Metacampaign 2010: A Steel Battalion Scenario

Maradine

I promised a long time ago we'd have something superbly epic at Prime to blow away the Steel Battalion setup we had at East. I'm happy to say, this thread delivers.

You now have two options to enjoy your filthy mecha fun. Similar to the setup at East, there will be 10 dedicated Steel Battalion stations set up as a Boot Camp, where instructors will run you through the basics of shooting your friends and not falling over. This room will run Beginner and Intermediate sessions all show, and once again hold the popular Masters Classes after midnight.

For those of you who crave a bit more meaning in your mayhem, we offer, for the first time ever, a complete and dedicated Metacampaign built in the image of Capcom's long-dead scenario. In effect, this is the first time anyone's played Line of Contact as designed since 2005. The Hai Shi Dao and the Pacific Rim Forces will battle again, on another 10 dedicated stations. Hardline voice comms, NPC briefing agents, a real live Quartemaster - the works.

While there is a dedicated Campaign Staff available to cater to your every mecha need, we encourage player participation. Form vicious wolfpacks, volunteer as a squad leader, even serve as a recruiter for one of the two playable factions.

So - now you have two choices. Come on by for a fight, or stay for the war.

You can find the Metacampaign's Player's Manual here.
Important updates will come via here.
You can learn more than you possibly want to know about the game here.

Good luck, and good hunting.

M


edits:
Updated to v1.1 of Player's Manual
Don't forget about the Oktaeder VTs For Tots Contest

Shervyn

Woooo! It don't get more awesome!

MrWote

How excellent.

ravemonger

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Matev

wow, this sounds wickedly cool, I might actually have to learn how to play.

Kwisatz Haderach

This is one hot straight-to-the-face delivery of 100% Awesome Sauce. Count me in for the war!

Wedge

Having experienced the trial run for this I must say that it is one of the most awesome gaming experiences I've ever had. I can only imagine it in the context of PAX. Epic doesn't seem even remotely sufficient.

Steel Fire

Definitely going to be spending some serious time on this.

Maradine

BTW, guys - if I missed anyone on the thanks section, please let me know! I was working from shipping records and might not have gotten everyone. Thanks!

M

NotoriusBEN

Is there a signup for this before PAX or is it first come first serve at the Steelbattalion booth?

Maradine

No signups - walk in and play. We'll do our best to keep people rotating through. The campaign bit's a hair more complicated than that, but you still don't need to sign up for anything ahead of time.

NotoriusBEN

sweet.

i'll be practicing on campaign mode to polish up.
good news, I remember how to start the damn things up :P

VThornheart

This sounds like the most epic game setup ever. I may have to put down my cookie satchel for an hour or so to give this a try. What's the odds that something like this will ever be set up again? (Well, other than at a future PAX of course )

Maradine

Not fantastically likely, as this hardware is on borrowed time. That said, if something like that were to happen, you'd hear about it here.

VThornheart

All the more reason than to take part in it... I'll do my best to treat my mech controls with TLC.

Raiden333

I am so in.

The_Reflection

I was not very good at this game at PAX East, but i'll get better just for this. Holy shit, this looks awesome.

TOGSolid

I scored an unopened copy of Steel Battallion of Ebay recently, so I'll be learning the ins and outs of the game before PAX. Count me in on this.

Relativiox

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Matev

Ok, watched a couple tutorial videos. I almost want to make Banzai headbands for fellow Hai Shi Dao recruits... >>;;

kropotkin

You know, I go blundering around these forums declaring that I am made of 'Awesome and Win' without a whiff of irony when something like this somes along to shatter my illusions. For indeed this endeavour reeks of awesome and win. I salute those who made it possible.

MelesMeles

I will totally be there for this. I promise no competence or skill, only a spectacular self-inflicted doom.

VThornheart

That's okay! I will follow in said doom. However, as my mech inevitably bursts into a fiery heap of twisted metal, I will know that I died in vain for my small Communist break-off state. Viva la Revolucion!

NotoriusBEN

Protip:

keep the little plastic cover on your eject button uncovered.
You will die if your fiddleing with the stupid cap instead of punching the button.

Maradine

VThornheart wrote: »

That's okay! I will follow in said doom. However, as my mech inevitably bursts into a fiery heap of twisted metal, I will know that I died in vain for my small Communist break-off state. Viva la Revolucion!

Our propaganda artist agrees.

VThornheart

I love that! Hai Shi Dao for life!

DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?

kropotkin

Oh I see, VThornheart is a pinko commie. I better see him selling copies of the Socialist Worker at PAX or I'll be very suspicous of his self confessed love of all things written in Das Kapital.

NotoriusBEN

all we gotta do now, VThorn, is survive Hellweek

VThornheart

Kropotkin, don't fight for the Imperialist forces! Join us in our march to freedom! Just think of it, comrade... standing side by side as we face wave after wave of metal-clad invader, our resolve strengthened by the knowledge of the freedom for which we fight. The charred, smoldering wreckage of our defeated foes at our feet, the ground tinted red with the blood of our enemies: and the flag, that beautiful flag of our victory from Capitalist tyranny, waving boldly in the air as those who would trample our liberty flee in fear and cowardice. Join us, Kropotkin: stand by me as we fight for the cause of every man!

Red, the blood of angry men
Black, the dark of ages past
Red, the world about to dawn
Black, the night that ends at last!

