Battletech: Legacy

[SpikedHelmet]

My drunken ramblings weren't really a proper "IMMA 'NOUNCIN MAH MOD" post so I figured I'd make a proper one.

*Ahem*

I'MMA 'NOUNCIN MAH MOD

Battletech: Legacy as I've come to call it will, naturally, be a Battletech/Mechwarrior-focused RTS game on the Spring engine. Initially it will focus on a Clan vs. Inner Sphere framework, but in the future may include individual Clans and Inner Sphere states.

Gameplay will of course be multiplier-oriented as Spring lacks viable single-player in-depth campaign play, though of course Skirmish vs. AI will be supported.

The primary mode of gameplay will revolve around the capture and control of various strategic locations, or beacons, placed around the map (in a way that has nothing to do with metal or geo but hand-placed by us). Maps, depending on size, will have anywhere from 3 to 10 or more of these beacons.

Beacons themselves come in two varieties. The first is a standard beacon that marks a strategically or tactically important location (or rather is supposed to). Holding these standard beacons will give you a steady income of C-Bills to spend on your units. The second variety of beacon is the "Outpost"; these special beacons give you access to otherwise unattainable features, such as the ability to build special units (like Mercenary units or Star League tech), give area-of-effect bonuses (increasing weapon range and accuracy or auto-repairing nearby friendly units) or more simple things (such as having advanced sensors or defensive weapons).

On top of the income generated by capturing and holding beacons and outposts, you will also gain income by damaging and destroying enemy assets.

Lastly, there will be very little base building or simcity in BT:L. Players will "arrive" on the battlefield via a dropship landing from space. This single gigantic spacecraft will serve the function of an entire base in a single unit; it will be defensively armed against attack with an assortment of weapons and be where players buy new units and have damaged units repaired.

Various special features will also make an appearance:

-Component Damage: Mechs will be able to receive damage to various secondary components that may have unfortunate side effects. Arms can be shot off, destroying any weapons equipped in them; Legs can be damaged or destroyed, leaving a Mech crippled. This will be almost entirely passive and automatic with little player involvement.
-Jump Jets: Many Mechs have Jump Jets allowing them to traverse otherwise impassable terrain or make quick hit-and-run attacks and getaways.
-Heat System: Mechs generate heat by firing weapons and using jump jets. The effects of overheating are simple and intuitive; if a Mech is overheated the rate of fire for all of its weapons will be drastically reduced and it will not be able to use jump jets or other special heat-generating abilities. If a Mech is destroyed when overheated there is a chance it will experience a core meltdown and detonate in a massive thermonuclear fireball, damaging anything nearby. The best way to reduce a Mech's heat is to remove it from battle until it has sufficiently cooled down. Lastly, some weapons, such as Flamethrowers, will increase the heat of an enemy unit.
-Sensors: Every unit will have sensors of some sort, represented both by LOS and Radar. Enemy units that appear on radar will show up as visible, as if in LOS. All units can go into Passive mode, turning off their radar while in turn being invisible to the enemy's, allowing them to move around more stealthily at the obvious cost of decreasing their own awareness. Some units have enhanced sensors that give them a big boost to their sensor range and bonuses for spotting passive units.
-Narc System: Several units, like the Inner Sphere Raven and Clan Mist Lynx, will have Narc Launchers. These special missiles, when they successfully hit a target, will begin transmitting sensor data on that target for a set amount of time (30 seconds, roughly), in essence revealing that unit to you no matter where it goes and regardless of whether or not it is in sensor or LOS range. This will let your long-range missile units attack it from extreme range without needing to put themselves or any other unit in harm's way.

There will be no "MechLab" or ability to custom-fit Mechs. This is unnecessary, a pain in the ass to actually implement, and would be a headache to try and balance. Instead we've accepted that there are more than enough Mechs to choose from to fill any unit role conceivable, so there's little actual need for it. There won't be any instances of duplicated Mechs with different loadouts.

Mechs and other units that will be included have already been planned. This includes, 19 Inner Sphere, 20 Clan, and 14 Mercenary and Star League "special" Mechs. These have been broken down into both a role-based and size-based system. Roles determine what a Mech is best used for, be it running around carrying out hit-and-run attacks, inching forward guns blazing, or hitting the enemy face to face with a dizzying amount of close-range weapons. Every effort will be made to ensure all Mechs serve a purpose. Size, of course, is a well-known BattleTech measurement that includes Light, Medium, Heavy and Assault-class Mechs.

The inspiration for this game comes ironically from games like TA/Spring. TA's Krogoth was a really impressive machine of war; whereas most units in games like this have a single weapon, super-units like the Krogoth had bunches of them, and seeing a Krogoth slowly stomping forward with guns and missiles and lasers blazing away was a pretty impressive sight. The idea here is to create a game where essentially every unit is a Krogoth to some degree, as Mechs are armed with a dizzying assortment of different weapons from Autocannons to PPCs to Gauss Rifles to Missiles to Lasers, and seeing a giant war robot blasting away with all of these at the same time as it slowly thunders across the battlefield is pretty fucking cool.

Our progress so far has been pretty good. I've modeled, or acquired models for, over 40 different units, and many basic gameplay elements and functions have been done. Some hardcore functional stuff still needs doing, like LUS system pruning, heat damage and component damage effects. Most of the work though is in art, from graphical LuaUI widgets (including a GUI), weapon and explosion and other SFX, and of course models and textures. But the core game is playable and pretty fun, and I've been amazed at what we've got done so far in so short amount of time (far more than any other little kneejerk impulse project I've started).

