..so I went over to steamdb, nice to see a steady flow of players are always around! And of course this is just the Steam folks 
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I was curious to see how the player stats were doing..
- Thread starter Hopalong
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I'd be on more often but finding a nice solid block where I'm not going "... I have so many other games on Steam I bought and haven't played" is rare.
(I still have not touched EU4 despite receiving it as a birthday gift. I feel terrible about this, until I remember how badly my Stellaris play went.)
(I still have not touched EU4 despite receiving it as a birthday gift. I feel terrible about this, until I remember how badly my Stellaris play went.)
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Those are nice numbers; sadly, I'm not a part of them as I've got the game on GOG (passed the 2000h a week ago).
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Those are solid numbers for a game that's no longer actively being developed. Double the number of players compared to a newer PDX game, Imperator: Rome, and many times more players than newly released game Empire of Sin.
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Ah, the siren call of Big Stompy Robots that has kept BT alive for the last 35 years.
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I also have to wonder how many play that didn't buy the game from Steam? I personally will not use Steam, and I'm sure there are plenty of other folks out there like me.
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I'm also on GOG, and have passed 3850 hours. Currently running BTA 3062.
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I will definitely go back to HBS Battletech to do more achievements once I grow tired of Mechwarrior 5.
Unless I get a Battletech overdose or something
Unless I get a Battletech overdose or something
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Unless I get a Battletech overdose or something
No, that usually results in "AC/2 only" career runs or seeing how many different ways you can get Dekker killed.
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I am very glad to see so many hits per day for BATTLETECH. That is very reassuring. : )
BattleTech overdoses?
I too have found that BattleTech overdoses are possible... but you have to try real, REAL hard. : )
BATTLETECH Extended, 3050 and rounding out my Mercenary Outfit’s OmniMech Lances, did manage to rejuvenate my efforts through another few hundred hours last month. But just like my original front line Lance (paired-Atlases, Bull Shark and Stalker), once I pulled together trip-Dire Wolves and a Warhawk, the game again became just a bit too formulaic and assured for my tastes at this point. Even returning to the practice of employing Medium Mechs on Assault Missions quickly grew stale.
Fortunately there are still some very outstanding mods that I have yet to try. I’ll complete my efforts with Fantasy General 2, and perhaps even the upcoming release of the latest Star Trek Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, before I return my attentions to BATTLETECH for a Big and Stompy fix. :bow:
BattleTech overdoses?
I too have found that BattleTech overdoses are possible... but you have to try real, REAL hard. : )
BATTLETECH Extended, 3050 and rounding out my Mercenary Outfit’s OmniMech Lances, did manage to rejuvenate my efforts through another few hundred hours last month. But just like my original front line Lance (paired-Atlases, Bull Shark and Stalker), once I pulled together trip-Dire Wolves and a Warhawk, the game again became just a bit too formulaic and assured for my tastes at this point. Even returning to the practice of employing Medium Mechs on Assault Missions quickly grew stale.
Fortunately there are still some very outstanding mods that I have yet to try. I’ll complete my efforts with Fantasy General 2, and perhaps even the upcoming release of the latest Star Trek Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, before I return my attentions to BATTLETECH for a Big and Stompy fix. :bow:
: )... no Stellaris?
not in quite some time, though I recall that there are some great mods for Stellaris that I’ll have to check out too
I have the GoG Version and i have not nearly as much played as i wanted (bcs i still have games from years ago i have not played yet in any thorough capacity) but yeah, time to start a new BEX campaign for me...1.9.2.2 is still completely new to me.
The numbers suggest the game - at least modded - stands the test of time and is well received.
I have read someone suggested HBS is known for making a good base game and weak expansions and imho Battletech would rather be proof of that they stuck all in for the base product and ran out of creative fuel afterwards with each expansion weaker than the former.
But modders really stood up for it and delivered on top of the framework HBS had build!!!
The numbers suggest the game - at least modded - stands the test of time and is well received.
I have read someone suggested HBS is known for making a good base game and weak expansions and imho Battletech would rather be proof of that they stuck all in for the base product and ran out of creative fuel afterwards with each expansion weaker than the former.
