KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[ArchAngel]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Can you join aliens and attack Earth in Xcom?

 

[Alpharius]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

And what does Steam say about your playtime?

34 hours, though i alt-tabed a lot and also played some multiplayer.

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Spoiler

Haven't had the chance so far. Seems unlikely as everybody wishes to

slurp that Arano chick's delicious asshole

Spoiler

in the dialogues.

 

[Cael]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Think sjws would allow you to turn against the stronk wymmyn lead character?

 

[fantadomat]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Can you join aliens and attack Earth in Xcom?

Are you a fucking retard or something? One is a war for survival,the other is a political struggle with mercenaries! Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

 

[fantadomat]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Think sjws would allow you to turn against the stronk wymmyn lead character?

Not really,but nothing wrong with asking.

 

[Cael]

Are you a fucking retard or something? One is a war for survival,the other is a political struggle with mercenaries! Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Depends on the mercs.

In the real BTech-verse, there are mercs who are so loyal to a certain House that they were eventually given House unit status. MacCarron's Armoured Cavalry springs to mind instantly for the CapCon, and Team Banzai for the FedSuns.

Other mercs are professionals and would not violate a contract no matter what they think of their employer's cause. Quite a few merc groups were locked away by Katherine Steiner-Davion in contracts that kept them out of the FedCom Civil War, for example. Wolf's Dragoons famously did not break contract despite the Kuritans screwing them over in a deliberate attempt to destroy them (the 3023-3028 contract), but when that contract ended... Hooboy... Let's just say even the 5th Sword of Light got its ass kicked, nevermind the regular units.

Of course, we get those that go rogue at the drop of a hat like the Waco Rangers. Wave the Dragoons in front of them and they would go haring off to seek a fight.

I am guessing that HBS is saying you are of the first type and hence you will support their black lesbian ninja vampire tranny to the death.

 

[KoolNoodles]

3D was a mistake. This screenshot is worth million words. Some games look ugly, but their graphics are informative and clean. Some are messy and bloated, but look pretty. This is both ugly and messy.

To be fair to the game, it looks a lot better in game, before screecapping and saving at a lower resolution in paint. There ARE some things that look a bit of a mess(parts of terrain, buildings, zoomed out), but the mechs and vehicles look perfectly nice zoomed in. I wouldn't mind if some of these things were improved with patches(along with performance). I'm gonna fiddle with Radeon Settings today though.

 

[ArchAngel]

Btw, on the length of campaing: completed about 8 story missions(so probably 2 to go?) and, according to steam acivements, 20 procedurally generated missions. Already have a full assault lance, so further non-story missions are pretty much meaningless (and even 5-skull ones very rarely have any enemy assaults).

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Can you join aliens and attack Earth in Xcom?

Are you a fucking retard or something? One is a war for survival,the other is a political struggle with mercenaries! Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Are you a fucking retard or something? One is a turn based tactical game with base building and doing mission on Earth map, the other a turn based tactical game with space base upgrading and doing mission on a star map. Game genres don't change their gameplay a lot, if you don't know.

TLDR (for you retards); This is not a RPG, stop expecting RPG stuff from it. It was clear from start this was Xcom with robots.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Historically speaking breaking condotta (contract) was a big no-no for mercenary companies.
30 years war was the exception which basically ended existence of free bands of mercenaries.

 

[Bohr]

Well, guess RPS didn't want to keep hating the game that was attracting negative reviews from the 'wrong sort of people'.

Rereviewed, same guy thinks it's fun now
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/04/27/learning-to-love-battletech-an-evolving-opinion/

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I really do hope that they won't rub that lack of choice in scene where Espinosa offers to buy you out and you can only answer with three flavours of "no".

Spoiler

Cemetery scene in Dead Man's Switch was bad enough.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Well, guess RPS didn't want to keep hating the game that was attracting negative reviews from the 'wrong sort of people'.

Rereviewed, same guy thinks it's fun now
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/04/27/learning-to-love-battletech-an-evolving-opinion/

How principled.

 

[fantadomat]

Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Historically speaking breaking condotta (contract) was a big no-no for mercenary companies.
30 years war was the exception which basically ended existence of free bands of mercenaries.

