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Game News BattleTech Kickstarter Update #42: Delayed to Early 2018, Beta update coming this week

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: BattleTech; Harebrained Schemes; Jordan Weisman

Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech made good money on Kickstarter back in 2015 by tapping into a hungry audience of BattleTech grognards. But grognards are a picky bunch and they've had plenty of feedback to offer on the recently released backer beta. Harebrained had originally planned to release the final game this year, but combined with the additional time it's taking them to get multiplayer working, they've decided to delay it to "early 2018". In the meantime, the beta will be updated this week with the new features they've been working on, with multiplayer to be released soon after. The new Kickstarter update has the full details:

Skirmish Beta Update This Week

Great news! An update to our Single-Player Skirmish Beta is coming later this week (we’ll send out another Kickstarter Update when it’s live). Thank you SO MUCH for all of your time submitting survey responses and discussing the Beta on the forums. This communication has been invaluable, and we've pushed a pretty significant set of gameplay & balancing changes to the Beta in direct response to your feedback.

The details will be in a complete change log and in your updated Beta Manual upon release, but here are some highlights:
  • Evasion, Sensor Lock, and Evasive Move have received major revisions.
  • Morale has been replaced with a new system intended to reduce the snowball effect of early game advantages.
  • Weapon balance has been tuned on a variety of weapons.
  • Crits are more frequent and powerful. Components and ammo now require only one crit to be destroyed, while weapons become damaged on the first crit (+2 Difficulty to-hit) and destroyed on the second.
  • A/C damage has been reduced (previous: 25/50/75/100, current: 25/45/60/100) for AC2, 5, 10, and 20 respectively.
  • Global heat has been tuned down by about 10%.
  • Water doesn't increase heat dissipation as much (previous: 200%, current: 150%)
  • Stability damage accumulates slower and also bleeds slower, and in larger discrete chunks.
  • MechWarriors now have two abilities, which increases their usefulness and flexibility.
  • An eyeball icon appears on enemy units if they will have LOS on you after you make the move you’re plotting.
Beyond these gameplay mechanics, this beta update also includes:
  • A big, tasty update to AI that includes enemies using MechWarrior abilities, making called shots on prone or shut down units, using Death From Above, and generally messing up your life.
  • A Settings Menu that allows you to change your settings and remap your keyboard shortcuts. (Currently only available from the Main Menu.)
  • Some UI changes/enhancements both in combat and the skirmish setup screens.
Enjoy! And please continue to fill out your surveys after each match. They’ve proven very valuable! We'll publish a complete list of changes when the Beta Update goes live.

Launch Window Update

Hi everyone,

As you may remember, the original release estimate listed in our Kickstarter campaign was for delivery of the BATTLETECH Base Skirmish Game. With each additional Funding Stage unlocked - Single-Player Story Campaign, Expanded Mercenary Campaign, and PVP Multiplayer - more time and team members were added for the additional work.

We’d previously been projecting a late 2017 release but now that we’ve revised our AI & combat mechanics in reaction to your feedback, completed a thorough review of the work remaining on the game, and are poised to release the Multiplayer Backer Beta update, all indications are that Paradox & HBS will release BATTLETECH in early 2018.

Throughout development, the message we’ve received has been clear, “Don’t rush it, just make it great.” and we have taken that to heart. All of us - HBS, Paradox, and our Backers - share a deeply personal attachment to this project and we are committed to delivering a game that not only meets your high expectations but introduces BattleTech to a new generation of players.

With that said, I’m happy to report that solid progress continues across the project! We are now able to play the open-ended mercenary campaign “loop” and I have to say that when you’re counting your C-bills and caring about your MechWarriors’ health and survival, you approach combat missions differently which imbues every turn with a ton of dramatic tension. And the upcoming upgrade to our AI is going to make you think hard about how you engage the enemy!

As Mitch mentioned in our last update, we’ve made a ton of progress on all the component pieces of the game and this phase of development is all about bringing them together - the core combat game, the mercenary simulation aboard the Argo, the single-player story and cinematics, the open-ended mercenary mission system, the ‘Mech customization system… it’s a lot of stuff and it’s exciting to see it all getting stitched together and “upleveled” with art, audio, UI, and writing.

It really is an exciting time on the project and I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s finally done. Thanks again for all your support!
As stated, the previous update from late June has more details about the progress of BattleTech's development, though how relevant that is now I'm not sure. Whatever happens, it's great that there's a fanbase dedicated to helping make this game as tight as possible. The Shadowrun games didn't really have that.
 

Konflyto

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Yeah, awesome game. Full developed, and man, the lack of bugs at release. Time well spent.
Since you probably loved it anyway, let's hope mechwarrior gets released and buggy as Grimoire, right?
 

Junmarko

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Yeah, awesome game. Full developed, and man, the lack of bugs at release. Time well spent.
Since you probably loved it anyway, let's hope mechwarrior gets released and buggy as Grimoire, right?
You just compared a one-man-band and his 19 year hobby, to an actual development studio with full-time employees (and a track record of quality).
Yeah, awesome game. Full developed, and man, the lack of bugs at release. Time well spent.
Since you probably loved it anyway, let's hope mechwarrior gets released and buggy as Grimoire, right?
Quality-control = diminished quality?

