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Likes:
- It reminds me BattleTech is not 'dead' yet.
- I can actually play it now.
(And likely will be investigating doing streams of it "for friends" so they can bear witness to the terrible things I subject myself to.)
Dislikes:
- There's not more hours in the week to play it as often as I want.
- I'm restarting my tabletop campaign, hence less time to play HBS.
- Still can't kill Cameron "Talon" Coyne, even with a Gauss slug to the face.
- It reminds me BattleTech is not 'dead' yet.
- I can actually play it now.
(And likely will be investigating doing streams of it "for friends" so they can bear witness to the terrible things I subject myself to.)
Dislikes:
- There's not more hours in the week to play it as often as I want.
- I'm restarting my tabletop campaign, hence less time to play HBS.
- Still can't kill Cameron "Talon" Coyne, even with a Gauss slug to the face.
Likes: Almost everything
But i highlight the mechbay (lots of fun with customization, specially given the "+" gear); the argo (loved having a upgradeable "base"); and Campaign/Flashpoints* (having a story is vital to me)
*Kudos to Kamea VA
Dislike: Not having a 2nd leopard and off-screen/auto missions (its hard to feel we run a company); Lack of vehicle/infantry/arty/ASF to field (mech commander is 20y old and had most of this); and the reputation system (being successful should make my company desired rather than loathed).
*Farah being both master engineer and chief MD, and the "helmet" NPCs are just bad. An extra crew member and more portrait art would have been worth the effort...
When is it said that Murad is pulling medical duty? It just refers to your head doctor as a her, IIRC.
This captures my feelings fairly well. I think the basic tactical battle game is very strong, and they've done a good job with the universe (and, generally speaking, a good job integrating custom content into the sandbox game). I also think the base campaign was totally solid.
I think there's some tension between the tactical gameplay and the strategic level. Both, as Spartakus said, that the economy and salvage mechanisms work, but are intended to support a fairly fast growth curve. Also the tactical game is clearly designed with the intention that it's not uncommon to finish a mission with various mechs having pieces shot off of them, but the strategic level rewards playing to minimize any internal damage, and that pushes game play in a direction which is further from the source material (in which internal damage is not uncommon).
I'm happy to say that the base game continues to hold my interest. I haven't tried any of the mods; I think the gameplay can feel repetitive at times, but I'm still enjoying it.
I won't get into the likes so much. I wouldn't be playing if they weren't too many to list in the first place.
However, there are a few dislikes (and I will limit myself to the base game)
1. Time not advancing in career mode. It damages my immersion.
2. Not having the entire map to play around in (maybe that gets added later?).
3. The push toward assault mechs. I personally do not like using assault mechs, they are slow and boring. I find the early game with a lance of under-weight, fragile light mechs far more fun and fulfilling.
4. Pilots getting too good. It basically puts the game on easy mode once you have 10/10/10/10 pilots.
5. Some of the special skills just aren't useful, while others are pretty OP. IMO, Breaching shot is worthless. What's the point in firing 1 weapon that *might* hit for full damage versus firing 6-8 that will land at least some hits for some damage? Coolant Flush might be on the OP side on the other hand.
6. Game needs to start advancing the timeline, I'd like to see the 4th Succession War in full.
However, there are a few dislikes (and I will limit myself to the base game)
1. Time not advancing in career mode. It damages my immersion.
2. Not having the entire map to play around in (maybe that gets added later?).
3. The push toward assault mechs. I personally do not like using assault mechs, they are slow and boring. I find the early game with a lance of under-weight, fragile light mechs far more fun and fulfilling.
4. Pilots getting too good. It basically puts the game on easy mode once you have 10/10/10/10 pilots.
5. Some of the special skills just aren't useful, while others are pretty OP. IMO, Breaching shot is worthless. What's the point in firing 1 weapon that *might* hit for full damage versus firing 6-8 that will land at least some hits for some damage? Coolant Flush might be on the OP side on the other hand.
6. Game needs to start advancing the timeline, I'd like to see the 4th Succession War in full.
I think I'm going to just lay down my top 10. Keep things nice and balanced.
Likes:
Likes:
- The story. It really is well done, despite being so basic. The characters are interesting, and Kamea's growth throughout is well written. Having Espinosa be more than just your run of the mill mustache twirling villain was welcome, even if Victoria ended up filling that role. Even your crew is a fairly interesting bunch, even if they can be a little wooden and annoying at times.
