of like taking—and this might be overdoing it—Football Manager wrapped over top of MechWarrior 1. [MechWarrior 5] is about managing a business, you're trying to keep it afloat and save money so that you can not only do your repairs but also get ahead of your repairs and go to the market and say, 'okay cool now I can afford to get a shiny new 50-tonne medium mech.'"

Back to Mechwarrior 1:

"The thing I really want to drive home here is that I don't run into too many people that played MechWarrior 1 in 1989, but everyone played MechWarrior 2 in 1995. But since Mechwarrior 2 onward, there was not nearly as much of the freedom and replayability that we want to go for. There should be very little in the form of like, 'I have three missions to choose from and that's it.' I think you should be able to choose which great house you play for whenever you want as long as you can afford, as a business, to move your unit around the Inner Sphere. I think 95 percent of MechWarrior players will never have had this much freedom when it comes to where and who they fight for."

Economy

While Bullock wasn't able to go too deep into detail, he did suggest that along with mech customization, players could expect to also have a degree of control over the mercenaries they hire, what they pilot, and how their lances are formed. "Not since MechWarrior 1 has a game made you think about all the c-bills [the currency of the BattleTech universe] coming in the door. We don't want it to just be like, I hit my repair-all button and now I don't worry about any economy in this game. The point is that we want someone to really manage that minutiae."

Speaking of economy, Bullock said that MechWarrior 5 will feature a "dynamic" in-game economy that will change based on the timeline and where the player is currently located. "A lot of factors will play into what's on the market," he says.

The fans as the target audience

While MechWarrior 5 will undoubtedly appeal to an audience who never had a chance to play these games growing up, Bullock is serious about making sure MechWarrior 5 is first and foremost for the fans. "Being a smaller independent developer, we know who our customers are and we're making this for them," he says. "We've always felt like MechWarrior Online was, at most, half of the MechWarrior market. There's a huge portion out there that's just waiting for a singleplayer experience."

http://www.pcgamer.com/mechwarrior-5/

 

[kmfdmpig]

That interview sounds very encouraging. While I preferred MW2 to MW1, the gameplay/graphics of MW2 with the freedom of MW1 sounds like a great combination.

 

[Lime]

The timeline basically means that any potential sequel is set when the Clans arrive and forward.

 

[Woorloog]

So very ambitious.
Unfortunately that does not sound great exactly. I mean, the ideas seem good but considering how MWO's ideas, while good, don't mesh well in practice, i think focusing on more limited game would be a better idea at first. Expand things in a sequel/expansion.

As it is, i really won't be surprised if the game would end up being a collection of half-assed ideas.

Really, don't get me wrong, it is just that this being made PGI really, really doesn't fill me with trust. Sure, it is a new team and not the MWO team but that just means their abilities are completely unknown for now.

The timeline basically means that any potential sequel is set when the Clans arrive and forward.

More likely would be a DLC expansion, i think.

 

[Lime]

So very ambitious.
Unfortunately that does not sound great exactly. I mean, the ideas seem good but considering how MWO's ideas, while good, don't mesh well in practice, i think focusing on more limited game would be a better idea at first. Expand things in a sequel/expansion.

As it is, i really won't be surprised if the game would end up being a collection of half-assed ideas.

Really, don't get me wrong, it is just that this being made PGI really, really doesn't fill me with trust. Sure, it is a new team and not the MWO team but that just means their abilities are completely unknown for now.

Yeah, even though Russ states in the beginning that they've learned to reign in their promises, I still feel that the features he is talking about, in addition to the fact that the game will span 35 years of the universe, is still way too much to promise already for a game that's set to release in 2 years.

Hopefully the turn to UE4 will make things easier for PGI.

More likely would be a DLC expansion, i think.

If they can pull out 40 to 60 bucks out of us Mechwarrior fans, they'll jump on that chance for sure. An entirely new campaign with Clan factions and mechs won't simply be a DLC expansion, I think

 

[Hendrick's]

Mixed emotions. Both a dream come true and a nightmare (PGS).

 

[Tovarisc]

The timeline basically means that any potential sequel is set when the Clans arrive and forward.

Makes one wonder how much they just port 1:1 over from MWO.

 

[Woorloog]

Depending how the game's built and how saves work, DLC would make more sense, i think. I mean, they're clearly implying you get to take on the Clans with that elite merc unit you have... It might be simply a matter of adding Clan 'Mechs, Clan AI and new missions for that, constructed terrain for important missions while others just use random map generation still.


Obviously such DLC might be expensive (say, $30), though this would depend on the scope. If it is just the 3-year Clan Invasion, it won't be big compared to the scope of the game at 10% length.

Makes one wonder how much they just port 1:1 over from MWO.

'Mech and other art assets. New engine, so i doubt code can be used much really.

 

[Lime]

Mixed emotions. Both a dream come true and a nightmare (PGS).

They'd hold the license regardless until 2020 and their already created assets built on the backs of Founders and mech pack buyers would've been wasted.

Makes one wonder how much they just port 1:1 over from MWO.

Anything that is easily transferrable from CryEngine 3.4 to UE4. Models and textures, but I could imagine that game systems and UI designs have to be renewed.

 

[BrokenFiction]

I like everything I hear in that interview. Let's hope they can bring it.

Spoiler

I played Mechwarrior 1 in 1989.

 

[Mupod]

I just realized that I don't even know what mechwarrior 1 looks like. But yeah I started with MW2 Mercs.

Also kinda funny how many posts here and elsewhere I'm seeing from Mechwarrior fans who apparently don't know MWO exists.

 

[bmadger]

Internal temperature at 700 kelvin. Shutdown imminent.

 

[kinggroin]

VR please.



Omg, PLEASE BRING THIS TO VR PLATFORMS

 

[Woorloog]

Also kinda funny how many posts here and elsewhere I'm seeing from Mechwarrior fans who apparently don't know MWO exists.

A low profile, not terribly successful game with no advertising really.
Hell, we don't even bother updating the game's OT. No one cares enough...

Besides, i think a lot of MW fans are interested in single player, not multiplayer, free or not.

 

[Josh7289]

Oh hell yeah

 

[CitizenVectron]

A low profile, not terribly successful game with no advertising really.
Hell, we don't even bother updating the game's OT. No one cares enough...

Besides, i think a lot of MW fans are interested in single player, not multiplayer, free or not.

I just want co-op campaign missions!

 

[Banderdash]

So, commanding up to 12 mechs.
I hope we get some of the combined arms back... I remember hiring an aerofighter in MW2, back in the day. I'd kinda like to do that again.

I would've liked them to talk about salvage and how they think that'll work.

He was right about a chunk of the audience having no interest in multiplayer.
I wonder what self publishing looks like for a game like this.

 

[Lime]

VR please.



Omg, PLEASE BRING THIS TO VR PLATFORMS

It's planned.

 

[Ragnar Blackmane]

So Battletech from a Football Manager perspective as well as comanding more than two entire lances while sitting in the cockpit of your own mech? Consider me VERY intrigued ;-).

 

[Nete]

On the PCGamer article:

On the resin models, HOLY SHIT.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Read title as Mercenaries being announced for 2018 and got all excited.

Reread the thread title as MechWarriors announced for 2018 and got me alllll excited.

 

[Hycran]

Look at the bright side kid, you get to keep all the money.

 

[Lime]

On the resin models, HOLY SHIT.

Yup