f13.net

Why is this in the MWO subforum?

Tanks vs Mechs? :awesome_for_real:

Last I checked, by the TT rules a Mech wins every time ton for ton, barring some really bizarre tailor made scenario or lucky shot.

I want Stage 3. Open-ended world in 3025 btech? Yes please. (and yes THANK GOD for 3025. Fuck the clans in their cheesy arseholes)

Mechs and MechWarriors Will be Deep and Complex

BattleTech will be a turn-based title for modern PCs. This means Weisman and company have the chance to render the game's mechs in far greater detail than was previously possible. This isn't just from a graphics standpoint though. Instead, Harebrained wants your mech design choices to directly affect your gameplay.

"Those mechs are going to be rendered in great detail from a system standpoint," said Weisman. "One of the things I want to do is make sure that Mech Lab/Mech Design components have a stronger causal link between the design and the performance of the mechs. Obviously, you've got weapons and armor, but I want to dive deeper than that."

"The gyro and actuators you put in should have an impact on your performance," he explained. "I want to get into things like turning radiuses; the sharper your turning radius, the more the mech has a chance of falling over. Having your gyro have an impact on not just your turning radius, but also your chances of falling over when you take hits, which depends on your gyro-to-mass ratio. With a turn-based game, we can really express more axes of performance than we could in MechWarrior as a real-time sim. We can get to that kind of depth without it being cumbersome."

[...]

The MechWarriors themselves are also becoming a larger part of the process. Each character you recruit has a skill tree, allowing you to specialize that character to perform different operations. If you have a light mech, you need a pilot that can handle a light mech.

"We want to make the skill trees for the MechWarriors really deep now." said Weisman. "You're in charge of those MechWarriors' careers. As you build up your mercenary unit, you're guiding those MechWarriors through a career path that allows them to specialize. You can take a guy and have him specialize in heavy mechs. If you then tell him, 'I need you to drive this light mech,' he's going to be like 'What? I don't know how to do that! I'll die doing that!'

[...]

Perma-Death Stalks Your MechWarriors

That last statement is important. Your MechWarriors can and will die if you're reckless. If they die, they're gone forever and you've just lost a character who's career you've been steering for a long time.

"Our game is primarily a single-player campaign," said Weisman. "Within the context of the campaign, perma-death is there. I think we need to have those kinds of consequences. It's not simply alive or dead. If a guy gets his ass kicked, he may survive, but be in the hospital for two months. You have to figure out who you put in his place until he gets back in the rotation. Time is factor in the campaign. Travel time and combat time."

I'm caught in a time loop here.  The same thread, the same replies, the same hope as MechWarrior Online.

Guys, the Clans will happen.  Can we not even argue about this ?

The mechs are overpowered compared to what?

I've never really played any of the battletech/mechwarrior games, and only am vaguely aware of the lore.  Just did a quick wiki on the clan invasion plot point. 

Why are the clans bad, and everybody here hates them?

If only PGI had 1/5 of the talent and common sense these HBS folks seem to have...

You said exactly the same thing about PGI... :grin:

Some info that is circulating from the Battletech creator (both of the original TT and of this game) Jordan Weisman.

As you will see, we have added several key targets on our march to STAGE 3.

$1,100,000 - Cinematic Transitions: We'll add short cutscenes for various events in game - such as deploying your forces to the battlefield - and for key moments in the single-player story.
$1,200,000 - Player-Character Origin Stories: In BATTLETECH, you’ll create your own mercenary character to star in the story. If we hit this funding level, you'll be able to choose one of six origin stories for your mercenary commander's career. Are you the only heir of a once noble family that has since fallen from favor? The bastard child of a famous MechWarrior? You decide.
$1,350,000 - Voice Acting: We'll record a cast of talented voice actors to act as your advisers, provide mission briefings, and record battlefield emotes. We’ll also add voice acting to the animatics for important moments in the story.
$1,550,000: 3D MechWarrior Portrait Customization: We'll build a complete 3D portrait customization system for you to customize the look of both your MechWarriors and your own Mercenary commander.

