Battletech is older than 40k. Battletech is contemporary to Warhammer Fantasy, with both franchises launching within a year of each other. 40k released in 1987, Battletech released in 1984.
. to list this correctly Warhammer fantasy rpg 1983 Warhammer fantasy battles 1984 Battledroids 1984 (1st ed) battletech 1985 (2nd ed) Warhammer 40k 1987
@Heatx79 I was only listing FASA and GW. if we wanted to include D&D, then I would have 1976 as the first appearance of the white books for Dungeons and Dragons.
And now that the Japanese finally settled things, we get Macross in the West, finally. Good times. What is sad is that HG is a real estate firm. I wonder how many flaming bags of poo have found their way to their doorstop? Answer: not enough.
Except he didn't, as the case never got to trial. Harmony Gold and Piranha Games came to an undisclosed out-of-court settlement, following which Harmony Gold agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice (ie that they would not be able to re-litigate in the future), resulting in the case being dropped.
Personally I can't play without MercTech. All the sim elements like canon-style computerized targeting, internal components for weapons, gimbals being affected if you're above cruising speed (basically emulating accuracy penalties in TT), the JJ rework, autocanon rating actually just being damge ratings (a 200mm AC/20 might be single-fire while a 140mm is actually a burst-fire weapon dealing 20 damage total, which is how it canonically works), functional leg-mounted and rear-firing weapons, simulated deflection and ammo explosions, etc.
@@conchoona The biggest ones I would recommend are YAML (Yet Another Mechlab) and many of the "Yet Another" mods like Yet Another Weapon, Yet Another Clan Mech, Yet Another Equipment Collection, etc. These not only add tons of new mechs, weapons and equipment to the game, but it completely opens up the mechlab and allows you to build a mech any way you want and it also gives mechs quirks. For example, an Urbanmech might have a quirk that reduces the cooldown and increases the velocity of all autocannon weapons and a Locust might have a quirk that makes it harder for enemies to hit it. There are also many mods that improve QoL and/or immersion like Advanced Career Start (pick the year you start in and how much funds you have, etc.), WarFX (better explosions and hit effects), Colorized Heatgauge, Pilot Overhaul, Starmap Mouse Over, Vonbiomes (so the maps looks better and don't get too repetitive), TTrulez AI is also a must or your lancemates tend to donate their mechs to enemies as free salvage.
@@colbyboucher6391 So much effort and great work in the MercTech series of mods, but the author also forcefeeds unwanted aspects down your throat so I have gone to other mods and gone without some of the more cool aspects you refer to. My main frustration has been that with every DLC provided, it basically wipes ALL the mods off the map and the game is unplayable for the next three months unless you dial it back in Steam as a 'beta' to a former build release. The base game is good.... but it is a mere springboard which the fans and modders have used to make the game TRULY a gem. I have gone back to it and started from scratch several times just for the fun of it.
They didn't even own the rights to most of the mecha designs that they sued FASA over. They licensed them from a Japanese company, then lied and claimed that they owned them. Screw these guys big time!
@@klortikterra4423 They have, the case against PGI and CGL was dismissed WITH PREJUDICE. "In the legal area, a case that gets dismissed with prejudice means it has been permanently dismissed. No matter the circumstances, if a case is dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be brought back to court. The case is done." Harmony Gold got fucked and cannot bring the suit back up in court again.
I think one thing that helps Battletech's resurgence is Mechwarrior. The look is there. It's amazing. While the 80s and the 90s had some derpy models, the modern day mechs look chunky and brutal. This update to their asthetic helped, and I think mechwarrior had a hand in this.
While the derpiness has always been part of the charme and I like a lot of the old metal Ral Partha minis, I have to agree: The new Mech miniature designs take a lot of inspo from MW:O and it is an awesome look. Be interesting to see how that goes together with some of the more faction-specific aesthetics (thinking Hatamoto-Chi and Yu Huang for instance).
MW4 was still peak in my opinion. The animations are actually better than MW5, which is sad. Look at how the legs move, it's way more realistic. MW4: Mercs was also seemingly memory holed by this uploader. It was a very welcome surprise and offered better missions than the original campaign. Only bad thing is every weapon except missiles and Long Toms is hitscan. MW is a frustrating franchise because most of its entries come close to being 10/10 masterpieces but have some significant flaw.
MW5M is a 6/10 maybe a 7 if genorous, but modded it sky rockets to a 8.5 or a 9. The modding community worked magic on the game. Love playing it almost every week.
Exactly this. The base game is pretty mediocre, but it's really the only modern game where you can legitimately drive mechs that feel like walking tanks. There's always gonna be a place for the hyper fluid and mobile gundams and armored cores, but in my opinion this has so much more weight and substance to it.
I'd even say that it can get bumped up to 7 or 7,5 by default *just* because it is so mod-friendly. In the age of strict legal boundaries, Nintendo shutting down GMod addons, games sometimes not even being consistently owned by the player who bought them, MW5:M allows for so much modding freedom, and being an unreal engine game helps it A LOT. Even if the main game is very basic, the modding potential allows it to jump way over it's head if complemented with good mods. Same thing was with HBS BattleTech, it was pretty basic on it's own, but being an easily modded game it spawned RogueTech, BTA and BTE and an entirr modding community around them, all of these mods being ad much as 10 times bigger than original game in weight and feature-quantity. Modding support is the key for success, no matter what game you are talking about.
@@jumpinghunter9152 excellent take! 100% agree the fact there is a solid base game and it's so mod friendly helps alot. I absolutely love the mods for this game YAMAL, Vonbiomes, pilot overhaul etc can't see my self playing without them and the modding community is so passionate and dedicated to the game. The Devs are lucky to have such a community. I'm currently playing Jagged alliance 3, excellent game but wish they had a modding community like MW5M. The Devs for that game even went out of their way to make hours long modding tutorial videos for the game to encourage the community. But besides a hand full of truly amazing mods there ain't much there at the moment. So yeah the MW5M Devs are so lucky to have an excellent modding community like this.
You did fail to mention what happened with Harebrained Scheme's *Battletech* (2018) though. Sadly, despite how successful the game was, they fell apart. They sold to Paradox, who ended up being unhappy with how the DLC sold despite all of its other success, and essentially shuttered HBS. Now it's just a shell and there likely won't ever be a BattleTech sequel. :(
HBS also lost access to the IP so they can't make a sequel or updates or anything. It is still in the hand of Paradox. Thankfully modders (as usual) saved the day. BTA 3062 is amazing and my favorite mod for the game.
Battletech 2018 was a unique game, and only happened because Jordan Weisman was able to charm Mircosoft into basically giving him a license for free, since no one expected how popular it would be Then it turned out extremely popular, and Mircosoft realised it missed out on money, so when they appoarched again, Mircosoft asked for a lot more to use the license, not just the standard fee but also extra on top to make up for their perceived losses. HBS couldnt afford it, so they couldnt make another Battletech game. Then Paradox pumped and dumped them
Well, i might shine a bit of hope on that one - since Lamplighter's League, their latest game, went so poorly, Paradox cut Harebrained Schemes loose. They are rather revitalized now, working on something new and with folks returning to studio, including the game director for Batthetech and Dragonfall who left in 2019. They won't be making another Battletech or Shadowrun game, sadly, since IP is in Paradox\Microsoft hands. But we might still see something wonderful from the people who made aforementioned games. Fingers crossed, maybe we will even see them working one these IPs again, one day.
battletech 2018 was a shitty buggy mess lol. I'm sure there will be another battletech and I'll be really happy it's not being made by the people that made 2018.
A thing I love and will never stop loving about BT as a setting: some units are just canonical garbage. They are there to be a liability, a weakness to be exploited, a joke, or something you're just going to have to deal with using. The lore acknowledges these flaws, frequently pointing out that the machines themselves were made by graft, not genuinely good decisionmaking and engineers that were paid well enough to care. It's not to say they can't be made into useful things, you just might have to think laterally, and a little bit like Dr. Frankenstein. Y'know, the same sorta thinking that leads people to put Arrow-IV tubes on an Urbie. Not to say an Urbie's a bad machine, though, I love the little guys.
People often write off the Charger as a liability, until their uber-stronk 400PV Jade Falcon Assault Star comes face to face with 3 Comstar Level IIs of Charger 1A1s with vehicle support. The peak of the slaughter on that table happened when 5 Chargers charged through friendly smoke cover and bullied a fresh Turkina to death in one turn.
It’s also nice that they allow things to be functionally obsolete, Without just discontinuing them from the franchise. Like if you want to run it, good on you, your mileage will vary. But you aren’t unnaturally forced to keep investing in the newest stuff, you will probably WANT to, but for the same reasons you would as an actual commander, not a customer.
@@aegisghost Oh god Alpha Strike definitely made me realize the potential of the Charger. Incredibly cheap to field, tanky, and packing a wallop with those steel fists.
Another example: the blackjack. It sucked for most of the prehistory of the setting. Then some house militias said “what if we used it against light mechs” and now later in universe we have the blackjack DB which is a 5 ton lighter explosion proof enforcer, the blackjack 3 which is a 45 ton monster, and the various permutations and even a omnimech model.
That 20 year gap between 4 and 5 was filled with Living Legends, MekTek's work on MW4, the MW3 Community's modding work, the Wolves remake of Mech Assault. Things were there that the MW Community did. Proud of their work outside Microsoft, HBS, and PGI.
God, Living Legends was such an awesome experience when I could actually play it. The mechs were shockingly fun given how legitimately, insanely cobbled together literally everything was, and the community was just stellar across the board. Really hope we get to see more of that series in the future.
Honestly, a very large part of why I think Battletech and Mechwarrior is still in the public consciousness is because there are few if any other fanbases that have quite a tradition of going "Fine, I'll do it myself!" They recreated the tabletop game in a java program with every single mech, weapon, system, and rule from every single book, to say nothing of just using your own custom designs. That modding spirit bled into other games as well, like the 3067 mod, and Living Legends. The community is like a zombie mech; blow off it's arms and torsos, and it'll still run up and try to kick you because dying is for other IPs.
I only just got in to Battletech back in January. I was itching for a wargame but didn't want to take out a mortgage in order to get in to 40K. Once I discovered the lore it was all over.
I got out of 40k during 8th edition and sold all my armies and went into 3d printing and back to doing model railroading. Now I have several printers and can easily print my own models to return to 40k, 40,000% cheaper LOL. Though I do miss some of the old pewter models that I had.
