BattleTech - Tactical Mech Combat Game from Hairbrained Schemes

[Bocephus86]

One thing I think a lot of people get wrong is that 8GB is basically enough for games still, but in some games you can't have much else open. On top of that Windows 10 takes way more RAM at idle than 7.

I've got it on an SSD and with 16GB RAM. Though my SSD is a little crappier than the current ones. Load times for battles are about 30 seconds. Sometimes 45 if it's a story mission. Longer than I'd like but not quit playing it bad.
Some people complain of 2-3 minutes, which is way too long.

Apparently there's a way to cut down on all sorts of little delays during the game by modifying a few json files, so I'm trying that now.

If you ever hear of a way to skip that stupid travel between worlds cut scene, please share haha. I remember being annoyed after the first three times. Then the first time I went on a trip that had a stop over, I lost my shit when it played the cut scene twice - I hate real life layovers, I wish I could skip them in a video game...

It's a minor gripe as I only travel every hour or so and it's really only about a minute so I can grab a drink or whatever but still

 

[YNWA14]

Maybe it's just because I don't play a lot of PC games anymore, and the only other one I play is football manager, but I haven't had any issues with the load times. I'm really enjoying this game, and probably the first PC game I've really enjoyed since X-COM (the first new one).

I was so close to getting a Jenner yesterday but I forgot it was a 'hold out for x number of rounds' mission and just as I was about to knock it down and finish the job the mission ran out of time, lol, oh well I got a Firestarter out of it. I already like it a lot more than my Spider. I know it's still the early stages but the last few missions I've done have been a breeze; much easier than the early game when I didn't really know as much what I was doing. A light scout (my main), with two long range gun rigs and a mid/short range gunner is really strong.

 

[SniperHF]

oh well I got a Firestarter out of it.

Firestarters absolutely wreck in the early game, even in the default configuration. They aren't half bad later going up against much heavier mechs either. Just don't get caught outside of cover or lacking evasion chevrons. And if you do get stuck, save a vigilance morale boost for just that occasion.

Jump behind them and light them up.

Buy all the + flamers you can find and upgrade them. I also like to swap out the MGs for + SM lasers.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Summary of reddit AMA for PDX forums that summarizes plans for the future

Big points to me are:

1) game has been a big success, and they’re planning new content

2) bugfixing and performance issues are top priority

3) weapon balance incoming

4) ironman campaign modifiers will be looked at and probably added

 

[SniperHF]

I'd like to see the side missions improved. Too many times the reinforcements spawn in silly ways and too often on missions where you should be able to get the primary and get out you can't because the map is completely illogical. You should also know where the LZ is before you need to use it so you can plan to do a hit and run mission instead of kill everything.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I'd like to see the side missions improved. Too many times the reinforcements spawn in silly ways and too often on missions where you should be able to get the primary and get out you can't because the map is completely illogical. You should also know where the LZ is before you need to use it so you can plan to do a hit and run mission instead of kill everything.

Yeah usually you have to kill everything. I only extracted three times. Once because I couldn't find the fourth reinforcement and was tired of looking for it (think it might have been bugged). Second because the LZ was literally right beside me. Third the reinforcement lance was a fully armoured assault and I had already taken some decent damage (and the LZ was close).

 

[SniperHF]

Another nice feature to have would be either (or both) a total mechwarrior stats page with all of the roster in one place that lists total missions, kills, etc or a in memoriam page for the dead with their stats.

 

[Bocephus86]

I really want to be able to re-order my mechs in the mech bay without having to store/refit them (which is a waste of time and I don't do). With that, I could neatly line up my A team & special circumstances replacements in the top bays & my B team in the second. Nothing major but a good quality of life improvement.

And also for the weapon/equipment lists to stop resorting themselves to the top after I place a part; makes it kind of annoying to drop in 3/4 tons of SRM ammo.

 

[The Macho King]

People seem to think there's some sort of programing that gets him injured all the time He's gotten injured on me 3 times but hasn't died yet.

2/10 means:
You get to pick 2 items from the pile.
And you'll get 8 random items. Usually crappier stuff but not always.

I usually leave at least 1 priority salvage to help build mechs.