Are you from the land of opposites?
 
Last edited:

Konflyto

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Yeah, awesome game. Full developed, and man, the lack of bugs at release. Time well spent.
Since you probably loved it anyway, let's hope mechwarrior gets released and buggy as Grimoire, right?
You just compared a one-man-band and his 19 year hobby, to an actual development studio with full-time employees (and a track record of quality).
Yeah, awesome game. Full developed, and man, the lack of bugs at release. Time well spent.
Since you probably loved it anyway, let's hope mechwarrior gets released and buggy as Grimoire, right?
Are you from the land of opposites?

No, read again. But yeah, a 19 year hobby, so it should be reviewed and played differently? The point i was addressing was "More delay = better game". So yeah, he took 19 years. A development studio doesn't have 19 years, can we agree here? How much time do they have it's up to the management and development. Again, the whole point is: If you delay too much the game, you will lose confidence from your backers (Numenera feelings here) and hype. Even if it's true that you should take your time improving the game, it's not wise to set a release date and delay again. And again. And again. Numenera problem wasn't it delivered too fast: it was bad management AND bad choices. Damn, they didn't even delivered what was promised.

But if you think the hype won't fade away, don't go too far: Read the topic about mount & blade 2. You see happy people or hungry ones? Yeah..
 

Namutree

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Multi-player is likely the problem. Screw Multi-player.

The amount of work it adds to the project (not to mention fundamental balancing changes that lead to a less enjoyable single-player experience) isn't justified by the additional funds the promise of it added to the funding. Kinda reminds me of the Stronghold in Pillars of Eternity.
 

Iznaliu

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Multi-player is likely the problem. Screw Multi-player.

The amount of work it adds to the project (not to mention fundamental balancing changes that lead to a less enjoyable single-player experience) isn't justified by the additional funds the promise of it added to the funding. Kinda reminds me of the Stronghold in Pillars of Eternity.

AI in strategy games is usually terrible, so multiplayer is a key part of the experience. Releasing a strategy game without multiplayer is like giving birth to a baby with one leg.
 

Grotesque

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I have to say that when you’re counting your C-bills and caring about your MechWarriors’ health and survival, you approach combat missions differently which imbues every turn with a ton of dramatic tension

Yeah, seeing is believing it.
 

Molzey75

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"AI in strategy games is usually terrible, so multiplayer is a key part of the experience. Releasing a strategy game without multiplayer is like giving birth to a baby with one leg."
Fuck you and fuck your multiplayer. Fuck your multi with power of the Sun itself.
I don't need, I don't WANT any fuckin' apes in my strategic masturbation.
 

Iznaliu

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"AI in strategy games is usually terrible, so multiplayer is a key part of the experience. Releasing a strategy game without multiplayer is like giving birth to a baby with one leg."
Fuck you and fuck your multiplayer. Fuck your multi with power of the Sun itself.
I don't need, I don't WANT any fuckin' apes in my strategic masturbation.

You can't even quote someone properly.
 

DeepOcean

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The AI doesn't rage quit, get butthurt and call you names, is a lazy motherfucker and you can play with it any time you want for how long you want, those attributes alone make it better. When Google releases the Google Skynet, it will be better at strategy games than most player out there so the only human advantage is lost.
 

Namutree

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The AI doesn't rage quit, get butthurt and call you names, is a lazy motherfucker and you can play with it any time you want for how long you want, those attributes alone make it better. When Google releases the Google Skynet, it will be better at strategy games than most player out there so the only human advantage is lost.
Good AI is overrated anyways. The game is about completing missions and running a mercenary team; not play a match of wits against an even opponent. Not to say that good AI is a problem or not a nice thing to have, but given the context of the game itself, as long as the AI is at least competent, it's good enough.

Multi-player is however, a borderline worthless feature that demands enormous compromises on the game's depth (more complicated games are harder to balance) and ability to provide a solid single player experience. As DeepOcean mentioned, AI doesn't rage quit, get butthurt, acts lazy or play frustratingly slowly. Not to mention one doesn't need the internet active, nor do you need to worry about the other party's internet connection.

Multi-player is a feature usually best left to exclusively multi-player games. Being a middle market game, battle-tech can't deliver a high quality single player AND multi-player experience. 99% chance that the multi-player is mediocre and not worth investing much play time into, and even finding a match will be nearly impossible a few years after release; all at the expense of what could have been a great single-player game.
 

Infinitron

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The multiplayer isn't an entirely different game mode like a deathmatch mode attached to a single player FPS campaign. It simply allows you play a PvP tactical skirmish (a single player mode that already exists) against another player instead of the AI.
 

Iznaliu

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The multiplayer isn't an entirely different game mode like a deathmatch mode attached to a single player FPS campaign. It simply allows you play a PvP tactical skirmish (a single player mode that already exists) against another player instead of the AI.

Don't tell people those things called facts, Infinitron.
 

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