Battletech

Anyone looking forward to the release today?

I bought it a month ago and it was staged and ready when I left for work this morning.

I hear complaints from the early access reviewers that the tutorial is absurdly long and wordy... though I'm thinking that is probably a requirement given the quirky complexity of the Battletech world to potentially new audiences. Some have hinted at the tutorial being the first 3 hours of the game. That would be... unfortunate, but I doubt that it is true.

Those complaints aside, however, the same people said that the actual combat is great fun.

I'll give a quick take later in the week when I, hopefully, am past the tutorial. :lamo

Was a big fan of the board game, and I liked all of the Mechwarrior games.

Have been looking for a new tactical game to get into, so I'm going to check it out . . . though I prefer RT to turn-based.

Redress said:

It is turn based. One description is X-com with giant fighting robots.

Release is 45 minutes away, so yeah, I am pretty excited for it.

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I know it's turn-based. I'd just prefer if it were RT.

jmotivator said:

Anyone looking forward to the release today?

I bought it a month ago and it was staged and ready when I left for work this morning.

I hear complaints from the early access reviewers that the tutorial is absurdly long and wordy... though I'm thinking that is probably a requirement given the quirky complexity of the Battletech world to potentially new audiences. Some have hinted at the tutorial being the first 3 hours of the game. That would be... unfortunate, but I doubt that it is true.

Those complaints aside, however, the same people said that the actual combat is great fun.

I'll give a quick take later in the week when I, hopefully, am past the tutorial. :lamo

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45 minutes, I have planned my morning around being done with what I need to today by then, which should suggest how much I am looking forward to it.

I can live with a long, wordy tutorial, you only do it once and then move onto the game itself.

Nice starter guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1365402907

Harshaw said:

I know it's turn-based. I'd just prefer if it were RT.

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Yeah, I reread it, realized what you where saying, and deleted my post for being stupid.

Redress said:

Yeah, I reread it, realized what you where saying, and deleted my post for being stupid.

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Not a problem.

Was an avid gamer back in high school, and I actually started my writing doing fanfics for BT (I even wrote up and self published a sourcebook for House Amaris way back when). I'll probably try it out in the coming months. I loved the original X-COM too, and a turn based tactical game is awesome.

This one definitely caught my eye, as I love the franchise from way back.

I don't recall a turn-based PC game before, but that suits me fine. Any sign that they aren't shooting for the mass market bodes well.

I hope they have a sandbox mode of some sort where there's no equipment restrictions, so we can dial in our ultimate mech designs.

WillyPete said:

This one definitely caught my eye, as I love the franchise from way back.

I don't recall a turn-based PC game before, but that suits me fine. Any sign that they aren't shooting for the mass market bodes well.

I hope they have a sandbox mode of some sort where there's no equipment restrictions, so we can dial in our ultimate mech designs.

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There's a free 2-D version that's been available for years, its called Megamek.

PoS said:

There's a free 2-D version that's been available for years, its called Megamek.

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Nice, thanks!

I'll check that out, too!

Patcher says "Ready to launch in approximately more than 1 year"...

A little network congestion apparently.

While I wait for the patcher(why do I need to download stuff when I pre-downloaded yesterday?), saw another guide on the Steam app, and this quote I fou8nd amusing and interesting:

Here's a final hard-won lesson: the AI loves to concentrate fire on a weak target. This is appropriate, given that you'll be doing the same thing to their units, but the difference is that you field up to four mechs and the AI fields anywhere from four to a dozen, plus static defenses, tanks, and so on.

Here's how this can go wrong: you advance a scout mech to take a potshot at a single mech at the vanguard of the enemy force. You don't kill them. They provide line of sight to your scout mech to every single other enemy unit, which—for the sake of argument—comprises a tank column each armed with long range missiles. Your scout mech, evasive though it may be, then gets to enjoy an entire round of LRM fire from every single enemy on the map. If you still have a scout mech at the end of this experience: congratulations. I didn't.

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I really need to get into this. I loved Mechwarrior and I adore the Battletech universe.

When it offers you the chance to log into the Paradox account, do not do it yet, there is a bug people, including me, are having that gets you stuck in creating a profile for the game.

I never get a game on release day- the rule is its always full of bugs. I wait a few months because I dont want to be a glorified beta tester who paid for it.

jmotivator said:

I hear complaints from the early access reviewers that the tutorial is absurdly long and wordy... though I'm thinking that is probably a requirement given the quirky complexity of the Battletech world to potentially new audiences. Some have hinted at the tutorial being the first 3 hours of the game. That would be... unfortunate, but I doubt that it is true.

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The tutorial is short, about 5 minutes. The first mission took me about an hour, but that was mostly learning what I was doing, and it does have alot of text, but there is a story to this, and you can click past most of it. Then after a conversation, on into the second mission right away with pre-determaned force. Gameplay if fine, very much an X-Com style kinda thing. Graphics are nothing awesome, but still nice and get the job done. Story is interesting, really looking forward to where they are going with that aspect.

Correction: the long tutorial would probably be referring to the tutorials for the company/base. There is alot of reading, but it really isn't that bad, and entirely optional.

