Harebrained Schemes have made good on their promise to have a Linux beta for their tactical ‘Mech combat game. It works well with a few caveats.
The Linux version of BATTLETECH [Official Site] has seen some delays since the game’s launch earlier in the year. The communication from the developer has been spotty at times so it’s good to see that they’ve finally gotten around to delivering on a Linux version for the game. It’s not quite bug-free yet so it’s available to download by opting into the “public_beta_linux” branch on Steam.
There’s a few known issues for the game, though none that are real show stoppers:
- When customizing the name of a ‘Mech or a Lance, the characters you type are doubled. So a W would appear as WW.
- Some menus may be extra light or extra dark depending on your system’s screen resolution.
- Hyperlinks are not functional on SteamOS only.
- Logging into a Paradox account always ends in a failure on the first attempt on SteamOS only.
- Multiplayer on SteamOS has intermittent connection issues (better as host than joiner).
- Refreshing the save game list can sometimes hang on the main menu. Restarting the game should fix the issue
The developers have asked that any Linux-specific issues found in the beta should be reported here.
I’ve played a few minutes of this beta and can tell you that it otherwise seems to run just fine. I did part of a skirmish mission and started the campaign and things seem to be running as they should be. I’m looking forward to exploring the game and seeing if it’s any good as I’m a fan of giant robots blowing each other up.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before the developers quash all the bugs and make a full release of the Linux version. It’s been a long wait since the original Kickstarter campaign. At least there’s the silver lining that we’re also getting several months’ worth of updates and quality of life improvements that have been added since launch.
You can get BATTLETECH on Steam. You can also get it on GOG and the Humble Store but note that the opt-in beta is Steam-only.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: TcheyOn my 4-5 years old computer, it runs good enough on "Medium". It's turn based, so it's not a big issue if the frame rate is not over the top.
The framerate is not over the top on Windows either. I think it's just a limitation of the Unity engine or the game developers...or both.
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Quoting: SchattenspiegelHmm...menu and intro videos and character creation play nicely but I am stuck on the prepping for battle screen in the native beta :-(
Bug report browsing reveals quite a few similar issues in the windows version but I guess I will try to see if Lutris comes up with similar problems - another 7 hours download then ...
Have you tried adding LC_ALL=C %command% to the launch options? Fixed all the issues I had.
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Quoting: drmothThere goes that entitlement again.
I would suggest to stop repeating words if you don't know what do they mean.
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Quoting: devnullThe gender diversity crap from one of their devs however is a valid argument for me. It's going to take a while to shake that and their _horrid_ launch stream on Twitch. It's one of the reasons I've avoided a lot of games and a hard lesson I hope other companies take note of.
Well, I will buy this game because someone brought up such crap about it on GoL and will thus avoid it.
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slaapliedje Sep 30, 2018
So here's the thing with promises. If they say "A Linux version will come." that's one thing, if they say "A Linux version will be released the same day as all other versions" then it is something different. Not sure what they did here, but the developers have delayed their releases for Linux for every game they've done so far, so not sure why someone would think that would have changed. Though to be fair, Paradox has a great track record for same day releases, and they were the publishers for this one.
I'm still waiting for Tower 57. Even the AmigaOS version was released before the Linux version...
I'm still waiting for Tower 57. Even the AmigaOS version was released before the Linux version...
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Schattenspiegel Sep 30, 2018
Quoting: nitroflowQuoting: SchattenspiegelHmm...menu and intro videos and character creation play nicely but I am stuck on the prepping for battle screen in the native beta :-(
...
Have you tried adding LC_ALL=C %command% to the launch options? Fixed all the issues I had.
Hey, you saved my weekend! That was indeed the solution.
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QuoteSo, let me see if I understand... If you pay in advance someone that promises something and they don't fulfill the promise, you should not complain? You are wrongly "entitled" to expect that promise to be true? Did I understand your point correctly?
You are acting like the 95%. You're not. Welcome to Kickstarter on Linux. What you say is logical, but in practice its meaningless. I hope one day that changes.
QuoteColombo just said you don't know what entitlement means, and I guess I agree with him.
Colombo didn't really say anything at all. So who knows what they really mean? There's not much to analyse in that sentence other than Colombo disagrees with me (without providing a reason why).
QuoteAnd stop saying you don't mind about the delay, because it's not about you. For every potential linux buyer not minding about the delay, there will be n others that do, and the linux sales will go down whether they are "wrongly entitled" or not. Can at least the complaint about how stupid this is as a commercial strategy be made? Because we want the company to succeed with Linux, but for that they will have to do much better.
I understand not everybody has patience. What I'm saying is the devs don't do this on purpose, like you suggest. So how can their decision be "stupid" when probably they would rather not deprioritise Linux, they would rather release on time? But they can't, for technical and timeline reasons that we are not privy to, and they prioritise Windows instead, like every other developer out there.
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QuoteColombo didn't really say anything at all. So who knows what they really mean? There's not much to analyse in that sentence other than Colombo disagrees with me (without providing a reason why).
So Colombo didn't say anything? And no one knows what it means? But Colombo must have said something, and something meaningful, when you interpreted the meaning as disagreement with you.
Given that there wasn't much to analyse, you made quite interesting analysis of my sentence.
Sadly without getting the simple meaning right in the first sense.
Dude, you should stop babbling.
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Quoting: Colombodrmoth has a point IMO. I don't see that this particularly clarifies anything, either. You may be right, drmoth may be wrong, but drmoth is making arguments while you're just assuming your correctness, so it's hard for me to tell what backs the assumption up.QuoteColombo didn't really say anything at all. So who knows what they really mean? There's not much to analyse in that sentence other than Colombo disagrees with me (without providing a reason why).
So Colombo didn't say anything? And no one knows what it means? But Colombo must have said something, and something meaningful, when you interpreted the meaning as disagreement with you.
Given that there wasn't much to analyse, you made quite interesting analysis of my sentence.
Sadly without getting the simple meaning right in the first sense.
Dude, you should stop babbling.
1 Likes, Who?
nattydread Oct 6, 2018
Wow I just played the linux version of this game and it is so much faster than windows. HBS have done a really good job with this port. I doubted them for a while but in my eyes they have brought out a version that is superior to the windows one in every way. I'm looking forwards to more of their games.
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