A major problem with the campaign difficulty, but with an easy solution.

[KristoffVonK]

Well...I actually kind of wish i knew nothing about Battletech and got to learn all this on my own.....im kinda jealous. The best I can do is refuse to watch any streams and then be surprised

 

[KnightCole]

Another part of it I think is I cant think of a single game EVER that has given us the degree of freedom to move around such an EXPANSIVE universe. Literally every game ive EVER played, does in fact hold out hand and tells us: "you go to A planet, then B planet, then C planet and so on, until the game ends.

I dont even think the streamers even realize the sheer size and scope of the BT universe. This is also assuming that HBS did in fact make every single planet in that star chart playable, and im not dreaming.

I had thought of giving myself sufficient cash to travel over to the Steiner worlds and fire up contracts for them lol......if we can even go that far.

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

The scary thing is that they haven't actually opened up the whole map, just the bit in a tiny gap in the map between two major factions in the periphery (so no, there's no hitting up Tharkad) and even *that* is almost too much content.

This game is gonna get sooooo good in the sequels.

 

[Falconaran]

The scary thing is that they haven't actually opened up the whole map, just the bit in a tiny gap in the map between two major factions in the periphery (so no, there's no hitting up Tharkad) and even *that* is almost too much content.

This game is gonna get sooooo good in the sequels.

Fingers crossed, touch wood. For goodness sake don't jinx it.

 

[Crl1981]

Piggy backing on the map, I love that this game has us playing on maybe a tenth of a percent of the entire Inner Sphere.

 

[Flying Dice]

I think this game is far too complex to let players just figure stuff out on their own. It would take them months (and most of them would probably lose interest long before that). I'm still a fan of tutorials, although maybe not forced tutorials like in the intro. The conversations with the crew aren't enough; the players must SEE what concept is being illustrated sometimes.
I think the tutorials of MechCommander 2 were perfect: you could load them at the intro screen and do some training whenever you wanted.

Without this option, you are basically forcing the players to fail in order to learn. So you're forcing them one way or the other.

As someone who learned to play X-Com (the original, not the reboot) without a tutorial or manual, I'm laughing like hell right now. Nothing like a UI that consists of blurry unlabeled buttons with faint pixelated blob symbols intended to convey their purpose.

HBS BTech does a remarkable amount of handholding already for anyone who is capable of reading and sitting still for the five minutes it takes to flip through the crew tutorials.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

The problem I see are many people saying it's too easy due to stupid AI. Which is why I intend to play with mech restrictions on myself.

 

[NullVoid]

As someone who learned to play X-Com (the original, not the reboot) without a tutorial or manual, I'm laughing like hell right now. Nothing like a UI that consists of blurry unlabeled buttons with faint pixelated blob symbols intended to convey their purpose.

My copy of XCOM came with a dead-tree manual with black and white pictures., 133 pages in total, of which 46 were the tutorial, explaining what every button in every screen did, including details like the grenade tutorial and a tip that radars take ten minutes to do a complete revolution so extra radars make your base more effective at UFO detection.

Modern games do not have a dead-tree manual, because we mostly use digital distribution these days, and switching between a PDF manual and the game is a pain in the @$$; on the other hand, disk storage is cheap, and therefore in-game tutorials are the way to go going forward.

 

[me987654]

The problem I see are many people saying it's too easy due to stupid AI. Which is why I intend to play with mech restrictions on myself.

Just change the AI settings - it's really not that hard. Heck, you can turn on AI reserving with literally one change

 

[Whiskiz]

apparently AI already uses reserving

 

[me987654]

apparently AI already uses reserving

Interesting - they must have changed the default. Good news

 

[Hasler]

Modern games do not have a dead-tree manual, because we mostly use digital distribution these days, and switching between a PDF manual and the game is a pain in the @$$; on the other hand, disk storage is cheap, and therefore in-game tutorials are the way to go going forward.

I don't see why a PDF manual is so hard. One you should RTFM before starting the game. Even if you don't, you have second screens, smart phones, tablets, etc to have the manual open next to you with out alt-tabbing.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

If it’s a balance issue (new players getting crushed too fast), IMO the best method is to force spawn travel contracts to easier systems and put them right by the story mission. For all I know, there is already something like that under the hood as Kiva seems to want the game to teach you.

 

[NullVoid]

I don't see why a PDF manual is so hard. One you should RTFM before starting the game. Even if you don't, you have second screens, smart phones, tablets, etc to have the manual open next to you with out alt-tabbing.

You're right; it can be done. Two problems with that, though: First, if you are developing a game, you certainly have developers on payroll, but may not have a layout professional to make the manual. Second, and most important, gamers nowadays don't read manuals. At all. They expect everything to be just like all of the games they are cribbing, or that the game will teach mechanics through a tutorial level.

 

[Hasler]

You're right; it can be done. Two problems with that, though: First, if you are developing a game, you certainly have developers on payroll, but may not have a layout professional to make the manual. Second, and most important, gamers nowadays don't read manuals. At all. They expect everything to be just like all of the games they are cribbing, or that the game will teach mechanics through a tutorial level.

I guess that's where the devide lays, especially here with a mix of casuals, table top, and more hardcore gamers. The TT crowd is used to reading 100s of pages and can often recite them from memory. The hard core sim crowd follows the motto RTFM, but I can see how the average gamer has gotten used to a game walking them through every little aspect. I am cool with a tutorial as long as I can skip it. Honestly I wish the tutorial that is in place already was skipable

 

[me987654]

I'd rather just have a wiki - those are generally way better than manuals most of the time anyways

 

[me987654]

I guess that's where the devide lays, especially here with a mix of casuals, table top, and more hardcore gamers. The TT crowd is used to reading 100s of pages and can often recite them from memory. The hard core sim crowd follows the motto RTFM, but I can see how the average gamer has gotten used to a game walking them through every little aspect. I am cool with a tutorial as long as I can skip it. Honestly I wish the tutorial that is in place already was skipable

As someone who plays complex games (Hearts of Iron 2 - CORE mod mostly, Graviteam Tactics, Kerbal, Command: air/naval operations, etc) I generally use wikis and youtube videos to learn stuff. Manuals are generally useless.

 

[Hasler]

As someone who plays complex games (Hearts of Iron 2 - CORE mod mostly, Graviteam Tactics, Kerbal, Command: air/naval operations, etc) I generally use wikis and youtube videos to learn stuff. Manuals are generally useless.

You sir have never attempted to learn the F-16 in falcon BMS, or A-10c in DCS with their full 600+ page flight manuals.

 

[me987654]

You sir have never attempted to learn the F-16 in falcon BMS, or A-10c in DCS with their full 600+ page flight manuals.

Yeah I'm not interested in those kinds of games... but I will say Command is pretty complex. Basically harpoon on steroids.

 

[Exemplar Voss]

I guess that's where the devide lays, especially here with a mix of casuals, table top, and more hardcore gamers. The TT crowd is used to reading 100s of pages and can often recite them from memory.

That isn't nearly as true as it used to be. I know a large portion of the current tabletop crowd gets antsy without a quickstart guide and often has no real grasp of rulesets they play.