16 replies to this topic

[Drakiis]

Source: http://en.wikipedia....BattleTech_3025

I played the beta way back in the day and while this game was too far ahead of it's time and the technology and resource requirements shelved the game, as well as the technical issues I loved it and the concepts they were bringing to the table. The most innovative to me was the galactic map of the inner sphere. It constantly updated itself and was the first thing you saw when logging in before your character selection screen. It was interactive to a point and could be brought back up at any time a player wished not only for travelling to areas of heavy fighting, but also as a way to join other lances and launch rooms. The map was very dynamic and changed real time a player fighting on one world could soon find himself cut off and surrounded, thus having to fight it out until he died and respawned back in his own House controlled areas.

The other thing I liked was how a mechwarriors rank and titled determined how heavy a mech he could operate. Obviously for todays incarnation, experience and skill is also a factor, however back then making Commander really had some meaning and when you started getting into the Assault/Siege mechs then people really knew your name, In fact the see these grand mechs, the Atlas being one of the revered as well, meant your doom. There was only one downside to the ranking system in my opinion, and generally that grouped mech lances by rank, very often similarly ranked players would group together and leave the bottom feeders to fend for themselves. It was very elitist, however sometimes a particularly wise Field Cmdr would mix his lance, since I joined the beta in it's later stages I made Staff Sgt and piloted a Javalin.

On one such occasion I was taken into a lance of heavies, mediums, and a Assault mech, this was the days before vent/TS and through good communication I was able to contribute thus changing their attitudes on the smaller light mechs.

AnywaysI think a real time tactical map of the inner sphere would be very useful for the various Merc Corps.

[Kell Aset]

Never played it but I knew it existed, it would be wise to take some inspiration from first Battletech mmo game like BT3025, especially persistent world with its map and planets.

I would also suggest to look for some info about Inner Sphere Wars a fan made MechWarrior mmo(now long gone to my knowledge) with quite many features.
I never managed to get into the game myself sadly, it was difficult to make it work, here smth I found about it:

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Inner Sphere Wars(ISW) is not an expansion persay, it is an interface. It is used along side MW4 but can be used through BK as well (with MW4 patch created by ISW Devs.)
ISW is a collaboration of BattleTech fans from all over who have yearned for the planet capture style we've read in source books and novels. Mostly Gamestorm & AOL MPBT and IS3025 vets.
At the moment, ISW (Inner Sphere Wars) is close to implementing Planet Capture using the ISW interface. This client allows for each House to control/regulate logistics, mech production, resource allocation, jumpship movements, tactical deployments, and to maintain a roster of pilots for that House as well as; promotions, awards, unit assisgnments, and a salary.

There is also an arena for dueling on Solaris. Comstar being the neutral faction and the developers of ISW only maintain 3 planets; Terra, Outreach, and Solaris.
ISW provides an Inner Sphere map so you can view the success or failure of each House pertaining to planetary control which is decided through MW 4 for the combat simulation. It is set along the timeline of the Third Succession Wars.

The individuals that produced ISW are currently accepting donations to support ISW and if the support continues then there may be no subscription charge.

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ISW is a computer program designed for a community of mechwarrior players. The program is designed to enhance the battletech experience by incorporating all aspects of Mech Warfare including Mercenary Support, Logistics, Full Economy, Full Control of the Chain of Command by all involved in it, Gladitorial Dueling and Planet Capture. Each Person has certain levels of control and access of data relating to his position in the house. House Leaders in ISW will be a very challenging position, requiring many hours of play time.

ISW is not a copy of anything. It is a compilation of all original source code to create the things needed to truly enjoy the Battletech Experience. Currently ISW uses MW4 as the combat engine, with full permissions from Microsoft. However this should not be construed as indicating that ISW is a league like many others on the internet. It is much more then a league, it is the total package, and 0% web based. The only web based component is this website and message boards. Everything needed to play the game of ISW is internal to the program itself, including live communications, intergame messages,meeting halls (bars) where houses or units can meet without worry of eavesdropping, an integrated and fully user customizable map consisting of over 2000 planets representing the true inner sphere as it was meant to be and many other features.

ISW is produced by Inner Sphere Design Studios Coporation (ISDS), all rights reserved.
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Guys that made ISW had written permission from Microsoft to use MW4 with ISW.
Oh, surprise surprise I found their site, last time I checked it was gone and now is back hmn... maybe ISW is not as dead as I was thinking.
http://www.innerspherewars.net/

Edited by Kell Aset, 08 November 2011 - 07:22 PM.

