Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kanil]

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

I'm not sure if it's just something they did to make their demo video more exciting and explosion filled, but everyone in that video was really accurate. Like running and shooting at moving targets 75% of the time accurate. Light 'mechs are utterly screwed if that's the norm.

[Flying Dice]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I think they did say something about making it more cinematic for the show-off. Lemme re-watch it real quick.

e: I was wrong, but it looks like there are some rules at work.

1. Ideal range of some sort. Notice the first combat turn with the Shadow Hawk. When he targeted the enemy Commando, the MLas and SRM 2 were in the low 70% CTH and the AC/5 and LRM 5 were in the mid 50%. When he switched to the Hunchback, the MLas and SRM 2 were out of range while the AC/5 and LRM 5 were in the high 70% range.

2. Movement penalty. The Marauder initially had 67% on its PPCs and AC/5 against the Commando, after it moved those dropped to 63% (and the MLas pair were in range with 60%).

3. Pilot skill was explicitly confirmed.

There might also be a "has moved" reduction to enemy %hit when a unit has already moved that turn, I seem to recall that being mentioned at some point.

Does look like running a light across more open ground than it can cross in one turn will be really risky if you're in front of an enemy firing line, but I'm not entirely opposed to that.

[Kanil]

This touches on another complaint I had, how obscured all the mechanics were. Again, I hope that's because they wanted to show off big stompy robots blowing one another up, rather than a list of to-hit modifiers, crit rolls, and missed shots.

Still, your typical pilot shooting at a fast moving light at long range, while he himself is moving at full tilt requires a 14 to hit in TT -- not actually possible. I know this game is merely inspired by TT, but going from 0% chance to hit to about two thirds seems like a little less inspiration than I was hoping for... and would obviously have an affect on how viable certain weight classes are.

I'm still just telling myself they cranked everyone to -2 gunnery for the demo though.

[Rince Wind]

They did use elite pilots, also weapon ranges are roughly doubled, and armor was reduced. The mission was supposed to be playable in around 30min at gencon, so expect worse pilots when you play and more armor on all mechs. As the ranges in BT are hilariously low, I don't mind them upping them for when you are not restricted by the size of a normal table.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, they explicitly noted that the pilots were crack shots, and that they hadn't gotten UI representation of stuff like crits in yet. It's pretty clearly a show demo mission that they didn't want to spend an hour or two playing through.

I suppose that might be representative of how your pilots would perform if you've had them fighting for twenty or thirty hours of gameplay time or something.

[Dohon]

A new Kickstarter update and a new Q&A session are available now.

Spoiler: Transcription (click to show/hide)

