MW4 Vengeance: Base game, one single player campaing about a man who comes back from the crusade against clan smoke jaguar to find his planet Kentares IV (which is actually HIS) invaded by Steiner loyalists. The campaign is his fight to avenge his father and reconquer his planet. You can make one choice near the end, whether you save your sister (a leader of the anti-steiner resistance) or not. Multiplayer doesn't really work anymore. In the campaign you can salvage mechs and weapons.
MW4 Black Knight: An add-on expansion to Vengeance, you play a member of a mercenary group who fights against the hero from Vengeance, because he was suddenly retconned into a raving douchebag dictator. I don't know if there are any major differences in the campaign gameplay, it's NOT really like MW2: Mercs. Multiplayer is dead. Has a few extra Mechs and weapons. Prolly has salvaging as usual.
MW4 Mercenaries: Stand-alone game, no relation to the previous ones in story either. You're the boss of a mercenary company, you can choose planets and missions and factions, you can buy and sell and hire and fire mechs, guns and pilots. You can field and command up to 2 lances. there are weekly overhead costs for everything you own. You can side with either Steiner or Davion during their war. You can fight in the Solaris VII arena fights, with 4 different arenas and 5 tiers per arena. There is also salvaging. It's a lot like MW2 Mercs. Currently Multiplayer is supported through the MekTek packs, that add loads of mechs and other stuff.
The official IS and Clan Mech packs: Fucking lame money grabbing scheme to make people pay to unlock a few mechs already in the game code. about 4 or 5 mechs per pack. Can only be used on non-campaign game modes. Work on Vengeance and Mercenaries, AFAIK.
Mektek is going to release Mercs with the official Mech packs unlocked and the new, still unreleased MekPak they're finishing. Game will be cd-key and disk check free, with functional multiplayer and a fucking ton of mechs. I'm pretty sure that the extra mechs will be MP/Instant Action only.
The IS and Clan mech packs were released like a year before Mercs proper, FYI. Still doesn't make it less annoying.
And they said they were going to try to get the Mektek mechs into the campaign in MP4.0.
MP4.0 is still some time away though. the new mega pack will come with MP3.1.
I think they will integrate extra mechs with the Mercs sp campaign, but definitely not for the first release.
You can get some of them with a weird free market "dance" trick.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
I think I remember some of them being in, and they can use them since it's a free mod, no one can really tell them no.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
In the video, We can clearly see that the pilot is in a warhammer, which is very much an unseen mech.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
Catalyst, the people who have been creating and publishing new tabletop battletech stuff in the last few years, recently bought back the rights to the unseen mechs.
Note that the unseen designs will start showing up in their products sometime in the next few months.
Whether the acquisition of these licences by Catalyst means that Smith & Tinker or Pirana games can use them as well is unknown. But it seems possible.
So it sounds like I might want to wait until the single player campaigns for Vengeance/Black Knight and this MekTek 4.0 thing are available before playing to have everything.
I hope they add some of the joystick options from Mercs to Vengeance. Not being able to have a shift button or a one way throttle makes it hard on my joystick
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
Catalyst, the people who have been creating and publishing new tabletop battletech stuff in the last few years, recently bought back the rights to the unseen mechs.
Note that the unseen designs will start showing up in their products sometime in the next few months.
Whether the acquisition of these licences by Catalyst means that Smith & Tinker or Pirana games can use them as well is unknown. But it seems possible.
I feel like I'm missing something here. There's clearly a Warhammer in the OP video. At this point, how is there any confusion over whether the Unseen will be in the game or not?
So it sounds like I might want to wait until the single player campaigns for Vengeance/Black Knight and this MekTek 4.0 thing are available before playing to have everything.
Not really.
Get the Mercs pack ASAP to play the best campaign of the 3 games and the multiplayer.
And then if you're really into it get Vengeance and BL on ebay for 16 bucks.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
Catalyst, the people who have been creating and publishing new tabletop battletech stuff in the last few years, recently bought back the rights to the unseen mechs.
Note that the unseen designs will start showing up in their products sometime in the next few months.
Whether the acquisition of these licences by Catalyst means that Smith & Tinker or Pirana games can use them as well is unknown. But it seems possible.
That's great news! I was under the (uninformed) impression that Catalyst had only licensed the old artwork for their 25 years of BT art volume. I didn't realize this marked the full-fledged return of these glorious designs.
