Your BattleTech News Roundup For December 2020

The news comes fast and hard in December! That’s mostly because everyone is getting their work out of the way now so they can have a quiet holiday break. At least, I assume. I don’t get those because the news never sleeps!

My pain is your gain. We’ve got some important things to talk about. Some important, plushie, Urbie things. But first, a follow-up to last week’s big story that is sure to be at the top of everyone’s mind.

PGI Talks About EG7 Purchase, MechWarrior 5 Release On Steam/GOG

MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries Dev Vlog
Watch this video on YouTube.

Let’s start off with the biggest news that hit us last month, which was PGI getting bought out by Swedish publisher EG7. Daeron, Matt, and Russ from PGI all spent a long time talking about what it means for the company and what it means for both MechWarrior 5 and MechWarrior Online in the latest dev vlog.

To cut 45 minutes down to a few paragraphs, it means good things for both. With EG7 providing financial backing and marketing support, PGI can focus their efforts on developing the best game they can.

All three made it clear that there’s not a lot they can say that wasn’t handled in the press release a few weeks ago. Not even PGI employees knew about the EG7 deal until the day of the announcement as there was a ton of secrecy surrounding negotiations. Russ did say that PGI had been on the market for a business partner for some time, and EG7 made the most sense. It allows PGI to retain their autonomy and also gives PGI access to what they’ve been missing: a powerful marketing engine that can get their games out there.

On the delay for MechWarrior 5‘s planned release on Steam and GOG, that was just mostly bad timing. The EG7 deal started to really take shape in November, and then Cyberpunk 2077 announced their delay to release on the same day as MechWarrior 5. These factors combined made it just impossible to get the product they wanted out on Steam in December as previously hoped.

Now the plan is to have Heroes of the Inner Sphere and MechWarrior 5 release together on Steam in the spring along with a simultaneous release on Xbox Series X. This version will essentially be the same game as found on PC but optimized for a singular console. PGI had wanted to also get the Xbox Series X version out in December as a surprise addition to the Steam release, but Microsoft was a little slow getting their dev kits sent out.

And we have some good news. Daeron strongly hinted that there will be a second DLC pack after Heroes of the Inner Sphere “right about the same time or just around the corner.” He even went as far as calling it an “overload of content” come the spring.

Which is great. I’m into it, and that gives me plenty of time to get through Cyberpunk and Project Wingman.

So, What’s Going On With MechWarrior Online?

Podcast 218 - Daeron Katz & Matt Newman MWO 2021
Watch this video on YouTube.

In addition to the MechWarrior 5 Developer update, Bombadil also returned to No Guts No Galaxy to talk to Sean (not me, the other Sean) about MechWarrior Online. Honestly, plans don’t appear to have changed all that much from November, but they are taking a more solid shape.

First off, the plan is to slightly alter the new player experience by changing the tier in which new MechWarriors begin. Right now it’s set to a tier that has them playing against the best MechWarriors in the game, and that causes them to get stomped into oblivion--not exactly a great way to introduce a new player to a competitive game. Instead, they’re going to have new players arrive at a lower tier so they’re not always giant targets for dudes with custom Mad Cat IIs and Vapor Eagles.

That’ll hopefully arrive in December’s patch, but if not it’ll be here in January. That’s about the same time PGI hopes to have a roadmap for what they plan to do with MechWarrior Online in 2021. Daeron said that PGI is hiring a dedicated team to work on MechWarrior Online, and that might even include a level designer or two to make a new map. But first, they’ll fix up some old maps to learn the ropes.

Fixing the new player experience is the top priority though, and that means new trial mechs for new players to aspire to. Everyone seemed very doubtful that an engine rewrite or even MechWarrior Online 2 is in the cards but you never know.

Oh, and there’s a town hall for MechWarrior fans scheduled for December 11. Sean Lang of No Guts No Galaxy will host the town hall on Twitch with Daeron posting questions to the MechWarrior Online forums to discuss live on stream. Go on over there to provide your two cents. [EDIT: Sorry, this was meant to get up a bit earlier, but a problem with the site delayed things until after the townhall.]