- Flashpoints. While I would kill for them to be longer, they are a fantastic addition to make career mode and post-story campaign mode interesting. I'm a sucker for story content, and some of them are really good (and funny. SLDF stapler factory anyone?). Having branching paths gives you two, three, or in rare cases even four different ways to play them, leaving you with a lot of replayability.
- Combat is visually interesting. Attacks feel like they have weight to them, and weapons don't sound too weak. All of the effects look quite nice as well. Mechs swaying under incoming fire, melted armor dripping off onto the ground, etc. It all looks very nice and does a good job of convincing you that your commanding building-sized war machines with enough firepower to flatten a town in less than a minute.
- Initiative. While there are a few problems that crop up with mechs in awkward weight brackets (40, 60, and 80 tonners really should move in the light, medium, and heavy brackets respectively), the initiative system as a whole is actually pretty well done and easy to work with.
- Customization. It's a nice middle ground between the lore of mechs being difficult to refit and the joy of spending hours in the mechbay tweaking builds, and I think it largely satisfies both the lore grognards who run stock only 24/7 and the guys who can't stand stock builds.
- Mech models. Despite using PGI's models for most mechs, HBS manages to make them look very visually pretty, and their art team has done a great job re-imagining vehicles and mechs that PGI didn't make. I love the Striker model, and the Manticore is beautiful. While I quite like a lot of PGI's mechs, some of them like the Centurion really suffered under their hands. Especially with the "variable geometry" weapon hardpoints they added in. Rest in peace Centurion's missile bay. You will be missed.
- IT'S 3025! Introtech never got the love it should have in the old days, and I'm glad to see HBS starting here instead of going for the easy money of starting off mid-Clan invasion.
- Mods. While HBS doesn't explicitly support modding, the fact that the game is so easily moddable has given me hundreds of hours of playtime past the point where I normally would have stopped playing.
- A single player focused game is rare in these days, so it's nice to find a good one.
- The intro cutscene really is the best thing. It's the perfect intro to the BT universe for newcomers, and a great refresher for old hands. Plus it just looks cool.
- The combat. While the actual firing of weapons and receiving of damage is all quite impressive, many of the other core mechanics don't resonate well with me. Not being able to sprint and fire like you can in tabletop, movement defense (evasion) being so useless, the constantly being out-numbered. Tonnage quickly becomes the only value to measure mechs by, which I personally dislike as I've never been much of a fan of assault mechs and generally prefer more mobile machines. Ranges are too short for sniper mechs to be useful without sensor lock, but you can't make good use of sensor lock because you're outnumbered 2 or 3 to one and need all guns on deck. I can't bring myself to play this game vanilla after playing mods like Roguetech or XLRP for the sole reason that they even the odds a little bit by making movement a valid way to negate incoming damage.
- Being restricted to only one lance. This will hit on a few points from above, but being outnumbered all the time means you have to bring your heaviest units constantly. You can't afford to build mechs or pilots for utility. The enemy force can afford 1 or 2 sensor lockers because they still have 6-10 units (not counting turrets) that can fire on you. You can't afford to have one of your 4 mechs spend its action removing evasion from one single target. I know the reasoning for giving players only one lance was to keep missions from taking to long, but there's nothing quite so demoralizing as watching helplessly as 12 enemy units focus your Atlas down and there's nothing you can do about it.
- Turretless vehicles still have the turret as a location that can soak incoming damage, but doesn't actually damage the vehicle.
- ECM. ECM is overpowered, plain and simple. It also doesn't work like ECM is supposed to. ECM doesn't make mechs immune to direct fire, it's not an active camo system (though those do exist in-universe).
- Lostech is useless. With the exception of the Gauss and DHS, why would I ever use it? Why put an LPL on a Black Knight over an LL with + accuracy and damage and an energy TTS that gives me bonuses to all of my other weapons too?
- Reputation. Once you start losing it, you're going to keep losing it. Since difficulty scales with your company, you'll eventually run out of planets with low enough skulls to run contracts for low rep factions. And you lose rep incredibly quickly for a mercenary company, especially one on the Periphery. All it takes is maybe half a dozen contracts to start tanking your reputation.
- The DLCs have arguably been overpriced, and I say this as someone who bought the season pass while it was on the cheap back before Flashpoint launched. While Flashpoint wasn't too bad, Urban Warfare really didn't add much for its price. In the 100, maybe 150 hours I've put in since UW launched, I've never seen a Raven outside of the Flashpoint that introduces it, never seen a Packrat, never seen a Routunda, and only saw a Gallant 2 or 3 times in a vanilla career run I did on launch day. The urban biomes are nice, if a little too open to really properly mimic the tight quarters of old tabletop city maps. And the new mission type added is actually horrible. The only time I've played it and enjoyed it is during one of the newly added Liao flashpoints where you have a friendly AI lance providing you with backup.
