Game News BattleTech Kickstarter Update #38: Paradox Publishing Deal, Backer Beta Starting June 1st

[Infinitron]

Tags: BattleTech; Harebrained Schemes; Mike McCain; Mitch Gitelman; Paradox Interactive

Today is the first day of PDXCON, Paradox Interactive's annual convention. I was expecting to learn something about the upcoming Tyranny DLC this weekend. Instead I woke up to the news that somebody else has taken a page out of Obsidian's playbook. Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech is now being published by Paradox. The new Kickstarter update announces the news and also informs us that the game's delayed Backer Beta is now on schedule for release on June 1st. Harebrained have put together a new teaser trailer and a lengthy 55 minute multiplayer gameplay video that shows what we can expect.

Hey everyone, Mitch here.

I’m happy to tell you that our Kickstarter Backer Beta is on track for release on June 1st. The game’s looking good, playing well, and the team is firing on all cylinders but we need to take some more time to further test and bugfix our multiplayer code before confidently releasing the beta into your hands - that way, we can minimize networking issues and everyone can have a good time on day one.

Now we know folks are itching to see the game in action, so our Game Director Mike McCain and I recorded a friendly multiplayer match to give you a peek at what to expect in the Beta. Full disclosure here - Mike is one of the better players in the studio and I… am not. Nevertheless, I think I put up a pretty good fight as you’ll see in the video. Hope you like it!

For those of you interested in even more detail than Mike and I provided onscreen, Designer Ryan (RedMenace on the forums) wrote a post annotating our gameplay. Check it out here.

New Partnership

Right now, somewhere in Sweden, BattleTech & MechWarrior creator Jordan Weisman is announcing a partnership between Harebrained Schemes and Paradox Interactive to publish BATTLETECH on PC. As our Backers, we feel it’s important that you get this information straight from us before it hits the press, so here’s the deal in a nutshell: Paradox will provide marketing support, localization services, and funds for additional testing in exchange for a cut of the game’s sales. This allows us to focus all our efforts on making a great game while maintaining complete creative control.

I’m really excited that HBS will have the chance to work with Paradox as they are the clear category leader for PC strategy games. We respect the quality and depth of their games and they have lots of players and fans in our studio. Equally important to us is the way that Paradox respects and engages with their community, values we share.

(Plus, they’re huge fans of our work on the Shadowrun Returns series and are really excited about our game - good qualities in a publisher, right?)

So why is this a good thing?

• Because with Paradox’s additional test funding, we’ll have more professional testers banging on the game earlier so we ship the highest quality game we can.
• Because with their help, we can also deliver higher quality localized versions of the game to our overseas players and spend far less time managing the process.
• Because we won’t need to divide our attention away from making the game in order to sell the game. We’re not marketers - we’re game developers, and we want our focus to be firmly on delivering the best BATTLETECH experience we can.
• Because we all love BattleTech and the more attention that Paradox can bring to the game, the better its chances for success in an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. As I’m often quoted, “In success, all things are possible.” Paradox’s marketing support will hopefully result in increased sales of the game and allow for years of BATTLETECH expansions and sequels for all of us to enjoy.

We’re happy to be working with a publisher who knows how to make great strategy games, loves BattleTech, and respects BattleTech fans. Nothing has changed, except that our chances for success are now even higher.
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BattleTech now has Steam and GOG pages, so update your wishlists. Despite the recent delays, the game is still on track for release this year. PDXCON goes on until Sunday, so perhaps we'll see more of it soon, and maybe that Tyranny DLC too.

 

[Sacibengala]

It seems pretty cool. I didn't followed development but I liked the shadowrun series. Someone know if the multiplayer will only be pvp or if it has coop content too?

 

[Infinitron]

It seems pretty cool. I didn't followed development but I liked the shadowrun series. Someone know if the multiplayer will only be pvp or if it has coop content too?

Just PVP skirmishes, at least on release.

 

[ArchAngel]

And by that gameplay video we can expect much. I am sure some BT purists or some TB die hard fans (those that don't recognize TB games as good unless they are of JA2 1.13 complexity) will bash on this as well but the gameplay video showed us a lot of cool stuff. And I am sure they got more systems that are not 100% done and they didn't show us all the mechs and all the pilot abilities.
But what was shown is pretty exciting. Seems there will be cool combinations between pilots and mechs and combinations of which mechs to take and we need to see other maps and how they play.

 

[Kev Inkline]

And I am sure they got more systems that are not 100% done

Do you mean all systems aren't nominal?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Couple of interesting answers to the questions related to that video (like why the AC10 seemed to have more damage than expected relative to the AC20):

>>During the multiplayer gameplay video, I noticed that the AC10 now does 75, or the equivalent of 15 points of damage. Was this just a place holder value, or is damage for the AC class of weapons being normalized, as opposed to being top heavy?

We've increased AC damage for the 2/5/10 and left the 20 alone in our current balancing. We did this to address our problem statement of weapon types not feeling distinct enough in their behaviors and roles, which came from a lot of playtesting and discussion. ACs can be tricky to mount and use since you have to keep track of tonnage, slots, heat, ammo, and refire/recoil penalty from successive use, and they are a single shot all-or-nothing attack. There are a goodly number of negatives to mounting them, so we felt that giving them a decent damage boost helps flow well into their risk / reward nature.

Yes, Multi Target is fully implemented and will be available for you to play with in the Beta. That said, it isn't available to every 'Mech - it's a MechWarrior skill, along the same lines as Precision Shot, Bulwark, and Sensor Lock. I actually used it to great effect in a game against Tyler the other day, drilling a nearby Panther with all four of my Catapult's Medium Lasers while sending two racks of LRM/15s at his prone Awesome on the other side of the field.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Times flies.

Cant wait to play with my Egyptian PORTUGUESE GOD FUCKING DAMN IT

 

[Country_Gravy]

I think it looks pretty good.

 

[Morality Games]

Tactical view reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles.

 

[Morkar Left]

Paradox

 

[luj1]

Looking like incline. This is like modern Scorched Earth with mecha.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Yeah it looks okay, I just hope they put other vehicles and improve idle animations and stuff, the map they choose looks a bit bland.