So Battletech

[jademunky]

I just finished the single-player campaign and I have opinions.

I do like the game, love the lore, love the fact that they picked a more obscure part of the universe that involved the dealings of the periphery states and their paranoia with being small players around the great houses of the inner sphere.

It is a great turn-based strategy, tons of options for customization, lots of fun, great amounts of BOOMY BOOM, etc.

It was also a bit of a flawed gem. The load times were unjustifiable for what it was bringing to the table. Compared to far more graphics or numbers-heavy games I've played, there is no reason to make me wait that long.

The inverted difficulty curve thing: The game revolves around scavenging the parts of enemy mechs. You fight them, you cannibalize their parts and you use them for yourself. This would be fine if the game gave advantages to light or medium mechs that are denied to the heavier variants but no. You will initially be piloting very fragile machines that can be killed before even getting a chance to respond, wiping out and then save-scumming (which makes me feel bad) just in hopes of cobbling together something tanky enough to last a single round against the enemy which generally will outnumber you 2-1.

There is an "evasion" system that allows mechs that move a large amount gain % to avoid hits. It is not in any way adequate to protect oneself from an alpha strike from a Highlander so in all likelihood you would just prefer to bring the Highlander. Once you have a heavier model Battlemech you will immediately rotate it into your A team and demote your lightest mech because tonnage is everything.

 

[meiam]

Played it a bit at release and it seemed undercooked. Light variant mech were literally useless so that sounds like that didn't change since release, I'm guessing that's a problem with the way they kept some stuff from the tabletop but didn't properly balance them.

I also wasn't a big fan of the RNG, first real map I played I easily beat the enemy (cause it's the first map) but at the very end the enemy got lucky crib on my main character, which wounded them (they were full health, literally nothing I could have done) and made them unusable for the next battle...

The skill system was also next to useless, with very skill and most uninteresting.

 

[jademunky]

Played it a bit at release and it seemed undercooked. Light variant mech were literally useless so that sounds like that didn't change since release, I'm guessing that's a problem with the way they kept some stuff from the tabletop but didn't properly balance them.

I also wasn't a big fan of the RNG, first real map I played I easily beat the enemy (cause it's the first map) but at the very end the enemy got lucky crib on my main character, which wounded them (they were full health, literally nothing I could have done) and made them unusable for the next battle...

The skill system was also next to useless, with very skill and most uninteresting.

Some of the skills, like the ability to split your firepower between multiple targets and coolant flush are very effective. But yeah, the RNG does not get nicer or rather it does because you will have heavier mechs with more armour.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I love the game. I have like 150+ hrs on Steam.

But I will admit to restarting the campaign once and save scumming every turn. My first attempt by the 8th or 9th mission my leader's mech was destroyed, and the other 3 were badly damaged. Each mech pilot was injured for 200+ days, and between mech repairs and 30 day financial reports I was bankrupt before any of them healed.

also yeah most missions are BS with it just being 4 mechs vs 6 mechs and 2 heavy tanks, plus base turrets. And later, meaning difficulty 5/5 missions, are just nothing but siege mechs. No strategy or mission objective, just bash through these 8 Atlas mechs.
I wish with all the ship upgrades you could increase the tonnage allowed for deployments. 400 tons seems like alot until you add up your opponents and realize you're on average 50 tons out-matched, which is a single decent front-line Mech extra. If you have 4 100 ton mechs its not a lot, but if you cap out at say 250 and your opponent has 300+, on top of turrets, that's a hell of a disadvantage.

 

[Worgen]

I haven't been having much difficulty with it yet, I mean I have lost a couple pilots and some missions are really hard, usually the take out a lance mission since its way too easy to run into their reinforcements at the same time you run into the lance, so its 4v8. But I found that if you just run around the map you tend to be able to take out a force on its own. Although I'm still only about mid way, I've got a couple heavy mechs and haven't met any assault mechs yet.

If you want to see how obnoxious light mechs can be then you should check out mechwarrior online. Someone who is good with one of thoes can run through your battle lines and make it out without dying.

 

[DarthCoercis]

I haven't been having much difficulty with it yet, I mean I have lost a couple pilots and some missions are really hard, usually the take out a lance mission since its way too easy to run into their reinforcements at the same time you run into the lance, so its 4v8. But I found that if you just run around the map you tend to be able to take out a force on its own. Although I'm still only about mid way, I've got a couple heavy mechs and haven't met any assault mechs yet.

If you want to see how obnoxious light mechs can be then you should check out mechwarrior online. Someone who is good with one of thoes can run through your battle lines and make it out without dying.

There's a core mission you'll run into where you have to not only snipe a couple of vehicles, but you also have to deal with 8+ medium and light mechs (that have 100% to hit from anywhere on the field weapons), as well as at least 4 turrets, which will likely have you saying "fuck this game".

 

[jademunky]

I love the game. I have like 150+ hrs on Steam.

But I will admit to restarting the campaign once and save scumming every turn. My first attempt by the 8th or 9th mission my leader's mech was destroyed, and the other 3 were badly damaged. Each mech pilot was injured for 200+ days, and between mech repairs and 30 day financial reports I was bankrupt before any of them healed.

For me it was repair-time on my mechs that ended me 10-hours-in and forced me to restart the campaign. My pilots were mostly healthy but I found myself in a situation where I was unable to earn more money for 78 days due to repair backlog with only 2 light mechs operational and 3 giant-ass month-end payments in between that time. Goddamit being a strategy-game fan feels like being a project manager with no pay sometimes.

also yeah most missions are BS with it just being 4 mechs vs 6 mechs and 2 heavy tanks, plus base turrets. And later, meaning difficulty 5/5 missions, are just nothing but siege mechs. No strategy or mission objective, just bash through these 8 Atlas mechs.
I wish with all the ship upgrades you could increase the tonnage allowed for deployments. 400 tons seems like alot until you add up your opponents and realize you're on average 50 tons out-matched, which is a single decent front-line Mech extra. If you have 4 100 ton mechs its not a lot, but if you cap out at say 250 and your opponent has 300+, on top of turrets, that's a hell of a disadvantage.

Then you are likely the person to ask if the DLC is worth getting or not. Is there enough new content to justify $23 CAD? Because that Hatchetman looks badass and if the DLC puts a new spin on the mech-fu, which up to now I did not really use much except to stomp on tanks or to wait for cooldown, I could be sorely tempted even if the DLC "flashpoints" or whatever feel a little thin.

*EDIT* Also, please tell me that they let you bring more than one lance at a time. I've got this great secondary team that are doing nothing for me.

 

[jademunky]

I haven't been having much difficulty with it yet, I mean I have lost a couple pilots and some missions are really hard, usually the take out a lance mission since its way too easy to run into their reinforcements at the same time you run into the lance, so its 4v8. But I found that if you just run around the map you tend to be able to take out a force on its own. Although I'm still only about mid way, I've got a couple heavy mechs and haven't met any assault mechs yet.

If you want to see how obnoxious light mechs can be then you should check out mechwarrior online. Someone who is good with one of thoes can run through your battle lines and make it out without dying.

There's a core mission you'll run into where you have to not only snipe a couple of vehicles, but you also have to deal with 8+ medium and light mechs (that have 100% to hit from anywhere on the field weapons), as well as at least 4 turrets, which will likely have you saying "fuck this game".

I know that one! And it did!