Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - now with Heretek expansion

[Lacrymas]

You can tweak the difficulty however you wish, though, so I don't see how it being a cakewalk is a legitimate criticism.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Is there also any point to the exploration side besides getting to the objective as fast as possible? The random bonuses don't seem to be worth the effort and the additional awakening.

IIRC you can actually find weapons and gear durring the exploration as well.

 

[Tyranicon]

You can tweak the difficulty however you wish, though, so I don't see how it being a cakewalk is a legitimate criticism.

The game does come with an excellent suite of options for that, so I'm not really holding difficulty against it. And I suppose it is one of the better WH 40k games to come out in recent years (not that it's saying much).

But CP and CP-related skills are the worst thing in the game. Early game they slow you down because you can't consistently use any of the CP-hungry weapons that you find. Early-mid, troops outdamage your CP weapons, so there's no reason to use them. By midgame you generate enough CP to run forever and have 3+ attacks a techpriest per round, so everything just dies.

Not to mention it makes no sense that you can't use that big blaster you brought with you until you touched enough Necron phalluses.

Also, the mission system really needs to show you what upgrades are hidden in further missions of the same path/character. I have a feeling some character missions are more or less useless.

 

[what am i doing]

I tried to make the game harder by turning on Disciplined mode (only one class line per techpriest), which caps your techpriests at a low level, and also the setting that limits you to one copy of each wargear (which is not as big of a deal as I thought - there are a number of different weapons that sort of do the same thing). It did enhance the difficulty somewhat. This did erode eventually, and I suspect if I'd just rolled a straight Tech-Auxilium or Lexmechanic team it would have been very easy (instead I went with one of each discipline, minus xenarite), but it certainly was more challenging and engaging for much longer into the game than otherwise.

 

[lightbane]

This game needs more mission objective variation than "KILL EVERYTHING!". Many missions seemingly have you defend a position, or move somewhere, only to switch to the kill stuff method which slows down the pacing a lot. The slow animations are also annoying as hell.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

IMO the way it could be made more difficult is if you decide to do only missions from one "faction" (ie either for the l33t speaking xenarites priestes or just for the monodominant dude). That way you will lock yourself out of about half of support troops and plenty of good gear.

 

[Jaedar]

Is there also any point to the exploration side besides getting to the objective as fast as possible? The random bonuses don't seem to be worth the effort and the additional awakening.

IIRC you can actually find weapons and gear durring the exploration as well.

You can, but it's really rare. I tend to agree that it's better to beeline the objectives so your awakening meter stays low, that way you can do more missions for guaranteed rewards.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

I think it's the opposite, but only once you get a little more powerful. Aside from finding gear in events, each fight gives you more blackstone and that's what really allows your techpriests to get stupidly strong. If you play a fight well you can often end it with less awakening than you started and get blackstone in the process. It's not worth the risk if you're not doing well, but with a healthy party I'd often explore as much as I can and maybe get 1-2 points to the global awakening.

 

[Tyranicon]

I think it's the opposite, but only once you get a little more powerful. Aside from finding gear in events, each fight gives you more blackstone and that's what really allows your techpriests to get stupidly strong. If you play a fight well you can often end it with less awakening than you started and get blackstone in the process. It's not worth the risk if you're not doing well, but with a healthy party I'd often explore as much as I can and maybe get 1-2 points to the global awakening.

Yeah, I can agree with this. I spiked the difficulty back up and now I'm back to avoiding all the exploration parts because I can no longer afford to destroy consoles to lower awakening when the enemies are now actually a challenge. Yeah, beforehand when you basically rolled over them, you could hit several consoles in each fight, making the awakening mechanic basically an afterthought.

 

[LESS T_T]

The publisher Kasedo (Kalypso) acquires the developer Bulwark Studios. The next project from them will be announced next month. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pres...res_Major_Shareholding_in_Bulwark_Studios.php

Kasedo Games Acquires Major Shareholding in Bulwark Studios

Indie publisher Kasedo Games has today announced a deal which will see them become the majority shareholder in French development outfit Bulwark Studios, best known for the critically acclaimed turn-based tactical game, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus. The deal will see the pair work exclusively together going forward.

