Battletech MMO?

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

Well my question would be how to handle the universe and keep the same FTL feel?

Your question is definitely well taken, and I've given a great deal of thought to it; the answer I arrived at is population.  While your unit/element is in-transit the individual player has several choices: 1) play an alternate character, 2) practice and skirmish with your present unit in simulators across the fleet, if there's more than one ship, and 3) play, as a ghost, in battles or skirmishes, practice or actual, in PUBs (pick-up battles), where you play as a 5/4 pilot for which ever element you're taking the place of an NPC in a 'Mech, vehicle, fighter, etc.

So how to make it not take weeks to get any where, and yet keep the feel of how "slow" interstellar travel is*?

This is another important element... time.  There are a few ways to handle time I haven't time to go into right now.   However, all MMOs deal on an accelerated time basis, and I believe BTO would be no different.

Oh And I would not mind an MMO that did not have auto attacks, as in all you have to do is click on the target once and sit back and watch as your character automatically attack the target until it dies.

I would like to see a mixture of computer control and gunnery skill, but mostly gunnery skill; no, in BTO you couldn't just let the computer do all the work... the technology of the universe doesn't support it, and neither would an on-line game.

[Taemien]

One of the common trends in MMO's these days is not to make travel take too much time. While it takes out a sense of realism, how fun it is to sit there and wait to get to the action? A Btech based MMO would need to pride itself on the action that takes place and capitalize on that.

With sufficient resources, a person could travel from Terra to the Periphery in a relative short time by using a pony express type deal with enough jumpships. This could just be simulated in the MMO environment. While I understand that there isn't enough Jumpships to go around to give every joe smoe access to the entire galaxy, this is where we would need to turn a blind eye.

It would be best to assume that a player would be able to get where he needs to go (within reason) as long as he has the means (isn't in combat, has access to a dropship, ect).

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

One of the common trends in MMO's these days is not to make travel take too much time. While it takes out a sense of realism, how fun it is to sit there and wait to get to the action? A Btech based MMO would need to pride itself on the action that takes place and capitalize on that.

No.  And here's why.  The MMOs that are out today, with the exception of a few (STO, EVE, and the forthcoming 40k) are all based on the ground, and therefore the importance of movement is very minimal.  The technology of BattleTech, as well as the strategic and tactical environment, make time the most important factor and, if not a level playing field, it would quickly become a major point of contention, and the game would fail.  I believe it has less chance to fail, by far, if all of the important elements -even if the time index is increased three-fold- remain intact, more or less.

I've already explained what I would recommend to alleviate player boredom in the case of BattleTech-style space travel -and be grateful it's not real-time- and I believe that's the only way to handle it, period, unless you want the same stuff you've been getting for years.  BattleTech, nor I, are the same as everyone else and every other MMO out there; BattleTech is extraordinarily unique and should be treated as such.

With sufficient resources, a person could travel from Terra to the Periphery in a relative short time by using a pony express type deal with enough jumpships. This could just be simulated in the MMO environment. While I understand that there isn't enough Jumpships to go around to give every joe smoe access to the entire galaxy, this is where we would need to turn a blind eye.

No.  Hell no.  First, you're talking about individuals; BTO would be based around elements.  Individuals could go where they want to go, but eventually they would need to join a unit, or a stable, if they wish to meaningfully participate in the game.  No blind eyes, this is not to be every other MMO out there.

It would be best to assume that a player would be able to get where he needs to go (within reason) as long as he has the means (isn't in combat, has access to a dropship, ect).

That's what I mean when I say playing as a ghost.  The population has consistently remained 100 times the size of our world today, meaning there were, in 1984s BattleTech, about 400 billion people in the universe.  To play as units/elements means the full strength of those elements, which would consistently be comprised mostly of NPCs, with players being the stars, of course.  Battles would be listed in an interface additional to the MMO, where players could pick and choose battles, pick armaments from the extant TO&E of the elements battling, and drop on their side, subverting an NPC pilot or gunner temporarily while they fight the battle.  Once they've lost their machine, they would be kicked back to a "lobby" to choose another fight, if that's what they want to do.

