Interview Mitch Gitelman and Mike McCain talk about BattleTech at Sarna.net

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I assume the 3d graphics, as this was my reaction as well

Eh, I'm actually quite happy with the idea of them ditching the shitty Shadowrun engine. From my experience it can't really get much worse than that.
At least assuming that means ditching Unity altogether and switching to something that can offer somewhat better performance-to-visual ratio (something like Unreal 4 wouldn't be half bad, for instance, and almost equally easy to use in terms of toolset).

Anyway, the description makes it sound like my kind of shit, but then again that's because every time I read "pseudo-RPG with turn-based tactical battles" I immediately delude myself thinking of Jagged Alliance 2as the reference model, when almost systematically these games turn out to be far less ambitious in size and scope and far more dull and approximate in terms of mechanics.
I'll wait and see for this one.

EDIT: On a side note I can't fucking believe that Silent Storm's environmental destruction has yet to be topped almost twelve years later.

 

[SerratedBiz]

And I honestly can't be bothered to discuss about or caring about your retarded arguments

I never said Battletech was restricted to lance combat, don't put words in my mouth. I said that their game is aiming for the small, squad-sized tabletop experience, which is perfectly functional and playable. The only reason you can't see it working is because you, well, don't think it will.

Since you missed the point with the LP too, I'll again break it down for you. The LP consists of him playing a squad of four MWs (yeah, and aerospace, which hasn't been thrown out of this game AFAIK). The engineers and rest might as well not count, he's using them as roleplaying fluff. But if we're talking STRICTLY ABOUT PLAYABILITY AND FUN, is his LP or game boring because he's only controlling four mechs and a couple of planes? Are you not entertained? Sure, he can buy more mechs down the road because MegaMek allows it but, right now, isn't the thing pretty fucking functional?

I doubt you can do missions where you are outside of your mech.

Why? Because you doubt it? Who told you? Where do you get your info from? Why wouldn't you be able to? Hardware limitations? A personal grudge between Mitch and Mike and non-robot-riding meatbags?

It's this kinds of arguments ("because I think so!") which make you look like a mouthbreather.

 

[lurker3000]

Is my memory wrong, because I thought Mechwarrior 2 basically a Wing Commander mostly linear mission based game

Mechwarrior 2 ≠ Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries

That being said its been almost 20 years so I don't remember much about the games except I liked them.

 

[Wizfall]

I don't understand the Mechwarrior 2 reference.
What they decribe is exactly mechcommander but turn-based, i can't spot any other difference.
While it still a good news, i would have like much better a more crPG game like The Crescent Hawk's Inception.
Multiplayer is not a good news too.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Here I was hoping about controlling something bigger than a lance. Maybe some tanks as well.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

No word about mechanics :/ .

 

[likaq]

LOL @ 3d graphics haters.

 

[Grotesque]

LOL @ 3d graphics haters.

VS.

I'll take the first any day and shit on the latter

 

[Fenix]

Desperately want to brofist...

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I'll take the first any day and shit on the latter

These are both rather ugly, actually. Shitty prerenders-turned-into-sprites vs shitty lowpoly art.
But beside that the real reason this comparison is completely nonsensical is that we don't live in 2001 anymore.

 

[Grotesque]

we don't live in 2001 anymore.

Here we have it.
Another one that thinks that if "we don't live in 2001 anymore", automatically the nowadays quality and artistic direction will be superior to anything from the last decade or millennium.
There are enough recent titles that failed miserably to come even close to a certain graphical flair that older games had.
You just have to have a certain refined taste and not to be an artistic illiterate to realize that.
I bet that if this future Harebrained Schemes game will have the equivalent graphics/artistic direction of Diablo III, it will be OK in your books.

needs more bloom!

 

[Cosmo]

I bet that if this future Harebrained Schemes game will have the equivalent graphics/artistic direction of Diablo III, it will be OK in your books.

Actually no, i think they'll stick with what they do best : a relatively low-poly style similar to SR's character models and to a lesser degree to what they're doing with their dark soulish roguelike...

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Here we have it.
Another one that thinks that if "we don't live in 2001 anymore", automatically the nowadays quality and artistic direction will be superior to anything from the last decade or millennium.

Why are you making one dumb assumption after the other?
There's quite a leap between pointing that taking 2001 models as reference is stupid and claiming that everything done in modern times would automatically be great.

