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[Parsely]

Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics are amazing but they are not sci-fi. If I could have that, but Battletech, I would be sated.

[Knave]

Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics are amazing but they are not sci-fi. If I could have that, but Battletech, I would be sated.

A sci-fi version of graviteam tactics would be rather amazing if I do say so myself.

[Dohon]

First post updated. Feedback is welcome! Also, a link to a new Q&A session.

Spoiler: Content Summary (click to show/hide)

• People present: Nathan Weisman, Mitch Gitelman, Mike McCain and Jordan Weisman.
• The team's most favorite feature of the game is a hard question to answer. Mike McCain really loves the Argo DropShip and how the player will work with and upgrade it while getting to know the crew. Jordan Weisman likes how smooth combat goes. Nathan Weisman is excited about being able to play a game that really immerses you in the BattleTech lore. Mitch Gitelman called the game "very damn dynamic and it feels like playing BattleTech".
• The heat system has (as it works in the super pre-alpha video) several divisions. Reach the first "tick", you'll suffer smaller movement and targeting restrictions, these get more severe at the next tick and once the gauge is full, the Mech shuts down. The UI will show you exactly where you at, but that needs to be finalized. Jordan hopes ammo explosions and the like will get in the game.
• The to-hit system is not based on the old "roll 2d6" of the tabletop game, but on a percentage based system. Easier to understand. The to-hit tables [NOTE: charts that decide where the damage you dealt will strike] do come from the tabletop. In BattleTech, each missile is independently checked to see where they it.
• Most of the real-life events that happend at time of the creation of the BattleTech universe (meaning, the 1980's) did influence the universe. There is no way to avoid it, although it is mostly "historical" events that left their mark, not the current events (at that time).
• The story of the BattleTech game is also influenced by history. THey looked at the systems behind it. An example would be feudalism. It should feel "real".
• A lot of the inspiration for the first BattleMechs came from heraldry. The Atlas started out as "I want a giant Mech with a skull giant". The Hunchback came about because Jordan really liked to have an assymetrical mech in the game. The Hatchetman popped up because Jordan and Co wanted to emphasize melee combat, the Hatchetman is a mech that was optimized for it.
• The initiative system as envisioned in the new PC game is something that Jordan likes because he has issues with the initiative system as laid out in the tabletop game. Light and Medium Mechs didn't serve any tactical relevance in the tabletop and ended up as canon fodder for the heavier mechs. Changing that dynamic was a focal point in the beginning of development. They wanted lighter mechs to be able to scout (hence fog of war) and to provide support for indirect fire (indirect fire benefits from having scouts), but also emphasize the agility of the lighter mechs.
• Ammo usage by a certain weapon will spend ammo provided for that weapon by draining one storage location (say, right torso), before depleting another storage location.
• Ammo will not be able to be place in half-ton slots. This is to decrease micro-management.
• The reason why weapon ranges seem to small in Battletech, dates back to the tabletop game. The ranges were chosen as a compromise between maneuvrability and range (and the size of your table!). Modern weapons result in "dot-wars", shooting beyond the horizon. BattleTech is about giant suits of armor bashing it out. Melee wouldn't be possible if weapon range was realistic. The in-universe reasoning (as proposed by some) is that electronic warfare is so advanced and wide-spread that weapon ranges are limited to nearly "point-blank" range.
• You will be able to work for all five major houses. While House Kurita and Steiner are further removed from the Aurigan Reaches (geographicaly), they do have interests in the region because the Reaches share a border with their enemies. Think about 20th century cold war: The Third Sucession War is grinding to a halt, but that doesn't mean the Houses won't let opportunities to screw with their enemies go by. Conflict by proxy, by providing a bit of resources to a smaller entity and letting it be a thorn in the side of their enemies. And the players are a "small application of resources". Ingame, you have 5 different ambassadors and as you work for them, you'll get (eventually) to talk to them directly and take missions from them.
• You don't formally declare your allegiance for a certain House. By doing missions for them (and refusing missions against them), you'll declare your allegiance that way. In skirmish and multiplayer matches, you can always put your favorite House's emblem on your Mech.
• HBS is considering doing a Steam "Early Access" release, but they are still discussing it. If it comes, it will be after the Backer Beta.
