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12:41, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

BattleTech PC Game.

Posted by Silverfoxdmt73
Silverfoxdmt73
member, 335 posts
Long time gamer
Thu 26 Jul 2018
at 08:37
  • msg #1

BattleTech PC Game

Hi,

Anyone playing the new BattleTech game on PC?

What are your thoughts on it? How far along are you in the campaign?

I got it a few weeks ago and have managed to get up to (very early stages) the point where you are gifted the DropShip. I've lost a pilot and had to repair a couple of Mechs after having my CT blown out, but so far I think I'm doing okay.

Its reassuringly close to the board game so far, but I was wondering if anyone had gotten deeper into the game? Without giving any spoilers, how faithful is it to the background and original boardgame(s)?

Cheers.
GreyGriffin
member, 214 posts
Portal Expat
Game System Polyglot
Thu 26 Jul 2018
at 17:09
  • msg #2

BattleTech PC Game

Battletech places itself out of the line of fire of the most explosive bits of IS history, but it does provide an interesting, if limited, picture of the politics of periphery states.  It definitely cleaves closer to "modern" battletech's pseudo retcon of the Scroungertech era of 3025, what with the availability and proliferation of battlemechs, but that's just a matter of practicality.  Giant robots are way cool, and giant robots that are falling apart is hard to model without being frustrating.

Minor non-plot spoiler:

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
There is one point at which you do get a Lostech battlemech, and, appropriately, you literally can't find replacement parts for it if it gets blown out.  Exercise caution.


Overall, though, especially since the most recent patch which really polished up the feel and timing of combat animations, it's probably the best Battletech game I've played, although I still have a real soft spot for MW3.  The only things holding it back are its small scope and narrow gameplay, but that's understandable given the size of the studio.
DBCowboy
member, 20 posts
I'm 44, played rpgs since
about 81 (D&D Basic ed)
Thu 26 Jul 2018
at 17:52
  • msg #3

BattleTech PC Game

Really enjoyed the campaign and variety of missions/challenges.  Story was interesting to boot.

Have not played it much since completing the main story line.  All the missions seemed to be very similar, always needed the heaviest Lance possible...eh, just lost interest after that.  I think that there is an active mod community though so maybe I'll take a look at some of those soon.
praguepride
member, 1318 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Thu 26 Jul 2018
at 22:05
  • msg #4

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Silverfoxdmt73:
Hi,

Anyone playing the new BattleTech game on PC?

What are your thoughts on it? How far along are you in the campaign?

I got it a few weeks ago and have managed to get up to (very early stages) the point where you are gifted the DropShip. I've lost a pilot and had to repair a couple of Mechs after having my CT blown out, but so far I think I'm doing okay.

Its reassuringly close to the board game so far, but I was wondering if anyone had gotten deeper into the game? Without giving any spoilers, how faithful is it to the background and original boardgame(s)?

Cheers.


Yes.

The game is very solid and the campaign is very well done. Harebrained Studios is run by the original creator/designer for Shadowrun and Mechwarrior so it very much feels like a cRPG/tactical computer game based off of the RPG. It is much better than MechCommander and has a much deeper story and actual characters than the old Mechwarrior game.

Going further it only gets better and better. The only real change that happens imo is that the deeper you go the heavier mechs you see. Early on it is all lights and mediums but around the 1/2-3/4 mark you start seeing Atlas and Battlemasters and other assault mechs. The heavier mechs cause battles to slow down "a bit" but not too much.

My only singular complaint is that there is almost always a strong push to deploy the heaviest mechs you can. While you can do okay with fast and nimble scouts doing hit & run tactics they just don't have the punch needed and while there is a good variety of missions and there are missions where speed is a factor, it is better to just grab a decent speed heavy or assault mech and use those rather then waste slots for lighter mechs.

I would have been happier if you could deploy more mechs for that tonnage. Like if you go lighter you could deploy five or six mechs that would change the equation but as it stands a light mech that has to stay out of the LOS of enemy assaults is just a liability.

