CAMPAIGN COMPLETE - THANKS AGAIN!
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 01:55:01 AM

Hey BATTLETECH Backers!

Thanks again for all your support for BATTLETECH over the last 4 years. That support allowed us to deliver the first turn-based, tactical MechWarrior experience in more than 20 years and we truly appreciate the opportunity to make it for you. Your support, along with some great press, awards, and accolades allowed us to continue supporting BATTLETECH with nine free updates plus our Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, and Heavy Metal expansions. Thanks again for making all of this possible!

Now, with our season pass at an end, HBS is going to focus on two brand new non-BattleTech projects. Our last free update, BATTLETECH Update 1.9, will release in late February. After that, BATTLETECH will continue to maintain customer support. 

Here's a video of Mitch saying all this but with more "Mitch".

And before we go dark for awhile, we thought we'd leave you with these two historical artifacts. #1 is a bit of data...

#2 is a visualization of  the BATTLETECH project over time from a file structure POV. (It's much cooler than it sounds.)

We look forward to seeing all the badass BATTLETECH mods y'all come up with. Talk to you again when we have something to announce!

- HBS

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - Season Pass Complete!
about 5 years ago – Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 12:48:04 AM

Hey everyone, long time! Mitch here. I just wanted to let you know about two big releases today.

The first is free Update 1.8, which contains two beloved BattleMechs: the Warhammer and the Marauder! These classic ‘Mech chassis are equipped with unique components that reflect their place in BT lore:

•  WARHAMMER  (70 Tons) - Its Optimized Capacitor Feeds increase the damage of all equipped Energy weapons.
•  MARAUDER  (75 Tons) - Its Lance Command Module decreases the damage taken by it and its allies and gives a boost to Called Shots.

In addition to the two free ‘Mechs, there’s a bunch more cool additions in 1.8:

•  Official Mod Support - With this release of BATTLETECH, we are introducing official mod support to the game and now support the ModTek format that the modding community are currently using. We’ve also added new mod management UI to the main menu to streamline mod use. As usual, use mods at your own risk. In-game modding tools are not included.
•  New Maps - Two new maps bring even more variety to your contracts: Jumbled Karst (an iconic rock formation set between two valleys), and Boulder Field (rolling hills and rocks dot this battle scarred landscape)
•  New contracts - Over 40 new contracts, including new persistent allied and enemy NPCs, and new contract variants that mix up the gameplay you’ve seen in new and unexpected ways. Battle a dangerous solo mercenary, train a group of overly enthusiastic rookies, and serve as the personal bodyguard of an arrogant noble.
•  New Events - We’ve added a slew of new mercenary travel Events to “enhance” your mercenary life.
•  Rebalanced Stores & LosTech - We’ve completely overhauled how weapons and equipment appear in our stores. Finding items is now more straightforward. We’ve also given LosTech items a boost in power to fit their legendary status.
•  New Star Map Weapon Store Filters - We’ve added a new filter dropdown to the star map that lets you view planetary industry by type and a tooltip that tells you what you can find in each star system.
•  Mech Viewer - Get a close-up view, rotate and customize your ‘Mech paint pattern directly in the MechLab!
•  New Merc Company Crests - Scads of new emblems to choose from for your mercenary company, drawn from notable factions throughout the Inner Sphere. Roleplay your heart out!

And there's more! Our second release today is our third expansion for BATTLETECH, closing out our Season Pass.

What’s in Heavy Metal??? Behold our marketing text!

Seven Classic BattleMechs

These beloved ‘Mechs are a big part of BattleTech’s legendary 35 year history and several debuted in the original tabletop boxed set in 1984. To honor these classics, each BattleMech in Heavy Metal contains a unique piece of special equipment that reflects the flavor described in the original technical readouts and lore.

1.  FLEA  (20 Tons) - a light-weight nuisance that is deadly if ignored. Targeting Baffles make the Flea one of the hardest to hit ‘Mechs in the game.
2.  ASSASSIN  (40 Tons) - a light ‘Mech killer, the Assassin is notable for having an absolutely insane jump distance for a 'Mech of its size. Its Intercept System bypasses much of the Evasion generated by fast ‘Mechs.
3.  VULCAN  (40 Tons) - is well suited for short-range fighting against enemy brawlers. Its Close Quarters Combat Suite extends the range of all equipped Support weapons and grants a substantial defense bonus against melee attacks.
4.  PHOENIX HAWK  (45 Tons) - very agile and intended to outwit contemporaries and lighter opponents on the battlefield. Its Vectored Thrust Kit increases its jump distance and the damage it inflicts after making a jump.
5.  RIFLEMAN  (60 Tons) - well known for having very thin armor and superb targeting ability at long range. Its Ranged Engagement Suite increases its visual range, removes the penalties for attacks at long range and reduces the Recoil from Ballistic weapons.
6.  ARCHER (70 Tons) - a storied BattleMech that has been piloted by some of the most noteworthy MechWarriors in BattleTech lore. Its Enhanced Missilery System dramatically improves the clustering and Stability damage of missile weapons.
7.  ANNIHILATOR (100 Tons) - one of the slowest and most heavily-armed behemoths in existence. Ballistic Siege Compensators increase the Stability rating of the Annihilator and the damage of its equipped ballistic weapons.
    

