KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[Agesilaus]

I quite like it with the mod, but I'm finding that the load times and frequent crashes are making it unenjoyable. So I'm putting it aside until a later version and/or I have a new PC.

 

[thesheeep]

I'm putting it aside until a later version and/or I have a new PC.

I have a very fast PC (with an SSD, of course).
The loading times are always long, they completely botched their resource management. I suspect they load all resources every time instead of keeping those around that are frequently used.

 

[Lady_Error]

So did they make this game a lot more fun, or is it still the game that was balanced to a true Sawyer's delight after LSTMs were nerfed and big walls of medium lasers/AC20s just run at each other?

It is pretty much SRM and medium laser boats. That haven't changed as it was designed to be that way.

Played mostly with sniper builds (L Lasers, smaller AC's and LRM) and skipped SRM's completely. Worked very well. Always got the maximum Jump Jets for every mech which improved the movement defense a lot.

 

[Dickie]

Which expansion added the "Attack & Defend" mission type? I bought the expansions and have been playing with them, and I got one of these missions where I ended up fighting 24 mechs, lights, mediums, heavies, and even one assault. Eight mechs started on the field, and four new mechs came in every few turns. The biggest shock was that the last lance came in after the last reinforcement wave listed in the optional objectives. It was pretty neat.

I'm glad I realized early that energy weapons are the way to go on Attack & Defend missions. After fighting 24 mechs, I still had to go destroy 4 turrets and some buildings. It's easy to run out of ammo if you're relying on missiles or heavier auto cannons. My LRM mech with four LRM20s and 960 missiles had under 100 missiles by the end, even flipping some on and off to manage heat.

Also, I like that they added multiple teams to some missions so that you can have an allied lance with you, two different enemy lances (so they can go twice per initiative step), or a free-for-all with three teams of mechs. It's nice that it's not all 4v4 or 4v8 missions now.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

must be the latest, which i carefully avoided.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Is this game still in beta? Why does clicking on things in main menu have a couple second delay? What's with the idiotic loading times for everything? Does SSD help?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

welcome to unity, take a seat, it's going to take a while to do anything.

 

[Cael]

welcome to unity, too much tranny activism and not enough programming; take a seat, it's going to take a while to do anything.

Fixed.

 

[Alpharius]

Has any of the mods fixed the economy? As in, can one make it somewhat similar to Battle Brothers economy with certain settings?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Well, I played unity games and I know it sucks bad, but I've never seen a game literally freezing for like 3 seconds whenever I press something in main menu or taking a minute to load a cutscene that's just a few barely animated drawings only to then take 2 more minutes to load a mission immediately afterwards. That's why I'm asking if this is a true battletech experience (tm) or there's something (very) wrong on my side.

 

[Van-d-all]

Well, I played unity games and I know it sucks bad, but I've never seen a game literally freezing for like 3 seconds whenever I press something in main menu or taking a minute to load a cutscene that's just a few barely animated drawings only to then take 2 more minutes to load a mission immediately afterwards. That's why I'm asking if this is a true battletech experience (tm) or there's something (very) wrong on my side.

Load times were pretty shit given I kept it on M2 SSD, but I had no menu issues.

 

[Old Hans]

I just realized all the maps you play on are just parts of one giant map. thats probably why it runs like dogshit

 

[Country_Gravy]

then why not open up more of the map?

I don't buy it. Mods would have fixed it.

 

[Cael]

I just realized all the maps you play on are just parts of one giant map. thats probably why it runs like dogshit

There was an interview with one of the trannies and he basically said that was exactly what they did. He even said the challenge was to make it big enough that players don't realise it is the same map. It is in one of these threads a while back.​

 

[Norfleet]

welcome to unity, take a seat, it's going to take a while to do anything.

You can't really blame Unity for a game being shit: The truth is, a fair number of major titles actually uses Unity, but the thing with Unity is, in a peculiar quirk of marketing: You have to pay money to remove the Unity logo. Thus. low-budget shovelware ends up with the logo stuck on them, while higher-end titles have paid to remove this label, and the result is that to the public, Unity is associated with badly made shovelware. This MAY not have been the best marketing on the part of the Unity owners.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

yes, trannies are to blame for the horrible performance too, but unity is this century's flash, it's bad and those who use it should feel bad.

