KickStarter BATTLETECH - turn-based mech combat from Harebrained Schemes

[Parabalus]

Spoiler

(Argo retrieval)

If that's the one on the

Spoiler

moon

it's easily doable with the starting lance, no modifications. The boss is the only real threat and I just boxed him in with 4x melee.

 

[Jimmious]

Spoiler

(Argo retrieval)

If that's the one on the

Spoiler

moon

it's easily doable with the starting lance, no modifications. The boss is the only real threat and I just boxed him in with 4x melee.

After that, the "random" missions start becoming much harder. I believe it kind of "unlocks" harder missions

 

[Cael]

Dude is your purpose in life to be negative about BattleTech or something? I didn't even come to talk to you in here. Gtfo
Also I don't give a shit about HBS.

I wanted to hear about builds not your whining while you never even played the game

We are not even talking about the HBS game. We are talking about the stupid nonsense you said other people said, when they never said it.

 

[Jimmious]

The quote you highlighted is exactly what I consider WRONG, because NO, such simplistic tactics are NOT enough , at least all of the time and of course if you don't save-load frequently
.

 

[Parabalus]

Spoiler

(Argo retrieval)

If that's the one on the

Spoiler

moon

it's easily doable with the starting lance, no modifications. The boss is the only real threat and I just boxed him in with 4x melee.

After that, the "random" missions start becoming much harder. I believe it kind of "unlocks" harder missions

I did a few randoms after the next story mission (also easily done with starting lance [you get help, otherwise no]) and noticed enemy tonnage is up, but not a real difficulty spike. People have been saying ITT the difficulty increases unlike nu-com, might be be hard after you get to 5 skulls.

 

[Jimmious]

Spoiler

(Argo retrieval)

If that's the one on the

Spoiler

moon

it's easily doable with the starting lance, no modifications. The boss is the only real threat and I just boxed him in with 4x melee.

After that, the "random" missions start becoming much harder. I believe it kind of "unlocks" harder missions

I did a few randoms after the next story mission (also easily done with starting lance [you get help, otherwise no]) and noticed enemy tonnage is up, but not a real difficulty spike. People have been saying ITT the difficulty increases unlike nu-com, might be be hard after you get to 5 skulls.

2 skull missions already can be brutal if you are not careful (when you initially encounter them with only medium+light mechs). I'm not talking about losing the mission as much as losing 1-2 mechwarriors which is a big loss of course. Not to mention getting mechs to need repairs of 50days+ which is almost unsustainable.

 

[Cael]

The quote you highlighted is exactly what I consider WRONG, because NO, such simplistic tactics are NOT enough , at least all of the time and of course if you don't save-load frequently.

Oh really? People actually have to spell you that, you know, having to get nearer because the target is out of weapons range for you to actually consider it "enough"? You are a joke.

What you wanted to do was to come out swinging against those that criticise the game. In YOUR experience, it is PERFECT. That is why you keep referring to YOU not "affected" by the load issues and how 25 hours in you still believe it is fantastic.

It blew up in your face because you DELIBERATELY misunderstood what was said in order to prove your point, something not that uncommon amongst shills and sjws, and then you got called on it.

So, you tried to obfuscate by indicating a vague criticism by someone somewhere, hoping like hell that no one would go back 9 pages to find the review. But someone did.

Oh, what to do now? Oh, that's right, let's downvote and make people think the guy is talking nonsense, which is EXACTLY what sjws do when challenged. But the other guy doesn't care. Downvotes from sjws are badges of honour to the guy, like being called a raaaaaaycist by obama. Uh-oh. Let's try "why are you such a raaaaaycist (i.e., hate the HBS game)! Go away, I don't want to talk to you!" instead.

Well, that didn't work. So, let's move to the next tactic of the sjw playbook: splitting hairs.

You are one sad little shit, my boy. I hope you grow up enough to one day get out of your mother's basement.

 

[Jimmious]

...OK.

(You need to get a life, fast)

*I come in and ask people for builds and express my opinion that the game is harder than some people claimed and that I like it. You come out of nowhere to claim the opposite ,because that's all you do apparently in here even if you didn't even fucking play the game, and proceed to call me random internet slang bullshit , self-proclaiming your self VICTOR OF THE CONVERSATION. You are the definition of a retard and my "negative ratings" are there to indicate that, asshole

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i remember somebody saying great things about the soundtrack.
i could swear the main menu song's guitar riff is taken from an '80s famous song. maybe with a female voice. damn, can't focus which one and i know it well.

 

[Lord Andre]

Any mech build advice in here?