• When designing a universe, you can go incredibly detailed and create stuff that will take decades to unfurl ingame. Jordan wanted Kerensky to leave the Inner Sphere because he wanted him to be an ace in the pocket for later (for whatever purpose he needed at a later time). At the same time, Kerensky had to leave, or all the military power combined would probably vaporize everything by the time of the later Succession Wars. At that point, there was not a great plan for his return. At one point in the first generation of BattleTech, they created the first "battlepods", simulators that allowed people to play as MechWarriors. The first generation of graphics they used were sprite-based. It wasn't fully 3D and you could only render a certain amount of sprites on screen because of limited memory capacity. In time, Mechs consisted of seperate parts (arms, legs, ...). The idea surfaced "what if we could interchange those parts". The concept of OmniMechs was invented and in order to introduce that into the univers, the Clans were created. As to them being overpowered, that is Sam Lewis' fault.
• ROM, the black-ops/covert ops arm of the ComStar faction, does stand for Read-Only Memory. It was a cheap joke dating back to RAM and ROM. The idea was that ComStar operatives were heavily programmed to do a certain task and thus, they would only "Read Only Memory". 80's humor.
• Quad Mechs have been there right from the beginning. Jordan feels that Quad Mechs are part of the universe. Quads don't look as cool as bipedals perhaps, but they are a part of the lore and universe. So, if BattleTech is successful, Quads might become part of the line-up.
• In the campaign, you create your own Mercenary unit. You will encounter members of other units and interact with them (and they might serve temporarily). Recruiting the entire Mason's Marauders unit [NOTE: The unit shown in the Death From Above shows] is not the point. You might encounter a few of them in the course of your campaign though. Legendary MechWarriors can be contracted to help for a few missions or a contract might give you aid by sending legendary mech warriors alongside you.
• There will be roll-overs that give your more info on UI elements. There should also be an option entitled "verbose mode" that will show more details on screen as well. They want to give you information, but not also overload you.
• The Mech line-up will consist at least of the Mechs mentioned on the Kickstarter Q&A page and also the "reseen" versions of classic Mechs that PGI has created. More might come by time of release.
• Having a persistent online battle game is something that would be possible is BattleTech is WILDLY succesful. It is something that Jordan dreams of. Back in the day, together with Activision and Kesmo (), they created a game using the MechWarrior 2 engine that would have people create a character and fight battles whose outcomes would persist. You could actually win or lose the game, the server would be reset.
• HBS is looking at optional and main objectives. You may choose to complete all or some and you can retreat from the battle.
• HBS is designing the game so that retreating is a valid option. The enemy quitting the field early though as a feature might be implemented later. Maybe.
• In that vein, HBS is looking at the possibility of having "dialogue branches" that might result in the battle ending early.
• When a Mech falls, it takes damage and (like regular combat damage) will need to be repaired. Fall damage won't disappear automatically.
• Pushing a Mech (off a cliff for instance) is being discussed.
• Piloting skills consist of piloting and gunnery. As your Mechwarrior levels, you can put points into those skills, unlocking passive and/or active abilities. As you move up those skill-trees, opportunities are provided that allow you to specialize your mechwarriors. Possible (still being worked at) abilities are one that allows you to target multiple targets and focus to shoot a certain part of a Mech. In the latter case, you'll probably be able to "aim high or aim low". Otherwise, everyone would go for the head. [NOTE: Mike McCain said that there were 4 basic skills, besides piloting and gunnery, but did not define what the other two were.]
• The main campaign will be about your own mercenary outfit.
• The exact mechanics behind headshots are still being further refined.
• Damage to the environment (craters and so on) will not be in the game.
• You can destroy buildings though.
• Shooting at an enemy and missing might result in the forest burning down.
• HBS really wanted Melee in the super-alpha reveal, but it needed some more time in the oven.
• Intentionally burning down a forest is probably going to be in the game.
• Mechwarriors interacting amongst themselves will be limited. Mechwarriors die a lot. You can customize them and they'll have randomly generated backstories, but they are not the "main stars" of the story. Your crew on the Argo and the factions you interact with are a whole different story though.
