Anyone else excited for Battletech?

[kraftcheese]

I've been following Harebrained Schemes' Battletech game for a bit now, and it looks good so far!

I really enjoyed their Shadowrun games, and I always loved playing Mechwarrior at a friend's house when I was a kid, so there's a bit of nostalgia mixed in there too; what are your thoughts on this turn-based foray after years of no Battletech games to write home about?

[DodgerH2O]

I'm pretty excited, the version I played months ago seemed pretty satisfactory and there was still a bunch of work to do. Never was able to get a group RL for Battletech, so I'm not sure how well it reflects tabletop play. There was another computer Battletech a while ago that just vanished into thin air so I'm waiting until the HBS version is a sure thing before I commit too much time though.

[Drasius]

Having been an early backer and had ~50'ish hours of skirmish under my belt I can say that I'm very keen for the campaign to come out. There's still a couple of balance tweaks to be made and it's not a 100% conversion of the TT rules, but I've found it to be a lot of fun and would highly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed any part of Battletech over the years.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Absolutely excited!

I've seen some skirmish plays, and I'm eager to see more. There are some different mechanics from the 3025 board game, the stability mechanic (which could use some tweaking) gives autocanon and missiles a new lease on life, not that they particularly needed it in 3025 without double heat sinks to skew things horridly in favor of energy weapons. There's a few new tricks as well with individual pilots having particular skills which can change the tide of battle if handled properly.

I really didn't like the FPS style Mechwarrior games, because Battletech was a strategic game, not a tactical one. I'm glad we're finally getting a game worthy of the franchise.

[The Glyphstone]

This is going to be amazing and I will be buying a copy the moment it comes out.

[Astrella]

I'm pretty excited, the version I played months ago seemed pretty satisfactory and there was still a bunch of work to do. Never was able to get a group RL for Battletech, so I'm not sure how well it reflects tabletop play. There was another computer Battletech a while ago that just vanished into thin air so I'm waiting until the HBS version is a sure thing before I commit too much time though.

Try out Megamek, it automates all the tabletop calculations.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

I saw the first preview months ago, and it looks right up my alley. The knockdown system looks interesting. I don't know how exactly the game calculates it, but there seems to be a bar that fills up as the mech takes hits. And melee attacks. Battlemechs punching, kicking, and head-butting each other is now a cgi reality.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I think the stability mechanic needs to be tweaked, because a single Catapult can cause a mech to go Unsteady/Prone in a single volley, even with a poor hit percentage. Considering the Catapult is a workhorse missile support mech... yea. Right now, Commandos are stupidly powerful because they can knock over an unsteady Assault mech with their SRM barrage. It's the first time I've ever seen a light scouting mech WANT to get close to an Assault mech. Particularly with the right pilot skill. If you have the pilot that gives Evasion on a walk, then walking into woods to fire at, say, an Atlas who is Unsteady is a pretty good deal. Even if the Atlas gets back up and fires at you, half the weapons are going to miss, the other half will be doing less damage, and he's got a pretty bad penalty on the shots to begin with because he's standing up. Hurray for scout mech tanking?

Also, wishing they had the Archer or Salamander available, although I suppose they'd have to have a different design for the unit. I'd really like an LRM-20 equipped fire support mech.

[Drasius]

...gives autocanon and missiles a new lease on life, not that they particularly needed it in 3025 without double heat sinks to skew things horridly in favor of energy weapons.

Uh, I think you might need to go back to the rulebook, 'cause the most common complaint, even in 3025 was spamming Medium Lasers and zombies in general were still an issue there, especially in a time before CASE. The Awesome was another example of energy >>>>> ballistic, meanwhile the AC/5 and AC/2 were almost case studies in how to make something measurably worse than something else in every concievable way (with the slight, slight redemtion of the /2 against lawn darts Aerofighters.

Ballistics were/are bad in 3025, though this version has flipped it around with the PPC running too hot, the AC[2/5/10] doing ~50% more damage than TT and missiles having the OP knockdown all while ammo explosions are nigh impossible to cause since empty slots can be crit, the bin needs to have >50% ammo and the first hit only takes it offline, not explodes. The cluster table is gone too, making missiles (and if we ever get LBx AC's, them too) far better now that each missile is rolled individually against the target number.

I saw the first preview months ago, and it looks right up my alley. The knockdown system looks interesting. I don't know how exactly the game calculates it, but there seems to be a bar that fills up as the mech takes hits. And melee attacks. Battlemechs punching, kicking, and head-butting each other is now a cgi reality.

Each weapon has an instability value, with missiles having much, much more than anything else. Each hit adds to the meter (which is modified by piloting skill) and once the meter gets to a certain value, the mech is knocked down, allowing called shots against sections, a huge bonus to hit, a penalty to hit when you stand up and a hit on the pilot (1 hit each time and a pilot is killed if they take 5 hits from any source).