Lastly I'll leave you with a couple pics.

[knorke]

strategic locations, or beacons, placed around the map (in a way that has nothing to do with metal or geo but hand-placed by us)

finally someone doing it right!

good luck and stuff

[Jazcash]

So me and Sheep planned on creating a similar Mech-style game quite a while ago but decided not to go ahead with it due to out lack of knowledge of coding, scripting and programming knowledge. However, we did have a bunch of ideas and knew pretty much what we wanted.

Anyway, I collected a load of mech/robot inspiration images from the web to give us ideas for units. We never got round to using them but I've still got them, and figured you and some others mind find them useful. At least check 'em out, there's some awesome concepts in here.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PGUREUA1

[Otherside]

Looks awesome, can't wait to try it.

Atlas ftw :]

[bobthedinosaur]

Jaz, as much as those pics I totally took from you are awesome, I think Battletech games are limited to Battletech canon (if I am not mistaken). There really is enough variants on CBT with the Japanese variations, and the Pheonix variations, and the hundreds of original designs.

Spiked do you have a site or forums set up?

[Pxtl]

Realistic firing ranges may look epic, but from that screenshot I doubt I'm gonna be able to see a damned thing. Still, awesome.

[SpikedHelmet]

I've since reduced the ranges to something more gaming-friendly. I may also do a universal upscale of everything. I don't want iconwars.

[bobthedinosaur]

Mod option the ranges to a constant variable?

[SpikedHelmet]

For testing purposes but I won't be including it as part of any final option.

[SpikedHelmet]

Original Clan names or Inner Sphere designations?

ie Timber Wolf or Mad Cat? Kit Fox or Uller?

[Echo419]

Battletech Mechs dont explode when they die or overheat.

MechWarrior Dev's did it. (why?)

[bobthedinosaur]

it's a WIP so chill out.

[SpikedHelmet]

Battletech Mechs dont explode when they die or overheat.

MechWarrior Dev's did it. (why?)

Because it's pretty hard to make cool explosions with tabletop models and cardboard cutouts. MechWarrior also doesn't have giant 100 foot tall man-robots carrying huge axes and swords running around kicking and punching other giant robots.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

shit looks mega!

[Echo419]

Because it's pretty hard to make cool explosions with tabletop models and cardboard cutouts. MechWarrior also doesn't have giant 100 foot tall man-robots carrying huge axes and swords running around kicking and punching other giant robots.

It wasnt a technological issue, it was a lore/information issue. (iirc it the exploding mechs was started by one particular author from the novels)

"cause you cant make cook explosions with table top models" is a null point, many games have area of effect devices and even exploding vehicles. (40k blast templates anyone?)

As for Melee in the videogame im not sure why that wasnt implemented, probably didnt fit well with the speed system they were using.

[Pxtl]

Because it's pretty hard to make cool explosions with tabletop models and cardboard cutouts. MechWarrior also doesn't have giant 100 foot tall man-robots carrying huge axes and swords running around kicking and punching other giant robots.

It wasnt a technological issue, it was a lore/information issue. (iirc it the exploding mechs was started by one particular author from the novels)

"cause you cant make cook explosions with table top models" is a null point, many games have area of effect devices and even exploding vehicles. (40k blast templates anyone?)

As for Melee in the videogame im not sure why that wasnt implemented, probably didnt fit well with the speed system they were using.

I think the idea was that mechs simply wrecking instead of exploding meant that an ongoing campaign could emphasize salvaging parts from wrecks.

[SinbadEV]

I don't know anything about Battletech and I haven't read the whole thread... but from a "realistic" perspective... most things don't explode to nothing when they break... it is very likely that just one essential element becomes damaged... like a main drive shaft or power supply.

So, in a "deployment" style game wrecks would become additional cover/obstacles and in a "infrastructure" style game (like TA) the wrecks could be repaired or harvested for serviceable parts and materials.

If you ARE going for a deployment style game then being able to recover compatible ammo from a wreck would cool too.

[FLOZi]

As stated only overheated mechs will have the chance to nuke.

And the game is more based on the game series than the table top afaik.

[SpikedHelmet]

Because it's pretty hard to make cool explosions with tabletop models and cardboard cutouts. MechWarrior also doesn't have giant 100 foot tall man-robots carrying huge axes and swords running around kicking and punching other giant robots.

It wasnt a technological issue, it was a lore/information issue. (iirc it the exploding mechs was started by one particular author from the novels)

"cause you cant make cook explosions with table top models" is a null point, many games have area of effect devices and even exploding vehicles. (40k blast templates anyone?)

As for Melee in the videogame im not sure why that wasnt implemented, probably didnt fit well with the speed system they were using.

I think the idea was that mechs simply wrecking instead of exploding meant that an ongoing campaign could emphasize salvaging parts from wrecks.

The point is I'm not clinging to any one design to the detriment of everything else. Giant hack-n-slash robots are pretty lame, giant nuclear explosions are pretty cool.

[bobthedinosaur]

well in theory, they aren't like nuclear weapon sized explosions, more like super critical nuclear power plant explosions. which can be pretty bad (and cool looking).