But modders really stood up for it and delivered on top of the framework HBS had build!!!
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I don't know, stepping back after the fact and looking it over? I don't know if it was that... or just not having the resources to go as hard at the expansions as the main game. Remember, the main game was under development for considerably longer than each of the three expansions... and there was a "free expansion" usually developed alongside each of the others.
I'm going to write a lot here, as there's simply a lot of things to talk about to illustrate this point. Keep in mind as you read, the main game was released on April 24, 2018 with only the Skirmish being shown as "finished" on June 1, 2017 to Kickstarter Backers. (Which are many people still kicking around here, who got together and realized headshots are fricking deadly.)
Flashpoint (August 21, 2018)
Flashpoint had a pretty neat new addition, in the form of "Flashpoints" - something the other two expansions would also work with. This being a new mission type of linked contracts in a short storyline... it was very fun to see them unfold and mostly a nice break from "just flying around sniping Assault 'Mechs in the face". Alongside this, there was the free update for 'Career Mode', which altered how the game was played. Significantly. (I say "alongside" but if I recall correctly, CM was released before Flashpoint - but had to have been worked on within the same timeframe.)
We got some new 'Mechs, two of which were rather special: the Hatchetman had it's killer melee swing, the Cyclops had an Initiative-changing device, and the Crab was an energy-only 50-ton 'Mech. Each of these needed to get tested, and the Hatchetman had to be designed from scratch as HBS was still using data from MWO - to make it possible to get the game out in the late 2010s instead of early 2020s. But as MWO didn't do melee combat, the Hatchetman had to be built in-house. This, along with developing the Jungle biome, probably kept a good chunk of people busy.
This was released just four months after the actual game, and this timeframe also included the bugfixes necessary at release once the game was "released into the wild".
Urban Warfare (June 4, 2019)
Urban Warfare was released around 10 months later, bringing a small selection of new 'Mechs but also bringing urban combat into the game. We only got two new 'Mech chassis in the Raven and the Javelin. Along with those, we got a number of variants models (seven in total) which were interesting variants - if I recall correctly, all except the HCT-3X Hatchetman were free additions. Now, while finally getting Urban biomes was a major thing, but it also brought EW equipment into the game.
I will need to stress here - this development was one reason we were told the Raven was not going to be in the main game. Any of us who play tabletop know this Capellan tech is basically a block of useless weight in 3025, and winds up outclassed when the Helm Memory Core gets released. There needed to be something to the equipment which made it worth picking the Raven. I'd be willing to wager the development of the EW items were part of what really took time.
Heavy Metal (November 21, 2019)
Moving ahead, we see a five month gap before Heavy Metal dropped, and the big news here was the Unseen. I don't think I can understate this, the Unseen 'Mechs are a massive thing to have make it back into the game. Two of these (The Warhammer and Marauder) were promised at launch, but legal BS meant they were quietly yanked. But we'd finally be getting them, and HBS doubled-down to get us three others: the Phoenix Hawk, the Rifleman, and the Archer. And they all got unique equipment-based quirks! And there was an entirely new 'Mech designed in-house called the Bull Shark. And there was a miniature campaign of linked Flashpoints which would explain where all the Lostech goodies were coming from. (In a loose sense...) Oh, and now that we have the Warhammer and Marauder, we can finally have the Black Widow and Bounty Hunter in the game using their iconic 'Mechs...
All of this in five months. I'm not surprised it looked "feature-thin".
Shortly after that we got the "we're done, we totally mean it this time, we're not adding anything more" 1.9 Free Update. Sixteen new variants, and some tweaks to matters.
I don't have the comprehensive list, and if I did this post would be twice as long. But HBS did their work and the only notable gap was before the expansion with the "stealth mechanic" which was - even on release of it - problematic as all heck. (It STILL can fluster the AI something terrible.) These folks burned through everything they could, trying to keep the game constantly fresh. This isn't a Triple-A studio, and BattleTech wasn't going to be mainstream, they needed to be consistently keeping it active so people could hear about it for the longest period of time without it "cooling off". Once an indie game buzz gets cooled off, it takes a LOT for it to get pushed back into the light again.