I think the stability mechanic needs to be tweaked, because a single Catapult can cause a mech to go Unsteady/Prone in a single volley, even with a poor hit percentage. Considering the Catapult is a workhorse missile support mech... yea. Right now, Commandos are stupidly powerful because they can knock over an unsteady Assault mech with their SRM barrage. It's the first time I've ever seen a light scouting mech WANT to get close to an Assault mech. Particularly with the right pilot skill. If you have the pilot that gives Evasion on a walk, then walking into woods to fire at, say, an Atlas who is Unsteady is a pretty good deal. Even if the Atlas gets back up and fires at you, half the weapons are going to miss, the other half will be doing less damage, and he's got a pretty bad penalty on the shots to begin with because he's standing up. Hurray for scout mech tanking?

Also, wishing they had the Archer or Salamander available, although I suppose they'd have to have a different design for the unit. I'd really like an LRM-20 equipped fire support mech.

The stability mechanic has been flagged repeatedly on the forums, same with water, heat, Ghetto Gauss AC/10's, vision radius, AI, critical damage, evasion, sensor lock, high stats, lack of appropriate movement modifiers and a handful of other bits and bobs as things that need tweaking. What makes lights so powerful in some cases is being able to reserve their turn to have 2 turns in a row. Doesn't change the fact that if any light gets sensor locked, fails to dodge enough shots to become unsteady or just manages to wander into melee range, it's basically dead in a single round against anything over 60T.

If you specifically want an LRM-20, then an Atlas will serve your needs, though I'm assuming you mean you want a dual rocket vomit mech given the 2 you mentioned, in which case, no, you've already got enough indirect options in the treb, cat, AWS-8T and to a lesser extent, Cent, Orion and Atlas. The real question is why we have 3 Locusts, but overall, I think we've actually got a fair balance of mechs for diferent roles. Also, when the mech lab comes out, most of your wants should be met.

[gooddragon1]

From what I saw it looked like XCOM 2 with targeting specific parts. If it includes perks for the pilots, research, salvage, c-bills economy, and maybe some base building/base defense missions it could be very interesting.

[Hunter Noventa]

I backed it on KS, though not enough for the early beta, but everything I've heard makes it look good. There's just not enough turn-based mecha action anywhere anymore. You've got SRW sure, but it doesn't allow the level of customization that Battletech will, or the Front Mission series did.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Uh, I think you might need to go back to the rulebook, 'cause the most common complaint, even in 3025 was spamming Medium Lasers and zombies in general were still an issue there, especially in a time before CASE. The Awesome was another example of energy >>>>> ballistic, meanwhile the AC/5 and AC/2 were almost case studies in how to make something measurably worse than something else in every concievable way (with the slight, slight redemtion of the /2 against lawn darts Aerofighters.

Ballistics were/are bad in 3025, though this version has flipped it around with the PPC running too hot, the AC[2/5/10] doing ~50% more damage than TT and missiles having the OP knockdown all while ammo explosions are nigh impossible to cause since empty slots can be crit, the bin needs to have >50% ammo and the first hit only takes it offline, not explodes. The cluster table is gone too, making missiles (and if we ever get LBx AC's, them too) far better now that each missile is rolled individually against the target number.

I agree that AC2's were always garbage (except against aforementioned lawn darts, particularly the LBx version that was effectively an anti-air emplacement with flack rounds), but AC/10 and AC/20 were both solid weapons. AC/10 had the same damage and range as a PPC but for almost no heat, at the cost of ammo and weight/crits. It had a decent amount of ammo per tun, meaning you could use it in corner cases without having to worry too much about running dry. AC/20, of course, required you to get within six hexes to really be effective, and due to the size and weight meant it could only be mounted on slower mechs (Hunchbacks and Heavy/Assaults), limited its effectiveness. But once you brought someone into range... ouch.

Medium Lasers were 5 heat 5 damage, with a range of 9, the same range as aforementioned AC/20. Granted, it was only 1 ton 1 crit, but that heat built up something fierce. To do the same potential maxium damage, and have a better spread, of an AC/20, you would need four of them, dishing out an insane 20 heat, which would at least slow down many mechs. It was a fool's gambit before Double Heat Sinks were a thing.

PPC's were 15 heat 10 damage, with a good range, but it was that 15 heat that was killer. Two of them was 30 heat. Many is the Marauder or Awesome pilot who overheated to their doom.

But really, it's the missiles. Missiles were always an effective way to exploit weak spots in the armor, due to the sandblasting mechanic. Something like an Archer standing off peppering you with twin LRM/20's was going to get obnoxious in short order. So they've always had a place, both pre and post clan. But with the new Stability mechanic... holy crap these things are insanely godlike, and the Atlas got even more nasty in close range with the SRM/6 system not only doing crit-fishing by finding weaknesses punched by the AC/20, but now will have a good chance of knocking an enemy over. SRM/6 systems were already really good. They did up to 12 damage, albeit sandblasting and with some of them not connecting, for less heat than a Medium Laser at the same range. Granted, Streaks made them no-brainers and competitive against even Clan energy weapons, but even before all that, the SRM/6 was a very viable weapon system. Now it is just crack.