• People present: Nathan Weisman, Mitch Gitelman, Jordan Weisman
• The most disappointing thing that had to be done when developing BattleTech is scope. There is an iron triangle when developing. Time, money and quality make up the three points. Improving one, means taking away from the others. Scope stands for the size of the triangle. The smaller the triangle, the less money you need to make a higher quality
  game in an acceptable amount of time. HBS wants more quality, so less scope.
• You start development with a lot of cool ideas, like co-op or bigger multiplayer. Those get put in either a bucket labeled post-launch or, if it is too big, they put it in a bucket labeled "game 2". Having to ax a pet feature is always though.
• Ideas don't get dropped, they get filed away. As to how many make it in later, it is smaller percentage than you think. Ideas have a shelf life. It might have been a good idea at the beginning, but 2 years later, the game you made is different than in the beginning and things have changed. It might no longer be relevant.
• Crimson Steam Pirates was the first game that HBS made. Still the most fun project according to Mitch. Jordan would talk about two features, then lunch happend, Mitch would cut them and Jordan came back stating "no problem, i got another one to replace those features". It went back and forth a lot. That close-knit working relationship is far harder with a larger team.
• The pros and cons of having a large team versus a smaller one is a lot like comparing a raven and an atlas. HBS still runs a pretty small team. The Battletech project has 35 people working on it. Halo or Destiny had 700+ people working on them. Larger teams are counter-intuitive to Mitch and Jordan. A smaller team does still require having an efficient pipeline to create stuff. First, things get prototyped. If that checks out / survives that phase, it goes to the engineering and design teams. Half the engineering team produces tools that the content team can use to ... well, make content. A game is a big mechanism in which you pour lots of content and the more efficient your pipeline is, the more content you can put in and the faster you can do it. The faster the pipeline, the more you can iterate because it takes far less time to iterate on it. It takes a lot of iterations to having something workable.
• In the first 6 months of BT development, there were two simultaneous processes going on. There was a team working on the pipeline, the tools needed for it and the code architecture. Another small team was working on game prototypes. They worked on initiative, round orders, combat resolution, movement ... A lot of iterations and they were purely functional, far from pretty. 100% of that code and art used during that prototyping was thrown away. Once architecture and pipeline were finished, they reimplemented the lessons learned from prototyping. In two months, it went from an ugly prototype to a more pre-alpha state.
• BattleTech has a lots of established stuff, which is good and bad. You basically have to surf beneath the pier, between the pylons. HBS knew they wanted to be in the periphery right from the start. More lawless, smaller scale kingdoms allows to have a small, new merc unit exist and make much more impact on events. The main designer then dove into the lore and looked for a place to find such a place. They then developed the geo-politic situation, the head writer created the characters. Randal Bills from Catalyst Game Labs helped check and vet the story, Tyler Carpenter also chipped in. It was all written and re-written several times. And even then, once you come to mission creation and the like,
  the story will be iterated again and again. The player plays the story, he does not read it.
• Because of the pre-production work, HBS knows how much missions there will be in story, what type they will be, which and what type units will be involved, what terrain, ...
• HBS works in an open office space. There are not offices. THere are just desks, tightly-packed. It allows for great overview, for everyone involved. Being in such an open space and closely packed, it creates a great atmosphere. It is also enormously collaborative. In larger teams, people tend to be more specialist. HBS also has not a lot of hierarchy. Everyone contributes and listens to one another. HBS has clear values and you need to them to have a fun atmosphere. Be respectful, being highly collaborative and truly listen to feedback. Only this way can you be yourself. If you enter a discussion with someone you respect, you do so for the good of the game. It's not about the people. And you need to respect the audience.
• If you are actively planning for "crunch time", you are basically a bad person. There are stories of large studios that go into crunch mode for months on end, working 6 or 7 days a week, 80 to 120 hours a week. HBS feels that doesn't work. Crunch does happen because of either came up that forces you as a team to do so or there is something you truly passionately want into the game and you then put yourself in crunch mode. HBS never wants to go longer than two weeks at a time in crunch, never do 7 days in a row. Mitch instituted a system where, during crunch, come in early than usual, but leave around the same time in order to be family and what not. Normally, it's the way around, with teammembers staying in longer.
