KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[Infinitron]

http://battletechgame.com




https://af.gog.com/game/battletech?as=1649904300
https://af.gog.com/game/battletech_season_pass?as=1649904300

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/2169945

Launch Day!

In May of 2015, I emailed Jordan a sketch I'd been working on - the iconic Atlas, looming over a party of nobles and MechWarriors meeting on a snow-swept plain. (Subject Line: "Too many banners?") This was the very first piece of concept art for the project, and we ended up using it at Gen Con 2015 when we unveiled our plans to take BATTLETECH to Kickstarter.

Turns out, a lot can happen in three years.

When I look back on this painting now, I'm still really happy with how it was able to capture the tone and aesthetic that we wanted for BATTLETECH. But sheesh... the quality of the art, writing, music, gameplay, and audio on-display in the game today - everything about the BATTLETECH experience has blown so far past this initial goal-post, it's come farther than I could have imagined.

It's been a long (and sometimes arduous) road from the Kickstarter campaign that September 2015, to the version of BATTLETECH that launches this morning. And in success, this is just the beginning!

We can't say this enough - without your support as Backers, this project would not have been possible. THANK YOU. And thank you also to Piranha Games for their fantastic 'Mech designs, on whose shoulders we were able to build and expand the visual trappings of BATTLETECH. To Catalyst Game Labs for their lore support over the years (even if they did steal our beards...) And to Paradox Interactive for their support and expertise in bringing this game to market. To Jordan, for the opportunity to come full-circle, to work with you in crafting a new experience for this universe that I (and so many others on the team) grew up with.

And, most of all - thank you to the incredible team here at Harebrained Schemes. No one idea or person makes or breaks a game, at least not at this scale. There's no "eureka" moment or single hero who always saves the day. Games are always bad before they're good. And good games are the result of years of hard work, passion, and slow incremental change, channeled into a single experience by talented collaborators with a shared vision. BATTLETECH may not be perfect, and our sales and review scores remain to be seen, but by all metrics of game development and teamwork - I am proud to call this project and team a success.

From all of us here at HBS: Thank you again, and enjoy BATTLETECH!

-- Mike McCain, Game Director

A Note From BattleTech’s Creator

The future history of BattleTech has a storied real-world history as well. Starting as a tabletop game 35 years ago, BattleTech merged the rich narrative setting of a role-playing game with the mechanics of a competitive multiplayer miniatures game.

Hundreds of game products, novels, and miniatures later, the video game Crescent Hawk’s Inception was released in 1988 by Infocom, becoming the first graphical game for the previously “all text" publisher. The game, developed by Westwood Studios, was a classic RPG with tactical combat and was a touchstone for our team as this new BATTLETECH game (which you helped create) is the first turn-based ‘Mech combat game since then.

In 1989, the first BattleTech Center opened in Chicago, offering the world’s first publicly available Virtual Reality multiplayer game. Over the next couple of years, BattleTech Centers opened around the world, and in 1994 we held our first World Championship with teams competing from Center-to-Center and a live broadcast of the finals from the BattleTech Center in Las Vegas.

Of course, a landmark for BattleTech and the video game industry was the release of MechWarrior 2 in 1995 which, according to articles released last year, is still Activision's highest unit seller to-date. MW2 introduced millions of people to the BattleTech universe and to 3D gaming. The MechWarrior series went on to be one of the most successful video game franchises of the 1990s and early 00s.

MechCommander, released in 1998, took the real time strategy genre in a tactical direction by focusing on the management of a smaller set of highly detailed units rather than generating large numbers of disposable units and over the years, many games have taken this approach.

BattleTech again made history in 2002 when MechAssault became the launch title for Xbox LIVE, ushering in the current era of online console gaming. All up, more than 20 video games preceded ours in the BattleTech / MechWarrior franchise, and, along with your help the Harebrained Schemes team is proud to contribute BATTLETECH to this outstanding lineage.

