Since I upgraded my computer to enjoy the game I had a blast playing. After some hours in the game, certain aspects of it have become a bit shallow and regarding the greatness of the universe itself, I collected my thoughts a bit to think about the game if I would have designed it - or at least post my ideas her.
The biggest 'problem' I have with the game is the way my 'company' is managed. The tactical game-play is fair enough.
Game starts promising: You create your alter ego with background and fun stuff that remind you of the old rule books for the board-game but also for the BT:RPG. I was happy, that HBS picked that up. Later on, I realized, that this is almost cosmetic only and does not really do much besides giving you starting stats and unlock certain dialogue options in the campaign. You can have 8 mechwarriors but you will most likely only use 4 with one or two spares for the occasional injury. Putting insult to injury, I am restricted to a single lance. Game design issues. Yeah...Talking mercenaries we are talking companies and these are at least HQ lance +1-3 lances if we are not talking about merc regiments with complementary assets like infantry and vehicles. Tech bay and medics are abstracted numbers and perks seem to add minor fluff only, but not crunch.
So talking about role-playing...we are talking of managing a company of warriors...of individuals. A motley crew of hired guns. There is so much potential there instead of reducing them to 4 stats. Currently, they are interchangeable with no real consequences.
Having some traits present and intermixed with others on a small ship should rise to synergy or trouble. Having certain traits should be meaningful.
Example: A mechwarrior with background 'House Marik soldiery' should have moral problems when fighting his old comrades in arms on the battlefield thus have his morale impaired during the fight getting worse with each kill he inflicts. On the other hand, they could be very eager fighting a traditional enemy.
A mechwarrior with the tech skill might add +1 to the overall tech skill as he is handled as an astech and helps out Yang and the guys at mechbay.
Somebody with pirate or criminal origins could raise the chance of finding rare stuff on a planet with a black market or help getting better conditions when working for pirates. Or in case of the criminals C-Bllls start to vanish on occasions. Or has the probability raised, that a pirate contract will show up. Commoners and aristocrats mingled together? Expect problems. So when going to the hiring hall, pay attention on the background of your employees-to-be.
Some of the traits are innate and the characters come with them and others are achieved in the game.
E.g.: The trait 'mechwarrior' could mean, that the person is trained and able to steer a battlemech. People without would be penalized by treating their skills 1 level lower than it is. You will gain this trait after completing 5 missions in a battlemech. This means, you can hire absolute rookies and mold them into whatever role they might have.
'Energy weapon profiency' could be acquired after hitting something with a laser weapon for the 200th time (we just need some extra hidden information kept by the game - and frankly: it does already counting beans for those useless steam achievments) and adds +5% accuracy when firing weapons of the energy weapons category.
This leaves open further space for discussion but you see, where I am going.
Now to the skills:
The system going from 1-10 is good but the skills do not feel right in my book.
I need a bit more of them and be able to acquire special perks which come with some prerequisites. Drop the specializations. Let us talk about them.
Gunnery is the aptitude of operating a mechs weapon systems. The better you are, the more likely you will hit something. Adding a per-level boost to the accuracy is fine. Add some recoil reduction at certain levels. Keep as it is.
Piloting is the aptitude in steering a mech. The better you are, the better your melee chances will be and at some point, your stability would be better as well.
Tactics...I do not like it that way. Make it enhance the sensor range stepwise and reduce indirect fire penalties and call it 'sensor operations', which will enhance sensor range and reduce indirect fire penalties.
Guts...drop it as well. Face it: Your mech will not receive less damage just because you are a swell guy with a bandana on your hat or whatever the thought behind this is. Guts is resolve in the face of battle so kind of having a high morale and the ability to act quickly and trust your instincts. Extra HP? No. That would be conditioning. And even this would not help you survive the damage of a mech-class weapon.
Let us call this 'resolve' and add to the points you get to spend on special abilities. The more resolve you have, the more points you have for special abilities. Add in the chance to survive combat by ejecting after getting lethally wounded (there should be a basis chance of survival for each pilot and this skill could improve this)
Leadership. Let is add this and consider this one of the aspects of tactics. Leadership is important for the lance commander. You should be able to assign one of your mechs as HQ-mech and the leadership skill will - by comparison with the enemy's value, determine, who goes first each turn or have a basic chance of bumping a mech in initiative phases for 1 turn. Like each round there is a check and for each point of leadership, there is a 1% chance that you may select a mech and treat it as if one phase of initiative higher this turn.
I talked about dropping the specializations and adding skills to purchase. So instead of sinking XP into the skill points only, you might acquire some decent perks for your pilots. Let us make a practical example:
Skill: Scout
Prerequisite: Resolve 3+, Piloting 4+, Sensor Operating 4+
Cost: 400 XP
A scout is able to effectively recon enemy terrain. Your sensor range is increased by 25%. Piloting a light mech, the effect of cover is doubled.
Skill: Skilled Melee Fighter
Prerequisite: Resolve 5+, Piloting 5+
Cost: 600 XP
A skilled melee fighter is a nightmare when it comes hand to hand. Your base melee accuracy is increased by 5% and you will inflict x1.25 more damage in melee.
Skill: Seasoned Leader
Prerequisite: Resolve 5+, Leadership 5+
Cost: 600 XP
A field commander that has seen lots of battle and survived. Add +3% to LD check each turn, if lance commander. Each lancemate with the mechwarrior skill gets 1 point of resolve (not the skill, but the points to pay special abilities for) each turn of combat.
Skill: Conditioning I
Prerequisite: Regular or better
Cost: 500 XP
Hours of physical training and exercises have made this soldier a hard one. Mechwarrior gets +1 HP.
