BattleTech Post-funding Update #34

Ending the year on a productive note, Harebrained Schemes put out a lengthy update for their BattleTech Kickstarter campaign. This update, for the most part, revolves around the intricacies of the upcoming game’s melee combat, visual aids and all. Additionally, it brings the readers up to speed on production progress and announces a new merchandise campaign. And if that wasn’t enough, holiday well-wishes and a good number of team’s photos are also present and accounted for.

Finally, spreading the holiday spirit in the form of a clever cross-promotion, the update offers a gift code for MechWarrior Online viable until January 3rd, 2017.

An engaging read if you’re interested in the game or the company behind it. Here’s a short excerpt to get you started:

The system works like this: every ‘Mech has an “engagement range” at which it can move up and take a swing at an enemy. If you’re within the engagement range of a target when you start your action, that target gets a gold box around it to show that you can punch it. Then, as your entire action for the round, you move up and swing (or kick, or shoulder-check, or stomp).

Which of the possible attacks you perform is based on your ‘Mech, your opponent’s ‘Mech, and your relative heights. If you’re standing on a hillside facing an Atlas whose head comes up to your waist, you’re going to kick the Atlas. If you’re driving a Catapult, you’ll kick or body-check, but never punch (you have no real arms!). If you engage a vehicle or a downed enemy, you’ll try to stomp them instead of kicking. The goal is to make sure that whatever your situation, the attack looks and feels like it solidly connected.

‘Mechs do melee damage based on their tonnage, and whether they’re particularly good at melee — you can build your ‘Mech to be a punching machine by installing melee-focused actuator upgrades, and Jordan and I both still dream of one day getting the Hatchetman. In keeping with the goal of making close-range melee a decisive moment in battle, the damage is tuned to be quite large. After all, you’ve had to walk up under a hail of fire from every long-range and mid-range ‘Mech, survive all of that mostly intact, and then hit with an attack. Gambling all that on a single attack roll is risky, so we want to be sure you’re well-rewarded for doing so.