We already knew BATTLETECH [Official Site] was coming to Linux since the Kickstarter, but it's good to see Harebrained Schemes continue to mention Linux support is important.
In their latest Kickstarter update, they outlined some of their plans. They gave dates for some parts of their plans, but sadly they're still giving no date on Linux support:
3. Localization (French, German, Russian) and Linux Support
These are both Kickstarter commitments and high priorities for our post-launch roadmap. (Along with a couple other Kickstarter commitments that didn't make it in for launch.) We don't have a more precise ETA yet for these items but will update you as soon as we do.
I doubt Harebrained Schemes will let us down, but it's quite frustrating to still have no idea when it will arrive, I imagine even more frustrating for anyone who actually helped to fund it. It's currently one of the most popular strategy titles on Steam, so I do hope we're not kept waiting for too much longer. Whenever it does land on Linux, you can be sure we will let you know how well it runs.
They also said they will continue to give the game free updates, although they also want to do a larger paid expansion or two.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I'm not into Battletech, but hey, (yet) another Shadowrun, I'd like...
2 Likes, Who?
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". :'(
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". :'(
0 Likes
nattydread May 4, 2018
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 hope they can get the port ready soon!
1 Likes, Who?
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:
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
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
5 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle May 4, 2018
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!
2 Likes, Who?
TobyHaynes May 4, 2018
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/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/05/02/battletech-speed-fix/
4 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje May 4, 2018
I'm looking forward to this, will buy it once the Linux version is out.
0 Likes
Quoting: [email protected]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.
Quote--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.
0 Likes
I can't in good conscience support this game; not with the forced diversity and the "they" issue.
4 Likes, Who?
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