• HBS is thinking of adding more Mechs post-launch. Early in development, you don't have the pipeline and don't know how long it takes exactly to make something. In only a few weeks/months, HBS will know for sure how long it takes to create a Mech , a map, ... and get it in-game. THey'll know how much fits in the game and how much it will cost. And depending on cost and time, you can think about post-launch. So, no concrete plans.
• As to how DFA will impact BattleTech, Tyler Carpenter is looking into adding characters or story or planets into the game or add links to them. Some eastereggs perhaps.
• Projects inevitably end up behind schedule. Everytime you have a milestone, new things got in that weren't planned and some planned things did not get in. There is a concept of agile development, introduced about 7 years ago. Historically, you had "waterfall" development, where everything was planned out for two years. This plan is by day three immediatly wrong and out-of-date and you'll need to update it. Agile development has a broad-stroke plan and then divides that in two-week / a month parts. After each sprint, you evaluate what got done, what didn't. Everytime you have to take things with you into the next sprint, means that down the line, something else needs to be cut or reduced in scope. So, HBS will in the coming months and say "feature x had to be cut or reduced because of reason y".
• You can blow limbs of Mechs, but you cannot pick them up and beat other mechs with them.
• Charging, melee and death from above attacks are in the game.
• HBS develops multiple games. The team of Battletech works on a different floor than the one for Necropolis. The building is owned by an aeronautics supply firm. HBS is renting spots in corners and the like that the firm isn't actually using. HBS doesn't like to separate teams that way though, they love to have some cross-over.
• Teams vary in size. They start small, with prototyping and groundwork. Once the pipeline is further along, the bulk of the team is brought later. At the end, the team is once again reduced in size. The end-team does the final polishing and bugfixing. This helps costs. Also, you want the final team to be smaller. The larger that team of contributers, the more chance of further bugs.
• There will not be a campaign / mission editor / creator. The Shadowrun editor costed about 4 times as much as thought. The maps will be larger, but you can't design them yourself. A mapmaker would have been a stretch goal.
• Tips for starting you own company. Do your homework, research your market. Who are your customers, how will you reach them? Network and do it a lot. Don't spend a penny if you don't have to (look at the offices of HBS).
• Nintendo throws a lot of people at Q&A. Untrained people and they are brought in at the end of production. HBS has Q&A people from the beginning. They understand the game. Q&A at HBS are internal (a few) and external. They outsource to Poland. Very professional people and because of the time difference, they test when its nighttime for HBS. That way, they get their test reports right when they start a new workday.
• HBS doesn't have automated code tests. They do think they should.
• HBS does give friends and family access to beta builds of the games they produce. The Backer Beta for BattleTech is something new. They have high hopes for that and expect to get a lot of data out of it.
• You can no longer get Kickstarter swag because they made only the exact amount required.
• Just because MWO delivers Mech models, doesn't mean Mechs get in the game rapidly. It is a huge help. In a day, you can get the geometry converted. But PGI goes about animations in a different way than HBS does. Texturing is also done differently. The Mechs in the game right now were basically "hand-crafted" because the pipeline wasn't fully ready yet.
• HBS probably will not create their own Mech models for the initial release. Afterwards, it is possible, but depends on success.
• Customization of Mechs will be possible, but the systems aren't designed yet. No custom textures.
• It is no longer possible to get the 80 dollar level pledge and get the "initiate of valhalla" title. HBS wanted that to be exclusive to the initial backers. HBS is thinking about allowing you to get into that group by playing, but that is just brainstorming right now and if it happens, it will be for post-launch.
• As a player, you will only ever control a lance of 4 mechs.
• They are not supporting modding, they are also not stopping it.
• No plans for having DFA crew or Hyperrpg crew to do voice-casting for the game yet.
• HBS is negotiating with Topps for Merchandise and they hope one day to bring back the Jackets and stuff from the Kickstarter.
• HBS found out during the development of Shadowrun that it is better to let the players debate among themselves and discuss topics. HBS can learn from these discussions, see points that they hadn't thought of. The audience as a whole has unlimited time to debate issues. The development team has limited amount of time available. So, doing constructive debating really helps HBS.
• Infantry is currently not in the game.
• If he could choose, Jordan would undo the idea of intelligent talking birds [NOTE: The "aliens" mentioned in the BattleTech novel Far Country]. Beyond that, Jordan didn't like how the Black Widow died.