You have no idea how much I'd pay for a succession war BT game that let's me play the unseen. In fact, I better shut up, before someone gets the idea to make the unseen into pricey DLC.
The unseen designs never left the game, just the visual appearance- there was even the "Phoenix Project" revisions to how they looked just to bring back their stats to the game, some of which was cool, some of which was dumb.
Thought: if Mercs and company are being released as free, does that mean Mektek'll stop insisting on maintaining the disc check DRM? That's the one thing that always annoyed the hell out of me with their stuff.
I know it's silly, but the visual appearance is important to me. I grew up on BT 2nd ed (and Shadowrun 2nd ed, that's another story). In fact, my friends and I loved playing those designs years before we even saw our first Macross et al. I can understand completely how it would be an irrelevant distinction to others.
But to me, BT is the Marauder, the Gray Death Legion, LosTech, succession wars, aristocracy, and horribly, horribly flawed design that one must compensate for or exploit. I like the fact that the Rifleman has too many guns and no rear armor and that my Archer will run out of ammo.
enc0re on
0
IceBurnerIt's cold and there are penguins.Registered Userregular
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
In the video, We can clearly see that the pilot is in a warhammer, which is very much an unseen mech.
Warhammer/Warhammer II C = Super Dimensional Fortress Macross "Tomahawk"
Rifleman/Rifleman II C = Macross "Defender"
Others:
Not only do they now have the rights to the old designs, but they were already "reseen" when new, original art/designs was commissioned for these 'mechs.
Thought: if Mercs and company are being released as free, does that mean Mektek'll stop insisting on maintaining the disc check DRM? That's the one thing that always annoyed the hell out of me with their stuff.
Just popped into the Mechlab for more tinkering, and I'm reminded of of one of my biggest gripes with all this stuff: the ass-tastic placement and color of the 'mech value string. Whose bright idea was it to put bright green on a bright grey background? Put that shit on the bottom or back where it was, the new position is just retarded.
All I can say is, if they are gonna have the Warhammer, then they need to include the Defender and Phalanx unseen designs. Those three for me are epic.
Keep them stubby too, I like the heavy, lumbering feel.
Hiryu02 on
Sev: Your gameplay is the most heavily yomi based around. Usually you look for characters that allow you to force guessing situations for big dmg. Even if the guess is mathematically nowhere near in your favor lol. You're happiest when you have either a 50/50, 33/33/33 or even a 75/25 situation to go crazy with. And you will take big risks to force those situations to come up.
Anyway, since I'm crazy late to this thread, I have to ask a quick question. My favorite time-period and designs have always been 3025 and the unseen mechs. Judging by the trailer, am I to understand that we will get to play those? I saw both a Warhammer and a Rifleman. If so, I want to give them my monies as soon as possible.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
In the video, We can clearly see that the pilot is in a warhammer, which is very much an unseen mech.
Warhammer/Warhammer II C = Super Dimensional Fortress Macross "Tomahawk"
Rifleman/Rifleman II C = Macross "Defender"
Others:
Not only do they now have the rights to the old designs, but they were already "reseen" when new, original art/designs was commissioned for these 'mechs.
To elaborate.
The Reseen variants were essentially 3067-era redesigns of the mechs. Most of them kept the same general profile (save the Rifleman and IS Marauder, for some reason), and were meant to be the production variants of that time. They weren't necessarily meant to replace the old minis, as the older mechs still existed in-universe, but they were easily used for that purpose, especially for people who never got to buy the unseen.
Not only do they now have the rights to the old designs, but they were already "reseen" when new, original art/designs was commissioned for these 'mechs.
I totally love those designes, but they're pretty much exact copies. I don't know how in the hell they ever thought that they would get away with it.
Not only do they now have the rights to the old designs, but they were already "reseen" when new, original art/designs was commissioned for these 'mechs.
I totally love those designes, but they're pretty much exact copies. I don't know how in the hell they ever thought that they would get away with it.
Didn't care/were on a time limit so some designer just went with it.
Or, as anime wasn't as popular back then, maybe they thought no one would notice.
Not only do they now have the rights to the old designs, but they were already "reseen" when new, original art/designs was commissioned for these 'mechs.
I totally love those designes, but they're pretty much exact copies. I don't know how in the hell they ever thought that they would get away with it.