You see, there are many ways to approach the problem. This method will have both generic boosts that are useful overall and special skills for different pilot sets and more meaningful game.
Open for further discussion
The biggest 'problem' I have with the game is the way my 'company' is managed. The tactical game-play is fair enough.
Game starts promising: You create your alter ego with background and fun stuff that remind you of the old rule books for the board-game but also for the BT:RPG. I was happy, that HBS picked that up. Later on, I realized, that this is almost cosmetic only and does not really do much besides giving you starting stats and unlock certain dialogue options in the campaign. You can have 8 mechwarriors but you will most likely only use 4 with one or two spares for the occasional injury. Putting insult to injury, I am restricted to a single lance. Game design issues. Yeah...Talking mercenaries we are talking companies and these are at least HQ lance +1-3 lances if we are not talking about merc regiments with complementary assets like infantry and vehicles. Tech bay and medics are abstracted numbers and perks seem to add minor fluff only, but not crunch.
So talking about role-playing...we are talking of managing a company of warriors...of individuals. A motley crew of hired guns. There is so much potential there instead of reducing them to 4 stats. Currently, they are interchangeable with no real consequences.
Having some traits present and intermixed with others on a small ship should rise to synergy or trouble. Having certain traits should be meaningful.
Example: A mechwarrior with background 'House Marik soldiery' should have moral problems when fighting his old comrades in arms on the battlefield thus have his morale impaired during the fight getting worse with each kill he inflicts. On the other hand, they could be very eager fighting a traditional enemy.
A mechwarrior with the tech skill might add +1 to the overall tech skill as he is handled as an astech and helps out Yang and the guys at mechbay.
Somebody with pirate or criminal origins could raise the chance of finding rare stuff on a planet with a black market or help getting better conditions when working for pirates. Or in case of the criminals C-Bllls start to vanish on occasions. Or has the probability raised, that a pirate contract will show up. Commoners and aristocrats mingled together? Expect problems. So when going to the hiring hall, pay attention on the background of your employees-to-be.
Some of the traits are innate and the characters come with them and others are achieved in the game.
E.g.: The trait 'mechwarrior' could mean, that the person is trained and able to steer a battlemech. People without would be penalized by treating their skills 1 level lower than it is. You will gain this trait after completing 5 missions in a battlemech. This means, you can hire absolute rookies and mold them into whatever role they might have.
'Energy weapon profiency' could be acquired after hitting something with a laser weapon for the 200th time (we just need some extra hidden information kept by the game - and frankly: it does already counting beans for those useless steam achievments) and adds +5% accuracy when firing weapons of the energy weapons category.
This leaves open further space for discussion but you see, where I am going.
Now to the skills:
The system going from 1-10 is good but the skills do not feel right in my book.
I need a bit more of them and be able to acquire special perks which come with some prerequisites. Drop the specializations. Let us talk about them.
Gunnery is the aptitude of operating a mechs weapon systems. The better you are, the more likely you will hit something. Adding a per-level boost to the accuracy is fine. Add some recoil reduction at certain levels. Keep as it is.
Piloting is the aptitude in steering a mech. The better you are, the better your melee chances will be and at some point, your stability would be better as well.
Tactics...I do not like it that way. Make it enhance the sensor range stepwise and reduce indirect fire penalties and call it 'sensor operations', which will enhance sensor range and reduce indirect fire penalties.
Guts...drop it as well. Face it: Your mech will not receive less damage just because you are a swell guy with a bandana on your hat or whatever the thought behind this is. Guts is resolve in the face of battle so kind of having a high morale and the ability to act quickly and trust your instincts. Extra HP? No. That would be conditioning. And even this would not help you survive the damage of a mech-class weapon.
Let us call this 'resolve' and add to the points you get to spend on special abilities. The more resolve you have, the more points you have for special abilities. Add in the chance to survive combat by ejecting after getting lethally wounded (there should be a basis chance of survival for each pilot and this skill could improve this)
Leadership. Let is add this and consider this one of the aspects of tactics. Leadership is important for the lance commander. You should be able to assign one of your mechs as HQ-mech and the leadership skill will - by comparison with the enemy's value, determine, who goes first each turn or have a basic chance of bumping a mech in initiative phases for 1 turn. Like each round there is a check and for each point of leadership, there is a 1% chance that you may select a mech and treat it as if one phase of initiative higher this turn.
I talked about dropping the specializations and adding skills to purchase. So instead of sinking XP into the skill points only, you might acquire some decent perks for your pilots. Let us make a practical example:
Skill: Scout
Prerequisite: Resolve 3+, Piloting 4+, Sensor Operating 4+
Cost: 400 XP
A scout is able to effectively recon enemy terrain. Your sensor range is increased by 25%. Piloting a light mech, the effect of cover is doubled.
Skill: Skilled Melee Fighter
Prerequisite: Resolve 5+, Piloting 5+
Cost: 600 XP
A skilled melee fighter is a nightmare when it comes hand to hand. Your base melee accuracy is increased by 5% and you will inflict x1.25 more damage in melee.
Skill: Seasoned Leader
Prerequisite: Resolve 5+, Leadership 5+
Cost: 600 XP
A field commander that has seen lots of battle and survived. Add +3% to LD check each turn, if lance commander. Each lancemate with the mechwarrior skill gets 1 point of resolve (not the skill, but the points to pay special abilities for) each turn of combat.
Skill: Conditioning I
Prerequisite: Regular or better
Cost: 500 XP
Hours of physical training and exercises have made this soldier a hard one. Mechwarrior gets +1 HP.
You see, there are many ways to approach the problem. This method will have both generic boosts that are useful overall and special skills for different pilot sets and more meaningful game.
Open for further discussion
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