But that said, that setting makes a poor computer game. Gamers *always* want to build their own mechs and then constantly tinker with the loadout. And the munchkins will quickly figure out what is the optimum loadout for any mech class, and get really pissed if you try to impose some "roleplaying" limit (such as lack of supply) on their ability to build exactly the machine they want.

But we'll see. I'm still giving them money.

But our most enjoyable scenarios always involved playing 3025 with an emphasis on the post apocalyptic quasi medieval setting, where mechwarriors were the equivalent of knights of old, and the mechs their armor. The technology was poorly understood, and the technicians in charge of the mech maintenance more priesthood than engineers. You might wake up to the light of an oil lantern, ride a horse out to your machine, and be hoisted up to the cockpit by your team hauling on ropes.

Man, I hope Weisman can keep a cooler head in the face of all this funding than Roberts. I would really, really hate to see unattainable levels of stretch goals fouling up getting the base game out.

Uhhh, where was that ever displayed in the lore or setting? Even at their lowest point they still had modern technology. The IS bombing itself to the 'stone age' wasn't literal, they still had the ability to make cars and radios and shampoo and shit. They lost the ability to make the super Sci-Fi stuff from the Starleague, like the ability to Terra-form planets and make super advanced space ships/computers.

That noble was driven to his mech which was kept in a hanger with industrial hoists and cranes.  :why_so_serious:

I should note that we were campaigning in the Periphery. It was rougher out there.

But even the Inner Sphere lost much of the mechtech of old. Yeah, they had cars and stuff -- but still a long ways from Star League.

The truly off-putting and hard to reconcile aspect of Btech is it's a vision of the future from the 80s. Where things like smart phones and flat panel monitors were outlandish and ridiculous things not be included in a more grounded and 'realistic' setting. Lots of those bright neon laser grids and shit.

One of the more treacherous elements that we’d like to include in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is negotiating contracts with potential employers - who can be anyone from the leader of a local farming cooperative, to the crown prince of a Great House.

We are currently thinking that mercenary contracts will contain a variety of clauses or terms that can be negotiated. For example, you might trade a higher initial downpayment for increased salvage rights on a given mission. Or, insist that the client provide some of their own military support for a particularly dicey operation, in exchange for a reduction in fees for completing a mission objective.

You may decide to negotiate and try to improve a specific clause in your contract, but remember - it’s a negotiation, so improving the terms in one area may cause the employer to worsen the terms in another. Ideally, different employers will have different contract terms they’re prepared to negotiate and “hot button” issues that may result in negative reactions if pressed too hard. We like the idea that over time you might learn the negotiating style of a particular representative, and thus improve your negotiating success rate with them.

In BATTLETECH, an employer’s agenda isn’t always what it seems. Don’t be surprised if the minor noble from House Marik who’s assigned to negotiate with you slips a little something for herself into your mission objectives. Going out of your way to accomplish that objective might earn you more favorable terms on future contracts, but at what cost?

One of our design goals in the Stage 3 Expanded Mercenary Campaign is make both how you negotiate and execute on contracts with a given employer affect your reputation with *that employer.* Likewise, the Noble Houses and Periphery Kings who are targets of those contracts will remember your combat actions against them. The sum of these actions determines your reputation with each faction in the game - and your reputation determines the contracts and terms they offer.

I'm totally happy with it finishing on Stage 3.  Good luck on it making it to Stage 4, though, Falc.

So what happens now that the project has passed $2,500,000? Will we add additional funding goals and make the game even larger in scope?

No.

As we said in our first Live Stream Twitch Q&A session, after Stage 4 is unlocked, additional funding will go towards polishing the features and content we’ve already committed to. After that, any additional funds will go toward funding a Post-Launch Live Team that will continue developing additional features and content. First among them will be Cooperative Multiplayer, which will allow you and a friend to face-off against AI opponents.