Didn't care/were on a time limit so some designer just went with it.
Or, as anime wasn't as popular back then, maybe they thought no one would notice.
This is so very, very false.
FASA weren't trying to "get away with" anything.
They did have a proper licence to them at the time. And later lost said licence. (it's a much more involved story if you want the details but that's the short of it)
The news of the MekTek team dropping their support for the Vengeance/Black Knight games doesn't surprise me. While V/BK share about 80% of the game engine design with Mercs, the other 20% is a huge improvement for mercs, and going through the pain of reverse engineering that 20% for V/BK I wouldn't wish on anyone, especially given the superiority of the mercs content anyway.
If anything, what I would probably do is design a downloadable mission set that lets you play the vengeance and black knight campaign in MW4: Mercs. Co-op, online, with better UI, AI, etc.
Also, I may be wrong here but I thought MW4: Mercs came with the IS/Clan mech packs included? I installed PR1 and went straight to playing and saw clan mech pack mechs like the cougar and masakari throughout the game.
They did have a proper licence to them at the time. And later lost said licence. (it's a much more involved story if you want the details but that's the short of it)
The long and complicated story, as I understand it:
So first there were the original Japanese cartoons Macross, Crusher Joe and Dougram. BattleTech used designs from all 3, but Macross is the important one here. There were 3 Japanese companies orginally responsible for the Macross cartoon: Big West, Tatsunoko and Studio Nue. Models and toys followed afterward.
When BattleTech first came out (BattleDroids), they decided to do it with mecha from these cartoons. They got a license to use these from a toy import/export company, Twentieth Century Imports, who happily sold them one. It's not terribly clear what TCI did or didn't have the rights to at any point. I would guess that FASA approached this company because it was relatively visible in the US, compared to the original cartoons which were probably still untranslated and unsubtitled at this point.
Soon afterwards, Harmony Gold in the US contacted Tatsunoko and got the rights to the cartoons that made up Robotech, including Macross. Their license also gave them merchandising rights in the US (except for plastic model kits, I think, which was Revell).
There actually wasn't any problem for a surprisingly long time, until Playmates came out with Exo-Squad, and approached Harmony Gold to sell Robotech toys under their label. And then, in addition to Exo-Squad and Robotech toys, for some reason they decided to make a Mad Cat with no permission whatsoever.
I mean, wtf?
So FASA sued Playmates, and won. In response, Harmony Gold got involved, and they and Playmates countersued over the Macross designs, and FASA lost that one. FASA said that they felt they could successfully appeal, but couldn't afford the court costs, and decided to give up not just the Macross designs, but also the Crusher Joe and Dougram designs.
A little after that, they apparently considered further and decided to remove every single design that didn't originate completely in-house, which ended up removing quite a few designs from TRO... 3058, I think, which ended up removing almost 50 designs from the canon instead of the original unseen 26.
And now they seem to have gotten over that, so that would appear to be that.
If anything, what I would probably do is design a downloadable mission set that lets you play the vengeance and black knight campaign in MW4: Mercs. Co-op, online, with better UI, AI, etc.
Yup, and they've said that's the plan, which is fine. The only reason to get those first 2 are for the campaigns, after all.
Edit: Didn't someone already remake the MW4 campaign as a co-op campaign?
The only one I've seen is the MW4: Mercs campaign, remade for multiplayer co-op. Well, you can do the missions co-op, but the planet selection, shopping, and solaris matches are not in.
So basically the whole legal whoop-de-doo can be summed up as "Fuck Harmony Gold". Not like most of us haven't come to that conclusion anyway.
EDIT: And since we're talkin' about co-op and multi and that, what're the settings you've got to use to get stuff goin'? Google's giving me a bunch of stuff that I can't tell is anywhere relevent or not.
Posts
MW4 Vengeance: Base game, one single player campaing about a man who comes back from the crusade against clan smoke jaguar to find his planet Kentares IV (which is actually HIS) invaded by Steiner loyalists. The campaign is his fight to avenge his father and reconquer his planet. You can make one choice near the end, whether you save your sister (a leader of the anti-steiner resistance) or not. Multiplayer doesn't really work anymore. In the campaign you can salvage mechs and weapons.