[Max Liao]

If BT 3025 could have created a cure for people who would not drop unless they had the upper hand, I think it would have succeeded. Yes, it had some other (mostly minor) issues, but the unbalanced drops were (IMO) what killed it.

[Paladin Brewer]

Kell Aset, on 08 November 2011 - 06:34 PM, said:

first Battletech mmo game like BT3025, especially persistent world with its map and planets.

*stabs myself in the eye* 3025 was the 3rd installation in the Multiplayer Battletech series.

[Kell Aset]

Bleh, I know it was not first BT/MW game with multiplayer but it was first BT/MW mmorpg to my knowledge and that is a difference, it is a pity it never came out of beta but now it no longer matters I guess heh .

Edited by Kell Aset, 09 November 2011 - 07:39 AM.

[soulfire]

I never had any problems with being droped what killed it was threat of lawsuits and econimic down turn at that time. Game was in beta and still had more coding to do But they had been told if they released the game harmony would sue them so they tool look at it adn figured rightly so that they would have never recouped their costs, economy wasnt in great shape at that moment and EA saw that it was not worth it . I wished that the code had been released so people could have worked on it and turned it into something salvagable. Last news that I read was Micosoft had copy, more than likely it was just deleted. People that could truely find out would be these guys Since MS sold them the rights they prob even offered the code . Would be nice to think that maybe these guys looked it over took the best ideas from it and will incorperated it into the game. Who knows. One thing I wish they would incorperate was random maps and the progress map was nice. Make it easy to incorperate mercs. Oh well see when we see.

[FinnMcKool]

I understand that when they dropped it , they used it to make the first Battle field game.

[FinnMcKool]

That game was so much fun ,I hope this one will do the big game map in a similar fashion.

Edited by FinnMcKool, 30 March 2012 - 02:35 PM.

[Shadowstarr]

Drakiis, on 08 November 2011 - 04:48 PM, said:

Source: http://en.wikipedia....BattleTech_3025

I played the beta way back in the day and while this game was too far ahead of it's time and the technology and resource requirements shelved the game, as well as the technical issues I loved it and the concepts they were bringing to the table. The most innovative to me was the galactic map of the inner sphere. It constantly updated itself and was the first thing you saw when logging in before your character selection screen. It was interactive to a point and could be brought back up at any time a player wished not only for travelling to areas of heavy fighting, but also as a way to join other lances and launch rooms. The map was very dynamic and changed real time a player fighting on one world could soon find himself cut off and surrounded, thus having to fight it out until he died and respawned back in his own House controlled areas.

The other thing I liked was how a mechwarriors rank and titled determined how heavy a mech he could operate. Obviously for todays incarnation, experience and skill is also a factor, however back then making Commander really had some meaning and when you started getting into the Assault/Siege mechs then people really knew your name, In fact the see these grand mechs, the Atlas being one of the revered as well, meant your doom. There was only one downside to the ranking system in my opinion, and generally that grouped mech lances by rank, very often similarly ranked players would group together and leave the bottom feeders to fend for themselves. It was very elitist, however sometimes a particularly wise Field Cmdr would mix his lance, since I joined the beta in it's later stages I made Staff Sgt and piloted a Javalin.

On one such occasion I was taken into a lance of heavies, mediums, and a Assault mech, this was the days before vent/TS and through good communication I was able to contribute thus changing their attitudes on the smaller light mechs.

AnywaysI think a real time tactical map of the inner sphere would be very useful for the various Merc Corps.

you mean this?

http://mwomercs.com/...game-mechanics/

soulfire, on 29 March 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

I never had any problems with being droped what killed it was threat of lawsuits and econimic down turn at that time. Game was in beta and still had more coding to do But they had been told if they released the game harmony would sue them so they tool look at it adn figured rightly so that they would have never recouped their costs, economy wasnt in great shape at that moment and EA saw that it was not worth it . I wished that the code had been released so people could have worked on it and turned it into something salvagable. Last news that I read was Micosoft had copy, more than likely it was just deleted. People that could truely find out would be these guys Since MS sold them the rights they prob even offered the code . Would be nice to think that maybe these guys looked it over took the best ideas from it and will incorperated it into the game. Who knows. One thing I wish they would incorperate was random maps and the progress map was nice. Make it easy to incorperate mercs. Oh well see when we see.