I'm not that far into the game but PPC + AC5 combo is the "assault rifle" build for me. Good in any situation and pretty deadly. Tactics 5 (I think) reduces minimum range making this even better.

I wouldn't do all that faggotry where you have one dedicated weapon per range. Medium lasers and SRM animu light show are fine and all but it takes too much time, PPC + AC5 to the core or legs and you're done.

I also keep 1-2 breakers with AC20 and max jump jets and armor to handle those lights/mediums who think they're getting cute with their 4-5 evasion. My sensors lock is called "fist to the face" and DFA. And if some heavy assholes try and slug you back, you turn that AC20 and POW! no more core, no more problem...

Other than that, I beef up leg armor for DFA and make sure to move the ammo out of CT - some default builds are really retarded with 1 stack of ammo in the core and nothing else.

Maybe there are better ways but this is what I do.

 

[Jimmious]

Cool stuff
Do you have any good long range medium mechs? So far I can't seem to fit long range weaponry decently into any of the medium ones. And I can't go with no armor, it's too much of a risk. Tried it in a couple of missions and the mech came back missing arms and legs
*Cool advice for the extra leg armor for DFA, I didn't toy around with different armor values a lot so far

 

[Stavrophore]

Dont bother with PPC/Large lasers/AC2/5/10. Only weapons that are worth are small lasers/medium lasers/AC20/LRM and SRM. PPC are heat hogs and AC2/5/10 are long range low damage situational weapons. I rarely fully take advantage of the range benefit of these weapons, with 10 gunnery a 270m weapon will have reasonable CtH even on 350m. Also i dont recommend DFA and melee is also occassional. Although a good combo would be gyro+arm+cockpit in heavily armored mech, just popping vigilance and going mayhem. The guts ability that put a mech back on initiative order on melee hit is nice, but after you start to have 50/50 mission with assault mechs then it doesnt shine that much.

 

[Belegarsson]

IIRC Jagermech's default loadout is sniper with AC5 and AC2. I found the mech slow as hell so I scrapped it and stacked 2 LRM and 1 SRM6 on a Centurion, put a bunch of lasers on a Hunchback, so far they're quite okay at long range. PPC isn't worth it IMO, generate too much heat even if you hit and sprint often.

 

[Lord Andre]

The Shadow Hawk is quite versatile and can serve many roles including long range. You can have 2 LRM15, 3 jetpacks and ok armor. Switch in a PPC for infinite ammo, or just a Long Range Laser for some extra armor. AC5 is good but you'll have to skimp on a lot of armor. Plenty of combos.

Or only get one weapon, like a PPC with ++ and add 5 jet packs and tons of armor and heat sinks. You keep ahead of most things and 3-4 PPC shots will make even heavy mechs bleed.

My experience is that you don't need tons of pin prickle weapons that spread the damage around, one weapon that can punch through to the structure HP is enough. Then there's the breaching shot ability that makes this even deadlier...

When you have a chance to kill a mech immediately or pull back to safety towards your snipers, you should pull back. 90% of the time I get structure damage is me chasing a little niglet mech going like "Don't run nigger I see you!" and than a Thunderbolt or some shit was hiding in the bushes and nails me with flanking shots...

 

[Stavrophore]

The Shadow Hawk is quite versatile and can serve many roles including long range. You can have 2 LRM15, 3 jetpacks and ok armor. Switch in a PPC for infinite ammo, or just a Long Range Laser for some extra armor. AC5 is good but you'll have to skimp on a lot of armor. Plenty of combos.

Or only get one weapon, like a PPC with ++ and add 5 jet packs and tons of armor and heat sinks. You keep ahead of most things and 3-4 PPC shots will make even heavy mechs bleed.

My experience is that you don't need tons of pin prickle weapons that spread the damage around, one weapon that can punch through to the structure HP is enough. Then there's the breaching shot ability that makes this even deadlier...

When you have a chance to kill a mech immediately or pull back to safety towards your snipers, you should pull back. 90% of the time I get structure damage is me chasing a little niglet mech going like "Don't run nigger I see you!" and than a Thunderbolt or some shit was hiding in the bushes and nails me with flanking shots...