To be entirely fair, while that's fast by Battletech standards, I feel like there's at least a significantly-large subset of the mech-gamer demographic who weirdly associate mechs much more with frenetic, lightning-fast and up-in-your-face close quarters brawls for some reason. Not sure why, especially given how often I see games and media regularly portraying mechs as _flying_ almost as much as running around on their legs - why the fuck would you make a walking tank only to use it more like an unholy hybrid of an attack helicopter and a fighter jet that can also punch people?
@@MarvinMegavolt Yup, I've never understood how people can get into the armored core games with the super fast movement and flying. Mechwarriors is a lot more grounded in reality.
@@honeybadger6275 Serial escalation. The OG Armored Core games have dogshit controls to really sell the idea you can barely pilot this clunky, slow as shit mech that seems sometimes to fight you as much as it fights other mechs. As the series goes on they have gotten faster and faster, but AC1 and 2 felt more plodding, more tactical (until the endboss fights but shhhh)
@@honeybadger6275 It's because the original games were quite slow, plodding things. It really *sells* an idea of technological progression over its generations.
MechWarrior Online provided an in-the-cockpit experience that previous MW games lacked. MW4 had dabbled in multiplayer, but MWO had more of everything. The team arena playstyle definitely stifles the feeling of it being a "war game", but it reminded me of the quick tabletop BattleTech games I played back in the day.
I played MWO exactly once and never again. I would queue for a match, die soon because I wasn't that good, and be unable to queue until the match ended. That meant I was limited to roughly five minutes of play followed by 30-60 minutes of waiting. Doesn't matter how great of a game it is if you're not allowed to actually play it.
Modders are still keeping MechCommander 1 alive with new campaigns. It's been pretty impressive what they've come up with. Sadly MC2 is a technical mess that refuses to run properly.
Never played me h commander but I play a lot of HBS Battletech 2018 with the RogueTech mod update. If you haven't, I'd recommend giving it a shot or at least watching someone play it. It is very "megamek/TT Battletech with more."
I've read the books and played every Mechwarrior game since the OG Battletech on my Commodore 128D I bought in the Nuremberg PX while I was stationed in Erlangen West Germany back in late 80s. So glad they came out with a new Mechwarrior after so many years and the DLCs for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries were awesome. Can't wait for CLANS to come out. Cheers from America!
Its also nice to note that Mechwarrior Online is still receiving updates to this day. And in fact in the past year has had many new mechs/ variants added to the game
@LakenAnderson those do feel more like player behavior quirks than game design. Won't deny Nascar still happens tho, still fairly easy to stop it with semi coordinates groups or just pug warngaling (even have a few examples on my channel). In the past year they've added quite a lot of new mechs and many new weapons, so the meta has been getting mixed up quite a bit.
As far as I can tell, they never really did much with the gameplay loop. It's always a team deathmatch even if there's a side-objective called 'Conquest'. Update the game with new goodies all they want, but they're not really good at making games where the gameplay is pressing W and pressing m1 at the reds.
I'm just going to throw out there is a piece of MW lore that gets over shadowed or isn't well known and that's Mechwarrior Living Legends. In that 20 year gap for offically for profit licensed MW games, that mod team pulled off magic to show what a combined arms Mechwarrior could have been in the Crytek engine.
Eh. The "devs" of mwll are petty children and have not actually done much for the game since the killing of the original team by pg. They've really just butchered mechanics and kicked people out of the mod team they didn't like. But yeah if you want drama and a game that's being cannibalized by the "dev" team play mwll.
The problem with that, along with pretty much every other piece of fan-made Battletech gaming in between MW4 and MW5, is that it is multiplayer-only. Great for the people who love multiplayer games but completely pointless for those of us who like single player games
MW:O still being alive, and being played by a few thousand people every day, after over a decade of exisiting, and with all the Problems it went through, is testament to the pull of the franchise . And despite all their failings, one has to give PGI credit . For the legal win against the leeches as well as reviving entirer the Mechwarrior franchise . Heres one highest Tier founder for MW:O hoping the PvP side of Mechwarrior keeps going .
(6:52) Love that they got Carol Ruggier back for the "Bitchin' Betty". I played the HECK out of MW2 and its two sequels. The sound of her voice was a big part of the immersion into the game world. 😎🤘☮
Im 44 years old, started collecting Battletech source books in 92. I have almost every published Battletech sourcebook ever made. Its the only thing i have from my childhood that i absolutely refuse to get rid of.
always been a fan of the battletech universe and video games. i just recently bought my very first minis and started painting them, cant wait to play tabletop soon
I'm 31 years old, my first gaming memory is playing mechwarrior 2 sitting in my Dad's lap at the computer. He would pilot and I would shoot. It warms my heart seeing battletech/mechwarrior make a comeback, I thought it was going to die off.
The HBS battletech game was my first actual introduction to the universe, just getting into the tabletop now, and there's a solid local group playing every week.
Grew up on MechAssault, in 2022 friend got me into MW5 thought it was a "spiritual successor" to MechAssault, began to learn more, got in Battletech (PC game), then tabletop, now I have a 3D printer and play the tabletop game regularly, listen to the books, print and paint my own minis, and play MWO it def sucked me in and I see it continue to grow even more around me
THIS IP NEVER LOST ITS AUDIENCE. There are millions of people around the world that love Battletech. what caused Mech Warrior to go dark was the fact that the IP was sold to, I dunno, 4 or 5 different buyers all of which ran their part of it into the ground and then just sat on the rights, for years... People still love Battletech Mech Warrior, Shadowrun and all the other FASA properties, but we never thought we would see them again because companies like Harmony Gold ran the IP into the ground and refused to do anything with it including sell it.
I still play Mechwarrior Online every now and then. It has it's flaws but it's still fun to actually pilot your own customized mech against other real players
Its legitimately one of my favorite PVP games ever made. Its insanely fun once you've learned how to play, found a few mechs that fit your play style, and a coordinated group.
This renewal has made my heart glad. I've played most of them since the OG, and even though MW5 had some issues I still enjoyed the heck out of it. It is one of those games that perpetually resides on my HD just in case someone wants to run missions. ohh, and i just found my old MW2 install and expansion disks!
0:40 - Whoa there buddy. Battletech pre-dates 40k by three years. The first edition of the Warhammer 40k rulebook was published in September 1987. FASA Corporation published the first BattleTech game set in 1984. The first Battletech novels were published a year before 40k, in 1986.
@@Legault397 That has nothing to do with Western Mecha or Mech games, though. Your interpretation is technically correct - he didn't say 40k - but is logically and contextually wrong.
I love Battletech! People started playing it at LGS last year I was hooked immediately. I love the aesthetic, I love the crunchy rules, I love that I can pick up a rule book from 40 years ago and it’s still relevant today, I love the community. I wish I was playing Battletech right now
I started playing BattleTech Second Edition tabletop back in 1988. The first BattleTech novels I read were the Warrior Trilogy by Michael A. Stackpole. I love BattleTech, and it has been my favorite Science Fiction IP since I was a kid. Now, in my 40s, I'm so happy that BattleTech and MechWarrior are reaching new fans and the franchise is getting the recognition and success that it truly deserves. I play MWO practically every day because I just love how it captures the feel of piloting in a BattleMech in combat, as well as tinkering with my Mechs in the Mech Bay. Now that Piranha Games has announced MechWarrior 5: Clans, I'm really looking forward to this new game and am interested in how they will portray the Clan warriors in the story. Most fans of the games have most likely not read the novels, and do not have context on the brutal warrior culture of the Clans. Their use of eugenics programs that create genetically superior warriors through gene manipulations and selective traits, superior technology due to having access to advanced Star League databases and manufacturing facilities, which were lost in the Inner Sphere due to the many Succession Wars that followed the fall of the Star League, and their general disregard for any and all lives that are not those of trueborn (genetically modifed) Clan warriors, especially people born through normal childbirth, who they despise above all others and refer to as freeborn, make them out to be villains initially in the novels. However, many Clans after the Battle of Tukayyid eventually realize that they are not so different than their freeborn Inner Sphere counterparts.
Those Stackpole novels were epic. I have them all sealed in a storage container somewhere in my dad's attic. You're making me feel like I should go liberate them. I would still be reading them if they were produced and sold, except that they moved the lore into this ... STUPID STUPID STUPID... new world where there is no communication between planets and no real mechs just agros..... No. I could not stomach that. At that point it was no longer Battletech and had become some other sci-fi mecha spoof.
@@Torches-n-Tap-Setsthat's the early Dark Age, which didn't last long at all. The HPG grid is very, very slowly coming back online and the current ilClan era is basically a 5th Succession War, where everybody is fighting everybody else. Alaric Ward and Clan Wolf hold Terra and have declared a Third Star League, while the Great Houses say "oh, that's adorable" and continue business as usual for themselves.
I picked up Battletech around this time last year. I'd been on a mech bender for about a year before that point already (started out with the ttrpg "Lancer" in 2021, picked up Armored Core: For Answer and AC6 in 2022 and 2023 respectively), and nothing scratches the itch like Battletech does. Battletech understands scale, Battletech understands stakes, Battletech understands logistics and timeframes and politics and representation and well written stories (i choose to ignore stories set after 4000), and it does it all in a way its competitors and contemporaries just fumble. It's god damn amazing and I encourage EVERYONE who likes giant robots and juicy military drama to go watch some Tex Talks Battletech right now.
Man, I remember pouring over the ' Technical Manuals ' as my friends and I role played the og tabletop game and I also loved the look of the character sheets.😅
Mechwarrior 4 released just as I was becoming a young adult and gaining my own freedom. I graduated from college in 1999 (and married the girl of my dreams!), and by 2002 I was well-established in life and had free time to do things like, you know, GAME. I still remember Mechwarrior 4 fondly, even after all of these years. There are a few games that have a place of honor on my bookshelf: Final Fantasy 7, Halo, Diablo 1 & 2, Warcraft 2 & 3, World of Warcraft, Planescape: Torment, etc. I'm proud to say that my boxed copy of Mechwarrior 4 is right there, sitting directly next to my copy of Valkyrie Profile.
On the TTRPG side, the introduction of Battletech Alpha Strike has also done wonders to breath new life into the Battletech universe, and is a great gateway game into the Classic Battletech, while also standing on it's own as a solid entry. In fact for quick 2 to 3 hour sessions I prefer Alpha Strike personally.
I do, that and MechAssault were my "childhood" entries into Battletech, which I only realized were even connected later. My favorite mech is still by far the Anubis as depicted in MC2 (love that kite-y little fucker), and I have fond memories of the Thor/Summoner from MechAssault.
