98 replies to this topic

[Night Thastus]

I'm excited for this, but if I get any hint that PGI is being involved in any level other than influencing the artwork, I'm out. I refuse to back them.

[Signal27]

Leone, on 26 September 2015 - 01:05 PM, said:

after MW:Tactics, kinda soured on the whole thing

How'd that one turn out?

[Kraftwerkedup]

Megameks against the bot campaign options are pretty strong. The AI cant "think a turn ahead" but thats on the devbranch for sometime next year.

Solo play is possible, but wonky, and if you dont know the franchise will, can be very frustrating. If you do know the franchise really well, its pretty flawless outside of a few database errors that will pop up from time to time.

Its still better with friends. But just about everything is.

From what I know of Wiesman's team, its going to be Shadowrun with Mechs. I expect more out of cockpit play, than in cockpit play, and I expect the cockpit play to be about on par with Crescent Hawks Inception or Revenge, and less like the TT.

If you want a TT game, Megamek will still be your only option.

That said, Crescent Hawks was magnificent.

[stjobe]

Tractor Joe, on 26 September 2015 - 07:05 AM, said:

PGI is backing Battletech not just with models and art but are now organizing a 0 hour Alpha Strike money bomb to fund it.

No, they're not.

The 0 hour Alpha Strike is Harebrained Schemes marketing campaign, it has nothing at all to do with PGI apart from PGI announcing it here, and NGNG hosting the livestream.

It is my sincere hope that that's the extent of involvement Russ and Paul has on the new BattleTech game, or I will have to rethink my planned kickstart pledge.

[Y E O N N E]

My thoughts on the new Battletech game are that I want nothing to do with any sort of turn-based system in video-games, period.

I get that some people like it, but to me it's a complete waste of a medium. It's not doing anything you can't do with a friend, a pencil, a piece of paper, and some dice. You don't even strictly need the minifigs.

A videogame, on the other hand, allows you to actually directly control and experience the things the rules and fluff for a board game or pencil-paper game are abstracting into dice rolls and stat sheets. Emulating table-top on a computer, therefore, is just ignoring the strengths of the video game.

Also, I f*cking hate rolling dice. I do not like having to pray to RNGesus to not get rolled, I prefer to directly apply my strengths to exploit my enemy's weaknesses.

If they want to make a Battletech RTS or RTT, though, I'd be interested. What I'd rather have, though, is a MechWarrior sim on the scale of Planetside 2 with a level of detail more comparable to War Thunder.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 26 September 2015 - 01:40 PM.

[Signal27]

Kraftwerkedup, on 26 September 2015 - 01:32 PM, said:

If you want a TT game, Megamek will still be your only option.

And this is why I'm backing the Harebrained Schemes version.

It's also why I backed all their Shadowrun games. I've played Shadowrun tabletop before, and I liked the Harebrained Schemes version precisely because the rules that drive it bear only a passing resemblance to the tabletop game.

Edited by Signal27, 26 September 2015 - 01:39 PM.

[Baba Yogi]

I think ppl are overreacting about MW tactics thing. First of all i never heard of any of those guys making tactics, but i sure as hell heard Jordan weisman and Hare-brained schemes. They made shadowrun with very little budget (just under 2 mil which is i believe way lower than what this game had as funding) and it turned out to be very good game. I was frankly suprised, it was rather short on content but everything clicked, it had engaging story and felt very polished, and was definately worthy of its price range.

Also there is this thing about Jordan being at the helm when the battletech was created, i mean he was one of the co-founder of FASA corp, and for ppl who dont know thats the company that created Battletech. If anyone understands what BT is i'd say that guy does, and he already proved he has a capable studio. My only worry is that since most BT fans are spending their budget on this game, they'll pass on funding the Battletech game and it will be cancelled/or will lack quite alot of core features because they didnt have enough funding.

[Kraftwerkedup]

Oh the cbill grind.

At least you got the whole game for 50 dollars.

[ChapeL]

People overreacting? ON THESE BOARDS?

You must be mistaken

[Mystere]

Steinar Bergstol, on 26 September 2015 - 12:50 PM, said:

How about... No.

Tough!

Bracchus, on 26 September 2015 - 12:54 PM, said:

Noooo not Creative Assembly! Anything they touch is ridden with so much bugs and glitches that the game is unplayable! Probably the worst AAA development house around...

LOL! They're not the worst, not even close.

[stjobe]

Lordhammer, on 26 September 2015 - 01:36 PM, said:

My only worry is that since most BT fans are spending their budget on this game, they'll pass on funding the Battletech game and it will be cancelled/or will lack quite alot of core features because they didnt have enough funding.

Harebrained Schemes has a rather novel approach to Kickstarter; the game is already funded at a basic level and Kickstarter is only used to make more and better content. In this case they've talked among other things about multiplayer as a stretch goal.

[Kraftwerkedup]

Lordhammer, on 26 September 2015 - 01:36 PM, said:

Also there is this thing about Jordan being at the helm when the battletech was created, i mean he was one of the co-founder of FASA corp, and for ppl who dont know thats the company that created Battletech. If anyone understands what BT is i'd say that guy does, and he already proved he has a capable studio. My only worry is that since most BT fans are spending their budget on this game, they'll pass on funding the Battletech game and it will be cancelled/or will lack quite alot of core features because they didnt have enough funding.

Hes also partially responsible for "The Clams" and Maxtech. Which are widely regarded as the worst additions to the Franchise.

Shadowrun was great, dont get me wrong, and Jordan is a far cry more competent than PGI at making games, but he also doesnt think (last I heard) that 3025 Btech was very good either. Which sure it had its flaws, but the franchise really went down the tubes when they started power creeping everything and adding ridiculously verbose rulesets.