The stability mechanic has been flagged repeatedly on the forums, same with water, heat, Ghetto Gauss AC/10's, vision radius, AI, critical damage, evasion, sensor lock, high stats, lack of appropriate movement modifiers and a handful of other bits and bobs as things that need tweaking. What makes lights so powerful in some cases is being able to reserve their turn to have 2 turns in a row. Doesn't change the fact that if any light gets sensor locked, fails to dodge enough shots to become unsteady or just manages to wander into melee range, it's basically dead in a single round against anything over 60T.

Well yea, if a light mech gets locked up near a heavy or assault, it's going down. That's always been the case. What has never before been the case is that there are now situations in which you WANT your Light mech to charge to close range with an Atlas, and has a reasonable chance of actually surviving there.

Water has always increased the effectiveness of your heat sinks, at least the ones in your legs. However, standing in 1 hex water basically gave everyone free shots on the punch hit location table, which means you've got a 1 in 6 chance of taking a headshot. That's not a position you EVER want to be in. As long as you provide a tactical disadvantage to standing in water (such as Bulwark type effects not being able to trigger in water, or an increase in damage coming in or something like that), it should be good.

If you specifically want an LRM-20, then an Atlas will serve your needs, though I'm assuming you mean you want a dual rocket vomit mech given the 2 you mentioned, in which case, no, you've already got enough indirect options in the treb, cat, AWS-8T and to a lesser extent, Cent, Orion and Atlas. The real question is why we have 3 Locusts, but overall, I think we've actually got a fair balance of mechs for diferent roles. Also, when the mech lab comes out, most of your wants should be met.

Trebuchet and Catapult are decent options for the role, although I was hoping for something that had less mobility and more downrange firepower. Oddly enough, with the current rules, the TBT 5S would make a surprisingly effective close quarters mech. It's got enough heat sinks to actually deal with the heat generated from the ML's and the twin SRM/6's would practically guarantee an Unsteady/Knockdown.

I was a bit surprised at seeing the AWS-8T, I'm more familiar with the 8Q variant with the triple PPC's and a tendency to overheat when you give it to newbies. The Large Lasers seem like a trap to me, with poor targeting solutions and high heat production for the operational role. I'd have replaced both LL's with a single PPC and heat sinks. Or really, replaced the two LL's in favor of bumping up the LRM's to 20's, but that's just re-creating an Archer when all is said and done.

[Drasius]

From what I saw it looked like XCOM 2 with targeting specific parts. If it includes perks for the pilots, research, salvage, c-bills economy, and maybe some base building/base defense missions it could be very interesting.

Targetting specifics is only for when a mech is down, unless they reveal a special perk that we don't have in the beta yet. The perks, salvage, economy and base building/defense (you start with your own dropship as a base) is all in.

I backed it on KS, though not enough for the early beta, but everything I've heard makes it look good. There's just not enough turn-based mecha action anywhere anymore. You've got SRW sure, but it doesn't allow the level of customization that Battletech will, or the Front Mission series did.

SRW? Please elaborate.

I agree that AC2's were always garbage (except against aforementioned lawn darts, particularly the LBx version that was effectively an anti-air emplacement with flack rounds), but AC/10 and AC/20 were both solid weapons. AC/10 had the same damage and range as a PPC but for almost no heat, at the cost of ammo and weight/crits. It had a decent amount of ammo per tun, meaning you could use it in corner cases without having to worry too much about running dry. AC/20, of course, required you to get within six hexes to really be effective, and due to the size and weight meant it could only be mounted on slower mechs (Hunchbacks and Heavy/Assaults), limited its effectiveness. But once you brought someone into range... ouch.

AC10 is the same damage as a PPC, but total tonnage of weapon+ammo+sinks is 17T (for 2 tonnes of ammo) compared to a PPC at 17T with no ammo risk and a heavy discount to the sinks due to the free 10 in the engine as well as the ability to hide more sinks in the engine of larger machines, meaning that you aren't as crit-starved as many of the larger machines can get. Also a 1/2/3 hex range advantage, though that is offset by the minimum range somewhat, so that's a bit of a wash, but the ability to zombie means the peeper is >>> the AC/10.

Medium Lasers were 5 heat 5 damage, with a range of 9, the same range as aforementioned AC/20. Granted, it was only 1 ton 1 crit, but that heat built up something fierce. To do the same potential maxium damage, and have a better spread, of an AC/20, you would need four of them, dishing out an insane 20 heat, which would at least slow down many mechs. It was a fool's gambit before Double Heat Sinks were a thing.