Grew up on FASA classics like Shadowrun and Battletech. I thought both were long dead, and both have suddenly found new footings - makes me smile. Shout out to Ironwind for casting classic metal figures, battletech only feels right with the weight. 😎
I think it's important to mention the role of Tex of the Black Pants Legion. He has been a BattleTech flag waver since the inception of his channel. For nearly a decade, he has led production of over a dozen videos about the BT universe, with a heavy focus on lore. The most recent are nearly movie quality. He mixes in elements of intrigue, both high-level, and low-level. I started playing in 1988, and loved the technical setting. Thirty years later, Tex taught me to love the lore.
I grew up with Mech Assault, which was my first time playing anything that involved mechs. I wish there would be a game from Battletech/Mechwarrior that played like it. But I'm happy it's going strong once more. Maybe one day they'll make a game that plays like if not similarly to Mech Assault, heck maybe even pick the story back up even.
The Harebrained Schemes Battletech and Mechwarrior 5 games, while enjoyable, only arouse my appetite for more Battletech stuff, without bedding it back down. Mechwarrior 5 is along the lines of the older installments in that particular franchise and more a game's representation of the Solaris 7 tabletop rules in a sortie presentation in lieu of an arena match. The modding community has really helped polish this experience and offer a wide variety of changes to the base game. Battletech harkens back to a turn based squad tactics game, much closer to the original table top game. It was pretty limited in what it actually presented when compared to the Battletech universe as a whole. But, the story was modestly compelling, and despite the game mechanic limitations I enjoyed it. The modding community really elevated this game, and opened up the lackluster mech modification, of the base game, to a tinkerer's dream while keeping things somewhat under control with hard point limitations. That is, until the larger conversion mods kind of went off the rails into some whacky non-cannon bizarro worlds. But, I can appreciate it for what it is and still dabble with it from time to time. Mechwarrior online I skipped. I'm a first school Battletech player. A purely PVP arena version of Battletech I don't feel does the game, and lore justice. Battletech is a bleak setting with vast solar system spanning empires vying for power and throwing billions of lives into the grinder of war, while an AT&T Religion referees from the shadows. It really isn't an arena robot death match kind of thing. The lore behind the Battletech universe makes Game of Thrones look like a bedtime story for children. From the table top, to the line graphics of Mechwarrior, and the arenas of AOL's Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris, to the 'brand new' Crescent Hawk's Inception and Revenge, I was there. Then to Mechcommander which was a tactical RTS, with strategic elements game, I've enjoyed Battletech. Heck, I've even been to the old Battletech pods in a few locations when they were a thing. I really hope Battletech keeps gaining traction and giving us more fun entertainment. Now, if you will excuse me, there is some freebirth scum I need to school in the ways of warfare in Mechwarrior 5 with their new DLC.
Love this. Just started playing MWO a year ago. Im blown away by the depth of combat, a fresh coat of a paint and slight graphical updates and I think the series will take off like 40k. Niche nerdy games are in now like never before.
I remember telling a friend years ago "dont worry about what MWO is now think of that it can become." I really had not considered it in the full spectrum of the Battletech resurgence but after your analysis I admit it succeeded beyond my expectations. I never would have thought 10 years ago that I would have a bunch of amazing plastic mechs on the painting table. Playing MW5 with friends regularly and eagerly anticipating the Clans game. Great time to be a fan. Just glad there is Alpha Strike because christ that is still a lot of charts.
Man MechWarrior 4 for the pc for me was the best. My brother and I would take turns playing online until the sun came up on weekends....miss those days
@3:20 "Extremely high time to kill" Me: "um someone should tell my kitfox that" Kitfox-D with 50 firepower: looks around guiltily after 2 shoting an atlas solo in 3secs "who me?"
I think the best of the Mech Warrior games was MW3. It let me use a flight sim joystick with a keyboard and a mouse. Made combat very immersive. The mech simulators at Dave and Busters were pretty cool too, but rather expensive to get any good at.
MW3 also let you decouple the aiming reticle from the torso twist, which was a first - making mechs having guns on movable arms make a lot more sense. I absolutely want that back, coupled to a VR headset - that's how I always pictured aiming happening from the books. Current warplanes and helicopters have this feature - it's known as "look-down shoot-down"
@@luckyshark32 Yep I used the joystick twist to rotatethe torso 90degrees and the highhat to look out the side window then firre directly behind me with an arm mounted weapon set aimed by the mouse..
Mechwarrior was orginally the tabletop RPG for Battletech. Battletech is accompanied by Aerotech (Aerospace fighrer combat) and Citytech (Mechanized Infantry Combat in an Urban Environment). That distinction is important, because the console and PC games sort of blur the line with the Title MechWarrio: yadda yadda. In mech Warrior you played various classses, but the game primarily focused on you being a Battle mech pilot or mechwarrior; either you were in possession of a Battle Mech or among the Dispossed. The early game had a slight feudalistic feel to it, but evolved as Battletech evolved.
I love stories of franchises like this with background information, great video! The only thing, I didn't like in the video, is mention by how much the Kickstarter for Mechwarrior: Mercenaries overshot the initial goal. It is widely known, that projects on Kickstarter have their goals intentionally set lower than is necessary, just to become sensation or at least instill more confidence in potential backers, when they see the game already met its goals despite those goals being unrealistically low.
I remember Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 3 and Mechwarrior 4 (vengeance and mercenaries). I actually liked the massive change in Mechwarrior 4. Previously, the build system meant that there was no realistic difference between different mech bodies -- only weight and space mattered. I liked the system of hardpoints in Mechwarrior 4; it meant that there was a reason to go for different types of mech bodies. And I haven't yet played Mechwarrior 5. I did try Mechwarrior Online (a free-to-play game on steam) but didn't last long. If I died soon in a fight, I wouldn't be able to queue for a new match until the old one ended. That effectively meant that I got to play for five minutes followed by over and hour of waiting before I could play again. Edit: Turns out I could have requeued with a new mech the whole time. Just found that out.
This one the franchise I would looove to see as a live-action show. It's so relavant to the genre: a small team of mercs being the main characters, and their client/rivals/friends & foes being the secondaries. It would not even need so much mech' action to be nice, so I don't think it would be that expensive. (But those scenes oughta be real good, though...)
I never could have imagined as a teenager that I wouldn't see another Mechwarrior until I was nearly 40. It's been an experience, trying to forgive the hiatus, I want to enjoy it as my younger self would have, and yet I am NOT my younger self, the way I experience life itself has changed, let alone how I enjoy games, so I just try to enjoy it now on behalf of my inner teenger who really deserved it. MW5Mercs is awesome, how I can create infinite unfamiliar missions in instant action is glorious
I think you forgot to mention the hugely successful battletech lore series by Tex fo the Black Pants Legion that massively helped the resurgence of the game
Just to let people know, there's another incredible entry in the Battletech videogame space, Mechwarrior: Living Legends. While a successor was in development, it's currently halted because it's a completely community made game and they don't have enough people right now. Still, while a second entry would be nice, the original is still an absolute blast!
I love Mechwarrior 5, I put nearly 200 hours into it before I even decided to mod it, I have over 600 hours currently and I'm still playing, I really only bought the DLC's to give Piranha money and ensure the continued existence of Mechwarrior. Looking forward to MW5: Clans I bought Battletech at launch for much the same reason although I still haven't actually played it and it looks like there won't be another one given what happened to the developer...thanks for that Paradox. At least I can download and play the Mech Commander games again.
If I had all the monies, it would be a grand strategy game where you would be a leader of a great house, or independent state trying to conquer the others. But you could zoom in to control units like in MC or the HBS game. Alternately, you could start as a lone mech warrior and climb your way up to the top. Maybe over generations of warriors in your unit or house. IDK. I love the game and just want more.
My first title was Mechwarrior 3 that i played back when i was about 7 or so, didn't touch 4 but did jump into MWO when it released. Now i'm jamming out with friends in MW5M on a constant schedule. It really is the peak of Battletech/Mechwarrior and i've never been so happy to know the franchise.
i remember when the catalyst labs stuff came out, i never got to get into the tabletop stuff because when i was younger i was so enthralled by mechwarrior i didnt know it was much of a thing, seeing it come out gave me a bunch of hope that it would kick off, its still a little obscure around people who arent involved in TT i find, usually when i bring it up among friends they have no idea about it, but most interestingly is over the past couple of weeks, a LARGE amount of battletech content has been pouring out infront of me its so good to see this stuff is still growing despite the issues the games have faced, even MWO being on deaths door just about a year back has somehow climbed out of its grave
I remember playing 25 years ago MW2 GBL, then totally losing track of it until just like a month ago when MW5 Clans popped up in Game Pass... and having an absolute blast. I was too broke back then to buy the Vgames or get a decent PC, and now not only I get to play the series I liked so much, I actually got to play it co-op with my son lol thx for an awesome vid!!
As someone who got back into the Battletech universe due to the clix game that WizKids put out in the early 2000s I cannot be happier with how things have been going for the franchise since MWO and HBS Battletech game came out. I am eagerly awaiting the 212 minis I have coming from the mercenaries kickstarter. I am not looking forward to painting them though :P
Hawken was awesome. Too bad someone won’t copy their homework and make a copy but more in depth. Armor gets shot off revealing vitals or joints, you get it? You shoot the plates off, shoot the leg, leg goes dead, mech now a leg down. Interactive and engaging
Mechwarrior does this though already? (And has had this since the 1990s in MW2). When you shoot a mech's hit location, it has armor protecting the internal structure, damaging that armor exposes the internals to direct damage. If you then shoot the exposed component it will destroy that component. If its a leg, the mech will be down a leg and now has to limp around.
@@futuza And that, it's not just a thing for the combat sense. Winging an opponent off to remove their firepower, is good in combat. But, you _ARE_ blasting off a powerful weapon. Going full center mass for a quick core hit is great, but that means the whole thing would most likely go up in flames. Trying to score a solid head(cockpit)shot is trickier, but it means you can have a salvage that's more intact, than a pile of blasted husk that's more trouble to repair and refit.
I'm super new to battletech but it seems like this franchise is the perfect setup for a vr game. Sit in a chair at home and turn that irl space into the cockpit of whatever mech you choose
Glad you mentioned not only the ebb and flow of the video games but also the tabletop miniatures game. But one, maybe the main reason, Battletech kept its legs is the wargamers. Battletech has been in many many wargaming conventions year after year after year, and not just the more scifi venues but Historical gaming, RPG gaming etc. The community is strong anthough maybe not always visible they have always been there playing since 1984.
The reason for all the new interest is, in large part, thanks to the radically reimagined mech designs that appeared in MWO and beyond. That may seem superficial but it's true. The single point of success or failure that had to be right was how the mechs looked. They had to be detailed, brutish and technically plausible resembling modern combat vehicles and not the boxy, 60s and 70s sci fi look or the anime space knight of the 80s and 90s. The MWO art team nailed some impressive designs that, imo, not only saved MWO from its meandering business model and bugginess but also carried the new vision to MW5 and onward. The mechs are main stream scifi now and ideal for modern video gaming.