- The "economy sim" is a bad joke. Outside of picking up the occasional + weapon or maybe picking up one last piece of salvage for a mech you really want to complete, I've never seen a use for the store. It costs too much to purchase things, you get pennies on the dollar for selling even if you're allied with the store owners, and the inventory in stores is pathetically small. The only real use for c-bills is upgrading the Argo. As long as you have enough c-bills to pay the end of month upkeep, going for c-bills over salvage is pointless because salvage gives you something you can actually use.
- Multiplayer. It really does feel tacked on. Between the lack of content, and the difficulty of just getting connected to a room and staying connected, it's not surprising that the MP community has largely died off.
- You are not the main character of your own story. As much as I praised the story earlier, it really is Kamea's story. You're a MacGuffin. A very powerful one, but still a MacGuffin. You're not even a secondary character. You have no choices other than "Do exactly as Kamea says" or "ignore the story", and if you're going to ignore the story you might as well just play career mode.
Hm. Okay, perhaps it's time to just speak up and stop pretending I shouldn't say anything. I really like this game, it fits exactly the sort of game I want to play, and I find as long as I'm willing to play careful it's really difficult to lose. (Short of bad luck.) In fact? Everything I like about the game seems to be what's generally disliked.
If I have serious dislikes, about the game currently? It's that I don't seem to be encouraged to enjoy it for what it is. I feel increasing pressure to not enjoy it, or to nitpick at it. (Something I refuse to do, if only because I've done work on my own campaign and everything HBS does "wrong" with this game I've done worse. I don't have the luxury of calling them out on the mistakes I dropped headfirst into.) Anything I could change about the game doesn't feel like it'd make the game "better" so much as "something I'd like better, personally-speaking". Twenty years ago, I might have been willing to put that flag on a hill and say "this is objectively better" and invite people to prove me wrong. This year, at the age I am? I'm more of the opinion maybe my tastes aren't what everyone else wants to deal with.
It is noted, many times, this drives me to feel more like an outsider in the realms of the Internet.
Bottom line? I like this game. I like the potential it has. I like the way it's moved people to do mods to bring out a plethora of potentials for people to try out and see what they think. And I really like how the people developing the game have passion for the game.
(Just remember, this is all going downhill when those crazy Clanners arrive.)
If I have serious dislikes, about the game currently? It's that I don't seem to be encouraged to enjoy it for what it is. I feel increasing pressure to not enjoy it, or to nitpick at it. (Something I refuse to do, if only because I've done work on my own campaign and everything HBS does "wrong" with this game I've done worse. I don't have the luxury of calling them out on the mistakes I dropped headfirst into.) Anything I could change about the game doesn't feel like it'd make the game "better" so much as "something I'd like better, personally-speaking". Twenty years ago, I might have been willing to put that flag on a hill and say "this is objectively better" and invite people to prove me wrong. This year, at the age I am? I'm more of the opinion maybe my tastes aren't what everyone else wants to deal with.
It is noted, many times, this drives me to feel more like an outsider in the realms of the Internet.
Bottom line? I like this game. I like the potential it has. I like the way it's moved people to do mods to bring out a plethora of potentials for people to try out and see what they think. And I really like how the people developing the game have passion for the game.
(Just remember, this is all going downhill when those crazy Clanners arrive.)
I feel pretty much the same. I mod the game, but the things I mod are personal preference items. I recognize that my changes wouldn't be ideal for everyone. There are a few issues. The ECM sound bug is the most glaring. I haven't been able to completely abuse the ECM mechanics, but I do get two or three rounds out of it. Some better AI reactions to it would be appreciated. I agree with some of the other dislikes, but a lot of it is just wanting to see the game grow further.
The campaign was excellent and all of the flashpoints are enjoyable. The core gameplay loop is solid. I would like to see it expanded, but there is always the concern of adding things which break the core gameplay.
It is still a good time to be a mech fan and I don't see that changing any time soon.
It's not the Clans, it's their tech which is going to make it an issue. Or HBS will solve that Gordian Knot without cutting it somehow.
I really liked the direction HBS seemed to be leaning when it came to Clans and the question of Heat. I like HBS’s chances of putting together a really FUN take on the Clans for BATTLETECH... much further down the road of course. : )It's not the Clans, it's their tech which is going to make it an issue. Or HBS will solve that Gordian Knot without cutting it somehow.
It's not the Clans, it's their tech which is going to make it an issue. Or HBS will solve that Gordian Knot without cutting it somehow.