MW4 Black Knight: An add-on expansion to Vengeance, you play a member of a mercenary group who fights against the hero from Vengeance, because he was suddenly retconned into a raving douchebag dictator. I don't know if there are any major differences in the campaign gameplay, it's NOT really like MW2: Mercs. Multiplayer is dead. Has a few extra Mechs and weapons. Prolly has salvaging as usual.
MW4 Mercenaries: Stand-alone game, no relation to the previous ones in story either. You're the boss of a mercenary company, you can choose planets and missions and factions, you can buy and sell and hire and fire mechs, guns and pilots. You can field and command up to 2 lances. there are weekly overhead costs for everything you own. You can side with either Steiner or Davion during their war. You can fight in the Solaris VII arena fights, with 4 different arenas and 5 tiers per arena. There is also salvaging. It's a lot like MW2 Mercs. Currently Multiplayer is supported through the MekTek packs, that add loads of mechs and other stuff.
The official IS and Clan Mech packs: Fucking lame money grabbing scheme to make people pay to unlock a few mechs already in the game code. about 4 or 5 mechs per pack. Can only be used on non-campaign game modes. Work on Vengeance and Mercenaries, AFAIK.
Mektek is going to release Mercs with the official Mech packs unlocked and the new, still unreleased MekPak they're finishing. Game will be cd-key and disk check free, with functional multiplayer and a fucking ton of mechs. I'm pretty sure that the extra mechs will be MP/Instant Action only.
And they said they were going to try to get the Mektek mechs into the campaign in MP4.0.
MP4.0 is still some time away though. the new mega pack will come with MP3.1.
I think they will integrate extra mechs with the Mercs sp campaign, but definitely not for the first release.
You can get some of them with a weird free market "dance" trick.
So sorry for the shameless self quote and/or if this has been answered already. But I must know the answer to this. Please, please, please somebody tell me I'll get to play the unseen. Mad Internet points, if you can also tell me how the hell they got the rights to those designs.
I think I remember some of them being in, and they can use them since it's a free mod, no one can really tell them no.
In the video, We can clearly see that the pilot is in a warhammer, which is very much an unseen mech.
Catalyst, the people who have been creating and publishing new tabletop battletech stuff in the last few years, recently bought back the rights to the unseen mechs.
http://catalystgamelabs.com/2009/06/24/catalyst-game-labs-brings-back-unseen/
Note that the unseen designs will start showing up in their products sometime in the next few months.
Whether the acquisition of these licences by Catalyst means that Smith & Tinker or Pirana games can use them as well is unknown. But it seems possible.
That... Has very little bearing on what they can or can not do, actually.
The campaign be set there, sure. Or so they say right now.
I feel like I'm missing something here. There's clearly a Warhammer in the OP video. At this point, how is there any confusion over whether the Unseen will be in the game or not?
Not really.
Get the Mercs pack ASAP to play the best campaign of the 3 games and the multiplayer.
And then if you're really into it get Vengeance and BL on ebay for 16 bucks.
While MekTek 4.0 looks really neat, it is still in development (no one has it yet) and 3.x works just fine.
That's great news! I was under the (uninformed) impression that Catalyst had only licensed the old artwork for their 25 years of BT art volume. I didn't realize this marked the full-fledged return of these glorious designs.
You have no idea how much I'd pay for a succession war BT game that let's me play the unseen. In fact, I better shut up, before someone gets the idea to make the unseen into pricey DLC.
If that was addressing me, you missed the point of my question entirely.
But to me, BT is the Marauder, the Gray Death Legion, LosTech, succession wars, aristocracy, and horribly, horribly flawed design that one must compensate for or exploit. I like the fact that the Rifleman has too many guns and no rear armor and that my Archer will run out of ammo.
Rifleman/Rifleman II C = Macross "Defender"
Others:
Shadow Hawk/Shadow Hawk II C = Fang of the Sun, Dougram's titular "Dougram" robot
Griffin/Griffin II C = Dougram "H8 Roundfacer"
Wolverine = Dougram "T10B Blockhead "
Scorpion = Dougram "F35C Blizzard Gunner"
Goliath = Dougram "F44A Crab Gunner"
Thunderbolt = Dougram "F4X Ironfoot"
Battlemaster = Dougram "HT128 Bigfoot"
Archer = Macross "Spartan"
Longbow = Macross "Phalanx"
Wasp = Macross "VF-1S Valkyrie"
Stinger = Macross "VF-1A Valkyrie"
Valkyrie = Macross "VF-1S Valkyrie" (lol)
Phoenix Hawk = Macross "Super Valkyrie"
Crusader = Macross "Armored Valkyrie"
Marauder= Macross "Zentraedi Glaug Pod"
Marauder II/Marauder II C = Macross "Zentraedi Glaug Pod"
Ostroc = Macross "Zentraedi Regult Pod"
Ostsol = Macross "Zentraedi Regult Pod"
Ostscout = Macross "Zentraedi Regult Pod"
PSN: theIceBurner, IceBurnerEU, IceBurner-JP | X-Link Kai: TheIceBurner
Dragon's Dogma: 192 Warrior Linty | 80 Strider Alicia | 32 Mage Terra
Yes.
