Battletech Kickstarter, ...and still no thread? Options

[Sengir]

If they changed that, then using ACs instead of LRM is simpy stupid, because of the reach advantage.

They could simply pull the MW4 trick and give everything more ammo and better tonnage, except LRMs...hopefully not

[Stahlseele]

Still losing out to energy boats.

[Iduno]

If I remember correctly, this new game is set old enough that heat sinks aren't particularly efficient. Hopefully that means energy boats will be less common on warm worlds away from water.

Needing to refit while you're traveling to a job on a world with different climates would feel right, and make sure weird niche tactics/builds have their place (all flamers! Guerilla combat! Hiding in a lake to cool down!).

[Stahlseele]

Hunchback 4P < = the original Energy Boat.
8 Medium Lasers! Enough Heat-Sinks to keep running and keep cool if you left one of the lasers away every 2nd or 3rd round of full speed ahead alpha strikes.
8x5 dmg = 40 DMG (twice the AC20 DMG)
And no ammo that can explode or run out.
8x3 Heat=24 Heat and he has 24 single heatsinks.
So, running you generate 2 points of overheat each turn running.
At 5 overheat you lose one point of movement speed.
so, run and gun, rund and gun, run and shoot one laser less and you continue on like that.

[Sengir]

If I remember correctly, this new game is set old enough that heat sinks aren't particularly efficient.

The game will be set around 3025, which is the era just before the recovery of Lostech started. Depending on how long the campaign spans you might see the recovery of the Helm Memory Core (3028), but certainly not the results from it. There was a Q&A I can't find right now where the devs said that there might be some Star League tech to be found, but it sounded like they planned to make it a suitable rare occurence. Or maybe they'll just troll the players and hand you an LBX without ammo (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Stahlseele]

LB-X is only really good as a crit seeker.
If RANTAC and Rolling Crit Rules are used, then it can be hillariously OP.
If not, you need to start ripping big holes into enemies before using shrapnell ammo.

[Sengir]

LB-X is only really good as a crit seeker.

...but only with cluster ammo, which couldn't be produced in 3025. So the ancient SLDF Lostech might end up being the booby prize (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Yeah, without cluster ammo an LB-X Cannon is just a heavier and more expensive AC

[KarmaInferno]

In MWO it functions as a giant shotgun. Each pellet does one damage and the shot has a spread. Best for brawling.

It has an advantage in that each pellet has a chance to crit, as opposed to a single crit chance for a non-LBX version of the same cannon. But the damage is spread out.




-k

[Stahlseele]

Yeah, that is how it works in CBT as well.
You have 2, 5, 10 or 20 slivers.
You roll for the to hit.
Then you roll how many hit.
Then you roll which one hits where as if it were SRMs, so no groupings of 5 like with LRM.
Then you roll to see about normal damage dealt to and crits taken by the target.

[Sengir]

Yeah, that is how it works in CBT as well.
You have 2, 5, 10 or 20 slivers.
You roll for the to hit.
Then you roll how many hit.
Then you roll which one hits where as if it were SRMs, so no groupings of 5 like with LRM.
Then you roll to see about normal damage dealt to and crits taken by the target.

...which by the way sums up why I never got past one or two games of BT tabletop (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Stahlseele]

Yeah, there is a certain element of tedium to it <.<
a game of 4 mechs versus 4 mechs, depending on several factors, can take up to 8 hours . .

[Iduno]

Also, that v 0.0.7 video is pretty. Once they get it fully functional, it'll be worth some (all of the) play time.

Kind of wish they'd started with Battletech before moving to SR. It's got to be easier to turn a miniatures strategy game into a computer strategy game than to computerize a pnp role-playing game.

[Stahlseele]

Seeing how MegaMek has done that YEARS ago . . yes . . And before that, Mechcommander.
And before that, there was a round based Mechwarrior game already.
But there are also flops. See MWO and the Mechwarrior:Tactics.

[Iduno]

Although I would like some sort of replay feature. Maybe they're just clicking through the damage reports quickly, but I'm missing the results about half of the time. I like that it doesn't bog down the game too much (giving us the 8-hour rounds Stahlseele mentioned), but sometimes you want to be able to ask for the extra information.

[Stahlseele]

If they are smart, there will be some sort of complete log.
MegaMek does it, including the die rolls. You can always look it up.
Let us hope they are smart . . . i do not want another botched battletech game ;_;

[Sengir]

If they are smart, there will be some sort of complete log.
MegaMek does it, including the die rolls. You can always look it up.

MegaMek is intended to be an implementation of the tabletop rules, just with the computer doing the rolls. Battletech doesn't aim for that and accordingly will take some liberties

[Stahlseele]

BATTLETECH Backer Beta: Multiplayer Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt6FatHHnzI

...not sure if want...

[Iduno]

MegaMek is intended to be an implementation of the tabletop rules, just with the computer doing the rolls. Battletech doesn't aim for that and accordingly will take some liberties

Although MegaMek does love throwing loads of vehicles at you, even after you turn off the opponent getting double vehicles option. It also uses rules that scale poorly to lance-level campaigns.

