I played this at GenCon. Listen, as a long time BattleTech player and somebody who works the Catalyst Games Lab booth every GenCon (CGL is the company that holds the license to produce BattleTech from Topps), Harebrained Schemes version plays like table top. For me the game took all of the best parts of the TT game and gave that to the player. Then it took all of the crappy busywork and gave it to the computer. Mitch Gitelman was also at GenCon, what I said above is the answer I gave him when he asked my opinion on the build. That answer, he said, made his day. Given how his face lit up I knew he wasn't stroking my ego.

HBS is advertising the game as pre-Alpha, so I asked the dev who was standing over my shoulder how far along things were. Graphics are at about 80%, features are at 70%. The biggest missing component for the combat engine was physical attacks, the reason for them not being in the build ended up being crappy animations. If things keep progressing along at the same level of quality as they have been then I think this game was probably the best $50 I spent on gaming last year.

Kxmode wrote on Aug 4, 2016, 23:42:
I backed BT at the $50 level, and it was the last game I backed before giving up on crowdfunding and early access. That being said this looks much better than I thought it would.

For an alpha, I was really surprised we had rain and blowing trees. Even the music sounded decent...

Still lots of room for improvement, obviously, but it looked waaaaay better than I would have hoped for "pre alpha"...

I backed BT at the $50 level, and it was the last game I backed before giving up on crowdfunding and early access. That being said this looks much better than I thought it would.

Nate wrote on Aug 4, 2016, 20:05:
So glad I back this kickstarter.

Et moi aussi.

So glad I back this kickstarter.

jdreyer wrote on Aug 4, 2016, 17:13:
Looking very cool. I'm not familiar with the tabletop rules. Is this a case where you want to use them in a game, or would it make sense to change them to better fit the media?

I'm sure they will modify the original rules in order to keep the game moving at a good pace. For example, you can tell from the video that they're mixing movement and weapons fire. But in the table top version, nobody shoots until everyone has moved - and then none of the hits take effect until after everyone has fired.

I trust their judgement, especially since Jordan is at the lead.

In any case, a lot of the original rules were written for dice. With computers there's just better ways to do things.

Looking very cool. I'm not familiar with the tabletop rules. Is this a case where you want to use them in a game, or would it make sense to change them to better fit the media?

Really, you named your female pilot "Gargoyle?"

I hope the trees catch on fire.

Looking great.

Actually Kick started this because they delivered on their previous titles.

It looks like it's coming together nicely and I'm wondering if they'll do sort of a "over watch" function for initiative saving.

The other thing I wonder about is will direction your mech is facing help, as in, will you use your arm/left torso as a shield on a centurion if you're looking to do a side absorb while flanking his friend.

nin wrote on Aug 4, 2016, 10:17:
This looks awesome, and was pretty much exactly what I was hoping for...

First Shadowrun and now this, HBS is really spoiling me...

Oh no nin, we cant have you being spoiled, time to turn you over on my knee and spank you a bit.

But, yes this does look good. I really dont care for the turn based combat, but I really liked what I saw here.

I especially liked how the Atlas got head shotted, that was classic. Took the devs by surprise. Which made this even more fun to watch.

That doesn`t look too bad indeed. Shallowrun was extremely disappointing but maybe they can do better this time.

This looks awesome, and was pretty much exactly what I was hoping for...

First Shadowrun and now this, HBS is really spoiling me...