I don't care if it's poorly designed by todays standards. If I can pilot a MAD-3R Marauder in Mechwarrior*, I'll be a happy man.
*: Base game or high quality mod, either way works.
Hrmm... *checks Battletech Wiki*
Are you kidding me? An Assault class Marauder that can jump??
Badass.
Keep them stubby too, I like the heavy, lumbering feel.
The Reseen variants were essentially 3067-era redesigns of the mechs. Most of them kept the same general profile (save the Rifleman and IS Marauder, for some reason), and were meant to be the production variants of that time. They weren't necessarily meant to replace the old minis, as the older mechs still existed in-universe, but they were easily used for that purpose, especially for people who never got to buy the unseen.
I totally love those designes, but they're pretty much exact copies. I don't know how in the hell they ever thought that they would get away with it.
Didn't care/were on a time limit so some designer just went with it.
Or, as anime wasn't as popular back then, maybe they thought no one would notice.
This is so very, very false.
FASA weren't trying to "get away with" anything.
They did have a proper licence to them at the time. And later lost said licence. (it's a much more involved story if you want the details but that's the short of it)
EDIT: Yeah, what he said above.
If anything, what I would probably do is design a downloadable mission set that lets you play the vengeance and black knight campaign in MW4: Mercs. Co-op, online, with better UI, AI, etc.
Also, I may be wrong here but I thought MW4: Mercs came with the IS/Clan mech packs included? I installed PR1 and went straight to playing and saw clan mech pack mechs like the cougar and masakari throughout the game.
The long and complicated story, as I understand it:
So first there were the original Japanese cartoons Macross, Crusher Joe and Dougram. BattleTech used designs from all 3, but Macross is the important one here. There were 3 Japanese companies orginally responsible for the Macross cartoon: Big West, Tatsunoko and Studio Nue. Models and toys followed afterward.
When BattleTech first came out (BattleDroids), they decided to do it with mecha from these cartoons. They got a license to use these from a toy import/export company, Twentieth Century Imports, who happily sold them one. It's not terribly clear what TCI did or didn't have the rights to at any point. I would guess that FASA approached this company because it was relatively visible in the US, compared to the original cartoons which were probably still untranslated and unsubtitled at this point.
Soon afterwards, Harmony Gold in the US contacted Tatsunoko and got the rights to the cartoons that made up Robotech, including Macross. Their license also gave them merchandising rights in the US (except for plastic model kits, I think, which was Revell).
There actually wasn't any problem for a surprisingly long time, until Playmates came out with Exo-Squad, and approached Harmony Gold to sell Robotech toys under their label. And then, in addition to Exo-Squad and Robotech toys, for some reason they decided to make a Mad Cat with no permission whatsoever.
So FASA sued Playmates, and won. In response, Harmony Gold got involved, and they and Playmates countersued over the Macross designs, and FASA lost that one. FASA said that they felt they could successfully appeal, but couldn't afford the court costs, and decided to give up not just the Macross designs, but also the Crusher Joe and Dougram designs.
A little after that, they apparently considered further and decided to remove every single design that didn't originate completely in-house, which ended up removing quite a few designs from TRO... 3058, I think, which ended up removing almost 50 designs from the canon instead of the original unseen 26.
And now they seem to have gotten over that, so that would appear to be that.
Yup, and they've said that's the plan, which is fine. The only reason to get those first 2 are for the campaigns, after all.
Edit: Didn't someone already remake the MW4 campaign as a co-op campaign?
EDIT: And since we're talkin' about co-op and multi and that, what're the settings you've got to use to get stuff goin'? Google's giving me a bunch of stuff that I can't tell is anywhere relevent or not.