Battletech |KS| Turn-based tactical mech combat, Harebrained Schemes, Summer 2017

Looks good.
Unfortunate they've made some shit worldbuilding decisions (i dislike both the Argo and the new Periphery nation, i see both pointless additions that merely mess things in Battletech universe rather than being good additions). (Before you ask, i'm very much a purist when it comes to Battletech.)
Pretty sure i won't back any sequels, even if this one ends up being a good game.
 
Lime said:
They've made it pretty clear that they want to do a Clans expansion after this. Mitch has been basically yelling it :P

As a huge MW2 fan, that is my fantasy to have a Clans game again. We haven't had their perspective in over 20 years-
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Disregarding MWO?
 
Hendrick's said:
Disregarding MWO?
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MWO is a F2P multiplayer game with zero story, no campaign, no characters, and almost no lore, and clans and IS mechs are battling together.

It's more of an arcade arena game than anything related to the universe, at least from a narrative standpoint
 
Woorloog said:
Looks good.
Unfortunate they've made some shit worldbuilding decisions (i dislike both the Argo and the new Periphery nation, i see both pointless additions that merely mess things in Battletech universe rather than being good additions). (Before you ask, i'm very much a purist when it comes to Battletech.)
Pretty sure i won't back any sequels, even if this one ends up being a good game.
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No, really?
 
Poodlestrike said:
No, really?
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You should have avatar quoted yourself as a response to my post, lol. I figure that would more accurately represent what you're thinking than just "no, really?" does.


Seriously, the game looks good. Very much seems to portray the Battletech tabletop game as i imagine it happens. I hope the game won't run like shit though, being Unity-based.
And fortunately the game will have PVP multiplayer, should be fun if the game will be as good as it looks.
 
That video looks sooooo good. I am super excited at how this is coming along. The combat is looking how I'd hoped it would. My hype for this has increased dramatically.
 
Woorloog said:
You should have avatar quoted yourself as a response to my post, lol. I figure that would more accurately represent what you're thinking than just "no, really?" does.


Seriously, the game looks good. Very much seems to portray the Battletech tabletop game as i imagine it happens. I hope the game won't run like shit though, being Unity-based.
And fortunately the game will have PVP multiplayer, should be fun if the game will be as good as it looks.
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Actually, the semi-sarcastic "no, really?" is what I was thinking, lol. You do you bro, not gonna facepalm just 'cause you're a purist 'bout BT lore. It's just the added "yeah, I'm a purist" that stuck out to me :P

Also, avatar selfquoting is only done by heathen degenerates.
 
I generally just assume the worst in internet. Saves time and trouble usually... lol.

I need an avatar for suitable self-avatar-quoting...
 
Lime said:
MWO is a F2P multiplayer game with zero story, no campaign, no characters, and almost no lore, and clans and IS mechs are battling together.

It's more of an arcade arena game than anything related to the universe, at least from a narrative standpoint
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They're currently working on a singleplayer campaign. It's pretty far off though.

Finger crossed for it ending up amazing.
 
Saw Shadowrun in the title and, while I have never really been a Battletech fan, this looks quite cool. I'm a big fan of the Shadowrun Returns games, and this seems to be a well thought out effort.
 
I can't remember but will pilots be voiced in combat? I loved everyone in Mechcommander with all their nice little remarks and yells.

"This is Mantis, that last shot injured me!"
"Scratch one enemy mech"
"I'm taking fire over here"
"Ejecting!"
"Spare parts for everyone!"
"Another one bites the dust!"

Etc.
 
Lime said:
I can't remember but will pilots be voiced in combat? I loved everyone in Mechcommander with all their nice little remarks and yells.

"This is Mantis, that last shot injured me!"
"Scratch one enemy mech"
"I'm taking fire over here"
"Ejecting!"
"Spare parts for everyone!"
"Another one bites the dust!"

Etc.
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There was combat chatter in the video. Is that what you mean?
 
K.Jack said:
Has been stated during quite a few of the Town Halls done by Russ Bullock.

The newish mission in the Academy where waves of mechs attack you is them working on the PvE AI.
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Whoa whoa whoa... Is it going to be a proper Mechwarrior campaign? A new title? A numbered MW title??
 
Justinian said:
Whoa whoa whoa... Is it going to be a proper Mechwarrior campaign? A new title? A numbered MW title??
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No, no and no.