ML's are 5 dam for 3 heat and are the gold standard by which everything else is measured. 5/5 are IS ERML's, clanners get 7/5 ERML's, neither of which are 3025 era. 20 damage for 12 heat is better than an AC/20 once heat sinks and weapon/ammo weight are taken into account and you get a HUGE discount on that with your initial 10 free engine sinks. The only downside is that it's not localised, though it can give a slight shotgunning effect that helps crit hunt, but the swayback was generally prefered over the -4G for most Hunchy pilots for a reason.

PPC's were 15 heat 10 damage, with a good range, but it was that 15 heat that was killer. Two of them was 30 heat. Many is the Marauder or Awesome pilot who overheated to their doom.

IS peepers are 10/10, you're thinking of the IS ERPPC at 15/10 which were a terrible deal, even when double were available.

But really, it's the missiles. Missiles were always an effective way to exploit weak spots in the armor, due to the sandblasting mechanic. Something like an Archer standing off peppering you with twin LRM/20's was going to get obnoxious in short order. So they've always had a place, both pre and post clan. But with the new Stability mechanic... holy crap these things are insanely godlike, and the Atlas got even more nasty in close range with the SRM/6 system not only doing crit-fishing by finding weaknesses punched by the AC/20, but now will have a good chance of knocking an enemy over. SRM/6 systems were already really good. They did up to 12 damage, albeit sandblasting and with some of them not connecting, for less heat than a Medium Laser at the same range. Granted, Streaks made them no-brainers and competitive against even Clan energy weapons, but even before all that, the SRM/6 was a very viable weapon system. Now it is just crack.

Missiles were not that great due to the cluster table and LRM's were no better than medium lasers due to 5 point hits. If you really wanted to crit seek at range, then you basically had to wait for the LBx or just suck it up and get some SRM's in range. Expected hits from an LRM 20 was 12 (so 5/5/2 clusters), usually on a target number of 8-10 with only 6 rounds per tonne, so unless you had some mix of good pilots, slow opponents and no cover, they weren't really that threatening unless you had Thunder rounds and/or a spooter and favourable terrain.

Also, SRM 6's are 4 heat vs a ML's 3 heat, so, not for less heat. And yes, while they were nice for critseeking, you're still only doing 4 hits on average and if they don't go internal or TAC, then 2 damage spread out across a facing isn't really noticable. Nothing was competative vs clanner large pulse lasers, they were basically hax. -2 to hit, better range PPC's, usually on GUN 3 or less pilots, sometimes with a TarComp for -3? Don't care that you've got a move mod of 4 and you're in a forrest, you're having a bad day.

Well yea, if a light mech gets locked up near a heavy or assault, it's going down. That's always been the case. What has never before been the case is that there are now situations in which you WANT your Light mech to charge to close range with an Atlas, and has a reasonable chance of actually surviving there.

If you used to run fast lights tactically against standard 4/5 IS pilots then it wasn't out of the question to have them be (nigh) unhittable, even at relatively close ranges. If they ever cose the OpFor to actualy use their abilities like Sensor Lock, any light is going to evaporate the instant it gets into sensor range and if you're silly enough to leave a light within melee range of a heavy, well, yeah, that ends about as well as you'd expect. I actually like that you can use the delay system to do hit and runs with lights, but eventually, even with Evade and cover, they're going to eat a salvo that they don't dodge so well and that's going to be the end of them very quickly.

Water has always increased the effectiveness of your heat sinks, at least the ones in your legs. However, standing in 1 hex water basically gave everyone free shots on the punch hit location table, which means you've got a 1 in 6 chance of taking a headshot. That's not a position you EVER want to be in. As long as you provide a tactical disadvantage to standing in water (such as Bulwark type effects not being able to trigger in water, or an increase in damage coming in or something like that), it should be good.

The current issue is how they've worked heat (~1.65 times what it should be on TT) but water just doubles your sinks, all of them, not just the ones in the legs and doesn't force punch table allocation.

I was a bit surprised at seeing the AWS-8T, I'm more familiar with the 8Q variant with the triple PPC's and a tendency to overheat when you give it to newbies. The Large Lasers seem like a trap to me, with poor targeting solutions and high heat production for the operational role. I'd have replaced both LL's with a single PPC and heat sinks. Or really, replaced the two LL's in favor of bumping up the LRM's to 20's, but that's just re-creating an Archer when all is said and done.

Huh? The 8Q was one of the poster children for ease of heat management. Given that the tables have turned and PPC's are waaaay too hot and outdamaged by AC/10 by a long way, the 8T is actually seeing a decent amount of use as a missile boat that can defend itself via melee against the close range mechs that are currently dominating. I've never been sold on LL's myself, neither in TT nor in this current build, but they're not totally terrible either, though the current beta has such high GUN pilots and such low movement modes that the new -1 to hit is mostly overshadowed. Generally though, yes, the TT PPC was a better choice though since that 10 damage meant chance to headcap with a single shot, only need 2 hits to force a PSR and the slight range boost was nice too.

