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Sorry, bud. For that, you have to play MW2 - Mercenaries.
Activision losing the franchise was probably the worst thing that could have happened to the franchise. It led to micofuckingshit getting the IP and the HBS cesspit.
For many on the dev team, bringing a turn based tactical version of BATTLETECH to the PC in - arguably the deepest visual exploration of the game’s 3025 setting ever - was a dream come true, but one fraught with challenges. The game’s deep lore and firmly established mechanics provided wonderful basis, but also challenges in how to adapt the game from a 35 year old tabletop game into a modern video game.
PANELISTS
Jordan Weisman [Founder and CEO, Harebrained Schemes], Kiva Maginn [Lead Designer, Harebrained Schemes], Andrew McIntosh [Writer, Harebrained Schemes]
For many on the dev team, bringing a turn based tactical version of BATTLETECH to the PC in - arguably the deepest visual exploration of the game’s 3025 setting ever - was a dream come true, but one fraught with challenges. The game’s deep lore and firmly established mechanics provided wonderful basis, but also challenges in how to adapt the game from a 35 year old tabletop game into a modern video game.
PANELISTS
Jordan Weisman [Founder and CEO, Harebrained Schemes], Kiva Maginn [Lead Designer, Harebrained Schemes], Andrew McIntosh [Writer, Harebrained Schemes]
First BATTLETECH Expansion, FLASHPOINT Coming This November!
High-stakes Short Stories, New Biome, New BattleMechs and a Multi-Territory Encounter.
The first-ever BATTLETECH expansion FLASHPOINT will be available in November 2018, complete with three new ‘Mechs (including the highly anticipated Hatchetman), a challenging new mission type, and a new tropical biome, along with its featured namesake, Flashpoints.
Flashpoints are high-stakes branching short stories, comprised of procedural mercenary missions linked together with new crew conversations, special events, critical choices, and valuable rewards. To ramp up the intensity, some Flashpoint stories will feature “Consecutive Deployments” in which players won’t be able to repair their ‘Mechs between missions.
Key Features:
Flashpoints - Test your command skills in a series of action-packed short stories, completing extended contracts to earn big bonuses.
New Biome - Navigate a lush tropical beach environment, with sunny shores and just a pinch of alien flare, for good measure. Sunscreen optional.
New BattleMechs - Get your ‘Mech on with the armor-chopping power of the Hatchetman, the speed and versatility of the Crab, and the multi-range firepower of the Cyclops.
New Encounter - In “Target Acquisition”, you’ll put your light and medium ‘Mechs to good use by taking control of three territories on the map to prevail!
“Flashpoint stories give us the flexibility to design a huge variety of experiences, all with different sequences, events, challenges, decisions, rewards, etc. We’re combining core gameplay mechanics in new ways to create deeper content,” said Mitch Gitelman, BATTLETECH Game Director and co-founder of Harebrained Schemes. “These more elaborate, longer-term objectives are an awesome interactive storytelling tool, which we think BATTLETECH fans will really enjoy,” added Jordan Weisman, CEO and Creator of BattleTech.
Ok, so the expansion sounds like it could actually shake up the blandness of the base game a bit. Good on them, provided the extended flashpoint contracts have a little bit of variety and don't all work out the same way.
New Encounter - In “Target Acquisition”, you’ll put your light and medium ‘Mechs to good use by taking control of three territories on the map to prevail!
LIVE - BATTLETECH 1.2.0 Release Notes, MechWarrior Abilities Re-Spec Beta, and More!
Welcome to BATTLETECH 1.2! This release contains a number of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, as well as some cool new features. We have also released an overhaul of MechWarrior special abilities to Beta (see details below), and have updates on Linux and Localized version of the game.
