Battletech (PC Strategy Game)

Demon Stalker · Feb 27, 2016

Jordan has paid 2k for artillery strikes that others have doubled. I love it

LagCat · Feb 27, 2016

just got back from work and the stream is still going (obviously done with Battletech) but the people on right now are playing with the mechs >.>

Skwisgaar · Feb 27, 2016

I'm sorry I missed this, hopefully there will be video recording on youtube I can catch

Dihm · Feb 27, 2016

Skwisgaar said: ↑

I'm sorry I missed this, hopefully there will be video recording on youtube I can catch
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Same!

MagnusEffect · Feb 27, 2016

they said something about posting it later. The HBS crew is also apparently planning some weekly tabletop streaming too... so it looks like this will be the first of many.

I heard something about them also using woodburning tools on plastic models to realistically reflect damage on mechs as they play... sounds expensive... but also awesome!

Demon Stalker · Feb 28, 2016

Tuesday nights is the RP part. Friday is the battle part of "Death from Above".

They will actually be doing damage to the mechs on Friday, such as sawing off a torso when it is destroyed.

Solis Obscuri · Mar 9, 2016

Base dropship sounds pretty cool. I guess we all get to be halfass Wolf's Dragoons or something.

Introducing the Argo-Class DropShip
And now - it’s DropShip time! Below is a nice sourcebook-style bit of history from our Design Lead Kevin Maginn, along with concept art that the art team and I have been working on. NOTE: Very minor background and setting spoilers follow. It’s nothing big, but I thought I’d include the warning just in case - if you want to discover the DropShip and bits of its backstory for the first time when you play the game, then you might not want to read further.

The Argo-class DropShip was an experiment in constructing a self-sufficient mobile base of operations for a flotilla of expeditionary ships. Built as a mid-point between a mobile DropShip and a mostly-immobile JumpShip, the Argo-class prioritizes sustainable long-term missions over everything else. Boeing Interstellar produced just two of these enormous ships, the Argo and the Myrmidon. The Argo was sent on its proving voyage to the Rimward Periphery in 2762.

(CONCEPT ART: Argo-class DropShip in stable orbit. One Leopard-class DropShip can be seen docked to its side, while another departs to deploy a Mercenary Lance to the planetary surface below.)
The intended mission of the Argo was to follow behind the first wave of exploratory missions, supporting multiple surveyor, terraformer, and colonizer teams while they completed a deep survey of the system. To accomplish this mission, the Argo would stay in-system for six months at a time, while the JumpShip that carried it there would move on to other systems and other tasks. The Argo was a mobile space station, in a sense, providing supply and temporary habitation for teams on dangerous missions in unsettled space.

The Argo is too large to land on a planet, much like the similarly-sized Behemoth. The prototype multiple docking collar system allowed for smaller DropShips to attach to the Argo for resupply, cargo transfer, and personnel transfer; these docking collars allowed smaller ships to remain attached while the Argo linked with a JumpShip for jump transfer, or to break off and remain in-system while the Argo moved on ahead. The Argo was thus meant as a logistical hub for a small flotilla of DropShips, which would dock and undock with the ship as needed to complete their independent missions.

(CONCEPT ART: Key ship features. Click to enlarge.)
With 57,000 tons of cargo space, the Argo was able to carry supplies for multiple young colonies, arms and armaments for garrisons in need of resupply, colonists being moved to or evacuated from a colony, military hardware, and fuel for other ships. It lacks the armor or maneuverability to function in battle, and it is vastly outclassed in size and firepower by even the smallest WarShips, and it was this non-combat role that ultimately led to its abandonment; the Boeing factories on Galax were entirely repurposed for wartime, and there was simply no place for a peacetime exploration ship.

The Argo featured a unique folding grav-deck design, which allows the ship to remain habitable while in orbit around a planet or station-keeping near a jump point. The three habitation ‘pods’ lie flat against the ship’s central spine while under thrust; while the ship is stationary, the pods extend and the collar to which they’re attached rotates. This keeps the living quarters and medical facilities under gravity at all times, which makes the ship habitable for long tours of duty. The flight control area and command center are located deep inside the ship, near its spine, and are only under gravity during thrust. They’re serviced by fast passenger-sized lifts that run the length of the ship, allowing the crew to muster for duty in just minutes in an emergency.

