[Heavy Gear] General Discussion Thread

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**warboss**

John Prins wrote:
Very true. It's a great way to piss off your loyal customer base. Start a KS, get you loyal customers to chip in, then release at GenCon before your loyal customers get their KS rewards!

I agree that it's poor form even when they leave themselves the wiggle room to do so IMO. It's just plain scummy when they go back on their explicit promise to not do so ala Palladium's Robotech.

**JohnHwangDD**

OTOH, CMoN no longer makes that promise for their KS; in fact, they specifically say not to back if you can't accept that CMoN might start retail distribution prior to KS delivery.

**warboss**

So I guess this is the new plastic warrior?

http://dp9forum.com/index.php?/topic/18352-peace-river-plastic-model-sprues-preview-shown-to-scale/&tab=comments#comment-312030

It doesn't look like they've found the fix yet for the stiff poses that plagued the 1st kickstarter's models. It's been a while since I looked at my old metal LeClerc blitz era models but have the arms always been so big? My most recent work with the RAFM stuff may have skewed my perceptions admittedly.

**JohnHwangDD**

Is there a key you insert into his back to wind him up so he can walk?

**Albertorius**

The arms from Phil's models were big, yes, but I don't think they were quite that big. Legs look tiny in comparison, that that didn't happen before.

The pose is... kind of horrible, true.

**Nurglitch**

I think the models are made with ball and socket joints if I recall stuff on one of the Kickstarters.

**Albertorius**

On the arms, you're right, or at least that's how they did it with their first KS.

The legs, though... back in their first KS, they decided that the best place to make the cuts was under the skirts, so they look pretty weird, and poseability is not really there. A lot of us said as much, but... wel, Robert is not the best listener.

I do believe they changed that for their following KSs though. Funny how that works.

**Mmmpi**

Yeah, they were just rectangular pegs for the actual models released. Easiest way to change poses was to shave the peg off and angle how you wanted.

**warboss**

Things are looking even worse than normal for the never finished or even working Heavy Gear Assault video game.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/416020/discussions/0/1735462352470289962/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/416020/discussions/0/1728701877478976597/

Apparently the devs are fired according to discord and, from the official post by the president of the company, they don't consider themselves game developers any more. I can't confirm the former but the president of the company definitely said the latter despite what the (fired) devs replied in thread.

**Albertorius**

Well then, it was (not very) good while it lasted. Hopefully if someone else gets the license for computer games (fat chance), they will go and do something people actually want.

**warboss**

Hopefully the next developer will put in some effort into figuring out what kind of game potential customers actually want.

Recently my local store had a swap meet and someone brought a couple of RAFM Hg minis. There was a Kodiak in the bunch and I couldn't resist. It looks mostly complete and looks to be missing just the head antenna unlike the others. I think there rest are a hunter, a jaguar, and two cheetahs.I

**Mmmpi**

Very nice!

**Paint it Pink**

Only slightly envious of the Kodiak. It would make a good basis for a large scale Buster for my setting.

**warboss**

Thanks to both of you. The original Kodiak was my favorite in the collection during the initial run and I'm glad to have one again even if a part is missing and the gun is droopy (both are relatively easy to fix). I prefer the look of the Destroyer variant (as John Hwang said... the bazooka barrel is big enough to fire other bazookas) now 25 years later but it's good to have both. I'll probably end up selling the other models though after I make sure I'm not missing those variants.

**warboss**

If anyone wants me to stop mentioning the (now) defunct Heavy Gear Assault here in the thread, just let me know (although from this latest update I think they can finally stick a fork into it if true). From the Steam forum links above, one of the more ardent and long time supporters posted this in one of the threads:

RaptorRage [has Heavy Gear Assault] Aug 26 @ 3:01pm
The very basic version is that Stompy Bot moved under the banner of BlocPlay Entertainment, and during E3 while Vam who was the CTO of the company and other members were promoting the launch of a new distribution platform called TokenPlay under which HGA was going to be one of the launch titles, the board of directors or insiders in the company decided to mess around with the stock of the company and severely undervalue it along with not providing any marketing support for the platform or the game. They subsequently cut off development funding for the game, completely threw out all the software work that was put into the development for the distribution platform and had some other separate development team repurpose it to something else, and ended the contracts of the HGA team along with Vam being fired under dubious reasoning as apparently the first act of a newly appointed interim CEO.

