BattleTech - Heavy Metal Interview

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Spaceman
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Wccftech interviewed the developers of BattleTech about their new expansion Heavy Metal.

Was it a difficult decision to add in an Area of Effect attack into the game?

Absolutely not, no. First of all, it exists in BATTLETECH lore already, we didn't create the Thumper Cannon. So no worries there. But also, when you think about what happens in the game, you've got four mechs taking on sometimes up to 12 at the same time, you can see the utility of this thing. It's not like rock, paper, scissors, dynamite or something. It helps to level the playing field but it is not a win button or anything like that. Plus it's only got two shots so we can fit it in.

Also, every game out there that's a modernish tactical game has a hand grenade which is an AoE attack, so there's no design risk there for me at all.

You've also introduced unique abilities, integrated equipment, into the new mechs, will they be coming to the old mechs as well?

Yes so all ten of the new mechs are coming with these unique bonuses, the eight in Heavy Metal and the two free ones in 1.8, they'll all have unique pieces of equipment. But again with the modding, we figure that everyone will go back and add what they think is best for the previous mods.

This is the wrong word for it, but we hope we inspire people to do that so that every mech gets a unique battlefield role based on its lore that works for everyone. That was a big part of what it was about for us. If you read the novels it sounds really cool but mechanically it's not there, so that's what we wanted to reinforce.

There's over two hundred novels, plus technical readouts and sourcebooks and that's one of the coolest things about BATTLETECH, it's got this thirty-five-year history and this massive shared universe. Many many many people have contributed to it and this is just our contribution. And we want to pay homage to them, the people and work that came before.

[...]
Thanks Farflame!

More information.
 
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Still disappointed they didn't create new story campaigns for DLC instead of more added features. Guess I'll go back to playing the few mods that recreate the universe.
 
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The new Flashpoint will be a story campaign and is used to introduce the new tech.

I'm not interested in vanilla anymore, but really hope this is not the last DLC so RogueTech has more toys to play with.
I have 600 h in RogueTech. Yes, it is that good.
 
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The new Flashpoint will be a story campaign and is used to introduce the new tech.
Random generated story missions are not the same. There are so many historic events they could of used or added more story to the original campaign at least.

Guess I'll have to play MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries for something new.

 
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Random generated story missions are not the same. There are so many historic events they could of used or added more story to the original campaign at least.

As far as I know the new Flashpoint will be similar to the vanilla campaign and (I guess) will use unique maps. It is centered around the Black Widow and the Bountyhunter.
It's not the 4th Succession War, but they are well known and loved chars out of the BT universe.
Sure, there is a lot vanilla BT could do better, but I guess that is for BT 2 to do.
Meanwhile, RogueTech is the next best thing. You can now also play the vanilla campaign as Flashpoints in RT and I'm sure the same will be true for the Heavy Metal campaign.
 
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We'll have to agree to disagree then as I personally find the flashpoint content disappointing. Guess I'm spoiled by other games with better DLC's and expansions.
 
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Yeah, I really enjoyed the campaign but was bored with the sheer number of procedurally generated repetitive missions in all the DLCs. I wanted a truly epic campaign...
 
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Is there any news on how much modding can be done?? Could you make your own campaign by making a series of set missions? Even if it would require you to stick the actual story in a "read me.txt" file?
Guess I'll have to play MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries for something new.
Well obviously you have to play that as well! Very different kind of game, though.
 
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