716 replies to this topic

[spectralthundr]

Jack Gallows, on 01 October 2015 - 07:44 PM, said:

Jordan did write something about saying "never sell the rights" after learning that while it might seem like a good idea, you end up in situations like this or even Harmony Gold style where they're just all over the place and it makes it very difficult to get things done.

He got the rights to create a game from Microsoft when he opened and ran Smith and Tinker, which he then used to give to PGI and the rest of that is what we see here. Microsoft still has creative control/etc like we saw with the whole no PS3 thing, but otherwise they probably don't care much long as they make their money.

It'd be so awesome if Weisman actually did own the digital rights again.

Thanks for clearing that up, I kinda figured MS still had the electronic rights and was just doing the whole "Sure you can use them, pay us a licensing fee up front" Which I'm sure Jordan originally did for the 2008 pitch which obviously was then transferred to PGI, likewise doing the same for the Shadowrun kickstarters.

I think we all know MS is not at all serious about getting back into PC gaming or PC game development, so at the very least they make some bank off of IP that's just sitting there collecting dust. Now I'm just wishing Jordan and company would go back to kick starter to do a proper MW5. All parties involved with the license, MS, HBS, and PGI I'm sure know there is money to be made there.

[Asmosis]

Nice, they did a great job on the shadowrun games. This should mean it'll be a very mod friendly game which will be awesome in the BT universe

[Pale Jackal]

Tylerchu, on 01 October 2015 - 08:21 PM, said:

Clarifying question...
Is this going to be a digitized version of tabletop? Because I've always been wanting to play TT (but couldn't find anyone else to teach me).

I believe they said it won't be a 1-to-1 conversion, but I'm sure it will probably bear a lot of similarity. I've also always wanted to play the TT version but I felt like there'd be too many steps and dice-rolling which would be better automated by a computer. I also hope that they will enforce some set of rules that will differentiate 'mechs from each other, like MWO's quirks.

[Threat Doc]

Tylerchu, on 01 October 2015 - 08:21 PM, said:

Is this going to be a digitized version of tabletop? Because I've always been wanting to play TT (but couldn't find anyone else to teach me).

I hope you find someone to be able to teach you because: 1) Tabletop can be a very long but satisfying experience, and 2) this is not going to be a digital version of the rules of tabletop, though it was said the game is going to capture the 'feel' of tabletop.

Ed Steele, on 01 October 2015 - 10:01 PM, said:

Although I don't want to see them jump ahead to Clans in Battle Tech, I do like the idea of doing a Clan sequel.

I would rather see HBS move step-by-step through the BattleTech history, starting where they are, of course, then doing DLCs for the 4th Succession War, then deal with changes taking place between 3032 and the War of '39, then the War of '39, then move into the pre-Clan Invasion and Clan Invasion material, perhaps as a wholly updated game. Understand this, though, we BattleTech tabletop and computer game veterans have not known a game without the Clans, and many of us HATE the Clans. Even MechWarrior II: Mercenaries final missions dealt with the Clans, and I am so very sick of seeing and hearing the stupidity that comes with them. They can't be balanced, no matter what game mode you put them in, and even Jordan Weisman regretted releasing them for as amazingly powerful as they are, and they should be removed from at least SOME portion of the BattleTech universe so that folks like me can enjoy the game without these shiny twitch-feed garbage nodes that just do not belong, period. That's how I really feel.

My hope is to see an actual 3025 server for this game... I would really REALLY love to be able to play this game in 3025, and I have a feeling there will be a crap-ton of folks that will be going with me.

Asmosis, on 02 October 2015 - 12:00 AM, said:

Nice, they did a great job on the shadowrun games. This should mean it'll be a very mod friendly game which will be awesome in the BT universe

If you mean having the ability to build mods from the game, HBS has already explained there won't be. I have a feeling, however, that if enough money rolls in, and enough requests, that HBS will build a means of making mods for BattleTech.

[Jack Gallows]

Ed Steele, on 01 October 2015 - 10:01 PM, said:

Although I don't want to see them jump ahead to Clans in Battle Tech, I do like the idea of doing a Clan sequel. I would love to have them make a sequel that focuses on the Clan homeworlds a few decades before the Clan invasion when the clans were fighting each other for the honor of taking part in the in it invasion of the IS. I don't think that any game has been made in the pre-invasion Clan homeworlds.

