Battlechat 19. Mai – Teil 1

Zuletzt aktualisiert am 19. Mai 2012 von DarkISI

Hier das Log des ersten Chats des Tages. Ich war diesmal wieder selbst anwesend, entsprechend konnte ich während des Chats gleich ein sauber sortiertes Log erstellen 🙂

Der zweite Chat findet heute Nacht um 2 Uhr statt.

[18:03] <@Habeas2> Hello, and welcome to another Live, Official, BattleTech BattleChat. As always, I am your host, BattleTech Line Developer Herbert Beas.

[18:04] <@Habeas2> The standing rules apply: Be courteous to your fellow chatters. Keep your questions brief and respectful, and I’ll answer to the best of my abilities in the order received. Be disrespectful in any way, and I’ll kick you from the chat.

[18:04] <@Habeas2> As usual, these chats are not being logged officially, so if you want a chat log, it’s on you.

[18:05] <@Habeas2> These chats are scheduled to run for a minimum of one hour, and we’ve started on time so…. Once more, welcome, and let us begin!

Novels:

[18:05] <trboturtle> Any new on the Novel front?

[18:07] <@Habeas2> Trboturtle – At this time, there has been no change on the novel front. While it remains our goal to one day bring print novels back, the Blitzkrieg novella series and BattleCorps remain the closest avenues we’re seeing for future fiction for BattleTech.

PDF Products:

[18:07] <nathan18> I know that you are busy with the up coming convention season but can you let us know if any of the PDF only items will be coming out soon, like XTRO, HTP or about the Bounty Hunter?

[18:09] <@Habeas2> Nathan18 – The Bounty Hunter Dossiers are currently the next PDF-exclusive product in production. Other XTRs and Turning Points are also in the pipe, but exact particulars are hard to state just now.

[19:09] <EntropicWarfare> So are the Unit Digests, Stable Reports and Ship Profiles going away? Last I heard, they weren’t doing so well.

[19:10] <@Habeas2> EntropicWarfare – Pretty much, yeah.

XTROs:

[18:17] <Gaiiten> Have you thought about a XTRO: The Society or The Homeclans? You know we *techno-nerds“ hunger for something like that.

[18:23] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Actually, considering the events of the Wars of Reaving, you basically HAVE seen Home Clan XTR material; in the same way as everyone saw „XTR: Word of Blake“ with Jihad: Final Reckoning, Wars of Reaving showed the experimental tech that was developed in the Homeworlds before the closing of the „iron curtain“ as you call it.

[18:24] <@Habeas2> DevlinStone – The Record Sheets for WoR appeared in the recently-released WoR Supplemental PDF-exclusive

Wars of Reaving:

[18:07] <Gaiiten> Herb, in WOR Supplemental there is a nice cliffhanger due the maybe invasion of the Hanseatic League by the Emperio Escorpion and the Homeclans. Is that campaign supposed to be told us soon or will it vanish behind the Iron Curtain this area of space we have been told so far?

[18:11] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – There is a fair chance that we will see what (if anything) follows the events in the WoR Supplemental in an upcoming product, either this year or next.

[18:09] <EntropicWarfare> So how well did the Wars of Reaving products sell? Better or worse than expected?

[18:11] <@Habeas2> EntropicWarfare – I’d have to say the Wars of Reaving product sold about as well as we expected.

ISP 3:

[18:15] <EntropicWarfare> So can you give us any teasers or hints as to what’s going to be in Interstellar Expeditions: ISP3? I’m pretty excited about that one.

[18:18] <@Habeas2> EntropicWarfare – Hmmm. Well, I can say that it will basically update much of the information we saw in the FASA-era Explorer Corps sourcebook to the post-Jihad period, and that we will see mysteries in the Deep Periphery not just in the coreward direction (between the IS and Clan homeworlds) but also in the rimward, spinward, and anti-spinward directions

Hex Packs:

[18:16] <The_Pole> Habeas2, I really like the new map packs and I ended up grabbing several of the lakes and rivers and cities and roads, is there any more/ different ones planned for this year or next?