• It doesn't mean that you won't bond over your MechWarriors. XCOM also had plenty of rookies that die over the course of a campaign, but you will come to love and cherish some veterans. The same for BattleTech. HBS gives MechWarriors a random background and hopes that as you play the game and events happen to your mechwarriors, that those get added to that story organically. They are working on such a system and it hopefully will be in the game.
• Mechs can be salvaged from the field, they can be deconstructed, they can be received as a gift from factions. You will not be able to build (as in, construct them from the ground up) them, you do not have access to the proper facilities for that.
• You can salvage stuff from the battlefield. Blowing up the head of an Atlas will allow you to put a new one it and drive it yourself.
• You'll be able to have up to 12 active Mechs in total. YOu'll also have room for keeping spare parts and other salvage.
• Customization is important, but HBS doesn't want Mechs to become just generic "weapon platforms". They are try to keep Mechs true to their character. A Marauder will not be able to mount lrms in the arms. You can swap other energy weapons in there.
• A different variant of a chassis will have different weapon mounts than the "base" model of a chassis.
• Your Merc unit will have a reputation and that is something that you will take with you from mission to mission.
• To which extent that your actions as a unit will have an effect on the relations between the Houses themselves, is something that HBS is still looking into. Your actions will definitely have an affect on the players in the Aurigan theater. But as to your actions changing BattleTech history and having a major impact on the Noble Houses, that is something way out of the scope of the game.
• Jon Everest, award winning composer for the Shadowrun games, is working on the score for BattleTech.
• Infantry (in some form) is not completely off the table, but it is something not high on the priority list. When there is time, they might show up (at release or after).
• Reputation has an effect on which contracts you are being offered, the terms of those contracts and the factions that offer contracts. The goal of HBS is that reputation is bigger than "your standing with a certain House". A House consists of many people and your standing with a house is not "that entire faction loves me", but more like "the recruiter for that faction isn't convinced of me". Perhaps a recruiter would only give you a contract for a House if you also do something for him/her on the side (perhaps as a side
  objective to that mission). HBS wants reputation to be multi-tiered.
• Is there DLC planned where the Lord Commander (Death From Above show) yells at you when you mess missions up? Mitch: "Yes".
• There will be a main antagonist that the player faces over the course of the campaign. Antagonist and his faction, that is. No, it will not be a moustache-twirling bad guy.
• Civilians and troops running about the battlefield during a mission and you ability to (maybe) kill them is still To Be Determined.
• No animals in the game. Maybe birds flying overhead.
• You probably not will be able to gain reputation with a faction by doing a contract for another faction and losing that one on purpose.
• It can happen that by gaining a lot of reputation for one faction, another faction will be interested in hiring you away.
• Minimum range in the BattleTech game means that as you get in closer than the minimum range, you start becoming more inaccurate. In the super pre-alpha demo, the MechWarriors driving the Mechs of the player had really huge gunnery levels, something like level 9.
• Dropship in-mission gunnery support is something that they are looking into and will get to. One of the kickstarter goals was off-board artillery and this is a form of that.
• Melee will be revealed before the end of the year.
• HBS would love to get a quirk system in for Mechwarriors.
• Playing off two "employers" against eachother during the contract negotation is something that would appear in a storyline mission (as narrative content), but it won't be in as a system (due to it being impossible to implement).
• There are three methods of play: Campaign, skirmish against AI and skirmish againt another player.
• You will not be possible to stackpole your mech (disable the safeties on the reactor and turn it into a bomb).
• There will be ECM in the game. The Raven will have an ECM module.
• There will not be an Beagle Active Probe (was extinct at the time of the game).
• There won't be any post 3025 tech in the game.
• Being able to transfer your merc unit between this game and its successor is something that depends on how succesful this game will be. Remember, focus equals quality!
• There will be a really small amount (close to zero) amount of Star League Era Tech in the game. It will be awarded, not something you can just find lying on the ground.
• Multiplayer private matches (just you and a friend) will be in. In fact, that is the thing that has been committed to.