[Hunter Noventa]

SRW? Please elaborate.

Super Robot Wars (n): A series of strategy games on console featuring giant robots from several different anime combined into original plots.

So it's not really for anyone, unless you're really into mecha anime. If you are, the two latest games (Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, and Super Robot Wars V) are available in English for the PS4, but you'll have to import them from the Asian Region. OG means 'Original Generations' which just means it only has the various original mecha and characters that have come up across the series, while V is a 'normal' game where you have the likes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Evangelion and Nadeisco fighting alongside one another.

[Drasius]

Super Robot Wars (n): A series of strategy games on console featuring giant robots from several different anime combined into original plots.

So it's not really for anyone, unless you're really into mecha anime. If you are, the two latest games (Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, and Super Robot Wars V) are available in English for the PS4, but you'll have to import them from the Asian Region. OG means 'Original Generations' which just means it only has the various original mecha and characters that have come up across the series, while V is a 'normal' game where you have the likes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Evangelion and Nadeisco fighting alongside one another.

I was all excited until you got to the PS4 part. Thanks anyway, I'll have to check it out and see what I've been missing as it sounds quite interesting.

[Hunter Noventa]

I was all excited until you got to the PS4 part. Thanks anyway, I'll have to check it out and see what I've been missing as it sounds quite interesting.

There are a couple older translated games for the GBA, Original Generations 1 and 2. They're pretty solid games, but like I said, the OG games don't have any anime series in them. Though they did both get made int their own anime series, go figure.

[Drasius]

The second round of adjustments have been made and the 2.0 beta is available. Overall, most of the complaints from the previous version were addressed (missle stability damage, heat, AC damage, PPC being overshadowed, no movement mods, sensor lock domination, lack of ammo explosions, heat too high etc) though interestingly visual range remains exceedingly short.

Overall I feel that the changes have all been fairly positive, with lights being able to generate decent movement mods & sensor lock not being able to completely remove all defenses being the 2 most important.

[Swizzler]

*Super* excited.

Shadowrun was awesome.. though a bit short.

Looking forward to the customization options for mechs as well as the tactical gameplay... hopefully it'll have good replay value. Though.. wish that they had more in the way of multiplayer...

As an aside, I wonder what a titanfall-like battletech game focusing on large engagements (100 vs 100 or larger) would look like.. something like "Squad" except in the battletech universe. Wishful thinking I guess. ;)

[Aotrs Commander]

Moderately interested, largely depending on the single-player campaign (which I think has been mentioned as being planned - if there isn't one, than my interest evaporates¹).

Regardless, I am hoping the legal trouble against the thrice-damned Harmony Gold results in the latter's well-justfied failure. (And we can but hope that when they lose the Robotech/Macross license in a few more years (which is happening, apparnetly), they never get it back.

Personally, I came in because of the animated cartoon, i.e. in the clan era, so I would like to hope that we get that far like in the previous games. MechCommander 2 I've played two or three times, which is as much as I've played the C&C fanchise; it's one of my favourites.

Never managed, despite two or three tries, to complete MechCommander 1, nor MechWarrior 3. Got quite far with the latter the last time, but after neing killed part-way through a long mission by running into some sort of building overhang or something, I never went back to it.



¹If I want to play people playing BattleTech, I have about a hundred mechs at home, some of which I'm not sure I ever used. (And - on the second or third try, replacing BattleTech's turn sequence with Maneouvre Group (the clever bit) while retaining the shooting/damage worked perfectly fine.) But I often forget 95% of the time I even have them, due to playing Accelerate and Attack or the aforementioned Maneouvre Group.

[Drasius]

Though.. wish that they had more in the way of multiplayer...

Not sure if you're lamenting the lack of multi or just unsatisfied with the current multi? Multiplayer works in the 2.0 beta, though some people report a few issue logging in for as yet unknown reasons. Head over to their forums if you can't seem to get yours sorted and see if they can help.

Moderately interested, largely depending on the single-player campaign (which I think has been mentioned as being planned - if there isn't one, than my interest evaporates¹).

The single player campaign is the focus, that was made clear in their kickstarter.

Personally, I came in because of the animated cartoon, i.e. in the clan era, so I would like to hope that we get that far like in the previous games. MechCommander 2 I've played two or three times, which is as much as I've played the C&C fanchise; it's one of my favourites.

It's been repeatedly stated that this is 3025 (ie, pre-clan by about 23 years), so it's extremely doubtful that we'll see any clan action at all. You might get a sniff of some lostech with a star league era Gauss Rifle or LB-x autocannon, maybe even a royal version of one of the more common IS mechs, but that'd be about it I'd suggest.

[Aotrs Commander]

The single player campaign is the focus, that was made clear in their kickstarter.

Good to know.

(I missed the kickstart (else I might have backed it), only came to my attention through SidAlpha and when Paradox annouced it was the publisher.)