[18:22] <@Habeas2> The_Pole – Yes, there are several Hex Packs planned for the future. In fact, we had planned to introduce at least two new Hex Packs this year, incluing one for mountains and canyons, and a woods-themed one, but unexpected delays came up and we’re not sure when we’ll make those releases.

Tomahawk OmniMech:

[18:20] <trboturtle> I came across a reference in a BattleCorps story to a Clan Wolf Omnimech called the Tomahawk….Did I miss the readout on that?

[18:26] <@Habeas2> Trboturtle – I think the Tomahawk remains unpublished at this time.

RS 3067 Unabridged:

[18:21] <nathan18> any news on Record sheet 3067?

[18:26] <@Habeas2> Nathan18 – RS: 3067 is still in production as we speak.

Interstellar Operations:

[18:27] <Gaiiten> Randall Bills told us some very interesting insights of the development of Interstellar Ops. How is it progressing? Maybe will it get published this year?

[18:32] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Oh, dear Cat, I’d love to see IO by the end of this year, but that’s an entirely wait-and-see outlook for us, since it’s kind of an ambitious project right now.

[18:30] <Shaitan> How much weight should there be on the conjecture at the start of that article about having to split IO into 2 seperate products? Just a joke about how much awesome its going to contain, right?

[18:33] <@Habeas2> Shaitan – At this moment, we’d love for that to be a joke, but with Randall Bills handling that project, I wouldn’t be surprised if it explodes and becomes two books again. I just have no idea what we’d call the second one!

[18:38] <@Habeas2> Shaitan – If it is just the Alternative era rules we spin off, it’s possible that material may find itself elsewhere entirely, and not necessarily in its own hardbound, full-color book….

[18:31] <trboturtle> Randall also mentioned that „the Alternate Eras Rules would most likely be split off into its own volume.“ Any thought about that?

[18:35] <@Habeas2> Trboturtle – The Alernate Eras rules may well be the part that needs to split off if IO gets too large, yes. As I mentioned, it was quite ambitious of us to try and cover „eveyrthing else“ in IO, and the notion of covering unit types and technologies across ALL eras of BattleTech from Age of War through Dark Age… well, yeah, that would do it.

BV3:

[18:25] <DevlinStoneisyourSpiritualLieg> Also, I hear sniffling about regarding BV3. Any word on that?

[18:31] <@Habeas2> DevlinStone – I seem to rmemeber I was answering a question about BV3 when I was booted. The answer there is that I have received about 10 serious pitches from my team to date, but have not settled on which one to take at this time. I do remain committed to eliminating BV2 as it presently stands, however, in favor of something less complex and more abstracted.

[18:36] <DevlinStoneisyourSpiritualLieg> A more abstract BV system that relies upon less hard crunch than the customisation process? I’m sold. 😀

[18:38] <@Habeas2> DevlinStone – So am I. Of course, simply doing away with BV entirely also remains an option.

Conventions:

[18:33] <The_Pole> Do you ever make it to the convention scene, the most notorious one being gencon and others like indy, origins etc

[18:36] <@Habeas2> The_Pole – I only attend GenCons these days. I dislike travel quite intensely.

Star League Era:

[18:33] <nathan18> Has the interest in the Star League Era been up to expection?

[18:36] <@Habeas2> Nathan18 – It’s actually still too early to say.

Dark Age:

[18:39] <EntropicWarfare> So, I’m curious about the Dark Age setting. Why is it being picked back up in 3050 instead of 3032 or 3040 or something? I get that you guys don’t want to retread old ground, but the original DA fluff was scattered across dozens of webpages and novels. Is there any plan to consolidate all that info into one sourcebook or PDF or something?

[18:42] <@Habeas2> EntropicWarfare – I’m rather confused by your inquiry. The Dark Age setting is long after any of those years.

[18:43] <EntropicWarfare> Whoops. I meant 3150, 3132, etc.

[18:48] <@Habeas2> EntropicWarfare – The choice of 3150 is, yes, because the other material was previously covered. Other products are planned to help fill in the gaps.