HIGHLIGHTS: Players using the Custom Campaign options introduced in 1.1 can now take advantage of a new "Prologue Skip" setting to fast-track new campaigns (this is definitely not recommended for first-time players, though!). The combat Morale system in the campaign has received a significant overhaul (and is now called Resolve - more on that below). We've added a Memorial Wall in the Argo so that you can honor Dekker's sacrifice whenever you want. We've made several improvements to our save game management systems (and you can now name Manual Saves when creating them). And lastly, we added new events for you to discover during your mercenary adventures.See further details below.
Linux update: The team is still actively working on our Linux release. We hit a snafu with playback of audio (as in, “There’s no sound in the game”) but we’ve gotten support from an external party and appear to be back on track. We expect the Linux version to be available in Beta within the next few weeks.
Localized versions of the game: Players looking for BATTLETECH in French, German, and Russian still have a wait ahead of them. Our localization testing team recently discovered a bug that was preventing our translators from seeing a large quantity of content waiting to be translated. The issue has been fixed and localization is back on track. Unfortunately, release will be delayed for another couple of months.
We apologize to our Kickstarter Backers and to others waiting to play the game in Linux or their native language and we’re doing our best to get this work done as soon as possible. More details regarding localization can be found in this BATTLETECH Community thread.
MechWarrior Abilities Beta: We're also excited to share a big revision to MechWarrior abilities, now released in Beta form. Before putting these live, we wanted to give interested players the opportunity to try these ability revisions and share their thoughts. Thus, we are releasing this work on a separate "public_preview" beta for dedicated testing. This beta is identical to the live state of 1.2, except for the abilities revision. We'll be reviewing beta feedback on these abilities in weeks following and expect to push this revision to live in our next big release, Update 1.3. Please read BATTLETECH Lead Designer Kiva McGinn’s Dev Diary post describing the new abilities.
Note: Players switching to the public_preview beta will have all of their MechWarriors XP refunded, since the new abilities change each skill’s progress fairly significantly. This free re-spec will also be offered to players on the live branch when it’s officially released. It is highly recommended that you make a backup of your save games folder, as you will not be able to use a save game file from the new version in the case that you roll back to the live 1.2. This is especially important if you are in the middle of an iron man play through.
Please enjoy BATTLETECH 1.2, and also consider jumping in to the "public_preview" branch to give the MechWarrior abilities revision a spin!
-- HBS
IMPORTANT: If you experience any issues after updating, or see a popup like this one when trying to run the game...
This is a known issue with Steam, where it can occasionally fail to apply the update as expected. Here's the most reliable way we've seen to get around it:
1. Remove an existing game file in your installation directory (e.g. BattleTech.exe)
2. Verify Integrity of Game Files (Right-click on BATTLETECH in your Steam Library, select Properties -> Local Files tab)
3. The update should now download and apply normally.
IMPORTANT: Additional note for players who mod various game files…Reminder that modding is not officially supported. If you have saved a game with any mod active, that saved game will not work after an update has been applied unless you replace all modded files exactly as they were when the save game file was created. Saved games require the exact same data state in order to function properly.
New Prologue Skip Option. Added the ability to skip the opening missions and cinematics of the campaign and skip to your first mission as a mercenary commander, helping a group of miners.
Combat Morale replaced with Resolve. Players now gain a consistent amount of Resolve every round of combat, and can use it to activate Precision Strike and Vigilance. The amount of Resolve gained each round is determined by the Morale on board your ship.
New Memorial Wall added in the Argo. Players can now access a list of fallen MechWarriors and view a variety of statistics they logged during their mercenary careers. You can only find the Memorial Wall on the Argo ship in the Barracks.
New Events. A number of new mercenary events have been added to the game.
Improvements to save game management
- Added ability to create custom names for manual saves- Permanent saves are marked with gold triangle icons and tooltips- Added percent progress to save game refresh
- Added the ability for users to disable warning when deleting saves
- Deleting a save game no longer scrolls back to the top of the list each time
Quality-of-Life Improvement
- Added the ability to restart in any combat mission without loading a save game (excludes iron man)
- Added initiative status icon overlays for MechWarrior portraits in combat
- Added more sorting options for inventory items
- Components are now sorted logically in the Store and MechBay
- Added more color swatches for mercenary outfit color schemes
- Added new floating text for Precision Strikes
- Added popup message when ‘Mech with invalid configuration is detected- Added new popup for selling multiple items in the store
- Added ultrawide version of main menu cinematic for 21:9 aspect ratios
- ‘Mech selection weight class filters changed from individual toggles to exclusive subsets, including new "All" button added to show all weight classes.
