Battletech minis3/30/2023 ![]() Instead, I recommend two things to do simultaneously. You would have to create a program that literally accounts for every single possible combination, and then you're just running in to what I complained about above. What's vertical on one 'Mech may suddenly be horizontal. Secondly, as others have stated, there's no coherent "this part works on every 'Mech" type of standard, not even when you look at all the MWO-style rips we have out there. I can only imagine the added frustration of some grognard sitting in his home office throwing a fit of why his Super Duper Timber Wolf Ultra Mega MadCat won't print for the umpteenth time because the unchecked and unfinished file was total shit in the first place. It's got so many options now that each one can't be properly checked before you slapped it on, and they'll be damned if they're gonna stop you. This is mainly because HF has outgrown itself. It's become so bloated that most files people hand over to me to print are riddled with errors and take extra work in post to make them actually printable. Having printed over three thousand 'Mechs and tanks at this point - no, not kidding - my initial thought is "Oh, god, please no." Couple of reasons.įirst and foremost, Hero Forge as it currently works actually.doesn't. ![]() The threads of "Customization Options" and "required effort" simply don't converge anywhere reasonable I argue, a company sees too much sunk cost in trying to appeal to a consumer's desire for customization while consumer's will find the customization lacking on anything a company will sign off on. Now some of this would be easier on a digital platform but you still probably wouldn't get quite the level of customization you're looking for across the entire mech and as with Heroforge, even just the development of the app itself would be quite the task on in it's own right before you even get around to considering the actual assets themselves.Īnd that's just the App/set-up, as someone that runs several printers for my side business it's nothing some that scales up well, and is very dependant on being very thorough and maintaining a high level of quality, all while trying to juggle potential hundreds of "SKUs" per chassis. Case and point being something like my Hammerhead.Ī good example of accepting limits is looking at the "back plugs" right in front of the mech itself there are a selection of different weapons and layouts, but it'd be difficult to make them all work off the exact SAME base Back Plug, in fact most of them have little differences to them to better suite the particular weapons they mount. There is a certain amount of customizability you can design for, but you often have to accept limits for what parts and weapons go where. Especially when you consider Battletech, where most weapons are designed as something that's part of the mech and not just handheld or done as an attachment. A Mech equivalent would be easier in some areas but even more complex in others. Unfortunately that's no small feat really, for what it is HeroForge is quite powerful and complex. This comes up every so often, so to pull from my comments last time But it seemed like a compelling thing to consider just the same. I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, and it would certainly be a large endeavor for any company. Maybe they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel either, piggy backing off of Hero Forge’s system to deliver a customized experience. Presumably they could even continue selling the boxed sets and other material on the same platform. Doing so would allow Catalyst the opportunity to draw down on physical inventory while also maintaining an ordered and lore-accurate approach to unit customization. Heck, you might even bundle a customized, laminated record sheet to go along with it (a la MegaMek Lab).Ī system like this would take some dedicated resources and time to set up but it seems like it could be worth the trouble. ![]() Players could cue up their favorite mech, dial in their specific loadout, maybe some amount of personalization, and have their order printed and shipped on demand. In my mind, a similar approach to Battletech mini creation and orders would provide a lot of value. Many of us probably have enough experience with other games, and RPGs in particular, to be aware of Hero Forge. ![]() However, this particular item seems worthy of conversation. I generally don’t like to engage in a lot of pie-in-the-sky thinking when it comes to the whims and circumstances of entities well out of my control. However, a more modular approach may make it possible. With the massive amount of mechs, vehicles, aerospace, and other assets in the Battletech universe it seems like making high quality minis for the each and every variant is a nigh impossible task. ![]()
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