Looking forward to this. Been waiting for something to capture the feel of the tabletop game. Sure is a lot of "work in progress" for something that was supposed to come out in May though.
But this has a much better chance at success than fucking Mechwarrior Tactics did. The core game was fun but the whole micro-transaction booster pack thing was horseshit. Had they just made a non free-to-play game and charged some money for it things would have been fine. Instead they wanted to make some goddamn battletech CCG hybrid shit and it bombed. I've got a much better feeling about this one though. I think it'll be worth the $25 for me.
Greetings MechWarriors! Klimecky back again with important news about our Backer Beta. A series of unfortunate events prevents us from hitting our target release date and, as promised in our last update, we’re letting you know as far in advance as we can. This change may come as a surprise, given it’s only a few weeks after announcing the target release date but sometimes game development throws us curve balls at just the wrong moment. As a wise man once said, “*** happens.”
Developers are constantly weighing risks vs rewards during a project, often with incomplete information. In this case we made two big decisions in the leadup to Beta and both turned out to have a bigger impact on the project than we planned for. Here’s what happened:
Our development infrastructure desperately needed an upgrade but the fixes caused lots of short-term headaches. HBS has a history of “toughing it out” and working with sub-optimal back-end tools because we want as much development time as possible to be spent on game features and fun. Eventually however, a system becomes too painful to use and we bite the bullet and pay the development price. In this case, we had two vital systems that required improvement for the Backer Beta, so we decided to “tear off the bandage”, hire a professional IT contractor, and get all the work done at once so our engineers could stay focused on the game.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure upgrade process caused several issues including delays in getting new versions of the game built. This consumed time from our Lead Engineer, our Test Lead, and myself. Without the ability to test our work in new “builds” of the game, progress slowed. It has taken the better part of 3 weeks to get back on track, but we finally feel like we've cleared the hurdle.
An upgrade to the latest version of Unity brought the game editor to its knees. Unity is the game engine we build BATTLETECH on top of and when the company updates its software, game developers need to take a hard look before deciding to take the plunge and install it. In this case, we determined that the update was required for beta because it contained performance optimizations that would greatly improve the gameplay experience for nearly all our participants and for some, make the game playable at all on their machines.
Now, we know from experience that whenever you update major software in the middle of development things WILL break, so we diligently planned time for integration and bug fixing. Unfortunately, while the upgrade succeeded in improving the game’s performance, the changes in Unity broke a lot more of our systems than anticipated - with these consequences proving more time-consuming to troubleshoot and address than any other Unity upgrade we’ve done in the past (including on previous projects). We were relieved to learn that at 2:30am this morning, our engineering and technical art team removed the final productivity sink and were able to start our Monday with a solid infrastructure and performant game editor.
As you can imagine, it’s been a frustrating few weeks in the studio. The entire project slowed dramatically just as we were attempting to hit the gas for the final weeks until Beta launch. The team continued to push as hard as they could, refusing to give up on our March 15th target date, but the slowdowns and instability were punishing. The leadership group decided to step back and take a good, hard look at the situation. We decided it was best to stop the crunch and focus on finishing the infrastructure and editor work before reviewing our quality level and reassessing the target date for the Backer Beta.
Now that our technical issues are behind us, the team is focused on quality and on delivering an experience that shows the world why HBS loves BattleTech and why everyone else should, too. As soon as we have a new target date that we can confidently announce, we’ll send out another update. We are dedicated to delivering a great Backer Beta, even if that means taking a little longer with it.
Regarding the final release date for BATTLETECH: As noted during our livestreamed dev Q&As and on our forums, once we unlocked all of our Kickstarter stretch goals, our estimated release date of May was no longer valid. Way back then we said things like "Summer 2017.” Now that we're further along, we're targeting a Late Summer / Fall release of the game - but we won't be announcing a more exact release date until we're much closer in!
Again, we deeply appreciate your support for the project.
-- Chris Klimecky, Sr. Producer
An upgrade to the latest version of Unity brought the game editor to its knees...
Epsilon wrote:
Meanwhile the people of that generation will call those guys relics, and not move with the times when everything is auto fucking.
I'm not sure how that's something to roll eyes at - they're talking about their own game editor - not Unity's editor - I imagine the update changed a few things - I just looked at some patch notes for Unity and I can see things that would certainly cause issues in game code.
Sometimes, devs don't actually lie. Or at the very least, there is SOME truth to what they say - just not usually, especially from the so-called AAA publisher owned ones.
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So which modern day game game engine should they be using? Unity cannot issue a patch to fix these apparent lag issues? PC H/W is so gawd damn powerful especially with what even the 1080Ti brings yet still... bottlenecks in game engines remain un-optimized.
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This whole thing of KS games going through publishers is getting pretty fucking tiresome. The whole point of games using KS in the first place was supposed to be to bypass the traditional publisher system.
This whole thing of KS games going through publishers is getting pretty fucking tiresome. The whole point of games using KS in the first place was supposed to be to bypass the traditional publisher system.
aka bypass to fund the development itself ..... with these KS projects the publisher mostly to fund additional stuff like marketing, testing or retail
as waht Harebrained said in KS update:
Quote:
"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.
FAQ
Is this the real reason the Backer Beta was delayed?Absolutely not. Our new relationship with Paradox had nothing to do with the delay of our Backer Beta. See the explanation in Kickstarter Update #36 for details.