On a personal note, I am so happy with what this team has accomplished, as I feel that it represents the most immersive dive into the universe of BattleTech that’s ever been realized. The game really allows you to feel what it’s like to be responsible for the lives, fortunes, and futures of the men and women of your little mercenary company within the context of a large and complex world of deadly politics surrounding you. The turn-based nature of the game allows you to engage in the balancing act (in more ways than one) of effectively managing a lance of `Mechs in combat and finally frees the game’s camera from being locked into the cockpit so that it can really tell the story of how these huge machines dominate the environment and decimate each other. But most importantly, the campaign makes you cringe every time one of your `Mechs loses a limb and swear to whatever gods you hold dear when one of your MechWarriors takes a wound, or worse dies in combat.

I could not be more in awe of the team’s creativity and talents, or prouder of the enormous effort they invested over the last two and a half years of the game’s development - a game that we could not have made without the enormous financial and emotional support that you, our Backers provided us.

So it is to you that my heartfelt thanks go out on this very exciting day, for without you, none of this would have ever happened.

Sincerely,
Jordan Weisman

Backer Rewards Update and FAQ

At this time, all Backer rewards have been delivered to BackerKit accounts (except for the 4th novella which is still being written).

You can get to your BackerKit account following these directions:
Go to https://battletech.backerkit.com/

- Enter the email address you used to back the game into the "Kickstarter Email" box and click on "Get My Survey"
- When you get the email from BackerKit, follow the link inside to your account Click on "Get Your Digital Rewards"
- Copy and paste your key into your gaming library of the platform

BETA players: please note that you must retrieve your *new* game key. The Beta *will not* update to the final release version of the game

I got my key the other day but what about my other digital rewards like the code for the 'Mech skin, soundtrack, or art book? When do I get them?
The remaining digital Backer rewards and Unlock Codes for in-game rewards were uploaded to BackerKit accounts yesterday-- except for the 4th BATTLETECH novella that is currently being written. If you have any other issues, emailing us directly at info@hbs-studios.com rather than through Kickstarter messages will help us serve you faster.

I can’t access the email address connected with my BackerKit account to recover my account - what do I do? Send us an email at info@hbs-studios.com with the old address AND the new address and we can update that for you.

BackerKit says I don’t have an account - what do I do?
Please try again following these directions:
Go to https://battletech.backerkit.com/
Put your email into the box labeled "Kickstarter email" and click the "Get My Survey" button.
If you get still get this error message: "Sorry, we couldn't find a survey for that email." -- then contact us at info@hbs-studios.com and we will help you out. Include as much information about your pledge as you can, including your current email address and any old email addresses that you may have used when you pledged and if you backed on Kickstarter or BackerKit

I didn’t fill out my BackerKit account before the deadline - what do I do?
If you did not fill out your BackerKit survey, we are unable to fulfill your Kickstarter rewards. You’ll need to go to the survey recovery page https://battletech.backerkit.com/ to fill out your survey. Your digital rewards will be in your BackerKit account soon after that.

I only see the Add-Ons that I purchased in BackerKit and not my rewards - what’s up with that?
It’s likely because a second account was automatically created for you when purchased the Add-Ons. On the page with the Get Your Digital Rewards button, you'll see a yellow band at the top. Just click on "Switch to another survey" and you'll be given the option to access the first account.

If you have any other issues, emailing us directly at info@hbs-studios.com rather than through Kickstarter messages will help us serve you faster.

 

[kain30]

Insta-buy!

 

[Country_Gravy]

Has anyone finished the game yet?

 

[agris]

and the paradox account integration is screwed up, no one can log in and register their skins. it's as if using a more complicated system than the built in Valve DLC validation system was a bad design choice, I wonder why they went with it...

 

[Grampy_Bone]

So is it just tranny-tastic or what?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

and the paradox account integration is screwed up, no one can log in and register their skins. it's as if using a more complicated system than the built in Valve DLC validation system was a bad design choice, I wonder why they went with it...

