Mission Briefing Improvements

[Max_Killjoy]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...iss-from-mechwarrior-3.1099709/#post-24267299

Very likely too late to add this to the existing missions, but for a serious content expansion, I'd love it if we could hire on a full-up Tactical Officer, specializing in intel and mission planning, and giving informative briefings.

Before each mission, there would be a map laid out of the operation area, with known and suspected points of interest, enemy deployments, etc, and the officer taking us through what we know, suggested paths, etc.

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The videos and animation were great, but it wouldn't even have to be exactly the same -- just a map with the known mission points, suspected enemy positions, planned convoy routes, etc, and advice from a pro (not Darius, who thinks that "tactics" consists of "run toward this point, see who's there, and fight them").

Think about it -- things like actually knowing the route that the convoy you're supposed to escort will be following, so you're not deployed on the wrong side of the "starting point" when they spawn and start moving. Having an idea of what the map will look like before you drop. Etc.

Plus those briefings were just immersive as heck, absolutely evocative and atmospheric. I still get a bit a chill listening to them.

 

[Neonsamurai]

While I agree that mission briefings could be improved, I want to disagree about what should be different. I do agree, that a map would be helpful as well as marked positions of suspected opposition and possible routes of convoys. However I don't like that we get advice of the form 'Recommend to deploy a [insert mech class] lance'. I'd rather prefer to have information about the mission presented so that I as a commander can draw my own conclusions.

 

[Max_Killjoy]

While I agree that mission briefings could be improved, I want to disagree about what should be different. I do agree, that a map would be helpful as well as marked positions of suspected opposition and possible routes of convoys. However I don't like that we get advice of the form 'Recommend to deploy a [insert mech class] lance'. I'd rather prefer to have information about the mission presented so that I as a commander can draw my own conclusions.

That would be better, yes.

Tell me what we know and what we know we don't know (can't tell me what we don't know we don't know), and let me plan around it... instead of giving me dubious advice.

 

[BobaFatt]

While those are beautiful examples, they are for designed missions not procgen missions, and a human wrote those presentations out. I don’t think we can get a CPU to be able to mimic something like that on randomly generated missions. But I do agree on the general concept and I think the things you outlined after the videos are for the most part doable.

What Id like to see is giving us a God’s eye map of the engagement area (it would be nice to have a minimap in game too) on the loading screen instead of the pretty animation of the leopard and the rotating planet below. The info displayed on that map could be as simple as the objective locations. Possibly with some notes on suspected forces when you mouse over them ( I’m thinking that this is something you would pay for, advanced intel, or maybe a sensor or camera drone that recons the area a little ahead of your lance. I’d like to see a checkbox on the contract negotiation screen to purchase/gather advanced intel. Maybe it costs 50K per skull of the mission difficulty or something like that, or it uses a consumable item (sensor drone) that you can buy in stores, or the ability to launch sensor drones is an Argo upgrade, etc. but in the last 2 cases the cost for recon would be static, and I kind of like the idea of scaling cost. I don’t want this to be something we can afford on every single drop.

The way I imagine we’d get the intel is on the minimap on the load screen, when you hover over each waypoint you’d get a pop up with some info, examples:
-intel suggests turrets are at this location
-we’ve spotted what looks like a medium lance in good repair.
- camera drone saw evidence of heavy vehicle tracks in this area
- scout patrol spotted near this edge of the map. (Tip off to reinforcments)

The intent is not to get all of this information, but a few randomly selected ones. The intel could also generate an effect on the mission, such as delaying reinforcment lances by a number of turns (timing your strike until they are at the furthest point away in their patrol). Or possibly for non fixed location missions (battles, convoy intercept, etc) the ability to change the map by one degree (so from desert to badlands, etc) some maps like lunar and Martian might not be changeable. But this would represent picking the most opportune point to engage. (Credit to @scJazz for the map idea)

