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We needed somewhere interesting, close but not too close, and basically empty. "Our first priority was to find a way to coexist with BattleTech lore. The Aurigan Reach was created by the Harebrained Schemes design team led by Kiva Maginn as a space where players could move through an original story line without infringing on the already set lore of Third Succession Wars BattleTech. After their abandonment, the Reach systems became unified under Arano family and began consolidating and expanding, incorporating not only the abandoned planets into the Aurigan Coalition, but even annexing border planets from their neighbors. Much of the Aurigan Reach is made up of former holdings from the Taurians, Magistracy, and Capellans, though the three realms abandoned many of the systems for defensibility reasons. The Reach lies between the peripheral realms of the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus, and bordering the Inner Sphere Successor State of the Capellan Confederation. The Reach is governed by the Aurigan Coalition which is made up of several independent systems led by noble houses in accordance with the standard Inner Sphere feudal system. The game takes place in the peripheral realm of the Aurigan Reach. Each major state borders Earth and expands outward, while the minor states occupy small areas on the outside edge of the map known as The Periphery. It is divided between five major states, each tied to a noble house, and four minor states.
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In a map published by Harebrained Schemes during the Kickstarter campaign, the Inner Sphere is depicted as an area of space stretching between 400 and 600 Light-years away from Earth in every direction.
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The small number of remaining 'Mechs makes them exceptionally valuable to the warring houses, and the player will have the opportunity to select which house or houses to serve. The fighting has lasted for so long, and has been so intense, that it has caused technological regression. The game takes place during the 3025 Succession Wars Era, in which powerful noble houses employ an ever-shrinking number of giant fighting vehicles called battlemechs ('mechs for short), piloted by individuals called MechWarriors, to fight for control of the Inner Sphere. Setting īattleTech shares a setting with the original board game, now called Classic BattleTech. In addition to choosing hardware, the player can also specialize the mech's pilots (called "mechwarriors") by selecting talents from a skill tree. The player selects each mech's chassis, the weapons and armor mounted on that chassis, as well as smaller details such as actuators and gyros that influence a mech's turning radius. The developers state that the game will have the spirit of the board game but will not use the board game's rules. Players assume the role of a mercenary commander leading a " mech lance", or group of four giant humanoid-shaped combat vehicles. This includes both of the studio's co-founders Jordan Weisman created the franchise while at FASA, and Mitch Gitelman was the producer for MechCommander and MechAssault.īattleTech is a turn-based strategy video game. The game shares a setting with the board game that launched the BattleTech franchise, Classic BattleTech, and many members of the development team have worked on previous games in the franchise. The world of BattleTech is dominated by powerful noble houses locked in a devastating war, and the player selects one or more houses to serve. The player is responsible for selecting each mech's model, armor, pilot, armaments, and skills, and controls a team of four mechs (a 'lance') in combat. In the game, the player assumes the role of a mercenary commander leading a team of powerful combat vehicles called battlemechs. The developers set aside US$1 million to create the game, and turned to Kickstarter to secure funding for additional features, including a single player campaign, an expansion of that campaign, and a player versus player multiplayer mode. It was released on Windows and OS X on April 24, 2018, with a Linux release to follow. BattleTech is a Mecha turn-based strategy video game developed by Harebrained Schemes and published by Paradox Interactive.
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