It's been repeatedly stated that this is 3025 (ie, pre-clan by about 23 years), so it's extremely doubtful that we'll see any clan action at all. You might get a sniff of some lostech with a star league era Gauss Rifle or LB-x autocannon, maybe even a royal version of one of the more common IS mechs, but that'd be about it I'd suggest.

Sorry, I was unclear, I meant "at some point down the line" (I for one, (assuming the game is any good!) would be quite happy if we got one or two expansions that went later or something. I mean, I don't mind PDX's internal expansion/support policy myself¹, though I suspect you wouldn't see that much outside their own development studios).



¹One only has to look at how the "AAA" handles itself to be thankful that PDx are not that, whatever else you think of their DLC policy...!

[Inarius]

Sorry, I was unclear, I meant "at some point down the line" (I for one, (assuming the game is any good!) would be quite happy if we got one or two expansions that went later or something. I mean, I don't mind PDX's internal expansion/support policy myself¹, though I suspect you wouldn't see that much outside their own development studios).

From what I understand part of the reason they selected an earlier date was so they could expand into new eras if they were successful with the game.

[Aotrs Commander]

From what I understand part of the reason they selected an earlier date was so they could expand into new eras if they were successful with the game.

Sounds good. I'll be keeping an eye open for the release.



As a bit of tangential interest, I have just recently finished working on the Aotrs Storm Cleaver combat walker. I figured the thread might find worth a passing glance and a giggle.

Also, having had to fork out £45 quid (a year) this morning for the new place to host my photos since Photobucket went insane (and I don't want to trust the free sites not to do the same a year or two down the line and this is partly for business), I might as well make some use of out it. And I'm also still experimenting with the site to see how best to use it, since it works a bit different from Photobucket. Any excuse, though, really...!

Spoiler

Show

The torso twists, of course.


It's about the the right physical size as a mech model, but technically the wrong scale (144th, not broadly 6mm) - though I suppose if you squinted and pretended it was just a really spacious cockpit...! I'm especially pleased that it came out so well on my home printer - I was expecting to have to have it commerically printed at the palce I have my webstore. But the half-hour or so I spent adding manual support for the legs was worth it, it's come out really rather well; I'm well-chuffed the skulls came out so clear. The hull is a front-and-back, so it was only a three-part print and as painless as you please, to my surprise. (The top turret is a standard bit for the Aotrs I'd already got some spares of. That I didn't even attempt to print on my home printer.) Needs a little of the guff cleaning off before its painted, of course, but it ain't come out bad.

[Drasius]

Sounds good. I'll be keeping an eye open for the release.



As a bit of tangential interest, I have just recently finished working on the Aotrs Storm Cleaver combat walker. I figured the thread might find worth a passing glance and a giggle.

Also, having had to fork out £45 quid (a year) this morning for the new place to host my photos since Photobucket went insane (and I don't want to trust the free sites not to do the same a year or two down the line and this is partly for business), I might as well make some use of out it. And I'm also still experimenting with the site to see how best to use it, since it works a bit different from Photobucket. Any excuse, though, really...!

Spoiler

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The torso twists, of course.


It's about the the right physical size as a mech model, but technically the wrong scale (144th, not broadly 6mm) - though I suppose if you squinted and pretended it was just a really spacious cockpit...! I'm especially pleased that it came out so well on my home printer - I was expecting to have to have it commerically printed at the palce I have my webstore. But the half-hour or so I spent adding manual support for the legs was worth it, it's come out really rather well; I'm well-chuffed the skulls came out so clear. The hull is a front-and-back, so it was only a three-part print and as painless as you please, to my surprise. (The top turret is a standard bit for the Aotrs I'd already got some spares of. That I didn't even attempt to print on my home printer.) Needs a little of the guff cleaning off before its painted, of course, but it ain't come out bad.

Pretty neat and very clean for a home job. Reminds me of a Men Shen.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

From what I understand part of the reason they selected an earlier date was so they could expand into new eras if they were successful with the game.

That and to draw in the old geezers like me who prefer the 3025 era, after the fall but before the return of the clan. But it's certainly an option for them to roll out later eras. Hell, rolling out the Coming of the Clans sounds DLCish. Has a good ring to it, and every mechwarrior wannabe is going to buy it just to get themselves a Timber Wolf.

[N810]

Just saw a beta backer lets play with a developer yesterday, Thought I'd link it.
(It looks pretty amazing I haven't played one of these games since the 90's)

Spoiler: Single Player Mission

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[Aotrs Commander]

So between this and my aforementioned Storm Cleaver, it all reminded me I have over a hundred mechs (not sure I've even ever USEd 'em all!) sitting around - I found six I hadn't even painted, let alone the seven not-official models I'd bought to use. I thought, "yeah, and my mate's never played, but he liked the computer games" (since the last game I played was probably about ten years ago, and during the time me and my other mate were big into it, he was in Russia). So, I thought, that BT might make for a game I can slap together more easily without fussing about stuff for the odd occasion (as opposed to me own carefully crafted Maneouvre Group or Accelerate and Attack scenarios!)