THAT BEING SAID I have had great experience with parking a light mech behind a heavy mech and just chewing through its weak rear armor because it couldn't turn fast enough to attack me and I suspect online lighter mechs would be nice to get behind PC designed mechs that tend to strip out rear armor in favor of maximizing front armor but no pvp for me yet.
Alex Vriairu
member, 434 posts
Sat 28 Jul 2018
at 06:58
  • msg #5

Re: BattleTech PC Game

My one problem is your able to hold so many mechs, but only deploy four, if I have 16 battle mechs, I wanna be able to deploy them all as I see fit.
GreyGriffin
member, 215 posts
Portal Expat
Game System Polyglot
Sun 29 Jul 2018
at 04:36
  • msg #6

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Alex Vriairu:
My one problem is your able to hold so many mechs, but only deploy four, if I have 16 battle mechs, I wanna be able to deploy them all as I see fit.

There is an in-game or in-universe reason for this - the Leopard dropship that you use only has room for 4.

I generally agree that I'd like to see more variety in the 'mechs deployed on later and harder missions, but I can definitely see why you only can deploy a few 'mechs from a gameplay perspective.  Concentrating fire is already incredibly good, and the ability to deploy a full company or more would just result in 'mechs dropping like flies, unless the terrain was incredibly broken up, or the missions had some very wacky design to keep things spread out.
Genghis the Hutt
member, 2556 posts
Just an average guy :)
Mon 30 Jul 2018
at 20:46
  • msg #7

Re: BattleTech PC Game

In any real life thing like that, it seems like you'd want to retreat behind something that breaks up terrain, or try to push into something like that.  Meeting on an open plain just seems like a recipe for "however has the biggest longest-range weapons will win".  Although given that you have air/space capability (and the capability to take really big robots into space), I'd have to question why anyone is bothering to fight on land at all when you could just drop a few big rocks from space and effectively nuke an enemy's position without any of the radiation worries.
facemaker329
member, 7038 posts
Gaming for over 30
years, and counting!
Mon 30 Jul 2018
at 20:53
  • msg #8

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Depends on why you're fighting, and whether or not you have plans for that land that would be negatively affected by the ecological disaster that would accompany orbital bombardment...
praguepride
member, 1323 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Mon 30 Jul 2018
at 21:18
  • msg #9

Re: BattleTech PC Game

The real reason is because it's a game. Like games by their nature have rules and limits because in the end they have to for computer games at least.

As soon as you start going down that rabbit hole of realism nothing makes sense. Why does final fantasy games give you a dozen people but you can only select 4 at a time? Why does Command & Conquer games only start you with two workers instead of all those forces you had from the mission before? Why does your health magically regenerate in shooters when you sit behind cover or run over a glowing plus sign?


Because games, that's why. As mentioned ultimately there has to be a limit to the number of mechs you can deploy for [REASONS] so it is what it is. Yeah it sucks but the game is still loads of fun.
DBCowboy
member, 24 posts
I'm 44, played rpgs since
about 81 (D&D Basic ed)
Tue 21 Aug 2018
at 19:36
  • msg #10

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Woohoo!  Flashpoint expansion targeted for November.  Looks to address one of my issues about the use of the smaller mechs.

Included the Hatchman!  More overview:

The expansion will also add the Cyclops and Crab mechs, the new ‘Target Acquisition’ Encounter type (where Paradox say “you’ll put your light and medium ‘Mechs to good use by taking control of three territories on the map to prevail!”), not to mention a tropical biome perfectly suited for land crabs. But the main feature is Flashpoints, a new type of mission chain.
Blader_Runner
member, 5 posts
Wed 22 Aug 2018
at 00:54
  • msg #11

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Seems like a solid game, but mine has odd slowdowns from time to time. Even more odd that my hardware is up to date, and the game does not seem to be too hardware demanding...Anyone else having issues with stuttering, lag and such?
praguepride
member, 1332 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Wed 22 Aug 2018
at 06:39
  • msg #12

Re: BattleTech PC Game

Whenever I start a modern game I immediately Ctrl+Alt+Delete-> Task Manager.

Then I find the game thread and remove the affinity to CPU 0 as well as setting the priority to High.

Despite the progress in better using multiple cores EVERYTHING hits CPU 0 so assuming you have the hardware to run it and don't want to shut down everything in the background to run the game, having it use a different core usually keeps the random stutters down.
Blader_Runner
member, 8 posts
Wed 22 Aug 2018
at 11:16
  • msg #13

Re: BattleTech PC Game

In reply to praguepride (msg # 12):

Huh, sounds like a neat thing to check. Will have to see if it fixes it. :)
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