So the game is now content complete :)

So if we buy the Mercenary Collection and the Shadow Hawk Pack we’ll have everything?

Then that begs the question will GOG show everything as owned or will it show the Mercenary Collection as owned while the base game, deluxe content and expansions/season pass show as not owned? My OCD does not like that.

On one hand I've played this game to an insane degree lately so it's almost a no-brainer getting this. On the other hand I've actually burnt myself out by doing so. So maybe now's not the time. Maybe I'll use this latest patch as an excuse to give it another try and see how that goes...

Aren't a lot of the items in this bundle redundant with each other?

Very thanks guys :D

Personally, I find it to be considerably less boring than radio silence from a company that makes a game, declares it 'done' at some arbitrary point between minimum viable product and the initial sales pitch, and then moves on to a totally different thing that probably doesn't interest me. I'm actually rather happy that PDX is nudging Harebrained towards doing the PDX thing, because their previous Shadowrun series felt a little like Windows 9x: keep re-buying an incrementally improved product every couple of years in the hope that this is the version that'll really take off.

Anyway, I want me some Annihilator and Bounty Hunter so I'll probably pick this bad boy up over the weekend.

Does anyone elses patch installers just hang? I can install so long as as uninstall and reinstall the entire game every time, but no patches work. Any ideas?

You´re way off.
First, HBS with Shadowrun did look after Shadowrun series just as they are looking after Battletech - but they did it for free.

- When they released Shadowrun Returns - they implemented often requested safe feature which wasn´t there on the release, the way how the game was design didn´t count with it and they had to rewrite significant portion of the code before they could release it. They did so - for free.

- When Dragonfall addon was released, not only it was self contained story - another huge (!) game, it was free for the backers.
Furthermore, when they decided, rightfully so, that Dragonfall should be its own standalone game, they polished its features + upgraded the engine - and released it for free for previous owners of Dragonfall!

When Shadowrun: Hong Kong was released, they released small final chapter DLC, which upgraded their game to so called Extended Edition - for free for everybody. Not mentioning they again with this game upgraded their engine and mechanics of the game (whole matrix part redone), which at this point became staple for their releases.

So they have been taking care of their games also before - but for free.
And I hope you´re not reproaching them for making upgrades to their engine/game with each passing release, which is exactly what every developer should do.

Second: now since Paradox came to the table later on (it was pretty late in development when they came on board), you can bet that is the only reason why we have only 3 chunky sized DLCs (something which HBS probably planned anyway) - otherwise we would have plethora of smaller, overpriced DLCs instead of 3 substantial ones.

It´s not true that Paradox publishing HBS game made their game better - if anything, they monetize on features which were previously for free.

From what I can tell every Battletech patch just takes a long, long time but eventually does complete.

I really like the game (still playing it), so it's awesome to get this!

Yay! Another entry of the Paradox game of DLCs.
What do you think HBS? How bend over did your backers feel after that?

Can now confirm that purchasing the Mercenary Collection does indeed leave the Deluxe Edition and Season Pass displaying as not owned. :(

I'm not disputing that they offered patches after release, but I think you may be missing my point. I'm talking about the content and gameplay, which through the three campaigns marched from a short, very linear sequence of levels to something with much more secondary content and player agency. Those enhancements weren't, and arguably couldn't be, backported to the earlier games/campaigns. All of them got nice graphics updates, and that is indeed commendable, but you can't play Dead Man's Switch with the greatly improved HK mechanics (with all the side missions and whatnot) or, conversely, or send the DMS runner to Hong Kong for a second adventure. And that was the focus of my criticism, that the NWN style 'lots of little standalone campaigns' thing doesn't play well in the 2010s.

I did jump on the backer wagon with Battletech, but one of my concerns was that we'd have a repeat performance and wind up with a couple of small games that play well for the diehard fans but get buried in a landscape full of heavy hitting, high-agency RPGs. In other words, if they did Battletech like they did Shadowrun we'd have Battletech: The Arano Restoration, which has very few side missions and ends as soon as Kamea gets her throne back, and Battletech: The Inner Sphere Adventure, which plays like career mode but House Arano and your starting batch of MechWarriors don't even exist. HBS probably evolved on their own, but I can't help but wonder if some of the Paradox guys visting them in the early part of the buyout negotiations talked up the benefits of modular content. Or, eh, maybe Weisman just remembered that trying to do that with MechCommander 2 was a big fail.

And as you yourself alluded to, Dragonfall was not free to non-backers; we got it as either the standalone version or as paid DLC. Nothing wrong with that--it was a fat stack of content after all--but then I'm not arguing against paid DLC. :) Shadowrun series: 4 major updates (1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 3.0).

Battletech: 8 major updates so far (1.x).
Stellaris (PDX): 13 major updates.
Surviving Mars (PDX): 12 major updates.

All of those update were free, almost all of them included both content and technical stuff. Paradox appears to be rather good at cranking them out; indeed, their whole business model is built around sustained long term support. They just charge money if you want an extra helping of toys.

edit: Don't get me wrong, PDX has done some pretty dumb stuff over the years like pushing their lame account system. I'm not trying to be a fanboi or apologist here. I just don't understand the complaints about the update program, because they're giving people what they say they want.