[Sensei]

Woohoo late backers! I grabbed one of the low tiers.

[Hanzoku]

I saw the Youtube video before the link was removed, and overall I'm fairly impressed with what is already done with the game. The Battletech purist in me is offended by the damage values being adjusted upward, but so is the armor, and everything in the video still looked to be in the same ratios as before, so I guess if a small laser deals 3 damage or 15 doesn't matter that much, and it makes people feel better about it.

I'm also super happy that the decades-long kerfuffle with the Unseen is finally over - I loved most of the Unseen on both a mechanic and looks basis, and I'm glad to see them back in games again.

I'm crossing my fingers that this will eventually come out for the iPad as well - given that both of their Shadowrun games did, I have high hopes this will follow suit.

[Parsely]

Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics are amazing but they are not sci-fi. If I could have that, but Battletech, I would be sated.

A sci-fi version of graviteam tactics would be rather amazing if I do say so myself.

The closest you will ever get to that is the Star Wars mod for Men of War: Assault Squad 2.

[Anvilfolk]

Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics are amazing but they are not sci-fi. If I could have that, but Battletech, I would be sated.

A sci-fi version of graviteam tactics would be rather amazing if I do say so myself.

The closest you will ever get to that is the Star Wars mod for Men of War: Assault Squad 2.

And if the DCG ever came out for that (which it's looking like it never will), it'd even be more like Battletech in that you'd need to manage a company throughout multiple missions. I adore DCGs... too few games have them.

[Neonivek]

I saw the Youtube video before the link was removed, and overall I'm fairly impressed with what is already done with the game. The Battletech purist in me is offended by the damage values being adjusted upward, but so is the armor, and everything in the video still looked to be in the same ratios as before, so I guess if a small laser deals 3 damage or 15 doesn't matter that much, and it makes people feel better about it.

I'm also super happy that the decades-long kerfuffle with the Unseen is finally over - I loved most of the Unseen on both a mechanic and looks basis, and I'm glad to see them back in games again.

I'm crossing my fingers that this will eventually come out for the iPad as well - given that both of their Shadowrun games did, I have high hopes this will follow suit.

I have a feeling they didn't buy them but rather bought the license to use them for this one game. So personally fully expect the unseen to go unseen after this game (and maybe its sequels/expansions/ripoffDLC)

[Mephansteras]

I think these are the reimaged versions of the 'unseen' mechs, not anything having to do with licensed versions of the originals. Or, at least that's the impression I get from looking at a bunch of the kickstarter comments.

[puke]

I think these are the reimaged versions of the 'unseen' mechs, not anything having to do with licensed versions of the originals. Or, at least that's the impression I get from looking at a bunch of the kickstarter comments.

"Reseen".  Some of them look fairly close, like the Shadow Hawk and the Thunder Chicken:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But Battlemaster and Marauder are a little bit WTF:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Warhammer is a little odd, but mostly just uninspiring.  There are what?  Twelve in total?

[Kanil]

That's the old reseen Marauder. PGI made a new one that's a bit better (but still pretty ugly) and will appear in-game. I think CGL also has one too, that's a bit better looking than PGI's new attempt.

[Erkki]

Majority of the unseen have been the reseen since 2015, there'll be new art on most of them though:

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

-Reseen Inner Sphere BattleMechs from Project Phoenix with new variants (and new or altered artwork) include the Locust, Stinger, Wasp, Valkyrie, Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Scorpion, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, Rifleman, Crusader, Thunderbolt, Archer, Warhammer, Marauder, Goliath, BattleMaster, Longbow, and Marauder II. Variants of these 'Mechs prior to the year 3067 remain Unseen.

-The original Ostscout, Ostroc, and Ostsol variants were Unseen at one point, but were removed from the list. Their original variants can legally be used with their original artwork.

-The 3025 Galleon Light Tank remains Unseen, but subsequent variants are Reseen, using revised artwork.

[Dohon]

Considering that the Backer-only video can be found on several other websites and forums AND considering that they will (or have by this time) post a Q&A video about it, I'm going to post the link to the video. I'll pull it up if HBS wants to.

So, enjoy the alpha goodness!

Spoiler: And some screenshots too! (click to show/hide)

[Sharp]

I'm sad that it looks like they won't be allowing you to split your weapons fire over multiple targets. If they don't allow it then it's going to make mechs with multiple weapon ranges much less effective.

[umiman]

I'm sad that it looks like they won't be allowing you to split your weapons fire over multiple targets. If they don't allow it then it's going to make mechs with multiple weapon ranges much less effective.

From what I understand of the mechanics, it seems using less heat will let you move earlier. So if you want to do a lot of actions, you can do less of them each time.

So it would kinda make it possible to attack multiple targets. Just can't do it the same turn?

They might let you do it later though, who knows.

I did like seeing how useful the scout mech was. There's actually a reason to use different tonnages, which is always good.