UI
- We now show the proper number of health boxes and Xs on the After Action Review screen when someone with low guts is incapacitated or killed
- Fixed the mechbay storage list so that we don't clear the filters when you scrap a ‘Mech part.
- The Timeline now reflects modified MechWarrior names and portraits
- Pressing ESC now closes "Delete Campaign" prompts in the Load Campaign menu - Fixed an issue with a “Discard Changes” prompt displaying in certain circumstances after exiting Video Settings with no changes made
- Fixed an issue with using square bracket characters in save game search field
- The ENTER key now works on Mission Success / Mission Failure screens
- Tooltips no longer displayed for planets behind planet summary panel in navigation - Added a default firing arc when no weapons are available (or when an Ace Pilot moves after shooting)
- Removed the Back button during heraldry creation when a new account is registered
- Fixed a warning prompt message in the MechBay
- Fixed a visual-only issue with Heat Efficiency rating after equipping Heat Exchangers
- Fixed an issue in which items purchased from the store via the Mech Lab ("Check Store" button) disappeared until a refit is reloaded after reverting changes
- The Mech Lab underweight warning now only displays if at least 0.5 tons are free
- Removed the empty month option when registering a new account
- Fixed a tooltip on incomplete Mechs in MechBay
- Fixed game options menu opening when using Esc to close the withdraw confirmation popup opened via button in upper-right corner
- Fixed Heat Exchanger icons sometimes not loading
- Fixed empty available weapons and equipment sections when customizing ‘Mechs
- Fixed several layout and fill issues in MechBay
- Fixed save game slot hitbox area so rapid deletes won't double click and load saves
- Fixed text overflow in Welcome Commander message popup Hardpoint icons are now consistent with Weapon icons
- Fixed scroll position of event descriptions persisting between events in some cases
- Fixed an issue where the ‘Mech paperdoll was mirroring the structure displayed for the rear view Fixed overheat warning not always showing for melee or DFA attacks
- Updated MechBay tutorial information Fixed some orange buttons being transparent
- Updated Game Tips to reflect new morale mechanic
- Fixed display of overheat/shutdown warnings overlapping when Called Shot is active
- Fixed bug where canceling the commander's customization without changes could still cause the confirmation popup to come up- Fixed disabled ability tooltips being displayed in tutorial under specific circumstances MechWarriors killed in action no longer display injury text in the ARR
- Disabled zoom camera during multi-target attacks
- Fixed cases where melee camera would spin around rapidly prior to attack- Fixed camera taking too long to focus on player ‘Mech when attacked, sometimes missing the beginning of impacts- Prevent the "Follow Cam" from moving up over the top of the unit it's following
AI
- Mountain Hold map bug fix, widening a specific path to prevent inefficient AI movement.
- Fixed convoy escape zone on Escarpment Valley map to prevent units from blocking mission completion
- Escarpment Valley map bug fix to tweak the road area to remove rocks that were bottlenecking and blocking convoy units.
- Expanded play bounds on Alpine Cathedral Destroy base map to include spawners to prevent pathing issues for reinforcements.
- Bleak Ridge map update to fix broken spawns.
- Sunken Hills map bug fix. Moving some spawners and shifting the terrain slightly to improve play and stop units from being blocked.