Well some mercenaries were loyal,others were not. As a whole mercs were know for not being trust worthy. Also i am not talking about betrayal,more about switching sides.

ArchAngel,thank you for answering my question,you are clearly a

“intellectually and developmentally disabled”

person. Even took the time to check how it is called by your people. I shall try to not mock you too much,seeing how you have actual problems and terms like "retarded" are truly hurtful and offensive to you.

PS:You can actually write a branching stories for most if not all the genres. Especially easy for games in the tactical RPG genre. Even games like Age of Empires II give you the option to attack your allays.

 

[Country_Gravy]

I like the game so far. Got a Jagermech and I like it. I can see this getting pretty repetitive after you have enough mechs to take out entire planets. Not much in the way of tactics for the fight. Target the most dangerous mech and alpha the fuck out of him and then move to the next.

 

[Grotesque]

This game now drowns me in cash after I've completed the first story mission,

Spoiler

the recovery of ARGO spaceship

I have a lance of 4 mediums that are barely scratched in completing contracts that pay around 80% of monthly upkeep.
Also the story missions rewards are also ridiculously high.

The fact that the mech upkeep is the same for all classes is the most retarded thing ever.

 

[ArchAngel]

Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Historically speaking breaking condotta (contract) was a big no-no for mercenary companies.
30 years war was the exception which basically ended existence of free bands of mercenaries.

Well some mercenaries were loyal,others were not. As a whole mercs were know for not being trust worthy. Also i am not talking about betrayal,more about switching sides.

ArchAngel,thank you for answering my question,you are clearly a

“intellectually and developmentally disabled”

person. Even took the time to check how it is called by your people. I shall try to not mock you too much,seeing how you have actual problems and terms like "retarded" are truly hurtful and offensive to you.

PS:You can actually write a branching stories for most if not all the genres. Especially easy for games in the tactical RPG genre. Even games like Age of Empires II give you the option to attack your allays.

You can write whatever shit you want, but the point is that games like these don't have stuff like branching loyalties. Use your brain for a change. Did JA2 offer you to join the dictator of that island?
Also you bring out AoE II into this discussion? A fucking RTS?
And you are calling me mentally disabled? Go look in a fucking mirror kid. Or did you again drink 2 bottles of booze like last time?

 

[DeepOcean]

Finished the mission after the tutorial, really early to tell but what I've seen so far isn't much different from the beta in terms of combat, dunno about the strategic part of the game yet but ambushing the AI with abusing melee attacks and rocket barrages seems the way to go. After some time you get the feeling you are just doing the same actions over and over again. Dunno about the utility of light mechs, you can't have more than four mechs and they are pretty crappy. I did a death from above attack with a light mech and the thing blown up right after landing and failing to hit the enemy, I couldn't stop laughing.

 

[fantadomat]

Mercenaries do change sides a lot,if you don't know.

Historically speaking breaking condotta (contract) was a big no-no for mercenary companies.
30 years war was the exception which basically ended existence of free bands of mercenaries.

Well some mercenaries were loyal,others were not. As a whole mercs were know for not being trust worthy. Also i am not talking about betrayal,more about switching sides.

ArchAngel,thank you for answering my question,you are clearly a

“intellectually and developmentally disabled”

person. Even took the time to check how it is called by your people. I shall try to not mock you too much,seeing how you have actual problems and terms like "retarded" are truly hurtful and offensive to you.

PS:You can actually write a branching stories for most if not all the genres. Especially easy for games in the tactical RPG genre. Even games like Age of Empires II give you the option to attack your allays.

You can write whatever shit you want, but the point is that games like these don't have them. Use you brain. Did JA2 offer you to join the dictator of Island?
Also you bring out AoE into this discussion? A fucking RTS?
And you are calling me mentally disabled? Go look in a fucking mirror kid. Or did you again drink 2 bottles of booze like last time?

Hahahaha,haven't done that trick in a long time. Genres do change,for better or worst,there wasn't romance in rpg until there was,for example. There is no fucking reason to expect exactly the same game and absolutely no change. Also the chance to choose paths is not cuffed to a specific genre,it is a narrative choice made by the devs. And if you don't get my example with the AoEII,well then i am sadden by your inability to comprehend.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Narrative choice that will require a lot of time and money to realize properly. Very, very few games genuinely try something like that because of the resources required. Way of the Samurai series is one of the very few examples, and that choice informs the entire way those games are structured.


