KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[lightbane]

One of the BIG things about BTech is that all WMD are banned heavily. That is why the whole Inner Sphere AND the Clans went berserk against the Word of Blake in the Jihad because the Wobbies did use WMDs. That a minor Periphery power would dare use it with THREE Great Houses next door is so out of whack to the setting that they might as well call it Macross.

Seeing that the dumbass Muslim mechanic blows up a not-STC and your party is rewarded, especially the princess, should be enough to tell that SJWs devs don't care about plot fidelity, or much else.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Sarissofoi they are having a party about one of your favorite topics, and no one invited you

Spoiler

So like Battle Brothers? Wasn't one of the causes of codex discontentment with BB that it was too "aimless"? Campaign would be good, but in a real mercenary way -like your goal is to duel/compete with the best merc company in battletech world, and you take contracts for better reputation, better gear and better crew that your reputation would attract. In your campaign you would skirmish and compete with many mercenaries/merc bands along the way outcompeting them, with better prices, making assignments faster etc, until you got on the top and fight with very best of the best. You would have to deal with sabotage, backstabbing, derailing. You could engage in politics to gain a sponsor/patron from one of the houses, to get to the position faster at the expense of paying levy for protection and more reputation/recognition. This would be an awesome game, with LOTS of replayability, with different factions/paths providing unique challenges, providing resources like different houses giving different bonuses, different parts, like better autocannons/equipment. But no, we got the very bland white-horsey campaign, that completely drop the replayability out of the window. In one playthrough you can train all classes and combinations, have all mechs, have all contracts, there is no reason to pick this game again after completing it, unless they introduce some very drastic changes and second wave alike options akin to what long war did to XCOM. And the game isn't that long, because you can easily finish it in 30 hours if you factor out all the slowing animations and loading times. Hell with fast loading you could do it even in 20 hours, since the last boss fight is laughable, you only need some mix of medium and heavy mechs, assault mechs are completely unnecessary. So is the game worth 40 dollars? Hell no, i would pick it for 20 if you can.Too few hours of gameplay to pay 40 dolla.

The problem of BB was not that it lacked story, but that it lacked campaign progression:
Jagged Alliance has virtually no story either, but you have a clear goal for the campaign. Same with X-COM.
That is the limit of a pure mercenary game actually: the end goal is not very engaging (save enough money to retire!).

From what I read, the problem with Battle brothers is a lack of content after a certain point, didn't play the game but that was what I read, those sorts of games don't need to be aimless, you just need to have a series of challenge goals to test you if you can beat them and the fun of the game is to use the mechanics to beat those challenge goals, a non linear game onlu becomes aimless when there is no new challenge goals presented to the player so the player has nothing to work towards.

Then you've read wrong, or you've read people who had hundreds of hours from BB, so i guess it was well worth the money. Of course every singleplayer games that has no continuous updates will in some future have problems with lack of content, since you can only play a game so much until you know all the nooks and crannies. BB had plenty of content, and the challenge was progressing as the campaign went on, you could clock easily 100 hours until you completed all what the game can offer, all three crises, every legendary item, and then the black monolith. BT is far shorter game with higher price. I would recommend you to play BB and then made an opinion, especially when comparing it to BT. Sure it's more aimless, but BB was/is still slightly more enjoyable. Not to say that BB is a great game, since its not, its a gem with wasted potential. These types of games, i would describe as "combat engine" that you have as a base, that you then put a few years and add all of the campaign mechanics and story to make a fully fleshed game.

Developers didn't abandon the Battle Brothers they made constant progress, never went silent, and released it feature complete minus some stuff they scrapped early in development like city and fort battles because having large objects that restricted movement didn't really gel with the Hold the Line style combat and initiative system.

If you are okay with Mount and Blade games you can't really complain about bare-bones content in BB is my stance on the subject. BB was made by 3 people and sold what in the neighborhood of 120k units. I would say 30% would be an optimistic adoption rate if they went and made an expansion to quell the tarded masses and that probably wouldn't recoup the development time. No they pumped out some small patches producing a nearly bugfree game and the Lindworm dlc then did the smart thing and moved on to working on their next game.

I largely think the whole abandoned meme was started by tards who were incapable of understanding percentages and were shocked when the final 1.0 version didn't have hundreds of hour more content then .95 or whatever the last early access version was a month before release.

Do you want me to produce angry rant? Because its looks like you want me to produce angry rant.
How long you think I gonna blame Germany for that?

Spoiler

Forever is correct and only answer. They must pay.