(CONCEPT ART: The Argo’s hab ring being deployed - the only time when the hab ring ceases to be under either thrust-based or rotation-based gravity. The crew must securely lock down all loose items in the hab ring prior to deployment.)
Habitability was a key point in the objectives the Boeing engineers were given: the crew would be expected to live on the ship for years at a time, if not decades. This total self-sufficiency is a recurring theme in the ship’s design. It includes three fully-featured MASH medical theaters, larger-than-usual crew and passenger accommodations, recreational areas, fitness centers, and extensive onboard hydroponic gardens. An entire pod is reserved for passengers and temporary guests; docking DropShip crews were expected to take ‘shore’ leave onboard the Argo.

(CONCEPT ART: The habitation ring, deployed. The counter-rotation of the high-mass engine/fuel assembly at the rear ensures zero net rotational momentum for the ship.)
The central spine includes multiple elevator shafts serving each of the three docking collars, each shaft being large enough to accommodate an Assault-class ‘Mech, an aerospace fighter, or a heavy combat vehicle. Ground vehicles and ‘Mechs were not expected to deploy directly from the Argo, so it lacks external bay doors; deploying a ground unit meant transferring the unit along the spinal elevators to a waiting Leopard (or comparable) DropShip, from which the unit would deploy. The complement of fighters, however, could deploy directly from the Argo, and were expected to provide support and cover if the Argo found itself in danger.

Ultimately, the Argo would prove to be a dead-end in DropShip design. On its maiden voyage in the deep Periphery, the Argo dropped out of contact, and was presumed destroyed as part of an attack in the New Vandenberg Uprising. While still in dock preparing for its own first voyage, the Myrmidon was damaged by a terrorist action. It was decided not to try to repair the Myrmidon, and it was ultimately broken down for parts and materials to manufacture other, more battle-oriented ships.

The Argo was a product of the era in which it was conceived: a peacetime ship meant for peacetime exploration duties, and planned with the expectation of an abundance of resources and a focus on long-term orbital deployment. In an earlier era, it might have seen widespread usage, but in practice the fall of the Star League and the outbreak of war (and near constant state of war ever since) has rendered the Argo little more than a forgotten, experimental footnote in the history of DropShip production.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/1512716

Solis Obscuri · Mar 9, 2016

Continued:

A Tour of the Argo

(CONCEPT ART: A Davion liaison reviews contract details with a veteran lance of MechWarriors in the Argo’s makeshift briefing room.)
I’m not going to dive into any story spoilers here, but suffice it to say that your Mercenary outfit will come into possession of this derelict Argo-class DropShip early on in the campaign. Here’s a quick tour of some of the different areas of the DropShip that you’ll be able to visit to manage your Mercenary outfit. (And by visit, we mean move between fixed-views of each environment, almost like the old MechWarrior games.) Once again, over to Kevin for the descriptions here!

COMMAND CENTER - This is where you and your command staff operate the ship. It’s a combination of a communications center, briefing room, and CIC. It’s located amidships, along the spine of the ship, where it’s quickly and easily accessed from anywhere on the ship while also being protected by the bulk of the Main Hold. In the Command Center, you’ll talk to your Executive Officer, review and negotiate contracts, and determine lance deployments.

(CONCEPT ART: the long-dormant Command Center of the derelict Argo.)
BRIDGE - The bridge is where the operations crew and the navigator drive the ship. It features a large holo-vid display in the center of the bridge for surveying known planetary and stellar data. The pilot and copilot pods are at one end of the bridge area, and the navigator’s console is at the other end. On the Bridge, you’ll talk to your ship’s Navigator and chart both interstellar and interplanetary travel.