Anyway...

Did a quick test of the morale upgrades to the dropship, is it just me or are these completely useless? Seems they're just a one-off increase to morale.

 

[KoolNoodles]

Narrative choice that will require a lot of time and money to realize properly. Very, very few games genuinely try something like that because of the resources required. Way of the Samurai series is one of the very few examples, and that choice informs the entire way those games are structured.


Anyway...

Did a quick test of the morale upgrades to the dropship, is it just me or are these completely useless? Seems they're just a one-off increase to morale.

The morale upgrades definitely need to be looked at. I went straight for the refit/repair and med bay upgrades first. Having your best pilot(s) incapacitated for three months when there are only hard missions to take can be brutal. Same for waiting on a refit of your beloved Mech.

Probably going to restart and bump up the difficulty. I think that will help with the feel of managing mercs. Less money, more downed Mechs/Pilots, more rotation of Mechs/Pilots.

 

[Bohr]

'Beta' Patch out:

Spoiler

BATTLETECH 1.0.1 Release Notes [BETA]
Thank you for playing BATTLETECH! We appreciate your patience and support as our team works to quickly investigate and address reported issues with the game. Release 1.0.1 is now available on the public_beta branch on Steam and GOG. If you are experiencing any of the issues listed in the Release Notes below, we recommend opting in to the public_beta branch at this time. If you are experiencing any issues running the game that aren't listed below, or if updating to public_beta does not address your issue, please contact Paradox Support here: https://support.paradoxplaza.com

We expect to advance the default BATTLETECH branch to Release 1.0.1 early next week.

Switching to the public_beta branch (Steam):

1. In the left column games list of your Steam library, right-click BATTLETECH.
   
2. Select Properties
   
3. Click on the tab labelled BETAS
   
4. In the dropdown menu, select public_beta (Note: if you do not see this available, you may need to restart Steam and/or wait a few minutes.)
   
5. Click the CLOSE button
   
6. BATTLETECH should start updating automatically
   
7. When the update has completed, right-click BATTLETECH again, select Properties, and open the LOCAL FILES tab.
   
8. Click the VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES button.
   
9. When this completes, restart Steam and then launch the game.

If you don't see the "public_beta" branch available, please exit the Steam client and relaunch.

IMPORTANT: If you switch to the public_beta branch, please note that when playing Multiplayer Skirmish, you will only be able to play against other players on the public_beta branch. The Lobby browser does not currently denote which players are on the public_beta branch and which are not (but will in future releases.) If you switch to the public_beta branch and then want to create a multiplayer lobby, please add [BETA] to the front of your Lobby name.

Release 1.0.1 Notes, 4/27/2018

• Trial fix aimed at improving video player stability for some users experiencing video playback issues and crashes. (Windows: Switching from Media Foundation to DirectShow API with AVP Pro. Including additional filters for compatibility.)
  
• Trial fix for an issue where save games could sometimes fail to appear upon re-launching the game.
  
• We now immediately apply changes to the windowed mode and fullscreen monitor selection settings.
  
• Added the ability to change the Callsign associated with your multiplayer profile.
  
• Fixed issues with the Vsync setting sometimes not applying correctly.
  
• Setting Vsync to be ON by default.
  
• Fixed an issue where redeeming a valid unlock code could cause a long loading screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where 'Mech model variants unlocked using an access code could be seen clipping through other Argo UI screens, after selecting the unlocked 'Mech in the Mech Bay.
  
• Fixed minor graphical issues with the pre-order Shadow Hawk Umbra skin.
  
• Fixed an issue where enemy AI could sometimes act slowly during Defend Base contracts.
  Improved loading sequence stability when alt-tabbed.

Release 1.0.1 Known Issues

• The base Shadow Hawk model is currently missing its paint schemes. (This will be resolved before 1.0.1 becomes the default / live branch.)

 

[Kalarion]

Did a quick test of the morale upgrades to the dropship, is it just me or are these completely useless? Seems they're just a one-off increase to morale.

