I like the walking tank aesthetic, though I wouldn't mind if a few of the hoity-toity parade assault mechs had a slightly more "Big-O" style blinged-out mothafucka look to them.
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BATTLETECH |OT| Kill the meat, save the metal
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So I'm tearing through most missions like it's nothing now, and I'm finding that called shot mastery with max morale is almost too good.
I can reserve to the last turn, and effectively take out half of an opening lance before the AI has a chance to respond. All I have to do is either go for the legs and give everyone else free called shots or aim for the center torso.
I can reserve to the last turn, and effectively take out half of an opening lance before the AI has a chance to respond. All I have to do is either go for the legs and give everyone else free called shots or aim for the center torso.
Regarding mech designs, I go both (or three) ways. The original art in the 80's was pretty good, especially the stuff by Steve Venters who imo did the best Clan mech designs:
Then Alex Iglesias is of course an art good and has done an outstanding job in converting a lot of the mech designs into a general, holistic art style.
And finally, as some may already know, Anthony Scroggins was recently appointed Art Director of the tabletop game, and he's already done tons of sublime artwork.
The work by Marco Mazzoni recently has also been incredible and is used for the upcoming boxsets:
Also, since people are talking about the art of battletech, I highly suggest people to sit and go through this blog: http://artofbattletech.tumblr.com/ It's got a lot of art from the 80's and 90's to trawl through.[/QUOTE]
Then Alex Iglesias is of course an art good and has done an outstanding job in converting a lot of the mech designs into a general, holistic art style.
And finally, as some may already know, Anthony Scroggins was recently appointed Art Director of the tabletop game, and he's already done tons of sublime artwork.
The work by Marco Mazzoni recently has also been incredible and is used for the upcoming boxsets:
Also, since people are talking about the art of battletech, I highly suggest people to sit and go through this blog: http://artofbattletech.tumblr.com/ It's got a lot of art from the 80's and 90's to trawl through.[/QUOTE]
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Interesting to see all of the balance discussion here. I've had a pretty good time rolling a lance with two AC/20 mechs (hey, I'm midgame, Orion is the biggest mech I've got!) and a Trebuchet to fire missiles. Honestly have found the AC/20 super useful because the game loves to randomly throw in 65-75 ton mechs and the AC/20 (well, especially the AC/20+) is good for killing an arm in one round (usually have a few helper M/Lasers...) Have actually instakilled two Thunderbolts because the AC/20 did lethal pilot damage.
I would agree on LRM though, honestly their hit rate is just ridiculously high. Even at 50% may as well fire. I think the best way to approach LRM/SRM balance is strictly accuracy countermeasures; either general mech ECM is better and the accuracy rate is lower, or cover becomes a lot more effective.
Hunchback was incredible through the medium/heavy days, though. 9 M/L + Multi-targeting is great for wiping the field and once you start handing over M/Laser+ or ++ things get spicy. (Although, I have an AC/20+++ now?)
I would agree on LRM though, honestly their hit rate is just ridiculously high. Even at 50% may as well fire. I think the best way to approach LRM/SRM balance is strictly accuracy countermeasures; either general mech ECM is better and the accuracy rate is lower, or cover becomes a lot more effective.
Hunchback was incredible through the medium/heavy days, though. 9 M/L + Multi-targeting is great for wiping the field and once you start handing over M/Laser+ or ++ things get spicy. (Although, I have an AC/20+++ now?)
I'll always love the AC20 for the potential to dome a mech straight-up. I mean, in the boardgame the ER PPC's probably the better bet even there, but in a more limited environment it gives the AC20 a special niche as a wing-and-a-prayer giantkiller.
I swap all AC/20s out for 10s. They have more usable range and are lighter, yet still do good damage and stab. damage.
Not sure why they made AC's run so hot in this game. The whole point of bothering with ammo to begin with is to run cooler than energy weapons.
Not sure why they made AC's run so hot in this game. The whole point of bothering with ammo to begin with is to run cooler than energy weapons.
Lots of weird lag even on my 3 year old rig. Sometimes when you are sprinting and the game needs to load in a new section of the map it just straight up freezes for 3 seconds to load without any kind of indicator, and then suddenly it's fine again...sad to say but Unity is just a bit of a hog.
I can't drop my AC20 because AC20+++ = 120 damage, +20 stab...so nice
I can't drop my AC20 because AC20+++ = 120 damage, +20 stab...so nice
The AC20 might be a bit too heavy but being able to oneshot things is so nice. Break open armor, fill the hole with rockets --> dead.