It would be a pretty damn cool game to either see the Star League's fall from the Amaris Coup (and the conflicts leading up to it) as well as seeing the unique conflicts that occurred as Kerensky and his followers tried to find their way. It would be wading into pretty much untouched territory and has the ability to tell some fantastic stories as well as mixing IS style tech while we see the birth of the Clans themselves, people could get a really strong identity from the founding Khans of them.

Kay Wolf, on 02 October 2015 - 03:36 AM, said:

I hope you find someone to be able to teach you because: 1) Tabletop can be a very long but satisfying experience, and 2) this is not going to be a digital version of the rules of tabletop, though it was said the game is going to capture the 'feel' of tabletop.

Megamek can be a bit unwieldy (and incredibly baffling for the new comer to Battletech,) but it's as close as one can get to the tabletop without actually playing the tabletop in RL. It can take hours (sometimes days) to complete a match depending on how many players/units there are...but it's a great way to host a campaign. The Battletech game from Harebrained Schemes won't be a direct translation but it'll probably help people understand the fundamentals of the tabletop. Might be worth it to try to dive in after you've got a handle on HBS Battletech, then find someone or a group of people willing to be patient (I'd think most do.)

We're currently running a Solaris VII campaign, but before that we had run a year long merc campaign and it was great fun with things like "Did you just try to Death From Above a Stalker that was in level 1 water [hip height on a bmech] with your Wolverine who has open leg armor?" And well.....he totally did it. It totally worked. His Wolverine was inoperable afterwards as his armor flooded ruining the 'mech but he did the same to the Stalker. LOL

Kay Wolf, on 02 October 2015 - 03:36 AM, said:

I would rather see HBS move step-by-step through the BattleTech history, starting where they are, of course, then doing DLCs for the 4th Succession War, then deal with changes taking place between 3032 and the War of '39, then the War of '39, then move into the pre-Clan Invasion and Clan Invasion material, perhaps as a wholly updated game. Understand this, though, we BattleTech tabletop and computer game veterans have not known a game without the Clans, and many of us HATE the Clans. Even MechWarrior II: Mercenaries final missions dealt with the Clans, and I am so very sick of seeing and hearing the stupidity that comes with them. They can't be balanced, no matter what game mode you put them in, and even Jordan Weisman regretted releasing them for as amazingly powerful as they are, and they should be removed from at least SOME portion of the BattleTech universe so that folks like me can enjoy the game without these shiny twitch-feed garbage nodes that just do not belong, period. That's how I really feel.

It'd be neat to see the Battletech games become really robust and pretty regular from Harebrained. I'd also wager that Weisman might be able to the Clans to work but he'd have to modify them and well...not sure how well that'd go over because a lot of people already backlash at what PGI did. Then again, it's also easier to balance that in the tabletop since you could have more realistic lance/star sizes/etc but eh.

Kay Wolf, on 02 October 2015 - 03:36 AM, said:

My hope is to see an actual 3025 server for this game... I would really REALLY love to be able to play this game in 3025, and I have a feeling there will be a crap-ton of folks that will be going with me.

If you mean having the ability to build mods from the game, HBS has already explained there won't be. I have a feeling, however, that if enough money rolls in, and enough requests, that HBS will build a means of making mods for BattleTech.

I think it'd be pretty popular but I don't think PGI would do it to stop from fracturing an already small player base. It's also money into something they're just not going to do because it doesn't make sense to them financially, I'd suppose.

We might not get mods for Battletech in the first iteration...but there is full dev kit for the later Shadowruns and I can see that happening for Battletech. Can't wait really as there are a ton of incredibly talented people in the community!

[Asmosis]

wow, people are pledging an average of 60-70, that's quite impressive. mind you, the house banners are quite impressive

[Threat Doc]

Jack Gallows, on 02 October 2015 - 06:42 AM, said:

I think it'd be pretty popular but I don't think PGI would do it to stop from fracturing an already small player base. It's also money into something they're just not going to do because it doesn't make sense to them financially, I'd suppose.