[Flying Dice]

Hype is only building, mang. Hoping that the end-of-2016 beta details means January/February beta.

[Neonivek]

I only get the finished version (I believe)

[Flying Dice]

If you only did the $25 pledge, yeah. S'a good part of the reason why I went $85, other than wanting to see it happen.

In the meantime MechCommander Omnitech has updated to run on Win8/10 now, so that can tide us over.

[Rince Wind]

I also really enjoyed the Death from Above roleplaying and tabletop show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhrDrkfUYvs

They usually have roleplaying session and then a tabletop session (at the beginning on seperate days, which made the RPG session longer compared to later ones when they would do one after another). They are using 3d printed models of the MWO mechs and destroy them as the battle goes on (later there is less destruction as they only damage the models on internal damage to be able to use them more often. But an ammo explosion will still be followed by a hammer to the model). The opfor is usually played by guest stars, and most really get into their roles as well.
The show only gets better as the players get a grasp on what they are doing and the story is pretty good. Tyler is a great DM.
I sure binge watched it when I found it about 2 months ago.

[Dohon]

Another Q&A session has been put online.

Spoiler: Summary (click to show/hide)

• Those present were Mitch Gitelman, Randal Bills (Catalyst Game Labs) and Tyler Carpenter.
• Last stream of the year, allows HBS to work on the game and enjoy the holidays. Be back in 2017!
• Randal Bills does watch Death From Above, but hasn't seen every episode. He did enjoy the first episode and laughed so hard when the first Mech was damaged. He said it was also painful, since he knows those Mechs cost a lot.
• The Introductory Box set is a great introduction for new BattleTech players. It has 24 Mechs, some basic rules. Unfortunately out of print and getting a new production run is expensive and complicated. Working on it!
• A lot of lore errors (for instance, the Catapult K2 model went from being produced in 3025 to 3033) are changed after the fact. TRO 3025 Revised had a shocking amount of errors changed from the TRO 3025. Randal Bills has been with the BattleTech universe for 20 years, the game itself is pushing on 35.
• Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) would love to have an official Character Generator Tool (Software). On the other hand, there isn't any official software for making Record Sheets for BattleTech either. If someone wants to make that, they can always pitch their idea at CGL.
• Death from Above is not official Canon (said by both HBS and CGL). It's all about the fun.
• The Aurigan Reaches hasn't been mentioned before in BT lore. In-universe reason is that there are a lot of systems out there in the periphery that were inhabited during the Star League. Those came under the auspices of the Inner Sphere powers and quite a lot eventually just disappear. That didn't mean they died out, but it generally means those worlds just weren't important and fell off the attention-radar of their overlords. A real life example would be the battles that happend in Nigeria during World War 2. They did happen, but they don't tend to attract at lot of attraction.
• CGL will try to incorporate the events of the HBS game into future products. CGL has done that with lore from the MechWarrior games. Some games like Mechassault 2 proved to be impossible to incorporate, so that didn't happen. CGL and HBS are working closely on this. CGL loves that HBS is treating BattleTech canon with such great respect.
• If you want more info on the succession wars [INFO: HBS' game is set in 3025, at the tail-end of the 3rd Succession war], CGL release the First Succession War Sourcebook. Many events in that book lay the foundation for the events in 3025. There are also two Combat Manuals out, being Combat Manual: Kurita and Combat Manual: Mercenaries. Those deal with events of the Clan Invasion [INFO: Which is about 3050]. Nice stuff for 3025 in there. And finally, CGL also released Campaign Operations, the last of the Core Rulebooks for the Tabletop. It deals with on how running your own campaign and gives details on how to run your own mercenary outfit.
• CGL doesn't "own" the BattleTech universe. That would be the Topps company and they own all non-electronic rights to BattleTech. Microsoft owns all electronic rights to BattleTech. CGL has the license to work with all the non-electronic stuff. CGL can (and is) shape the BT universe. You have to move the story forward. There have been pauses. After the Clan Invasion, the story didn't take big steps forwards.
• Randal would change the Mechanics on how the Clans were introduced to the game. In Tabletop, weapons have about 7 characteristics, and the Clan weapons were tweaked on all fronts. Randal would probably have looked to a max of 4 stats to change in order to make those weapons stand out.
• CGL is changing up the Lance packs. They will better quality. Stay tuned for more info.
• Terrain components are hard to do. Very complex process.
• Making the First Succession war sourcebook was a very daunting process. Herbs Beas did a lot of contributions to the book. There was a great fact-checking team, run by volunteers. Those are talented volunteers to. During the creation of the House handbooks (the successors to the old House sourcebooks), authors would write 10.000 words and have referenced 30 to 40 sources. And still, the volunteers would find a source that would contradict what the author wrote, sending him/her back to the drawing board. BT Lore is problematic because it is so huge, but CGL loves it.
• The Jihad wasn't a way to "reset" the power creep and wipe out what had been accomplished from 3025 up to 3067. Every three years, the founders of BT and influential authors get together to discuss "how to proceed with the BT story". The Jihad story-arc was in development for 6 or 7 years.
