The latest kickstarter update for Battletech tells us about Harebrained Schemes Beta plans and lets us know about some of the characters we will meet during the campaign.
[...]CAST OF CHARACTERS
For the purpose of making introductions, we're taking you three years beyond the point where our June Campaign Setting Details update left off, into the thick of a conflict that threatens to tear the Aurigan Reach apart. The bios and descriptions below could all be considered MILD SPOILERS - they occur after the inciting events of the game's Prologue chapter - so if you'd like to remain completely spoiler-free, you may want to skip reading this section. For everyone else: let's meet the main cast of BATTLETECH!
More information.HOW ABOUT THAT BETA?
Whether it's at GenCon, PAX, or on http://battletechgame.com/, the biggest questions we get these days is, "When's the Backer Beta start?" The answer we've been giving is "Winter". Well, Winter starts December 21st so it's time to spill some (limited) info.
Now in case you didn't know, HBS has never done an external beta before, so we're entering new ground here. Obviously, we'll do our best but as you well know, "No plan survives contact..." and all that. Therefore, in order to prepare for the Backer Beta, we're currently working towards a dry-run of the beta experience for our family members to "blow out the pipes", test our process, and make sure everything's ready for you.
Until we complete our dry-run and make any necessary adjustments to our plans, we won't be able to give you a firmer date for the Backer Beta, but we can tell you that it's targeted to begin sometime in the late January - early March timeframe and will run for at least a month. Once that beta is up and running, we'll start things off with SKIRMISH MODE and then add PVP MULTIPLAYER after a period of time. The goal of the beta is to test our core combat system and will only be a slice of the shipping game's total content, so it won't include ALL the ‘Mechs, MechWarriors, maps, and environments that will come in the finished game. (Also remember, the open-ended mercenary campaign and single-player story will NOT be part of our Backer Beta.)
As noted in our Kickstarter rewards, only Backers at the $50 MECHWARRIOR reward level and above will have access to the Backer Beta, but there will be no restrictions on participants sharing their impressions, screenshots, etc. so that everyone can stay in the loop.
More Beta logistics and details will be forthcoming closer to the Beta launch announcement.