Battletech Kickstarter News.

Sweet. I liked the Mechwarrior games well enough but I've always preferred the board game and have been wanting something like this for years. Can't wait to see more details.
 
Can't wait for this, I loved Battletech when it came out. I never did finish the Shadowrun campaigns, i need to go back and actually finish those.
 
Holy shit!

Here's hoping it's not a travesty like MWO or MWT. Or vapor like MW5. I've been wanting a professionally produced tabletop game for decades! God I'm old.

Megamek isn't as terrible as rubbing sand in your eye, but it is killing me slowly over time.
 
oliveash said:
Holy shit!

Here's hoping it's not a travesty like MWO or MWT. Or vapor like MW5. I've been wanting a professionally produced tabletop game for decades! God I'm old.

Megamek isn't as terrible as rubbing sand in your eye, but it is killing me slowly over time.
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I haven't played megamek in years. Has it the performance improved? Always had huge slow downs playing with more than a lance each.
 
Seelenlos said:
I haven't played megamek in years. Has it the performance improved? Always had huge slow downs playing with more than a lance each.
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I'm assuming you're referring to the singleplayer bot, which has improved somewhat. It's still a hog and still bogs down at larger scales. Megamek itself doesn't have too many issues when running multiplayer though, provided you give java extra memory.
 
AceCR42 said:
Microsoft owns the IP. They license it out.

PGI will be sharing their art assets from MWO with Harebrained, though.
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well,

as much as I love the BT lore and universe...

personally, I am never having anything to do with PGI ever again, if that means another 10 or 20 years before I can play a battletech/mechwarrior branded game so be it

those bridges been burnt long since
 
jojo69 said:
well,

as much as I love the BT lore and universe...

personally, I am never having anything to do with PGI ever again, if that means another 10 or 20 years before I can play a battletech/mechwarrior branded game so be it

those bridges been burnt long since
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Well then it's a good thing that HBS != PGI.
 
Hopefully this Battletech game is good.

PGI burned lots of bridges with the Battle Tech fans and their World of Mechs with ghost heat, Gode mode ECM, Gaus bow, 1.4 heatsinks, hover jets among other travesties.
 
The stretch goal for the expanded mercenary campaign sold me. I have no doubt they will hit that target too. Can't wait
 
Oh my...I am so in to support this. I just wish I had enough disposable income for one of those Legendary levels! :D
 
I kind of doubt it will hit $2.5m for PvP, but I REALLY hope it does.
KickTraq says it will fall short, but maybe a good last few days plus Paypal could put it over.This game is looking great.

exp-cone.png
 
Woo! looks like the total KS dollars, plus the ~$63k from paypal has put us over $2.5m!!! PvP here we come!!!
 
I was actually kinda hoping it would come just short of the PVP mark

Supporting PVP can be a real drag to game development. Instead of an amazing single player game you can end up with passable single player + meh PVP

At least these guys have a good track record.
 
ecmaster76 said:
I was actually kinda hoping it would come just short of the PVP mark

Supporting PVP can be a real drag to game development. Instead of an amazing single player game you can end up with passable single player + meh PVP

At least these guys have a good track record.
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Yea, between the Shadowrun games and the mobile games they did before, I think they have the experience to pull it off. They've never been a company that bites off more than it can chew.
 
I like that they are not adding on extra stretch goals after hitting the 2.5mil. All additional funds will go into extra polish and post release ongoing development. Post release also may include co-op multiplayer against AI.
 
AceCR42 said:
Microsoft owns the IP. They license it out.

PGI will be sharing their art assets from MWO with Harebrained, though.
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Why would this not be marketed under FASA Games inc. ? FASA Corporation still manages the FASA brand IP and titles.
 
FlawleZ said:
Why would this not be marketed under FASA Games inc. ?
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It's very complicated.
First, FASA no longer holds the licenses for the property, and at some point reverted to Microsoft. They then sold it to WIzkids who sold them to Topps, who holds it now.
Topps is licensing the IP based on the market. Board games and PnP game rights are licensed to Catalyst Game Labs who are kind of spearheading the revival of all things FASA (including PnP Shadowrun).
Video game licenses for action games are currently out to Piranha Games Interactive (PGI) who is running Mechwarrior Online.
Without PGI's permission or input, a license was given to another company IGP for Mechwarrior Tactics, which failed. Then, in consultation with PGI, Harebrained Schemes got a license for Battletech which is the object of this kickstarter.
IIRC, movie and show rights have reverted to Topps at this point, via Microsoft, and have not been licensed.
 
Modred189 said:
It's very complicated.
First, FASA no longer holds the licenses for the property, and at some point reverted to Microsoft. They then sold it to WIzkids who sold them to Topps, who holds it now.
Topps is licensing the IP based on the market. Board games and PnP game rights are licensed to Catalyst Game Labs who are kind of spearheading the revival of all things FASA (including PnP Shadowrun).
Video game licenses for action games are currently out to Piranha Games Interactive (PGI) who is running Mechwarrior Online.
Without PGI's permission or input, a license was given to another company IGP for Mechwarrior Tactics, which failed. Then, in consultation with PGI, Harebrained Schemes got a license for Battletech which is the object of this kickstarter.
IIRC, movie and show rights have reverted to Topps at this point, via Microsoft, and have not been licensed.
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Thanks for the clarification. Certainly is more complicated than I realized.
 