[18:48] <eleganTGentleman> With the end of the Dark Ages we are left with the Inner Sphere, at least on one side, split up and all apart. Will there be a return to the same old factions and borders or will we be seeing something new emerge from the mess?

Scenario Books:

[18:41] <The_Pole> Oh now that i just thought of it any more scenario books planned in the near foreseeable future, Sword and Dragon was great for me and it helped build a local battletech gaming community near where I live and Wolf and Blake is nice but its got so many new toys in it it gets new guys heads to spin a bit?

[18:44] <@Habeas2> The_Pole – No, no more scenario packs or Starterbooks are currently being planned. They did not sell at all well and are not considered to be worth the effort.

???

[18:41] <DevlinStoneisyourSpiritualLieg> In this new codex, what kind of Quad ‚mechs will we be seeing? It’s been a while since we’ve seen any, and Protos, BA, and hell, some VTOLS or whatnot are all quad… why no ‚mechs?

[18:42] <DevlinStoneisyourSpiritualLieg> The loss of space is an issue all quad designs get, so that can’t be it.

[18:44] <@Habeas2> DevlinStone – Sorry, what new „codex“?

Manei Domini:

[18:42] <Gaiiten> The last of the Manei Domini seem to be vanished. Will we see them again in some upcoming products? I would like to see Berith get his head laid on his feets.

[18:45] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – I cannot say what has become of the Manei DOmini at this time.

Introbox:

[18:48] <The_Pole> hows the introbox doing these days last time I heard it was sold out in a matter of week/s… and there was a reprint afterwards?

[18:53] <@Habeas2> The_Pole – The Intro Box Set is doing great!

Clan Boxed Set:

[18:57] <The_Pole> must think of questions….. was there ever talk of a clan introbox?

[19:01] <@Habeas2> The_Pole – Yes, there was (and still is) a Clan-based expansion to the introductory box set. I cannot give an update on that at this time, however.

SLDF Infantry:

[18:50] <Gaiiten> Is there a chance to see SLDF infantry types / equipment detailed in the style of TRO 3085 in an upcoming SL era product? We have been told it was the most advanced of all BT eras and it would be very appreciated to get some stats for.

[18:55] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Honestly, we may not see much in the way of detailed SL-era infantry any time soon. Much of the tech is already covered.

[18:57] <Gaiiten> Wherein I can find these stats?

[19:00] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Oh, the gear is mainly covered in the RPG books. The SLDF gear includes stuff like the Mauser, and there’s really nothing that special about their armor. Still, it is possible we’ll see more details in the future.

Pocket Warships:

[19:01] <Gaiiten> Due the concept of the Pocket warships, will you expand that idea (new designs, some new sub-capital weapons and warships designed for (as carriers))? I would like to see a 100,000t PWS 🙂

Clan Omni Availability:

[19:05] <eleganTGentleman> In regards to the General Clan/Inner Sphere classification assigned to Clan Omnimechs from the Invasion, will we see any change in their availability on the MUL or will they continue to be Inner Sphere General out past the Republic Era?

[19:07] <@Habeas2> ElegantGentleman – That’s more an issue the MUL team needs to address…

[19:07] * DarkISI looks all innocent

A Time of War Companion:

[19:08] <Gaiiten> Can you tell us something more about the upcoming A Time of War Companion? About the content?

[19:10] <@Habeas2> Gaiitan – LOTS of stuff! Seriously, I wish I could get into it, but right now, we don’t have much time….

[19:11] <Gaiiten> Maybe getting a small preview online soon?

[19:11] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Maybe. 😉

[19:12] <EntropicWarfare> Heh, I did a double take when I saw those Genecaste-lookin‘ dudes on the AToWC cover.

IlClan:

[19:12] <Gaiiten> Something new about the ilClan?

[19:12] <@Habeas2> Gaiiten – Nope. Suffer. 😉

Good Byes:

[19:15] <@Habeas2> Thank you for participating in this Catalyst Game Labs BattleTech Line Developer-aided public relations activity.

[19:15] <@Habeas2> Next chat at 8 PM Eastern