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Game News BattleTech Kickstarter Update #18: Final 48 Hours

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; Mike McCain; Mitch Gitelman

The BattleTech Kickstarter campaign is now in its final 48 hours, and the funding rate has skyrocketed. The PVP Multiplayer stretch goal now seems like a sure thing, and with all the extra backer missions that Harebrained Schemes have concocted over the past week, there's a good chance all the backer mission rewards are going to unlock as well. For the latest Kickstarter update, they've put together an abridged version of the pitch video for people to share. It also has some details on what Harebrained are planning for the PVP multiplayer feature. I quote:



Almost there! As we charge into the final hours of our Kickstarter campaign, the goal of adding PvP Multiplayer seems within our reach!

There are many reasons that we’re excited about including multiplayer in the game. Our goals for multiplayer range from reconnecting with friends, to making new ones via casual play, to offering organized competitions to test your strategy and tactics against those of other players, all within the incredibly dynamic setting of Solaris VII.

As we’ve seen during our Kickstarter campaign, you have many fond memories of battling friends across the tabletop. Well, those friends may be scattered around the world now, but with the power of multiplayer, you can reconnect across a BATTLETECH battlefield.

As the host of a multiplayer game, you will have control of things like the balance rating / size of each player’s Lance, the choice of arena, map, weather conditions, etc. and of course the victory conditions for the match.

When your friends are not available, we want you to have a good matchmaking system so you can find similarly experienced opponent for casual matches. These casual matches allow you to hone your combat skills against a wide array of other folks’ strategies and tactics without the pressure of your leaderboard standings being at risk.

We also envision a variety of competitive tracks that challenge you to design different types of Lances for different tactical situations - things like arenas periodically hosting championship tournaments which would encourage designing Lances appropriate for that arena, or maybe tournaments based around different victory conditions. That would also encourage players to design Lances appropriate for scouting, territory control, facility destruction, etc.

These organized competitive events would have leaderboards to recognize players’ accomplishments and likely some form of in-game prizes such as ‘Mech components for players that achieve certain levels.

How high can this get? Those of you who aren't allergic to social media can help with the final push by liking and/or sharing Harebrained's Twitter and Facebook shoutouts.
 

M0RBUS

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Well, I guess it's time to put in my 25 hard-earned bucks...
 

Siveon

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Please don't reach multiplayer... please don't reach multiplayer... please don't reach multiplayer...
 

Durwyn

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It's just netcode. The core of the game begs for allowing PvP skirmishing and campaigns. Plus, when taking into consideration the shitty AI in SR, this might even save the game.
 

TwinkieGorilla

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Wow, good for them! I haven't been following this since donating to the Codex campaign early on.
 

Drudkh

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I'm actually very suprised how steadily the pledges have been boosting during these final days. They're so close now i suspect HBS will add in PVP either way.
 

anus_pounder

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Please don't reach multiplayer... please don't reach multiplayer... please don't reach multiplayer...
I'd rather they devote their time on a decent single-player game, since I know I'll never - or at least rarely, play this game in multiplayer. So, selfish reasons of course.

:salute: :bro:

Of course, I'll be D1P(irating) it anyhow, so what do I care? :troll:
 

Sensuki

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Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I must admit I do love competitive multiplayer. IF (very unlikely) the game actually has a good competitive multiplayer, I'd play it.

Unfortunately the reality is it's not a focus of the game so it will be an afterthought kinda thing.
 
Weasel
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Unfortunately the reality is it's not a focus of the game so it will be an afterthought kinda thing.

It's interesting how this campaign was perceived. I thought it was a smart move putting something significant like multiplayer as their top stretch goal, as usually the complaints towards the end of kickstarters are that the last few stretch goals are cosmetic or needless bloat.

The flip side of this is that now many people see multiplayer as some sort of tagged on "afterthought". Their last update went into some detail on their multiplayer plans and in the long run I wonder whether this will end up being seen as a multiplayer game first and foremost. Anything over $2.5m will apparently go on co-op development which would be a good addition.
 

Infinitron

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If they do something like release a Banner Saga: Factions-style multiplayer beta to help balance the game, I can see some people going "omg what is this, I wanted a storyfag single player game".

But they've been emphasizing the story stuff so so much it's hard for me to believe they won't deliver on that front. And that's a good thing. When's the last time we had a good storyfag turn-based strategy/tactical game?
 

Darkzone

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I think that the multiplayer will be just some maps on solaris were 1v1 can play against each other if they want. So it will not influence any single player play.
 