The way I have designed my BattleTech MMO document, it covers all levels and types of players, from the actual role-players down to those who just want to play a combat game.  The ideal is that the more curious, role-play oriented folks would play persistent, aging, lineage-based characters in the MMO, and those who want to kill crap only would be ghosts and help the role-play units win the day.  Everyone's happy when they go home, but the kill-crap-only crowd would never gain rank, never be known in the game, they would just be a ghost.  Now, the really cool thing is that the role-players will also be able to play as ghosts whenever their unit is tied up in transit, or nothing's going on during their tour of duty on a planet, or whatever. 

You would have to read the whole document, and have a complete understanding of the BattleTech universe, to understand what I would try to go after with BTO.

[Nebfer]

That's what I mean when I say playing as a ghost.  The population has consistently remained 100 times the size of our world today, meaning there were, in 1984s BattleTech, about 400 billion people in the universe.  To play as units/elements means the full strength of those elements, which would consistently be comprised mostly of NPCs, with players being the stars, of course.  Battles would be listed in an interface additional to the MMO, where players could pick and choose battles, pick armaments from the extant TO&E of the elements battling, and drop on their side, subverting an NPC pilot or gunner temporarily while they fight the battle.  Once they've lost their machine, they would be kicked back to a "lobby" to choose another fight, if that's what they want to do.

Errr your off by about a factor of 10.

According to A time of War (the current RPG) the average world population is about 3 billion per world and theirs about 2,200 worlds, though from what I have been able to find is that with the current listed populations the average is closer to about 2 billion, but thats from about 9% of the total worlds in B-tech.

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

Errr your off by about a factor of 10.

According to A time of War (the current RPG) the average world population is about 3 billion per world and theirs about 2,200 worlds, though from what I have been able to find is that with the current listed populations the average is closer to about 2 billion, but thats from about 9% of the total worlds in B-tech.

And that would make it about 100 times what our population is today, or at any time during which a sourcebook for BattleTech was released.  In 1984, when BattleTech was first released, the population was, roughly, 4.8 Billion people -okay, so my figures were off, because I figured about 3 billion- and the population in BattleTech, according to sources of that time, was about 300 billion, or so, people.

Even at 3 billion people per world, at 2,102 worlds, not including the Clan worlds -they weren't even a gleam in Weisman's eye back then- that would have been about 6.3 trillion people... which makes my earlier point all that more plausible.  With that many people in and around the Inner Sphere, there are plenty of NPC bodies available.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I'm not trying to sound pissy, here, but anything that came out for BattleTech with a date after 3062 isn't worth a damn, and I don't follow it.

[Taemien]

So lets say I am apart of House Davion and currently on New Avalon. I want to participate in a fight on Port Arthur against Clan Smoke Jaguar (assume the timeline for the sake of argument).

Why should I have to wait more then 5 minutes to do this? From a gameplay point of view. Remember this is a game, not a story.

Why could I not use a jumpship link up to the Clan OZ? And from a RP perspective, if it does take a while lorewise, why wouldn't it be assumed that time was advanced forward (as in the trip was embarked months ago rather then just 5 minutes ago).

I as a player do not want to sit in a dropship for more then 5 minutes. I don't want to engage in shadow battles, simulator battles, or anything like that. I want to go off and fight some clanners. Is it unrealistic? Sure, just as jumping in MW4Mercs was. But I want to get to the action. I want to get into the fight now. Because it is a game, the focus needs to be on the fun aspect. Sitting in a dropship isn't fun. Maybe for some it is and the option to move around in one should be there, just as it is an option to move in a bridge in Star Trek Online.

But the selling point of this game is going to be the combat portion. That shouldn't be hindered by logistics.

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

So lets say I am apart of House Davion and currently on New Avalon. I want to participate in a fight on Port Arthur against Clan Smoke Jaguar (assume the timeline for the sake of argument).

Why should I have to wait more then 5 minutes to do this? From a gameplay point of view. Remember this is a game, not a story.