MW2 was the first real PC game I remember as a kid. I couldn't play it without cheats, but it still shaped my love for the series. Bought 3 with a Sidewinder FFB Pro joystick bundle, but weirdly it just wasn't the same. Got MW5 when it came out though and was glad to see what the series had turned in to. Mods and stuff have given it tons of replay value as well, though I wish there was some more involvement from the original devs on stuff like VR.
In the mid ‘90’s, there was a store called Virtual World, which had several “cockpit” setups, where you and your friends would go on a flight in a mech and battle other mechwarriors. It was expensive…for the time and my level of income, but it was a blast. They had another game that was a racing game on Mars, which was fun, but I liked the Mechwarrior game way better.
ive played 40k for many years now and i just recently moved to battletech and i have to say, my fear, that what all say "battletech is very complicated" might be true... was unfounded. Compared to the rulebloat... CBT is simple, and the whole ruleset is so modular that you can just leave out a certain branch and no side will have a benefit trough it. Plus you having the same rules as your oponents (contrary to 40k where you basically have a whole other army ruleset to crunch and if you dont crunch you will loose) so remembering stuff is also much much easier. To me, BT just by the way the rulesystem works is so much better than 40k. Oh yea and that damage is simoultaneous, no turn 1 boardwipes anymore where you cant even shoot back but spent 30min setting up your army. Plus you can easily save your game with a photo from your smartphone...
PGI delivered the legal punch to HG. Even it's creator didn't want to fight them in court. But PGI stuck it out and won the right to use "Classic battletech loadouts" for the whole franchise.
Of all my Steam games, the HBS Battletech is still the one I play a lot. I really have to mod it, though. Yes, I still play it on Vanilla. Yes, it's because I'm a lazy Freebirth stravag. But it's that good, okay? And now I know why there aren't any Stingers or Wasps in a campaign set on the Periphery (but SO MANY HIGHLANDERS). Go to hell, Harmony Gold. I mean that with all the meanness I can muster as a longtime Battletech AND Macross fan.
The BTA 3062 mod makes it an entirely different game. I'm not great with computers and I don't do mods usually. I took the time to figure this one out and it's worth it. You can have up to 8 mechs (I think) plus vehicles and battle armor. You can buy equipment to call in air strikes. Tons of weapons, I want to say hundreds of mechs and their variants. It's nuts. Also, if you haven't gotten the 3 main DLCs, do so.
@@null6634 I tried last week and it somehow didn't work and the app told me to file a report so... haha. I'll wipe the mod folder and stuff and then maybe try again another time.
@@ashaide It was a project for me. I know I had problems the first time I installed it. I'm assuming operator error on my part. But that's why I don't normally install mods. This one was worth it to me.
I just want to say I enjoy the Hell out of Hawken. Like the lore of the world, like the simplicity of the mech designs and I wish it was more than just an arena style shooter. I thought there was great potential there and I still pick it up on console here and there. That Being said, Mechwarrior is the undoubted king of mecha games. Everything later came because Mechwarrior paved the way. I played the original when I was in junior high school and have played every official release and expansion since then. It's been great to see it return after so long, now I am anticipating the release of Mechwarrior 5 Clans in just about a week. Mechwarrior Mercenaries is great fun and I do love the replay ability of the sandbox style game but the best Mechwarriors have always been narratively driven, with great cinematics that pull you in to the universe and it's lore. Great to see it coming back into that form for a fresh outing.
Man so much 40k vs. Battletech/Mech Warrior hate... both franchises ROCK and I am so happy to have them both. I played the original Mechwarrior game when I was a kid (yeah I'm old) and fell in love. Mechwarrior and Battletech will always hold a special place in my heart.... but I can't deny that I am really getting into 40k lore these days. We truly are lucky to have both franchises.
Because of mechwarrior 5, i started delving into the tabletop version of BattleTech and boy am I hooked! Admittedly I prefer alpha strike instead classic since I value my time lol.
@@kumarsalib722 as a new MWO player. i am a testament to that. i love my big stompy robots ever since gundam. if its big. its stompy and it shoots. (and looks good, thanks Battletech for having such snazzy mech designs) im gonna play it. even if i hate it.
Considering how Warhammer 40,000 came out 3 years after Battletech I don't see how FASA made it to sell against Games Workshops' product, unless they had access to a time machine...
Titanfall was MURDERED by their own company, it would have been here today, if EA weren't fuckholes. But, I got me MW5 and Battletech, and I got Roguetech, and the myriad of yet another mod for MW5. I freaking love this franchise. CLANS is gonna be wild.
Do any of you remember back in the day at RadioShack they had those computer game arcade style cabinet with a huge monitor on the top? Like a lawsuit waiting to happen with it being that top heavy.....lol. First time playing Mechwarrior 1 on one of those for hours. All the kids would line up to try.
I’ve never gotten behind all the lore ! But I’ve played some of the video games ! I started with mechwarrior 2 and played a lot of mechwarrior 5 ! I don’t have a pc ! So I haven’t had the chance to really play many titles in the mechwarrior franchise ! But I love everything i have played so far
i loved playing Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries at my babysitters house that games campaign is burned into my brain with those first couple levels would love to play it again
What would I give for Battletech 2, turn-based, like Advanced 3062 with procedural maps, better pilot progression, user-made stories and campaigns. Oh man, a dream.
As someone who worked on MW4 and Black Knight as a tester, I'm honestly curious what happened to the franchise after MW4 Mercs. FASA Interactive was still onsite so it seems like if there had been interest from them they'd have been allowed to make a MW5, and yet clearly that didn't happen. Despite some faults and a weirdly clunky engine, I think Pirahna did an absolutely amazing job with MWO overall. I especially like the design work they put into Lasers (the fact that each beam lasts for a duration and you hold it on target) and Missiles (there's a crazy amount of nuance if you look into the details of how they work). Spent a ridiculous amount of time and money in this game (and still think about going back occasionally). Battletech (2018) I think was pretty good overall, though man...that bizarro choice to have the map take place someplace entirely weird? I don't get that. Honestly I'd probably have put a little more time into it if it moved a bit faster. It's nowhere near the slowest turn-based game I've played, but I spent an awful lot of time waiting for things to happen. Mechwarrior 5 (2019) was better. Re-using the excellent MWO mech designs was smart. Still, I think mission design and AI could've been done better. Basically I love a lot of their sandbox systems, and think they'd have done even better by making it that much more sandbox-like (with more variety to missions). In both the recent games I actually wasn't really that excited by the stories. None of them really get a chance to be told that well, due to the nature of the games' scale. But to both games' credit each felt a bit truer to Battletech than we had back on MW4 I think. By that I'm just referring to the dark age of tech that exists in Battletech during the time period where most games are set, where things are breaking down and people are so desperate to keep their military running that salvage is a major factor. I don't really think MW4 did it bad, but BT/MW5 did it better.
Check out Mechwarrior Living Legends someday. Its a mod of crysis wars and it finally gives mechwarrior the huge map sizes it deserves, alongside combined arms with jets/VTOLs/Battle Armor. The community is small and sometimes still has organized play in Chaos March IIRC.
Battletech is older than 40k. Battletech is contemporary to Warhammer Fantasy, with both franchises launching within a year of each other. 40k released in 1987, Battletech released in 1984.
@@MrHocotateFreight ... Carefully re-read what I wrote. You misread it.
. to list this correctly
Warhammer fantasy rpg 1983
Warhammer fantasy battles 1984
Battledroids 1984 (1st ed)
battletech 1985 (2nd ed)
Warhammer 40k 1987
@@bruced648if you’re including Fantasy shouldn’t D&D dates be in the list?
@Heatx79 I was only listing FASA and GW. if we wanted to include D&D, then I would have 1976 as the first appearance of the white books for Dungeons and Dragons.
@@Heatx79 D&D is a completely different property. It's kind of outside context to the discussion lol.
ngl, the judge that told harmony gold to pound sand is an unsung hero.
And now that the Japanese finally settled things, we get Macross in the West, finally. Good times. What is sad is that HG is a real estate firm. I wonder how many flaming bags of poo have found their way to their doorstop? Answer: not enough.
Except he didn't, as the case never got to trial. Harmony Gold and Piranha Games came to an undisclosed out-of-court settlement, following which Harmony Gold agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice (ie that they would not be able to re-litigate in the future), resulting in the case being dropped.
MechWarrior 5 with about 75 mods. Chefs kiss, ultimate war sandbox game.
Personally I can't play without MercTech. All the sim elements like canon-style computerized targeting, internal components for weapons, gimbals being affected if you're above cruising speed (basically emulating accuracy penalties in TT), the JJ rework, autocanon rating actually just being damge ratings (a 200mm AC/20 might be single-fire while a 140mm is actually a burst-fire weapon dealing 20 damage total, which is how it canonically works), functional leg-mounted and rear-firing weapons, simulated deflection and ammo explosions, etc.
Would you mind detailing some of the mods you would recommend please? Thanks!
@@conchoona The biggest ones I would recommend are YAML (Yet Another Mechlab) and many of the "Yet Another" mods like Yet Another Weapon, Yet Another Clan Mech, Yet Another Equipment Collection, etc. These not only add tons of new mechs, weapons and equipment to the game, but it completely opens up the mechlab and allows you to build a mech any way you want and it also gives mechs quirks. For example, an Urbanmech might have a quirk that reduces the cooldown and increases the velocity of all autocannon weapons and a Locust might have a quirk that makes it harder for enemies to hit it.
There are also many mods that improve QoL and/or immersion like Advanced Career Start (pick the year you start in and how much funds you have, etc.), WarFX (better explosions and hit effects), Colorized Heatgauge, Pilot Overhaul, Starmap Mouse Over, Vonbiomes (so the maps looks better and don't get too repetitive), TTrulez AI is also a must or your lancemates tend to donate their mechs to enemies as free salvage.
Its so good, I also play with a hotas, and it really brings the mechs alive along with the fantasy of being a mech pilot.
@@colbyboucher6391 So much effort and great work in the MercTech series of mods, but the author also forcefeeds unwanted aspects down your throat so I have gone to other mods and gone without some of the more cool aspects you refer to. My main frustration has been that with every DLC provided, it basically wipes ALL the mods off the map and the game is unplayable for the next three months unless you dial it back in Steam as a 'beta' to a former build release. The base game is good.... but it is a mere springboard which the fans and modders have used to make the game TRULY a gem. I have gone back to it and started from scratch several times just for the fun of it.