FlawleZ said:
Thanks for the clarification. Certainly is more complicated than I realized.
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And that's the tl;dr version. :eek:
But the good news is that Jordan Wiseman, CREATOR of Batteltech is speaheading this version of the game. So, while it will not be a direct PnP rule-rule conversion like MekTek or MWT, it will retain the "feels" of Battletech. This language would make me nervous, but after seeing what they did to Shadowrun, I'm quite excited.
 
Modred189 said:
:rolleyes:
The consultation was on approving a partner and on the art front.
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can you guarantee me that they did not make a dime from this?

Do not underestimate the ire for PGI among the core fanbase...the hate runs deep. The mere whiff of their involvement is dire.
 
jojo69 said:
can you guarantee me that they did not make a dime from this?

Do not underestimate the ire for PGI among the core fanbase...the hate runs deep. The mere whiff of their involvement is dire.
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Yes. This was made abundantly clear in several official communications.
And, to be honest, I am representative of the core fan base. I have been playing cbt since around 1990, and every MW game since MW 3050 on the SNES. Maybe with age comes reason because I don't hate PGI. They've made a solid, fun mech game; and one that appears successful.
 
yeah, I played tabletop, played in wireframe, got 40 inches of books

got banned from MWO for no reason that was ever made clear to me

If PGI isn't getting paid from this then I have no objection
 
jojo69 said:
yeah, I played tabletop, played in wireframe, got 40 inches of books

got banned from MWO for no reason that was ever made clear to me

If PGI isn't getting paid from this then I have no objection
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Yea, sorry for the confusion, that was due to poor word choice on my front.
The only coordination is on the art front. Wisely, the licensing companies wanted a consistent appearance to the mechs between games. (as an IP attorney, I can only applaud this).
For example, the defunct Mechwarrior Tactics used this as a Hunchback... somehow...
mech20bay20-20wip-11391170.jpg

Compared to the MWO Hunchie:
ah-ingame-hunchback.jpg

And the OG Hunchback:
191px-3025_Hunchback1.jpg.png

It's clear as to the trainwreck they wanted to avoid that was MWT's redesigns of classic mechs.

But coordination is all there is, no payments, no publishing etc.
 
Modred189 said:
It's very complicated.
First, FASA no longer holds the licenses for the property, and at some point reverted to Microsoft. They then sold it to WIzkids who sold them to Topps, who holds it now.
Topps is licensing the IP based on the market. Board games and PnP game rights are licensed to Catalyst Game Labs who are kind of spearheading the revival of all things FASA (including PnP Shadowrun).
Video game licenses for action games are currently out to Piranha Games Interactive (PGI) who is running Mechwarrior Online.
Without PGI's permission or input, a license was given to another company IGP for Mechwarrior Tactics, which failed. Then, in consultation with PGI, Harebrained Schemes got a license for Battletech which is the object of this kickstarter.
IIRC, movie and show rights have reverted to Topps at this point, via Microsoft, and have not been licensed.
Click to expand...

FASA basically became an IP holding company when Mort Wiseman decided to retire. Mort was the back-end manager and chief bean counter (as well as The Money) at FASA. Jordan was The Idea Guy and not really suited to the paperwork of running a company.

Electronic rights for the various properties had been split years ago with the creation of FASA Studios and its acquisition by Microsoft. Prior to that, location-based computer entertainment (Virtual World) was it's own property.

As noted, the BattleTech and Shadowrun rights were sold to WizKids, as Jordan was the owner of WizKids at the time. He, in turn, licensed BT and SR out to FanPro, which had previously been the translator for BT and SR products in Germany.

Wasn't really a good time for either product. The guys running the company was wearing too many hats, and the US LLC was kept on a budget that couldn't even afford shoestrings. (If you look at some of the books produced then, they were assembled from odd lots of paper (because end-lots were cheap), leading to entire books with 3-7 different shades of paper. Bindery was sub-par and quality control was practically nonexistent.)

It also didn't help that FanPro Germany didn't actually care about the products or the employees and was just treating the company as a giant piggy bank.

Finally, it came to a point where FanPro LLC had no money, authors were several YEARS in arrears (meaning no transfer of copyright on products on the shelf), and FanPro basically dropped the license.

At that point, IMR (the people behind the BattleTech online fiction) stepped up, created Catalyst Game Labs, and started running with the products. It took a while, and there were some growing pains (Topps oversight on royalties was a bit different and they had to be educated in how the market works...several times as agents cycled through). But BT and SR are both in a fairly healthy state right now.

Also, AFAIK (though there may be something subterannean that I just don't know about, though unlikely), PGI is NOT the licensing arm for MechWarrior and SR games. They're just a licensor for MWO.

Part of the reason HBS is talking to PGI is something that's been getting worked on for the better part of two decades. The idea that, even as disparate as they are, all of the BT and SR games are part of a COMMUNITY of properties. And that all of them do better if there's cooperation, cross-promotion and general friendly dealings between all parties.

That's why when you go to BattleTech.com, you get gateway links to MWO, MWT, Tactical Command and Virtual World in addition to the board game.

Heck, the domain, BattleTech.com is actually owned by the guy that owns Virtual World (Nick Smith). It's a licensing agreement with CGL/IMR that gives them control over the domain and use for the gateway site.

As to movie/TV rights, I honestly don't know enough about that to tell you where the rights lay.

Generally anything labeled "MechWarrior" usually has to vet through Microsoft and anything labeled "BattleTech" goes through Topps.
 
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