I hope they won't prioritize the PVP over the single-player, like Unsung Story did.

Thats why i hope pvp doesnt make it. Concentrating on singleplayer ....

I recall more than few games that were hurt by the inclusion of "Me Too" multiplayer. Dev Time spent away from the campaign to include a mode that it did not need was a pretty big trend last generation.

Y'know, the games whose servers were abandoned after the first 3 months.

Like....

The Darkness
Condemned 2
Tomb Raider
Ghostbusters
Resident Evil 5
Dead Space 2 (miraculously, the campaign was outstanding despite the needless multilayer)

Completely uninterested in PVP, to the point that I'll probably cancel my pledge if they hit that goal.

I wonder why people see PVP so problematic, it will add more single player experience, too. and considering it will be quite near to the board game, this is just like the boardgame is nowadays, people playing against each other and getting points with a high score list. Something I dont really need, but one can play with friends in one of the arenas and hopefully against comp opponents, too.
This is no action game, its a TBS .... for people wanting massive multiplayer and action there is MWO.

From what I can tell it's the fear that if PVP is reached SP (and fresh SP mech action as been very much lacking) wont be so focused on. though it's possible that skirmish could use PVP maps as well.

It's not just PvP but any multiplayer in general. For people only playing single player any resources spend on faciliating multplayer is wasted. There is also real and founded fear of developers spending resources on multiplayer in expense of single player, not to mention money essentially ending up being wasted as servers get shut down early due to lack of player base.

Indies especially need to be mindful of recources they have in their disposal and what their team and engine is capable of as wrong decision may well end up sinking the whole project (whether people like it or not, implementing multiplayer tends to be expensive, more so if server infrastructure is involved, no matter how you develop it).

One example is Darkout where devs spend half year or more trying to implement multiplayer only to conclude their current engine could not handle it and running out of funds in the process. While there's plans to porting the game to Unity, it's been 5 months since any kind of update anywhere so it raises suspicion that worse came to worst. Not that their update earned them any favors, considering it outlined their plans to release rest of the game, including the Unity port, as paid DLC.

I understand such fears, but cant see them for Battletech, as it most likely will use the skirmish module without the AI which should be easy to code. For me it hopefully adds more single player content, too, because its quite a chunk of cash more than the extended campaign. So no fear manpower taken from single to multiplayer. For me its rather comparable to MoO 2 multiplayer, not to all those real time multiplayer thingies.
And finally Solaris is a quite interestng world, the game world, at this time the mercenary world and hopefully some great stories and adventures there. Just read the warrior trilogy of Mike Stackpole ;)

Now a backer and happy to see they are giving GOG an option! got the 275 bundle I wanted that jacket hehe :3

I would totally love a local LAN PVP option so my wife and I can have some mech-action at home. Unfortunately, local LAN multiplayer seems to be out of fashion in favour of company servers and silly stuff like achievements and the like.

I would be happy to lose such fights. :)
But I don't have a partner.

I guess it has something to do with "easier access", too. People tend to complain or ask around if something doesn`t work right, so they make a server and people can easily play without setting something up.

Aaaaaaand next stretch goal reached, now for the expanded mercenary campaign ...

It's good to see that this is still going well and is on course to hit all the goals along the way.

All the same, the pace has slowed to a comfortable stroll. It's time for an update that provides something a bit more concrete about the game. Yeah, sure they showed a gameplay concept. But there has to be more where that came from. I'm sure they could offer something more tantalising to the uncertain than simply "Look Battletech!" and hope that's enough to swing it... well it is. But more could be gained here.

I don`t think they can get some real game mechanics as they aren`t done yet. It is planned for release in 2017, in two years. They answer alot of questions on Kickstarter and have several "interviews" around, but I doubt we already will see much of a working engine.