Yup. That's the problem with the Clans. The tech. The only check and balance to that that was put into place was a fluff reason. A reason that, back in the day when I did play, was never used. The Clan players just wanted the advantage of the superior tech but not the disadvantage that playing as a clanner should have implemented . . .
Then, if my understanding is correct, as the timeline in Battletech progressed, the writers used in-lore reasons to strip even the thin veneer of "restraint" off the clans so they were, legitimately just super tech based "houses" of the inner sphere.
I'm hoping HBS comes up with a way to make them unique but not as OP as they were in TT . . . only time will tell though.
You cannot sprint and fire in tabletop; you can run and fire. HBS folded the "run" and "walk" movement modes into "move" and kept "sprint" as separate (two buttons instead of three, and the major difference between the three is that you can fire while walking or running, but not while sprinting).
So the game works exactly like tabletop in this regard.
(Except for the movement speed changes to the outliers such as Locust, Cicada, and Urbie.
)
While I agree with a lot of the above posts regarding getting on a hill, planting a flag, and rattling your saber at anyone who tries to come near it, I think it's important to point out that feedback, both positive and negative, is an important part of the creative process, so long as it stays respectful. If we tell HBS they've made the best game ever and that it has no flaws, they'll have a harder time finding ways to improve, or maybe they won't attempt to improve the game at all.
I've heard this repeatedly, but unless HBS reduced "run" movement when they folded run and walk into each other, this is not true. Jump movement regularly out-ranges walk movement, which it shouldn't be doing if walk is a combination of walk and run. And even if this is the case, walk movement doesn't provide anywhere close to the defensive movement modifier that it should if it's a combination of walk and run.
Going to flip the order to end on the positive side.
Dislikes:
ECM/AI:
The AI just can't handle the ECM+Reserve combo fielded by the player. Nor can we easily mod out this weakness. Was hoping a 1.7 patch would have dropped to fix this.
ECM/Sound Bug:
It's jarring, enough has been said already in other posts.
Missions don't increment days:
Either give us some kind of pilot fatigue/maintenance costs or just go back to 1 combat drop a day.
Target Acquisition:
Devs mentioned learning lessons from TA to build A/D. TA could still use some tuning to let faster units shine. Things like not spawning enemies right on top of the beacon zones or in places where all of them can focus on one target to strip all Evasion.
Camo is hard to select:
Why can't I spin my units in the MechBay without adding a mod? Why is choosing colors in a totally different part of the ship? Just let me assign company colors in the bay, with being able to flip between paint schemes on a unit while able to rotate it to see what it looks like. Add more lights in the bay as well!
Unit Logos still MIA:
Why can't every 'Mech skin have unit logos like the Umbra or Valhalla skins? Would love to see them on default skins so OPFOR will look the part and I'll get to see my unit logo on all my units.
Likes:
Combat and tactical choices:
The combat is fun, the AI can be made challenging if you want to mod it. Sure, SRM+JJ could use a little tuning down and LosTech weapons up, but the fundamental combat loop encourages risk taking that leads to satisfying victories.
Flashpoints:
These are great fun. Hope we get many more as part of every DLC and eventually linked, branching FPs.
DLC Model:
I like the choice of not nickel-&-diming us with unit/skin/weapon packs and instead going with the classic comprehensive "expansion pack" with everything included. Even if the cost of the individual DLC or the concept of Season Passes might get argued about, it's far better than getting the same content piecemealed out for $4.99 a feature.
Modding:
Obviously I'm going to be very biased on this. The game now has about 3-4 large modpacks each with their own teams of modders in addition to tons of individuals. They're creating simple balance edits to whole new units/movement methods like VTOL aircraft. I'm glad the game's systems are so openly exposed and in most cases, easily changed with a simple text editor. The fact that the engine can handle all this and not constantly crash or bug out keeps modding fun instead of frustrating.
Dislikes:
ECM/AI:
The AI just can't handle the ECM+Reserve combo fielded by the player. Nor can we easily mod out this weakness. Was hoping a 1.7 patch would have dropped to fix this.
ECM/Sound Bug:
It's jarring, enough has been said already in other posts.
Missions don't increment days:
Either give us some kind of pilot fatigue/maintenance costs or just go back to 1 combat drop a day.
Target Acquisition:
Devs mentioned learning lessons from TA to build A/D. TA could still use some tuning to let faster units shine. Things like not spawning enemies right on top of the beacon zones or in places where all of them can focus on one target to strip all Evasion.