I mean seriously I do not remember that Modron guy from anywhere but he could not be more wrong.
Devs go silent long before release relaying on FAQ to answer questions and not ever mention after release happenings. The city and fort battles were not only one and not that important scrapped part. I mean they scrapped whole living world system(that semi worked) and introduced scaling and contract spawning enemies.
I mean even if we count only release happening in which devs go against their own closed betatesters feedback, purged not agreeing with them mods from steam forum and pumped grinding to maximum against common sense. Not even mentioning when they go back on their words with help to fan translation(ruskie were pretty angry about this).
Dunno how their code looks but they added some fan inspired items on the fly, different colored helmet variants too, I bet DLC(free) wasn't to much work either. And if you can add easy items and enemies - its most of the game - there is not that much of other stuff anyway. If you could make a basic modifications of stats and change text it would go long into fan made balance patches or fan made content. But no.
Whatever.
Turk with his wife made better job that 3 Germans. It looks like Turks are better than Germans in any way. From making games to genocide.
Playing currently Starsector which would get new big update soon(I hope).

 

[PanteraNera]

Do you want me to produce angry rant? Because its looks like you want me to produce angry rant.

Well an informative angry rant

Don't forget, they were also planing more legendary items and non-battle brothers like medics, armorsmith and blacksmith!

My personal gripe with BB is that it could had been so much more and they clearly had planed a lot more. Could have been an instant-classic that could had been the replay-ability of old classics that are played 20 years later. But yeah, that didn't happen.

because of this

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Seeing that the dumbass Muslim mechanic blows up a not-STC and your party is rewarded, especially the princess, should be enough to tell that SJWs devs don't care about plot fidelity, or much else.

It's actually Yang that blows it up, not her. Though she's nearly as bad, given that she decides that since there's a virus in the archives nobody should ever look at them again. Not even going to try to recover anything, even though the information is priceless. Maybe she realises Yang will just blow up any other bases they find anyway because he's fucking insane.
All they had to do was make the base tiny and only contain four mechs, and then have the virus destroy the archives so they couldn't find any others. That's all it would have taken for it to make sense. Instead it's like they tried to write the dumbest thing possible. I just don't understand.

 

[PanteraNera]

All they had to do was make the base tiny and only contain four mechs, and then have the virus destroy the archives so they couldn't find any others. That's all it would have taken for it to make sense. Instead it's like they tried to write the dumbest thing possible. I just don't understand.

Tiny base is uncool, big base is AWESOME :D bigger always BETTER!

Honestly, the writing sucks, I enjoyed S: DF and to some lesser extend S: HK both had way better writing, way better characters (I even remember some and their backstories), In BT the characters are cliche, boring, uninteresting and forgettable. Same for the "story".

Also why should the player fucking care for the death of his "mentor" we just met him in the tutorial and boom he is gone (only later we find out he was not dead, what a surprise, no he died later in Ausschwitz) WTF?! This never ever worked in any game (or movie), that did not build up a emotional connection or something between the to be dead character and the player/viewer.

Also the dialogue options are always the same, no real choice, you can basically always say Yes (friendly), Yes (want money), Yes (asshole). There are no "real" choices.

Than the events, it is the same events again and again and again. Pirates ambush you, some travelers spaceship is gonna explode, some sick people on a spaceship. I have seen these three event countless times in my current play-through.

 

[fantadomat]

I got that event and it said "four women, three men" for me.. I should have taken a screenshot to prove it for you CACs

Read the posts mate,he already come out and said that it was a fake/joke that he did on paint or what ever program he uses.

 

[Black]

If you can't make a character death significant, just kill them twice.

 

[Thane Solus]

The most poorly programmed (AA) garbage game i played so far, this and that Battlefleet Gothic (another pair of epic programmers). On 1.0.0 it was using 100% GPU in the menus and movies (now it got reduced by 30% or so), maybe 90% (on an old 460 GTX 1gb 256 bits and i7 8gb ram...)

The game has nothing to show for the resources that it consumes... but i bet they used a tons materials, and very high poly count for no reason than dumbfuck modellers, and some very poorly made updates functions (collision, particles, that stupid terrain maps). I mean a fucking scene with some negro or some awfull ship in space with some awfull planet (takes 100 %GPU on low-med details, now 1.0.2 around 60-80% GPU). Of course i "modded" the shit out of it, used a frame limiter and what not. And oh my, the story and the characters, ov vey the garbage... But close your eyes, take the dick in your mouth cause its Battletech, and fight others that talk about facts. Thank god i didnt payed for this shit, i might, some day if they really fix it.

GJ Paradox you found the perfect people to publish. (Please ADD PRONOUNS TO CK 2 lel)

 

[fantadomat]

The most poorly programmed (AA) garbage game i played so far, this and that Battlefleet Gothic (another pair of epic programmers). On 1.0.0 it was using 100% GPU in the menus and movies (now it got reduced by 30% or so), maybe 90% (on an old 460 GTX 1gb 256 bits and i7 8gb ram...)