(CONCEPT ART: The Argo's bridge. While many sci-fi ships opt for a more aircraft-carrier-style bridge, with windows looking out into space, we wanted something more practical - so the bridge is located in the most protected part of the ship, its center.)
MAIN HOLD - The Argo’s main hold is subdivided into into multiple bays, which are connected to each other both via the ship’s main spine elevators and internal lifts. There are three Mech bays, each of which has four Mech cubicles. Active ‘Mechs are kept in these cubicles, ready for deployment. The cubicles are also repair bays for MechTechs to upgrade, modify, and repair Mechs. The Argo was built primarily as a cargo hauler, and has 20 cargo bays ranging in size from 20 m3 to the vast cavernous Main Bay, with 25,000 m3 of storage. In its new life as a mercenary company base, the ship’s cargo bays are used to store salvaged and otherwise deactivated mech chassis and weapons. In the Main Hold, you’ll repair, customize, and upgrade your ‘Mechs, as well as manage salvage and possibly support vehicles.

(CONCEPT ART: An Atlas, secure in its cubicle in the Argo’s ‘Mech Bay at the base of the Main Hold.)
HABITATION RING - The Argo has three habitation pods, which spin while the ship is not under thrust to provide apparent gravity, and fold down along the spine of the ship to provide apparent gravity while under thrust. These pods contain all comfort-focused facilities: barracks, medical bays, hydroponics, recreation areas, and passenger quarters. In the Habitation Ring, you’ll manage your MechWarriors and other personnel, and browse hiring boards for new hires.

CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS - Your personal quarters on the ship. They’re located in one of the habitation modules, so they always have gravity. They’re larger than the other crew quarters aboard the ship, mostly because they include an attached office. In your Captain’s Quarters, you’ll manage your Mercenary company finances, browse ComStar news bulletins, and view records of your career-to-date.

ENGINEERING - The Argo’s engines are serviced by two primary engineering decks, near the reactor shield. Access to the ship’s maintenance passageways and access tunnels is all through these two decks. In an emergency, the engineering deck can be used as a backup command center. Engineering is where you’ll talk to your Chief Engineer and choose both functional and cosmetic upgrades for the Argo.

So, that’s the Argo! Some elements may still change, but we’re very excited about this direction and what it adds to the Mercenary campaign. Here’s one more last-minute addition to the tour, though - a previsualization video that Joel and Spencer have been working on to show how you might interact with the various rooms on the DropShip. I wasn’t planning on including this, but… well, when Spencer showed it to the team yesterday, we all thought it was just too cool to not give you guys a peek.

Please know that this is a rough concept piece only - it’s not in-engine yet, and is not meant to suggest any specifics as far as how ‘Mech and ‘MechWarrior customization will work from a game design standpoint, or who your particular advisor characters will be in the story. This is all hot-off-the-presses and subject to change. But enough caveats - here’s the concept video!

(Additional caveat - ‘Mech scaling is still a work in progress, and we’ll be following Piranha’s current rescaling efforts for MWO, coordinating with them to ensure that everything we ship in our final game feels correct.)
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Solis Obscuri · Mar 9, 2016

Continued some more:

Behind the Scenes - Designing the Argo
This section may not interest everyone, but it’s been REALLY, really fun designing this ship inside and out with the team. So I wanted to talk a little bit more about the way we approached it and some of the “hard sci-fi” considerations that made their way into the design.

We started with a really simple prompt: to design a new ship that both narratively and visually fit the BattleTech universe. We knew we wanted something that could act as a mobile base for the campaign, and eventually accommodate an entire Mercenary company. We considered using many existing BattleTech DropShips, but at the end of the day, we really wanted to contribute something new and unique to the world that could serve as one of the highlights of our single-player campaign. For gameplay purposes, we also really liked the flexibility of being able to send a smaller Leopard DropShip down to a planet for a mission, while leaving your main base of operations safe in orbit.

One of the things that really sets BattleTech apart from other sci-fi universes is just how much attention to hard science and practicality is included in the source material. To that end, we spent a ton of time early on discussing what kind of design features might make sense for an early expeditionary ship in the world of BattleTech. The idea of a persistent grav deck quickly became a key feature, one that I went through several iterations on before finally landing on the idea of the deployable hab ring. (In fact, I’m pretty sure at that point I was using paper cups to illustrate the idea to the design team.) Once I had that figured out, I was able to develop around that central idea, with the goal of building something that felt true to the overall shape language of BattleTech DropShips - in a nutshell, it’s a ship built for cold reality, not for beauty.