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
fc9c4e5ccacdca5c85d0aa5e415e54a5_original.jpg
 

khavi

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If they do something like release a Banner Saga: Factions-style multiplayer beta to help balance the game, I can see some people going "omg what is this, I wanted a storyfag single player game".
$50 tier has skirmish and MP beta access.

>>> EXPLOSIVE ADDITION! - Access to the MULTIPLAYER GAME BETA. If Stage Four is funded, you’ll be the first to battle in the arenas of Solaris VII and help us balance the game.
But that'll come after the Stage 1 Skirmish mode beta, so who knows what people will actually think. No doubt there will be some complaints.

The multiplayer will be also limited to Solaris VII, and have no impact on the campaign, so I think everyone concerned about it should chill.
 

Luka-boy

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The multiplayer will be also limited to Solaris VII, and have no impact on the campaign
This line worries me.
These organized competitive events would have leaderboards to recognize players’ accomplishments and likely some form of in-game prizes such as ‘Mech components for players that achieve certain levels.
You're following this project closely. Have they said if the multiplayer component is completely separate from the single player campaign or if Solaris is integrated like in MW4M? If it's the former I don't mind stuff like that at all, more like the contrary, but if it shares resources with the single player mode I don't think I like the idea of multiplayer-exclusive components.
 

khavi

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This line worries me.

You're following this project closely. Have they said if the multiplayer component is completely separate from the single player campaign or if Solaris is integrated like in MW4M? If it's the former I don't mind stuff like that at all, more like the contrary, but if it shares resources with the single player mode I don't think I like the idea of multiplayer-exclusive components.

There has been no mention of Solaris integrated into the campaign a la MW4: MERCS. It has been touched on that Solaris VII will have custom maps based on the lore Arenas. However, at this point it has not been clarified if the multiplayer Solaris maps will be available in the PvE Skirmish mode.

This is an excellent question for the stream in a few minutes, so I'll try to get it answered.

I think it would be folly to not re-use the assets in such a fashion. At the very least allowing the Solaris content in the player versus AI base skirmish mode.
 
Weasel
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I think he was talking about the "‘Mech components for players that achieve certain levels" from the competitive events rather than the maps etc. I'd guess those multiplayer tournament prizes aren't used in the single player campaign/story but def a question worth asking
 

khavi

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I think he was talking about the "‘Mech components for players that achieve certain levels" from the competitive events rather than the maps etc. I'd guess those multiplayer tournament prizes aren't used in the single player campaign/story but def a question worth asking
Understood now. I'd imagine that prizes in such a fashion would not be cross-compatible. They have talked about balancing multiplayer and singleplayer components by omission.

(paraphrasing livestream) There may be literal mech components that are exclusive to single player or multiplayer, but what HBS does not want to do is have mech components with different behavior for MP/SP. They would choose to balance by omission in that aspect. Mechs and Variants would be the same for SP/MP.
 

himmy

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I'm not particularly hyped about this game, since mechas are a huge turn off for me, while I know some people might enjoy it. However, I am happy that HBS is doing great with this KS. The first two Shadowrun game were OK and really nice, respectively and the fact that they can still score a cool 2.5 mils on Kickstarter means that crowdfunding isn't the short-lived bubble that some claimed it to be. All in all, good for them!
 

Crescent Hawk

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I bet some people think they are getting something like megamek the videogame, but its clear they are going XCOM. Which might not be a bad thing, if the game translates the mech combat well, we shall see. I really want a good tactical battletech game.
 

Crescent Hawk

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since mechas are a huge turn off for me


I bet you are one those people who also dont like chocolate. Its giant Tank like Robots punching each other in the 31 millennium, what's not to like if its well executed?




On a side note it saddens me they compare the universe to Game of Thrones in the kickstarter instead of Dune.
 

Siveon

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On a side note it saddens me they compare the universe to Game of Thrones in the kickstarter instead of Dune.
Could be a marketing thing. Everyone who knows Battletech probably knows about Dune, while the newbies need something hip and fresh to compare it to. Game of Thrones was probably the most suitable "in the now" (am I dated enough, yet?) example.

Also: No, why, multiplayer. I hate everything. With that out of the way, when's the Codex tourney/campaign?

Hey if you can't beat 'em, join them. Plus I've always wondered how multiplayer with Codexians is like.
All I know is that some of you suck in Broforce. You know who you are (Helly).
 

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