The game has nothing to show for the resources that it consumes... but i bet they used a tons materials, and very high poly count for no reason than dumbfuck modellers, and some very poorly made updates functions (collision, particles, that stupid terrain maps). I mean a fucking scene with some negro or some awfull ship in space with some awfull planet (takes 100 %GPU on low-med details, now 1.0.2 around 60-80% GPU). Of course i "modded" the shit out of it, used a frame limiter and what not. And oh my, the story and the characters, ov vey the garbage... But close your eyes, take the dick in your mouth cause its Battletech, and fight others that talk about facts. Thank god i didnt payed for this shit, i might, some day if they really fix it.

GJ Paradox you found the perfect people to publish. (Please ADD PRONOUNS TO CK 2 lel)

Paradox's programmers are on the same level if not even lower.

 

[Grotesque]

Why I can only travel to Taurian Concordat territory but to other factions territory my travel is restricted?
Is this a bug?

 

[Jenkem]

Why I can only travel to Taurian Concordat territory but to other factions territory my travel is restricted?
Is this a bug?

you can also go to the aurigan restoration area.. and no it is not a bug, you get full access to the map when you finish the campaign.

 

[Grotesque]

you get full access to the map when you finish the campaign

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why I can only travel to Taurian Concordat territory but to other factions territory my travel is restricted?
Is this a bug?

because the game is shit
save yourself some time and uninstall it

 

[Cael]

But close your eyes, take the dick in your mouth cause its Battletech, and fight others that talk about facts.

That is what I found to be the most frustrating thing about the whole drama. Absolute zero consideration for the established lore and a bunch of bribed shill and trolls aggressively pack attacking anyone who doesn't praise it to the high heavens. Typical sjw shit, where facts and debate doesn't exist, just bullying and harassment. That a mod gets involved in that leaves an even worse taste in the mouth.

The pronouns thing was a minor side story when compared to the lore violations, wholesale rules changes, sjw preaching story, useless programming and bugs out the wazoo. But the trolls and shills concentrated on that, to the point that even though it is 10% of the negative reviews, it gets more attention in interviews than the other 90%. This is nothing but pure fraud and a PR cover up.

Thank god i didnt payed for this shit, i might, some day if they really fix it.

I wouldn't touch anything by a criminal enterprise like HBS even if they come up with the perfect game. I don't like criminals, I don't support criminals and I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with criminals other than to criticise them and expose their lies, deceit and fraud.

 

[Cael]

I thought Cael was overreacting in this thread, but I bought the game and put an hour in, and it really does not feel like playing Battletech at all. I played BT all the time as a kid (still even have my boxed set, but have not played since middle school), and I really had a hard time adapting to the changes in the computer game. I'm not saying they had to be 100% faithful to the board game (though it would have been nice if they were ), but I felt like I was playing some other game influenced by BT.

Anyone who has ever played Battletech could see that it was not BTech. It was obvious the second the guy spoke about 30m tall 'mechs.

Let me put it this way: When I design a bridge to take 600 tons, I know it takes 600 tons. I don't take a stab at it later can say that it can take 2000 tons.

The fact that he "made that mistake" shows that a wholesale change to the fundamentals of BTech was in the cards. Then, other "mistakes" started showing up (FTL DropShips, for example), which reinforced that view. And the so-called "mistakes" had never ceased since, even up to the latest interview.

They are trying to rewrite BTech on the sly. Pure and simple.

 

[Grotesque]

Why I can only travel to Taurian Concordat territory but to other factions territory my travel is restricted?
Is this a bug?

because the game is shit
save yourself some time and uninstall it

but the game is fun.

unloading 40 LRM on a mech torso never gets old.

 

[Cael]

Why I can only travel to Taurian Concordat territory but to other factions territory my travel is restricted?
Is this a bug?

because the game is shit
save yourself some time and uninstall it

but the game is fun.

unloading 40 LRM on a mech torso never gets old.

Play MW4M. You can unload 100+ MRM on to a luckless opponent.

 

[Mark Richard]

you get full access to the map when you finish the campaign.

Does another open world game even exist where vast swathes of locations are locked off until the 30+ hour main story is over? An open world plot is usually built around taking the player to every corner of the world/galaxy so they can rub shoulders with various factions. Unravelling a huge conspiracy is always a good one - unknown enemies seek to murder the player or take possession of an object closely tied to the player, driving the player to seek answers. Freelancer & Baldur's Gate.