We might not get mods for Battletech in the first iteration...but there is full dev kit for the later Shadowruns and I can see that happening for Battletech. Can't wait really as there are a ton of incredibly talented people in the community!

Actually, Russ continues to express how much he wants to see a 3025 server, and intends to make it happen; however, as you have said with the low population, at this point, it's not likely to happen. Now, a 3025 server might be the solution to keeping us old timers from quitting entirely when the Steam community rolls in; separate those of us who would like a differently paced game from the twitchers and armor-rapers coming into the community, and that would be fine, I think.

______________________________

PGI, LISTEN UP!!!
From the BattleTech Kickstarter page...

"One of the more treacherous elements that we’d like to include in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is negotiating contracts with potential employers - who can be anyone from the leader of a local farming cooperative, to the crown prince of a Great House.

We are currently thinking that mercenary contracts will contain a variety of clauses or terms that can be negotiated. For example, you might trade a higher initial downpayment for increased salvage rights on a given mission. Or, insist that the client provide some of their own military support for a particularly dicey operation, in exchange for a reduction in fees for completing a mission objective.

You may decide to negotiate and try to improve a specific clause in your contract, but remember - it’s a negotiation, so improving the terms in one area may cause the employer to worsen the terms in another. Ideally, different employers will have different contract terms they’re prepared to negotiate and “hot button” issues that may result in negative reactions if pressed too hard. We like the idea that over time you might learn the negotiating style of a particular representative, and thus improve your negotiating success rate with them.

In BATTLETECH, an employer’s agenda isn’t always what it seems. Don’t be surprised if the minor noble from House Marik who’s assigned to negotiate with you slips a little something for herself into your mission objectives. Going out of your way to accomplish that objective might earn you more favorable terms on future contracts, but at what cost?

One of our design goals in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is make both how you negotiate and execute on contracts with a given employer affect your reputation with *that employer.* Likewise, the Noble Houses and Periphery Kings who are targets of those contracts will remember your combat actions against them. The sum of these actions determines your reputation with each faction in the game - and your reputation determines the contracts and terms they offer.

If we hit Funding Stage 3, over the course of development we will explore the fun of these design concepts and determine how deep each of these systems should be. We’re excited to bring the contract negotiation aspect of mercenary life to the game, and to use it as a vehicle to illustrate the political intrigue of the Inner Sphere."

^^^ This ^^^ PGI, this is what many of us want, along with strategic and tactical planet-wide operational planning, negotiating combat drop dates and times with opposing commanders, and logistical care and administration of our mercenary units. Are you listening, PGI?!?! Please?

[NocturnalBeast]

Kay Wolf, on 02 October 2015 - 02:47 PM, said:

Actually, Russ continues to express how much he wants to see a 3025 server, and intends to make it happen; however, as you have said with the low population, at this point, it's not likely to happen. Now, a 3025 server might be the solution to keeping us old timers from quitting entirely when the Steam community rolls in; separate those of us who would like a differently paced game from the twitchers and armor-rapers coming into the community, and that would be fine, I think.

______________________________

PGI, LISTEN UP!!!
From the BattleTech Kickstarter page...

"One of the more treacherous elements that we’d like to include in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is negotiating contracts with potential employers - who can be anyone from the leader of a local farming cooperative, to the crown prince of a Great House.

We are currently thinking that mercenary contracts will contain a variety of clauses or terms that can be negotiated. For example, you might trade a higher initial downpayment for increased salvage rights on a given mission. Or, insist that the client provide some of their own military support for a particularly dicey operation, in exchange for a reduction in fees for completing a mission objective.

You may decide to negotiate and try to improve a specific clause in your contract, but remember - it’s a negotiation, so improving the terms in one area may cause the employer to worsen the terms in another. Ideally, different employers will have different contract terms they’re prepared to negotiate and “hot button” issues that may result in negative reactions if pressed too hard. We like the idea that over time you might learn the negotiating style of a particular representative, and thus improve your negotiating success rate with them.

In BATTLETECH, an employer’s agenda isn’t always what it seems. Don’t be surprised if the minor noble from House Marik who’s assigned to negotiate with you slips a little something for herself into your mission objectives. Going out of your way to accomplish that objective might earn you more favorable terms on future contracts, but at what cost?

