KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[lightbane]

Yep. From what I read, you have to edit RT's stuff to enjoy it, as otherwise you're expected to keep track of dozens of things at once, as well as patches nerfing shit down so that "balance" is ensured.

 

[lightbane]

I've been checking and there's a fuckton of mods, lol, even for things that should have been in the game since day 1 like a "panic system", or using custom pics for your MC portrait.
Also, the final part of the intro with a ship falling onto a city looks like blatantly taken from Gundam, but the two works were done in the 80s anyway.

Anyway: Is there a mod or something that lets pilots drop down from high places without jumpjets? The thing mentioned in the Codex review where you can get stuck without them happened to me when I tried this game. Even if you take some falling damage, it would still be better than getting stuck. Also, is it normal for jumpjets to stop working at high heat levels? That's the reason for the aforementioned situation.
Lastly, when exactly does an unit shut down from overheat? I had mechs running hot, but they didn't do that and instead kept going "just fine".

 

[Cael]

Jump jets don't shutdown. That sounds like a bug. I have driven my Spider to overheat with just jump jets in a desert biome.

I avoided the problem with the cliffs by having all my 'mechs mount jump jets. They are really too useful not to be mounted.

For heat levels, look at your heat bar. There is a line on it. When you go past that line, you start taking internal damage. If you reach the end of the bar, you shutdown (i.e., lose a turn). However, there is no other ramifications of high heat levels.

 

[lightbane]

Jump jets don't shutdown. That sounds like a bug.

That was probably it then.
A bug in a "bug mech", kek.

I avoided the problem with the cliffs by having all my 'mechs mount jump jets. They are really too useful not to be mounted.

It seems so. Does the tabletop game allow you to move normally AND THEN use the jumpjets? It was allowed in the Mechwarrior games, but in the HBS title you either move OR use the jumpers, even though it doesn't make too much sense IMO. I would accept if you had to take a penalty to the total movement available in order to use the jets.
Also, where does it say how many tiles cana mech move? And how many "extra tiles" a jumpjet in particular adds?

For heat levels, look at your heat bar. There is a line on it. When you go past that line, you start taking internal damage. If you reach the end of the bar, you shutdown (i.e., lose a turn). However, there is no other ramifications of high heat levels.

I got that, but even at full heat the mech didn't shutdown. I guess I was not fully heated, or it was another bug.

 

[Cael]

Jump jets don't shutdown. That sounds like a bug.

That was probably it then.
A bug in a "bug mech", kek.

I avoided the problem with the cliffs by having all my 'mechs mount jump jets. They are really too useful not to be mounted.

It seems so. Does the tabletop game allow you to move normally AND THEN use the jumpjets? It was allowed in the Mechwarrior games, but in the HBS title you either move OR use the jumpers, even though it doesn't make too much sense IMO. I would accept if you had to take a penalty to the total movement available in order to use the jets.
Also, where does it say how many tiles cana mech move? And how many "extra tiles" a jumpjet in particular adds?

For heat levels, look at your heat bar. There is a line on it. When you go past that line, you start taking internal damage. If you reach the end of the bar, you shutdown (i.e., lose a turn). However, there is no other ramifications of high heat levels.

I got that, but even at full heat the mech didn't shutdown. I guess I was not fully heated, or it was another bug.

It is walk, run or jump in tabletop. However, you can run and shoot at the same time.

It is 1 tile per jumpjet mounted in tabletop. The HBS game's movement is a bit all over the place, with weird things like roads and the PHawk's extra jump distance to factor in. Generally, the max number of jumpjets = your max walking speed. Run is 1.5x that, but as I said, the HBS game has other ideas in terms of movement.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

How do you find the game Cael?

 

[Cael]

How do you find the game Cael?

Easily broken. Not much tactics involved. Story's shit, but we already knew that. Mechanic's shit, but we knew that, too.

Seriously, at one point, I was just running around massacring entire companies (i.e., 12) of enemy 'mechs at a time. Even assaults are useless against me as every single enemy 'mech is a glass cannon. Head shots all the way. And the Archer-S is making itself felt, dishing out something along the lines of 8x24 stability damage by itself. It just waits until the last moment, then taps an assault, and the next turn, taps it again in phase 3. It falls down, and the rest of the merry Marauder-Rs just nail it with called shots to the head.

The replayability is shit as a result as nothing else has any effect.

It is as I predicted back in 2018/2019.

I have gone back to playing Fallout Tactics and Dwarf Fortress.

 

[lightbane]

What about the changes given by the DLCs like the Raven and EMC, Flashpoints and the career mode?

 

[rashiakas]

I really advice to play BTA because its a whole different game.

 

[lightbane]

I really advice to play BTA because its a whole different game.

It's the plan, after I have time to play and I try some mods and/or the 3025 mod.