- Fixed the possibility that the AI would take paths that would get it stranded
- Fixed a bug in jump selection state where it was looking through the wrong list of enemies, which included dead ones, and was causing DFA selection to not work sometimes
- Fixed a bad spawn location on Toxic Mire map with a movement of a spawner
- Fixed enemy vehicles spawning in Assassinate contracts on Split Range map sometimes not being able to reach the player
- Bleak Ridge map bug fix moving rocks to prevent movement blocker
- Improved patrol route pathing
- Fixed case where AI would look at player's morale instead of its own when deciding whether to use Precision Strike
- Fixed instance where an enemy ‘Mech takes no action when deciding whether to make a melee attack based on its target's unsteady state
- Fixed case where AI would brace instead of performing opportunistic DFA attacks
- Fixed multiplying support weapon damage by melee/DFA multipliers
Accounts
- Updates and adjustments for GDPR compliance
Modding
- MetaDataDatabase switched over to using Natural Keys instead of Guids where possible
Launcher
- New "Force Focus" option in Launcher to skip the disabling of ghosting in Windows to address potential crashing issues on some system
Audio
- Footsteps VFX now differentiate between biomes
Bugfixes
- Fixed a case in the skirmish MechBay where copying a ‘Mech, then canceling, would leave that phantom copy as the active ‘Mech
- Fixed a Timeline freeze and planet arrival saves not being generated- Fix for game not progressing after loading specific auto saves
- Fixed an issue where adding illegal characters to the search filter would cause saves to not appear after text is cleaned up
- Removed old clear achievement debug hotkey
- Fix to make the negotiation sliders reset properly after backing out of the lance configuration screen
- DFA can now produce a pilot injury if you take both your own legs off with it
- On Capture Base missions, the player can no longer target the friendly dropship
- Updated portrait manager with new beard skinning
- Fixed cases where Ultra and High quality settings could be reversed after changing quality settings and restarting
- Fixed Highlander animation when transitioning from idle to brace
- Fixed some background textures in Mech Bay
- Fixed visual issue with MRB rating stars disappearing after reaching max rank
- Fixed MechWarrior training prompt for pilots with already maxed out skills
- Fixed some text that could show through the finance widget- Fixed weapon hit effects sometimes applying when weapon misses
- Fixed background shadow in Lance deployment menu
- Fixed facility decals in Sandy Mesa map
- Fixed galactic background showing during Navigation menu transition in ultrawide resolutions
- Fixed rare cases where Forest buff didn't apply on tiles with trees in some maps- Fixed missing tooltip in Mech Bay for right leg armor bar
- Fixed tooltip hit box in Mech Bay when multiple icons are present in the selected lance configuration
- Fixed building in Raw Cliffsides missing collisions
- Fixed cases where objective success sound would play unnecessarily
- Fixed display of some Rough Terrain movement pips on Hidden Lagoon
- Fixed redundant VO barks when selecting "Done" to end turn prior to contact with OpFor- Added collision to tunnel on Highway map
- Equipment/Weapons sold while in the Refit screen are removed from the refit interface to prevent work orders that include sold parts from being created
- Fixed potential soft lock if ejecting last MechWarrior and withdrawing at the same time while confirming both prompts with Enter key-
- Fixed cranes not falling when lower strut is destroyed by ‘Mech impact- Fixed parts of destroyed buildings reappearing after loading combat save
- Fixed some Assassination contracts completing early after loading combat save (not retroactive)
- Fixed case of camera clipping through pirate base
- Capturing all three silos during Itrom Attack now auto-completes the mission (no longer requires moving ‘Mechs to the Evac Zone)
- Fixed ice regions missing from map after loading a combat save
- Fixed incorrect max head armor on Commando and Spider in Mech Lab (was 30, now 45)
- Fixed possibility of sprinting ‘Mechs onto same position as OpFor Mech in specific circumstances
- Fixed some missing/incorrect movement pips in Hidden Lagoon
- Fixed case where losing silo Bravo could cause explosion of silo Charlie in Itrom Attack
- Fixed flickering shadows when ‘Mechs are idle
- Fixed some hair styles in character creation being too reflective
- Fixed incorrect shadows displaying in Barracks when switching between rooms