I managed to get mine through after a few minutes of waiting. But yea, it's very cumbersome and overly complicated compared to what it does.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Anyone else having "server problem" when trying to install via GOG Galaxy?

 

[Fry]

How did this get through months of beta without someone mentioning that people with dual monitors need a capture cursor to active monitor option?

 

[Belegarsson]

It's 2018 and we still get a PC game with no borderless windowed mode -_-

 

[Bohr]

It's 2018 and we still get a PC game with no borderless windowed mode -_-

Saw this advice (from another player not HBS, no idea if it works): Borderless window option: -popupwindow in commandline options

 

[agris]

Bohr after you aet your ingame options to window and the correct resolution.

 

[Grotesque]

What have we learnt from poking in the files
1. There are a LOT of AI roles. Fixing some of the weirder AI behavior might be harder than expected since we don't know which AI is in the cockpit.

2. Campaign is about 9-10 missions including the tutorial.

3. There seems to be a base, medium and hard setting. Legacy codes?

)

 

[Infinitron]

Game is getting hit with negative Steam reviews, most due to crashes and "clunkiness", a few due to TRANNIES. Kickstarter backers not being factored into the score at this stage must hurt.

 

[Agesilaus]

Work mysteriously cleared up, so I decided to telecommute the rest of the day.

Just watched the intro, p much game of the year at this point.

Anyone downvoting this game is a Kurita spy

 

[Cross]

Not Recommended
0.9 hrs on record
POSTED: 24 APRIL
My nu-transsensual ZETA-8 genderfluid heteromollusc Timber Wolf did not agree with the bad graphics, stale hyper simplified gameplay, lack of costumization and obvious paradox tier DLC to come.

Not Recommended
2.1 hrs on record
POSTED: 24 APRIL
Got instantly banned from the BATTLETECH forums by the devs for criticising the neutral gender pronouns.

Given reason: 3 Warnings.

Reality: No warnings.

Game's alright but shame about the tyrannical censorship.

Not Recommended
1.7 hrs on record
POSTED: 24 APRIL
I would advise avoiding HBS until someone on their dev team remembers they are a business that took money to develop a licensed product, not some activist group funded to pound on a platform. I backed this fairly heavily years ago, and am now embarassed to be associated with it. Aside from the ethical issues of making political statements on someone else's dollar, in the game and social media, there is the larger issue that the game simply doesn't work for many people.

Including me.

I'm fairly familiar with getting things to work that don't want to. Playing with software and system settings to make things work that don't want to. I'm still getting regular crashes. This is a poorly tested product, and it shows. Do not buy this right now; keep an eye on the patch schedule and forums for the next week or so.

 

[Grotesque]

Work mysteriously cleared up

It's Kevin's fault.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Game is getting hit with negative Steam reviews, most due to crashes and "clunkiness", a few due to TRANNIES. Kickstarter backers not being factored into the score at this stage must hurt.

how can you review a game after only one hour? that's immoral

 

[ArchAngel]

Bohr after you aet your ingame options to window and the correct resolution.

OK, I can confirm that this works. Stupid but at least there is a workaround.

 

[agris]

FYI this method works with all Unity games.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Deserved trashing for them being sjw fucks, and then getting cold feet and tying to hide their absurd social media presence.

Hope this shit bombs hard.

 

[J_C]

Deserved trashing for them being sjw fucks, and then getting cold feet and tying to hide their absurd social media presence.

Hope this shit bombs hard.

Fuck you with a five foot dildo.

 

[agris]

I don't care about THEY or that most of the characters are asian, but wtf isn't blonde hair in the game? I want my pilot to look like Dolph Lundgren.

 

[Bocian]

Fuck you with a five foot dildo.

 

[Fry]

Meh. The number of people who will refuse to buy the game because you can use three pronouns in the character creator is inconsequential.

Stability issues and tedious game play are actual problems.