"Legal battles"
Fuck harmony gold.
With a white hot poker.
They didn't even own the rights to most of the mecha designs that they sued FASA over. They licensed them from a Japanese company, then lied and claimed that they owned them. Screw these guys big time!
well PGI's legal team was seemingly the key, so HOPEFULLY H.G pisses off for good.
@@klortikterra4423 They have, the case against PGI and CGL was dismissed WITH PREJUDICE.
"In the legal area, a case that gets dismissed with prejudice means it has been permanently dismissed. No matter the circumstances, if a case is dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be brought back to court. The case is done."
Harmony Gold got fucked and cannot bring the suit back up in court again.
Indeed. Fuck Harmony Gold. I hope they go bankrupt.
I think one thing that helps Battletech's resurgence is Mechwarrior. The look is there. It's amazing. While the 80s and the 90s had some derpy models, the modern day mechs look chunky and brutal. This update to their asthetic helped, and I think mechwarrior had a hand in this.
While the derpiness has always been part of the charme and I like a lot of the old metal Ral Partha minis, I have to agree: The new Mech miniature designs take a lot of inspo from MW:O and it is an awesome look. Be interesting to see how that goes together with some of the more faction-specific aesthetics (thinking Hatamoto-Chi and Yu Huang for instance).
@@jrs3739 the Hatamoto-Chi is still the best type of Charger in my opinion *and the only GOOD thing kurita has ever given us. fuck Kurita*
there was the one where we command a lance, not same as Mechwarrior but it sorta plays what Battletech is.
Furthermore, this aesthetic helped define it as something very separate from the Mecha IP that inspired it, cementing the tone shift.
MW4 was still peak in my opinion. The animations are actually better than MW5, which is sad. Look at how the legs move, it's way more realistic. MW4: Mercs was also seemingly memory holed by this uploader. It was a very welcome surprise and offered better missions than the original campaign. Only bad thing is every weapon except missiles and Long Toms is hitscan. MW is a frustrating franchise because most of its entries come close to being 10/10 masterpieces but have some significant flaw.
MW5M is a 6/10 maybe a 7 if genorous, but modded it sky rockets to a 8.5 or a 9. The modding community worked magic on the game. Love playing it almost every week.
Exactly this. The base game is pretty mediocre, but it's really the only modern game where you can legitimately drive mechs that feel like walking tanks. There's always gonna be a place for the hyper fluid and mobile gundams and armored cores, but in my opinion this has so much more weight and substance to it.
I'd even say that it can get bumped up to 7 or 7,5 by default *just* because it is so mod-friendly. In the age of strict legal boundaries, Nintendo shutting down GMod addons, games sometimes not even being consistently owned by the player who bought them, MW5:M allows for so much modding freedom, and being an unreal engine game helps it A LOT. Even if the main game is very basic, the modding potential allows it to jump way over it's head if complemented with good mods. Same thing was with HBS BattleTech, it was pretty basic on it's own, but being an easily modded game it spawned RogueTech, BTA and BTE and an entirr modding community around them, all of these mods being ad much as 10 times bigger than original game in weight and feature-quantity. Modding support is the key for success, no matter what game you are talking about.
@@jumpinghunter9152 excellent take! 100% agree the fact there is a solid base game and it's so mod friendly helps alot. I absolutely love the mods for this game YAMAL, Vonbiomes, pilot overhaul etc can't see my self playing without them and the modding community is so passionate and dedicated to the game. The Devs are lucky to have such a community. I'm currently playing Jagged alliance 3, excellent game but wish they had a modding community like MW5M. The Devs for that game even went out of their way to make hours long modding tutorial videos for the game to encourage the community. But besides a hand full of truly amazing mods there ain't much there at the moment. So yeah the MW5M Devs are so lucky to have an excellent modding community like this.
To be fair, with all the DLC and updates the base game itself scores higher than a 6 for me to be sure. But yeah. The modding really elevates it.
What mods would you say bring it up to that level?
You did fail to mention what happened with Harebrained Scheme's *Battletech* (2018) though. Sadly, despite how successful the game was, they fell apart. They sold to Paradox, who ended up being unhappy with how the DLC sold despite all of its other success, and essentially shuttered HBS. Now it's just a shell and there likely won't ever be a BattleTech sequel. :(
HBS also lost access to the IP so they can't make a sequel or updates or anything. It is still in the hand of Paradox.
Thankfully modders (as usual) saved the day. BTA 3062 is amazing and my favorite mod for the game.
Battletech 2018 was a unique game, and only happened because Jordan Weisman was able to charm Mircosoft into basically giving him a license for free, since no one expected how popular it would be
Then it turned out extremely popular, and Mircosoft realised it missed out on money, so when they appoarched again, Mircosoft asked for a lot more to use the license, not just the standard fee but also extra on top to make up for their perceived losses. HBS couldnt afford it, so they couldnt make another Battletech game.
Then Paradox pumped and dumped them
Well, i might shine a bit of hope on that one - since Lamplighter's League, their latest game, went so poorly, Paradox cut Harebrained Schemes loose. They are rather revitalized now, working on something new and with folks returning to studio, including the game director for Batthetech and Dragonfall who left in 2019. They won't be making another Battletech or Shadowrun game, sadly, since IP is in Paradox\Microsoft hands. But we might still see something wonderful from the people who made aforementioned games. Fingers crossed, maybe we will even see them working one these IPs again, one day.
battletech 2018 was a shitty buggy mess lol. I'm sure there will be another battletech and I'll be really happy it's not being made by the people that made 2018.
@@Mecha_Hitler Wow, really living up to that username, huh?
A thing I love and will never stop loving about BT as a setting: some units are just canonical garbage. They are there to be a liability, a weakness to be exploited, a joke, or something you're just going to have to deal with using. The lore acknowledges these flaws, frequently pointing out that the machines themselves were made by graft, not genuinely good decisionmaking and engineers that were paid well enough to care. It's not to say they can't be made into useful things, you just might have to think laterally, and a little bit like Dr. Frankenstein.
Y'know, the same sorta thinking that leads people to put Arrow-IV tubes on an Urbie. Not to say an Urbie's a bad machine, though, I love the little guys.
People often write off the Charger as a liability, until their uber-stronk 400PV Jade Falcon Assault Star comes face to face with 3 Comstar Level IIs of Charger 1A1s with vehicle support. The peak of the slaughter on that table happened when 5 Chargers charged through friendly smoke cover and bullied a fresh Turkina to death in one turn.
It’s also nice that they allow things to be functionally obsolete, Without just discontinuing them from the franchise. Like if you want to run it, good on you, your mileage will vary. But you aren’t unnaturally forced to keep investing in the newest stuff, you will probably WANT to, but for the same reasons you would as an actual commander, not a customer.
@@aegisghost Oh god Alpha Strike definitely made me realize the potential of the Charger. Incredibly cheap to field, tanky, and packing a wallop with those steel fists.
Another example: the blackjack.
It sucked for most of the prehistory of the setting. Then some house militias said “what if we used it against light mechs” and now later in universe we have the blackjack DB which is a 5 ton lighter explosion proof enforcer, the blackjack 3 which is a 45 ton monster, and the various permutations and even a omnimech model.
Every opfor Thunderbolt had ammo stored in CT, each one was a tinderbox taken out with a single center mass strike XD. I loved the Thunderbutts, lol
That 20 year gap between 4 and 5 was filled with Living Legends, MekTek's work on MW4, the MW3 Community's modding work, the Wolves remake of Mech Assault. Things were there that the MW Community did. Proud of their work outside Microsoft, HBS, and PGI.
Came for the game, stayed for the community. Seyla!
Also props to MS that they made Mech Commander 2 freeware years ago.
God, Living Legends was such an awesome experience when I could actually play it. The mechs were shockingly fun given how legitimately, insanely cobbled together literally everything was, and the community was just stellar across the board. Really hope we get to see more of that series in the future.
Honestly, a very large part of why I think Battletech and Mechwarrior is still in the public consciousness is because there are few if any other fanbases that have quite a tradition of going "Fine, I'll do it myself!" They recreated the tabletop game in a java program with every single mech, weapon, system, and rule from every single book, to say nothing of just using your own custom designs. That modding spirit bled into other games as well, like the 3067 mod, and Living Legends. The community is like a zombie mech; blow off it's arms and torsos, and it'll still run up and try to kick you because dying is for other IPs.
Yeah I was waiting for Living Legends to be mentioned. That was a big one, with the video game side.
I only just got in to Battletech back in January. I was itching for a wargame but didn't want to take out a mortgage in order to get in to 40K. Once I discovered the lore it was all over.
I have long wanted to get into battletech, I have some of the starter stuff, but everyone at local game shops just play warhammer. so much warhammer.
@beojack4592 Same here, but I am slowly turning people on to BattleTech, so hopefully it won't be that way forever.
@@chernobylwendigo3994 I mean, having to paint only 4 normal-sized minis for a decent game should be a really good selling point :)
I got out of 40k during 8th edition and sold all my armies and went into 3d printing and back to doing model railroading. Now I have several printers and can easily print my own models to return to 40k, 40,000% cheaper LOL. Though I do miss some of the old pewter models that I had.
Welcome Mech Bro
0:57 "Slower, more tactical" he says, as he's zipping around in a Javelin at 150kph.
Steel Battalion: "Fuck me on the slow tactical aspect I guess"
To be entirely fair, while that's fast by Battletech standards, I feel like there's at least a significantly-large subset of the mech-gamer demographic who weirdly associate mechs much more with frenetic, lightning-fast and up-in-your-face close quarters brawls for some reason. Not sure why, especially given how often I see games and media regularly portraying mechs as _flying_ almost as much as running around on their legs - why the fuck would you make a walking tank only to use it more like an unholy hybrid of an attack helicopter and a fighter jet that can also punch people?
@@MarvinMegavolt Yup, I've never understood how people can get into the armored core games with the super fast movement and flying. Mechwarriors is a lot more grounded in reality.
@@honeybadger6275 Serial escalation. The OG Armored Core games have dogshit controls to really sell the idea you can barely pilot this clunky, slow as shit mech that seems sometimes to fight you as much as it fights other mechs. As the series goes on they have gotten faster and faster, but AC1 and 2 felt more plodding, more tactical (until the endboss fights but shhhh)
@@honeybadger6275 It's because the original games were quite slow, plodding things. It really *sells* an idea of technological progression over its generations.
MechWarrior Online provided an in-the-cockpit experience that previous MW games lacked. MW4 had dabbled in multiplayer, but MWO had more of everything. The team arena playstyle definitely stifles the feeling of it being a "war game", but it reminded me of the quick tabletop BattleTech games I played back in the day.