To start designing the interior of the Argo, our art team took a field trip down to the nearby Museum of Flight to take their awesome Space Shuttle trainer tour, and take tons of reference photos. It’s always incredibly useful in the visual development process to seek out primary reference, and this was no exception. There’s an authenticity you find in little design details, like lockers on the wall with attach points on the front for sticking things to during free-fall - it’s been really fun watching Joel layer those elements into the various area designs of the ship.

As the style of the DropShip came together, we turned to the crunchy stuff: the actual BattleTech numbers. (We weren’t about to add a new ship to the BattleTech universe without ensuring that it was possible under the game’s detailed DropShip construction rules.) Our goal was to create a writeup that wouldn’t look out of place in an official Technical Readout book. Kevin started with the TechManual and a target weight of 100,000 tons. Then he turned to Tactical Operations for its selection of advanced equipment, and finally Strategic Operations to look over the advanced Aerospace and maintenance rules and the wide selection of design quirks. In the end, we were able to get pretty close to a set of ‘official’ BattleTech stats, and this gave us some clear guidelines for the size of various components, the scale of the ship, and the way everything should fit together. (Though to be clear, we’re not submitting this as any kind of playable entry for tabletop play - we’re sure there would be plenty of balancing issues, at the very least.)

That’s it for the Argo (finally!) - but don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the combat Q&A session, or catch the recording of it later. Until next time!

-- Mike
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Dihm · Mar 9, 2016

Solis Obscuri · Apr 8, 2016

Very cool, long update:

Hey Everyone! Jordan here!

In this update I’d like to talk about our turn order design for the game - how we handle turn-based moving and shooting. We’ve been following your discussions on the BattleTech forums and as game developers, they’re always really exciting to see. We learn a ton by reading your different points-of-view, so thanks!

The Grizzled Designer
We were originally going to wait a little longer to talk about Turn Order so we could actually show it to you in-game and in-action - but we can see how passionate you guys are about this topic and we don’t want to leave you hanging. As your forum threads reflect, we all understand that tabletop and computer games are two very different animals, even when they are trying to simulate the same fictional reality.

Translating Tabletop
Whenever I’m at a game convention, I’m always asked, “Why don’t you just port the BattleTech tabletop rules to the computer? They’ve worked great for 30 years!” For the answer, let’s start with the obvious - tabletop games have the enormous benefit of in-person social interaction. Being around the table with your friends is entertaining all by itself and taking more time to resolve game results is not necessarily a negative. On the other hand, waiting for a remote opponent in an online game can be frustrating at worst and boring at best. Even if your opponent is your best friend, it’s just not the same as being the table together.

Beyond social interaction, another key difference between tabletop and computer games is how you absorb information. For example, during a tabletop game, every move and every die roll you make (along with all the moves and die rolls of your opponents) happen at a speed that allows you to process that information. And don’t underestimate the tactile and social fun of rolling dice or the visceral feeling of filling in armor boxes on a ‘Mech’s record sheet. It is the tactile power of those experiences that helps us understand and retain the game information conveyed during the event.

BattleTech’s turn order is a good example of a tabletop design element that doesn’t port well to the computer. The tabletop design attempts to reflect the fictional reality of 'Mechs and vehicles moving and shooting simultaneously by splitting movement and combat into two different phases. Movement order is based on initiative, and then alternated between players. Combat is resolved simultaneously - players take turns rolling damage, and then that damage all takes effect at the same time. This works great for tabletop, where it’s easy to accept the nonlinear abstraction. Even though my attack may have destroyed your ‘Mech, I know you’ll still get to roll for its damage to mine. This is much harder to present on screen, where a certain linearity of events is expected!

So, now that you understand the basic design challenge, we’ll start where HBS always starts - at the goal level.

