Anyone playing Harebrained Schemes Battletech?

Blue · May 8, 2018

Hey [MENTION=10324]jonesy[/MENTION], this new one is turn-based and close to the tabletop conceptionally. It's great fun. If you're also looking for a real-time driving-my-mech experience, MechWarrior Online is free-to-play with both skirmishes and objective-based battles, usually 3 lances per side, each with a human piloting a single mech video-game style. (So 12 vs. 12 people.)

Actually, the new HBS Battletech licensed the mech models from Piranha, the maker of MechWarrior Online and they've cross-promoted each other - they scratch different itches, they don't compete just compliment.

Mustrum_Ridcully · May 8, 2018

I've played a lot of MW:O and was actually an Elite Founder, but I always ended up disappointed with the game. I am just not that much into pure PvP titles.
Around the same time as MW:O, the publisher of MW:O also had a project called Mechwarrior: Tactics, which was a turn based strategy game (also focused on PvP). But that project crashed and burned, and I think rightfully so based on my beta experiences. For some reason, they build their own mech models, and they looked just terrible.

That Battletech and MW:O use the same models is really, really awesome. And even if the game never quite was what I wanted, I guess I'll always thank MW:O for creating those models and allowing Harebrained Schemes to use them with them. The guys making M:WO area also creating Mechwarrior 5 now ,and I've heard that Battletech also provided some stuff for them in the form of the vehicles (which BT includes. You steer mechs, but enemy and allies forces can use vehicles. No infantry and air craft so far, though.)
And anyone familiar with the problem of the "Unseen" - it could very well be that PGI might have the coffers to finally bring the Harmony Gold lawsuits against the use of mechs like the Marauder or Warhammer to an end. I don't know if it really works out, but it seems to be going far better and further than any of the previous lawsuits, that always ended up with settlements that never really cleared the legal situation up. FASA and/or Jordan Weisman just never had the financial resources to deal with it.

So that would be a second thing I would need to be thankful for towards PGI.

jonesy · May 9, 2018

Blue said:
Hey [MENTION=10324]jonesy[/MENTION], this new one is turn-based and close to the tabletop conceptionally. It's great fun. If you're also looking for a real-time driving-my-mech experience...

No, I meant that I wished that the mech games of the past had moved towards turn-based instead of away from it.

Wulffolk · May 16, 2018

I was a BattleTech fanatic back in the early days. I had the original box set, and fell in love with those original mechs, especially the Phoenix Hawk and the Crusader and the Marauder. I have played all of the iterations of the BattleTech and MechWarrior game, but I just can't get past my nostalgia for the "Unseen" mechs of the 3025 era. The work-around re-styling of some of those mechs just doesn't cut it for me.

I had planned to purchase this new version of BattleTech, but after recently upgrading my PC to be able to handle current games I have gotten hooked on Total War: WarHammer. Once I overcome that addiction then I might buy BattleTech for the nostalgia of it.

Blue · May 17, 2018

Been loving the game. nVidia put out a driver update last month that caused a bunch of crashes, but the new driver from this month (plus the patches up to 1.0.3 for memory leaks) fixed those.

Had my kickstarter for Pillars of Eternity II go live, and even though I loved the first I've only played a few hours of it because I've been focusing on BattleTech.

trappedslider · May 17, 2018

I'll have to look into this game...I have or had one of the technical readout books and many decades ago I bought the game but had no one to play with and it was missing pieces despite being sealed and i had no real clue how to contact the company.

EmberGod · May 21, 2018

For me, the best bit of Battletech lore is the Steiner-Davion Wedding event that kicked off the Fourth Succession War.
This was a big political marriage between two of the major powers, and they had the in-game event occur by inviting people to the reception, which was held at GenCon in 1988. They had a big stage event with the conceit that people at the FASA booth were simply taking part in/listening to a broadcast of the wedding, one of hundreds of similar parties across the galaxy. They had printed invitations! Well I have to use proxy to play but it doesn't spoil the process of gameplay.