The way I see it, MWO was always a Solaris 7 game.
it's still getting content updates and has very reasonable monetisation for a F2P game
@Bruno-cb5gk easily one of the most underrated free to play multiplayer games of all time, I myself have over 3k hours in it.
In terms of in-the-cockpit experience, MW3 was really up there so I don't agree with that statement.
I played MWO exactly once and never again. I would queue for a match, die soon because I wasn't that good, and be unable to queue until the match ended. That meant I was limited to roughly five minutes of play followed by 30-60 minutes of waiting. Doesn't matter how great of a game it is if you're not allowed to actually play it.
I'm surprised no mention of the RUclips creators (BBL, CR, MF etc.) providing great lore videos. All we need now is a new MechCommander game!
Modders are still keeping MechCommander 1 alive with new campaigns. It's been pretty impressive what they've come up with.
Sadly MC2 is a technical mess that refuses to run properly.
I would all of the warcrimes (online), for a new mech commander
@@xRaalx It's not a war crime if there are no witnesses, or your targets are Capellans.
@@xRaalx MW5: Clans looks to have a RTS mode you can shift in and out of from the trailers that came out a little while ago.
Never played me h commander but I play a lot of HBS Battletech 2018 with the RogueTech mod update. If you haven't, I'd recommend giving it a shot or at least watching someone play it. It is very "megamek/TT Battletech with more."
I've read the books and played every Mechwarrior game since the OG Battletech on my Commodore 128D I bought in the Nuremberg PX while I was stationed in Erlangen West Germany back in late 80s. So glad they came out with a new Mechwarrior after so many years and the DLCs for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries were awesome. Can't wait for CLANS to come out. Cheers from America!
Its also nice to note that Mechwarrior Online is still receiving updates to this day. And in fact in the past year has had many new mechs/ variants added to the game
You can't sneak past me, Sneaky Snek! I see you there! :D
And the plethora of issues and oftentimes pretty shady PGI business methods should also be mentioned in the same breath.
@LakenAnderson Balance is probably at its best now, there are viable mechs and build archetypes for almost every weapon type.
@LakenAnderson those do feel more like player behavior quirks than game design. Won't deny Nascar still happens tho, still fairly easy to stop it with semi coordinates groups or just pug warngaling (even have a few examples on my channel).
In the past year they've added quite a lot of new mechs and many new weapons, so the meta has been getting mixed up quite a bit.
As far as I can tell, they never really did much with the gameplay loop. It's always a team deathmatch even if there's a side-objective called 'Conquest'. Update the game with new goodies all they want, but they're not really good at making games where the gameplay is pressing W and pressing m1 at the reds.
I'm just going to throw out there is a piece of MW lore that gets over shadowed or isn't well known and that's Mechwarrior Living Legends. In that 20 year gap for offically for profit licensed MW games, that mod team pulled off magic to show what a combined arms Mechwarrior could have been in the Crytek engine.
Eh. The "devs" of mwll are petty children and have not actually done much for the game since the killing of the original team by pg. They've really just butchered mechanics and kicked people out of the mod team they didn't like. But yeah if you want drama and a game that's being cannibalized by the "dev" team play mwll.
My name is wangmauler, and I approve this message.
The problem with that, along with pretty much every other piece of fan-made Battletech gaming in between MW4 and MW5, is that it is multiplayer-only. Great for the people who love multiplayer games but completely pointless for those of us who like single player games
MW:O still being alive, and being played by a few thousand people every day, after over a decade of exisiting, and with all the Problems it went through, is testament to the pull of the franchise . And despite all their failings, one has to give PGI credit . For the legal win against the leeches as well as reviving entirer the Mechwarrior franchise .
Heres one highest Tier founder for MW:O hoping the PvP side of Mechwarrior keeps going .
The HBS Battletech game was just pure gold :) Really wish Paradox would have done a Battletech 2.
(6:52) Love that they got Carol Ruggier back for the "Bitchin' Betty". I played the HECK out of MW2 and its two sequels. The sound of her voice was a big part of the immersion into the game world. 😎🤘☮
Battletech brought me back to a franchise I hadn't touched since Mech Commander. Good stuff.
Im 44 years old, started collecting Battletech source books in 92. I have almost every published Battletech sourcebook ever made. Its the only thing i have from my childhood that i absolutely refuse to get rid of.
always been a fan of the battletech universe and video games. i just recently bought my very first minis and started painting them, cant wait to play tabletop soon
I'm 31 years old, my first gaming memory is playing mechwarrior 2 sitting in my Dad's lap at the computer. He would pilot and I would shoot. It warms my heart seeing battletech/mechwarrior make a comeback, I thought it was going to die off.
The HBS battletech game was my first actual introduction to the universe, just getting into the tabletop now, and there's a solid local group playing every week.
I never even knew of this series but I'm having a blast in mechwarrior 5 now after finding out about it through youtube.
Grew up on MechAssault, in 2022 friend got me into MW5 thought it was a "spiritual successor" to MechAssault, began to learn more, got in Battletech (PC game), then tabletop, now I have a 3D printer and play the tabletop game regularly, listen to the books, print and paint my own minis, and play MWO it def sucked me in and I see it continue to grow even more around me
THIS IP NEVER LOST ITS AUDIENCE. There are millions of people around the world that love Battletech. what caused Mech Warrior to go dark was the fact that the IP was sold to, I dunno, 4 or 5 different buyers all of which ran their part of it into the ground and then just sat on the rights, for years... People still love Battletech Mech Warrior, Shadowrun and all the other FASA properties, but we never thought we would see them again because companies like Harmony Gold ran the IP into the ground and refused to do anything with it including sell it.
I still play Mechwarrior Online every now and then. It has it's flaws but it's still fun to actually pilot your own customized mech against other real players
Its legitimately one of my favorite PVP games ever made. Its insanely fun once you've learned how to play, found a few mechs that fit your play style, and a coordinated group.
This renewal has made my heart glad. I've played most of them since the OG, and even though MW5 had some issues I still enjoyed the heck out of it. It is one of those games that perpetually resides on my HD just in case someone wants to run missions. ohh, and i just found my old MW2 install and expansion disks!
0:40 - Whoa there buddy. Battletech pre-dates 40k by three years. The first edition of the Warhammer 40k rulebook was published in September 1987. FASA Corporation published the first BattleTech game set in 1984. The first Battletech novels were published a year before 40k, in 1986.
he says "Warhammer" not Warhammer 40K. They were competing with Warhammer Fantasy which came out in 1983
@@Legault397 That has nothing to do with Western Mecha or Mech games, though. Your interpretation is technically correct - he didn't say 40k - but is logically and contextually wrong.
@@PaulGaitherWarhammer 40k isn't a mecha game either.
@@izeckx Whatever helps you sleep at night. Sure, there are no dreadnoughts, walkers, and so forth in 40k. Nope. No Mecha to be found here.
@@PaulGaither Go ahead an play 40k with an army of only dreadnoughts and walkers and see if anyone will let you play.
I love Battletech! People started playing it at LGS last year I was hooked immediately. I love the aesthetic, I love the crunchy rules, I love that I can pick up a rule book from 40 years ago and it’s still relevant today, I love the community.
I wish I was playing Battletech right now
I started playing BattleTech Second Edition tabletop back in 1988. The first BattleTech novels I read were the Warrior Trilogy by Michael A. Stackpole. I love BattleTech, and it has been my favorite Science Fiction IP since I was a kid. Now, in my 40s, I'm so happy that BattleTech and MechWarrior are reaching new fans and the franchise is getting the recognition and success that it truly deserves. I play MWO practically every day because I just love how it captures the feel of piloting in a BattleMech in combat, as well as tinkering with my Mechs in the Mech Bay. Now that Piranha Games has announced MechWarrior 5: Clans, I'm really looking forward to this new game and am interested in how they will portray the Clan warriors in the story. Most fans of the games have most likely not read the novels, and do not have context on the brutal warrior culture of the Clans. Their use of eugenics programs that create genetically superior warriors through gene manipulations and selective traits, superior technology due to having access to advanced Star League databases and manufacturing facilities, which were lost in the Inner Sphere due to the many Succession Wars that followed the fall of the Star League, and their general disregard for any and all lives that are not those of trueborn (genetically modifed) Clan warriors, especially people born through normal childbirth, who they despise above all others and refer to as freeborn, make them out to be villains initially in the novels. However, many Clans after the Battle of Tukayyid eventually realize that they are not so different than their freeborn Inner Sphere counterparts.
Those Stackpole novels were epic. I have them all sealed in a storage container somewhere in my dad's attic. You're making me feel like I should go liberate them. I would still be reading them if they were produced and sold, except that they moved the lore into this ... STUPID STUPID STUPID... new world where there is no communication between planets and no real mechs just agros..... No. I could not stomach that. At that point it was no longer Battletech and had become some other sci-fi mecha spoof.
@@Torches-n-Tap-Setsthat's the early Dark Age, which didn't last long at all. The HPG grid is very, very slowly coming back online and the current ilClan era is basically a 5th Succession War, where everybody is fighting everybody else. Alaric Ward and Clan Wolf hold Terra and have declared a Third Star League, while the Great Houses say "oh, that's adorable" and continue business as usual for themselves.
I picked up Battletech around this time last year. I'd been on a mech bender for about a year before that point already (started out with the ttrpg "Lancer" in 2021, picked up Armored Core: For Answer and AC6 in 2022 and 2023 respectively), and nothing scratches the itch like Battletech does. Battletech understands scale, Battletech understands stakes, Battletech understands logistics and timeframes and politics and representation and well written stories (i choose to ignore stories set after 4000), and it does it all in a way its competitors and contemporaries just fumble. It's god damn amazing and I encourage EVERYONE who likes giant robots and juicy military drama to go watch some Tex Talks Battletech right now.
Man, I remember pouring over the ' Technical Manuals ' as my friends and I role played the og tabletop game and I also loved the look of the character sheets.😅
Mechwarrior 4 released just as I was becoming a young adult and gaining my own freedom. I graduated from college in 1999 (and married the girl of my dreams!), and by 2002 I was well-established in life and had free time to do things like, you know, GAME.
I still remember Mechwarrior 4 fondly, even after all of these years. There are a few games that have a place of honor on my bookshelf: Final Fantasy 7, Halo, Diablo 1 & 2, Warcraft 2 & 3, World of Warcraft, Planescape: Torment, etc. I'm proud to say that my boxed copy of Mechwarrior 4 is right there, sitting directly next to my copy of Valkyrie Profile.
On the TTRPG side, the introduction of Battletech Alpha Strike has also done wonders to breath new life into the Battletech universe, and is a great gateway game into the Classic Battletech, while also standing on it's own as a solid entry. In fact for quick 2 to 3 hour sessions I prefer Alpha Strike personally.