I cant even imagine what playing the TT without Megamek with all the rules going would be like. And I dont want to think about how much money all of that would set me back. Or how much time it would take to actually play a campaign.

I absolutely dont think Jordan is "bringing the TT to the PC". Shadowrun surely wasnt bringing the pen and paper to the PC. Neither game/main quest line, works anything like the TT, and is ridiculously short in scope. Most runners dont have long lives, but no TT of Shadowrun I ever played had such large plots, as much combat, or as standard do mission-get reward gameplay.

It was AD&D with a worse HP system, and guns. Just like Torment and Baldurs Gate arent really faithful recreations of a D&D session, but are incredibly good games, I fully expect HBS's Battletech to be an Infinity Engine style RPG romp.

That stuff is stupid popular right now, and for good reason. Theyre fantastic games with excellent stories and writing. Even some impressive voice acting.

But im very convinced after its out, and I beat it/finish it, ill be right back to Megamek for all my Btech goodness. Theres a level of depth to the TT that no one can recreate on the PC, without a really big experienced team.

[Signal27]

Lordhammer, on 26 September 2015 - 01:36 PM, said:

Also there is this thing about Jordan being at the helm when the battletech was created, i mean he was one of the co-founder of FASA corp, and for ppl who dont know thats the company that created Battletech.

See, that's actually a double-edged sword in my mind. I don't immediately think that just because you brought on the guy who made the original immediately qualifies the upcoming game they're trying to make as the best version of the game ever. It's happened with other games before. Whenever they bring a "grognard" of one of the original versions on board, I get worried that the developer will become so mired and stuck in the design mentality that ruled games back then in the 80's, and completely ignore the evolution and change of gaming tastes we've had in the last 30 years. So what we'd end up with is a game that feels like it came out of the 80's. For some of us (like me), that's not a good thing.

That said, there is the old saying "with age comes experience" so I'm open to the idea that a game designer that old has learned a few things over the decades of game development and aren't afraid to make a game feel new (read: different) from the original version, and will implement that in the new version. After all, the guy who wrote the original Shadowrun 1st edition books also helped Harebrained with their version of Shadowrun, and it turned out pretty awesome.

[Bloody]

You dont want CA touching Battletech tbh, you think PGI gouges you with every opportunity to sell mech skins? i mean Packs? CA will do it even worst , in fact they will likely package on 1 skin for $10 and then charge you $25 for 3 of the same mech

i will be disappointed if they follow the TT rules to the letter, those rules were never that great and should been fixed and tweaked greatly.

Edited by Bloody, 26 September 2015 - 01:53 PM.

[Signal27]

Kraftwerkedup, on 26 September 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

I absolutely dont think Jordan is "bringing the TT to the PC". Shadowrun surely wasnt bringing the pen and paper to the PC.

And thank God for that!

[Kraftwerkedup]

And at its core, Battletech is about anything and everything that can go wrong, going wrong. Thats the "fun".

That the AC2 hit to the head, can kill your 1/1 pilot in an Atlas, who doubles as your HR admin, and you cant buy anymore parts on your campaign, and you keep failing your 'find personnel' roll on some ridiculously crappy outer rim world, faced with the real possibility that you might not have enough cbills to rent transport to get all your remaining forces home.

Theres no way you can make that work within the context of "unfolding a linear story".

Battletech is ALL ABOUT being non linear.

Thats why PGI has done such a bad job at this, and why Activision and Zipper did bad jobs too. When you make the game linear, it ceases to be Battletech. Then its just big stompy robots.


That everything can go unbelievably wrong in Battletech is a huge part of its charm and success. Nothing beats getting cracked in the face by a large laser, losing your life support, your pilot going unconcious, your mech falling faced down in level 0 water, and your pilot drowning, then the autoeject going off, sending your now dead and bloated pilot, careening into the chest of the mech that fell you.


THAT is Battletech.

Edited by Kraftwerkedup, 26 September 2015 - 01:54 PM.

[Xetelian]

You're more than welcome to put some money down and then give your awards to me if you're not going to play.

[stjobe]

Kraftwerkedup, on 26 September 2015 - 01:46 PM, said:

I absolutely dont think Jordan is "bringing the TT to the PC". Shadowrun surely wasnt bringing the pen and paper to the PC. Neither game/main quest line, works anything like the TT, and is ridiculously short in scope. Most runners dont have long lives, but no TT of Shadowrun I ever played had such large plots, as much combat, or as standard do mission-get reward gameplay.

If I've understood the interviews I've read correctly, it's going to be an open-ended lance-sized mercenary company campaign based on the Mercenary Handbook source-book, and it is going to be set in 3025. So no Clans for this game, at least.

Signal27, on 26 September 2015 - 01:47 PM, said:

See, that's actually a double-edged sword in my mind. I don't immediately think that just because you brought on the guy who made the original

They haven't "brought the guy on", it's his company. He started it, and they're making computer games based on the pen-and-paper or tabletop games he has created. So far, they've been really successful with three Shadowrun games partially funded by Kickstarter. All have been delivered on time and met all the promised goals.

[Kraftwerkedup]

stjobe, on 26 September 2015 - 01:54 PM, said:

If I've understood the interviews I've read correctly, it's going to be an open-ended lance-sized mercenary company campaign based on the Mercenary Handbook source-book, and it is going to be set in 3025. So no Clans for this game, at least.

Im not ashamed to say I just wet myself.

[C E Dwyer]

I'm undecided on supporting it, I want to know its format

If it is going to run a Total war type campaign with battle maps that generate around the area your in, it will be fantastic, if made half decent

If it uses a turn based company of hero's style system it will suck