One of our design goals in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is make both how you negotiate and execute on contracts with a given employer affect your reputation with *that employer.* Likewise, the Noble Houses and Periphery Kings who are targets of those contracts will remember your combat actions against them. The sum of these actions determines your reputation with each faction in the game - and your reputation determines the contracts and terms they offer.

If we hit Funding Stage 3, over the course of development we will explore the fun of these design concepts and determine how deep each of these systems should be. We’re excited to bring the contract negotiation aspect of mercenary life to the game, and to use it as a vehicle to illustrate the political intrigue of the Inner Sphere."

^^^ This ^^^ PGI, this is what many of us want, along with strategic and tactical planet-wide operational planning, negotiating combat drop dates and times with opposing commanders, and logistical care and administration of our mercenary units. Are you listening, PGI?!?! Please?

Yes, this is what CW needs, more depth. We need reasons to take and hold planets, other than just plowing through planets to get to the enemy homeworld. There should be factories and other industries that provide players of your faction some sort of bonus while your faction holds the planet (similar to Planetside 2).

Edited by Ed Steele, 03 October 2015 - 01:30 PM.

[Threat Doc]

Ed Steele, on 02 October 2015 - 08:12 PM, said:

Yes, this is what CW needs, more depth. We need reasons to take and hold planets, other than just plowing through planets to get to the enemy homeworld. There should be factories and other industries that provide players of you faction some sort of bonus while your faction holds the planet (similar to Planetside 2).

Do you remember in September of 2013 how Russ and Bryan told us we'd have a robust contracting system within 9 months, and even what they were proposing was weak as hell? Ahh, the bad old days.

[Jack Gallows]

Kay Wolf, on 02 October 2015 - 11:41 PM, said:

Do you remember in September of 2013 how Russ and Bryan told us we'd have a robust contracting system within 9 months, and even what they were proposing was weak as hell? Ahh, the bad old days.

In 90 days we'll have CW, wait no we're sorry we're working on it (but really aren't,) it'll be another half a year. Woops, yeah sorry it's not done, no release date. Half a year later, at a convention, here is this powerpoint since we haven't started working on CW at all cause CW will come out in like a 6 months. Queue one year later...

But yes, while still not a fan of MW:O, it definitely needs a bit more robust approach to how things work and appear on a aesthetic and functional level.

[Threat Doc]

Someone coming to this forum will see posts from me, of the nearly 3400 I've written since October 2011 -on October 30th it will be four years since the announcement of this game-, and I am all over the place with my love-hate relationship with Piranha Games and MechWarrior Online. Piranha comes from a really bad background -Transformers, picking up the really old property for Duke Nukem and then finishing and releasing an underwhelming game- into a community dying for new 'Mech action, whether it's a top-down-iso view game like MegaMek or MechCommander, or the MechWarrior games of the past, and they offer up an impossible game. They write out four pillars (Community Warfare, 'Mech Warfare, Role Warfare, and Information Warfare), which pulls together thousands upon thousands of players to fund the game. It takes a long time for them to get into Beta, but when they do the game is pretty damn fantastic, even then.

But, then, we're four years into the ongoing development of a game all of us want, but at the same time is taking so long that all of us hate it, the ONLY pillar that's complete at this point is 'Mech Warfare, though a plan has FINALLY been introduced for Role and Information Warfare, and Community Warfare is just 'Mech Warfare on a much larger scale, though sorely incomplete. PGI listens, but only when it's something that THEY can see will benefit them, failing to listen to anyone with a plan to help benefit everyone, determined to experiment with untried systems that have nothing to do with the BattleTech universe, whatsoever, such as this new 'Mech Re-balance issue they have coming along. But, they have come from being a crap company with crap programmers and no ability to get anything done in a computer game that they should have done, to having a Class A title -not double or triple-A, but definitely a class A title, since everything in their combat simulator works, and as far as I'm concerned works damn well- and they have encouraged -whether in a good way or a bad one- Harebrained Schemes to put together a title on the heels of the failure of MechWarrior: Tactics, as a result.