MechWarrior this, MechWarrior that, but nobody ever remembers MechCommander.
I do, that and MechAssault were my "childhood" entries into Battletech, which I only realized were even connected later.
My favorite mech is still by far the Anubis as depicted in MC2 (love that kite-y little fucker), and I have fond memories of the Thor/Summoner from MechAssault.
Crescent Hawks Inception and Crescent Hawks Revenge were the first video games I remember.
Loved both of those games
I remember MechCommander.... Those were dark... Cheesy times for Intro Movies... The absolute F List Actors they got to do the intro movie.
@@ZEKEofDOOM I think those cheesy FMV cutscenes were a perfect match for how cheesy the Battletech lore is.
Grew up on FASA classics like Shadowrun and Battletech. I thought both were long dead, and both have suddenly found new footings - makes me smile. Shout out to Ironwind for casting classic metal figures, battletech only feels right with the weight. 😎
Both have so much potential! Imagine a well done Shadowrun MMORPG...it would be epic!
I absolutely love battletech and MechWarrior, so glad to see a video on it!
Mechwarrior Online still is one of my favorite games. All systems nominal. Good hunting Mechwarriors
I still remember when my dad bought me MW4 for my birthday. That installer hitting you with Wednesday 7 was pure bliss
I think it's important to mention the role of Tex of the Black Pants Legion. He has been a BattleTech flag waver since the inception of his channel. For nearly a decade, he has led production of over a dozen videos about the BT universe, with a heavy focus on lore. The most recent are nearly movie quality. He mixes in elements of intrigue, both high-level, and low-level.
I started playing in 1988, and loved the technical setting. Thirty years later, Tex taught me to love the lore.
I grew up with Mech Assault, which was my first time playing anything that involved mechs. I wish there would be a game from Battletech/Mechwarrior that played like it. But I'm happy it's going strong once more. Maybe one day they'll make a game that plays like if not similarly to Mech Assault, heck maybe even pick the story back up even.
The Harebrained Schemes Battletech and Mechwarrior 5 games, while enjoyable, only arouse my appetite for more Battletech stuff, without bedding it back down.
Mechwarrior 5 is along the lines of the older installments in that particular franchise and more a game's representation of the Solaris 7 tabletop rules in a sortie presentation in lieu of an arena match. The modding community has really helped polish this experience and offer a wide variety of changes to the base game.
Battletech harkens back to a turn based squad tactics game, much closer to the original table top game. It was pretty limited in what it actually presented when compared to the Battletech universe as a whole. But, the story was modestly compelling, and despite the game mechanic limitations I enjoyed it. The modding community really elevated this game, and opened up the lackluster mech modification, of the base game, to a tinkerer's dream while keeping things somewhat under control with hard point limitations. That is, until the larger conversion mods kind of went off the rails into some whacky non-cannon bizarro worlds. But, I can appreciate it for what it is and still dabble with it from time to time.
Mechwarrior online I skipped. I'm a first school Battletech player. A purely PVP arena version of Battletech I don't feel does the game, and lore justice. Battletech is a bleak setting with vast solar system spanning empires vying for power and throwing billions of lives into the grinder of war, while an AT&T Religion referees from the shadows. It really isn't an arena robot death match kind of thing.
The lore behind the Battletech universe makes Game of Thrones look like a bedtime story for children. From the table top, to the line graphics of Mechwarrior, and the arenas of AOL's Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris, to the 'brand new' Crescent Hawk's Inception and Revenge, I was there. Then to Mechcommander which was a tactical RTS, with strategic elements game, I've enjoyed Battletech. Heck, I've even been to the old Battletech pods in a few locations when they were a thing.
I really hope Battletech keeps gaining traction and giving us more fun entertainment. Now, if you will excuse me, there is some freebirth scum I need to school in the ways of warfare in Mechwarrior 5 with their new DLC.
Love this. Just started playing MWO a year ago. Im blown away by the depth of combat, a fresh coat of a paint and slight graphical updates and I think the series will take off like 40k. Niche nerdy games are in now like never before.
I remember telling a friend years ago "dont worry about what MWO is now think of that it can become." I really had not considered it in the full spectrum of the Battletech resurgence but after your analysis I admit it succeeded beyond my expectations. I never would have thought 10 years ago that I would have a bunch of amazing plastic mechs on the painting table. Playing MW5 with friends regularly and eagerly anticipating the Clans game. Great time to be a fan. Just glad there is Alpha Strike because christ that is still a lot of charts.
Been playing the PC games for decades. Only now at the age of 45 I got into the table top for the first time.
Man MechWarrior 4 for the pc for me was the best. My brother and I would take turns playing online until the sun came up on weekends....miss those days
The moment one gives close attention to anything, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
@3:20 "Extremely high time to kill" Me: "um someone should tell my kitfox that" Kitfox-D with 50 firepower: looks around guiltily after 2 shoting an atlas solo in 3secs "who me?"
BattleTech is better and bigger than it's ever been and I really love seeing the future unfold in the lore.
I think the best of the Mech Warrior games was MW3. It let me use a flight sim joystick with a keyboard and a mouse. Made combat very immersive. The mech simulators at Dave and Busters were pretty cool too, but rather expensive to get any good at.
MW3 also let you decouple the aiming reticle from the torso twist, which was a first - making mechs having guns on movable arms make a lot more sense. I absolutely want that back, coupled to a VR headset - that's how I always pictured aiming happening from the books. Current warplanes and helicopters have this feature - it's known as "look-down shoot-down"
@@luckyshark32 Yep I used the joystick twist to rotatethe torso 90degrees and the highhat to look out the side window then firre directly behind me with an arm mounted weapon set aimed by the mouse..
Mechwarrior was orginally the tabletop RPG for Battletech. Battletech is accompanied by Aerotech (Aerospace fighrer combat) and Citytech (Mechanized Infantry Combat in an Urban Environment). That distinction is important, because the console and PC games sort of blur the line with the Title MechWarrio: yadda yadda. In mech Warrior you played various classses, but the game primarily focused on you being a Battle mech pilot or mechwarrior; either you were in possession of a Battle Mech or among the Dispossed. The early game had a slight feudalistic feel to it, but evolved as Battletech evolved.
I love stories of franchises like this with background information, great video!
The only thing, I didn't like in the video, is mention by how much the Kickstarter for Mechwarrior: Mercenaries overshot the initial goal.
It is widely known, that projects on Kickstarter have their goals intentionally set lower than is necessary, just to become sensation or at least instill more confidence in potential backers, when they see the game already met its goals despite those goals being unrealistically low.
I remember Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 3 and Mechwarrior 4 (vengeance and mercenaries). I actually liked the massive change in Mechwarrior 4. Previously, the build system meant that there was no realistic difference between different mech bodies -- only weight and space mattered. I liked the system of hardpoints in Mechwarrior 4; it meant that there was a reason to go for different types of mech bodies. And I haven't yet played Mechwarrior 5. I did try Mechwarrior Online (a free-to-play game on steam) but didn't last long. If I died soon in a fight, I wouldn't be able to queue for a new match until the old one ended. That effectively meant that I got to play for five minutes followed by over and hour of waiting before I could play again.
Edit: Turns out I could have requeued with a new mech the whole time. Just found that out.
Battletech needs love. I grew up on MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat as well. They're very fond memories to me.
This one the franchise I would looove to see as a live-action show. It's so relavant to the genre: a small team of mercs being the main characters, and their client/rivals/friends & foes being the secondaries.
It would not even need so much mech' action to be nice, so I don't think it would be that expensive. (But those scenes oughta be real good, though...)
I never could have imagined as a teenager that I wouldn't see another Mechwarrior until I was nearly 40.
It's been an experience, trying to forgive the hiatus, I want to enjoy it as my younger self would have, and yet I am NOT my younger self, the way I experience life itself has changed, let alone how I enjoy games, so I just try to enjoy it now on behalf of my inner teenger who really deserved it. MW5Mercs is awesome, how I can create infinite unfamiliar missions in instant action is glorious
I think you forgot to mention the hugely successful battletech lore series by Tex fo the Black Pants Legion that massively helped the resurgence of the game
Just to let people know, there's another incredible entry in the Battletech videogame space, Mechwarrior: Living Legends. While a successor was in development, it's currently halted because it's a completely community made game and they don't have enough people right now. Still, while a second entry would be nice, the original is still an absolute blast!
mwll is awesome
I love Mechwarrior 5, I put nearly 200 hours into it before I even decided to mod it, I have over 600 hours currently and I'm still playing, I really only bought the DLC's to give Piranha money and ensure the continued existence of Mechwarrior. Looking forward to MW5: Clans
I bought Battletech at launch for much the same reason although I still haven't actually played it and it looks like there won't be another one given what happened to the developer...thanks for that Paradox. At least I can download and play the Mech Commander games again.
Still waiting on the return of Chromehounds.
God I miss that game.
I loved that game and think of it fondly. 😢
Thanks for giving my favorite game some love.
Im hoping more for a RTS style Mech Commander game with the ability to customize mechs and have a long sandbox campaign...
If I had all the monies, it would be a grand strategy game where you would be a leader of a great house, or independent state trying to conquer the others. But you could zoom in to control units like in MC or the HBS game. Alternately, you could start as a lone mech warrior and climb your way up to the top. Maybe over generations of warriors in your unit or house. IDK. I love the game and just want more.
Battletech (2018) not what you wanted?
My first title was Mechwarrior 3 that i played back when i was about 7 or so, didn't touch 4 but did jump into MWO when it released. Now i'm jamming out with friends in MW5M on a constant schedule. It really is the peak of Battletech/Mechwarrior and i've never been so happy to know the franchise.
i remember when the catalyst labs stuff came out, i never got to get into the tabletop stuff because when i was younger i was so enthralled by mechwarrior i didnt know it was much of a thing, seeing it come out gave me a bunch of hope that it would kick off, its still a little obscure around people who arent involved in TT i find, usually when i bring it up among friends they have no idea about it, but most interestingly is over the past couple of weeks, a LARGE amount of battletech content has been pouring out infront of me
its so good to see this stuff is still growing despite the issues the games have faced, even MWO being on deaths door just about a year back has somehow climbed out of its grave
I remember playing 25 years ago MW2 GBL, then totally losing track of it until just like a month ago when MW5 Clans popped up in Game Pass... and having an absolute blast. I was too broke back then to buy the Vgames or get a decent PC, and now not only I get to play the series I liked so much, I actually got to play it co-op with my son lol thx for an awesome vid!!