The changes to the computer game started reasonable, but have started to seem like they're overreaching.

I'll probably use both, and wish someone would make something more like a combination of the two.

[Stahlseele]

It LOOKS like it is built on the same unity engine they used for the shadowrun games . .
So it should, hopefully, be modable as hell. And i hope for some good mods that change it to be closer to MegaMek.
Also, i hate the inspiration nonsense they have going on with the catapult. And the melee combat is too one dimensional.
And the DMG-Output is way too all over the place it seems <.<

[Sengir]

Guess who's back? Harmony Gold

Court filing

For MWO it's the same old story about the Unseen/Reseen mechs. But then they got really creative with HBS, Harmony Gold's lawyers first claim that the Marauder from MWO is too close to one of their copyrighted designs, but then also claim that the Jenner artwork from BHS infringes upon the very same design, despite Jenner and Marauder looking very obviously different. And it's the same story for the Archer and Shadow Hawk, both are obviously not even close to looking alike but nevertheless Harmony Gold claims infringement based upon the same copyrighted design. I hope they just shot themselves in the foot with that dump claim...

[Stahlseele]

Yeah, that specific copyright should have been shot down ages ago . .

[bannockburn]

So, let's talk about this game.

Yes, I know there are some people with ultrawidescreen setups that curse and foam at the mouth, but for me it's running ... not great, but running.

I'll start with the bad points

• It's slow as a sloth working at the DMV.
  Not the actual gameplay in the tactical view, but there have been complaints (and, to be fair: also assurances that this is being worked on) that the animations there are too slow as well, and produce a lot of "dead" game time. Still, the tactical view is not completely out of this complaint, as my not really slow computer can't smoothly run a CT explosion. It hangs and twitches.
  HOWEVER loading times of saved games, the load time of the save game screen itself, and the loading times into the dropship view are horrendous. The whole game stutters and freezes, and after some hours of playing, I've noticed severe memory leak issues on a game that's already pretty hungry for RAM. 80% of my 16GB were used, of which most went to the BT process
• There are a ton of minor bugs, such as pilots being constantly down (or totally jazzed) when morale timers don't expire. I've not encountered game breaking ones, and the worst was a tank stuck in an inaccessible position. A quick shot with a
  [ Spoiler ]
  Gauss rifle
  quickly solved that issue
• It can apparently fry GPUs. I'm luckily not affected, but I've heard of cards running as hot as 80°C, which is not a good thing. NVIDIA has updated their first batch of drivers that came shortly after release, but often resulted in black or white screens. Now it should work, but I can't attest to it myself, so if you think of picking it up, have this warning
• Ultrawidescreen 21:9 support is currently wonky. Not that I run such a ratio myself and I think the people running around screaming profanities to the sky about it not being available are way overstating their numbers, but there it is. If you enjoy 21:9, this may not be the game for you at this moment
• No Marauders, Riflemen, Phoenix Hawks or Warhammers. This is not HBS's fault, so address all your (and mine) hate towards Harmony Gold, as we're now used to.
• No Linux support yet, but it's on the way. Backers who expected this to be available at release are understandably miffed about it and I can see their point. Still, HBS is working hard on making it available.

Now for some neutral points. It's not completely following the BT TT rules. I'll list the differences and if I like them or not:

• Mechs don't fall from accumulated damage but from stability damage. I like this change, since it makes ballistic weapons a bit more "competitive" in comparison to lasers
• Pilots take damage from side torso destructions. I'm neutral about this, but adding to the fact that they DON'T take damage from heat, I think it's a necessary change
• Heat doesn't seem to incur penalties to accuracy (but I could be wrong). A missed opportunity in my opinion, but hardly noticeable, since there are a lot of modifiers to hit chances
• You can't change reactor loadouts. I like this, as it makes the different chassis more unique
• Flamers, SLasers and MGs are tied to support weapon hardpoints. I think it's a good change, because those weapons fire automatically after a melee attack, which is greatly satisfying, and incidentally makes the Firestarter a beast that even stays relevant in middle to late game (until you get your first Grasshopper, that is)
• This change leads to some weird loadout limitations on e.g. the Cicada that has a lot of ballistic hardpoints (for MGs, originally) but can't use them because even AC2s are too heavy / large
• The weapon damage ratings are noticeably changed from the TT, but in general I think that's good. Tweaking will continue for some time, according to a reddit AMA from our resident HBS employee Adarael

Now to the good parts. Don't look for sandwich critique here.
All the above being said, I love the game. Here's why. Many of these points will be completely subjective, so you might agree or disagree.