So the login and game servers along with the HGA main site apparently have been shut down and the devs seemingly are unable to do anything about the HGA listing on Steam at this point because it looks like nobody has any access anymore to even post a news update. And nobody seems to know exactly who at BlocPlay is in charge of the assets for HGA or the running of the Steam page and other social media sites, let alone the status of the Heavy Gear computer game IP as it relates to the rights that were provided by Dreampod 9. The only potential news for the mess may come in late September with a shareholder meeting of some sort where they might be able to do something about the offending parties in the company that apparently decided to kill the game right when it was about to generate real revenue, not to mention the planned tournaments and other promotions and development.

VAM is IIRC the guy who came here to set us all straight years ago about the game without mentioning that he was actually working on it.

**Mmmpi**

That sucks I guess? When I first heard about the project, it was already collapsing, so I guess this is no surprise.

**warboss**

Yeah, it was very troubled since literally day one so many years ago. Their 30(45?) day countdown to the big announcement of the game ended with a day of nothing on the zero count ticker because they weren't ready yet didn't bother to delay the count either. It's been half assed from the very beginning and I feel sorry for the folks that put serious money into the higher tier packages back when it was a f2p/p2w MP only title.

**Firebreak**

Do you think, now that the game's dead, John might come back to DP9? Things sure went more smoothly when he was around.

**HudsonD**

Seeing as he's moved to other, greener pastures a couple years ago already, not a chance.
I'll add that it's not nice to wish for someone to work at DP9...

**Firebreak**

Oh! I didn't know that... or I had forgotten. Well, good for him.

But hey with ilClan finally coming, anything's possible in the world of mecha mini games.

So Prime Knights KS when? XD

**warboss**

HudsonD wrote:Seeing as he's moved to other, greener pastures a couple years ago already, not a chance.
I'll add that it's not nice to wish for someone to work at DP9...

A career in the food service industry with his JD might be greener pastures than the baren landscape of the Heavy Gear IP badlands right now.

Firebreak wrote:Oh! I didn't know that... or I had forgotten. Well, good for him.

But hey with ilClan finally coming, anything's possible in the world of mecha mini games.

So Prime Knights KS when? XD

I'll google it but just in case my google fu is weak... ilClan?

**Albertorius**

warboss wrote:
I'll google it but just in case my google fu is weak... ilClan?

Battletech stuff ^^

**Charistoph**

warboss wrote:
[

Firebreak wrote:Oh! I didn't know that... or I had forgotten. Well, good for him.

But hey with ilClan finally coming, anything's possible in the world of mecha mini games.

So Prime Knights KS when? XD

I'll google it but just in case my google fu is weak... ilClan?

ilClan is a Battletech concept. There is a group of advanced "nations" called the Clans who left the Inner Sphere around Earth several centuries before and decided to return and invade the Inner Sphere. Each one of the Clans are very competitive. When they need to conduct join operations as a whole, they select a Clan leader (called 'khan'), to become the ilClan. During the initial invasion (which was stopped a couple years after it started, due to some brilliant political and strategic maneuvering), it was understood that which ever of the invading Clans (initially 4, but later 6 with a seventh in reserve) that reached Terra first would demonstrate their dominance over the rest and become ilClan.

One of the announced 'period' books for Battletech is supposed to be called "ilClan", which indicates one of them will be rising to the top, some how. There's a lot of politics involved in things. Some of the Invading Clans have merged with the Inner Sphere worlds they have conquered, while the Homeworld Clans supposedly considered all the Invaders corrupted by the interaction and resolved to reject them. We could be looking at one of the Invading Clans getting the title or a fresh new invasion from the Clan Homeworlds.

Hard to say, the Inner Sphere hasn't been idle, and has run their own territories in to one mess or another, but are still quite imaginative and started developing a mix of advanced Clan gear and Inner Sphere ingenuity (partly because the most mercantile Clans also moved in to the Inner Sphere, partly because of reverse engineering).

**Firebreak**

And the actual sourcebook has been in - Hollywood would call it "development hell" - for ten or fifteen years. They're now working up to it for real, and it's supposed to come out early 2019.

I, for one, can't wait for Terra to be liberated from the freebirths.