Just a campaign for MWO. Honestly, i expect it to be more of a mere PVE stuff (existing maps, some mission objectives and AI slapped on top, but that's just my guess).
PGI does operate on "minimum viability" model. DO NOT expect anything good from them. Otherwise you will be disappointed badly.
 
Justinian said:
Whoa whoa whoa... Is it going to be a proper Mechwarrior campaign? A new title? A numbered MW title??
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It'll be PvE with little story. The only thing we can expect for sure it'll be a form that allows PGI to exploit their consumers with paid content.
 
I've been reading their forums and came across this tidbit in regards to their development of AI:

'll just say this: in Shadowrun Returns, the ai was a linear script of about 30 lines. In Dragonfall, it was a script of about 80 lines. Our pre-alpha AI is just that - pre alpha, and very stupid.


The final ai is being written by a dedicated AI engineer who's a machine learning and decision tree expert that used to work at Google, doing pattern prediction work.


Avoiding the simplistic ai of shadowrun is the entire reason we hired him.
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One thing that I'm missing while watching the video is movement and firing. Since this will be turn-based, the mechs won't be moving while firing (I assume?), and that was one of the cool strategic things to do in Mechcommander (real-time) was moving the mechs around while they were firing at enemies with the help of torso twist.
 
Lime said:
One thing that I'm missing while watching the video is movement and firing. Since this will be turn-based, the mechs won't be moving while firing (I assume?), and that was one of the cool strategic things to do in Mechcommander (real-time) was moving the mechs around while they were firing at enemies with the help of torso twist.
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Not sure, but in the gameplay video torso turning is counted into the movement allowance, so the slower mechs will have to sacrifice movement to turn themselves.
 
Lime said:
One thing that I'm missing while watching the video is movement and firing. Since this will be turn-based, the mechs won't be moving while firing (I assume?), and that was one of the cool strategic things to do in Mechcommander (real-time) was moving the mechs around while they were firing at enemies with the help of torso twist.
Click to expand...

I think they mentioned this was part of the rules though, obviously abstracted to fit turn based game play.

The mroe you move in a turn, the harder it is for you to hit targets, but in turn, the harder ti is for other to target you. So you can use movement to help protect yourself, and I wouldn't be surprised if some mechs are better able to compensate for motion when firing, essentially firing on the go as it were. And as mentioned, torso movement is part of the quaiton too. Smaller mechs are going to be slippery suckers when going against the big ones.

Man, this game is looking fantastic, can't wait!
 
Sarna.net had an interview with Jordan: (I really like that they're using initiatives in order to make light mechs useful for both scouting and flanking)

Even before we launched the Kickstarter, we had been developing a prototype of the game. Prototype development took us all the way through to about two months ago. We had one engineer assigned to the prototype, which we were using to evolve all the play mechanics.

We went through lots of different types of initiative systems, turn-orders, and all sorts of stuff. Experimenting through all of that.

Simultaneously, the majority of the engineering team was working on the actual architecture that the real game would be built on. And about two months ago, we stopped development on the prototype because we had learned everything we could, and we were very confident of our gameplay mechanics. We started re-implementing all of that now, on the actual architecture.

So what we’re seeing here is the actual game, not the prototype. This is what we consider the Super Pre-Alpha.

To put that more in context, we consider about 70% of the core combat loop finished. Visuals are in the 80% range — it’ll get a little bit prettier, but it’s already damn pretty.
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On communicating complexity to players:

Jordan: So that’s one of the reasons that drove us to the initiative and turn order we’ve done here. But we still have a long way to go. For instance, criticals are still not being communicated well, and what happened to damaged locations — all of a sudden you can’t use a weapon any more? We don’t yet tie that to the fact that you got your arm blown off. That’s where we still have work to do with communication.
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On milestones and the heavy amount of work that is required:
We’re about 70% done finishing the core combat loop. And then once that’s done, we can start building the ecosystems around it.

There’s a whole other simulation layer of the economics of running a mercenary company that has to be built around this. And then finally, all of the different missions.

So that’s why we have to lock this down.

With our demo today, people are like “Oh you’re ready to ship!” Uh… no. No, we’re not. We have a year of content to build to make a campaign that’s deep and rich.

Nic: And some of what I’m looking forward to most is that other simulation, the mercenary simulation — getting salvage, managing your unit and MechWarriors.