• It's using PGI assets, which I really like. The mechs seem modernized without losing the iconic look (which is unfortunately part of why PGI is in trouble with HG again. That and the fact that HG are dicks).
• It has a great story that, while short, is spaced very evenly. It took me about 30h to beat it, and that's a good value for my money, IMO. Don't expect an RPG, but it is very atmospheric.
• The comment about atmosphere goes for the artwork as well. Phenomenal and gripping in a unique style that I enjoy.
• Great soundtrack. Jon Everist already did good work for SRR and its spinoffs, but here he is again.
• The game doesn't stop after the story. I can (and did) explore a good part of the southwestern part of the IS and periphery.
• It has my second favorite Tech Level, without all that plasma cannon silliness of later eras of play.
• It's easily moddable, which I used to a) bring my own company logo into the game and b) to raise the Tech Level (after the first playthrough) to Helm Memory Core standards.
  You can tweak a lot of the variables to either make the game more easy or harder, such as the option to make cored mechs unsalvageable. The JSON files are easily human readable and only require a minimum of programming knowledge to fiddle with. Still, make a backup first! I almost made my game unplayable by forgetting a delimiter when editing my starting lance for the second playthrough!
• It made people cry in Steam reviews over the inclusion of gender-neutral pronouns. While I don't have a dog in that particular race, I welcome the inclusion. If you're easily offended by such simple courtesies, still be assured that it doesn't shoehorn these issues into the story and it merely has an impact on how you - as a gamer who made that choice in character creation - feel.
• Since it's easily moddable, more talented people than me have apparently started to extract assets from MWO and a mod for the Unseen will surely be available in the near future. If PGI wins that pending lawsuit, hopefully even from the official source.

TL;DR:
While flawed in technical aspects, HBS did a great job with the available budget. I love it and recommend buying it, even if you're on the fence. If it's the technical issues you're concerned with, definitely wait for 1 or 2 patches that surely will come around.

[Stahlseele]

i feel like a bit of an ass for doing this:
21:9 widescreen support. It should have fucking worked to begin with. It is fucking 2018 and not supporting that is stupid.
Furthermore, according to several backers i talked to, it worked more or less just fine in the backer beta, so they actively broke something that appearantly(i was not in the beta, i can not confirm it myself) worked well enough.
Furthermore, 21:9 is something you do not need to explicitly do anything for when using unity as your engine of choice, because unity in and off itself supports 21:9 natively as well. So they fucked up something royally there.

And now for the part i feel like an ass about doing:

Annoyed I missed the AMA but looks like you guys covered a lot of the important questions. Here's a summary of the exciting stuff that's coming.

•Game has been a big success. This means they are meeting soon for a 'roadmap' meeting to plan future content.

•New content will take the form of DLC and FreeLC.

•New content will include things like different encounter types (think battle, capture base, escort etc), some of these will be designed to increase the use of light and medium mechs late-game.

•Other additions may include 'broader systemic gameplay, recurring enemies with grudges, contracts that aren't what they seem, and "unexpected events" in battles'

•Looking to add to the post-game. Possibly harder missions, a map 'Domination' mode, enemy mechs with modded weapons and custom loadouts.

•A Long War-esque (an X-com mod) options menu to change variables in the game (i,e ironman mode) to control difficulty is being considered. Other variables mentioned include 'CT destruction permanently destroys a mech, you need 5 pieces of salvage to reconstruct a mech, rather than 3, parts that get blown off a mech may lose slots or max armor capacity, etc.'

•More random ship events which make use of mechwarrior tags, more Argo content and other additions to out-of-combat gameplay to come.

•Technical performance issues are the top of their list of priorities and being worked on right now. FPS increase, ultrawidescreen compatibility issues etc. Press release coming soon.

•They are working on cleaning up speed of animations and general dead time to speed up the game.

•Linux support coming within a few months

•Reinforcements appearing at the start of missions confirmed not a bug, but it's unexpected due to poor communication. Likely changes to the difficulty rating of missions though to make them more accurate.

•Weapons are being rebalanced. In particular lostech weapons will get a boost.

•Lostech weapons will be made available outside of the story campaign.

•Urbanmechs are being made more common

•Juggernaut skill (guts tree) is being looked at/redesigned

•New mechs, including possible clan DLC may be coming but he is under NDA. 'We have plans' is all he could say. If there is a clan DLC the Stone Rhino will be included. Most of the new content needs to be discussed first at the roadmap meeting.

•Ability to sort mechs in the mechbay is being considered

•No Land Air Mechs coming

•High/low spirits bug- they are looking for the cause so they can fix it.

•AOE weapons may or may not come. Friendly fire unlikely to be implemented as it wasn't fun in testing.

•No plans to have players control more than one lance at a time. Additional lances may have 'off screen' effects.

•There will be no friction with the modding community- they are free to do what they want. No plans for official modding support but individual engineers may be approached for help.

•Paradox are in charge of localizing the game in other languages

•Developer team of about 35 people spread across a few rooms. Only one animator (great job Hollie!)

From here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/com...amp;sh=18884913

[bannockburn]

I get that people are angry about it. Too bad, it will be patched, no need for the vitriol I've seen on the official forums.
Or in other words: Grow up, your niche will be added soon, or - if you voiced your criticism in a mature manner - rejoice that it will be addressed.

What I don't get is why you feel like an ass for linking and quoting the link I linked.