**Charistoph**

Firebreak wrote:
And the actual sourcebook has been in - Hollywood would call it "development hell" - for ten or fifteen years. They're now working up to it for real, and it's supposed to come out early 2019.

I, for one, can't wait for Terra to be liberated from the freebirths.

Indeed. From the nearest I can tell from Sarna's information, there has been little information on the Home Clans for about 55 years. That's about 11 full Warrior generations to develop with, (though the Scientist caste was severely hammered).

Sometimes I wonder if Heavy Gear inspired the ProtoMechs... The standard Gear is roughly the same size, while the Gear Striders were about on par with the lighter Mech classes. The standard Gear is MUCH easier to pilot since it doesn't require electronics tattooed in to your skin or for you to have all your limbs removed!

**Albertorius**

Charistoph wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if Heavy Gear inspired the ProtoMechs... The standard Gear is roughly the same size, while the Gear Striders were about on par with the lighter Mech classes. The standard Gear is MUCH easier to pilot since it doesn't require electronics tattooed in to your skin or for you to have all your limbs removed!

Wonder no more, then! The timing for the release of the ProtoMechs (back in '97 in TRO3060) makes it pretty clear where the inspiration came from ^^.

**Manchu**

Jade Falcon better be ilClan, preferably with Malvina as ilKhan! Mongols forever!

Regarding Heavy Gear, is this game/IP now, uh, over?

**Albertorius**

Manchu wrote:
Jade Falcon better be ilClan, preferably with Malvina as ilKhan! Mongols forever!

Regarding Heavy Gear, is this game/IP now, uh, over?

It's kind of Schrodinger's IP, nowadays.

**warboss**

Charistoph wrote:

ilClan is a Battletech concept. There is a group of advanced "nations" called the Clans who left the Inner Sphere around Earth several centuries before and decided to return and invade the Inner Sphere. Each one of the Clans are very competitive. When they need to conduct join operations as a whole, they select a Clan leader (called 'khan'), to become the ilClan. During the initial invasion (which was stopped a couple years after it started, due to some brilliant political and strategic maneuvering), it was understood that which ever of the invading Clans (initially 4, but later 6 with a seventh in reserve) that reached Terra first would demonstrate their dominance over the rest and become ilClan.

One of the announced 'period' books for Battletech is supposed to be called "ilClan", which indicates one of them will be rising to the top, some how.

Thanks. I figured it was battletech related but hadn't heard that specific term before.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Manchu wrote:

Regarding Heavy Gear, is this game/IP now, uh, over?

Over? Nah, but it's like the KFC colonel says in the matrix movie... "There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept". I have zero insider knowledge of their finances but, from a long time fan's perspective, the switch to plastics and a ground up new rules system doesn't seem to have energized the player base. The company lost one of its two public face employees (and specifically the one who was in charge of making the miniatures AND the rules), they didn't go to gencon this year (they've only missed previously one or two years since 1994), there are almost as many people posting in this thread as there are on the entire official forums, and the few players trying to start local scenes still report that they can't get stores to stock their product because they have to order direct. They seem to have switched to crowdfunding all releases since the initial kickstarter (have they come out with any traditional casted/released minis since that original one fulfilled?) and the funding for subsequent kickstarters is less than that of the original. I think they're making the final steps from a smaller mid tier company in the niche industry to a large garage one instead. YMMV.

**Charistoph**

Albertorius wrote:
Charistoph wrote:
Sometimes I wonder if Heavy Gear inspired the ProtoMechs... The standard Gear is roughly the same size, while the Gear Striders were about on par with the lighter Mech classes. The standard Gear is MUCH easier to pilot since it doesn't require electronics tattooed in to your skin or for you to have all your limbs removed!

Wonder no more, then! The timing for the release of the ProtoMechs (back in '97 in TRO3060) makes it pretty clear where the inspiration came from ^^.

A 3 year difference can indicate an inspiration, but that's no absolute guarantee. The Protomech concept may have already been considered back in the days when battle-armored Elementals were first proposed in to the game, and Mechs below 20 tons have always been hinted at (though rarely effective). Heavy Gear may have just been a trigger for finalization of the concept and to organize the release for all we know.

I was mostly trying to keep the thread on the Heavy Gear track so it didn't get derailed in to Battletech.