... speaking of which, can our mechs pipe out Communist propaganda during the battle? I think Hai Shi Dao mech control stations should come with large speaker sets and an MP3 player jack so that you can play inspirational battle songs and pre-recorded propaganda messages and thus disturb and demoralize the Imperialist pigs. Can that be arranged?

This is going to be a blast! I'm pumped! Now I just have to figure out how to aim and shoot. And eject, yes... eject will likely be something I will need quickly.

EDIT: Oh, man... wouldn't that be a neat feature? Okay, so say each team had a "propaganda station" where they could indeed do what I was mentioning above... but instead of the speakers just blasting everywhere, they were specifically on in the control stations of the opposing team, so they were always hearing whatever racket the opposing team decided to play through their connected MP3 device. In game terms, one of the mechs would be "holding" the "mobile propaganda station", so if they were destroyed in battle their team's propaganda and music would be cut off for the remainder of the battle. It would give a non-victory condition reason to seek out and destroy a particular mech.

Maradine

Working copy, but wanted to make sure it's not all socialist dogma around here while we finish up . . .

VThornheart

Pay no heed to the forces of Imperialism! Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

(this message brought to you by the Hai Shi Dao Proletariat Liberation Front)

Shoot-Man

Oh. My. God. This will be the most awesome thing to ever happen ever. I haven't played Steel Battalion since my control console broke, and I've been having mecha combat cravings ever since. I will definitely try to get as much pilot time as I can.

Moirne

While I'm slightly disappointed I will miss a large chunk of the early campaign due to schedule conflict(Of Dice and Men shows Friday night as a full production, woo)...

...I absolutely cannot friggin' wait to see this campaign rolling. Kudos to Maradine and his entire insane crew of robot-mad Enforcers - you guys are doing glorious work

Aidan_

Yesssss...Gonna hit that beginner's room. I've never played Steel Battalion before, always wanted to, and I'm so glad that the first PAX I'm going to will allow me the opportunity.

Matev

Yup, while I love playing the good guys, I have a soft spot for Communists...

For the Revolution!

VThornheart

I guess the real question, Matev, is... who's the good guys? A small nation longing for independence from tyranny, or the Imperialist forces that feel like they know what is best for the masses who long to be free?

This is the question we all must ask now, in this time of war and struggle via 20' tall mechanical robots.

It is time for us all to decide who we are:
do we fight for the right to a night at the Opera now?
Have you asked of yourself what's the price you might pay?
Is this simply a game for rich young boys to play?
The color of the world is changing, day by day!

Completely OOC, I find the juxtaposition that Steel Battalion made interesting... obviously they're making a reference to China and Taiwan with these nations, but they inverted the politics of the two nations. It's interesting to wonder if, in real life, China would be seen as the "good guys" if they were the democracy and Taiwan was the Communist republic.

But I digress... back to the propaganda machine! Mwa ha ha!

Maze

I'd received intelligence that Hai Shi Dao sympathizers were openly commiserating in this forum but I'd have never imagined it to be this brazen! HSD supporters will be shown no leniency when this pacification operation and national reunification is complete, so choose your alliances carefully. The spreading of communist propaganda is severely frowned upon by your impending regime! I encourage you to publicly reject their insidious nonsense if you value your freedom.

If the HSD continue this absurd resistance, we shall be forced to restore this glorious nation by the noble efforts of our brave VT pilots. We are all watching with a heavy heart as the HSD tear this empire asunder in their futile and selfish attempt to escape the realities of modern imperial responsibility. Two years of provisional governance wasted! I assure you that this reunification process, though it may adversely affect the health of HSD sympathizers, is far more painful and disappointing for us here at PRF Strategic Command. When we soon stand upon Lo Gui Beach once more it will be with sadness, but not remorse.

VThornheart

The beaches will run red with the blood of those who would stamp out our freedom! People of East Asia, arise and claim your birthright! Hai Shi Dao will be free, and you can be as well! Join our resistance, and fight for the workers who have so long been crushed under the foot of the PRF Bourgeois!

If the PRF is grieved by our struggle for freedom, it is only out of a desire to keep an iron grip on their populace: keeping us in a state of permanent underclass, laboring to death for their benefit and leisure. Is this what our lives will come to mean? Never, I say! Death before enslavement, I say!

Come, comrades! Come forth, ye restless many! The prosperous few tremble at our inevitable victory!

Whacktose

VThornheart wrote: »

workers who have so long been crushed under the foot of the PRF Proletariat!

Speaking as a member of the propaganda ministry, it would be helpful if the rebels used the correct pinko jargon to describe their benevolent overlords. (Trans: Wrong use of "proletariat.")

Matev

Whacktose wrote: »

VThornheart wrote: »

workers who have so long been crushed under the foot of the PRF Proletariat!

Speaking as a member of the propaganda ministry, it would be helpful if the rebels used the correct pinko jargon to describe their benevolent overlords. (Trans: Wrong use of "proletariat.")

Agreed "Capitalist running dog" is the appropriate term in this case. "bourgeois" is also acceptable.

VThornheart

Whacktose wrote: »

VThornheart wrote: »

workers who have so long been crushed under the foot of the PRF Proletariat!

Speaking as a member of the propaganda ministry, it would be helpful if the rebels used the correct pinko jargon to describe their benevolent overlords. (Trans: Wrong use of "proletariat.")

(oops! I'm not used to spouting Communist propaganda, can you tell? lol! )