This looks fantastic. I hope there's a solid 1-player version as I'm totally over multiplayer games once again.

actually nm keep it and intensify it. i'm digging Bobblemechs

You can change that. Mine is called Threash's Terrible Trio. Yes, i know there is four.

No. But as MWO just demonstrated, it would be absolutely useless and not fun. With that said, you can set up all the multiplayer games you want with all the rules you want including 1v1 if that's your thing.

I was doing some merc mission to liberate a parts depot I think it was. Was pretty happy with how the tactics played out taking basically armour damage only, Then I got word the ldrop ship was inbound for extraction and it landed on my firestarter >.< Mech destroyed pilot killed. :/

[Message deleted]

And second, if you manage to move last, you can still move first in the following round. This can technically give you two rounds in one, allowing you to move (at the end of a round, due to reserving), shoot, and then use your normal move at the beginning of the next round to run away. Using this strategy allows for what they were designed: hit and run.

What's not to love about this game?


(https://i.imgur.com/oRGZdRi.jpg)

Oh, there's an option in there that's 'Show UI During Enemy Turn' or some such shit.  That's really what I was looking for.  Found it !

How do you guys end up employing DFA?

Bought this today because of a nice 25% off coupon on GMG and made it through the first extended mission. Load times are bit long but otherwise, this game is solid.

I got through the second mission, you know, the one where the story intentionally punches you in the balls by having your clients deny you your payout and blasting the shit out of your mechs? Fuckers. One of my mechs lasted, my main character is out for 110 days and 2 of my other 3 mech pilots are dead.

You guys weren't kidding about the difficulty.

I do know when you select an enemy, you can see the to-hit percentages for each weapon and choose whether to fire with it or not. Before you've moved? No idea.

Urbanmechs are being made more common

Not sure if this is what you mean but when you click on a hex to move to and you can choose the direction to have your mech face, if you mouse-over but don't click on an enemy it shows percentages on every weapon system / or blank if it's not able to fire due to distance.  So you can hit esc to back out and try a difference hex and check your targets before you do the final click to confirm your move.  Saved me plenty of times of accidentally moving out of M Laser range.

Hey, a question. Why aren't tanks a better way to go than mechwarriors?

Hey, a question. Why aren't tanks a better way to go than mechwarriors?

 :grin:

I'm liking it still. Though it's genuinely difficult.

BATTLETECH Post-Launch Roadmap (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/posts/2177649)

Really pondering whether I can resist playing too much before the June/July QoL changes (MechLab / Store / Salvage Improvements)

Not sure if you were there two days ago when someone asked me in Discord if Frostpunk was good and I said: "I think it is, but you know how it goes: do not trust Falconeer"  :why_so_serious:

I can't hang with the Discord crowd.

The REAL red flag on this thread is the additional posts by Ironwood and Haemish.  It's a trifecta of incompatible taste in games, with the asterisk that it only counts for giant robots with Ironwood.

The REAL red flag on this thread is the additional posts by Ironwood and Haemish.  It's a trifecta of incompatible taste in games, with the asterisk that it only counts for giant robots with Ironwood.

Hm it needed that though because otherwise Breaching shot is so whack compared to the fire then move or the move at one initiative faster ones.

Is there a better way to sell mechs than scraping them? I never see anything when I go to mech tab when in sell mode in the market.

Jump jets. Put them on everything. Even if it's just a couple on the big heavy bullet sponge you put out front to draw fire. DFA from a 75 ton Orion is pretty much guaranteed to kick the shit out of anything. But more importantly, being able to bunny-hop that embankment is a huge tactical and mobility upgrade. Downgrade a missile pack a notch, replace a PPC with a Large Laser (your heat budget will thank you), whatever it takes. A Trebuchet with a single LRM20 that can jump straight backwards to hide behind the ridge is worth far more than one with two LRM15's that gets mangled because they got a Jenner behind your line.

--Dave

Is there ever a reason to not move? Kind of seems to me that you should always move before shooting in terms of restoring evasion.