- Fixed potential soft-lock state after loading a combat save created by pressing Enter to confirm save dialog
- Fixed missing rain effect in Medium and High graphic settings
- Fixed lightning issue in character creation with specific hairstyles and light combinations
- Fixed scars in portraits getting more intense after each save game load (until game restarted)
- Fixed display of rings around planets on loading screen
- Fixed enemy reinforcements being unable to reach the player's ‘Mechs during simple battle contracts on The Mine map
- Fixed last applied portrait changes being applied to both Commander and hired MechWarrior
- Fixed deleted saves showing again after entering and removing text in the search field
- Fixed buff icon for destroyed buildings
- Fixed item selection not clearing in the Store when switching to an empty tab
- Fixed overheat audio alarms, VO, and VFX from not playing in certain circumstances
- Fixed several cases where enemy units could spawn in stuck positions (unable to engage player)
- Fixed a spammy warning about melee weapons that "can't technically fire" (but actually can)
- Fixed enemy contact being reported multiple times
- Fixed bug where standing in an Evac Zone area prior to its appearance as an objective could block progression in specific missions
- Fixed bug that put player in combat during Itrom Attack prior to enemy unit contact
- Removed mid-air floating rocks in Smithon
- Fixed path in BarterTown to be walkable as expected-- Fixed cases where ‘Mechs would turn in place prior to attacking a target already in melee range
- Fixed a bug with entering combat where neutral tab target buildings weren't starting combat (including some turret generators)
- Fixed Ace Pilots getting stability reduced twice if they fire and then move- Fixed Ace Pilots using "done" not getting the appropriate stability reduction applied
- When Reserving an entire lance only one pilot's VO bark is played instead of the entire team
- Fixed issue where wrong the ‘Mech shadow was cast in the MechBay
- Fixed typos in some pilot bios- Fixed Restore Defaults in video settings not impacting resolution when in fullscreen mode (PC only)
- Fixed potential item duplication issue
- Fixed incorrect lighting when loading a save game where ship is docked to JumpShip
- Fixed stuck Panther on Smithon map
- Many additional small improvements and bug fixes
Known Issues
- If you load a save game that was in the middle of combat into the public_preview MechWarrior Re-Spec version from a previous version of the game, you will still have the old abilities even if the UI represents the new abilities. You will need to be back at the Argo before the Re-Spec process will take place.
Some of the stuff in the pilot abilities rework look really interesting. Some of it looks like shit.
WTF is Kevin talking about "the knockdown meta"? I never relied on knockdowns to win my fights, they took way too long vs. just blasting the shit out of everything by either coring or called shots to both legs/torsos. Did something change in the last couple months to make them a bigger deal?
I may give this another spin when the beta preview thingamajig ends and the new ability reworks are official.
WTF is Kevin talking about "the knockdown meta"? I never relied on knockdowns to win my fights, they took way too long vs. just blasting the shit out of everything by either coring or called shots to both legs/torsos. Did something change in the last couple months to make them a bigger deal?
In vanilla when fighting heavies and assaults, its often easier to use stability damage weapons like missiles or melee to do 3-5 injury damage to the pilot than to attempt to whittle down their front armor. Early balance mods severely nerfed stability damage and/or tweaked the rules on injury rolls.
I hope it becomes good someday. I'd like to play a modern Battletech game done competently. Or maybe mods are the future for this game?
I haven't played it, by the way. I'll probably give it try and form my own opinion of the base game when it goes into deep sale, but the general feeling about it around here is not inspiring much hope.
For many on the dev team, bringing a turn based tactical version of BATTLETECH to the PC in - arguably the deepest visual exploration of the game’s 3025 setting ever - was a dream come true, but one fraught with challenges. The game’s deep lore and firmly established mechanics provided wonderful basis, but also challenges in how to adapt the game from a 35 year old tabletop game into a modern video game.
PANELISTS
Jordan Weisman [Founder and CEO, Harebrained Schemes], Kiva Maginn [Lead Designer, Harebrained Schemes], Andrew McIntosh [Writer, Harebrained Schemes]