Bulwark Studios is an indie game developer based in Angoulême, France co-founded by Emmanuel Monnereau & Jérémy Guéry in 2012. Focussing on strategic and tactical games, they released Crowntakers in 2014 and Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus in 2018, which is still one of the highest user-rated Warhammer games on Steam.

Launched as the ‘digital first’ label of the Kalypso Media Group, UK-based Kasedo Games is a fully owned subsidiary of the German publisher. The Bulwark Studios deal is the first share acquisition in Kasedo’s portfolio following repeat publishing deals with indie developers SomaSim and Dapper Penguin Studios.

“We are delighted to welcome Bulwark Studios into the Kasedo family and wider Kalypso Media Group. Having worked with Emmanuel, Jeremy & team for the best part of a decade, we already know the quality that they deliver,” said Jonathan Hales, Managing Director of Kasedo Games. “Our next project together is already well underway and we have huge aspirations for its success. Knowing what we are due to announce next month and also the previous successes they have delivered for us in the past, it made total sense to do this deal now and invest in our bright collective future.”

“The team at Kasedo Games have been really close to us since the beginning of our first project together and have continued to offer us a huge amount of support. As an indie studio it is a real pleasure to work with a flexible publisher capable of adapting and redefining their strategy as the project evolves," said Emmanuel Monnereau co-founder of Bulwark Studios. “We’re really excited about what we’ve been working on and this deal was just a natural progression that will allow both companies to forge forward and create quality games.”

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Lacrymas]

Speaking of Mechanicus, there was a patch for it yesterday on GOG.

 

[Luka-boy]

That patch just adds a new weapon courtesy of the ongoing Skulls event.

 

[Latelistener]

The combination of industrial with organ pipes and church choirs is something I haven't heard before anywhere, but the composer hit the spot.

 

[Zanzoken]

Finally bought this since all things Warhammer are on sale. Turn-based and with lots of character customization, looks pretty fun, just hope my toaster can run it.

 

[Dwarvophile]

The combination of industrial with organ pipes and church choirs is something I haven't heard before anywhere, but the composer hit the spot.

There's no industrial here*, more like a dubstep wobble bass, sometimes with snares, and sometimes pitched down into a drone like sound, with yes, synthetized choir and organ sounds for a more ambient result.

Sounds good indeed.

*funny to read mention on the dex about a musical genre whose seminals are an american satanist owner of the largest barbie doll collection in the world, a british ultimate tranny and a bunch of aussies inspired by the socialist patients' collective

 

[LESS T_T]

The next project from them will be announced next month.

Sorry guys their next game is not tactical: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...by-warhammer-40k-mechanicus-developer.138955/

 

[Whisper]

Yeah, I can agree with this. I spiked the difficulty back up and now I'm back to avoiding all the exploration parts because I can no longer afford to destroy consoles to lower awakening when the enemies are now actually a challenge. Yeah, beforehand when you basically rolled over them, you could hit several consoles in each fight, making the awakening mechanic basically an afterthought.

Use console and than destroy it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Arthandas]

Is it still a breeze on very hard + ironman/permadeath? I have a tactical itch but unless it offers a proper challenge I won't touch it with a stick no matter how good the atmosphere is...

 

[Lacrymas]

You can tune the difficulty however you wish.

 

[Dickie]

You can tune the difficulty however you wish.

Yeah, it's pretty nuts now.

They also weakened some of the strongest stuff like the perk that gave 1 CP per turn now only gives you 1 CP if you have 0. Huge difference just with that.

 

[Arthandas]

Yeah, it's pretty nuts now.
They also weakened some of the strongest stuff like the perk that gave 1 CP per turn now only gives you 1 CP if you have 0. Huge difference just with that.

Yeah, looks good, thanks.

 

[Jaedar]

Is it still a breeze on very hard + ironman/permadeath? I have a tactical itch but unless it offers a proper challenge I won't touch it with a stick no matter how good the atmosphere is...

I played it on very hard and found a bit easy, afterwards I made a suggestion for what I thought were good options for a first playthrough

If you've played the game before, you probably want to increase the difficulty. But I highly recommend the increased CP movement cost, unique tech and revenue modifier. I dislike hp bloat so I lowered those from the very hard default.

I haven't playtested it though, so it is kinda theorycrafting.

 

[RK47]

I'm underwhelmed by this game. I can't shake the feeling it's too downsized.