MechWarrior 5 announced with trailer

[Lantyssa]

Warhammer ~<3

Set in 3015 (Third Succession War), so no Clan bullshit.  4P campaign co-op and being developed for PC and 360 (though I can't imagine playing it on 360 unless they support the AC6 stick).  Very cool that they've seemingly licensed the anime mecha designs from the early board game releases again so I can tool around in a Warhammer or Marauder.

Fuck, I'm hard. Say that again, only slower.

They did.  All the "Unseen" are back.

<dance>

[NiX]

Whats this your are talking about? Lore:Aftermath? Never heard of it. Thats' probably your first problem.

For the most part, I think Stephen is appealing to those of us who have read all his posts about GarageGames online game portal.

[Stephen Zepp]

Just curious basically as to why it got completely ignored, when the game offers pretty much what people are slavering about in the thread ;)

[Ironwood]

Mr Zepp has challenged us with this game before.

For me, long story short, it's NOT BATTLETECH.

Sorry.

[NiX]

I honestly couldn't remember what the game portals name was. I had to go to GG's website, then look up a game listed there to find it. Maybe a bit more presence of IA on the GG website would help.

[Fordel]

Just curious basically as to why it got completely ignored, when the game offers pretty much what people are slavering about in the thread ;)

The one time I tried it, it didn't "feel" right. It had all the parts in theory, but they didn't come together in the right way. I was also turned off by all the damn deployable turret cheese. But the weapon systems never felt like they were being fired by giant war machines, it was more of a clumsy FPS.


If I don't feel like I'm piloting a giant robot, what is the fucking point?

[Tmon]

The multiplayer kills it for me, I hate being forced to play with random strangers and have no desire to invest time getting to 'know' people there.

[Falwell]

Let me play the Capellan Confederation and they get mad props.

[satael]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/09/mechwarrior-4-free-on-battletech-com-soon/

[Rasix]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/09/mechwarrior-4-free-on-battletech-com-soon/

Just said in the Invasion3042 chat room:

"In honor of BattleTech's 25th anniversary, Smith & Tinker has authorized MekTek.net and MekTek Studios to distribute MechWarrior 4 (along with its expansion packs) completely free. For years, MekTek.net has been the central point for online distribution of MechWarrior 4 expansion packs. Now they can provide the core game free to the fans as well. Keep an eye on BattleTech.com--the free download will be available soon!"

 

[WindupAtheist]

I read the interview. Oh fuck, not another stupid ass "scrappy young nobleman on a minor planet loses his family in an invasion and rallies his people to throw out the enemy" story that takes place entirely on one planet. They just did that in MW4 and it was awful.

[gryeyes]

Time to dust off the ole joystick.

[MisterNoisy]

You know, if that guy in the trailer were driving a more stable firing platform, like a tank, he probably wouldn't have missed repeated PPC shots despite being at point-blank range. 

Heh - my usual BattleTech armies consisted of tons of tiny hovercraft and VTOLs.

[justdave]

You know, if that guy in the trailer were driving a more stable firing platform, like a tank, he probably wouldn't have missed repeated PPC shots despite being at point-blank range. 

Heh - my usual BattleTech armies consisted of tons of tiny hovercraft and VTOLs.

That was an attempt to draw the enemy out of the treeline, not legitimate discussion. 

[Ratman_tf]

Warhammer ~<3

Set in 3015 (Third Succession War), so no Clan bullshit.  4P campaign co-op and being developed for PC and 360 (though I can't imagine playing it on 360 unless they support the AC6 stick).  Very cool that they've seemingly licensed the anime mecha designs from the early board game releases again so I can tool around in a Warhammer or Marauder.

Fuck, I'm hard. Say that again, only slower.

They did.  All the "Unseen" are back.

<dance>

I noticed the Warhammer from the trailer looked a little different, but that's probably just because they don't get it looking exactly like a UN Spacy Tomahawk in Battletech anyway.

So a Mechwarrior game set in the Sucession Wars... color me interested.

[Ratman_tf]

EDIT: You know, if that guy in the trailer were driving a more stable firing platform, like a tank, he probably wouldn't be playing a Battletech game.

 

[Ratman_tf]

<mole alert>
So I'm curious--other than full MMO style advancement, Lore:Aftermath has pretty much everything folks have asked for in this thread--yet as far as I am aware, no one here has even tried it, or tried but never went back.

Is it simply not fun to play, or is it lack of marketing, or is it something completely different?

</mole alert>

Battletech and the Mechwarrior franchise is the Diablo of mecha sims.

[MisterNoisy]

That was an attempt to draw the enemy out of the treeline, not legitimate discussion.  

I'm aware of that, but I'd much rather just talk about games.  