It's actually pretty powerful, since the only way to decrease starting morale on the battlefield is to lower monthly expenses below standard (you should never have to consider this, ever), or through in-flight events that you handle poorly. In other words, that bonus will apply forever. And since morale caps out at 50 and starts at (I think) 25, a +1 and +2 together make a nice jump and save you having to do 3 months of lavish expenses.

The upgrades also allow alternative beneficial solutions to certain events, but that's pretty minor all-in-all.

Does anyone know if there's a way to manually set which direction you'll be initiating a melee attack from? This fucking UI men.

Is it possible to gain an entire 'mech from salvage? Or can you only get partial salvage, period? I ran a mission where I headshot a Thunderbolt with almost no other damage, at the end all I got was three pieces of partial salvage. I had two primary salvage slots, but the third wasn't assigned to me during random allocation. That was really frustrating.

On that note, what's the best way yall have found to get maximum salvage chance? Headshots are tough, even for my 7 Tactics pilot...

 

[DeepOcean]

Jesus, light mechs are made of tissue paper.

 

[Sloul]

This game now drowns me in cash after I've completed the first story mission,

Spoiler

the recovery of ARGO spaceship

I have a lance of 4 mediums that are barely scratched in completing contracts that pay around 80% of monthly upkeep.
Also the story missions rewords are also ridiculously high.

The fact that the mech upkeep is the same for all classes is the most retarded thing ever.

Don't forget that you rated my post 'retarded' when I expressed this in another thread.

 

[Gruncheon]

Sooo can you change sides in the campaign?

Think sjws would allow you to turn against the stronk wymmyn lead character?

It's a mess. In the intro/tutorial, we are shown that the Directorate are cartoon villain usurpers betray their kin with underhanded tactics and replace a more decentralized feudal-vassal setup ("good") with a centralized autocracy ("bad"). Victoria in particular is depicted without the gravitas of a righteous cause, as a vader killing an obiwan. And worst of all, the Directorate commit the grave sin of incompetence since they let Arano escape and covered it up. The intro monologue explicitly calls you a Hero for getting rid of these Bad Guys. The only morally grey element of your act is that you may have been paid for it, but otherwise you were on the side of Justice and Freedom.

But read differently, you are asked to bleed for a naive and sheltered Arano princess without the finesse to keep the peace, without the insight to see through her kin's deception, and who has sold out to a foreign power (the matriarchs) ... Against the Directorate, which at least claims to have its own nation's interests at heart, explicitly against the sort of foreign meddling that Arano is party to. Though we are told by them, not shown directly, that the Arano regime was weak and deserving of overthrow, the fact is that the previous Arano king failed to de-escalate tensions with the Espinosa faction, failed to ensure a smooth succession for his heir, failed to prevent a civil war, basically failed at all the important parts of kingship. The player character, depending on the background chose, can also a victim of said misrule, since your family could have been bankrupted by its corruption, murdered bc the lack of rule of law etc.

>2018
>Not supporting women ascending to the head of incompetent hereditary monarchies

Pick one, shitlord.

Great post though. It's genuinely hilarious to see the cognitive dissonance that occurs with these people when they have to construct a Weltanschauung that goes beyond the first principle that 'oppressed class = perfect'. Protagonist is a woman of colour, ergo flawless. Woman of colour is heir to a failing monarchy, ergo monarchy very good indeed. It's the Daenerys phenomenon; your character can basically commit genocide if they tick the correct oppressed class boxes I'm convinced you could write a show about the massacre of white farmers in South Africa from the perspective of a roving rape gang and get thousands of 'The new Netflix show you HAVE to binge this weekend' articles thrown at it.

I spent the first mission wishing that I was playing a game where you could side with the traitorous uncle. A practical man who saw his kingdom mismanaged time and again. When his efforts to improve it were rebuffed; he decided to arrest the decay. He sincerely cares about the kingdom. That's the core of an interesting character. You could juxtapose that against an earnest but immature princess who can command the love of her people (Ashe from FF12 is a good example) and let the player decide whether they like Machiavellianism. Instead, you're railroaded into allying with this petulant 'muh birthright' cardboard cut out.