An “HBS Original” BattleMech

Designed by Heavy Metal Art Director Marco Mazzoni, this brand new ‘Mech is Harebrained Schemes’ addition to this venerable game setting. It’s origin is shrouded in mystery (for now).

BULL SHARK  (95 Tons) - [redacted] Its Thumper Cannon allows it to target an area with a barrage of high-explosive shells.

Eight New Weapon Systems

The combination of the unique new special ‘Mech equipment and these new weapon systems adds a host of interesting new tactical decisions to your Mech Lab and the battlefield.

1.  COIL Beam - a “Contained Overflow Inertia Linkage” system that generates more energy damage the further the attacker travels before firing.
2.  Inferno Missiles - do little physical damage but coat a target in burning fuel that spikes their heat.
3.  LBX Autocannon - LBX ACs are the shotguns of the 'Mech world, firing cluster munitions that can hit multiple locations on a BattleMech.
4.  ‘Mech Mortar - an area-effect weapon that can dramatically turn the tide of battle by damaging or destroying multiple units at once.
5.  Ultra Autocannon - fires two rounds or ballistic ordnance in a single attack.
6.  Narc Missile Beacon - a warhead-deployed homing beacon that allows allied missile attacks to be more effective against the target.
7.  Snub PPC - a short-range version of the awesome Particle Projection Cannon that spreads its damage across multiple locations on a BattleMech.
8.  TAG - paints the target with a targeting laser which improves allied energy and ballistic attacks against the target.
    

Flashpoint Campaign: “Of Unknown Origins”

A series of linked flashpoints and connected special events that bring you face-to-face with two legendary characters from BattleTech lore - the Bounty Hunter and the Black Widow of Wolf’s Dragoons. A derelict cargo ship has drifted into the Periphery from deep space. What secrets does it contain, and who will ultimately control its mysterious payload?

We hope you have fun with today’s two releases and the last 18 months of free updates and game expansions. It’s been an honor to make games for you and to serve the 35 year legacy we’ve been lucky to be a part of!

Take care,

Mitch and the BATTLETECH Team

LIVE - BATTLETECH 1.4.0 Release Notes: The One with Localization! And the 4th Novella!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 01, 2019 at 12:46:44 AM

Welcome to BATTLETECH 1.4! This release contains a number of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, as well as the official localized releases of BATTLETECH in French, German, and Russian. We have also improved performance for saving and loading games.

A few things to note about localization:

• If you switch to a different language and it isn’t showing up on screen, back out to the main menu so that the language pack can refresh.
• There is no noun declension in procedurally generated contracts.
• BattleMech names are consistently not translated, as consistent with other BATTLETECH translations. 

To read through the full Release Notes, pop on over to the Paradox BATTLETECH Forum.

IMPORTANT: Additional note for players who mod various game files… Reminder that modding is not officially supported. If you have saved a game with any mod active, that saved game will not work after an update has been applied unless you replace all modded files exactly as they were when the save game file was created. Saved games require the exact same data state in order to function properly.

As always, if you experience further issues please contact Customer Support at: https://support.paradoxplaza.com

Final BATTLETECH Novella Available!

High Command is also pleased to announce the fourth and final in a series of four linked digital novellas by Mike Stackpole is now available for Backers at the $50 MechWarrior level and above. 

You’ll find a file including the pdf, mobi, and epub versions to download when you hit “Get My Digital Rewards” in your BackerKit account. It can take a little time for the files to populate to everyone's account so please check back in a couple hours if you don't see the files right away. 

We hope you enjoy our latest BATTLETECH update and the novella!

-- HBS

LIVE - BATTLETECH Update 1.3, Flashpoint Expansion, and Localization Beta Release Notes
about 6 years ago – Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 01:22:11 AM

Welcome to BATTLETECH 1.3! This release contains a number of improvements and bug fixes, as well as some cool new features. We have also released the Flashpoint paid expansion and the Beta version of French, German, and Russian localizations.