A more advanced idea that probably wouldn’t be doable until we’re talking about Battletech 2, but that I would love to see is other options for support after this info is revealed, such as being able to order an artillary or aerospace strike to immediately proceed your landing, it costs cbills but could remove turrets from play, or downgrade the repair status of an enemy lance, etc. the leopard has two aerospace bays, maybe you could buy aerospace fighters for several million cbills, but the benefit is you now get one free aerospace strike per fighter instead of having to pay 100k or something like that for an artillary strike from the employer (and some employers like local government may not have artillary, or employers who say the mission is clandestine ‘we need a deniable force’ do not offer the ability to purchase artillary strikes)

(An added bonus for having aerospace fighters could be putting an end to those pesky pirate events once and for all!)

 

[Max_Killjoy]

RIght, I don't think those biefings would be possible in exactly that style in the procgen missions -- for procgen, I just want to use the general concept as inspiration.

For the story missions, we could get something much closer.

 

[BobaFatt]

RIght, I don't think those biefings would be possible in exactly that style in the procgen missions -- for procgen, I just want to use the general concept as inspiration.

For the story missions, we could get something much closer.

I think those are reasonable expectations. I don’t know if I’d want the devs to spend time improving the existing mission briefings (if it’s going to take away attention from something else) but I’d very much like to see it on future DLC campaigns.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

MW3 was AWESOME in the details of mission structure, to me it's what all BT MW titles should have had.

Now, there are differences of course. MW3 was front line House and merc units deep in Clan space with the best they could bring, and meantime here we are in this game slinging rocks at each other in the BFE Periphery, but an estalished merc unit should have ground map quality and briefings very similar because their very survival as a unit depends on it.

 

[Dan1109]

The reason I would like a map shown prior to flying in, is to give you details to pick the right mechs. Large maps would be more viable and important to have lighter/fast mechs. Why pick fast mechs on a small map. This of course would make things slightly easier so difficulty would need to be increased (mechs chosen by AI for that map, should be customized as well).

Overall, this would lead to more pilot and mechs being required. You would need several combos of pilots. Several types of roles for mechs. Tired of having an 18 mech bay and room for 24 pilots and can do the entire campaign and post sandbox with my 4 biggest mechs and 4 best pilots. Backups only needed for the occassional injury/repair.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

The reason I would like a map shown prior to flying in, is to give you details to pick the right mechs. Large maps would be more viable and important to have lighter/fast mechs. Why pick fast mechs on a small map. This of course would make things slightly easier so difficulty would need to be increased (mechs chosen by AI for that map, should be customized as well).

Overall, this would lead to more pilot and mechs being required. You would need several combos of pilots. Several types of roles for mechs. Tired of having an 18 mech bay and room for 24 pilots and can do the entire campaign and post sandbox with my 4 biggest mechs and 4 best pilots. Backups only needed for the occassional injury/repair.

Exactly that, but also because the high difficulty missions can end up throwing an assault lance at you plus heavy armored lances, so sometimes you'r effectively facing a company, which is unrealistic even for a crack lance that you end up being.

IIRC, a Leopard can carry one or two fighters, and even if not, the Argo certainly has room for a hangar. I feel that air strike capacity should be an option.

 

[psedodragon]

I would also like to choose my insertion and retrieval spots from a number of available landing areas. it always bugged me that the pickup area is on the other side of the map from the drop off and is always forces you to go though the reinforcements. you should be able to hit the target and retreat the way you came in because you have already cleared the path and the it would be easier to land the dropship in the same place twice.

 

[Dan1109]

Speaking of pickup areas, one area they can increase realism and have increased risk, is to have dynamic pickup areas when you withdraw. I never liked the fact that you can withdraw immediately with your forces spread, even while you have a mech on its back getting gang-banged by 3 mechs at point blank range.

Instead up teleporting, the dropship should take two turns to arrive and one turn to pickup. Maybe during the two turns of waiting you can get ‘air support’ from the Leopard - Laser/AC/PPC strikes and bombardments between you and the enemy, forcing an artillery shield to protect the escape.

Withdrawing is costly, but as well needs to be planned and have risk in itself.