 

[CancerUnlimited]

Hi guys. I've been playing XAI BattleTech 3025. Tried Roguetech but is too slow and bloated for me.

Also I'm doing a portrait mod:
https://ibb.co/bvFCwQq
https://ibb.co/BL24dXT
https://ibb.co/HdKcwJL

 

[Cael]

What about the changes given by the DLCs like the Raven and EMC, Flashpoints and the career mode?

The Raven is a light 'mech that is easy to kill. One salvo from any of the merry band and it is toast. It doesn't add anything much other than a minor inconvenience, especially given the AI loves to charge you to get into its weapons range, and the Raven is all short range weaponry and crap armour.

 

[Cael]

As an illustration of how insane the whole thing is, here is a salvage list from one of my saves:

Spoiler

I gave up copying and pasting when I hit the medium lasers as there were about 2-3 dozen of the damned things and I lose track as to where one started and another ended. But there were med lasers, PPCs, small lasers, MGs, a shit-ton of jump jets and heat sinks and ammo still to go.

Count the number of dead 'mechs, and every one that has 3 parts were all head shots.

The lineup at the time was:
2x Marauder-D with 2x PPCs each (one of the PPC was a + with +5 damage)
1x Marauder-R with 3x LB2-X and 4x med lasers
1x Orion-K with 1x LRM10++ (+2 stab), 1x LRM15+ (+1 stab), 2x med lasers

This was before Smithon.

Spoiler

And what do I have in my 'mech bays? You can see the actual lance I use in Bay 1. Bay 2 are those that I am messing around with or would potentially want to mess around with.

Spoiler

And those don't include the light and medium 'mechs I have already sold (hence the 3+mill I have available). Money problems? What money problems?

This game is an absolute joke.

 

[lightbane]

Tried Roguetech but is too slow and bloated for me.

You have to edit the parts you don't like, since it's too much design and has some "modder issues" choices, like giving Primitive tech a viable endgame, which sounds inane since we're talking about, you know, outdated tech. BTech is not Gundam.

Also I'm doing a portrait mod:

They actually look like human beings, unlike those from the game. Please add a few blonde people, male and female, to piss off the HBS devs since they hate blonde people for reasons.

pecially given the AI loves to charge you to get into its weapons range, and the Raven is all short range weaponry and crap armour.

Lol, way to undermine the whole point of a DLC. What about Flashpoints? They're supposedly special scenarios where the rules change, such as forcing you to use light mechs.

As an illustration of how insane the whole thing is, here is a salvage list from one of my saves:

You could try and increase the number of salvage needed to get a mech in the game options, or enable the "never acquire rare salvage" difficulty condition. Or use mods to mess with that.
I read that the Mission Control mod lets you deploy more Lances, but checking the description it was referring to enemy and ally lances, not sure if the player's side is covered.

Besides Roguetech, does any other mod allow you to field more units? 4 is too few, 5 should be the bare minimum IMO.

 

[Cael]

Tried Roguetech but is too slow and bloated for me.

You have to edit the parts you don't like, since it's too much design and has some "modder issues" choices, like giving Primitive tech a viable endgame, which sounds inane since we're talking about, you know, outdated tech. BTech is not Gundam.

Also I'm doing a portrait mod:

They actually look like human beings, unlike those from the game. Please add a few blonde people, male and female, to piss off the HBS devs since they hate blonde people for reasons.

pecially given the AI loves to charge you to get into its weapons range, and the Raven is all short range weaponry and crap armour.

Lol, way to undermine the whole point of a DLC. What about Flashpoints? They're supposedly special scenarios where the rules change, such as forcing you to use light mechs.

As an illustration of how insane the whole thing is, here is a salvage list from one of my saves:

You could try and increase the number of salvage needed to get a mech in the game options, or enable the "never acquire rare salvage" difficulty condition. Or use mods to mess with that.
I read that the Mission Control mod lets you deploy more Lances, but checking the description it was referring to enemy and ally lances, not sure if the player's side is covered.

Besides Roguetech, does any other mod allow you to field more units? 4 is too few, 5 should be the bare minimum IMO.

The point is that it won't matter. Called Shots is what is killing the game. The second you have that set up, it doesn't matter what else happens. You will just blow stuff away faster than they can damage you. For example, that Marauder lance I have is perfectly good until the end game. All you have to do is remove the med lasers and autocannon, max out armour and add jumpjets and heatsinks. That's it. Any extra tweaking (Gauss Rifles, etc.) just increases their lethality and makes the game even easier. I will happily face 4 assault mechs with it, with another 4 on the way as reinforcements, because I know, I will take all 4 out within 3 turns.