1.3 HIGHLIGHTS: Career Mode, Revision to MechWarrior Abilities, Revisions to Reputation, Revision to Stores… See details in the “New Free Features & Content” section below.

BATTLETECH: Flashpoint expansion now available: Beyond adding over 30 hours of exciting Flashpoints (branching, multi-mission short stories) to BATTLETECH, this paid expansion comes complete with three new ‘Mechs (including the highly anticipated Hatchetman), a challenging new mission type, and a new tropical biome for the biggest and most challenging BATTLETECH experience yet. Purchase the Season Pass to get a deal on Flashpoint plus the next two expansions!

Note for Paradox Plaza users: After purchase of the Flashpoint expansion, you will need to be logged in within the game in order to see Flashpoint content.

Localized Beta versions of the game: Localization is officially in Beta on Steam and GOG for all OS versions! Select the “public_beta_localization” branch to opt-in, then select German, Russian, or French in the in-game Settings menu. This Beta includes translated Flashpoint paid expansion content for owners of Flashpoint. We will continue to work on bug fixes (including updating any missing string translations), improving the quality of the translations, and updating this beta branch. We also look forward to hearing your feedback on the PDX Forum. Habe Spaß! Повеселись! S'amuser!

Localization known issues:
-- If you switch to a different language and it isn’t showing up on screen, you may need to back out to the main menu so that the language pack can refresh.
--Subtitles may play quite fast in cinematics.
--Some text in labels, Career Mode, Flashpoints, and multiplayer may appear unlocalized.
--There may be some minor cosmetic issues with text formatting.
--The test language we used to develop our localization system is visible in the settings menu. It is strongly advised that you do not play the game with this enabled.
--There is no noun declension in procedurally generated contracts. 

Linux Beta update: The Linux Beta along with fixes and updates has been integrated with the main game version and is available on Steam, GOG, and Humble!

Linux known issues:
--The game must have write access to the installation directory. If you get infinite loading screens on launch or when starting a new game make sure the directory is writable: sudo chmod -R 777 BattleTech_Data
--Non-English Linux systems may experience infinite loading screens. Please opt-in to the Localized Beta (below) or use the launch option work-around: LC_ALL=C

We hope you enjoy our latest BATTLETECH releases!  

-- HBS

IMPORTANT: Additional note for players who mod various game files… Reminder that modding is not officially supported. If you have saved a game with any mod active, that saved game will not work after an update has been applied unless you replace all modded files exactly as they were when the save game file was created. Saved games require the exact same data state in order to function properly.

As always, if you experience further issues please contact Customer Support at: https://support.paradoxplaza.com

New Free Features & Content

All-new Career Mode - Career Mode challenges you to begin the game with the Argo in a random system, with a random group of MechWarriors, with no story missions to rely on for big payouts. Wander the Periphery taking contracts (and Flashpoints, if you own Flashpoint!) and manage and grow your mercenary company to earn a final score. Career mode is played in Ironman mode by default, so it is also possible to “lose” this mode unrecoverably. (But Ironman mode can be disabled, and all the same granular difficulty settings from the campaign can also be adjusted in Career Mode.)

Revamped MechWarrior abilities - We heard a bunch of feedback about the Bulwark ability and how you HAD to take it to finish the campaign and it got us thinking… and then revising Bulwark… and realizing that we should just rebalance the whole dang set of abilities. Then we put it out as an opt-in Beta and got some great feedback - thanks! We’ve been working on it ever since and we’ve released the revised abilities in 1.3. You can read the complete details in this forum post. The first time you load any game session after updating to 1.3, you'll see a popup informing you that all of your MechWarrior skills have been refunded, so that you can review the new abilities and respec accordingly.  

Revisions to the Reputation System - We’ve increased the rate at which reputation rises and falls so you can really feel the effects of your actions. When you reach the maximum possible reputation with a faction, you become eligible for an Alliance. By entering into an Alliance, you mark yourself an ally of that faction - and an enemy of that faction's enemies.

Faction stores - In addition to making higher difficulty contracts and salvage available, Alliances also allow you to access faction-specific stores containing items you might not find anywhere else.

Black Market stores - If you play your cards right, criminal elements will allow you to buy access to the Black Market, where you’ll find some equipment that fell off a transport…

New Events - including cameos from two Legendary MechWarriors (these were part of our “social sharing” Backer reward from the Kickstarter, and we expect the other two cameos to make it into the next free update.)

New mercenary contracts - now you can take jobs from Pirates!

