Man, you'd have hated the tabletop. It's even worse in that sort of fashion, this game actually made it easier to hit your targets.
- 3
What would you have liked to see in the game?
- Thread starter Wayward Son 5
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Man, you'd have hated the tabletop. It's even worse in that sort of fashion, this game actually made it easier to hit your targets.
I will give it another go this weekend. The rigs I am running are definitely an issue, but I was investing in my ship thinking a quick turn around between missions would be a better investment than mechs. I didn't realize I would be capped out of low level missions, and that travelling to other sectors wouldn't unlock new content, and now I find myself quite stalled. Right now I have the Jag, a Quickdraw, a Centurion, and I don't even remember the fourth. A Flea or something.
- 2
Certain parts of the ship are awesome to invest in - particularly the ones which can speed up work on 'Mechs. But getting to the Beta Pod and doing Hydroponics will save you some headaches later. (I promise, it's worth it for random events.)
Regarding trouble hitting targets? Remember it's often better to have many smaller weapons which can fire repeatedly than a big weapon which can fire and needs cooling. Or a lot of weapons which will require heat management. Because faster 'Mechs are going to be harder to hit due to evasion... but when in doubt, melee can be a good friend - a good slap can sometimes make something "unsteady" and strip all evasion.
For hunting down those pesky Lights/Mediums which are fast and can build evasion, the JR7-D Jenner is an excellent hunter. (Once you strip the missile launcher out, armor up, and add some sinks.) If you can find it, the ASN-101 Assassin has the Intercept System installed - this makes it FAR easier to snipe enemies. Trouble is, it too is going to need some love from Yang's crew. Once you stop seeing many fast and light 'Mechs... you might want to invest in maneuverable units which can pack a punch. I'm partial to the GRF-1S Griffin, PHX-1 Phoenix Hawk, and ENF-4R Enforcer. Once you can get yourself a Thunderbolt of any kind, you're in good shape to punch over your weight - those things can be made to be monsters and are quite flexible in Yang's care.
Then again, that's just been my experience. The campaign, and career, can be beaten with just about anything as long as you're cautious and know how to work the OpFor AI. Why, there's even some fool who does the whole experience with AC/2s just to prove a point...
- 3
I would like armor and infantry units to deploy and manage. I want to be able to reconfigure them too.
Yeah I restarted my campaign and have since realized all the of the fault lay with the way I was playing and not having any real idea what I was doing. I had been avoiding certain missions to protect my reputation with various factions and now realize there is incredible leeway to grind and prepare between story missions.
This game is actually very forgiving if you know what you are doing.
- 3
- 2
Once you know what you are doing, you too could kill King Crabs with nothing but AC/2s. (Stock ones, not +/++ ones.)
- 2
Would have loved to have a more dense atmosphere i.e. story missions in the sandox mode. The random contracts are great, but I love the Flashpoints and would have loved to see more of them as well as more interconnection between them or returning foes and clients. Kind of what Hobbes is doing with the Hyades Rim mod at the moment but more on a universe spanning scale. I mean BT is just such an awesome tool to tell all these BT-stories but it felt like the Arano campaign, as good as it was, was just a teaser or scratching the surface of what could have been so much more.
Besides that the Argo Management could have been a bit more complex on the later part of the game. I dunno, maybe add some maintenance gameloop and trade-offs between Mech-Bay/Hospital/Moral/Logistics instead of having everything maxed and that's it. The written events go slightly into that direction sometimes, but could have been utilized way more in my opinion.
Besides that the Argo Management could have been a bit more complex on the later part of the game. I dunno, maybe add some maintenance gameloop and trade-offs between Mech-Bay/Hospital/Moral/Logistics instead of having everything maxed and that's it. The written events go slightly into that direction sometimes, but could have been utilized way more in my opinion.
- 1
- 1
Doing a career run with all DLC right now, and a number of things occur:
- A new biome or two (I realize these are big art investments, but still they'd really liven up the experience)
- Fire and smoke on the map could be interesting. (E.g. have a Firestarter cover your retreat?)
- More flashpoints -- they really enrich the career mode, and the more we have of these the better.
- More combined arms. The total absence of hover tanks is noteworthy. Infantry could be an interesting element and give flamers/MGs/SPL's a unique role.