Design Goals
Our design process starts with explicitly stating the goals for every system, so that we have a way of evaluating if the system design is not just “cool” but most importantly achieves its design criteria. The design goals that impact the turn order system are:

Fluid play in both singleplayer and multiplayer game modes - This is actually a bigger deal than you would think because our emotional reactions to a turn order system are quite different with a computer opponent that takes zero time to make a decision and a human who takes considerably more than zero time.

Make Light 'Mechs useful and versatile - Light 'Mechs were included in the game to be used as scouts, flankers, and forward observers. Historically, these roles have appeared in BT fiction more than in game play, so one of our major goals is to make Light 'Mechs really useful.

Don’t overwhelm me with information - BattleTech is a very information heavy game. Previous computer / video games have handled this in one of two ways: greatly simplify the game, or overwhelm the player with too much information. We want to find a balance that allows us to maintain the depth of the simulation while making sure that the information provided is digestible and actionable.

Provide me visceral feedback on my actions - When you perform an action you should see a satisfying result to that action, and most importantly you should understand the results of the action.

It’s gotta feel like BattleTech! - This one might seem obvious, but it’s important to make it explicit - the results of the turn order system should feel like BattleTech.

Rapid Prototyping
Working from an established set of design goals for a system, we like to move directly into rapid prototyping. As designers, it’s always tempting to engage in lengthy debates, waxing poetic about the merits of different approaches, but we’ve found that it’s by far more effective to simply try out each compelling idea! Our designers and engineers jump right into Unity to quickly create crude working versions of design concepts that we can play right away. These prototypes look ugly, and are missing a lot of bells and whistles, but they’re enough for us to really get a feel for how the design element plays in both singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios.

This approach has made working on BATTLETECH a great deal of fun for for the entire team as we can all discuss the merits of each approach from an informed position. Even more importantly, the rapid prototyping methodology has allowed us to vet the game design many months before a fully architected code base would allow us to.

We have built and played the hell out of seven (7!) different approaches to turn order, from a completely linear XCOM-like system to a completely simultaneous action system with many variations in between. Since a simultaneous action approach is a natural one to gravitate to for BattleTech, I’m going to take some time to outline how those particular prototypes went in a bit of detail.

Our first simultaneous action prototype was one in which players plotted both movement and combat secretly and then watched as the round unfolded. The biggest issue with this prototype turned out to be with targeting and weapon selections for each 'Mech. In the prototype, players could target enemies with specific weapons while plotting their movements and then, during a simultaneous resolution phase, they’d see their choices play out in real-time action.

Sound great, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, things often went very differently than folks anticipated. Watching everyone’s plans going awry is supposed to be part of the fun of a simultaneous action system but instead, players felt frustrated watching one of their MechWarriors slavishly waiting to shoot their designated target rather than unloading in the rear armor of an enemy 'Mech that wandered right into the line-of-fire. To compensate, we started to give the MechWarriors the ability to override the player’s targeting and weapon selections in specific circumstances and... eventually it just started feeling like the player was losing control of critical decisions. So much for Simultaneous Action Prototype #1!

Our next attempt at simultaneous action was to break the round into two phases, Movement and Combat - with both phases being revealed simultaneously. The idea was that player would plot movement for all their 'Mechs and then everyone’s movements would be revealed simultaneously. The players could then use a scrollbar like a video “scrubber” to roll time backwards and forwards to determine when to fire during each 'Mech’s movement, who the target was, and which weapons would fire. This prototype was interesting, and returned complete control to the player, but was a slow and laborious system to interact with.

Both of our simultaneous action solutions also really failed on the information overload and visceral feedback goals I mentioned above. Because so much happened so quickly, you often found yourself needing to dive into each 'Mech’s data after the action just to understand what happened in the previous round. As you can imagine, that wasn’t very fun. The other goal these prototypes failed at was actually the most important - they felt like you were commanding fighter planes, not BattleMechs. They didn’t feel like BattleTech.

I won’t take you through the pros and cons of all seven Turn Order prototypes we built and played the hell out of and instead cut to the chase by introducing you to the turn order system we finally embraced and are building the game around.
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Solis Obscuri · Apr 8, 2016

cont'd

So - Where Did We End Up?
Here’s the basics:

Each weight class of ‘Mech has an Initiative value. Light ‘Mechs are the fastest, with an Initiative of 4 and assaults are the slowest, with an Initiative of 1.