• Randal likes the new initiative as created for BattleTech. It really makes Light Mech stand out, something that got lost with the introduction of the Clans and the powercreep. CGL had to spend years trying to make Light Mechs viable and the only way to do so was using experimental tech. The new initiative system makes Light Mechs viable, even in the clan era.
• AeroTech is in the Total Warfare book. Before that, it was spread in several different rulebooks. The sales were never there and folding it in one book along with other rules allowed players to actually play those rules. A separate book just wouldn't sell well.
• The lore summits allows CGL and authors to discuss on how to proceed forward. Each summit allowed to create elements for new eras and each era itself will have clues / plotlines on which you can continue. Doesn't mean each plotline / clue is followed or acted upon as previously agreed. There is a lot of discussion between the people involved. This has led to heated discussions. In stalemates, it comes down to the majority. Compromise is necessary. And besides, you have to choose your fight.
• HBS doesn't believe in "the game producer's opinion is the word of God". While Mitch was told so when entering the industry, he and Tyler don't believe it works that way. Nobody is that perfect or visionary that they alone can get it right. HBS members are all agreed upon the core items that must make-up the game. They discuss then on the details.
• Tyler plays MWO, but not regular. He started out with a Wolverine and wanted a Warhammer, but never had enough points to get one. Randal plays MWO from time to time, but he runs it on a Mac and doesn't always run well.
• Randal will play the Battletech game for sure. There is so much in there that he loves.
• A new piece of Tech being introduced is a complex process. It boils down to checking the stats of the new tech and compare it to what there is already. And sometimes you'll have to playtest it, because numbers don't always tell everything.
• The Dark Ages timeline will not be re-written, that is canon.
• The new sourcebook Ill-clan will push the timeline forward and is expected to release in 2017.
• Minnesota tribe? You want more info? Read the book Betrayal of Ideals book by Blaine Pardoe.
• The Clan ppc and large laser are still the most overpowered weapons in BattleTech, according to Randal.
• If Randal could change anything in the BT universe, Randal would change the rule that says that engines cannot contain double heatsinks. Double heatsinks for free changed the balance way too much.
• If DFA had a live-action movie, Lord Commander would be played by Ian McShane. Talon would be played by Christian Slater (same cocky attitude). Coryphée would be played by Jane Seymour. Valravn by a Swedish-Chinese actor [NOTE: The exact name is mentioned on Valravn's casting page for DFA, but I can't seem to find it.]. Jackal by Edward Norton. Someone in chat proposed that Valravn be played by Michelle Yeoh. Another suggested Morena Baccarin for Coryphée.
• The Introductory Boxset (when once again available) will have the latest Mech Sculpts.
• The Second Sucession war sourcebook will be release early 2017.
• Fan-produced content very rarely makes it into canon BattleTech. BattleTech volunteers who produce stuff do get pulled into development and work on projects for CGL.
• MechCon will be attended by Mitch, Randal and Tyler.
• CGL has taught about a timeline without the Clans. Or one where Maximillian Liao doesn't clone Hanse Davion, meaning House Davion doesn't go after the Capellan Confederation, but goes toe-to-toe agains House Kurita.
• CGL has started to redesign the Unseen Mechs. Several have been and they are looking into how far they can go.
• U. Utah Philips was an influential country singer for Mitch.
• Dagger [NOTE: Dagger was a MechWarrior pilot in the MechCommander games] is on the Death From Above shadow. She is called Coryphée instead of dagger.
• Randal's favorite Mech is the Banshee 3S. It is big and scary. Also a lot of emotional value. Back in the day, Randal wrote a story for the BattleTech magazine on how about he was a jock, looking for a Banshee 3S during the Fourth Succession War. They published that story and that was his very first publication ever. Randal's favorite faction is House Kurita. Favorite Clan is Clan Nova Cat).
• Tyler's favorite Mech is the Thunderbolt 5SE. Favorite House is House Marik (very closely followed by House Liao).
• CGL has contemplated turning to crowdfunding for certain projects, but nothing has come from it.
• Pre-painted miniatures are very very expensive to sell. No near-term plans for that.
• Randal's favorite piece of art is the original Succes Wars box cover art. Also, the Battlepack Fourth Sucession wars cover.
• A new CGL summit is happening "soon".
• HBS swag store is being considered, but games come first.
• Mechcommander 3 isn't going to happen, because HBS has a license for a turn-based game.
• BattleTech multiplayer at launch will be 1v1.
• Randal played BattleTech at GenCon. Was also the last time he had the chance to play it. He loved it.

[Dohon]

A new Kickstarter update.

Closed (Kickstarter Beta) to kick-off somewhere between late January and early March. Beta will not contain all content, but will have multiplayer. Beta players can share footage and discuss the builds freely.

The update has some story info on your NPC crew and the main protagonists / antagonists. Mild spoilers, so beware!

Apparantly, they (along with the folks from MechWarrior Online) have gotten a merchandise deal. The next update at the end of the year will give more info.

[Flying Dice]

Was just about to post myself. Good shit, HBS.

[Knave]

As a non-backer who's still interested in how the game is forming up, I appreciate the updates, thanks!

[Aklyon]

As a non-backer who's still interested in how the game is forming up, I appreciate the updates, thanks!

I also approve of all these updates.