First, you're absolutely right... you wouldn't have to wait.  I don't think you're understanding what I was telling you.  Whether you decide to play as a ghost, or you actually make a player-character for the MMORPG, in times when you don't have anything else to do, you can enter a cue, much like Mekmatch, or the way Kali used to do things, or BattleTech Universe (Bailey) or Inner Sphere Wars (Vermatrix), you select a fight you wish to participate in, you select the battlement closest to what you want to pilot/drive, and you hit the drop button.  You take over a slot made available by the Non-Player Character assigned to the vehicle/'Mech you want, and voila you're in the fight.

When you're with your unit, however, you're there for the role-playing, the training, the work/exploration/tasks your character needs to do to advance in the game... you are role-playing at that point, and have a persistent character.  I will not explain this concept one more time.

To your second point, this is both a game and a story.  The level of involvement you have, as a player, in the game and the story, is entirely up to you.

Why could I not use a jumpship link up to the Clan OZ? And from a RP perspective, if it does take a while lorewise, why wouldn't it be assumed that time was advanced forward (as in the trip was embarked months ago rather then just 5 minutes ago).

Because, in the RP game, it doesn't work that way, only through the cue can you get to play in fights you wouldn't normally be able to play in.

I as a player do not want to sit in a dropship for more then 5 minutes. I don't want to engage in shadow battles, simulator battles, or anything like that. I want to go off and fight some clanners. Is it unrealistic? Sure, just as jumping in MW4Mercs was. But I want to get to the action. I want to get into the fight now. Because it is a game, the focus needs to be on the fun aspect. Sitting in a dropship isn't fun. Maybe for some it is and the option to move around in one should be there, just as it is an option to move in a bridge in Star Trek Online.

I will not continue to explain something to someone who is, most obviously, not paying attention.

But the selling point of this game is going to be the combat portion. That shouldn't be hindered by logistics.

Then you have a small view, and will not understand the appeal of the universe at large.

Good night.

[Taemien]

I've been playing MMOs since 2001 and mostly on the RP servers when they are available (EQ1, WoW, EQ2, AOC, STO, and FE). So I know the importance of the RP aspect. But I also understand that this isn't the majorities cup of tea. Even on a RP server only a small percentage actually RP.

So the action portion is going to need to be the focus. Otherwise you're going to have a small playerbase. Maybe thats fine with you, but I do like having a large pool of players to pull from when its time to get something done. Besides RPing in a MMO is just a glorified chatroom, as long as /say commands exist, as well as common areas, RP will happen, and thats the only focus it really needs.

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

I've been playing MMOs since 2001 and mostly on the RP servers when they are available (EQ1, WoW, EQ2, AOC, STO, and FE). So I know the importance of the RP aspect. But I also understand that this isn't the majorities cup of tea. Even on a RP server only a small percentage actually RP.

Actually, that's only true in the vocal minority.  The non-vocal majority wants more. 

When I say the vocal minority, it's the griefers and punks who have been brought up in a role-playing age and hate it, or believe the best way to role-play is through combat.  There are also those, especially on MekTek and BattleTech Universe, who believe building an on-line version of the BattleTech game would be a severe waste of time, extremely boring, and would make no one happy.  I, and many of those who don't complain openly, rarely speaking up to any point whatsoever -whether it's for fear of confrontation, especially revolving around drama, or they're generally just not passionate enough to go beyond putting down their opinion without defending it- see that the integrity and totality of the game need to built into something that will honor the universe and those who created it.  These latter folks are the non-vocal majority.

The vocal minority, typically the younger consumers, or the less mature consumers, and/or those who legitimately feel that combat is the only thing a game company should EVER build into a game, most typically are known for not knowing what they really want, which is why you have a ton of complainers AFTER a game that has been screamed about to have particular elements put into it, and the game company was dumb enough to listen, has been released.  So, my philosophy is simple, "If I build it, they will come."