New inventory items - including rare LosTech from before the fall of the Star League!

New Achievements - 19 new mercenary and story achievements have been added to the campaign and career modes!

You'll find more improvements and the full release notes at this forum post.

And, finally, we're excited to share that our friends at Catalyst Game Labs will be releasing a new House Arano sourcebook with contributions from Kiva and Andrew on March 1st - be sure to check it out when it lands!

Arriving November 27: BATTLETECH: Flashpoint Expansion, Free 1.3 Update, and Localization Beta! Flashpoint Pre-Orders and Season Pass Now Available
about 6 years ago – Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 02:10:01 AM

We're excited to announce that BATTLETECH: Flashpoint, our very first BATTLETECH Expansion, will launch on November 27th!

Flashpoint adds new gameplay, endgame depth, 'Mechs, and over 30 hours of new Flashpoint content to your mercenary experience. It's available now for Pre-Purchase on Steam for 10% off. For more about Flashpoint, check out this new video overview with Mitch!

We've also made a new Season Pass available, which includes Flashpoint AND our next two BATTLETECH Expansions. (The next Expansion, we're excited to announce, will be titled Urban Warfare - we aren't ready to share any details on that just yet, but hopefully the name gives some idea what to expect from it. : ) The Season Pass will normally be $49.99 (a $10 savings) but for this week only it's on pre-sale for only $39.99 on Steam, GoG, and Paradox Plaza.

BATTLETECH Update 1.3 Details

Our next free update for BATTLETECH will also launch on November 27th! Update 1.3 adds and improves a bunch of stuff in the base game, including:

• An all-new Career Mode - Career Mode challenges you to begin the game with the Argo in a random system, with a random group of MechWarriors, with no story missions to rely on for big payouts. You wander the Periphery, taking contracts (and Flashpoints, if you have Flashpoint!) and managing your mercenary company to earn a final score. Career mode is played in Ironman mode by default, so it is also possible to “lose” this mode unrecoverably.
  
• Revamped MechWarrior abilities - We heard a bunch of feedback about the Bulwark ability and how you HAD to take it to finish the campaign and it got us thinking… and then revising Bulwark… and realizing that we should just rebalance the whole dang thing. Then we put it out as an opt-in Beta and got some great feedback - thanks! We’ve been working on it ever since and we’ll release the revised abilities in 1.3.
  
• Revisions to the Reputation System - We’ve increased the rate at which reputation rises and falls so you can really feel the effects of your actions. When you reach the maximum possible reputation with a faction, you become eligible for an Alliance. By entering into an Alliance, you mark yourself an ally of that faction - and an enemy of that faction's enemies. In addition to making higher difficulty contracts and salvage available, Alliances also allow you to access faction-specific stores containing items you might not find anywhere else.
  
• Black Market stores - If you play your cards right, criminal elements will allow you to buy access to the Black Market, where you’ll find some equipment that fell off a transport...
  
• More Events, including cameos from two Legendary MechWarriors (these were part of our social sharing Backer reward from the Kickstarter, and we expect the other two cameos to make it into the next free update.)
  
• New mercenary contracts - now you can take jobs from Pirates!
  
• New inventory items, including rare LosTech from before the fall of the Star League!
  
• And lots more bugfixes and quality of life improvements (like the ability to drag & drop ‘Mechs in the Mech Bay!)

If you haven't played in a while, also check out all the new features and improvements we've already added to the game in our free 1.1 Update and 1.2 Update. And we'll be continuing to release free updates at a similar cadence next year.

Localization Beta Incoming (French, German, and Russian)

We know it's been a long road for Backers awaiting localized versions of the game, and we really appreciate your patience. QA testing for localization is going well, and we're planning to release a public Localization Beta branch on Steam and GOG by the end of November. We're targeting November 27th, to release this Beta alongside Flashpoint and Update 1.3, but it may end up being slightly staggered to accommodate testing schedules. This opt-in branch will include French, German, and Russian localization of the base game (including the 1.3 update), as well as localization of Flashpoint for Flashpoint owners.

We expect the Localization Beta to remain open for at least a couple weeks, after which Localization will exit Beta and be released as a free update to the game on all distribution platforms.

Linux

Last month we released a Steam Beta branch of the Linux version of BATTLETECH. Thank you to everyone who's tested on that branch! We expect the Linux version to exit Beta on November 27th as part of the 1.3 Update on all distribution platforms.

And that's the news, folks! We can't wait for November 27th, and we're excited to already be diving into our next free update and pre-production on Urban Warfare.  

-HBS