In fact, if anything, Shadowrun Returns should suggest that their artists tend to the "MEH" side of the spectrum when it comes to polygonal art.
That said, even SRR is leagues ahead of the screenshot you chose as an example, and that's assuming they wouldn't aim even higher with the next production; which, as I already said, makes your comparison completely nonsensical.

I bet that if this future Harebrained Schemes game will have the equivalent graphics/artistic direction of Diablo III, it will be OK in your books.

Eh, not sure what point you are trying to make.
Not really my cup of tea, in term of style. But it could be a lot worse for sure.
In fact, I'm not even sure it would be reasonable to expect better in term of overall quality, given their budget.

Wait, maybe that was exactly your point. You could very well be one of these guys who freak out over any art style that doesn't fit their specific "favorite flavor", regardless of the quality.

Back to the point, I surely wouldn't cry over something closer to (say) Dawn of War, than both the examples you used as reference.
Something like Company of Heroes, on the other hand, is probably out of their league.

Note: In case you didn't notice a trend, I'm just mentioning examples of *old* 3D games that shit copiously on the "fantastic" 2D sprites you posted.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Dont get the hate for the fact that it will be probably 3D, both are good if the dedication is there. People tend to forget also how shitty early 2D art was on videogames. That said, I love good 2 with bold lines, if someday somebody can blend 3D terrain and good sprites I am happy.
It was happening a lot during the late 90s. Say like Populous the Beginning, or MDK.

 

[Infinitron]

It sounds like they want to make destructible environments and stuff. Gotta be 3D.

 

[Turok]

Sarna.net ? funny :D

Sarna is the spanish word for
Scabies

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Dont get the hate for the fact that it will be probably 3D, both are good if the dedication is there. People tend to forget also how shitty early 2D art was on videogames.

I also think that a lot of people tend to forget (or fail to realize) that ""2D is simpler, cheaper and less demanding" [with the implied assumption it would be a better way to manage the budget] is mostly a thing of the past.

Since the data size increases exponentially when you are ramping up the resolution, 2D sprites with a decent amount of animation frames (necessary to keep a decent illusion of fluidity) can become obscenely demanding in terms of memory, for instance, not to mention unbearably time-consuming to produce and animate.
This, without even going into all the old issues about 2D being for the most part just awful to adapt to variable resolutions and framerates.

Oh, and if you were planning customizable fitting for your vehicles and/or equipment for your characters... Tough luck, with 2D you better be ready to have that shit just as an "abstract system" (something that appears as numbers and words on a spreadsheet) or to draw and create space for even MORE custom animation frames.
And of course even if you go with the second option, you'll keep variations to the minimum anyway.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I'm really glad their ditching the shadowrun 'engine', the game despite looking gorgeous is uterly inadequate mechanically.

A battletech tb game with a non-linear campaign and with extensive mech and pilot customizations would be a clusterfuck with their current unity engine.

The biggest issue I'm seeing with this is the enemy AI, as HBS has constantly shown that it's incapable of making a challenging enemy without heavy scripting limitations on the player.

 

[ZoddGuts]

If it's 3D no reason for them not to use UE4. Fuck Unity.

 

[Excidium II]

If it's 3D no reason for them not to use UE4.

Besides the fact they've shipped a bunch of unity games so they're already well used to working with it?

 

[Athelas]

Didn't they already say they were going to use Unity 5?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Didn't they already say they were going to use Unity 5?

Not that I'm explicitly aware of, but it could very well be.
As far as I can remember, they just claimed the vague intention to come up with a new "engine", without specifying on what it would be based on.
Is there a source?

 

[Azrael the cat]

VS.

I'll take the first any day and shit on the latter

Agreed if we're talking about graphical quality (though the selected pictures are, as always with these matters, a tad unfair). But I'll take that hit in graphics for good destructible environments, which we're much more likely to get with a 3D engine.

 

[Fenix]

But I'll take that hit in graphics for good destructible environments, which we're much more likely to get with a 3D engine.

Do you think so? I remember X-Come... X-Come Apocalipce... did they have that in Syndicate?
And in 3D I remember it only in Silent Storm...

 

[Excidium II]

It sounds like they want to make destructible environments and stuff. Gotta be 3D.

Agreed if we're talking about graphical quality (though the selected pictures are, as always with these matters, a tad unfair). But I'll take that hit in graphics for good destructible environments, which we're much more likely to get with a 3D engine.

Bullshit lmao. Specially if it's to the same scope as features are generally implemented in HBS games.