4 replies to this topic

[Hit the Deck]

Do you think that it will make more people play the TT game? Here in Indonesia, there are only a handful of people in big cities who play 40K but they even admit that seeing the miniatures is something which attracted them to the game in the first place.

Edited by Hit the Deck, 10 March 2016 - 01:09 AM.

[ice trey]

Not really.

Catalyst can't get the rights for the miniatures, because Fasa sold them off at fire-sale prices to Ironwind before shutting down. Iron Wind is unlikely to give up the rights, as it's their cash cow. Pretty much anything else that IWM makes is a joke and they'd have gone bankrupt long ago, without it.

...but at the same time, there is an aesthetic to each era in Battletech. 3025 stuff is meant to be all beat up, old, and ugly. PGI missed the mark on that one, badly. Many players tend to think that the 'mechs just outright stopped being made in the 80s, but they're still making new ones, now. The new ones are more often than not made with modern tastes in mind, but still with the art budget that you'd expect from a "It's not games workshop and we won't charge you $250 for one mini" line of minis. PGI is charging people the price of entire games for one 'mech, so they've got money to blow. Most tabletop games have really REALLY frugal players who refuse to spend money on things at all.

Then there's the whole issue of retconning art with the "New Hotness". Well, you replace the Atlas, and now the more modern Mauler looks old and outdated. Replace that and the Berserker looks like a pile of junk in comparison... We're looking at literal hundreds of 'mechs that they'd have to scrape enough money to pay artists to design and sculpt. That's a budget that PGI could probably fart out on a whim, but unless your name isn't Wizards of the Coast or GW then it's not happening in the games world. Then there's the backlash of old players who "Liked the old ones better", and potentially alienate them, costing you your up-until-now loyal player base.

The other thing? Catalyst doesn't make money from minis. The opposite of GW, their sales structure focuses on moving books and PDFs. They aren't revisiting 3025, nor are they planning to, because new players either buy the introbox and nothing else, or they immediately move to Total Warfare and get into Jihad and Dark Age-era technologies, That, or Alpha Strike and the difference between knowing how to use a Commando and a Rokurokubi is negligible. Those players who want to play the old 3025 stuff are often grognards who've not put a single dollar into Battletech product since the mid 90s or earlier. One out of every maybe ten grognards have showed the slightest sign of supporting new content, even though great supporting books like the Historical series would give them exactly what they want. The unseen are getting remade now, but that's because there's been a gap in the lineup with no art ever since FASA went through the licensing legal issues. For stuff that already has art, there's really no good reason for a shoe-string budget company to pay redo the art unless they're guaranteed doing so will make them more than that money back.

Moving away from money issues for the company, as a player of minis games, I've found that the players who get into a game for the minis don't tend to stick around for very long. If it's the art that they're after, they'll jump on the next new hotness that comes around. What keeps players on is usually the core game itself, or the universe that is created around it. Battletech has that, in spades.

Battletech will *never* have the popularity of 40K again, but that's OK in my books, because it's not everyone's speed, and someone has to be the alternative. We're the alternative choice for those who don't want to put the hobby before the game, those who don't want to be forced to take out a mortgage to buy an army, and those who like stories that grow and progress rather than remain stagnant and unchanging (Looking at you, 3025 grognards)

The other thing 40K has going for it, (And clearly going for it in your case, as well) is that most people who get into minis games do it because they can see other people doing it. This "Rich get richer" thing is what's been keeping 40K the king for as long as it has. Same can be said with Magic the Gathering. There've probably been much better games out there, but once a games' community hits critical mass and has momentum, it'll keep going until something changes. I'd done my part by tracking down people and playing Battletech in the LGS where it could be seen, but there are many more people who play Battletech more like an RPG at home with a close group of friends. If you get out there and seen regularly, you'll attract more interest.

Long story short, the introbox has cheap mechs so that you can play. If you want cooler looking stuff, play modern era, or 3D print your own. Catalyst only cares if you're paying for their books. Just don't start selling 3D printed or recast minis because that's the quick path to legal trouble.

Edited by ice trey, 10 March 2016 - 02:57 AM.

[martian]

Another problem is the unavailability of miniatures for many new 'Mechs. Take my FWL, for example:

I need a fast harasser for my new FWLM force:
Gambit - not available

I need some modern FWL medium 'Mechs:
Sarath
Thunder Fox
Avalanche
Quasimodo
Not available.

I need a trooper 'Mech described as one of the mainstays of the new FWL:
Anzu
Not available.

I need a FWL heavy cavalry 'Mech:
Scourge
IWM does not offer it.

I need a Dark Age FWL brawler:
Neanderthal
Are you surprised that it's not available?

Then surely I can buy a LRM-boat from the TRO: Prototypes. After all, IWM has had five years to manufacture the mini:
Pandarus
Of course I can't buy it because its mini does not exist.

I need some modern juggernaut that's described as the backbone of FWL assault units:
Juliano
Not produced ...

Technical Readout. 3145 was published years ago and even after all those years, I can't buy miniatures needed for my faction's army because IWM has not bothered with their production ...

Edited by martian, 11 March 2016 - 09:19 PM.

[Wonderdog]

I'd love to see catalyst work around the issue by adapting the MWO models into tabletop by making them in plastic or resin or something, in order to work around the IWM license issue.

[martian]

Wonderdog, on 17 March 2016 - 12:54 PM, said:

I'd love to see catalyst work around the issue by adapting the MWO models into tabletop by making them in plastic or resin or something, in order to work around the IWM license issue.

It's not that simple. If nothing else, those MWO 'Mechs are designs of a different company (PGI).

Do you remember that problem with those Unseen 'Mechs? Since then CGL has been extremely reluctant to use 'Mech designs produced/designed by some other company.