While the economic downturn did indeed have an impact of how EA handled EAVA (once Kesmai Corp) It was a number of buddy deals and your typical big corp policies that I feel were the real cause. I was working there for about a year before EA came to Charlottesville and got tossed in the 2nd of 3 layoff rounds. The thing about 3025 was it was two games. The combat engine and the strategic front end. Kesmai focused on the combat engine, the art, mech models and all. The Strategic end for some reason was subcontracted out to a israly company and thats was probably the major clusterfrag of the whole deal. From what i understand that company totally misrepresented their capabilities. I heard the company was a bunch of guys thats got subsidized by their government and was able to offer a "good deal" to handle the strategic front end. That company burned a ton of time and money and produce next to nothing. I know of a few occasions Kesmai had to send the MPBT lead dev, as well has one of the Programmer genius over to Israel for weeks trying to get something done. In the end with very little time and the pressures of EA and all Kesmai went ahead to started on the front end. What you got to play with in beat was throw together with great passion and effort in weeks. IMO they did an amazing job getting done what they did. There was no lawsuit problems for mpbt 3025. It wasn't going to use unseen like MPBT solaris. Only really legal issues Kesmai had was with AOL which Aol settled with them.

In the end EA had other plans like pogo games motor city online, majestic among other crap that were the rage of the day fore the casual gamer. EA had no love for the next airwarrior game Airwarrior Vietnam which could of been amazing. Don't let the name fool yah the airwarrior game were indeed aircraft focused but you did have a fps there too. you could run around on the land jump in vehicles and aa guns. The mps were massive. being the gamescale was meant for aircraft, it meant jumping in a vehicle and driving to the closest enemy base took a long time...its been years and my crew was drunk but seems like a hour or so to drive ... But at the time with 9/11 just hitting and the downturn, they felt a realistic online military game wouldn't get that much interest.

EAVA was a huge money pit as well. When EA came to town they spent a lot of money on the new location. "the outpost" they ballooned the staff in all areas. QA grew as well as making Kesmai's customer support model, they way they'd handle all customer support for ea.com They staffed up a ton there mostly in hourly part-time kids answering the phones ect. But this all cost alot of money. Building rental, constant moving around dozens of cubes and the IT wires on a middle manager whims. I saw managers competing with one another on whom could get the most best toys expended. It was like some folks won the lottery or something. It wouldn't last. All of ea's winner game picks flopped. The call center was a money pit. So ea did whats natural, they exported the call center to India. QA was making money with sub out work for DAOC among other mythic titles. but wasn't enough EA got Kesmai's tech. They got ARIES which is what Kesmai really was at the heart.

All the EA crap aside it was the best job i ever head. /sniff

FinnMcKool, on 29 March 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

I understand that when they dropped it , they used it to make the first Battle field game.

see above with airwarrior. that is the true granddaddy of battlefield and the rest.

-SS

Edited by Shadowstarr, 31 March 2012 - 10:16 AM.

[soulfire]

Thanks for the info, and corrections seldom we get to hear from someone that was there. Do you know what happened to the code for 3025?

[Shadowstarr]

soulfire, on 02 April 2012 - 06:12 PM, said:

Thanks for the info, and corrections seldom we get to hear from someone that was there. Do you know what happened to the code for 3025?

I'd assume EA has have it. I wouldn't be surprised if some dev somewhere has it on old drive somewhere but it all isn't much use without the backend.

I do however have a about 2000 Gamestorm promotional cd's all nice and shrink wrapped. Probably the same disk we were handing out at Gencon. Its got MPBT:solaris on it.

-SS

[SovietKoshka]

i like the world conquest map/jump system. it would seem to lend itself very well to tactical movements and travel me gustaaaa!

[Victor Morson]

The actual reason MPBT3025 died was that Microsoft owned MechWarrior and was producing MechWarrior titles actively at the time. EA had the rights for a multiplayer BattleTech game, but given it's nautre (A first person 'mech sim), Microsoft called shenanigans and pointed out it was just a MechWarrior game without MechWarrior in the title and threatened to sue. EA, despite having a successful game on their hands with zero advertising that had a really active player base killed the game about a week before it was supposed to launch as a result.

And thus ended another awesome developer that had been around since the days of making the first MUDs, killed by a clash of corporate titans after having their work of the last few years thrown out the window the day before it got released to the public.

The whole thing is a damned shame.