I'm done. Can't take another minute being pigenholed into working for this Disney princess, or dealing with these shallow mechanics. With every layer I peel back it becomes increasingly obvious the onion has been hollowed out. If anything the negativity in this thread didn't do Battletech justice, because its easily the worst game I've played in years. A terribly written, badly designed, poorly optimised piece of garbage. The reputation of Harebrained Schemes should be irrevocably tarnished for this monstrosity.

 

[sser]

I'm surprised at some of the warm reception. Maybe it gets better as the game goes on, I'm currently at,

Spoiler

The prison break mission

and this has so far been a complete snoozefest.

 

[Parabalus]

I'm surprised at some of the warm reception. Maybe it gets better as the game goes on, I'm currently at,

Spoiler

The prison break mission

and this has so far been a complete snoozefest.

I stopped playing after that one, just got bored. Will prob revisit after patches, speed/camera fixes, performance fixes - likely when the expansion arrives.

 

[agris]

The writing is pretty abysmal, almost as bad as Bethesda, the character's themselves aren't interesting and the plot is entirely mediocre. But, and it's a big but, the core loop of run missions for cash and salvage -> upgrade and tweak mechs -> repeat is compelling and fun. It reminds me of Road Rash, but with Mechs and minus Aerosmith. This is probably not what HBS was going for, but that doesn't matter to me one way or another.

One redeeming thing about the poorly written dialogue is that HBS appears to have been aware that it wasn't good, and you can easily get through it with the equivalent of "yeah yeah save it for someone who cares, tell me about the mission" and skip all the crap. There also isn't much dialogue to begin with.

I do like some of the maps and missions, some of which are a fun challenge. It's usually the shit people are complaining about on the forums, like being outnumbered with too many reinforcements, defending a base with 4 mechs against 8 + vehicles, etc. Those are satisfying fights. The terrain and biomes create a lot of tactical nuance while you're fighting, and the combat mechanics in general are fun. Facing, loadout, heat management, your and your enemies various hit locations and the items that are stored there, disabling of enemy weapons and exploiting ammo cache explosions - there's some depth to this that you could miss for the pronoun and lore outrage.

FWIW, I don't savescum, I like hard games, and I like the combat presented as-is. It isn't Silent Storm, but it's good.

If I knew anything about Battletech, I gather this would be a huge disappointment to me. Thankfully (I guess), I don't, so it isn't.

Some Dragonfall-level campaign progression would be quite nice. If the above doesn't sound interesting to you, I would wait for the inevitable Battletech 2: Mech Fall.

 

[Grotesque]

It's usually the shit people are complaining about on the forums, like being outnumbered with too many reinforcements,

these sorry asses that whine forget that they have access to targeted shots, the ability to eject and superior mechwarrior stats and abilities.

the first battle where I was outnumbered I lost a mechwarrior because I did not ejected him. the rest of the mechs were near pristine at the end of the combat.
and if you abuse stability damage, this game is a walk in the park.

 

[Black]

I saw enemy who managed to get their hands on an Atlas but somehow were dumb enough to underamor it and all of its assets, giving them ramshackled or whatever.
You know, so the game isn't too hard for polygon and other Kevin's buddies.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletech...a_shot_modifiers_10_are_halved_or_worse_also/

Your total shot modifier, such as +4 for long range, only counts off 5% TH per point up to +10. After that, it's 2.5% per point.

Also the AI uses the simple CTH for expected damage, etc, calcs, rather than the actual CTH.

Not only does the game lie to the player about the probabilities, it lies to itself! This is some next-level Sawyer Balance

Somehow, I'm not even surprised.

 

[PanteraNera]

Maybe it gets better as the game goes on

It doesn't (story-wise) I think I am nearing the end, at a much slower pace than I started the game, as battles start becoming boring and the story is just, Bethesda-level bad. Who the fuck comes up with that shit?

Spoiler

I just finished a mission were I lost some one I do not care for (this black "lord" that supports the bitch) to gain evidence, that in fact these Directorate guys are pretty smart, oh surprise they staged the chemical attack to get support from these Trauian guys, actually at that point I rather join them than continue the "good fight" I am supposed to fight (I am sure if they had more money they would have Three-Dog in the game so he can tell all the stories of the heroic acts of the player)

Also most of the mercenaries characters are actually out of character the whole time, cheering shit like "Yay Lady Arano, we will fight the good fight, yay!" Especially this brazilian guy acts like her fucking lapdog instead of an mercenary. Mercenaries are basically portrayed as white knights in this game. And as the player you often have no other choice like three different variations of "Oh noes justice! We have to stop these villains" (wasn't at the beginning video the question raised if the "player" was in the war for glory/justice or money? The answer seems for JUSTICE!!)

Bahhhhh. I keep suffering through it.