Combat rounds are divided into 5 Phases, counting down from 5 to 1. ‘Mechs are allowed to act during the Phase that matches their Initiative. (That 5th Phase is the province of extremely skilled MechWarriors piloting Light ‘Mechs.)

'Mechs in a turn order

Each Phase, each side takes turns choosing a ‘Mech to Activate. When a Mech is Activated, it can both move and then fire its weapons. However, once the ‘Mech fires, its turn is over and it can’t act again until the next Round of combat.

After you Activate a ‘Mech and take a turn, the game attempts to give the next action to the other side. If the enemy has units available to use in the current Phase, they get the opportunity to activate one of them. If, on the other hand, they have no more units they can activate in the phase, and you do, you’ll get to go again.

This means that if you and your opponent are both using full lances of assault ‘Mechs, every Round will be pretty predictable: You’ll go, then your opponent will go, and so forth until all eight ‘Mechs have been Activated and have taken a turn.

When the game finishes counting down Initiative values and Phase 1 units have taken their turn, the Round ends. The Phase counter resets to 5, and every ‘Mech is ready to act again.

And now the really cool part:

We think this is a neat system because it reinforces and distinguishes between the different weight classes of ‘Mechs - but the place where it really becomes really interesting is when you start reserving ‘Mechs’ Phases for use later in the Round.

Any ‘Mech that isn’t an assault can be held in reserve when its turn to act comes up. That temporarily sets its Initiative Value one lower. So a Light ‘Mech that normally acts in Phase 4 will instead act in Phase 3.

With this system, you can keep reserving your ‘Mechs’ actions, holding an entire lance of ‘Mechs until Phase 1, if you wanted to.

What’s so interesting about reserving actions? First of all, consider the case of a whole lance of Light and medium ‘Mechs being reserved until Phase 1, where they’ll get to act right at the end of a Round. Then, when the round ends and a new Round starts, they’ll immediately get to act again in Phases 4 and 3! (This tactic isn’t theoretical - in a recent battle, I snuck up behind our Lead Designer Kevin’s Centurion with a Jenner I’d reserved to Phase 1. Then, on Phase 4 of the next Round I got to make a full alpha strike right into his back armor.)

As you’d guess, there’s also a lot of value in using this tactic to locally outnumber an opponent. You want your engagements to be uneven in your favor, and you want to be able to fall back from any engagement in which you’re outnumbered. Focusing your forces in one spot when your enemy is spread out is right out of Sun Tzu.

Our initiative system, which allows you to reserve units, means you can locally outnumber your enemy in time as well as space. If you can take three actions in a row, and all three actions are effective fire on a target with no chance for it to respond by moving or returning fire… you’ve essentially made part of the turn a 3-on-1 battle.

Conversely, reserving your faster ‘Mechs to break up long sequences of enemy action with opportunities to respond can be useful in preventing your own forces from becoming focus-fired.

We’re reinforcing the role of Light ‘Mechs in other ways, but this system is a significant component of their value. Light ‘Mechs get to choose where and when they engage, and if used carefully can be exactly the tool you need to get out of a bad situation. Heavy and assault ‘Mechs pack a much bigger punch, but the tradeoff is that they’re inherently more predictable - and thus are more often reacting than acting.

The Results
This turn order system is the one that made us immediately say, “Yes, that feels like BattleTech.” (Randall Bills, who’s in charge of BattleTech at Catalyst Game Labs, had the same reaction, which is obviously a good sign!) It captures the feeling of the world in that 'Mechs feel like 'Mechs, not aircraft or stationary gun platforms. It really helped to emphasise the difference between the various weight classes of 'Mechs. The tactical choices are interesting and the results are immediate and understandable.

And this model also clearly fulfilled all of our design goals from above:

Fluid play in both singleplayer and multiplayer game modes - Because control frequently passes back and forth in this model, singleplayer flows smoothly while still giving the player a variety of tactical options and there’s almost always something to watch or do in multiplayer.