 

[Dickie]

The questionable UI decisions bug me more than the slow speeds of everything. For instance, if you're picking your pilots for a mission and want to check if they have enough experience to get a skill you want, you gotta exit the mission prep screen, hover over "Barracks" button, choose the "Mechwarriors" pop-up, and click the person you want. Then, to get back to picking your pilots again, you gotta hover on "Command Center" button, choose the "Contracts" pop-up, click the mission you were on, re-do the negotiation settings you picked, and put the 'mechs and pilots you had already selected back into their slots if you had changed them from the previous mission.

Of course it doesn't help that there's a 1-2 second delay on each click, but that'd be more tolerable if it was one click instead of five. They could have added a "view mechwarriors" button to bring up the XP spending screen from the pilot/mech allocation screen.

Also, this fucking bullshit with hovering on each menu option to select what you want, so that you could alternatively choose to talk to the person who lives in that room, is ridiculous. I never want to talk to these people. Just make clicking on "Command Center" take me right to choosing a contract, make clicking on "Mech Bay" take me to the mech bay instead of letting me talk to Yang, and so on. They could add a little "Yang" button in the corner of the mech bay screen to talk to him for all the people who do that.

It reminds me of the total shit of modern web design where everything involves multiple clicks, lots of scrolling, and hovering on shit to get anywhere or do anything. Compared to this, the 18 seconds to load a mission doesn't bother me so much.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

18 seconds? i clock in the minutes here :/

 

[Old Hans]

I just realized all the maps you play on are just parts of one giant map. thats probably why it runs like dogshit

There was an interview with one of the trannies and he basically said that was exactly what they did. He even said the challenge was to make it big enough that players don't realise it is the same map. It is in one of these threads a while back.​

yea it feels like shit & doesnt add anything and the texture work is so awful for the performance. I would have rather had a mech game that looked like panzer general

 

[Alienman]

What would the positive thing be by making your maps like that?

 

[Old Hans]

What would the positive thing be by making your maps like that?

by making them how they are in the game right now? There is no upside. I probably have more tactical fights playing Battle Brothers

 

[Cael]

What would the positive thing be by making your maps like that?

The trannies did give an explanation for why they went that way. But, IIRC, it was a stupid explanation that was basically a result of them not knowing how to code.

 

[Country_Gravy]

What would the positive thing be by making your maps like that?

by making them how they are in the game right now? There is no upside. I probably have more tactical fights playing Battle Brothers

probably? Battle Brothers is a much better turn based battle simulator. I really wish some would have been able to take Battletech to the next level in terms of turn based combat. I fear that this game is the nail in the coffin for the brand.

I'm tempted to buy the DLCs and see if they make the game feel like Battletech, but I don't want to reward Harebrained for shitting on the franchise just like Piranha did with the Mechwarrior franchise..

 

[Old Hans]

What would the positive thing be by making your maps like that?

by making them how they are in the game right now? There is no upside. I probably have more tactical fights playing Battle Brothers

probably? Battle Brothers is a much better turn based battle simulator. I really wish some would have been able to take Battletech to the next level in terms of turn based combat. I fear that this game is the nail in the coffin for the brand.

I'm tempted to buy the DLCs and see if they make the game feel like Battletech, but I don't want to reward Harebrained for shitting on the franchise just like Piranha did with the Mechwarrior franchise..

I think they shot themselves in the foot by limiting the player to only a lance of 4 & the really boring pilot skill system doesnt help much.

 

[Van-d-all]

yes, trannies are to blame for the horrible performance too, but unity is this century's flash, it's bad and those who use it should feel bad.

Unity might be garbage, but it gives people a platform they wouldn't make a game without, so in the end I'd rather have a janky Battletech game, than no game at all.

I'm tempted to buy the DLCs and see if they make the game feel like Battletech, but I don't want to reward Harebrained for shitting on the franchise just like Piranha did with the Mechwarrior franchise..

Pricing on those DLCs is fucking atrocious. They charge $20 and give almost nothing. When Heavy Metal goes -50%, then maybe it'll be worth to buy the DLC bundle with a cumulative discount. Maybe.

I think they shot themselves in the foot by limiting the player to only a lance of 4 & the really boring pilot skill system doesnt help much.

Limiting number of units is a general dumbing trend in TBS nowadays. They try to appeal to casuals that lack the attention span to manage more. Look at nuXcom.