[Kitsune]

Thank God, someone involved in Battletech development finally realized that the Clans killed the franchise.

[Lantyssa]

The multiplayer kills it for me, I hate being forced to play with random strangers and have no desire to invest time getting to 'know' people there.

Stephen, this was it for me.  If I recall, I was being thrown in a random match before I had even read any instructions.

Sorry I don't remember specifics.  All I remember for sure is going "Woah!  Not for me" and exiting.

[Ironwood]

Thank God, someone involved in Battletech development finally realized that the Clans killed the franchise.

Someone with sense needs to explain this to me.  I've never understood the argument.

[Falwell]

Thank God, someone involved in Battletech development finally realized that the Clans killed the franchise.

Someone with sense needs to explain this to me.  I've never understood the argument.

I think a lot of the shit storm comes from the higher grade tech. XL engines, ER weapons, Ultra AC's etc. etc. Many people considered this cheesy as all hell back when I was playing. Personally, I don't think it was any shittier, story wise, than the cheese ball constant dick sucking that went on for units like.. GDL for instance.

On a personal note, fuck IS XL engines btw, give me a MAD-5B any day of the week. You can keep that DVS-2 shit in the garage.

Also I just wanted to add that Ironwood, in his mad frothing excitement, signed one of his posts on page one. Seeing an old codger like myself get whipped up into a frenzy like that brings a little warmth to my heart. Thanks chief.

[Ironwood]

I was in a good mood ;  further, in my usual way, I was taking the piss out of a retard.  The English Language is awesome.

 

[patience]

Thank God, someone involved in Battletech development finally realized that the Clans killed the franchise.

Someone with sense needs to explain this to me.  I've never understood the argument.

I think a lot of the shit storm comes from the higher grade tech. XL engines, ER weapons, Ultra AC's etc. etc. Many people considered this cheesy as all hell back when I was playing. Personally, I don't think it was any shittier, story wise, than the cheese ball constant dick sucking that went on for units like.. GDL for instance.

On a personal note, fuck IS XL engines btw, give me a MAD-5B any day of the week. You can keep that DVS-2 shit in the garage.

Also I just wanted to add that Ironwood, in his mad frothing excitement, signed one of his posts on page one. Seeing an old codger like myself get whipped up into a frenzy like that brings a little warmth to my heart. Thanks chief.

Not really. Clan tech and IS level 2 tech wasn't a big deal aside from the fact they mishandled weapon balance between Autocannons and Energy Weapons/Missiles in the table top game.

What some people hated about the clans was their entire impact on the storyline and history.

It infuriates people that the Clans could have such a huge technological edge over the IS when they both went through serious turmoil after the Star League fell.
It angers them even more that a war like culture developed with archaic rules of engagement that the clans use.
Their biggest problem is the insinuation by the fiction and tech reports of the Clans being able to conquer as large of civilization as the Innersphere like the Mongols did China when the Mongols had a lot more going for them than the Clans ever did.
Then we have characters created from the Clan Invasion most people were not thrilled with ever existing like Phelan Kell.
On top of that even the clans were inconsistent in how well they related to each other as power blocs (see removal of Steel Vipers and the ongoing existence of both the Wolves and Jade Falcons).

[Lantyssa]

Mainly I thought the story behind the Clans was utter shite.  Inner Sphere politics took an almost complete back seat, with everything focusing on the unstoppable juggernaut of two-dimensional characters whose sole motivation was FOLLOW ME OR DIE.

It turned from political drama to super hero survival stories.  What drama there was, made absolutely no sense.

There was also the complete trashing of existing balance.  You could have some fun trying to play a game of IS versus Clan, but mostly it became a game about mudflation to see who could put the most Clan weapons on a mech.  A lot of the balance was completely thrown out the window since the new weapons were superior all around.  Why would you ever use an AC5 when you could have a Clan ER Large Laser?

[Hoax]

Just curious basically as to why it got completely ignored, when the game offers pretty much what people are slavering about in the thread ;)

Not really, its more akin to Starsiege in that it feels like your piloting some kind of vehicle but its hardly a mech.  I tried to get into the Tribes clone but just couldn't do it, I haven't been on IA since but my impression was that the games were fine in-browser f2p games for kids on school computers in the library but certainly not something to play on my pc due to an overall lack of polish and depth.

***

I'm really excited about this, because it doesn't matter what the storymode campaign is, there is a seriously crazy community out there who will upgrade to this for Inner Sphere Wars.  Time to get involved again.

As for the clan hate, I hated them when they showed up because the were destroying everybody, but saying they ruined the story is pretty laughable.  The best of the Victor > Jesus storyarcs was the invasion of the smoke jaguar homeworld that was good stuff.  Sure the old school succession war fluff was darker and more nuanced but there wasn't that much of it left to tell.

