22 replies to this topic

[Tom Sawyer]

[color=#282828]Official Multiplayer Backer Beta Is LIVE![/color]

Posted by Harebrained Schemes LLC (Creator)

After weeks of gathering data from our Double-Secret Multiplayer Beta and more weeks of revising our network architecture to allow the Global BattleTech Community to easily play together, we are happy (and relieved) to announce that the Official Multiplayer Backer Beta Is LIVE on Steam. We hope you enjoy your multiplayer matches as much as we enjoy ours.
If you are at the MECHWARRIOR Backer level or above and have already downloaded the game, Steam will automatically update the Beta to include the multiplayer mode. No password is needed and no action is required to start playing against others right away.
We’d like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to the brave Double-Secret Multiplayer Beta testers who provided invaluable data and feedback during this early testing period. Your support has benefitted your fellow Backers, our community, and all the folks who are about to find out how cool the BattleTech universe is.
This final beta release is intended to test our multiplayer code with a larger sample of players around the world. You won't find any new combat features, very many balance changes (beyond those we've already done), or additional content in the update, much as we would love it. It was simply too much for our small team to keep the Beta and Production versions of the game in synch for months - or to attempt to update the Beta now after months of adding new code and content.
The Skirmish & Multiplayer Backer Beta will remain open through the end of the year. After that, the Beta will be shut down in preparation for the upcoming launch of the full game. Folks can still purchase Beta Access (and Backers can still upgrade their reward level) until Friday, December 1st.
If you’re looking for a match, head over to the Beta matchmaking sub-forum to find other MechCommanders ready for some Heavy Metal Mayhem! And if you’re eligible for the beta and haven’t downloaded it yet, this is your last call - head over to the Backer Beta PDF Manual to get instructions for getting your Steam Key from your BackerKit account, downloading the game, and how to play the game.
Have fun! Melt cockpits!
--HBS
P.S. Oh, and if you missed our last update, check out all the new campaign screenshots we shared!

Like

Comment on Kickstarter

[KodiakGW]

And the mass exodus begins.

Edit: For those of you saying, or will be saying, that it won’t ... I sincerely hope you are right. Really, I am. I hope this post lights a fire in you that you continue playing this heavily just to prove me wrong. Because, I’ve already said, I have no interest in an RNG based game. So I won’t be playing that.

Only time will tell. The December leaderboard numbers will hold the truth.

Edited by KodiakGW, 28 November 2017 - 07:26 AM.

[N a p e s]

Players who are here for Battletech will migrate, others will stay because they're looking for a mech piloting gameplay. I guess we'll have to see how the player population is divided in that regard.

[mouser42]

Been playing both as well as other games which a lot of players do so this speculation that mwo player base is going to jump off a sinking drop ship is lame. I'm happy we have two different options of the battle universe to explore with the 3rd coming next year. Thank you for all the hard work.

[Almond Brown]

Well one good thing about BattleTech, the 4 MechWarriors on your Team have to listen to what you tell them to do, so there is that. LOL!

[knight-of-ni]

I'm playing both.

It's been great learning how certain mechs, considered underperformers in mwo, are quite good in Battletech.

Then there are certain scenarios which play out differently. For example, in MWO, 4 lights on an Atlas is certain death for that Atlas. Not necessarily so in Battletech.

Of course, anyone who has consistently played TT would likely argue that is how it was meant to be.

[PyckenZot]

KodiakGW, on 28 November 2017 - 05:29 AM, said:

And the mass exodus begins.

The amount of players in MWO that are so Battletech afficiando that they play only this game and will now move to playing only Battletech is so minute they will have no impact on queues.

Edited by PyckenZot, 28 November 2017 - 07:14 AM.

[C E Dwyer]

There will be people that leave, I don't see it will be a mass exodus.

I can see those that stay spending less, but the games are really chalk and cheese.

Impact on queues unlikely, they're already pretty bad as far as a balanced close match

[Asym]

I wouldn't be so sure of that Lad....

Last night there were some serious TS discussion at the team level as to where to hang our hats and where to play.
Concensus was that "something" will happen and where might involve a massive move. WoW was discussed as well since we could not find any FP yesterday: none..... What is the point if no one is playing.... We'll all keep our accounts and play occassionally but, the team mass will go somehwere else in a few weeks. I have brothers in WoW and they are going to "coach" us into that game.

I wouldn't be too sure of that...........it's been going on since May and getting a lot worse along the way.

[Tordin]

I will play both BT and MWO AND MW5Mercs when it arrives.
I dont get the doomsday babble about exoduses and leaving MWO dead in the water. Nonsense, if anything, the more Battletech games there is the better. Spreading the word about this grand franchise and hopefully bash down the barricade that hinders more attention to Battletech that is Harmony gold... erm crap.

[KingCobra]

I personally think most MWO players that are left will continue to play both games most have money invested in MWO and will continue to support it until it dies.

