Quite a few people mailed this work in progress video in, so thanks to you all. It’s a Men Of War mod called Battletech: In The Shadow Of Giants, which drops Battletech mechs into the Men of War maps. Posted below is what the mod team have currently currently released as a demonstration of how the mechs might look or work in the engine, and it’s splendid. This is the kind of mod that really makes me glad of the flexibility of modern game engines. Go take a look, I think you’ll be surprised. Not sure what the smoky end bit is about, but hey.
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It would be lovely to be able to switch out equipment on. Then i can field my old erppc+lbx20 puma. A 30 tonne which can take out a heavy. Need to be super close though. But you are small enough to power down and hide behind anything.
Oh jeez, Clan Mad Cat’s are so overrated.
Why don’t we ever see these mod teams starting with Inner Sphere Mechs in their techdemo’s?
The inner sphere mechs tend to try to hard to look like people japan mech style, its goofy.
I bloody love Battletech and a new game from the universe is long overdue in my opinion. I would love a game based on the books with real character development, perhaps following the exploits of Archer Christifori (for lore fans). Anyways… for now if anyone can tell me how to get mechcommander gold working on Vista I would hug them.
Yea if you want mechs that look like people just play gundam or something. Us starving non-japanese people need us some timberwolves.
I REALLY want to play MechWarrior 4 now. Hell, I’d LOVE to play MechWarrior 3.
@Heliocentric: I was going to comment on the Atlas being a Clan ‘Mech (as far as I can tell. Looks like I know what I’ll be reading after my exams…), which seemed pretty humanoid to me, but then I got a look at Inner Sphere ‘Mechs. And compared them to the Atlas. I see your point.
Atlas=sphere=looks like a bloke holding a gun
Clans looks like they have developed from industrial walkers robots.
Sphere looks like they developed from ASIMO. Except Crab and king crab, which are both awesome.
King crab:
http://www.djgallagher.com/games/pc/battletech/wallpaper/KingCrab_1024×768.jpg
http://aw0l.homestead.com/files/AJ_KingCrab.jpg
*gazes at video*
I’m buying Men of War.
Also; if memory serves there were a few concept shots of MW:5 posted on dropshipcommand.com a number of years back by one of the MW:4 project leads (paingod, I think). Entirely unrelated to the article, but I’m sure some of the RPS readers would get a kick from seeing them.
Can I be an enormous pedant here?
The image for this post is not well-chosen. I know that the old-school Warhammer is iconic for some, but it is one of about 20 or so designs that are no longer used in BattleTech. There was a lawsuit involved because some of the early ‘mechs were taken directly from other sources and FASA may or may not have actually had the rights to use them (the details aren’t clear).
To elaborate a little, the Warhammer and Marauder and a few others were – oddly enough – Japanese designs from Macross (also known under its heavily-altered US guise as Robotech). Yep, those iconic clunky walking tanks are from anime, which adds a bit of comedic irony to any complaints about anime encroaching onto American giant robot fiction.
And on another amusing aside, Battletech got re-released in Japan at some point, with most of the US mech designs retained, but redrawn with a new art style – they look a bit more like they’re from the year 3030+, and have much more in the way of sloped armor.
http://www.gearsonline.net/btech/mechs.php
I really like their Rifleman design. That thing looks mean. Even the Locust looks pretty cool.
@Heliocentric: Ah, I see the difficulty. According to the BattleTech Wiki (which I spent a happy three and a half hours on instead of studying AI), it was commissioned by Aleksandr Kerensky. This was before the Exodus, and Kerensky doesn’t seem to have taken any with him, so the only people that still manufacture it are Sphere facilities (only three in the Sphere, in fact).
Admittedly, I only found out it was based off a tabletop game after I played MechWarrior 3. Is it a collectible minis game or a tactical war-game or an RPG? In other words, can you just buy one ‘Mech and play without buying any more, or do you need small armies of ‘Mechs?
@KBKarma: I think “tactical war-game” is the best description of those you’ve given. Although it’s possible to play it as a miniatures-based wargame, the rules are primarily written expecting you to be on a hex-tiled map. As a consequence of that, you don’t strictly need any miniatures at all. Any counters will work as long as you can determine which side of it represents the front end.
There’s also an RPG written around the setting. No idea if it’s any good or not.
@Dominic White: I’ll drink to that. It bears mentioning that most Western giant robot works were themselves inspired by anime. Those redesigns were by Studio Nue, the makers of Macross. They look more like walking tanks than the original designs.
@Heliocentric: The entire concept of a bipedal war machine is goofy–chicken walkers only slightly less. The Japanese themselves have long figured out that you’d need at least 4 legs to get a decently practical legged vehicle (see: Ghost in the Shell). Just because a walker robot might look more “industrial” than its more romanticized analogs doesn’t mean it’s any less idiotic in real life. I mean they’re robots with pew-pew lasers for cryin’ out loud. It’s silly to be sniffy towards works that embrace their genre more whole-heartedly.
Considering the size of ‘Mechs, it’s even more ludicrous. At least BF2142 had the sense of mind to scale things down a bit. Ground-based war machines only get less practical the larger they become–what’s true for tanks is true for robots.
I’m tired of hearing Mechwarrior fans poo-pooing Japanese robots for being silly. It’s missing the forest for the trees! The whole concept’s silly. Actual realism is for tanks. Giant robots are simply to look cool. (Though Armored Trooper VOTOMS robots are more realistic than anything I’ve seen in the Battletech universe, especially since they’re less than 20 feet tall.)
