Part 2 here
Good day Battletech developers
I'd like to congratulate you at first, you've made a really good and immersible game. You've ported board game into computer game almost perfectly. Splendid work gentlemen!
However, there are aspect whose could use some improvements. I mean overall GUI, and overall user experience in operating your game, as it feels inconvenient and clunky quite often.
This post contains things which affects user experience very badly though. If you devs will find my feedback valuable, and wish to discuss it deeper I will provide more.
Soo,let's start.
During a battle:
1) Right mouse button should act like ESC works now,except it couldn't go into "Load/Save/Options/Quit" menu.
Right now you have to use ESC over and over, and over again if you want to cancel current action. In my few 1st hours with Battletech I constantly tried to use RMB to "go back" in action, as used to in XCom. This change won't be hard, and will improve operating battle interface only via mouse, therefore increasing user experience. Well, you can add new bindable option "Go Back" or "Cancel Action" with default ESC so the players will assign a key or mouse button on their own. Current functionality of right mouse button could be moved to middle mouse button, or better make it bindable in options too.
Pls make a very quick test on your side and see how much smoother gameplay is if you can use mouse button like ESC keystroke.
2) Adding some markers, or kind of minimap to clearly show how many enemies are visible on sensors.
It's extremely inconvenient now to move whole battlegound around,and watch how many new enemies has been spotted. And dangerous, when Olivera has announced incoming reinforcements, and a player have difficulties to locate them. Also, their markers are often hidden in bushes, or sandstorms, and hue of the red color you've used for them has not the best contrast on Martian and dirt brown maps.
To improve that, I suggest adding clickable markers just over mechwarriors' portraits, similar how it is made in XCom - my lancemate sees an enemy, or have something on sensors, pop, there is mark over (or near) his portrait. Now I can click it, and camera will go (slow enough to not lose orientation) to position of the spotted entity.
Look at some Let's play XCom 2 videos on youtube to see what I mean.
3) Add option to reserve one squad member on his/her abilities bar.
There are very common situations when ex I'd like to delay action for my LRM Boat only, but I cannot if all my mechs are in the same weight category. Worth to mention is that the problem mentioned in paragraph one was noticeable here, quite painfully.
Well of course, if that "whole weight class reservation" is not done on purpose due to game mechanic. But even it does please reconsider the change.
4) Add ability to fire already aimed shot by pressing space key.
Battletech is best operated by both mouse and keyboard - mouse used to point targets for moving and shooting, and keys to trigger specific actions. However, to order fire I have to move mouse from around middle of the screen whooole way to the down edge of screen, and click "Fire" button on GUI. Oh my, it's so, soooo inconvenient and time consuming!
Solution is extremely simple and quick to implement - add bindable action for "Fire" order, default spacebar. And see yourself in internal test how much better it'd feel.
Mech replacement in a mechbay:
It's so broken that I cannot see loadout of a mech I have to put into storage to make space for new one assembled from salvage, just after completed mission. It affects user experience very badly.
Fig. 1 - After a week of break from playing Battletech would you remember if that Kintaro is worth being kept in mechbay, or it'd be better to replace it with newly assembled Wolverine?
I hope you'll find it interesting, and will give me info back how internal tests went, and you wish to get more hints.
Kind Regards for
@HBS_CaptKerberos
@HBS_Comanche
@HBS_Corvus
@HBS_Dagger
@HBS_Eck
@HBS_dlecompte
@Colonel Flamestalker
MasterBLB
Good day Battletech developers
I'd like to congratulate you at first, you've made a really good and immersible game. You've ported board game into computer game almost perfectly. Splendid work gentlemen!
However, there are aspect whose could use some improvements. I mean overall GUI, and overall user experience in operating your game, as it feels inconvenient and clunky quite often.
This post contains things which affects user experience very badly though. If you devs will find my feedback valuable, and wish to discuss it deeper I will provide more.
Soo,let's start.
During a battle:
1) Right mouse button should act like ESC works now,except it couldn't go into "Load/Save/Options/Quit" menu.
Right now you have to use ESC over and over, and over again if you want to cancel current action. In my few 1st hours with Battletech I constantly tried to use RMB to "go back" in action, as used to in XCom. This change won't be hard, and will improve operating battle interface only via mouse, therefore increasing user experience. Well, you can add new bindable option "Go Back" or "Cancel Action" with default ESC so the players will assign a key or mouse button on their own. Current functionality of right mouse button could be moved to middle mouse button, or better make it bindable in options too.
Pls make a very quick test on your side and see how much smoother gameplay is if you can use mouse button like ESC keystroke.
2) Adding some markers, or kind of minimap to clearly show how many enemies are visible on sensors.
It's extremely inconvenient now to move whole battlegound around,and watch how many new enemies has been spotted. And dangerous, when Olivera has announced incoming reinforcements, and a player have difficulties to locate them. Also, their markers are often hidden in bushes, or sandstorms, and hue of the red color you've used for them has not the best contrast on Martian and dirt brown maps.
To improve that, I suggest adding clickable markers just over mechwarriors' portraits, similar how it is made in XCom - my lancemate sees an enemy, or have something on sensors, pop, there is mark over (or near) his portrait. Now I can click it, and camera will go (slow enough to not lose orientation) to position of the spotted entity.
Look at some Let's play XCom 2 videos on youtube to see what I mean.
3) Add option to reserve one squad member on his/her abilities bar.
There are very common situations when ex I'd like to delay action for my LRM Boat only, but I cannot if all my mechs are in the same weight category. Worth to mention is that the problem mentioned in paragraph one was noticeable here, quite painfully.
Well of course, if that "whole weight class reservation" is not done on purpose due to game mechanic. But even it does please reconsider the change.
4) Add ability to fire already aimed shot by pressing space key.
Battletech is best operated by both mouse and keyboard - mouse used to point targets for moving and shooting, and keys to trigger specific actions. However, to order fire I have to move mouse from around middle of the screen whooole way to the down edge of screen, and click "Fire" button on GUI. Oh my, it's so, soooo inconvenient and time consuming!
Solution is extremely simple and quick to implement - add bindable action for "Fire" order, default spacebar. And see yourself in internal test how much better it'd feel.
Mech replacement in a mechbay:
It's so broken that I cannot see loadout of a mech I have to put into storage to make space for new one assembled from salvage, just after completed mission. It affects user experience very badly.
Fig. 1 - After a week of break from playing Battletech would you remember if that Kintaro is worth being kept in mechbay, or it'd be better to replace it with newly assembled Wolverine?
I hope you'll find it interesting, and will give me info back how internal tests went, and you wish to get more hints.
Kind Regards for
@HBS_CaptKerberos
@HBS_Comanche
@HBS_Corvus
@HBS_Dagger
@HBS_Eck
@HBS_dlecompte
@Colonel Flamestalker
MasterBLB
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