If anyone knows that would be great

No - the bonuses are stated. Tactics 9 might be the best non-skill skillpoint in the game. 18% called headshots ain't bad.

 

[The Macho King]

Also - they do need to fix the lostech/add some into side missions. The particular lostech you get from the story is not significantly better than an AC10 with ++ damage, despite being WAY heavier.

Also - I've been sitting around with 2/3rds of a King Crab and Atlas for awhile. Really frustrating not finding that third piece on those. I want a Steiner Scout Lance so bad.

 

[Saskatoon]

Something interesting that was found out by someone digging in the game files is that the game adjusts your RNG percentage behind the scene towards 50%. It's not huge (and these numbers are not exact just based on my memory) but say you have a 90% displayed to you in game you actually only have a 85% chance of hitting and you get similar boosts proportioned to your below 50% shots.

 

[SniperHF]

Interesting is one way of describing it

I hate when devs do that. It does so much damage to the argument when I'm yelling at people complaining that they lost a 99% battle in Civ


EDIT: I'm so unlucky with injuries. I have 8 pilots and 6 of them are injured. Time to hire some crap-o randoms.

 

[Caeldan]

So taking my time through the campaign, up to 3 mediums and 1 heavy I'm running with at the moment.

Had a couple close chances of getting myself an Orion, but no luck yet.

Dekker has actually done fairly well for himself since I moved him out his original Spider, is now piloting a max armour Kintaro with a bunch of +stb damage SRMs.

My main character is now the one who seems to be consistently injured, currently working with a stock Shadowhawk-2D.

The other two mechs, I've got the Centurion outfitted with more +stb LRMs, and a Jaegermech with a pilot with called shot bonuses and a couple heavy duty AC++ guns and a large laser for punching out light/med mechs in one turn And a +dmg slaser for tight quarters melee, but generally I try to keep it out of the fight because it has the least amount of armour of all my mechs

So generally I've got Dekker taking point and dropping a sensor lock, so I can soften up heavies before they get in close and when necessary I can typically knock down a mech if all four focus on it.

Also I always try to squeeze in a couple jump jets for mobility, I think it's worth the armour loss... Especially since I can usually keep my back protected anyway.

 

[Troy McClure]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this. I played the board game 25 years ago, and it's amazing how much of this I remember. I also loved the Mechwarrior PC game series. Mechwarrior IV is still one of the most fun games I've ever played.

I'm about ten missions into the campaign, and I've won each of them with ease. I think having played the board game goes a long way to making the game start off easy. They do a good job of easing you into things for folks new to it all with a variety of missions in different terrain.

 

[Saskatoon]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this. I played the board game 25 years ago, and it's amazing how much of this I remember. I also loved the Mechwarrior PC game series. Mechwarrior IV is still one of the most fun games I've ever played.

I'm about ten missions into the campaign, and I've won each of them with ease. I think having played the board game goes a long way to making the game start off easy. They do a good job of easing you into things for folks new to it all with a variety of missions in different terrain.

Yea its quite easy to 'break' the game with smart gameplay. Money has never been an issue for me and post Smithon I had 10$ million in the bank. Did some side missions but not an insane amount of them.

 

[The Macho King]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this. I played the board game 25 years ago, and it's amazing how much of this I remember. I also loved the Mechwarrior PC game series. Mechwarrior IV is still one of the most fun games I've ever played.

I'm about ten missions into the campaign, and I've won each of them with ease. I think having played the board game goes a long way to making the game start off easy. They do a good job of easing you into things for folks new to it all with a variety of missions in different terrain.

I think just general experience with tactical games help. I'm not very up on BT, but after playing Jagged Alliance 2 or the original XCom, these new games can't scare me.

 

[Caeldan]

I'm enjoying the heck out of this. I played the board game 25 years ago, and it's amazing how much of this I remember. I also loved the Mechwarrior PC game series. Mechwarrior IV is still one of the most fun games I've ever played.

I'm about ten missions into the campaign, and I've won each of them with ease. I think having played the board game goes a long way to making the game start off easy. They do a good job of easing you into things for folks new to it all with a variety of missions in different terrain.

Yeah, I mean outside of the random bad luck hits (especially when they're firing LRMs at you)... So far there hasn't been too terrible of a difficulty curve. At least not compared to what you read about elsewhere.