EDIT: Of course, a game or two later, Microsoft's FASA Studios stopped making MechWarrior games and were instead pushed into creating a multi-player class shooter based in Shadowrun to push their new but terrible Games for Windows Live.

I still remember being at E3 and getting so excited to see a new Shadowrun game.. it'd be like Deus Ex, but better! Then I asked if they had a demo of the single player.. I mean it was neat they were including multiplayer and all, but obviously it'd be a great FPRPG game, right? Yeah, I think we all know how that turned out. RIP FASA Studios, sacrificed on the altar of the wretched GFWL.

Edited by Victor Morson, 03 April 2012 - 06:24 PM.

[Drakiis]

Shadowstarr, on 31 March 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:

you mean this?

http://mwomercs.com/...game-mechanics/



While the economic downturn did indeed have an impact of how EA handled EAVA (once Kesmai Corp) It was a number of buddy deals and your typical big corp policies that I feel were the real cause. I was working there for about a year before EA came to Charlottesville and got tossed in the 2nd of 3 layoff rounds. The thing about 3025 was it was two games. The combat engine and the strategic front end. Kesmai focused on the combat engine, the art, mech models and all. The Strategic end for some reason was subcontracted out to a israly company and thats was probably the major clusterfrag of the whole deal. From what i understand that company totally misrepresented their capabilities. I heard the company was a bunch of guys thats got subsidized by their government and was able to offer a "good deal" to handle the strategic front end. That company burned a ton of time and money and produce next to nothing. I know of a few occasions Kesmai had to send the MPBT lead dev, as well has one of the Programmer genius over to Israel for weeks trying to get something done. In the end with very little time and the pressures of EA and all Kesmai went ahead to started on the front end. What you got to play with in beat was throw together with great passion and effort in weeks. IMO they did an amazing job getting done what they did. There was no lawsuit problems for mpbt 3025. It wasn't going to use unseen like MPBT solaris. Only really legal issues Kesmai had was with AOL which Aol settled with them.

In the end EA had other plans like pogo games motor city online, majestic among other crap that were the rage of the day fore the casual gamer. EA had no love for the next airwarrior game Airwarrior Vietnam which could of been amazing. Don't let the name fool yah the airwarrior game were indeed aircraft focused but you did have a fps there too. you could run around on the land jump in vehicles and aa guns. The mps were massive. being the gamescale was meant for aircraft, it meant jumping in a vehicle and driving to the closest enemy base took a long time...its been years and my crew was drunk but seems like a hour or so to drive ... But at the time with 9/11 just hitting and the downturn, they felt a realistic online military game wouldn't get that much interest.

EAVA was a huge money pit as well. When EA came to town they spent a lot of money on the new location. "the outpost" they ballooned the staff in all areas. QA grew as well as making Kesmai's customer support model, they way they'd handle all customer support for ea.com They staffed up a ton there mostly in hourly part-time kids answering the phones ect. But this all cost alot of money. Building rental, constant moving around dozens of cubes and the IT wires on a middle manager whims. I saw managers competing with one another on whom could get the most best toys expended. It was like some folks won the lottery or something. It wouldn't last. All of ea's winner game picks flopped. The call center was a money pit. So ea did whats natural, they exported the call center to India. QA was making money with sub out work for DAOC among other mythic titles. but wasn't enough EA got Kesmai's tech. They got ARIES which is what Kesmai really was at the heart.

All the EA crap aside it was the best job i ever head. /sniff







see above with airwarrior. that is the true granddaddy of battlefield and the rest.

-SS

Yes my post is dated earlier..sorry if you felt robbed of a win

[FinnMcKool]

Max Liao, on 09 November 2011 - 12:28 AM, said:

If BT 3025 could have created a cure for people who would not drop unless they had the upper hand, I think it would have succeeded. Yes, it had some other (mostly minor) issues, but the unbalanced drops were (IMO) what killed it.

it was a BETA , it died because EA killed it and turned the code into the original battlefield.

there are many here who still will never buy anything from EA again.

[BobBagels {ScorpS}]

FinnMcKool, on 23 May 2012 - 03:00 PM, said:

there are many here who still will never buy anything from EA again.

<--- holds hand up

[Johan Karl Steiner]

I was pinning for MPBT 3025. It had tactics AND a strategic component. I was even training in Solaris with the Kurita lances. It was going to be awesome...and then it just...died. And then began the great battletech drought. Sigh.