Harebrained Schemes confirm again Linux support for BATTLETECH is a high priority

I'm not into Battletech, but hey, (yet) another Shadowrun, I'd like...

I feel pretty excited by this, even more so after all the positive reviews that it has recieved. The idea of playing a turn-based mech-game has really grown on me, even though I´ve had almost no prior contact with "mechs" in games or movies.

Still, I admit that I do feel just a tad annoyed that they could do a simultaneous release of both win & mac versions but not tux. If it had been a windows only release, it wouldn´t have produced quite the same feeling of "The OS Left Behind". :'(

I used to play the battletech board game, so I am really looking forwards to this.
I hope they can get the port ready soon!

I would very much recommend everyone to still wait on the game, Linux or not.
This delay for the game to come out on Linux later might be a blessing in disguise.

Currently, BattleTech has a lot of pretty serious grievances:

The loading times are a disaster, and "it's just Unity" is not the reason here. Other Unity games with way more things to load (more assets, more polygons, etc.) load way faster.

The game flow is constantly being interrupted:

• Animations are SUPER slow (yes, they *are* mechs, but come on!) and CANNOT be sped up. That's right, another turn-based tactics game with no possiblity to speed it up. Mind-bogglingly stupid to omit such a vital and easy to implement feature.


• After shots have been fired, it takes forever to display all the effects that were caused, and once that is finally done, there might still be a knockdown animation to watch... and then a sound to load and play as further acknowledgement...


• You are forced to wait for enemy animations to play out - even if you cannot see them as they are out of range! Incredible. XCOM did this better more than 20 years ago.

Missions in this game can easily take 30-60 minutes. 50-80% of that are just you waiting for animations/effects/enemies to finish. Oof!

The tutorial doesn't explain 80% of what's going on and what the actual rules are. Instead it bothers you with no-brainers like "take cover" and "attack from behind"/"watch your back".
I had to read about pretty much everything online or just keep playing and derive the rules myself...

Mech categories (light/medium/heavy/assault) could be renamed to (bad/okay/good/awesome). There is 0 reason to ever field a light mech once you have access to medium mechs (and then medium->heavy, etc.). They are faster, but do very little damage and can take even less.
You always get to field 4 mechs, so you always want to field the heaviest that you can - there is no downside.
Again, mind-boggling that they did not instead make use of a tonnage limit so you'd have to decide yourself if you want more, but lighter mechs or fewer, but heavier ones.

Beneath all of this is a really good game, but one can only hope they patch all the filth away so that this good game can actually shine.
I played for about 10-15 hours so far, but can barely motivate myself to keep on playing as I know I will just have my time wasted for more than half the time of me "playing".


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 4 May 2018 at 2:13 pm UTC

Good to hear that they are still committed to it. I backed this game. It's currently sitting in my GOG library, while some of my friends are teasing me how good it is. Meh! But I had never any doubt that Harebrained would follow up on their promise. They ported their previous games and are proved to be Linux friendly, so I have trust in them!

On the long animation times, modders are already disecting the configs to change the animation speeds and take out the pauses.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/05/02/battletech-speed-fix/

I'm looking forward to this, will buy it once the Linux version is out.

On the long animation times, modders are already disecting the configs to change the animation speeds and take out the pauses.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/05/02/battletech-speed-fix/

Note only that from the kickstarter update it says they are looking at adding options to increase combat speed themselves, so by the time we see it in 1-3 months hopefully they will have patched in a lot of QOL improvments and bugfixed nicely.

--Accelerated Combat Options - We're working on options for players who would like to accelerate the pace of combat missions.

Not that I wouldnt have preferred a day-1 release, but I backed on KS so just have to wait for it to appear in my steam library.

I can't in good conscience support this game; not with the forced diversity and the "they" issue.

I can't in good conscience support this game; not with the forced diversity and the "they" issue.

Awwww...!

It's weird that it became so apparent for this particular game. There are a lot of other games with "diversity" gimmicks too, like Event[0], Gone Home, Tacoma and several others.

They get their share of hate. Gone Home for sure.

I can't in good conscience support this game; not with the forced diversity and the "they" issue.

OK, someone is going to have explain these 2 points to me:

1. Forced diversity?
2. the "They" issue

#1, I have no idea what its about

#2, Ok its a pronoun that is gender neutral, is that the issue? I mean it still has he/she yes?