In late game, even missiles are very accurate, and while targeting torso with precision strike, 60%-70% go to CT, and rest for LT/RT.So not that bad, still if you want to sniper the CT, a assault mech with two AC20 is best bet. You can sniper legs also, or use LRM mechs to knockdown and then use AC20 to target torso. The problem with long range autocannons and ppc, is that you have to stay back, and to stay back and shoot, you need a spotter and with one spotter its easy to get overwhelmed.I would love to have a buzzing fast mech that acts as spotter and dodge most hits, but evasion do jackshit when there's ton of enemies, especially with missiles. A sprinting medium mech on the front, and bunch of recon mechwarriors with ac snipers in the back that would move after shooting, and the medium scout would sprint around. This is a nice tactics if you have a room for withdrawing. With AC/2 snipers you need lots of precision points, otherwise they are useless and shoot with the same accuracy as missiles, i mean the shot dispersion at RT/CT/LT. Good use is to have the morale thingy equipment that adds +3 morale for each action.

For snipers you need flat maps, or lots of vantage points. There's so much verticality on the maps its hard to get good line of sight with sniper autocannons[with jumpjets you can somehow mitigate that to an extent]. LRM on the other hand are spam to win, no matter the terrain. Two LRM[orion v can mount 3xLRM20] boats and some frontline support with bullwark and guarded taking occassional called shots and you knockdown enemies left and right. Game become too easy.

 

[Lord Andre]

The Shadow Hawk is quite versatile and can serve many roles including long range. You can have 2 LRM15, 3 jetpacks and ok armor. Switch in a PPC for infinite ammo, or just a Long Range Laser for some extra armor. AC5 is good but you'll have to skimp on a lot of armor. Plenty of combos.

Or only get one weapon, like a PPC with ++ and add 5 jet packs and tons of armor and heat sinks. You keep ahead of most things and 3-4 PPC shots will make even heavy mechs bleed.

My experience is that you don't need tons of pin prickle weapons that spread the damage around, one weapon that can punch through to the structure HP is enough. Then there's the breaching shot ability that makes this even deadlier...

When you have a chance to kill a mech immediately or pull back to safety towards your snipers, you should pull back. 90% of the time I get structure damage is me chasing a little niglet mech going like "Don't run nigger I see you!" and than a Thunderbolt or some shit was hiding in the bushes and nails me with flanking shots...

In late game, even missiles are very accurate, and while targeting torso with precision strike, 60%-70% go to CT, and rest for LT/RT.So not that bad, still if you want to sniper the CT, a assault mech with two AC20 is best bet. You can sniper legs also, or use LRM mechs to knockdown and then use AC20 to target torso. The problem with long range autocannons and ppc, is that you have to stay back, and to stay back and shoot, you need a spotter and with one spotter its easy to get overwhelmed.I would love to have a buzzing fast mech that acts as spotter and dodge most hits, but evasion do jackshit when there's ton of enemies, especially with missiles. A sprinting medium mech on the front, and bunch of recon mechwarriors with ac snipers in the back that would move after shooting, and the medium scout would sprint around. This is a nice tactics if you have a room for withdrawing. With AC/2 snipers you need lots of precision points, otherwise they are useless and shoot with the same accuracy as missiles, i mean the shot dispersion at RT/CT/LT. Good use is to have the morale thingy equipment that adds +3 morale for each action.

He was asking about medium mechs, late game with assaults I suspect some extra firepower is warranted. Anyway, there are many viable strategies and that's what I like about the game. It seems the combat system got a lot of iteration as opposed to everything else. I'm a PPC man myself so I'll swear by it but I know some people are into LRM boats or short ranged alphas to the back and so on... The thing I love about Battletech is that it's my bullshit strategy vs the other guy's bullshit strategy and whoever can outjew the other wins. It's heaven.

EDIT: Sniper wise, I usually put them on the highest mountain or hill available and then use 2 spotters to draw the enemy in, maybe stomp a few lights. I do worse on maps that are mostly flat...

 

[Stavrophore]

He was asking about medium mechs, late game with assaults I suspect some extra firepower is warranted. Anyway, there are many viable strategies and that's what I like about the game. It seems the combat system got a lot of iteration as opposed to everything else. I'm a PPC man myself so I'll swear by it but I know some people are into LRM boats or short ranged alphas to the back and so on... The thing I love about Battletech is that it's my bullshit strategy vs the other guy's bullshit strategy and whoever can outjew the other wins. It's heaven.

Well if someone want s a cookie cutter build i propose two LRM boats with Tactician/Gunnery combo and two frontline AC20 mechs with gunnery/guts combo with mandatory bullwark. You can't loose a game with these. Ditch Piloting alltogether its mostly useless for perks, you can pump excess points into that to get some more stability treshold and sprinting distance for your frontliners.