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That is quite a comprehensive write up i think and yeah, there is quite some merit to it.
I really feel that HBS did spend as much time and effort as they could afford and some beyond that on top so kudos for that!
That is why i did not wrote HBS abandoned the project prematurely bcs i think they did not and put what they could do into bug fixing and working on the new DLCs.
I think it is a matter of rather limited ressouces like you say and the first two dlc i bought with no regret while i consider the first on stronger on the enjoyable game content side and the second more a catching lose threads thing but it still added something that had impact on the gameplay.
I stuggle much with the third dlc - it was known to be the last dlc and it added 2 things i did very much dislike bcs it was adding brute force instead of finesse and yeah, for the fans of specific Mechs it added something, though as long a have a Centurion or Thunderbolt i am happy, i would even be happy with some crappy or not so crappy Ostmech (bcs for me as a german that name gives a very funny association with crappy imrpovised barely working GDR-Tech (which i get from mods)) but to me it was not ending with a boom but ending with a fizzle and i thought "man, that dlc is such an injustice" to anyone involved even to HBS not only the players.
I get that you have your boom when you like brute force and unseen/specific mechs but that is not me...to me BEX was/is the boom ending or in that case the boom start of my new campaign.
BEX and the other mods expand upon the base HBS had build and their success is HBS success!
I really feel that HBS did spend as much time and effort as they could afford and some beyond that on top so kudos for that!
That is why i did not wrote HBS abandoned the project prematurely bcs i think they did not and put what they could do into bug fixing and working on the new DLCs.
I think it is a matter of rather limited ressouces like you say and the first two dlc i bought with no regret while i consider the first on stronger on the enjoyable game content side and the second more a catching lose threads thing but it still added something that had impact on the gameplay.
I stuggle much with the third dlc - it was known to be the last dlc and it added 2 things i did very much dislike bcs it was adding brute force instead of finesse and yeah, for the fans of specific Mechs it added something, though as long a have a Centurion or Thunderbolt i am happy, i would even be happy with some crappy or not so crappy Ostmech (bcs for me as a german that name gives a very funny association with crappy imrpovised barely working GDR-Tech (which i get from mods)) but to me it was not ending with a boom but ending with a fizzle and i thought "man, that dlc is such an injustice" to anyone involved even to HBS not only the players.
I get that you have your boom when you like brute force and unseen/specific mechs but that is not me...to me BEX was/is the boom ending or in that case the boom start of my new campaign.
BEX and the other mods expand upon the base HBS had build and their success is HBS success!
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HBS gave us a mighty fine BattleTech game. Our modding community gave us many, quite excellent variations and additions. Some very deep and foundational. Some very comprehensive and inclusive. Some introduced different eras, others introduced different factions. ALL proved to be exceedingly valuable and entertaining.
I yet pine for some key BATTLETECH multiplayer aspects that were listed in BATTLETECH‘s Kickstarter. These aspects did not lend themselves readily to being introduced by our modding community, though in truth our community did manage to hold some very interesting leagues and tournaments on our own. :bow:
oh… and Infantry, I should very much have enjoyed BATTLETECH Infantry. : )
I yet pine for some key BATTLETECH multiplayer aspects that were listed in BATTLETECH‘s Kickstarter. These aspects did not lend themselves readily to being introduced by our modding community, though in truth our community did manage to hold some very interesting leagues and tournaments on our own. :bow:
oh… and Infantry, I should very much have enjoyed BATTLETECH Infantry. : )
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“Crunchies,“ I have heard tankers say…
BattleTech lore gives an excellent account of just how pervasive and versatile Infantry remain in the 31st Century. : )
- my eternal thanks to @SpOoKy777 for this exquisite example of his Mech Art collection. :bow:
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Is it bad I can name most of what I see in that picture?
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Striker and Marauder on the left, Manticore in the center. My initial thought for the fire support tanks on the left was LRM-carriers but unless I'm mistaken those don't have a turret and they're firing too many LRMs to be modified Scorpions. I'm lost for the tank on the right, a Rommel maybe?
The infantry seems to be carrying laser rifles. It might by due to the resolution but I can't make out any unit or House insignia.