The UrbanMech Plushie Is Real And I Cannot Stand Being Apart From It

Look, I’ll be honest, I was getting a little bit concerned that the UrbanMech plushie that was offered in the Clan Invasion Kickstarter was going to turn out to be an empty promise that wouldn’t be fulfilled. Every single time I’ve even mildly interacted with Catalyst, it was to ask about the plushie UrbanMech. At this point, they’ve probably blocked my emails.

But my concerns were totally unfounded. The latest update on the Clan Invasion Kickstarter confirms that the Plushie Urbie is real, and it is ADORABLE.

It’s also a lot more complex than I initially expected. Look at all the colors! And the antennae! And the arms!

What we’re seeing here is a product sample that got sent to Catalyst after they sent their technical drawings, which were very technical indeed. I was expecting something very basic, very greyscale, and very… well, y’know, urban, but no. We get a pirate Urbie complete with a fancy paint job.

I eagerly await the day when I can hold my new UrbanMech son in my arms and name him. Until that day, more news.

Camo Specs Has A New Website And They Got Tex To Do The Introductory Video

CSO Welcome Page
Watch this video on YouTube.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a painter, so I didn’t have much cause to go to Camo Specs very often. But the few times I did go I was reminded of a GeoCities website from the late ’90s. It was bad, and I felt bad going there.

But now it’s gotten a huge overhaul that makes it faster, more user friendly, and just freakin’ works. There’s a search bar that can bring up helpful articles. There’s a tab at the top that will list factions, artists, and tutorials. You wanna know how the Tiburon Khanate painted their ‘Mechs? Well, you’re just three clicks away from the Camo Specs home page of finding out.

Best of all, they got Tex of Tex Talks BattleTech to do the intro video. I know Tex’s delivery makes it sort of sound like he’s doing the voiceover work for a corporate training video, but it’s still pretty great.

Tex Did A Voice Pack For BattleTech Modders

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE BATTLETECH COMMUNITY - Grampa Tex Mod Pack Preview
Watch this video on YouTube.

Speaking of Tex, he’s also featured in a brand new voice pack for Harebrained’s BATTLETECH. This allows Grampa Tex to be added as a pilot to something like RogueTech--provided they want to add said pilot, of course. Grampa Tex is not exactly the sort of guy you’d expect to find in a decorated mercenary outfit, so he sort of breaks immersion. On the other hand, he’s hilarious, and I think comedy far outweighs realism when it comes to video games.

Wolves Is Bringing Hell In Wave 2

https://twitter.com/Wolves_Game/status/1335631057794834433?s=19

Wolves is still working on getting Wave 2 out, but they’ve got something to keep us interested in the meantime. The Hellbringer is going to get added in the spring, and it will apparently be “agile, sturdy, and very hot.” Makes sense, given the Hellbringer was never a particularly cool ‘Mech even by Clan standards.

To show the Hellbringer off, Pajama Boy produced this delightful trailer video. And then he tagged me so I’d pop it in the December news dump. I’m easily manipulated, you see.

Now This Is A Super Cool HOTAS Setup For MechWarrior 5

Childhood dream, realized. Now to buy a house and build a training pod in the garage. from mechwarrior

I play MechWarrior 5 on a mouse and keyboard like most regular humans (I assume). When it releases on the Xbox Series X sometime next year, I suspect most people will play using a standard Xbox controller. This guy has something much, much better. Reddit user Tiltinnitus shows off his sweet-ass HOTAS setup, with the throttle on the left and joystick on the right. He’s even got old-school switches that can apparently be mapped to a ‘Mech’s engine ignition. For those wondering, Tiltinnitus explained in the comments that it’s a Logitech X56 throttle and an NXT Gladiator joystick. Both look very cool, although I sure hope there are some elbow rests hiding somewhere off-screen.

That’s it for now, but December isn’t over. We might have a few more surprises waiting for us before the year is out, so stay tuned.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy

stay syrupy

 

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