Does Paradox have control over the design of the game?Nope. HBS has complete creative control of the game. Paradox has lots of BattleTech fans who have opinions (just like our Backers) but HBS is not obligated to take their feedback. That said, the company has lots of experience with strategy games and we’d be dumb not to listen.
Who is responsible for testing the game now?
Harebrained Schemes controls the testing of the game. Paradox is funding it.
Who will handle customer support for BATTLETECH?
For our Backer Beta and service to our Backers, it’s Harebrained Schemes all the way.
Once the game launches, Paradox will handle customer support. They have a full team of experienced support staff and a history of quality customer support. They will (of course) team up with our development team for investigation and vetting of technical issues.
What happens to our personal information from the Kickstarter? Does Paradox get it now?
Definitely not. We take your privacy very seriously and will not be sharing any information gathered via Kickstarter with Paradox or anyone else.
Will the game still release on Steam, GOG, and Humble?
You bet. BATTLETECH will release on Steam, GoG, and Humble on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Nothing has changed there and, as we mentioned in an earlier update, we're looking at a late Summer/Fall release.
Will I still be able to download a DRM-Free version of the game?
Yes. A DRM-Free version will be available on GOG.
You mentioned expansions. What's the plan for post-launch content and DLC?
In success we hope to release full-fledged expansions to the game and intend to focus on that over small pieces of DLC.
What about sequels? Does Paradox have a say in those?
We have no agreement with Paradox to release sequels to the game at this time. If our relationship goes well, we’ll consider it in the future."
I am well aware of the reasons they trot out for it. My beef is this is not just something they decided last week. It would have been planned pretty much right from the start, and it is only sprung on backers after the fact. It's disingenuous bullshit.
This whole thing of KS games going through publishers is getting pretty fucking tiresome. The whole point of games using KS in the first place was supposed to be to bypass the traditional publisher system.
aka bypass to fund the development itself ..... with these KS projects the publisher mostly to fund additional stuff like marketing, testing or retail
As long as the publisher doesn't get involved in what the game should be like this is fine but what you describe is the system used in the 80's & 90's and even though publishers didn't fund the games, they still had an influence on how the game would turn out.
Basically, the moment you add a publisher into the picture, they're going to affect the end game because they're the ones marketing the game and telling the developer "no, don't do this, this gives it less mass appeal, do that, games sell better when you do", laying the focus on commercial success whereas Kickstarter games are exactly those games that are not commercial enough to have mass appeal in the first place so the danger is that the developers end up going in a direction that the backers don't want to go just to make more money but ultimately disappointing the fans that backed them in the first place. There's dozens of Kickstarter examples where this happened, all because the developers deviated from what people clearly wanted. Star Citizen, anyone? Or how about Shroud of the Avatar - the end game is nothing like promised.
I am well aware of the reasons they trot out for it. My beef is this is not just something they decided last week. It would have been planned pretty much right from the start, and it is only sprung on backers after the fact. It's disingenuous bullshit.
That is not (always) how it works though.
It wouldn't surprise me if it is Paradox that stepped in to look into the opportunity to bring this game to retail as well as further support the digital release.
So I don't believe this was planned beforehand by Harebrained and I don't see how this is bad for backers ?
These guys won't get my money after a major fuck up with Necropolis. It's still an underdeveloped abandonware. Such a shame..It could have been an awesome Souls-lite game..
These guys won't get my money after a major fuck up with Necropolis. It's still an underdeveloped abandonware. Such a shame..It could have been an awesome Souls-lite game..
That was pretty bad. They lied a lot about that game and abandoned it after just 2 months.
As you may remember, the original release estimate listed in our Kickstarter campaign was for delivery of the BATTLETECH Base Skirmish Game. With each additional Funding Stage unlocked - Single-Player Story Campaign, Expanded Mercenary Campaign, and PVP Multiplayer - more time and team members were added for the additional work.
We’d previously been projecting a late 2017 release but now that we’ve revised our AI & combat mechanics in reaction to your feedback, completed a thorough review of the work remaining on the game, and are poised to release the Multiplayer Backer Beta update, all indications are that Paradox & HBS will release BATTLETECH in early 2018.
Throughout development, the message we’ve received has been clear, “Don’t rush it, just make it great.” and we have taken that to heart. All of us - HBS, Paradox, and our Backers - share a deeply personal attachment to this project and we are committed to delivering a game that not only meets your high expectations but introduces BattleTech to a new generation of players.
With that said, I’m happy to report that solid progress continues across the project! We are now able to play the open-ended mercenary campaign “loop” and I have to say that when you’re counting your C-bills and caring about your MechWarriors’ health and survival, you approach combat missions differently which imbues every turn with a ton of dramatic tension. And the upcoming upgrade to our AI is going to make you think hard about how you engage the enemy!
As Mitch mentioned in our last update, we’ve made a ton of progress on all the component pieces of the game and this phase of development is all about bringing them together - the core combat game, the mercenary simulation aboard the Argo, the single-player story and cinematics, the open-ended mercenary mission system, the ‘Mech customization system… it’s a lot of stuff and it’s exciting to see it all getting stitched together and “upleveled” with art, audio, UI, and writing.
It really is an exciting time on the project and I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s finally done. Thanks again for all your support!
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Now i have to install mechcommander again. Shit, shit.