#2, Ok its a pronoun that is gender neutral, is that the issue? I mean it still has he/she yes?

I googled for it, and they do call it addition:
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qvx7jb/the-theythem-option-in-battletech-is-about-so-much-more-than-choice

The Anti-SJW crowd is as tiresome as the SJW crowd. Can we just get back to playing games

The Anti-SJW crowd is as tiresome as the SJW crowd. Can we just get back to playing games

Oh I agree the whole thing is tiresome, I dont engage in it at all usually, I was just curious about what zimplex1 was referencing, that said I fail to see how the inclusion of 'They' when He/She remain a choice, and from the lets plays I have watched he is default, in anyway shape or form affects how someone can enjoy a game.


THat said as a KS backer I eagerly await the Linux release as the brief viewings of the Let's Plays I have seen make me want to dive in and play.

Oh I agree the whole thing is tiresome, I dont engage in it at all usually, I was just curious about what zimplex1 was referencing, that said I fail to see how the inclusion of 'They' when He/She remain a choice, and from the lets plays I have watched he is default, in anyway shape or form affects how someone can enjoy a game.

THat said as a KS backer I eagerly await the Linux release as the brief viewings of the Let's Plays I have seen make me want to dive in and play.

I'm just stating my opinion on why I will pass on this game. I don't support these types of things, and don't want them normalized.

By all means play and enjoy what you want.

I can't in good conscience support this game; not with the forced diversity and the "they" issue.

OK, someone is going to have explain these 2 points to me:

1. Forced diversity?

It is relatively simple.
For some people, the inclusion of an option (!!) is already an invasion into what is considered right and wrong. It matters not that they are in no way affected.
A character that is homosexual? Clearly agenda pushing.
No character that is homosexual? Clearly agenda pushing.
Inclusion/lack of a pronoun? Clearly agenda pushing.
A game set in medieval central Europe in a VERY rural place not depicting a person with darker skin color? Clearly racism.
A team that just happens to be mostly male/female? Clearly sexism/forced inclusion.
People who want to be offended will be offended and will always find a reason, SJW and anti-SJW alike. It would be madness to try and make a game that doesn't offend anyone.

And HBS have been very open about being SJWs. Hell, the lead designer (if I am not mistaken) of BattleTech is a trans woman, and a very active SJW, too.
So anything coming from them, therefore MUST BE pure agenda pushing. Right? ;)

Now, I'm not saying there is no agenda pushing in media. Clearly there is. And to me, that is fine. Competition is good. May the better agenda win.
But in this game? No.
I've talked to all the NPCs on board (there are not many) and all of them are pretty normal people, not at all being in-your-face about whatever sexuality, race, etc. they are. In fact, you just don't get that much personal information out of them - which is a welcome change from all the games in which people just tell a total stranger their life story.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 4 May 2018 at 9:47 pm UTC

The Anti-SJW crowd is as tiresome as the SJW crowd. Can we just get back to playing games

You spelled youth wrong.

This concept is Sexy As Fuck.

Especially the chicken leg robot style of the 90s, it shares common origin with Star Wars AT-AT and Walkers and reminds me of G-NOME.




Last edited by ElectricPrism on 4 May 2018 at 10:19 pm UTC

The Anti-SJW crowd is as tiresome as the SJW crowd. Can we just get back to playing games

You spelled youth wrong.

This concept is Sexy As Fuck.

Especially the chicken leg robot style of the 90s, it shares common origin with Star Wars AT-AT and Walkers and reminds me of G-NOME.



The styles of all the Mechs are directly from the old FASA Battletech game, of which this is supposed to be a computerized version of. That game originally came out in the mid-80s. Fun as hell too, wish I had played it more back then.

The Anti-SJW crowd is as tiresome as the SJW crowd. Can we just get back to playing games

That's like saying chemotherapy is as tiresome as cancer.
You're right, we should just be getting back to playing games and ignoring the identity politics. But some developers are not, they're caving in and trying to make their games more 'inclusive'. Which will end up with more and more demands.
- You need more pronouns
- You need more skincolor options
- You have too many black and not enough native people (Far Cry 5..)
- You can't show a sexy ass, that's objectifying ..

As long as there are SJWs pushing their joy-killing agenda I'm afraid we need the Anti-SJWs.
Thanks for the heads up on the issue, not buying infected products.