Look here for a minute... what are some popular console or computer games you have played recently that you didn't know about until the first time the game was advertised?  Recently, I've been playing Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Wolfenstein, all games I didn't know about until I saw them on a friend's computer, or finally advertised in a commercial, all games I had absolutely no input -nor did many people- in, and all games I fell in love with.  If the company's who made those games had any input at all, it must have been minimal enough as to not attract attention, and they're fantastic games.  If a game is built, and it's true to the universe around which it is built, it will be excellent for the players who played it off-line, on the old-fashioned table-top game-board, and if it's not good enough for other players -which I suspect would not be the case with BTO- they are always welcome to go and play something else. 

Not everyone likes to role-play, not everyone likes PvP, not everyone likes being restricted to one type of game play, so it follows that not everyone is going to like every game out there.  However, with the population of the world as it is, even just the United States, you realize all it takes to make a product, especially an on-line game, a viable entity is around 100,000 players.  That's 1 in every 3,000 citizens of this country.  This makes the opinions of those who want the game to be a particular way particularly insignificant, especially since they can only speak for themselves, and very bloody few others.

So the action portion is going to need to be the focus. Otherwise you're going to have a small playerbase. Maybe thats fine with you, but I do like having a large pool of players to pull from when its time to get something done. Besides RPing in a MMO is just a glorified chatroom, as long as /say commands exist, as well as common areas, RP will happen, and thats the only focus it really needs.

I disagree.  I believe NPCs can be made very extensive and helpful, and role-playing works by interviewing and working with NPCs as much as it does the player group you're in, and the other live players around you.  Role-Playing is far richer than anyone's ever explored, and I believe I have a formula, the ideals, to make role-playing a reality, not just a side object.  That's for me to know, and you to find out... I hope.

You said action will need to be the focus... I also disagree very heavily with this.  It will need to be A focus, but not THE focus.  What if there are multiple foci to a game, each with its own appeal to a certain base of players.  I agree with Abraham Lincoln, "You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."  This is some of the greatest wisdom from our past, and is the absolute truth.  However, you can try... it's the lack of trying that has lead to the mediocrity of the current MMO industry, and is why so many MMO builders are trying to find new ways to bring customers to them.  Some things work, most things don't, but progress, however slow, is being made.  I believe, were I given the opportunity to do so, I could help push the envelope a great deal more than it's already been.

[Taemien]

RP is very rich but it is the players that make it so. The game itself can only ever be the backdrop. It is the mantle that we paint upon. When the game starts getting too involved, we start losing creativity. This is why I prefer to RP in EQ2 over WoW. In WoW the events are happening and you're along for the ride. In EQ2 the major events happened, you write your story based on that and it can go just about any direction you wish.

And a BattleTech MMO shouldn't be PVE. It should be FvF. When I say I want to hunt clanners, I want them to be clan fanboi's I'm fighting. This way I can RP with them before I blow them apart. Used to do that in the planetary leagues back in MW3 and MW4.

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

RP is very rich but it is the players that make it so. The game itself can only ever be the backdrop. It is the mantle that we paint upon. When the game starts getting too involved, we start losing creativity. This is why I prefer to RP in EQ2 over WoW. In WoW the events are happening and you're along for the ride. In EQ2 the major events happened, you write your story based on that and it can go just about any direction you wish.

Now, see... this is very well put.  This is something I can wrap my head around.  Still, where does the immersive experience stop with the developer where, in a version of your words, the player no longer has to do anything to be immersed in the story of the game, no longer has to work their own imagination, and that imagination begin.

Hypothesis: Would it be better for players if they have a more in-depth immersive experience, developed by the game's creators, to begin with, but which becomes less and less developer created, and requires more and more imagination from the player to keep their immersive experience going?  A good deal of the community, from all of the research I've done -and, of course, I'm mostly speaking of the extremely vocal minority, here-, want more immersion in a game, but no one seems to be able to agree on how to go about that.  So how do you introduce the game universe, and make it authentic enough to be truly immersive, without sacrificing the players imagination?

And a BattleTech MMO shouldn't be PVE. It should be FvF. When I say I want to hunt clanners, I want them to be clan fanboi's I'm fighting. This way I can RP with them before I blow them apart. Used to do that in the planetary leagues back in MW3 and MW4.