I think it's mostly people unfamiliar with battletech/mechwarrior mechanics having the issues.

 

[Bocephus86]

It's definitely inexperience/confusion with the game. I was awful at the start (while, not good at least) but it was because I:

1. Did not understand the initiatives
2. Underestimated evasion
3. Underestimated the importance of armor (lets strip some of that stock armor for another ML!)
4. Not understanding that you can use the navigation area of the ship to move to an easier planet if the only missions you see are out of your ability at the time
5. Damage is based on the piece of the mech, not overall (which leads to understand facing changes if a mech is getting hit & how to attack the enemy)

I'm taking my playthrough slow (week 180 I think? And I still run mostly medium mechs/do mostly 2-2.5 skull missions) but now I'm cruising. Every other drop one of my pilots will get injured in a BS headshot, but none lost yet & I have about 9 pilots I can use (first 4 are great, 5 solid back ups).

In short: It can be hard, but when you know how to play, it gets easier

 

[Troy McClure]

Understanding how damage is allocated helps a lot because it helps you understand where to target, either with a precision shot or with moving to one side or the other.

Try to blow through to detonate ammo.
Try to go after the side with their biggest weapon to knock it out of commission.
Remember that knocking a right or left torso off also takes the arm with it.
Stomp vehicles to save heat/ammo.
Back armor is weak on every mech, but if you've already pounded them on the front a bunch, you might not be better off going around back unless you're doing so just to stay out of their line of fire.

 

[SniperHF]

Evasion is super useful early but later on bracing/guarded/entrench/cover become far more useful and I think there's a pretty hard shift in the game where that throws a lot of people off. It doesn't gradually change.

 

[Saskatoon]

Evasion is super useful early but later on bracing/guarded/entrench/cover become far more useful and I think there's a pretty hard shift in the game where that throws a lot of people off. It doesn't gradually change.

Especially as your enemies gunnery skill improves and you face more enemies evasion becomes less important. The AI hits you anyways and you have so many enemies that your evasion gets stripped anyways.

 

[Troy McClure]

Especially as your enemies gunnery skill improves and you face more enemies evasion becomes less important. The AI hits you anyways and you have so many enemies that your evasion gets stripped anyways.

I honestly always found the game to be more fun when playing medium sized mechs or maybe the lightest of the heavies. You have more movement options to consider and counter, which makes it a tougher mental exercise to decide what to do. As you get heavier, the game slows, and it isn't as interesting. It becomes more of a slugfest where winning is less about smarts and more about having good luck like knocking out an opponent's big weapon early on or getting a head shot.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Been playing multiplayer a little bit, having fun. Like the challenge of stock only matches, then I ran into a guy who seemed to bypass the stock only requirement (dropping into matches where other people have stock lances and you are custom is a massive advantage). Guy was using a really cheesy Kintaro build (max JJs, 5x SRM4, ~1000 armour) too.

 

[SniperHF]

Been playing multiplayer a little bit, having fun. Like the challenge of stock only matches, then I ran into a guy who seemed to bypass the stock only requirement (dropping into matches where other people have stock lances and you are custom is a massive advantage). Guy was using a really cheesy Kintaro build (max JJs, 5x SRM4, ~1000 armour) too.

I haven't played MP yet, but it seems to me stock only would be the way to go. You can make some pretty nutty combinations that aren't within the spirit of the BT rules and totally cheese the implementation in the video game.


Anyone else running into turns getting stuck when your mech overheats via a firestarter/flamer attacking you?
It doesn't do it if I overheat via shooting weapons. Or if I overheat an AI mech.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I haven't played MP yet, but it seems to me stock only would be the way to go. You can make some pretty nutty combinations that aren't within the spirit of the BT rules and totally cheese the implementation in the video game.

Anyone else running into turns getting stuck when your mech overheats via a firestarter/flamer attacking you?
It doesn't do it if I overheat via shooting weapons. Or if I overheat an AI mech.

It’s probably because Firestarter can force you to shut down. There’s two heat limits, one where you are damaged and a higher limit where you have to shut down. It’s pretty hard to get there on your own (in most cases you have to shoot when you’re already pretty overheated).