Battletech Game Design Needs Improvement

[EmptyPepsiCan]

The only mission type I've had consistent trouble with is Convoy Ambush. Being forced to charge headlong into a convoy of tanks guarded by a lance of mechs is brutal, particularly since missing a single vehicle is a mission failure. Those are missions where by the time you realize you're in trouble it's too late.

I could see Defend Base and Escort Convoy being really tough if you're trying to punch above your weight, but if you stick with suggested difficulties they're not bad at all. As I recall most of the complaining about Base Defense was from people pissed that sometimes it was impossible to get the full bonus, and most of the Convoy Escort griping involved the mission ruining movement bug.

 

[foamyesque]

The only mission type I've had consistent trouble with is Convoy Ambush. Being forced to charge headlong into a convoy of tanks guarded by a lance of mechs is brutal, particularly since missing a single vehicle is a mission failure. Those are missions where by the time you realize you're in trouble it's too late.

I could see Defend Base and Escort Convoy being really tough if you're trying to punch above your weight, but if you stick with suggested difficulties they're not bad at all. As I recall most of the complaining about Base Defense was from people pissed that sometimes it was impossible to get the full bonus, and most of the Convoy Escort griping involved the mission ruining movement bug.

I've had convoys drive backwards. Took ages to coax one to the extraction point so I could kill the final wave and go home. Was seriously considering a withdrawal just to get the heck outta there.

Even when they work perfectly escort missions are a pain just because your turns take so much longer for the convoy to take its turns, though. My least favourite mission type by a considerable margin for that reason.

Defend base, I just sort of pre-emptively write off the bonus. If they're dropping in an assault lance to shoot buildings, they're probably gonna take one out before I get my positioning fixed up. If you're maxing salvage it's not really a big loss.

 

[Kereminde]

Defend base, I just sort of pre-emptively write off the bonus. If they're dropping in an assault lance to shoot buildings, they're probably gonna take one out before I get my positioning fixed up. If you're maxing salvage it's not really a big loss.

The health of the buildings do seem to scale up as the difficulty does, so if they're dropping an Assault lance or three the buildings should be able to survive one or two 'Mechs worth of fire. (Well, unless you let a Stalker get into full Alpha-Strike range...)

 

[Jamey]

I could see Defend Base and Escort Convoy being really tough if you're trying to punch above your weight, but if you stick with suggested difficulties they're not bad at all. As I recall most of the complaining about Base Defense was from people pissed that sometimes it was impossible to get the full bonus, and most of the Convoy Escort griping involved the mission ruining movement bug.

Defend base’s difficulty really ramps up when 6+ mechs spawn in as reinforcement (in two different directions) and they have a lot of LRMs. Otherwise, I don’t find them bad even punching over my weight.

Escort Convoy‘s biggest problem is that you don’t always know where the convoy is going and the vehicles can be super fast on roads. Beyond those problems, they tend to be fine.

Destroy Convoy can be super annoying when the enemt vehicles are simply faster than your mechs on the roads. I remember one where I dropped in with a Firestarter and a Jenner (plus two mediums) and I was stuck with a stern chase on the road. I wound up restarting that one and bringing buckets of LRMs because I literally could not run the vehicles down with those two mechs.

 

[NGV]

I've had convoys drive backwards

it didn't drive backwards but recently I had one of the convoy get stuck driving off the start ramp. No worries I thought, when the rest of the convoy hit the evac zone, the opfor reinforcements will spawn, I kill them and then the mission will auto-finish. Instead the reinforcements spawned the other side of a mountain range and showed no inclination to go anywhere.

Much toing and froing I managed to chivvy the last straggler to the evac zone after about 25 turns. At which point I discovered the game engine had glitched and hadn't saved any of my progress on that campaign (had only started a few hours earlier but still!)

I was not a happy camper

Destroy Convoy can be super annoying when the enemt vehicles are simply faster than your mechs on the roads

Ironically the last one of those I had I was saved by the AI convoy having a straggler stuck on a corner. The rest had outpaced even a running Pheonix Hawk. At least it happens to the other side as well....