Jordan: One, we have to build that, and two, there’s a lot of balancing we’ll have to work out. An economic sim is a delicate balance, especially when you’re doing an economic sim surrounding a combat system. There’s a lot of component balance that we have to work on.
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Employees and out-sourcing:
Jordan: Right now, the team is about 30 people, and will probably grow by another 5 or 6 people. So at peak, we’ll have around a 35 person team.

We also have a large budget dedicated to work done out-of-house, i.e. contractors to work on art and various other things.
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Destructible environments:
Will there be any destructive terrain, such as catching things on fire or anything like that?

Jordan: Yes and no. Our goal is anything that’s man-made can be man-destroyed. You’re not moving mountains or digging out hills, or anything like that.

Trees, as you saw, will split as you move through them. Our next goal is that when you hit them, they fall down. We’re also hopeful that we’re going to be able to have fire start and fire spread through forested areas and stuff.
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Early access and beta for $50 & Up backers this winter (goal)
Jordan: Yeah, we’re looking at the game releasing about a year from now.

One of the things that we’ve heard so many times at the show is: “Can I please just have this? I want the whole campaign, but can I have this part earlier?”

So that’s something we’re going to talk about when we go home — the potential of doing a Steam Early Access release that might have skirmish mode by itself before the campaign.

The beta, for Kickstarter backers, is going to be this winter.
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Additional features if the game sells well (beyond the Kickstarter)
The good thing is, if this game sells well enough, then it gives us the opportunity to add other features that people have been asking for like co-op, multiplayer with 2×2 teams, and start moving through the universe timeline.
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co-op and 2 x 2 teams sounds amazing, I hope the game does sell incredibly well
 
Lime said:
Sarna.net had an interview with Jordan: (I really like that they're using initiatives in order to make light mechs useful for both scouting and flanking)



On communicating complexity to players:



On milestones and the heavy amount of work that is required:


Employees and out-sourcing:


Destructible environments:


Early access and beta for $50 & Up backers this winter (goal)


Additional features if the game sells well (beyond the Kickstarter)


co-op and 2 x 2 teams sounds amazing, I hope the game does sell incredibly well
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As I read this, my grin got wider and wider. Fuckin' HBS, man. They do so good.
 
Lister said:
I think they mentioned this was part of the rules though, obviously abstracted to fit turn based game play.

The mroe you move in a turn, the harder it is for you to hit targets, but in turn, the harder ti is for other to target you. So you can use movement to help protect yourself, and I wouldn't be surprised if some mechs are better able to compensate for motion when firing, essentially firing on the go as it were. And as mentioned, torso movement is part of the quaiton too. Smaller mechs are going to be slippery suckers when going against the big ones.

Man, this game is looking fantastic, can't wait!
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I guess that makes sense, but I'm not sure how you do movement in a turnbased game where the enemy's turn has to have the player's mechs standing still.

I don't see how movement will be part of when your turn is over and I can't see how moving and firing will be an option.
 
Lime said:
I guess that makes sense, but I'm not sure how you do movement in a turnbased game where the enemy's turn has to have the player's mechs standing still.

I don't see how movement will be part of when your turn is over and I can't see how moving and firing will be an option.
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Chance to hit modifier? The system should know the movement data on the last turn.

Or something.

idk.
 
BrokenFiction said:
stopmypeniscanonlygetsoerect.jpg
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LOL, i have that too! :D

So, i watched (skimmed through) the pre alpha gameplay, and the atmosphere looks really good, and the gameplay promising, and some tanks(?) were there... But as some others, I'm somewhat worried about the AI. Did we by any chance got any word from the devs, will there be any form of PVP? Can't remember anymore, and am too lazy to to google and also wanting to keep thread alive :)

Oops sorry... Nvm... 2x2 sounds perfect!!
 
Lime said:
I can't remember but will pilots be voiced in combat? I loved everyone in Mechcommander with all their nice little remarks and yells.

"This is Mantis, that last shot injured me!"
"Scratch one enemy mech"
"I'm taking fire over here"
"Ejecting!"
"Spare parts for everyone!"
"Another one bites the dust!"

Etc.
Click to expand...

'I am receiving directed fire!'

<3 MC SO FREAKING MUCH
 
Teaser of the cinematic cutscenes we can expect

RLUadncsDMvzq.gif


2Zu44QG83sesM.gif


Jenn Tran and the rest of the art team at HBS are seriously amazing
 
Watched the demo. Not a fan of the weapon's damage. Why not follow the lore values?

LRM20 = 20 one damage missiles, etc.
 
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