The random missions are a lot of fun, as is the strategic, build money, gather parts, outfit mechs, hire and buy people and things. Game is really good so far, with about 4 hours played. Taking a break for awhile now.

Redress said:

Correction: the long tutorial would probably be referring to the tutorials for the company/base. There is alot of reading, but it really isn't that bad, and entirely optional.

The random missions are a lot of fun, as is the strategic, build money, gather parts, outfit mechs, hire and buy people and things. Game is really good so far, with about 4 hours played. Taking a break for awhile now.

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Yeah, I am a few hours in now and my fears were unfounded. The game is really fun.

It is ALMOST like the story and strategic elements of the ORIGINAL Mechwarrior, only in an X-Com turn-based format.

Redress said:

While I wait for the patcher(why do I need to download stuff when I pre-downloaded yesterday?), saw another guide on the Steam app, and this quote I fou8nd amusing and interesting:

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:mrgreen: Sounds like the developer took a page from WOT. You get sighted by yourself in a match and EVERYONE their brother dog cat parakeet and goldfish are actively trying to shoot you. It normally ends VERY quickly especially if you get caught in the open. Sounds like your gona have to move your units as a unit and make sure you keep some sort of anti missile systems in play or do your level best to keep your scouts in cover, which defeats the purpose of a scout.

PirateMk1 said:

:mrgreen: Sounds like the developer took a page from WOT. You get sighted by yourself in a match and EVERYONE their brother dog cat parakeet and goldfish are actively trying to shoot you. It normally ends VERY quickly especially if you get caught in the open. Sounds like your gona have to move your units as a unit and make sure you keep some sort of anti missile systems in play or do your level best to keep your scouts in cover, which defeats the purpose of a scout.

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I've found that the LRM mech is as useful as ever for that. I got a new 50T mech and threw two LRM10s in it and loaded the other side of the torso with ammo and that mech just hides in the woods and punishes everything my other mechs see.

In this game it is even more effective, it seems, since long range missile shots come in vertically and tend to hit the cockpit of the enemy mech.

15 hours played:

This game is not for the faint of heart.

First off, I love it. The story is delivered in old-school menu-based fashion which seems as much an homage to the original Mechwarrior as a budget decision. Either way, I find myself not clicking through the story as I am prone to do lately, which is saying something.

Combat is a steep learning curve (or re-learning curve for me). As you start to gain an understanding of the combat you will find those wonderful moments where everything in your gut is telling you to just go punch that Centurion in the goddam face already, and yet your tactical brain is holding you back as you realize how that will open you for an attack on your rear armor by 3 other mechs.

... and sometimes you do it anyway because screw that Centurion.

Also, while it certainly pays out dividends to learn proper arrangement, cover arcs and the like, it still feels like Joss Whedon and George RR Martin gave birth to a random number generator. I find the challenge of this game to be equal parts X-Com, Battletech and Bloodbowl. If you think you have crossed all of your Ts and dotted all of your Is on a turn, expect the worst thing to happen anyway. The game is unforgiving.

The game economy is as screwy as any. Shop keepers will pay you roughly 10% for your unneeded Mechs. You need to be creative to get an maintain a profit. That being said, plot-driven missions will give much needed economic and tech boosts when you most need them... but are hard as balls.

The developers have a fun way of lulling you into a sense of security, and then throw you a curve ball by introducing a new enemy you don't know how to deal with. Be wary of falling for the "Psh! Those radar blips are all vehicles! This'll be easy!" ... just when you conclude that your biggest problem is that you shouldn't have negotiated a salvage-only mission (vehicles don't give salvage) BAM! Manticore up in your face relieving you of your arms.

I think the hardest part of the game is keeping a healthy income AND a bay full of healthy mechs AND a healthy crew of mechwarriors. That last bit is proving to be the toughest as it is perilously easy to get injured, and an injured mechwarrior will often take more than a month to recover. It seems imperative to keep a minimum of 8 rotating mechwarriors to accommodate the frequent injuries.

The game doesn't do the "You kill it you keep it" the way, say, Mechwarrior did.. it instead gives you "parts" of a mech as options on the salvage screen. If you collect three parts of a mech then you get a mech of that type. Seems pretty Pokemon to me, but I kind of like it. When you negotiate a mission you get two counterbalancing slide bars of cash payment and salvage rights. If you opt for more salvage you get paid less, and vise verse. I generally choose to go for more salvage, and that is probably why I am almost broke most of the time.

Salvage rights are interesting as the different levels are broken down in to the number of parts that you can just outright choose as well as the total number of parts you will get... so a salvage of 3/10 means you will get to hand select 3 parts from salvage and then get randomly awarded another 7. I tend to shoot for this on the off chance that a downed mech offers a full 3 parts so I can just select all three and earn the mech.

Granted, a fully built light mech sells for about 200k credits, so you won't make a living on salvage.

My last tip: Stock pile arm mounted weapons... you'll lose a lot of them.

That is all for now. The game is great and hard and rewarding.

