Game News BattleTech Kickstarter Update #26: Prototyping Turn Order

[Infinitron]

Tags: BattleTech; Harebrained Schemes; Jordan Weisman

Harebrained Schemes' Jordan Weisman published an interesting and very crunchy BattleTech Kickstarter update last night. It's a highly detailed look at Harebrained's experimentation with various turn order paradigms for the game's turn-based combat. They prototyped seven different systems in total, starting from tabletop BattleTech's simultaneous action paradigm and iterating from there, with the design goal of offering fluid play in both single player and multiplayer, making light Mechs useful, not overwhelming the player with information, providing visceral feedback, and of course, making sure it all feels like BattleTech. Here's the system they ended up with at the end:

Each weight class of ‘Mech has an Initiative value. Light ‘Mechs are the fastest, with an Initiative of 4 and assaults are the slowest, with an Initiative of 1.

Combat rounds are divided into 5 Phases, counting down from 5 to 1. ‘Mechs are allowed to act during the Phase that matches their Initiative. (That 5th Phase is the province of extremely skilled MechWarriors piloting Light ‘Mechs.)

Each Phase, each side takes turns choosing a ‘Mech to Activate. When a Mech is Activated, it can both move and then fire its weapons. However, once the ‘Mech fires, its turn is over and it can’t act again until the next Round of combat.

After you Activate a ‘Mech and take a turn, the game attempts to give the next action to the other side. If the enemy has units available to use in the current Phase, they get the opportunity to activate one of them. If, on the other hand, they have no more units they can activate in the phase, and you do, you’ll get to go again.

This means that if you and your opponent are both using full lances of assault ‘Mechs, every Round will be pretty predictable: You’ll go, then your opponent will go, and so forth until all eight ‘Mechs have been Activated and have taken a turn.

When the game finishes counting down Initiative values and Phase 1 units have taken their turn, the Round ends. The Phase counter resets to 5, and every ‘Mech is ready to act again.

We think this is a neat system because it reinforces and distinguishes between the different weight classes of ‘Mechs - but the place where it really becomes really interesting is when you start reserving ‘Mechs’ Phases for use later in the Round.

Any ‘Mech that isn’t an assault can be held in reserve when its turn to act comes up. That temporarily sets its Initiative Value one lower. So a Light ‘Mech that normally acts in Phase 4 will instead act in Phase 3.

With this system, you can keep reserving your ‘Mechs’ actions, holding an entire lance of ‘Mechs until Phase 1, if you wanted to.

What’s so interesting about reserving actions? First of all, consider the case of a whole lance of Light and medium ‘Mechs being reserved until Phase 1, where they’ll get to act right at the end of a Round. Then, when the round ends and a new Round starts, they’ll immediately get to act again in Phases 4 and 3! (This tactic isn’t theoretical - in a recent battle, I snuck up behind our Lead Designer Kevin’s Centurion with a Jenner I’d reserved to Phase 1. Then, on Phase 4 of the next Round I got to make a full alpha strike right into his back armor.)

As you’d guess, there’s also a lot of value in using this tactic to locally outnumber an opponent. You want your engagements to be uneven in your favor, and you want to be able to fall back from any engagement in which you’re outnumbered. Focusing your forces in one spot when your enemy is spread out is right out of Sun Tzu.

Our initiative system, which allows you to reserve units, means you can locally outnumber your enemy in time as well as space. If you can take three actions in a row, and all three actions are effective fire on a target with no chance for it to respond by moving or returning fire… you’ve essentially made part of the turn a 3-on-1 battle.

Conversely, reserving your faster ‘Mechs to break up long sequences of enemy action with opportunities to respond can be useful in preventing your own forces from becoming focus-fired.

We’re reinforcing the role of Light ‘Mechs in other ways, but this system is a significant component of their value. Light ‘Mechs get to choose where and when they engage, and if used carefully can be exactly the tool you need to get out of a bad situation. Heavy and assault ‘Mechs pack a much bigger punch, but the tradeoff is that they’re inherently more predictable - and thus are more often reacting than acting.
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Really cool update. This is the kind of behind-the-scenes look at game design I'd like to see from all Kickstarters. I think it's safe to say at this point that this game isn't going to be a lazy "XCOM with Mechs".

 

[Gord]

Sounds interesting, I just hope it won't result in assault mechs being just sitting ducks.

 

[mutonizer]

Interesting though I'm a bit sad that they didn't go more like a Frozen Synapse / Frozen Cortex style with planning & resolution being clearly seperate (while still taking initiative and whatnot into account).

Edit:
Just prototyping phase for now though, will probably evolve a lot still.

 

[Kem0sabe]

As long as it's turn based, it's still a better solution than any real time system.

I hope we can't arm a light mech with enough firepower to alpha strike everyone else in the first round.

 

[Country_Gravy]

I'm still super excited for this. It sounds like an interesting way of handling initiative. They didn't discuss drawbacks to holding your lights until last and then having them go first the next round.

I guess the other team gets to take shots at your weakest mechs while you just sit there waiting to go twice in a row.

 

[tdphys]

I'm still super excited for this. It sounds like an interesting way of handling initiative. They didn't discuss drawbacks to holding your lights until last and then having them go first the next round.

I guess the other team gets to take shots at your weakest mechs while you just sit there waiting to go twice in a row.

One drawback might be that they might not exist by the final round?

 

[almondblight]

Kind of disappointing. The separate movement and firing modes (both simultaneous) sounded like a cool system. This sounds like more of the same.

 

[imweasel]

I can already here the Codex whining "WTF why do I have to rotate the camera? Dis game sucks."

 

[MurkyShadow]

As long as they don't decide to integrate crafting, because everybody's doin' it now,
I can live with an, even slightly awkward, rotating camera.

 

[Excidium II]

How I hate perspective projection in top-down games.

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

How I hate perspective projection in top-down games.

You mean that the perspective suggests certain factors matter gameplay-wise when they in fact don't? Relative terrain height does seem (?) to play a role, so how would you represent that with a top-down perspective (other than a separate height-map you'd have to toggle on obvs)?

 

[Kem0sabe]

I don't mind the visuals, the transition to a new more robust engine and it being 3d, will bring more gameplay advantages than continuing with a 2d isometric view.

It's a compromise I'm more than willing to accept.

In terms of aesthetics, would love for the action to have an impact in the terrain, like trees being destroyed or flattened by explosions, buildings being destroyed, etc.

 

[Excidium II]

How I hate perspective projection in top-down games.

You mean that the perspective suggests certain factors matter gameplay-wise when they in fact don't? Relative terrain height does seem (?) to play a role, so how would you represent that with a top-down perspective (other than a separate height-map you'd have to toggle on obvs)?

Same way 2D games have always done it when they needed, yes. Either a toggle or different bits of the grid being on a different height.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Megamek uses different colors and a notation on each hex to represent differing heights and it's perfectly functional and non-intrusive. But the map is different in that its textures are simple enough that you can write in a small, black font and still have information be easily readable.

In this case, with terrain displayed in 3D and (what I consider to be) really pretty, it's difficult to present information on the hex itself as it's going to be obstructed by the prettiness. If height will play a factor in LOS, you assume that it's going to be the computer that tells you whether or not a mech will have a LOS on another upon reaching their destination. Which means that resolving height problems would be as easy as asking the computer to tell you, when you're planning your move, whether the target you're locked into will be within LOS when you finish moving where you're planning to.

If, however, said planning ends up not working at the end of a turn because simultaneous turns are happening, then that's absolutely fine with me.