[patience]

Mainly I thought the story behind the Clans was utter shite.  Inner Sphere politics took an almost complete back seat, with everything focusing on the unstoppable juggernaut of two-dimensional characters whose sole motivation was FOLLOW ME OR DIE.

It turned from political drama to super hero survival stories.  What drama there was, made absolutely no sense.

There was also the complete trashing of existing balance.  You could have some fun trying to play a game of IS versus Clan, but mostly it became a game about mudflation to see who could put the most Clan weapons on a mech.  A lot of the balance was completely thrown out the window since the new weapons were superior all around.  Why would you ever use an AC5 when you could have a Clan ER Large Laser?

IS vs Clan was balanced if the Clanners obeyed the rules of engagement the Clans used in fiction....


...


But to be fair IS tech did eventually even out with clan tech once level 2 tech was implemented as long as you used Battle Value ratings to dictate the composition of the different sides.

Unfortunately your simplistic description about the motivations for the clan characters is too accurate to criticize. I'll just say I didn't hate or even dislike the majority of fiction revolving around the clans, though it is obvious they are inferior to the stories that revolved around the Innersphere.

I'm looking forward to this game but I'm miffed that this is a game for both the 360 and PC. I loved the seemingly complicated controls of the mouse and keyboard and having that limited by the Xbox pad doesn't appeal to me. The only good thing about that pad are the dual analogs which makes it more practical to aim at multiple targets and attack them at the same time.

[Draegan]

I never got involved in Mechwarrior stuff other than saying cool.. big robots with guns and played a shitty xbox game once.

Where do I start?

[Modern Angel]

I never got involved in Mechwarrior stuff other than saying cool.. big robots with guns and played a shitty xbox game once.

Where do I start?

First read a bunch of incomprehensible backstory. Then get really amped up about the Mary Sue characters and terrible story. Finally, scream on the internet as loudly as you can about your painfully autistic attention to detail when it comes to mecha.

It's pretty much the same thing you should do with Star Wars.

[Ironwood]

Fuck that.

Here's all you need to know :

On the original boardgame, you could pick up your opponants severed arm and BEAT HIM TO DEATH WITH IT.

It was a winning thing.

(Incidentally, I realise now I played Bloodbowl and Battletech back in school.  You know, when I was 14 or so.  That was 20 fucking years ago.  Surely NOT.)

[Kitsune]

Before the clans you had a pretty sweet dark future thing going, juxtaposing some high-tech stuff, some current-day stuff, and some positively medieval cultures.  And it didn't get all retarded like Warhammer 40K's 'we've backslid so far that we don't know any science and think the machines are holy but still somehow have an interstellar empire'.  (Admittedly, Comstar edges close to that, but given that their whole deal turned out to be a jaded centuries-long scam, I think they get a pass.)  People hadn't grown incompetent, they just didn't know how to build some of the awesomer stuff of humanity at its height, so the setting had a nicely dirty vibe as opposed to Star Trek-shiny.

Then the Clans pop in and are all "hay guise look at our infantry who can eat a large vehicular laser without slowing down even though it would blow off a mech's head and kill the pilot in one hit".  Next thing you know, everyone's high-tech again in the space of like two years.  The whole sweet vibe goes right out the window, while the game is overrun by douches who are all inevitably playing mercenaries who just happened to run across Clan warehouses and are now bristling to the teeth with weapons that do more damage and shoot twice as far.


As far as this game goes, I kinda hope the real game has a better UI than the one shown in the trailer, which was goddamned useless.  Oh boy, two rectangles and a picture of the other mech.  That's great.  It would be a smidgen greater if it showed, I dunno, maybe the damage on my mech, and the status of the weapons.

[Ironwood]

You need to get blown.

 

[Lantyssa]

(Incidentally, I realise now I played Bloodbowl and Battletech back in school.  You know, when I was 14 or so.  That was 20 fucking years ago.  Surely NOT.)

Yeah, it was.

I won't tell anyone if you don't.

[Fordel]

I never got involved in Mechwarrior stuff other than saying cool.. big robots with guns and played a shitty xbox game once.

Where do I start?

http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=text&page=Game_Universe Is a pretty good synopsis.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page Is also pretty comprehensive.

[Merusk]

<mole alert>
So I'm curious--other than full MMO style advancement, Lore:Aftermath has pretty much everything folks have asked for in this thread--yet as far as I am aware, no one here has even tried it, or tried but never went back.

Is it simply not fun to play, or is it lack of marketing, or is it something completely different?

</mole alert>

Single player available?

No, it's MP only. Fair point :)

Yeah, since you asked.. that would be what killed it for me.  I'm 35 and my reflexes suck compared to most of the online FPS/ twitchy teens and 20 somethings.  No single player = no play.