See, even in this one post, I am all over the place with my attitude toward Piranha... I think this community needs to take time to take stock in the good and bad of this game, and help PGI determine the next course of action to be taken, but I don't have the time or desire to do it, myself, as I'm tired, really tired and, at this point, I'm thinking I'm just along for the ride. I WANT PGI to do more, to introduce more, to continue with and, eventually, bring the game to a point where development will stop, or at least become more about maintenance than active development, and I want MWO to be the game so many of us dream it can be, who still dream will work along PGIs four pillars. However, at the same time, I'm almost ready to be over it. I'm not one of those people that believes the game needs to be taken away from PGI, because they've come one hell of a long way in four years, but I do believe they need to add more folks to their team who can bring the development further than it's gone.

Russ, Bryan, and Piranha team... I'm still here, and a lot of us are still here, but if you're going to continue moving this game forward, you need to set in place the things I've been telling you to set in place, for the veterans of the game -I give the entirety of the Steam community four months, one quarter of a year, before they decide they've had enough of the shiny, before about 85% of them go back to their shiny-, and then you need to highlight these things in a marketing blitz across the internet, and even on television in Germany and North America to get these people back that you've lost along the way. Give them their money's worth from Founders, and they will give you everything, more than you can imagine, like I've been saying for the past three years.

I could go on like this all day, but I have a life to live.

[Red Klown X]

my money is gone with mechwarrior tactic .

[NocturnalBeast]

BATTLETECH still needs allot of funding to reach its full potential. I will be disappointed if we don't get PVP.

[Jack Gallows]

Ed Steele, on 03 October 2015 - 10:27 AM, said:

BATTLETECH still needs allot of funding to reach its full potential. I will be disappointed if we don't get PVP.

It's still gaining decently per day, anyway, at least on track to make the PVP goal by the end of the kickstarter if it continues like this. Hopefully it'll pick up sooner/midway as well

[NocturnalBeast]

Jack Gallows, on 03 October 2015 - 11:30 AM, said:

It's still gaining decently per day, anyway, at least on track to make the PVP goal by the end of the kickstarter if it continues like this. Hopefully it'll pick up sooner/midway as well

Pick it up now, if there is anyone who will be able to make a BATTLETECH game that will meet your expectations, it will be Jordan and HBS. I am trying to justify upgrading to the next level, but I sincerely doubt that I would ever wear the jacket since I only have to wear jackets a few days a year, and I would look pretty silly in a video game jacket as a grown man.

[Asmosis]

Ed Steele, on 03 October 2015 - 01:33 PM, said:

Pick it up now, if there is anyone who will be able to make a BATTLETECH game that will meet your expectations, it will be Jordan and HBS. I am trying to justify upgrading to the next level, but I sincerely doubt that I would ever wear the jacket since I only have to wear jackets a few days a year, and I would look pretty silly in a video game jacket as a grown man.

Not if your riding one of those simulator's at the arcade! ( do they still have arcades these days?)

[Thomas G Wolf]

Not a 1 to 1 adaptation of the BT TT rules....? Okay then I will stick to MegaMek and will wait and see what this will bring.

[NocturnalBeast]

Asmosis, on 03 October 2015 - 02:37 PM, said:

Not if your riding one of those simulator's at the arcade! ( do they still have arcades these days?)

I think some people still have a few of the old Mech Pods around, but not near me. I guess I could buy it and wear it at a convention, if I ever went to one of those.

Eric Wulfen, on 03 October 2015 - 02:45 PM, said:

Not a 1 to 1 adaptation of the BT TT rules....? Okay then I will stick to MegaMek and will wait and see what this will bring.

Allot of people have made one-to-one adaptions of Games Workshop games and to date, I believe that the only one that has been successful has been Blood Bowl (I still need to buy BB2), and Mordheim is still in alpha, but is pretty good (although a bit slow like the TT game).

[Repasy Cooper]

Seriously guys, if you like BT support the game! The freaking founder of Battletech AND MechWarrior is working on the project! Who cares if it's not a 1 to 1 adaptation? It will be freaking close and freaking amazing game regardless.

I donated $50. Man, I wonder who the people are who donated $1000+, but if I met them I would kiss every single one of them!

[BLOOD WOLF]

If i get the chance i will invest, going to be real cool;However I am fond of the clans, but i wont let that stop me.