ScrapYard Armory

What’s Up with BattleTech and Catalyst

A big part of Day 2 is the BattleTech seminars where the loyal fans of the game get to hear about the state of the game from The Powers that Be in person.

At the front of the house for this year’s convention was Herb, Jason S, and Ben Rome.  Loren Coleman and Randall Bill managed to visit towards the end.

New Product in the Pipeline

Closing out the end of this year we should be expecting the A Time of War Companion (previous edition conversions, advanced cybernetics, archaic weapons, creature creation), Jihad Reckoning (featuring an early Republic/Liao conflict), and Field Manual 3085.  Moving into 2012 we should be looking for Handbook Kurita and Historical Liberation of Terra.

The Clan Introductory Box set is still in the works but is facing some serious difficulties.  The hope is for all of the miniatures to be made in High Impact Plastic similar to the Loki and Thor from the regular box set (and also to fantastic looking Leviathans minis).  Topps remains a jealous guard of plastic minis.  They are not in the mood for anyone to make an attempt to redo the Click-Tech plastic miniatures even though that is absolutely not what Catalyst is doing.  At one point Catalyst had permission to go forward but then Topps somehow forgot they gave them permission.  The whole situation is frustrating but Catalyst remains cautious.

High detail plastic is in the future for the Clan Box Set AND the normal Intro Box Set.  Not this reprint but the one after that, Catalyst hopes to at least partially do away with the soft plastic miniatures in favor of high impact plastic.  The current reprint in progress is around 7,500 boxes.  At MSRP of $49.99 that is $374,925 of product.  Start bugging your friends to buy one this Christmas season!

Keep in mind that this is a hope and not a promise.  Catalyst can’t confirm anything until it is a done deal so the future of plastic miniatures is very much in flux.

The PDF Turning Points series will be going strong with several titles in various stages of work.  Titles that were mentioned include the following in no particular order;

• Vega
• Lurzerne
• Chesterton

A few other titles were also noted.  These would be in the very early stages of work and few details were available surrounding their scope.

• Solaris 7
• Clan Widowmaker Absorption
• York

Interstellar Operations is the Duke Nukem Forever of BattleTech (a title previously held by Operation Klondike).  Randall is the one to bug about this monster.  I highly suspect that baby seals everywhere will be on guard until it’s release.

Randall has a lot of big ideas and would love to do a large scale high production value “Twilight Imperium” style game in the same color as the old Succession Wars board game.  Interstellar Operations is taking priority though.

Novels are going to happen.  “If we don’t get them out … I’m going to hurt somebody.” – Herb.  This is a big issue for the Catalyst guys and they are working several angles to get it done.  Unfortunately the collapse of Borders has tightened everyone’s grip on their purse strings.  A major brick and mortar like Barnes and Noble pays on a delayed schedule which makes things challenging to say the least.  Catalyst is actively talking with several other vendors that may be able to bring novels into reality quicker and with less risk (think epub or print on demand, btw the Cosmic Patrol rulebook was done via print on demand).

A BattleCorps Anthology was not available this year due to work load issues with the Leviathans launch.  Ultimately, they would like to have one available each year.  There is at least a chance for one before the year is out if not early next.  Regardless the series will continue to be produced and will highlight the best fiction available on BattleCorps.

The Plot Line Moves (and shakes!)

There is going to be a concerted effort to remove the white hat worn by the Republic of the Sphere.  Nothing in BattleTech is completely white hat anyways.  Davions are crooks.  Steiner, which is Herb’s favorite, are also crooks.  Liao have been the punching bag of the Inner Sphere for what seems like forever and have come by their black hats honestly.  The Republic will be more of a stepping stone for the plot.  No much happens over the course of 60 or so years so a jump is called for.  3150 will be the beginning of whatever era is next for the BattleTech line.

All the Rest

BattleCorps has been a bit slow since Jason has been tapped to review several products all at once.  A new update is in the works that will provide additional functionality including ePub capability.  This is still in early development so don’t hold your breath.

Rumor has it that the MechWarrior game had been sidelined lately but shows signs of movement once again.  However, there is very little contact between Catalyst and the game developer so take this rumor with a Tharkad sized grain of NaCl.

There has been a recent shake up in the status of the unseen.  Art previously thought to be back on the OK list is again off limits.  The licensing issue and confusion at Topps have muddied the waters significantly.

Photography provided by JPArbiter and nckestrel.