- I'd consider carefully flexing the player-controlled unit limit. I don't think this engine and control scheme is good for a company level game. But e.g. a six-mech limit could give us occasional bigger missions where we have our employer's 'mech to babysit -- and maybe one henchman on top -- and we could still bring a full lance of our own.
- 2
- 1
Yeah, about two of these were things which were - if I recall - discussed during development and couldn't get through the devs trying to make it work. Hovercraft were not behaving properly, and fire from Flamers was something which got pushed down The List due to complications. Given the original vanilla game could be played on a system well under minimum spec if you cranked the settings way down? I'm glad fire/smoke didn't make it in. (And also, the tabletop rules for it were... are... and always will be a pain in the gluteus maximus.)Doing a career run with all DLC right now, and a number of things occur:
These are not "what I would have liked to see" but rather "what I hope to see in Battletech 2"
- A new biome or two (I realize these are big art investments, but still they'd really liven up the experience)
- Fire and smoke on the map could be interesting. (E.g. have a Firestarter cover your retreat?)
- More flashpoints -- they really enrich the career mode, and the more we have of these the better.
- More combined arms. The total absence of hover tanks is noteworthy. Infantry could be an interesting element and give flamers/MGs/SPL's a unique role.
- I'd consider carefully flexing the player-controlled unit limit. I don't think this engine and control scheme is good for a company level game. But e.g. a six-mech limit could give us occasional bigger missions where we have our employer's 'mech to babysit -- and maybe one henchman on top -- and we could still bring a full lance of our own.
On the topic of 'biome' though, I really am not sure what kind of biomes would be different enough. Short of a volcanic wasteland, which is also probably where you shouldn't be sending 'Mechs in the first place
- 1
Yep, I also recall the devs discussing problems with hovercrafts. They'd be a great addition later on, as they're really their own class of combatant (very fast, but fragile, unique terrain constraints, going over water, but woods blocking them). I'd like the fire/smoke effects on terrain if only as visual effects and to give that dynamic battlefield feel -- make it look like there's been a battle, in addition to just having a bunch of wrecked 'mechs lying around. Maybe the actual game-mechanical effect can be minimal?Yeah, about two of these were things which were - if I recall - discussed during development and couldn't get through the devs trying to make it work. Hovercraft were not behaving properly, and fire from Flamers was something which got pushed down The List due to complications. Given the original vanilla game could be played on a system well under minimum spec if you cranked the settings way down? I'm glad fire/smoke didn't make it in. (And also, the tabletop rules for it were... are... and always will be a pain in the gluteus maximus.)
On the topic of 'biome' though, I really am not sure what kind of biomes would be different enough. Short of a volcanic wasteland, which is also probably where you shouldn't be sending 'Mechs in the first place
About biomes: yes, a volcanic wasteland was also my first thought. I think we already have Yellowstone-esque colourful pools and geothermal features, but I want to see LAVA! Being a miserable place never stopped this being a trope of sci-fi.
Also we could use some gradation between the "megacity" and the natural landscapes. One option would be "rural": small towns, farmland, orchards, irrigation etc. -- not densely built, but visibly human-modified. And another option would be "suburban": lower buildings, but also some parks or natural features, and maybe big complexes like spaceports which you wouldn't find in inner city.
Last edited:
- 1
It's a shame that the degree of ... urbanity ... urbanism ... whatever isn't orthogonal to biome. We could have lunar cities, desert suburbs, small tundra towns, ....
Problem is, far as I recall the source material, population density for areas is either "urban like farming communities in the United States Midwest" or "fricking NYC on steroids and possibly some form of methamphetamine" for older worlds. With far more of the former than the latter, which is why you'll have whole planets with a lower listed population than some modern regions today. (Example? Tharkad is listed as having seven billion in population at roughly the time of the FedCom Civil War.)
It can all get chalked up to "Science Fiction Writers Have No Sense of Scale" tropes.
... that and I really don't think the devs wanted to introduce even the smallest hint there were potential civilian casualties during our randomly-generated
Way, way more events and impact from pilot tags (and more ways to modify/gain/lose those tags). Including in combat.
- 3
Not something I would have expected in this game, but would love to see in a sequel would be regenerating missions for a House to capture a planet. Rather than one or two contract battles, you're signing up for the whole campaign, and your antics influence, but ultimately don't entirely decide, the outcome.
- 4
- 2