Okay, but again you don't seem to be tracking with the overall goal, and that is to allow it all to be possible; yes, I have a plan to do that, too.  Although I agree there are, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of players who wish to do nothing but massive amounts of combat, there are many who also -and I don't have any numbers, here- wish to role-play.  The original MechWarrior RPG, along with MW2, 3, Classic, and now the latest RPG continue to clamor for role-playing within the universe of BattleTech in this table-top version, and sales must obviously be strong enough to continue producing new versions of the RPG, or it would have stopped production sometime ago.

Going with my own statement earlier in this thread, it only takes so many people to make something a viable entity, though with dice and paper RPG books it takes a great deal more than computer games, and the original and MW2 were put out before computers were a mainstay in so many homes, so word of type (aka mouth) was not available to 90% of Americans.  Still, these games made it and have newer versions coming out all the time.

Indeed, the very first MechWarrior, and both Cresent Hawks computer games were almost solely based around role-playing and, again, they proliferated very well and, almost entirely, on their own.

I would seek to get back to the origins of the game, but with the ability to make it possible for those who want to role-play, or to explore, or to command larger elements as in MechCommander, or to play BattleTech a la 1st 'Mech Shooter, all in one package.  If the technology is not here, it's either right around the corner, or will need to be invented; and necessity is the mother of invention.

You mentioned that all you would want to do, for example, was go after a bunch of Clanners, but they would need to be live pilots.  Let me posit this for you...

1) Did you ever have any input on the design or production of any of the MechWarrior or MechCommander computer games?

2) Did you enjoy the single-player atmosphere of those games, and could be happy with either single or multi-player?

3) What if you had to get through NPC pilots on a battlefield to get to other live pilots in order to fight them?  Would it be interesting to you to fight AI pilots, and then have to re-tool your thinking, your imagination, on the fly to face off with a live pilot?

4) Would you rather have smaller, more intimate engagements with only a few live pilots, or a battlefield swarming with 'Mechs, vehicles, armor of all types, helicopters, aerospace fighters, artillery, etc., ad nauseum?

For my part, and those of many others I've read the posts of over the years, and interviewed through PMs and email, hundreds of them, we all loved the computer games, even though we had absolutely no input on their construction, we enjoyed them for what they were, not for what we might have done with them, though that conversation was had as well.  I especially loved MW3, and believe it was the absolute best representation of BattleTech on the computer to-date, including anything MekTek or MWLL has done. 

I hate the PvP, live pilot portion of the game, playing it on-line, after MW3, especially because there are too many griefers and pop-tarting children out there who have learned how to take advantages in the game system and do not understand the concept of honor in the least, and they make the experience, at the very least, unpalatable.  I was a very good pilot up until Pirate's Moon, I would say Veteran level, but these little kids with the joysticks and console mentality could knock me out of my socks every time, and it wasn't skill, it was pure twitch, it was a part of the game that wasn't supposed to exist.  Microsoft turned MechWarrior into an FPS, no more, no less, and it's crap, now as a result.

I would rather face a battlefield swarming with NPC pilots with live pilots mixed in, commanding the NPC pilots where possible and making the battlefield, out of the expediency learned from the game, the desire to preserve forces as much as possible, asset management, than have a bunch of meaningless live pilot melee garbage.  No thanks. 

Fortunately, there have been a lot of people out there who agree with me 100%, and those are the people I would prefer to cater to, while not leaving out the combat monkeys at all, indeed inviting them in the play pick-up forces for many of the various units in the universe.  We've played single-player and on-line games with no real focus, unless it's player-group created, for far too long, and gone away from the roots of the genre so badly I scarcely recognize it, anymore.

So, for this time around, were I able to build BTO, I would put the combat monkeys off to the left and cater to another type of player, and the game will be enormously successful.  Mark my words.

[Taemien]

I do very much enjoy the story and RP that BattleTech has to offer. I like the whole thing about the Atlas' mere sight makes a mechwarrior quake in fear or the fact that a Hunchback's pilot think's he's god's gift to the battlefield. As well as the political and social aspect.