Especially now that i have pilots with good accuracy/shotmastery skills it's good even at medium ranges.
The Gauss rules all obviously.
Especially now that i have pilots with good accuracy/shotmastery skills it's good even at medium ranges.
The Gauss rules all obviously.
The game slows down if you have too many save files. Find your save game folder and move all but your five most recent save games to a backup folder then marvel as everything becomes speedy again.
My current Cataphract is a big Laser boat that finishes anything my LRM boat touches.
This is fun!
This is fun!
Defense: Smithon is such a thrill.
I think the story missions are doing a great job of escalating the threat, giving it this really thrilling feel when you complete them. I'm hoping they keep up the good work as I continue.
The contract missions have been good, but after a certain point are getting a bit predictable. They're also kinda buggy... on multiple occasions, I've had "dropship reinforcements" that wander onto the map when I reach the point, only for an actual dropship to land the moment before the mission finishes (after they're all dead, of course). I'm assuming the reinforcements are supposed to show up in the transports.. but yeah.
Hope Harebrained can tighten them up.
After the first Smithon mission it feels like everything has come full circle, with the impossible becoming possible. When those reinforcements showed up and began attacking from 3 directions, I was really worried things were going pear-shaped.
But, I managed to split my lance, peppering all three fronts with enough fire to keep them occupied, while still holding the main front, and won the day. Even managed to incapacitate the Battlemaster (assault 'Mech) that was taking point....somehow. (I must have missed one of its knockdowns or something, 'cause it just vanished from the board at one point.)
After surviving Smithon by the skin of my meat, it feels like I'm a grown-up MechWarrior now.
But, I managed to split my lance, peppering all three fronts with enough fire to keep them occupied, while still holding the main front, and won the day. Even managed to incapacitate the Battlemaster (assault 'Mech) that was taking point....somehow. (I must have missed one of its knockdowns or something, 'cause it just vanished from the board at one point.)
After surviving Smithon by the skin of my meat, it feels like I'm a grown-up MechWarrior now.
I think the story missions are doing a great job of escalating the threat, giving it this really thrilling feel when you complete them. I'm hoping they keep up the good work as I continue.
The contract missions have been good, but after a certain point are getting a bit predictable. They're also kinda buggy... on multiple occasions, I've had "dropship reinforcements" that wander onto the map when I reach the point, only for an actual dropship to land the moment before the mission finishes (after they're all dead, of course). I'm assuming the reinforcements are supposed to show up in the transports.. but yeah.
Hope Harebrained can tighten them up.
I know performance is priority, but so many little gameplay tweaks could go a long way for mech/weapon balance.
I really think that terrain needs too be more effective, so many times attacks are going through hills and terrain where you think you should have cover. The game's line of site rules should take into effect terrain better to give more penalties to attacks. Lighter mechs especially would benefit by being able to take cover better, but the game lacks good cover/terrain rules.
A lot of game modifiers to attacks found in the tabletop seem absent here that really could make a huge difference.
The shitty old art design is one of the things that prevents the game from reaching new audiences. They needed updating bad, the modern redesigns are gorgeous. Old school fans will never let their old stuff go, but the old school players are not gonna ever have the game grow. They want to build up the franchise, it's by modernizing.
The more current art is more in line with MWO, but also a nice middle ground. Using MWO models was easy for them to do and works on a small scale like this game. But their current artists they are using for the books are even updating their designs to be more closer to the MWO aesthetic.
I really think that terrain needs too be more effective, so many times attacks are going through hills and terrain where you think you should have cover. The game's line of site rules should take into effect terrain better to give more penalties to attacks. Lighter mechs especially would benefit by being able to take cover better, but the game lacks good cover/terrain rules.
A lot of game modifiers to attacks found in the tabletop seem absent here that really could make a huge difference.
The shitty old art design is one of the things that prevents the game from reaching new audiences. They needed updating bad, the modern redesigns are gorgeous. Old school fans will never let their old stuff go, but the old school players are not gonna ever have the game grow. They want to build up the franchise, it's by modernizing.
The more current art is more in line with MWO, but also a nice middle ground. Using MWO models was easy for them to do and works on a small scale like this game. But their current artists they are using for the books are even updating their designs to be more closer to the MWO aesthetic.
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For what it's worth, I think the MWO designs are stunningly better than the old stuff, a few cool pieces of art aside.
Well being in the periphery, I thin the gruffed rusty tank look is good for all the Mechs we use / go against.