Make Light 'Mechs useful and versatile - As explained above, this system gives Light ‘Mechs an inherent initiative advantage which can be used in many different ways.

Don’t overwhelm me with information - Focusing on moving only one unit at a time, and allowing both sides to clearly see the results of JUST that action, really helped focus the amount of information being presented to the player on a moment-to-moment basis - all the complexity of BattleTech movement and attacks is still there, but now it’s being presented in a very digestible way.

Provide me visceral feedback on my actions - Plotting a ‘Mech’s action and immediately seeing the damage done by your attack is really satisfying!

It’s gotta feel like BattleTech - While this admittedly a subjective criteria, this turn-order model immediately elicited this response with the team.

Now, we know you can’t play this system yourself yet (we’re working as fast as we can!) so you’ll have to trust on this one, but our play experiences tell us that this turn order system hits the right balance for both singleplayer and multiplayer game play.

You can head over to the forum now to discuss all the crunchy details with your fellow BattleTech fans here.

And, be sure to tune into the DEATH FROM ABOVE show on Hyper RPG’s Twitch channel to see how it plays out in their live-action BattleTech RPG. The #DFA team thinks it’ll make their livestreaming combat more engaging and understandable. Should be fun!

Talk to you all soon - Jordan

New BATTLETECH Dev Q&A Incoming
Starting at 2pm PST on April 13, we’ll be answering any follow up questions about the Turn-Order System discussed in the update and your burning questions about Interstellar Travel. You can ask your questions in this thread on the BATTLETECH Forums or, if you’re able to join us live, you can also ask any other questions in chat - although we can’t promise to be quite as forthcoming on those.

And, in case you missed our first Dev Q&A, you can find it here on the Hyper RPG Youtube channel at the 1:00 mark.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/1541543

Dihm · Apr 8, 2016

Fuck yeah
:headbanger:

Skwisgaar · Apr 8, 2016

That's a really interesting setup. Until I see it in action I'm not sure how I feel about getting to do movement and firing all together in one turn but I love the idea of initiative tiers based on weight class. This could REALLY encourage mediums to be the jack-of-all-trades they're supposed to be.

Pidian · Apr 8, 2016

no surprise they're coming up with some great systems but still awesome to see nonetheless

Tuonela · Apr 8, 2016

Sounds cool, looking forward to seeing it in action.

Solis Obscuri · Apr 9, 2016

Skwisgaar said: ↑

That's a really interesting setup. Until I see it in action I'm not sure how I feel about getting to do movement and firing all together in one turn but I love the idea of initiative tiers based on weight class. This could REALLY encourage mediums to be the jack-of-all-trades they're supposed to be.
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Yeah, seriously, that was my first thought. The slower, heavier armed mediums are finally going to get a leg up on the heavies if they can position for the first shot and respond to the movement of lights more quickly.

Lardaltef · Apr 9, 2016

i like what they have planned. it actually gives people a reason to field lights and mediums. can harass/damage enemy till your heavier mechs can get a kill shot.

Tanedin · May 23, 2016

I was just watching the latest Q&A and HBS posted the list of vehicles they plan to include along with a piece of concept art. As I didn't see it already here I thought it would be helpful to post it.

MagnusEffect · May 23, 2016

Tanedin said: ↑

I was just watching the latest Q&A and HBS posted the list of vehicles they plan to include along with a piece of concept art. As I didn't see it already here I thought it would be helpful to post it.
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MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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Battletech (PC Strategy Game)

Demon Stalker Well Liked Viking

LagCat Well Liked Berserker

Skwisgaar XO Thrall

Dihm Speaker of the Word Staff Member Gothi SC Thane

MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

Demon Stalker Well Liked Viking

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Dihm Speaker of the Word Staff Member Gothi SC Thane

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Dihm Speaker of the Word Staff Member Gothi SC Thane

Skwisgaar XO Thrall

Pidian Well Liked Thrall

Tuonela Well Liked Berserker

Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

Lardaltef Well Liked Berserker

Tanedin New Guy Berserker

Attached Files:

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MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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