So I then spent more time on setting up my "knock-together" stuff in the last two evenings than I would have spent doing the most complex MG scenario...!

(Digging stuff out, getting HeavyMetalPro back up, resorting some record sheets, making a new QR sheet and re-writing the rules - because I can NEVER leave anything alone - amalgamating about three editions (Rules Compendium/Master rules+Maximum Tech/Catalyst Lab's first set!) and then to replace the round sequnece with MG's, just with BT's combat pasted on top (and thus requiring me to print new record sheets since that penultimate game I tried that, 1" =1 hex did not work well, and requires 2" = 1 hex... and the majority of my old record sheets are at the former. Fortunately, HMP is fantastic in that I can just print out that...)

Just working out a couple of lances each side proved to be challenging... a) HMP lost the pictures (again) - about half-way through I finally noticed the "save picture with file" and as now disc space is never an issue - and b) I had no clue where to start! in the end, I made my force out of the mechs in my Capellan folder (sans Stealth Armour) and then matched it.

(I was very smart with my Mechs - for the IS, I did them all black, drybrushed to varous levels of grey and then blocks of colour. As a result, I can use them in pretty much any combination for any of the IS mob and they don't look too horibly mis-matched in any combination. The clours are nominally divided into approximately lances (alibeit a bit arbitatirly), but there's enough of a similarity it all works. (My clan and tiny ComStar force are a totally different colours scheme.))

Still, now it's actually up, and in theory we can have a go tomorrow and it shuld be less hassle down the line...!



(Also, when I get back to having some clanners, I can dig out the Clan-o-matic. Because me and my old BT mate are terrible, terrible people with no respect, a running joke about fictious Clan Concrete Llama metamorphised into a random Clan generator, wherein a D100 is rolled to detemrine adjective and noun to see which clan is being fielded today... Clan tech is lovely (and they have the best mechs (e.g. Mad Cat), but the clans themselves I can't take seriously...!)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

(Also, when I get back to having some clanners, I can dig out the Clan-o-matic. Because me and my old BT mate are terrible, terrible people with no respect, a running joke about fictious Clan Concrete Llama metamorphised into a random Clan generator, wherein a D100 is rolled to detemrine adjective and noun to see which clan is being fielded today... Clan tech is lovely (and they have the best mechs (e.g. Mad Cat), but the clans themselves I can't take seriously...!)

OFFS... okay, normally I'd let this one lay, but you've struck a nerve here.

First off, it's not a 'Mad Cat', it's a Timber Wolf from Clan Wolf. It got that designation because it looks like a Marauder (callsign MAD) with a Catapult's (callsign CAT) LRM pods on its shoulders. Both Marauder and Catapult are 'chicken leg walkers', like the Timber Wolf. So the computer designator couldn't decide between a MAD or a CAT, so it got called MADCAT. Furthermore, I wouldn't call it 'the best mech'. Sure, it's a long-range fire support mech, and a decent one. However, that's about all it is. Get too close to cover that opponents can use, and you'll meet your end at the hands of something like a Hunchback.

Second off, Clan cheater tech is what broke the game. I could bellyache about what they did to the energy weapons, but even that wasn't as bad as the double heat sinks. DHS pretty much obliterated any hint of balance in the game, making energy weapons the ultimate ever because you can pretty much ignore heat unless you're setting off like 4x (Clan ER) PPC's every round, and they have the best weight and space to damage ratio.

Third off, don't underestimate post-clan IS tech. They may not have the same energy weapons as Clan, but C3, TAG, and semi-guided LRM and Arrow IV artillery can do quite a lot to even the odds, even on the optimal 'featureless plain' scenario that every Clan user ever has used to try to 'brag' about how superior Clan is.

Clan mechs are individuals. Sure, they're strong individuals, but they are disorganized. IS are coordinated. Which is why they ultimately won.

[Aotrs Commander]

OFFS... okay, normally I'd let this one lay, but you've struck a nerve here.

First off, it's not a 'Mad Cat', it's a Timber Wolf from Clan Wolf. It got that designation because it looks like a Marauder (callsign MAD) with a Catapult's (callsign CAT) LRM pods on its shoulders. Both Marauder and Catapult are 'chicken leg walkers', like the Timber Wolf. So the computer designator couldn't decide between a MAD or a CAT, so it got called MADCAT. Furthermore, I wouldn't call it 'the best mech'. Sure, it's a long-range fire support mech, and a decent one. However, that's about all it is. Get too close to cover that opponents can use, and you'll meet your end at the hands of something like a Hunchback.

Oh, I know. I just do it deliberately.