Remember the scenario where you have to defend a base with 2 enemy lances in the field already, with 3 more on the way, and if you stray too far towards the enemy base, their turrets will nail you as well? That is supposed to be a "oh my God, kill the base before the other 3 reinforcements arrive! There are too many enemy 'mechs on the field!!!!!" I was cracking up because the black dude and the DropShip pilot was panicking over the amount of units on the field when the only units in the field were mine. I killed the first wave of 4 in 2 turns, the base defenders in another 2, waited 3 turns for the first wave of reinforcements to arrive, killed it with a turn to spare before the second arrived and killed that before the third showed up. After that, it was mopping up turrets and destroying the enemy base.

Called Shots is a huge mistake, something that I pointed out way back before the game was even released. It is a shit mechanic and remains a shit mechanic. HBS are a bunch of retarded, diseased, rotting tranny cunts for even coming up with this shit. And that is before you start counting the pronouns and tranny shit.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's more like, Called Shots being locked behind a specific experience path allowed them to hide the fact that shooting at the head is broken behind 10+ hours of gameplay time. Called Shots should be in the game and effective at targetting limbs from the first mission because it just fucking makes sense both logically and in terms of being a strategic decision.

 

[Cael]

It's more like, Called Shots being locked behind a specific experience path allowed them to hide the fact that shooting at the head is broken behind 10+ hours of gameplay time. Called Shots should be in the game and effective at targetting limbs from the first mission because it just fucking makes sense both logically and in terms of being a strategic decision.

That is what jumpjets and facing is for.

 

[Average Manatee]

Facing does next to nothing in this game, you can be staring down the side of a mech and hit the opposite side. Not sure what you mean by jump jets. Flanking in general is an awful idea because it opens you up to taking aggro from much more of the map and getting dogpiled, so it can only work as a finisher once you've won the fight.

 

[lightbane]

he point is that it won't matter. Called Shots is what is killing the game. The second you have that set up, it doesn't matter what else happens.

You need Morale though, so at least you won't always have it ready. Also, some mods alter its behaviour, like RT does. I saw one mod somewhere that allows you to nerf this ability, potentially letting you disable targeting the head.

Remember the scenario where you have to defend a base with 2 enemy lances in the field already, with 3 more on the way,

Didn't play that far, so I dunno. I only tried it and I might play it further once I have more time.

Called Shots should be in the game and effective at targetting limbs from the first mission because it just fucking makes sense both logically and in terms of being a strategic decision.

IIRC, in the tabletop you couldn't do proper called shoots because moving fucked up your aim, so unless you had ridiculous shooting skills, or the enemy mech was immobilized somehow, you would hit what the RNG wanted you to hit.

Facing does next to nothing in this game, you can be staring down the side of a mech and hit the opposite side

Some mods give you falking bonuses, for what's worth. In the base game, it can be useful to hit the back armor, but the interface makes it harder than it should be to ensure which side you're hitting.

 

[Cael]

Facing does next to nothing in this game, you can be staring down the side of a mech and hit the opposite side. Not sure what you mean by jump jets. Flanking in general is an awful idea because it opens you up to taking aggro from much more of the map and getting dogpiled, so it can only work as a finisher once you've won the fight.

I don't know what game you are playing, but flanking and taking out sides is how I was killing 'mechs at the beginning of the game to get max salvage. Take out two side torsos while flanking and aiming for the legs (or just walking in and punching them from the sides for the knockdown) is the best way to salvage stuff before you get to Tactics 9.

 

[Cael]

he point is that it won't matter. Called Shots is what is killing the game. The second you have that set up, it doesn't matter what else happens.

You need Morale though, so at least you won't always have it ready. Also, some mods alter its behaviour, like RT does. I saw one mod somewhere that allows you to nerf this ability, potentially letting you disable targeting the head.

Remember the scenario where you have to defend a base with 2 enemy lances in the field already, with 3 more on the way,

Didn't play that far, so I dunno. I only tried it and I might play it further once I have more time.

Called Shots should be in the game and effective at targetting limbs from the first mission because it just fucking makes sense both logically and in terms of being a strategic decision.

IIRC, in the tabletop you couldn't do proper called shoots because moving fucked up your aim, so unless you had ridiculous shooting skills, or the enemy mech was immobilized somehow, you would hit what the RNG wanted you to hit.

Facing does next to nothing in this game, you can be staring down the side of a mech and hit the opposite side

Some mods give you falking bonuses, for what's worth. In the base game, it can be useful to hit the back armor, but the interface makes it harder than it should be to ensure which side you're hitting.

I refuse to consider mods as the remedy for a shit game in any way, shape or form. Fuck incompetent activist hacks in the rotting cunt (with a broken glass bottle).

It is a random contract. Supposed to be the hardest, due to the timed drops and tons of enemy units hitting the field, but it becomes a cakewalk if you are able to kill them off before the next wave hits.