As someone who got back into the Battletech universe due to the clix game that WizKids put out in the early 2000s I cannot be happier with how things have been going for the franchise since MWO and HBS Battletech game came out. I am eagerly awaiting the 212 minis I have coming from the mercenaries kickstarter. I am not looking forward to painting them though :P
The old front mission games are 100x better then any mech game ive played since
Hawken was awesome.
Too bad someone won’t copy their homework and make a copy but more in depth.
Armor gets shot off revealing vitals or joints, you get it?
You shoot the plates off, shoot the leg, leg goes dead, mech now a leg down.
Interactive and engaging
Mechwarrior does this though already? (And has had this since the 1990s in MW2). When you shoot a mech's hit location, it has armor protecting the internal structure, damaging that armor exposes the internals to direct damage. If you then shoot the exposed component it will destroy that component. If its a leg, the mech will be down a leg and now has to limp around.
@@futuza And that, it's not just a thing for the combat sense. Winging an opponent off to remove their firepower, is good in combat. But, you _ARE_ blasting off a powerful weapon. Going full center mass for a quick core hit is great, but that means the whole thing would most likely go up in flames. Trying to score a solid head(cockpit)shot is trickier, but it means you can have a salvage that's more intact, than a pile of blasted husk that's more trouble to repair and refit.
He walked into the basement with the horror movie from the night before playing in his head.
I'm super new to battletech but it seems like this franchise is the perfect setup for a vr game. Sit in a chair at home and turn that irl space into the cockpit of whatever mech you choose
Glad you mentioned not only the ebb and flow of the video games but also the tabletop miniatures game. But one, maybe the main reason, Battletech kept its legs is the wargamers. Battletech has been in many many wargaming conventions year after year after year, and not just the more scifi venues but Historical gaming, RPG gaming etc. The community is strong anthough maybe not always visible they have always been there playing since 1984.
This is a win for all fans of battletech
Man chromehounds was amazing years ago on the Xbox.Loved playing that game. Still never topped steel battalion line of contact but it was great.
The reason for all the new interest is, in large part, thanks to the radically reimagined mech designs that appeared in MWO and beyond. That may seem superficial but it's true. The single point of success or failure that had to be right was how the mechs looked. They had to be detailed, brutish and technically plausible resembling modern combat vehicles and not the boxy, 60s and 70s sci fi look or the anime space knight of the 80s and 90s. The MWO art team nailed some impressive designs that, imo, not only saved MWO from its meandering business model and bugginess but also carried the new vision to MW5 and onward. The mechs are main stream scifi now and ideal for modern video gaming.
MW2 was the first real PC game I remember as a kid. I couldn't play it without cheats, but it still shaped my love for the series. Bought 3 with a Sidewinder FFB Pro joystick bundle, but weirdly it just wasn't the same. Got MW5 when it came out though and was glad to see what the series had turned in to. Mods and stuff have given it tons of replay value as well, though I wish there was some more involvement from the original devs on stuff like VR.
In the mid ‘90’s, there was a store called Virtual World, which had several “cockpit” setups, where you and your friends would go on a flight in a mech and battle other mechwarriors. It was expensive…for the time and my level of income, but it was a blast. They had another game that was a racing game on Mars, which was fun, but I liked the Mechwarrior game way better.
I love Hawken!!! Is it back on Steam?!? illgolook...
ive played 40k for many years now and i just recently moved to battletech and i have to say, my fear, that what all say "battletech is very complicated" might be true... was unfounded. Compared to the rulebloat... CBT is simple, and the whole ruleset is so modular that you can just leave out a certain branch and no side will have a benefit trough it. Plus you having the same rules as your oponents (contrary to 40k where you basically have a whole other army ruleset to crunch and if you dont crunch you will loose) so remembering stuff is also much much easier. To me, BT just by the way the rulesystem works is so much better than 40k.
Oh yea and that damage is simoultaneous, no turn 1 boardwipes anymore where you cant even shoot back but spent 30min setting up your army. Plus you can easily save your game with a photo from your smartphone...
PGI delivered the legal punch to HG. Even it's creator didn't want to fight them in court. But PGI stuck it out and won the right to use "Classic battletech loadouts" for the whole franchise.
Of all my Steam games, the HBS Battletech is still the one I play a lot.
I really have to mod it, though. Yes, I still play it on Vanilla. Yes, it's because I'm a lazy Freebirth stravag. But it's that good, okay?
And now I know why there aren't any Stingers or Wasps in a campaign set on the Periphery (but SO MANY HIGHLANDERS). Go to hell, Harmony Gold. I mean that with all the meanness I can muster as a longtime Battletech AND Macross fan.
The BTA 3062 mod makes it an entirely different game. I'm not great with computers and I don't do mods usually. I took the time to figure this one out and it's worth it. You can have up to 8 mechs (I think) plus vehicles and battle armor. You can buy equipment to call in air strikes. Tons of weapons, I want to say hundreds of mechs and their variants. It's nuts.
Also, if you haven't gotten the 3 main DLCs, do so.
@@null6634 I tried last week and it somehow didn't work and the app told me to file a report so... haha.
I'll wipe the mod folder and stuff and then maybe try again another time.
@@ashaide
It was a project for me. I know I had problems the first time I installed it. I'm assuming operator error on my part. But that's why I don't normally install mods.
This one was worth it to me.
I just want to say I enjoy the Hell out of Hawken. Like the lore of the world, like the simplicity of the mech designs and I wish it was more than just an arena style shooter. I thought there was great potential there and I still pick it up on console here and there. That Being said, Mechwarrior is the undoubted king of mecha games. Everything later came because Mechwarrior paved the way. I played the original when I was in junior high school and have played every official release and expansion since then. It's been great to see it return after so long, now I am anticipating the release of Mechwarrior 5 Clans in just about a week. Mechwarrior Mercenaries is great fun and I do love the replay ability of the sandbox style game but the best Mechwarriors have always been narratively driven, with great cinematics that pull you in to the universe and it's lore. Great to see it coming back into that form for a fresh outing.
Man so much 40k vs. Battletech/Mech Warrior hate... both franchises ROCK and I am so happy to have them both. I played the original Mechwarrior game when I was a kid (yeah I'm old) and fell in love. Mechwarrior and Battletech will always hold a special place in my heart.... but I can't deny that I am really getting into 40k lore these days. We truly are lucky to have both franchises.
So happy to see the series is coming back.
This is the most positive review for BattleTech/MechWarrior in years and I absolutely agree with what you've said, here.
Because of mechwarrior 5, i started delving into the tabletop version of BattleTech and boy am I hooked! Admittedly I prefer alpha strike instead classic since I value my time lol.
Just don't go onto the MWO forums. They have been predicting the game's death since 2015
They haven't been wrong. There are no new MWO players.
Probably because of how brutal
the in game economy is. It's the reason I gave up on it.😊
mwo players have never played war thunder
@@kumarsalib722 as a new MWO player. i am a testament to that. i love my big stompy robots ever since gundam.
if its big. its stompy and it shoots. (and looks good, thanks Battletech for having such snazzy mech designs) im gonna play it. even if i hate it.
@@alistairsmith4297 the economy is very generous for a F2P game, frequent 50% off sales and regular events that give free premium currency and items
Considering how Warhammer 40,000 came out 3 years after Battletech I don't see how FASA made it to sell against Games Workshops' product, unless they had access to a time machine...
He didn't say 40k.
Warhammer preceded 40k by several years
@@mumblez7712 Seems odd to not mention that since WFB is fantasy based and 40k is Sci-fi and in the same genre as Battletech.
Titanfall was MURDERED by their own company, it would have been here today, if EA weren't fuckholes. But, I got me MW5 and Battletech, and I got Roguetech, and the myriad of yet another mod for MW5. I freaking love this franchise. CLANS is gonna be wild.
I would love to play a Mechwarrior game that focuses on the House's reactions to the Clan Invasion.
Do any of you remember back in the day at RadioShack they had those computer game arcade style cabinet with a huge monitor on the top? Like a lawsuit waiting to happen with it being that top heavy.....lol. First time playing Mechwarrior 1 on one of those for hours. All the kids would line up to try.
I’ve never gotten behind all the lore ! But I’ve played some of the video games ! I started with mechwarrior 2 and played a lot of mechwarrior 5 ! I don’t have a pc ! So I haven’t had the chance to really play many titles in the mechwarrior franchise ! But I love everything i have played so far
played the heck out of MW4 Vengeance back in elementary school and just bought MW5. Glad to be back.
i loved playing Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries at my babysitters house that games campaign is burned into my brain with those first couple levels would love to play it again
Dropped $500 on the new Kickstarter . I only recently got into the tabletop 1 year ago . But I played mech warrior 2 on Xbox
What would I give for Battletech 2, turn-based, like Advanced 3062 with procedural maps, better pilot progression, user-made stories and campaigns. Oh man, a dream.
Great end at the video. Like the ractor online!
As someone who worked on MW4 and Black Knight as a tester, I'm honestly curious what happened to the franchise after MW4 Mercs. FASA Interactive was still onsite so it seems like if there had been interest from them they'd have been allowed to make a MW5, and yet clearly that didn't happen.
Despite some faults and a weirdly clunky engine, I think Pirahna did an absolutely amazing job with MWO overall. I especially like the design work they put into Lasers (the fact that each beam lasts for a duration and you hold it on target) and Missiles (there's a crazy amount of nuance if you look into the details of how they work). Spent a ridiculous amount of time and money in this game (and still think about going back occasionally).
Battletech (2018) I think was pretty good overall, though man...that bizarro choice to have the map take place someplace entirely weird? I don't get that. Honestly I'd probably have put a little more time into it if it moved a bit faster. It's nowhere near the slowest turn-based game I've played, but I spent an awful lot of time waiting for things to happen.
Mechwarrior 5 (2019) was better. Re-using the excellent MWO mech designs was smart. Still, I think mission design and AI could've been done better. Basically I love a lot of their sandbox systems, and think they'd have done even better by making it that much more sandbox-like (with more variety to missions).
In both the recent games I actually wasn't really that excited by the stories. None of them really get a chance to be told that well, due to the nature of the games' scale. But to both games' credit each felt a bit truer to Battletech than we had back on MW4 I think. By that I'm just referring to the dark age of tech that exists in Battletech during the time period where most games are set, where things are breaking down and people are so desperate to keep their military running that salvage is a major factor. I don't really think MW4 did it bad, but BT/MW5 did it better.
Check out Mechwarrior Living Legends someday. Its a mod of crysis wars and it finally gives mechwarrior the huge map sizes it deserves, alongside combined arms with jets/VTOLs/Battle Armor. The community is small and sometimes still has organized play in Chaos March IIRC.