My ONLY complaint at this point is that the penalty to a mech for getting knocked down seems way too lenient. If you are knocked down then at LEAST your movement phase should be limited to "stand up" only, preferably with an "unstable" modifier on any attack. How many times have I knocked down a mech only to have it jump up, run across the field and blast me in the back on its next turn... pretty frustrating. At the moment I think the only penalty for knock down status is a temporary loss of initiative.

Jmotivator has a lot of good info in his post above this, a couple things to add/expand on:

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/8f1ihj/psa_turn_on_show_ui_during_attack/?st=jggnz72n&sh=4fafbd92

This option shows the paperdoll during all attacks and makes the sections that are getting hit blink. This was a game changer for me. No longer do i have to wait and then check where all my missiles precisely hit, or where the enemy hit me exactly.

For me it helps alleviate one of the major problems right now, the "slowless" of combat, since the feedback I'm getting is much faster and easier.

Try it out and see if you like it.

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Show UI during attack makes life so much nicer.

2: When you refit a mech, watch that heat bar. When I got the Centurion, I loaded it out with a large and some medium lasers, plus LRMs, as much as I had turrets for. Then armor, then only had room for a couple heat sinks. After two salvos, Mech had overheated and shut down, restarted it, fired again as I desperately needed the damage, and shut down again, with heavy repairs needed. End result, Centurion out of action for a month to repair and make a workable setup.

3: If you are going to do melee, load a couple MGs on the mech you are going to melee with. The difference is unreal.

4: Specialize mechs. A mech with both long and short range weapons will never do much damage. Starting loadouts suck on most mechs.

5: Emphasize cash over salvage the first few missions. You do not need the extra mechs yet, and they are not mostly going to be ones you will really need anyway. Money, that is going to be in short supply a long time, and +++ weapons are EXPENSIVE!

6: Gameplay is really good, but is definitely in need of convenience tweeks. Anything Paradox publishes though is likely to have frequent upgrades(yesterday, Surviving Mars got it's first big feature update, after only a month out), so alot of those UI improvements(showing what you have in stock at salvage screen, access to store from mech bay) could be here soon.

7: Totally agree on the knockdown thing. It really needs to hurt more to be knocked down. Injured pilots should have their skills severely degraded too.

8: fighting swarms of vehicles sucks, but stomping on them is great, love the animation for that.

Redress said:

Jmotivator has a lot of good info in his post above this, a couple things to add/expand on:

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/8f1ihj/psa_turn_on_show_ui_during_attack/?st=jggnz72n&sh=4fafbd92

Show UI during attack makes life so much nicer.

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Cool! I'll try that when I get home.

2: When you refit a mech, watch that heat bar. When I got the Centurion, I loaded it out with a large and some medium lasers, plus LRMs, as much as I had turrets for. Then armor, then only had room for a couple heat sinks. After two salvos, Mech had overheated and shut down, restarted it, fired again as I desperately needed the damage, and shut down again, with heavy repairs needed. End result, Centurion out of action for a month to repair and make a workable setup.

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Yeah, heat is your enemy. You can opt to take missions only on water or frozen worlds where your Mechs cool down much faster. I am contemplating, when I have the room on my drop ship, making mech squads designed for different environments.

3: If you are going to do melee, load a couple MGs on the mech you are going to melee with. The difference is unreal.

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This. Also, Shadow Hawk is the karate master of the sub-60 ton Mech world. Its base melee damage is insane. More often than not it destroys a light mech in a single punch.

4: Specialize mechs. A mech with both long and short range weapons will never do much damage. Starting loadouts suck on most mechs.

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And then some mechs just suck.

5: Emphasize cash over salvage the first few missions. You do not need the extra mechs yet, and they are not mostly going to be ones you will really need anyway. Money, that is going to be in short supply a long time, and +++ weapons are EXPENSIVE!

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Yeah, I made that mistake. But I've found a fair number of high value missions lacking in salvage too so I'm not shy asking all cash there either.

6: Gameplay is really good, but is definitely in need of convenience tweeks. Anything Paradox publishes though is likely to have frequent upgrades(yesterday, Surviving Mars got it's first big feature update, after only a month out), so alot of those UI improvements(showing what you have in stock at salvage screen, access to store from mech bay) could be here soon.

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True. But then I usually only take weapons when I have lost one. PPCs are always in short supply as they have a bad habit of getting blown off, so I'll choose them off of salvage over mech parts.

7: Totally agree on the knockdown thing. It really needs to hurt more to be knocked down. Injured pilots should have their skills severely degraded too.

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That'd be nice too. It's almost like there is a bug since sometimes I knock a mech down and they stay down for several rounds, other times it doesn't seem to matter at all.

8: fighting swarms of vehicles sucks, but stomping on them is great, love the animation for that.

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When you have enough firepower it is nice to do the Attack-Multiple-Targets as well.

This game really needs an expansion pack that allows company-level deployments.

The ammo crate mission is a trap. DONT TRUST IT. DONT LISTEN TO THEIR LIES.

Also, I think the devs screwed up the calculation when they defined vehicle speeds. Tanks on roads moving faster than a sprinting Jenner.