some suggestions...

[Simon1812]

Hi, new to the game, already done with the campaign, but digging the career mode. heard about the DLC "flashpoint" and the plans for other two at later date, have a lot of patience so I wont be buying them til all three come out in a bundle, thought Im not writing anything on stone XD

some suggestion i think might improve the game's overall experience if I might be so bold:

-the logo or emblem should be displayed on the mechs, you guys at harebrained went very far on mech's visual details that can only be appreciated up close (and at night time) in order to enjoy their full glory , and yet you missed that? cmon, I want my mech to display my mercenary logo and rep real hard.

-when in battle, my mech in turn locks on a target, and it display relevant information about said target. can we please include distance? hm? just a number there in a corner that indicate how far a locked on target is from the mech I'm moving for the kill. those light grey, dark grey and grey cones are alright, but they can be a little hard to read sometimes (need to shake the mouse and zoom out some times), whereas a number would straight up indicate me the information I need to properly asses and adjust as needed for optimal range when firing my weapons.

-your maps (or biomes) need to be more ...developed? like add more civilization other than some generic factory, those look pretty cool though, but more variety, like very large futuristic looking bridges,docks or airports, small towns, metropolis, ancient ruins of cities, and ruins of not so ancient cities too, there are some agricultural worlds....where is there any agriculture to see? even battlefields.


-mech appearance, I find myself going back and for between the mech customization tool and the mech bay just to see what my mechs look like after changing colors. No! that atlas model there doesnt cut it! any other game out there with a similar feature does this better and easier, and convenient, the warhammer 40k Spacemarine did it better, the first Down of War game did it better, so did X-com 2, those were the ones at the top of my head , pretty sure anybody here can think of better examples.

now some heavier gameplay suggestions

-light mech should not loose evasion (unless they miss a leg) that's the only way they will remain viable late game, i love my commando, but no point to bring it along for anything over a 3 or 4 skull mission if that.

-can you make the enemy AI be a little more...intelligent? there was a mission where a wolverine jumped on my lance firing its energy weapons...it overheated all the way to shutdown right on the spot, and every member in my lance was able to take a free called shot at him on the next turn. in another one, I had two mechs left against a orion, then the orion was like " I know! I will just turn my back on them they haven't shot me there yet!" and it just remained there looking at a corner while getting shot on the back.

-please make SLDF tech more available, being rare is one thing, but if somebody can get their hands on it, that's mercenary companies fighting all over the freaking galaxy...also unlock the rest of the galaxy. It is just like this, I don't think I can craft the perfect fighting machine if I don't have access to SLDF tech, and that's a shame.


-a feature (it can be a perk) that allows a mech to move/jump and open fire at the same time.

-I know the stars of the show are the mechs, that being said, battletech is first and foremost a "combined arms" game, I will say it again a "combined arms" game, it would be more than adequate if Harebrained could incorporate a feature that allowed players to call in (and control) LRM carriers or galleon vehicles to assist...and helicopters, and boats (where relevant of course), and them aerospaces fighters, bombers , artillery etc. remind me there is a war going on.

-it was so cool when playing the campaign (I think it was the third mission) your character is doing a job with the marauders, and right after the job is doneour own employer betrays us and point turrets at us, because "such are the ups and downs of being a mercenary" (I think thats how Darius put it), and I agree, please more of that!!! personalty I like to spice things up with some surprises, I love surprises,that's why i dont mind that skull system doesnt properly asses the enemy's strength when choosing a mission.

on future DLCs

-flashpoint does seem to add some good features (like the titular flashpoints) but not a lot (Im going by the reviews from youtubers so be angry at them) but seriously future DLCs have to be really juicy in content and more complex in terms of gameplay, 3 new mech from flashpoint? that's a very humble number (variants do not count but are always welcome though) what you got no ideas for mechs? check sarna net.

i really hope the next dlc includes at least a dozen mechs and weapons, if they are clan even better...you know, a lot of people out there will develop a newfound interest in the game if you include clan mechs and weapons, for a lot of us out there our first introduction to the battletech universe came from the mechwarrior games, by all means take advantage of that nostalgia factor right there.

--proxy wars, the career mode need proxy wars igniting here and there, you can't think of anything good? just take personalities and events from a history book like the writers of game of thrones did.

In all, like the game, think you guys did a great job dumbing down the gameplay from the tabletop game, but if you add more substance to it, i believe battletech will become the kind of tittle that can enjoy a lengthy run.

God bless you and have a hell of a weekend.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

I'm with you on the mech decals; unlike MechWarrior titles, we only get to see them in the lab, unless we opt to zoom in with the camera (which I often do, as the game can take some great screenshots).

I will append that request with my own; I'd like to see more available camo/paint skins for our unit. I am fairly certain some of the opfor have some that we don't.

Also agreed on the target distance...the firing arc reticle, while useful, seems a bit of an abstraction, given that every weapon in the game does have an exact range listed on its stats.