Camo is hard to select:
Why can't I spin my units in the MechBay without adding a mod? Why is choosing colors in a totally different part of the ship? Just let me assign company colors in the bay, with being able to flip between paint schemes on a unit while able to rotate it to see what it looks like. Add more lights in the bay as well!
Unit Logos still MIA:
Why can't every 'Mech skin have unit logos like the Umbra or Valhalla skins? Would love to see them on default skins so OPFOR will look the part and I'll get to see my unit logo on all my units.
Likes:
Combat and tactical choices:
The combat is fun, the AI can be made challenging if you want to mod it. Sure, SRM+JJ could use a little tuning down and LosTech weapons up, but the fundamental combat loop encourages risk taking that leads to satisfying victories.
Flashpoints:
These are great fun. Hope we get many more as part of every DLC and eventually linked, branching FPs.
DLC Model:
I like the choice of not nickel-&-diming us with unit/skin/weapon packs and instead going with the classic comprehensive "expansion pack" with everything included. Even if the cost of the individual DLC or the concept of Season Passes might get argued about, it's far better than getting the same content piecemealed out for $4.99 a feature.
Modding:
Obviously I'm going to be very biased on this. The game now has about 3-4 large modpacks each with their own teams of modders in addition to tons of individuals. They're creating simple balance edits to whole new units/movement methods like VTOL aircraft. I'm glad the game's systems are so openly exposed and in most cases, easily changed with a simple text editor. The fact that the engine can handle all this and not constantly crash or bug out keeps modding fun instead of frustrating.
I would say it is more accurate that "run" has been removed. The speeds are approximately the walk speeds (mech walk speed x 30, a 4/6 mech is can move 120 in this). The sprint speed is the TT sprint speed, or at least close to it. I think this does create issues with undervaluing movement and making jump jets more powerful than they should be.
Walking/running takes terrain into account, jumping does not. Just like in TT, jumping sometimes gets you farther than running - especially in hilly/difficult terrain.
That's a completely different argument; HBS rolled all defensive movement modifiers into "evasion", a system that has its well-debated pros and cons.
That doesn't mean you can fire while sprinting in TT however, and now that I'm back home from work, I can cite the rules for it:
"To use sprinting movement, a 'Mech must have two working hip actuators. A 'Mech's Sprinting MP is twice its current Walking/Cruising MP. Sprinting generates 3 Heat Points per turn. Because keeping a 'Mech safely moving at such high speeds requires a MechWarrior's total concentration, a 'Mech that sprints during the Movement Phase of a turn may not make any attacks during the remainder of the turn."
- Tactical Operations, p.18
- Tactical Operations, p.18
I'm well aware. I tested this before making the claim by booting up a skirmish map and comparing the walk and jump movement on a flat, straight piece of terrain. Jump was still further.
Agreed. This also is definitely not the place for arguing evasion. I am aware of the sprinting rules though, and while the number of movement hexes for sprinting in HBSBT does seem to fall in line with the sprint rules, the walking movement still doesn't seem to include tabletop run MP.
Ok . . here goes
Likes:
The mechs. Everything about them. Models, movement, weapon placement, firing animations and sounds, damage model. Everything . . .
The biomes. They all look amazing.
There's more but I'll just say the "likes" outweigh the "dislikes"
But i do have dislikes:
Weapon upgrades. I don't like the fact that they are straight up upgrades. I also don't like that they render LosTech weapons pretty much useless when they should be better, in my opinion, than even the best +++++++++ (i know I'm exaggerating) weapon in the Sphere.
Criticals: They just don't feel, effective?, enjoyable?, dunno can't place it. They just don't seem . . enough. Maybe it's because there's just not that many things that can be critted so they seem lack luster?
That's about it.
Needless to say, I'll be purchasing either Battletech 2 or Season 2 DLC if/when HBS decides to release it/them.
Likes:
The mechs. Everything about them. Models, movement, weapon placement, firing animations and sounds, damage model. Everything . . .
The biomes. They all look amazing.
There's more but I'll just say the "likes" outweigh the "dislikes"
But i do have dislikes:
Weapon upgrades. I don't like the fact that they are straight up upgrades. I also don't like that they render LosTech weapons pretty much useless when they should be better, in my opinion, than even the best +++++++++ (i know I'm exaggerating) weapon in the Sphere.
Criticals: They just don't feel, effective?, enjoyable?, dunno can't place it. They just don't seem . . enough. Maybe it's because there's just not that many things that can be critted so they seem lack luster?
That's about it.
Needless to say, I'll be purchasing either Battletech 2 or Season 2 DLC if/when HBS decides to release it/them.