Mad Cat is what it was known to me first by, and Mad Cat is what all the permutations since have been from it since, so Mad Cat and Vulture is what they are (and usually, but not as frequently, Thor). You could blame the cartoon, but as that was what got me ito it in the first place...

Also, because it would annoy the actual Clansmen.

Clan mechs are individuals. Sure, they're strong individuals, but they are disorganized. IS are coordinated. Which is why they ultimately won.

You're being more charitable there to the Clans as a group of people than I usually am...

As I say, they have the best toys (well, actually, let's be brutally honest, hybrids really have all the best toys), but that is, in fact, in spite of their culture.

Here - a gesture of my respect for the clans...

*rolls* Clan Occult Budgie, Clan Tangerine Deer, Clan Kamikaze Gnu.

(Great! Because nothing worse than actually managing to roll up something up on the clan-o-matic that accidently sounds vaguley plausible and that can depressingly happen even with Clan-o-matic!)

Second off, Clan cheater tech is what broke the game. I could bellyache about what they did to the energy weapons, but even that wasn't as bad as the double heat sinks. DHS pretty much obliterated any hint of balance in the game, making energy weapons the ultimate ever because you can pretty much ignore heat unless you're setting off like 4x (Clan ER) PPC's every round, and they have the best weight and space to damage ratio.

Third off, don't underestimate post-clan IS tech. They may not have the same energy weapons as Clan, but C3, TAG, and semi-guided LRM and Arrow IV artillery can do quite a lot to even the odds, even on the optimal 'featureless plain' scenario that every Clan user ever has used to try to 'brag' about how superior Clan is.

I came in on the Clan era, so playing without the later stuff feels like it wuold be akin to playing Civ 4 without the expansions. (I mean, for one, there's much guff to slap on your Mechs and building my own Mechs was a goodly chunk of the fun, at least to start with.) And, further, as I have established nearly every single time I have interacted with the BT community, I appear to play BT in such a way that is tantamount (or actually considered) heretical at the best of times¹...

BV seems to work pretty well, and better weapons mean stuff dies faster (which, for me, makes for a better game). One of the reasons I ignored some of the revisions in Catalyst Lab's version (I have no idea whether it is the current or older one now, it must be a decade since I bought even that) was because it wanted to stop stuff like RACs and Pulse Lasers from benefitting from targeting computers - the sort of thing I explicitly want to encourage, since it leads to more dead mecha and less long-drawn-out chipping away (which is not what I find personaly interesting in BattleTech).

I am basically, with BT, the sort of chap who plays a computer game with something akin but not quite to a total conversion mod.

(Mind you, this is true not of BattleTech, but ANY and EVERY set of rules I've ever played more than, like once or twice. Even, technically, my own starships rules that I wrote and published have a couple of bits outside said rules which are essentially house-rules. A set of wargames or RPG rules is, to me, more like a suggestion.)

Yet ironically, I tend to use fairly few mods on computer games. Go figure.

(For the record, though, I have WAAAAY more IS mechs than clan (97:36... 40 if you count Eponas), and one of about the only two times, regardless of who was using clans or not (my old BT mate had a lot of his own both IS (Kurita²) and clan), actually won a BattleTech game was using the Capellans with Stealth Armour and Arrow IVs. Actually, I think the other time was using Clans with some homebrew designs... Which was Arrow IVs and their spotters...)



¹Only ever by by fire-linked weapon groups? *gasp* Roll SRMs in clusters of four, not two because it was less dice rolls (which we did at one point for a bit)? Heresy! Seriously, a chap we met at a convention had apoplexy at that last one. "You're changing the way the weapons work!"

"Yes," says we. "And?"
(He did aplogise later, saying he basically never encountered anyone that ever thought about tweaking the rules. but that spoils the mental image a bit.)

Quite what he would THINK about me cheerfully chucking out the entire phased round sequence to replace it with bits of Maneouvre Group's activation sequence (with a bit of lessons learned from 3.x or 4E round sequence for good measure) I don't know...!



²He had Kurita because he a) liked them (I think he'd read some of the novels) and b) out of all the powers, at the time, the fluff it allowed him to basically legitimately make a plausible claim to buy and use any mech models he wanted (including clans, as he pointed out, though I don't think he ever actually used his clan mechs with his IS ones in a game). I, on the other hand, did the aforementioned painting trick and basically could thus be Everybody Else. Towards the end, I'd started to bais a bit (having bought some of the sourcebooks, finally) towards getting mechs that were common in this army or that army, rather than just "any mech I really liked the look of," which, let's be fair, was largely the reason I was playing BattleTech.

[The Glyphstone]

I've always sort of wondered - why do we have the alternate designations by IS for various Clan mechs (Mad Cat/Timber Wolf, Thor/Summoner, Vulture/Mad Dog, etc.), but never any alternate Clan designations for unfamiliar IS mechs? There had to have been at least a few IS Battlemechs that had been designed after Kerensky NOPED into deep space.