I picked up Battletech soon after it won the Qt3 GOTY award and I ended up really enjoying it. I’ve logged 55 hours and counting, still working my way through the campaign and having a grand old time.
So thanks, Qt3! Y’all got good taste in computer games.
Just fired it up, played through an urban mission and read the patch notes.
I do not think this will change anyone’s mind. If you like Battletech then you this is more of it. Urban fights, a bit of ECM, a couple more flashpoints, more star systems and 3rd parties on the battlefield. There is more to enjoy here.
I played through a city fight and it was definitely a different tactical experience. You can make buildings collapse (probably a bit too easily) and I enjoyed bringing one down along with a Shadow Hawk that was on top of it. The Hawk took some major leg damage. Have a mech hiding behind a building? Use one of yours to collapse the building and another to take clear shots at the now-exposed mech. The map at night was very, very cool. It looked like a future city while still be recognizable as a city - a bit Blade-Runnerish if not as vertical. It did slow down my aging system in that map.
And because I do love this game I will start a new campaign from scratch. But I get the feeling that this expansion is a bit underwhelming much like the last one - good ideas but simply not enough content. There were only 9 or 11 Flashpoints last time I think and my guess is that there will only be a handful of urban maps and a couple more flashpoints. While there are a couple of new mechs, they are on the small size and Battletech does a lousy job of giving small mechs roles later in the game.
What the game really needs is a truly detailed mech painter, a mission editor, the entire Inner Sphere and a Solaris expansion.
Sharpe
3288
So I played some tonight, overall impressions similar to the above: nice UI improvements on star map, nice urban flavor, some more flashpoints, some new ECM mechanics, seemingly more contracts per system, but nothing really wowing me. Good, but not great.
And then…
Read that pic closely folks. It’s not just everyone favorite walking trash can; it’s a walking trash can with an AC20.
Sold. Price of admission right there.
Did you clench up a little when you realized you’d brought flamers and a couple of medium lasers to an AC/20 fight . . . ?
You see, the core problem here is the Firestarter. A lot of people will complain about the Firestarter, and they have good points. But they always miss the big point. The real issue with the Firestarter isn’t heat management. Or the flimsy armor. Not at all. Any seasoned Mechwarrior will tell you that the REAL problem with the Firestarter is that the glove box isn’t big enough for a spare pair of shorts. And now you know why.
Sharpe
3291
I actually earned the “Trash Can Fire” achievement in that battle: “Destroy an Urbanmech with flamers.”
vyshka
3292
I forgot to add earlier that the rng gave me an Urbie as one of the 5 starting mechs. I just had my first urban mission, and took it along. First shot with the ac/10 takes of the CT of the opponent. The Urbie continued to wreak havoc on the Taurian and Marik forces until the fight was over.
vyshka
3294
It has been so long since I played I forgot about the turrets at bases. I had a 1 skull mission last night to raid a base that wrecked my lance pretty well. While I was dealing with the lance guarding it they were able to target me with the turrets. I ended up losing 3 pilots, but they finished the mission.
Still on my first playthrough. I seem to have plateaued with low end heavies/high end mediums. Main lance is a T-Bolt, a Quickdraw, a Dragon, and a LRM boat Centurian. Cant seem to break into the better heavies.
But man do I love it.
Pro tip for you, that Dragon and, to a lesser extent, that Quickdraw are hot garbage. If you have one of the top end mediums still in the bay it’s better to run that. Maybe a nice shadow hawk or kintaro. The T bolt is solid and pretty common so you just need to grind away at 3-4 star missions and collect parts.
vyshka
3297
Is LosTech available at all in the career mode?
At some point I need to fire up the RogueTech mod. They seem to have a ton of mechs in that.
Yes there are lostech rewards in career mode
Is the campaign linear, or can you travel between locations as you see fit?
vyshka
3300
IIRC there are certain story missions you have to complete to move it forward, but I don’t believe there is any limitation on you running around doing whatever you want until you decide to finish them.
Sharpe
3302
You can travel around as you see fit, within a relatively circumscribed part of the Periphery - you don’t get access to the Inner Sphere part of the map until you finish the campaign. The campaign missions themselves are in a linear order, but they show up as contracts at various locations that you can do when you feel ready to do so. Note: b/c the campaign missions provide hefty cash payouts, I often felt a positive incentive to do them rather than wait, but there was not actual pressure.
Edit: the part of the map you can travel to during the campaign is actually pretty varied though - a good range of low, medium and high-ish difficulty planets. So basically, it’s fairly open, with the campaign as a narrative spine.
As an aside, I do recommend doing the mission on Artru as soon as you have a solid medium lance (and by solid I mean good 50/55 ton mechs). It can be a bear but is also a pure joy in terms of reward.
vyshka
3303
Someone that has played the campaign more recently should chime in though :)
I suspect an open world total conversion mod would be cool. But the Shadowruns were moddable too and nobody really was that ambitious, AFAIK.
Never mind. I’ll shut up.
Sharpe
3305
So this expansion continues the Urbie love: I saw a new model today, the 90R, whose loadout was:
Small Laser
Medium Laser
Medium Laser
PPC (!!!)
With 480 armor and 3 jumpjets, it’s a tough, jumping, PPC-your-ass garbage can. At 30 tons that’s pretty bad-ass. I assume it overheats like Old Faithful but you can’t have everything.