That said, bring on the Inner Sphere ‘Mechs. I never did like Clans, their culture always creeped me out. (While others thought it was cool–diff’rent strokes.)
A little tangent – I just had a quick peek at Mekwars (the online side of MegaMek, which in itself is an adaptation of classic tabletop Battletech), and there’s 50+ people in the lobby and 16 current games being played right now.
So anyone who wants to play old-school Battletech, you might as well skip on the tabletop version and go straight online.
http://www.mekwars.org/
It’s free, it’s well supported, and there seems to be a large and active playerbase. It’s also persistent-world based. You start out with a hangar full of mechs, and can buy/sell units with your winnings from various missions.
You might want to learn the ropes playing against Megamek bots, though. Just warning ya.
If you want to be serious about mechs then yeah, designing something that would fall over if you hit it with a cannon isn’t that smart.
On a mech design tangent, while much-maligned, the Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction clix game actually spawned some cool new designs. I recall seeing a 150-ton super-assault class with three legs, and a full 360-degree rotatable body.
Logically speaking, that’s probably a far, far more viable mech design than anything to come out of Battletech. It also looked mean as hell.
@Cornelius: I like to think the whole mech thing falls under Rule of Cool, which, to be fair, is perfectly true.
@Gap Gen: Or something that would fall over if it fired a cannon, as opposed to an energy weapon.
Maybe modern tanks are different, or maybe I’m just remembering game footage rather than real-life footage, but I seem to recall that even today’s tracked, low-centre-of-gravity tanks suffer a fair bit of visible recoil firing their main gun. And futuristic as they may sound, gauss guns aren’t exactly recoilless.
But yeah, the Rule of Cool is fair enough. After all, more realistic futuristic combat would probably be incomprehensible lighting-fast combat between UAVs. After all, modern combat is already supposed to be surprising and deadly. Star Trek and Star Wars would be no fun if by the time the crew had stopped yakking, the ship had been blown up many times over by an AI firing from across the solar system.
The reason I can stomach mech warrior but not… lets say gundam (that Armored Trooper VOTOMS seems much more reasonable though), when the robots are near 400 feet tall and move at near the speed of sound.
I find that sci fi is more meaningful when they arn’t just pulling “its magic/nanobots/god/plot-tech” out of their arse.
I however, loved the Chromehounds justification epic mid/upper atmosphere radiation, no satellites, no long range coms, when you have no viable artillery/planes/long range missiles and limited soldiers mechs seem much less silly.
Actually, Gundam (or at least the original series – not the power-inflation newer shows) was pretty low-tech. The robots themselves were pretty slow and clunky (and some of them were just vaguely humanoid assemblies slapped onto tank-treads), and for any kind of real agility, you need a Newtype (low-level psychic with much better awareness/reflexes) pilot.
The 08th MS Team miniseries – a story about generic grunt pilots, as human as you can get – might as well be Battletech if you just took the arms off the mechs and made them more hunched-over. Plenty of lurking around with passive sensors in the hopes of jump-jetting onto a target.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_koZ9T_oo
Teach me for just skimming the topic.
Mechwarrior 4 was a hacked mess, but I loved giving an assault mech a bloody nose in a light mech. I’ll be following this mod and the Crysis mod closely.
Getting a little further off-topic, on the general subject of eastern giant robots – most fall into two main types. There’s Super Robots, which are effectively giant metal superheroes. Usually lumbering, nigh-invulnerable, made of alien alloys and fuelled by the indomitable power of the human heart.
Then there are ‘Real’ robots. The general school of design seems to be akin to jetfighters. Piloted by limited humans for the most part, and just a couple of direct hits will ruin most Real designs. Even less, in many cases. They rely on agility, speed and long-range weaponry to fight for the most part.
Somewhere between those two are the ridiculous overpowered designs that take the best of both worlds. They’ve got the speed and agility, but the near-magical levels of power and toughness. They’re fun to play as (it’s like playing as Superman, but fifty feet high!), but often inspire eye-rolling from outside viewing.
And then there’s the relatively uncommon third option – Battletech style designs are what I’ve heard described as Vertanks (Vertical Tanks), which are just as the name describes. They’re lumbering weapons platforms with tons of armor. The designs in Steel Battalion and Chrome Hounds (which has one of the most badass alternate-history settings ever – walking battleships in the 1980s!) all fit into this category.
And back on the general topic, while Mechwarrior 4 was a bit of a damp squib, I found MW4: Mercenaries to be a lot of fun. There was a lot of difference between the good/evil campaign routes, and the fan-made Mektek addons kept multiplayer viable for years.
Indeed, it was MW4: Mercenaries I was thinking of, fighting in the Solaris free for all arena in the lightest chassis I could. I got Mercs first and was greatly disappointed by MW4.
You could solo the first few missions, or frugally load out a lance or two, issue fire orders and listen to the voices of your lancemates (who you could hire from a choice of 30 or so). Very clever game.
As an added incentive, Gamersgate currently has Men of War for a meager $12 US, presumably for the next week. I finally had to break down and get it.
An Armoured Trooper VOTOMS strategy game in English would be fantastic. (It would never happen, though.) The brilliant conceit of VOTOMS was, not only were the mechs <20 feet, they were also disposable – more like scaled-up powered armour suits. The hero would routinely get his ride shot out from under him and switch to a spare.
Good lord if anyone can tell me what the first song used in that video is I’ll hug you to death.
The thread linked in the first post names the music tracks used.