However when it comes to making a game, you have to give and take. I know this is just a dream game and we all want to have everything we possibly could into it. I'm just being realistic and drawing from what I've seen in other MMO's.

When you have mobs of NPCs like that, you have to worry about balance. Ok a Catapult can take this thing on.. lets make sure the Grasshopper can too. You get into things like that, which would totally ruin a good combat system that we know in MechWarrior.

My idea of a BattleTech MMO is you are either a MechWarrior or AeroJock. You gain rank and levels (maybe sorta like Star Trek Online's system). This lets you get access to better mechs and the like and maybe certain perks as well as limited customization. But I would like to see the combat much like a Mechwarrior game.

If you've ever played EA's MPBT:3025, that system was damn near perfect for a MMO. You moved to a system and depending on the performance of not only your team (in 4v4, no respawn mini-drops), but your factions team on the system determined if you controlled it or not. You gained rank which allowed you to pilot heavier mechs and Cbills that let you buy them.

There was a catch. Yes a Colonel could use an AS7-D Atlas and utterly rape face, but only certain systems allowed assaults to be deployed, so he would want to hold on to his lights, mediums, and heavies. That kept it balanced in a way so that high ranks wouldn't pick on lower ranks with impossible to kill mechs.

The system was very basic and could be expanded on of course. But it worked well until they pulled the plug on it.

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

I do very much enjoy the story and RP that BattleTech has to offer. I like the whole thing about the Atlas' mere sight makes a mechwarrior quake in fear or the fact that a Hunchback's pilot think's he's god's gift to the battlefield. As well as the political and social aspect.

However when it comes to making a game, you have to give and take. I know this is just a dream game and we all want to have everything we possibly could into it. I'm just being realistic and drawing from what I've seen in other MMO's.

First, you're right, the story has it so those facing the Atlas', or other large 'Mechs, quake in the stirrups in their cockpits, and that's the way it should be.  Do you remember the mission in MechWarrior IV: Mercenaries where you are defending the base with the all the commo dishes and relays?  You go to something of an outer marker where a couple of recon 'Mechs are checking things out, and you try to destroy them before they can get back to their people, but then you're facing a full Company of Heavy and Assault 'Mechs, a couple of Mediums and those Lights you couldn't help but allow to escape?  By the end of that mission you've faced two Awesome's and five Atlas'.  FIVE!!!  Let's not even talk about the battle of Tharkad, though at least that story makes more sense.  There must be a point where the story is as important as what you're facing on the battlefield, where the Atlas is just so bad that it DOES make you shake in your cockpit, unless, of course, you're the Atlas pilot. 

That's where I have the most difficult time with games such as the entire MW4 series, there is a story but it means nothing compared to the action.  It is nothing more than a shadow of its former self, which wasn't that much to begin with, and an insult to those who created BattleTech in the first place, and to players, such as myself and thousands, if not millions, of others who've supported the game.  The Jihad, and everything that happens after November 3062, is another affront to players who've enjoyed the universe forever, because it's predicated off the video games.

Second, you're being realistic to what?  To the limitations game makers, or their benefactors, have placed on themselves?  I believe in the maxim, "You don't know what is possible until you try it all," and another one, "You will not know unless you give it your all."  I have lived, for the past 7 years, an extremely difficult life, brought on only somewhat by my own stupidity, but mostly pushed on me by others who had no right to do the things they've done.  For these past 7 years, I have pushed back against these people, some of them in high places in government -real world, mind you, not a role-playing game in the least- and certainly in stronger positions of trust and authority than me, and by God's grace I am winning.  I have my sons back after having to fight to get them back from a corrupt and malicious government, a fight I should never have been able to win, a fight by law I should never have had to fight; yet, my sons, whom I believed I would NEVER see again, are out in the yard beating each other to pieces -as brothers sometimes do because they're boys, not girls- and they are mine once again, never to be taken from me again.  The difficulty of this fight can not be documented here, not only because of a current court order, but because there is not enough space on the MWLL server to do so; suffice it to say, the amount of difficulty was extraordinary, and makes anything in a video game look like bread.