I'd like to see Pristine fresh out of the Ovens Mechs from the Houses at some point.
I'd like to see Pristine fresh out of the Ovens Mechs from the Houses at some point.
It's amazing how quickly a mission can go pear-shaped. Standard assassinate turned into a life-and-death battle for survival. A newbie merc ejected early on due to torso damage, then Dekker got focused down to one health and had to be ejected, and then poor Glitch had the same thing happen to her. I decided to take one more shot before getting Glitch outta there... and she died for this, cored from a missle barrage.
Behemoth then spent the next five rounds slowly jumping to the evac point as she fired upon all of her persuers. Took out a fair amount of them, thanks to their poor armour, but they were really wearing her down in that final round. That darn Griffin in the pic had no weapons and kept chasing her hoping for a melee hit; if he had knocked Behemoth down, it would've been over.
That crumpled, rock-like thing sticking out jaggedly from the mountains, sort of on the mid-right of the image, is Glitch's grave. It was a Kintaro.
I'm so sorry, Glitch...
I had one that was a "defend base until reinforcements come" mission, which probably wasn't actually buggy, but the ending was just super abrupt. I had taken out several enemy Mechs, then a second wave of enemy Mechs struck the base from behind. I turned my lance around to face them, and was taking them on for several rounds when the mission just ended. I had hit the number of turns (10 maybe?) I needed to wait for reinforcements, so the mission was "successful". Would have been far, far better if a strong Allied lance suddenly showed up and helped me take out the enemy in a few turns. Would have provided a better narrative and wow moment, and would have given me better salvage opportunities as well.
The one good thing about MWO designs is that they all have a uniformity to them, so they feel like they belong to together better in the universe. Old Battletech stuff was all over the place, in part due to how the designs were procured. Sometimes that led to cool, unique looks, but the better cohesion from MWO designs does have benefits.
What is the rules for how Jump jets actually work, the descriptions don't really explain it well in game. What does each jet you add do for you?
Fortunately, I just asked earlier and got this:
Regarding that mission:
I'm almost convinced that the game's AI is significantly bugged because of that mission. Every enemy mech will either beeline for the turrets or whichever mech fired upon it before, and not the refuel stations. Even the flanking mechs will not take their opening turn to aim at the stations despite nothing firing at them.
Not at all. The AI specifically will focus on the turrets or you rather than the buildings you need to protect as long as you manage to tag them with a weapon once. This is even stated outright several times by Kamea. This is an obvious anti-frustration feature, since most of the flankers can easily destroy the fuel bunkers from standoff range if they focused fire on them, forcing you to ensure they were killed or lost all of their weapons on the first round.
I kinda hate the 'mech reinforcements for the convoy missions appear right near the pickup point.
But... it makes the mission stupidly easy :( Once I realized what was happening, I just took my mechs and started punching for fun.
Even in battles, they appear like turn 2, and close enough for LRM spamming.
Rooftop tank is deadliest tank.
Personally, I like the mech designs but then again I played a fair amount of MWO and never played tabletop and only dabbled in the earlier MechWarrior games at a friend's house as a kid. I'm also pretty excited about MechWarrior 5.
I do have a mechanics question, how the hell do you melee from a different angle? To melee you select the "Move" command then click on the target, but it seems like you'll always attach from the direction you moved from. Even if you have extra movement and it'll show extra pips on the sides of your target I don't get how you can select them.
Personally, I like the mech designs but then again I played a fair amount of MWO and never played tabletop and only dabbled in the earlier MechWarrior games at a friend's house as a kid. I'm also pretty excited about MechWarrior 5.
I do have a mechanics question, how the hell do you melee from a different angle? To melee you select the "Move" command then click on the target, but it seems like you'll always attach from the direction you moved from. Even if you have extra movement and it'll show extra pips on the sides of your target I don't get how you can select them.
You didn't see the other circles that show you what angle to attack the 'mech in question?Rooftop tank is deadliest tank.
Personally, I like the mech designs but then again I played a fair amount of MWO and never played tabletop and only dabbled in the earlier MechWarrior games at a friend's house as a kid. I'm also pretty excited about MechWarrior 5.
I do have a mechanics question, how the hell do you melee from a different angle? To melee you select the "Move" command then click on the target, but it seems like you'll always attach from the direction you moved from. Even if you have extra movement and it'll show extra pips on the sides of your target I don't get how you can select them.
After you click on the enemy, you click on the pip you want, then you click the "Attack" button.