I've forgotten a lot about Battletech since I played. Is there a minimum number of jump jets you need to use them? Why does having 8 of them help as opposed to say... 6?

Oddity I've found - some times the game seems to completely refuse to let me shoot without moving first.

But riddle me this!  Why the fuck is it that when I schedule any mech for refit or repair, it tells me it will take 5 to 7 days.  Then when I start flying around, the actual completion time for these tasks is over 30 days.  Am I missing something?

Headshot or Dead Pilot ;  3 pieces of mech or, as we know it, as Full Mech.
2 Legs blown away ;  2 pieces of mech
CT Cored ;   1 piece of mech.


So, if you want to salvage a mech, don't fuck it up.  Bear in mind that weapons, sinks and all the rest are taken from the battlefield, so if you want that AC20, don't shoot the fucking hunchback in his hunch.

Although, if you do get 3 pieces, even if they were grabbed in a shite state, it will still build you a pristine mech.  For REASONS.


Easiest thing to do is kill the pilot.  Make the mech fall a couple of times, blow away a couple of shoulders, it'll be all yours.  The problem is pilots gain experience along with you, so soon they have 6 health and you can forget that shit.

For the Coromodir mission :

Bit of a shame really.

I wish there was some way to repair or replace DHS.  I don't even care about getting more of them, I'm just pissed off when I lose one.

Though the Gauss bug is quite funny.  If you ever repair a Gauss rifle, it multiplies, like Mogwai.

You know what that means? Battletech is about to have the mother of all DLC dumps.  :why_so_serious:

link=topic=25013.msg1493126#msg1493126 date=1524839168
I actually sit there and watch the title sequence each time the game starts up.

I haven't had a chance to play due to Poland, but from what I can read, the stability changes are a welcome addition that just make sense.

Anyone messing with the Roguetech mod? More mechs, weapons, less story, etc. Seems promising.

I felt like necroing this thread.

This game is lots of fun. I'm into career mode after a campaign game and still enjoying it enough I'm considering mods at some point.

Anyone had a lot of experience with them? I'm wary that a lot of them seem to be way too much, and just slow everything down and over-complicate things?

I've got almost 3000 hours into Battletech and played all of those three major Mods (Battletech Advanced, Battletech Extended and Roguetech) plus Hyades Rim extensively over the years.

The link by Threash makes a relly good job outlining the different mods.

I'll add a short summary here if working though that is too daunting :)

Battletech Extended is the most lore friendly and keeps close to both the base game and the possibilities of the world. There are no technologies or Mechs that don't exist in the Rule Books, Mechs have quirks that differentiate each other, but modifying mechs doesn't go much beyond the base game (for better or worse). Its basically the base game with more factions, more quests Flashpoints and more Loot. With different lore compliant starting years for your campaign. This is the version I settled on at the end.

Battletech Advanced goes beyond the base game in almost every aspect, but keeps it consistant (as a possible iteration of the future). It has even more Flashpoints, even more Mechs and even more Loot, changes up the base game and combat mechanics, lets you overhaul and rebuild your mechs to your liking. My preferend Mod for quite a while, but if you play it long enough you realize that all Mechs are basically the same if you can exchange the engines, heat sinks, and armor at your liking. It is billed as being harder than Battletech Extended, but after a few months of game time you have the parts to rebuild every Mech as a contender for the best Star League era beasts, only being different by tonnage and weapon hardpoints. But until then it is a hell of a ride. Also, factions are at war with each other and you can join a side to attack and defend contested star systems and get paid for it.

Roguetech goes even beyond that. It also changes weapon classes around, renames almost every item and introduces a visibility and sensor subsystem that make the battles radically different. It is its own unique flavour that you either love or hate it seems. I always stuck with Battletech Advanced over it because it shares some of the developers and most unique ideas of Roguetech trickles down into BTA. But if you can get into it it might be the best thing since sliced bread I hear. It also has Online play where the galaxy changes with the actions of all the players participating.

Hyades Rim has interesting flashpoints, but all the game systems are basically vanilla with unbalanced custom mechs.