 

[fantadomat]

Reading this last page was ....an interesting experience. I understood that Jimmious really sucks at the game. I played until 3 skulls before i deleted it (don't want to burn out my card),most of the combat is identical. You rush out to meet the baddies,then you gang target most dps enemy and blow it up,you do try to go for flanking and aimed shoots,that is it nothing special. I never lost a pilot or a mech,i lost three arms in the whole game and two of them were of the nigger's mech in the first mission. Maybe you should try going for pack gangbang instead of being tactical. Four mediums could easily kill a heavy in their phase. The biggest assholes are the rocket vehicle.

 

[newtmonkey]

I got this just now and played just played for a bit.

Is it possible to follow the story while skipping the "cinemas?" I hate these lazy ass SLOOOOOOW voice overs while art slides SLOOOOWLY around the screen types of cinemas, and if you can pick up most of the story through dialog boxes during battles and stuff, I'd rather just skip them.

 

[Mark Richard]

There aren't that many variables affecting the combat, sometimes you have a feeling that what matters is just raw damage, beyond some very basic tactics like luring enemies over a direction for shots on the exposed backs, sensor locks and long range sniping, using the terrain for cover, you will get all you need to know right on the tutorial missions and then it is just using bigger guns to do the same things. This wouldn't be that much of a problem on a RPG but on a tactics game, this make things increasingly repetitive.

There are a few other options, such as using flamers to overload a mech's systems, but yeah the game doesn't appear to have the complexity of other prominent tactics games. What stands out in particular are the pilots who can choose from a mere 8 skills across their entire career, while all other training offers a minor stat increase. This means pilots are fairly interchangeable, and 'levelling up' becomes a mundane affair. Contrast this with XCOM 2 and its 12 branching abilities PER CLASS, many of them potentially game-changing moves that go a long way toward building a character's identity.

Cool stuff
Do you have any good long range medium mechs? So far I can't seem to fit long range weaponry decently into any of the medium ones. And I can't go with no armor, it's too much of a risk. Tried it in a couple of missions and the mech came back missing arms and legs
*Cool advice for the extra leg armor for DFA, I didn't toy around with different armor values a lot so far

Try the Centurion early on, it specialises in long range assault and can fit 3 LRM-10s. The only issue is restraining yourself from blowing through the ammunition.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

lrm boats rule this game. take as many as you can and you'll never have to be in the open because of the idiotic "sensor lock". you can knockdown enemies easily by sitting on the other side of a mountain. if you really like to take risks, ac5/10 hit fairly hard, while ppcs build too much heat to truly rely on them. you either have a whole team sporting ppcs and snipe and cycle through them or use them as support weapons. yes, it's so sad that the once rulers of the battlefield (behind the medium laser) now are support weapons, to potshot, to give the last push to a staggered mech or to finish a damaged body part.
my lance right now is made of a single lrm boat, two mixed with lrm and some other all-purpose weapon and a melee mech with machineguns. just for fun, not for efficiency.

 

[Lord Andre]

I wish there were missions that restrict you either by number of mechs or by tonnage. So in one mission you can only drop one mech but it can be whatever you want and others you can drop as many mechs as you want within 100 tons for example. Also gauntlet type missions, mazes, 1 vs 1 deathmatch... The mechanics are there but aren't used creatively enough. A Dragonfall type expansion with good polish could really make the game shine.

 

[Jimmious]

I wish there were missions that restrict you either by number of mechs or by tonnage. So in one mission you can only drop one mech but it can be whatever you want and others you can drop as many mechs as you want within 100 tons for example. Also gauntlet type missions, mazes, 1 vs 1 deathmatch... The mechanics are there but aren't used creatively enough. A Dragonfall type expansion with good polish could really make the game shine.

Yes there is a lot of room for further expansions/dlcs. Generally a more sandboxy campaign (with more options to compliment that ofcourse) would be the first step. The story is "OK" but I'd like to have the option of a Battle Brothers sort of campaign where I would set the goals of my company etc

And yes that would need more mission types and stuff like that. Can't be hard to implement, the base game is fine already

 

[PanteraNera]

Jimmious
Regarding builds:
I used early game 2 Shadowhawks (55 ton) AC5, SRM 6, 4 and 2, medium Laser (no jump jets) rest armor. 1 Centurion with 3 SRM 6 and AC5 (no jump jets) and a Vindicator with 2 PPC + heatsinks. If you want the "real" builds ask me I will be home later and can make screenshots.

I started using this lance when I first encountered a heavy, a shadowhawk + 2 lights in an random 2 skull mission and for me this lance worked very well. Also of note all SRM's got eventually upgraded to +2 dmg and the AC5's to +10 dmg

 

[Jimmious]

I just turned one of my Shadowhawks to a "sniper" with lots of LRMs and it works decently indeed