Myself i still play a few times a month only compared to playing every night in closed beta and i personally do not fund the game now but others will.

PGI Devs I think are done with MWO development and have moved on leaving the game to lesser personnel to run the game could be turned around and fixed but it would take dedication and time to do so I personally just don't see it happening so I will just ride the game out untill its last days.

[Asym]

I never played the board games and found mech commander boring. this will siphon off players though.

[mogs01gt]

blah, I didnt buy the guy for MM. I wanted the story line.

[ocular tb]

I’ve played the new BT game and think it can be fun but it’s a different kind of fun than MWO. Vastly different games and not direct replacements for one another. The combat in this game, especially in a light mech, is the most fun I have in any game and the new BT game doesn’t have anything like that. So no, I won’t be abandoning MWO for BT.

Obviously some will go but I don’t think the servers will suddenly and permanently go empty.

[Bud Crue]

I don’t think there will be a noticeable affect on player population numbers until BT is out of beta. It still has limited availability to the extent that folks who took a wait and see attitude are not yet playing. Until it is a generally available title I don’t expect a lot of folks will be fleeing MWO in droves.

I do fear however that when BT is generally available, a significant portion of the lorenerd and TT enthusiast population will go and give it a try and many will not come back (assuming it is a good game and scratches the BT itch) or will at least be playing MWO significantly less. Even best case, that’s going to impact wait times in MWO adversely and affect PGI’s bottom line.

[SFC174]

I honestly don't know what will happen. I personally can't stand turn based games like BT (played em as board games, but it seems to wrong as an online game, just me I suppose). But I know a lot of people are looking forward to it.

As much as I ***** about team dynamics in Solo queue drops, the randomness and uniqueness of each drop is part of the attraction.

[Mole]

I have no interest in a turn based strategy game. I never played TT and instead grew up playing Mechwarrior video games. I'm here for Mechwarrior, not Battletech. I want to be in the pilot seat. So I won't be going anywhere and I'm sure there are a pile of people who feel the same as me.

[Bud Crue]

Mole, on 28 November 2017 - 09:08 AM, said:

I have no interest in a turn based strategy game. I never played TT and instead grew up playing Mechwarrior video games. I'm here for Mechwarrior, not Battletech. I want to be in the pilot seat. So I won't be going anywhere and I'm sure there are a pile of people who feel the same as me.

I’m certain many if not most players of MWO feel the same way. There is however some portion of folks who play MWO that play it for the IP, the lore, the connection to the BT universe, etc. If these folks go give BT a try and then decide they like it better, have only the time to play one or the other, etc. and it gets them their BT/MW fix; then that is some portion of the current population doing something other than playing MWO. Is that number a few hundred players or a few thousand? Regardless, it seems to me that MWO needs all the population it can get, and BT will be siphoning off some portion of that population.

Regardless of the actual numbers, I fear what that loss (temporary, intermittent or otherwise) will mean to wait times, the effect it will have on the MM, and more importantly to PGI’s bottom line.

[Daurock]

Bud Crue, on 28 November 2017 - 09:20 AM, said:

I’m certain many if not most players of MWO feel the same way. There is however some portion of folks who play MWO that play it for the IP, the lore, the connection to the BT universe, etc. If these folks go give BT a try and then decide they like it better, have only the time to play one or the other, etc. and it gets them their BT/MW fix; then that is some portion of the current population doing something other than playing MWO. Is that number a few hundred players or a few thousand? Regardless, it seems to me that MWO needs all the population it can get, and BT will be siphoning off some portion of that population.

Regardless of the actual numbers, I fear what that loss (temporary, intermittent or otherwise) will mean to wait times, the effect it will have on the MM, and more importantly to PGI’s bottom line.

We could look at the flipside of this too. A new battletech game out there may draw new eyes to MWO, and/or draw some eyes that were here in past years back to the game. I don't think the effect is going to be huge in either case, but you never know.

(And as a sidenote, any decent battletech game out there is good for the franchise, whether it be MWO, MW5, or a different successor.)

[Mole]

Bud Crue, on 28 November 2017 - 09:20 AM, said:

I’m certain many if not most players of MWO feel the same way. There is however some portion of folks who play MWO that play it for the IP, the lore, the connection to the BT universe, etc. If these folks go give BT a try and then decide they like it better, have only the time to play one or the other, etc. and it gets them their BT/MW fix; then that is some portion of the current population doing something other than playing MWO. Is that number a few hundred players or a few thousand? Regardless, it seems to me that MWO needs all the population it can get, and BT will be siphoning off some portion of that population.

Regardless of the actual numbers, I fear what that loss (temporary, intermittent or otherwise) will mean to wait times, the effect it will have on the MM, and more importantly to PGI’s bottom line.

The way I see it, most of the lorehards that would flock to the new Battletech have become so upset with the direction MWO has taken that they have already stopped playing.