That impossibility that I faced and overcame, with God's help, in a far more difficult battle of real life, I'm sure you will agree, can be applied to far simpler things in life, such as building an MMO.  If I can do these things in real life, I can certainly do whatever else I would like to accomplish.  Charles Schwab said, "If you can dream it, and you believe it, you can achieve it."  This maxim is extraordinarily true, and I can.

When you have mobs of NPCs like that, you have to worry about balance. Ok a Catapult can take this thing on.. lets make sure the Grasshopper can too. You get into things like that, which would totally ruin a good combat system that we know in MechWarrior.

Except for MW3, there is no good combat system in any of the video games.  A great combat system can be achieved in an MMO, and the balance is unnecessary because it is warfare... however, to understand the whole of what I would try to tell you, there are, indeed, several dozen factors that need to be accounted for OUTSIDE of the nominal combat system, and I have many of them, not all but many, in mind.

My idea of a BattleTech MMO is you are either a MechWarrior or AeroJock. You gain rank and levels (maybe sorta like Star Trek Online's system). This lets you get access to better mechs and the like and maybe certain perks as well as limited customization. But I would like to see the combat much like a Mechwarrior game.

Again, no.  If you play a ghost, you get to choose from the battlements available for a particular battle.  If you're playing the role-playing game, you get ONE 'Mech until you're able to find a new one or pay to upgrade to a different one.  When I say an MMORPG that means ALL of the elements of the off-line games that comprise the BattleTech universe, not just some.

If you've ever played EA's MPBT:3025, that system was damn near perfect for a MMO. You moved to a system and depending on the performance of not only your team (in 4v4, no respawn mini-drops), but your factions team on the system determined if you controlled it or not. You gained rank which allowed you to pilot heavier mechs and Cbills that let you buy them.

Yes, and I understand that system was hailed for it's uniqueness and detail, and I think it's awesome that system came out.  In fact, Punk and PhybrOptk at IS 3028, which began as Project: Jenner, were trying to re-create MPBT 3025 until real life began paying them more visits than they really deserved.  However, I'm talking more; I want more.

[~SJ~FireNova]

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I'm not trying to sound pissy, here, but anything that came out for BattleTech with a date after 3062 isn't worth a damn, and I don't follow it.

LAWL. Man, everytime I see comments like that I just think that people are MAD at the Dark Ages because their favorite factions (with the exception of The Republic of the Sphere and the Smoke Jaguars) are getting screwed over and the story isn't to their liking and is more friendly to casual/moderate/newer BT fans rather than the fanatical hardcore. The storyline has to move on and advance somewhere......jeez why do so many people INSIST on keeping the BT timeline stuck to the Fed-Com Civil War era, never to move forward? LAWL.


It is a good time to be a Jaguar fan. Surrender Your Dreams/Dark Ages FTW! 

[(AU 6) Redwolf]

FireNova, it's not a matter of keeping the timeline between 3000 and 3062, it's a matter that everything that came after 3062, so far, has turned out to be absolutely illogical, not in keeping with the natural advancement of the universe, and so comical -like the MW2 and MW4 series- that one could die laughing.  The writers, when they did their little "summit"s really just didn't think through what was going to take place between the end of the FedCom Civil War and the beginning of Dark Age in 3132.

As for factions being killed off, you're damn right I'm angry about that... most people can't understand it, though, why I would be so put out over it.  In the end, it's all just silly, anyway, isn't it... a game, nothing more, right?  The people who developed it, prior to FASA taking a nose dive -in the Heavy Metal sense of the phrase- established the way things should go, the way the universe was set, and they worked awfully damn hard to get it to be that way, just to have WizKids, FanPro, and Catalyst come along and really screw things up.  The way things were, there was an enormous amount of untapped potential going in a particular direction, and the way they are, now, the same energy is there, but it's like the former storyline never even existed.  That is an insult, personally.

I'm not sure if you're taking my meaning or not, and it's super late, so I'm signing off.