Press V to cycle through your melee options. For each highlighted enemy, there will be a choice of dots/hexes around them depending on your movement/facing options to those same hexes. You left-click on the one you want and then complete the attack.
Because of the moving/facing options stuff mentioned above, you may sometimes only have one or two options, and they may not help you with targeting the enemy as you'd like—and they may leave you exposed in a silly way. For these reasons, melee is often very high-risk if there are other mechs alive—or if you're not sure you can confirm the kill on the current target.
In general, to get more options, melee from farther away.
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The current art is pretty good. It does stray at times to walking tank-style a bit too much but overall it is much, much better than what MWO has. Actually having poses that aren't ramrod straight does a lot to contribute to that feel.
But there's no chance in hell CGL will bother with updating the art for other than the unseen-no-longer-except-the-damn-lawsuit, me thinks. Too costly. Maybe if the new box set is a success and continues to sell well (it is priced to be profitable unlike the previous boxes), but i can't see that happening. Good minis or not, the game is too outdated (i find it fun, but outdated still) and that can't be solved without redesigning the game.
Yeah, I'm an idiot. I though the game wanted you to select the move point first, then select the mech to attack. When you hover over the target, it shows you all the move points, I just assumed it wanted you to move first, then select the melee attack.
I may be remembering it wrong haven't there been any super heavy mechs with more than 2 legs in the tabletop at some point? Would have liked to see them as some kind of endboss, or are they not present in 3025?
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The so-called Colossals, featured in MechWarrior Dark Age, are 125 to 135 ton superheavies that date from 3130s and 3140s in the Dark Age. Tripod industrial 'Mechs actually can be built circa 3025 but aren't really used.
Superheavy 'Mechs themselves are only "invented" during the Jihad in 3070s, the first being the Omega, which isn't that great all things considered (evidently a prototype, for it used single heat sinks in a time when doubles are the norm).
Just going to say that I also greatly prefer Alex's mech designs and that I also got into the series waaaay back with Mechwarrior 2 and Mech Commander.
They're never happening. Quad mechs are impossible to implement in MWO and HBS is not developing the assets for them (in fact, doing so would be so costly that I'm pretty sure an HBS dev has gone on record saying "fuck you" to quad mechs).
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Look for planets with tags like "high technology" or "manufacturing" or "Star League ruins" or "research". The tag descriptions indicate if it is likely the planet will have better equipment for sale.
The problem is that CGL is not a miniature company, they depend on IWM to make their minis. Their attempts at minis have been half assed. If they want to sell Btech to the masses, they need to do a full range of miniatures from scratch, but they are a rulebook making company, games aren't done like this anymore. Technically having to use two different companies to get your game and then your miniatures from is extremely half assed because it's a pain for stores to deal with, as it requires two different distributors. Stores can buy the books, but they can't buy the miniatures to support the game. What a mess.
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Yeah, well, that's FASA's fault really. IIRC, they sold metal mini rights to Ral Parta-now-Ironwind Metals. Permanently. FASA had more enthusiasm than business sense perhaps.
As for making plastic minis, as i understand it, that is capital intensive and requires good contacts, neither of which CGL really has. Though should the new box set work out, this may change. But i don't think it will with new minis alone.
But i got a feeling they aren't really interested anyway, given the way BT has been stuck in place for years, with IlClan announced (along with bunch of other things like still missing record sheets for TRO Prototypes) and no movement whatsoever happening until this year, perhaps. Only promises, no concrete results.
They should look into kickstarting a new era of btech. Other companies are doing it, the folks behind Heavy Gear have successfully funded tons of new plastic mini productions due to multiple kickstarters. The lance boxes they did were half hearted attempts to do their own miniatures, and still dealing with using very old and ugly mech minis when the market is so different now.
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Final mission question:
How good should the lances be? Average tonnage? Pilots? I have enough for one assault lance with good pilots, and a heavy lance with above average pilots (or an unsatisfying mix). Don't really care to grind any more 'Mechs and pilot skills though.
Would be great to have a way to filter planets on the star map accordingly.
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I wonder about that. Would be a logical way, but at the same time they really don't seem to be interested in redoing the game as a whole. At all. I mean, just like FASA and FanPro, touching existing balance is evidently a no-no, with the sub-par RE-lasers being the only thing tweaked and that presumably only because players complained a lot about them, other sub-par new technology is still way too specialized or worthless.
Of course, they've had bunch of line developer issues... but still.
Kickstarter probably would require permission from Topps, but i doubt they'd say no. Probably not a factor.