You can't make Called Shots at all in the tabletop unless your 'mech has a Targeting Computer (i.e., post-3050). Even then, you get a -3 to-hit penalty that takes the place of the +1 bonus to-hit you get from the computer.

The fact that people don't understand that facing works in the game is probably the reason why they think it gives a reasonable challenge of any kind.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

dear Cael , our resident battletech autist, what's battletech's fastest, best equipped flamer mech? (using roguetech, ymmv)
the firestarter is 45t, not sure i can squeeze enough speed out of it, i've been using a wolfhound with 4 flamers (pretty usatisfying except against vehicles) but its boni, to lasers, are wasted. if i go lighter i might not be able to fit enough sinks, if i go heavier i defeat the purpose of having a fast mech. which famous mech/variant am i missing?

 

[Average Manatee]

The fact that people don't understand that facing works in the game is probably the reason why they think it gives a reasonable challenge of any kind.

Facing literally doesn't work. It only goes by cardinal directions. I can have my mech positioned so that it's barely able to shoot sideways at an enemy and then when they shoot me they hit the (damaged) opposite side/arm that is 95% covered. I went over all these problems in my initial post on the game.

This game accomplishes an incredible feat of becoming dumber and less strategic as the game goes on. The first few missions are the best because you can actually flank and shit and use something other than just standing and firing till things die. Running around and jump jetting behind things with a Panther to snipe from behind with an LRM and PPC was cool. Skip ahead 10 missions and you'll just get chewed up instantly, because for some dumbfuck reason being shot at makes it easier for other things to hit you and you'll have 8+ AIs shooting per round. Loadout becomes progressively less interesting as you play, because where there's lots of options when you have 3 weapon slots and 12 tons available, when you have 3 weapon slots and 30 tons available you just fucking pick the biggest weapons because no one is loading small, short-ranged laser pointers to shine on enemy assault mechs surrounded by 6 other enemy mechs.

Who the fuck decided on this targetting system? i.e. not having a targetting system at all unless you spend magic?. All I've played is Mechwarrior where angling your body is fairly useful to hide your weakened side. Here? Only cardinal directions matter and its a pure dice roll unaffected by the mech structure or relative position other than cardinal direction. This makes orientation fairly useless as you always need to be positioned at least a little bit forward-facing because you need to fucking shoot things, yet the damaged arm that should be 95% hidden behind the entire rest of the mech's body has the exact same chance to be hit as the opposing arm that is directly in front of the line of fire. I don't know tabletop rules but I'm going to guess this is some dumb shit they took from there because no one could think that the current system makes sense for a game. Due to how you have 8 separate targets to hit from the front it becomes highly random whether you get enough repeated rolls to hit the same thing and actually disable the enemy, and its also random whether you took out an arm that has literally nothing or the central torso that kills the mech. I also don't recall having 3 separate armor levels for the torso in mechwarrior, it's really fucking obnoxious. The targetting spell itself is a joke, it only adds like a few % to target a specific part which makes it useless and irrelevant that fixes none of the problems with the dice system... until you level tactics and suddenly you have a 35% chance for every weapon to hit the head, utterly breaking the game. What is even the point of shooting at any other point than the head then? Also why does DFA not hit the head? Isn't that the whole point of the maneouver?

 

[mediocrepoet]

IIRC (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been decades) the tabletop rules hit location charts included small chances to hit the opposite side you were shooting from. I think it's to simulate both small angles and just moving in a way at the right/wrong time. It also potentially slows down obliterating a mech simply by sticking to one side.

 

[lightbane]

Take out two side torsos while flanking and aiming for the legs (or just walking in and punching them from the sides for the knockdown) is the best way to salvage stuff before you get to Tactics 9.

Actually, does destroying the non-central torso parts do anything if the target has no weapons there? Unless you get the pilot to be KO'ed from the impacts, your'e better trying to destroy the head, the central torso, or the legs, as otherwise I believe the enemy unit will simply keep fighting non-stop. There are mods to simulate wound penalties and morale, but nothing in the vanilla, as usual.

refuse to consider mods as the remedy for a shit game in any way, shape or form. Fuck incompetent activist hacks in the rotting cunt (with a broken glass bottle).

I understand. Sadly, I was naive and believed this could be at least acceptable, but by the time Kevin renamed himself as "Kevina", it was too late to ask for a refund.

You can't make Called Shots at all in the tabletop unless your 'mech has a Targeting Computer (i.e., post-3050). Even then, you get a -3 to-hit penalty that takes the place of the +1 bonus to-hit you get from the computer.

Oh right, this is unlike Mechwarrior. Gotta love the bizarre, random loss of technology of the setting.

The fact that people don't understand that facing works in the game is probably the reason why they think it gives a reasonable challenge of any kind.

The interface and graphics don't help either.