Target distance has always been a part of the game for me, and as an American player, where our system dropped the ball decades ago in not teaching metric alongside U.S. standard measurement (citing that it would have been too difficult to make the conversion), the irony is that through our gaming a lot of us familiarized ourselves with it through frequent use.


A suggestion of my own:

Go and get Flashpoint. The expansion is a mere $20...shit, you can spend that in one night on an evening at the movies at a first run theatre, these days.

The consecutive drop Flashpoint missions can be quite challenging, and you're often flying between objectives without a return to the Argo. The armor and ammo is auto-fixed as usual, but internal damage means you can swap out mechs, and mandates having full hangars on the Argo to swap out.

The various missions can net you more Gauss rifles, pulse lasers and double heat sinks, not to mention some rare variants of mechs, ranging from unique field refits to Star League salvage.

My point is, while we're waiting for more content later in the year, you can run the Flashpoints and get your unit even more upgraded.

As a note, in some of the content, YOU ARE the proxy. Without dropping too much in the way of spoilers, there are Davion contract Flashpoints that let you take part in the preliminary work on some Liao worlds, ahead of a major offensive by the AFFS.

In other words, there's your history book...the game timeline is coming up fast on the events that touch off the Fourth Succession War full tilt.

 

[Jade_Rook]

On range, the game includes three different ways you can check range.

The firing cone is the most obvious and I agree that it can be a bit hard to tell sometimes.
The second is exact hit percentages. You can manually check locations to see how different ones change your hit chances.
The third is the chevrons around the targets. As you mouse around you will see them change from white to gold to red. White is able to fire but in long range, gold is in optimal range, and red is inside minimum range. The size of the chevrons indicates the potential damage of different weapons. The chevron for an AC/20 will be larger than that for an SRM 4.

I wouldn't mind including the actual distance, more for estimating movement than for weapons actually, but I wanted to point out that there are other ways of checking weapon ranges.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

The second is exact hit percentages. You can manually check locations to see how different ones change your hit chances.

That was made evident early in the released beta videos, where most the serious players had to check multiple locations where they wanted to be, in order to find the best numbers.

And the hit % itself seems to be an abstract system; for reasons not always apparent, movement locations adjacent to one another can have significantly different numbers, even within the same range.

 

[Simon1812]

"-light mech should not loose evasion (unless they miss a leg) that's the only way they will remain viable late game, i love my commando, but no point to bring it along for anything over a 3 or 4 skull mission if that."

-I take this back, a pilot whose training focuses on the 'piloting" and "tactician" (thats sure footing and master tactician traits) branch of training need nothing but to keep moving in order to keep evasion as high as possible, being mindful of course of enemies' sensor lock .

also what I said about the commando...

yeah that's right! the firestarter! the ultimate giant slayer!

which brings me to an interesting point, I do think light mechs (or mechs in general?) should have more room for support weapons, they could bring together some serious firepower, with the added trade off that comes from their short reach, exposing themselves to the serious "punch" that most heavies and assault carry.

the flame thrower should have the option of adding ammo for it, right now it is like 4(?) shots and that's it, it becomes dead weight. would it be fair to increase that with each ton of extra fuel?... or tonne?...or whatever metric is used in the battltetech universe...

another thing, the animation when a mech is punching and kicking, and stomping, is so damn cool! how come they don't extend their arms when firing a weapons located in them? Im not advocating for animating the mech as they shoot from their shoulders though...that would be silly...but the arms are a different thing, but just an opinion,I'm influenced by the fact that most mech art out there feature the mechs extending their arms when firing their corresponding weapons, though most art does feature mechs making some unlikely posses that would put some acrobats to shame, but lets not get crazy here, my two cents.

 

[AngeliDiAvanti]

-I know the stars of the show are the mechs, that being said, battletech is first and foremost a "combined arms" game, I will say it again a "combined arms" game, it would be more than adequate if Harebrained could incorporate a feature that allowed players to call in (and control) LRM carriers or galleon vehicles to assist...and helicopters, and boats (where relevant of course), and them aerospaces fighters, bombers , artillery etc. remind me there is a war going on.

Now, players controlling vehicles would be tricky, because the whole UI and pilot-system would have to be reworked.

But the easiest new units to be added for NPCs would be helicopters and boats: Helicopters are vehicles with a height-coordinate far above ground, boats are vehicles that can only drive in water.

I have heard that hovertanks are tricky, because they drift sideways in TT if they drive sharp turns. The devs don't know how to properly account for the drifting.

Personally, I would love to see infantry added, but sadly there are too many issues with that. That will be very tricky.

Bombers and artillery can only be added after the devs have figured out how to invoke an area-of-effect that is not part of the map itself. But once they have figured that out, we can also get forest-fires and LOS-obscuring smoke.
Last thing I heard, the devs are currently working on the ECM-bubble of the Raven, so when that is finished, they could use the bubble as a template for more things.