I’m not worried about the AI since I suck anyway.
Sorry, was just being facetious. Qt3 seems extra critical of AI, and since a lot of people seem to be looking forward to it, I am bracing myself for the reaction here.
I have only watched a couple of videos of gameplay and the AI seemed fine. That said, with the amount of possibilities with terrain, heat, and weapon load outs, I expect it won’t be great against the better players.
According to a devs there is a rather deep RPG aspect including repairs/replacement of equipment. Also gyros affecting how fast you turn and move. You might fall if you turn too fast for the gyros you use. Your pilots level up and you can pick their abilities. A pilot you groom for heavy mechs might be really bad at light mechs. Also a pilot might return from a battle injured and be out for a few missions. And when your pilot dies, he or she dies. There seems to be an interesting meta game after fights. Also an interesting consideration about whether you should leave a fight. Is the bounty going to be enough? Maybe I can take the hit on my respect from a clan to avoid damage on my mechs.
I believe that the meta is going to be crucial as to whether this game is more than just a decent TT adaptation.
And that is the feeling that I get from the various updates that I get. They know this is important.
Can anyone recommend a video of someone doing just a random contract? I don’t know why but the last three times I tried to find a video “around 3-5 episodes in” it’s ALWAYS the same exact mission. Two players willfully picked that mission over random contracts, and that’s the one type of thing I would want to save for myself, so that’s a little frustrating. I’m also trying to avoid anything from the first hour, and it seems like a pretty scripted/tutorial and I at least want the story to not be spoiled (which is why I keep clicking on videos about 3-5 episodes in). The only one I found (the only one I watched) is the line I made the .gif images from.
Personally I don’t want the actual game spoiled by videos. Maybe that’s just me. I just want to play the game with no preconceived ideas. I’ll just wait for the game. Then I’ll decide. But you do you man. :)
I generally agree, and thankfully the kind of annoying cinematic view EVERY video wants us to desperately like is keeping me from watching too much in any case. I finally did find a video of a random, early mission and literally the camera was too busy pulling around to show the actual shots being fired by an enemy mech, so you just got back in view to see the “-1 evasion” from being fired at. I just don’t get it.
Be at peace, mechwarrior. Your time will come. :)
I think the cinematic thing is on by default, I was watching Quill’s video and it seemed to cut to it sometimes. Quill does play zoomed out otherwise. He seems to generally love the game as well, but he might be getting paid to say that.
I wasn’t big on the cinematic stuff in XCOM, either. I could see it being pretty cool if was done properly; i.e. unique information UI elements shown only during the cinematic, e.g. close-up of a 'mech’s head getting blown clean off with a little caption box next to it “YOUR AC20 DECAPITATES BLOWFLY’S MECH”
I think my concern is with everyone leaving it on (I agree with @LeeAbe it is likely the default, I think it is (defaulted on) in XCOM as well now that @scharmers reminded me where I first learned to hate it - nope, wait, I first learned to hate it in the marketing leading up Fallout 3) you will have people thiking the game looks worse than it actually does. Zoomed out everything looks really readable and good - no 3D model looks as good zoomed in as close as possible as from on high anyway.
But then it seems the camera can’t pan/keep up with the action sometimes, and you get this (which I’ve seen a few times now in the footage I have seen, which means it must happen fairly often because I’ve only watched a couple bits of a few videos) where there is a hitch AND the camera is panning too high to see the action clearly.
(this is a big chunk of video, so I made it a .gifv)
E: to clarify, this is the entire game screen area.
Got my Fanatical key this morning so I’m all set for tomorrow night!
This doesn’t bother me or anything, but can you imagine actually being a mech mercenary? The transport, repair and ammunition costs alone must be staggering…and I know it’s the future, but it’s like a feudal low-tech/high-tech hybrid future, right? So I assume that stuff still doesn’t come cheap.
Just don’t let the pilots unionize. The workers comp demands will bankrupt you. :)
I bet. I have tons of old BT novels,and mercenaries are big part of some of the story lines. The Kell Hounds, remember them? I have zero idea how it works out except that they must charge an arm and a leg. I guess Davion and Steiner and all can afford it, when they want dirty work done without House attribution.
Then again, remember Hammer’s Slammers? Not BT, but similar futuristic interplanetary mercenary stuff. Those books dealt occasionally with money if I recall correctly.
It’s like, consider the humble drop ships, right? They need to be capable of transporting and housing lances of those mechs. The size of the docking bay alone…not to mention repair and fuel for the ships, pilots, engineers, crewmen, logistics specialists…And I don’t know, do the Dropships double as interstellar transport? Or do they themselves dock on something even larger that acts as a HQ? If so, multiply all the above appropriately.
I also received my Fanatical key. Anyone know if a pre-load is planned? I have a feeling I’m going to have to wait until Wednesday to actually play.
The economics of being a mechwarrior, especially a mercenary, don’t make a lot of sense. Like how do you get started out, you get one mech and loan yourself out as a one man army, then hopefully build up? Hitch rides on other folks’ ships? Actually now that I think about it, I think the Gray Death novels were focused around a young guy starting his own mercenary company, but it’s been decades since I read those.
The various tabletop sourcebooks for mercenaries cover some of it. In general, I think the assumption is that you start with a company by some means or another—either the remnants of a former company, or maybe deserters from somewhere else.
The economics don’t make a lot of sense, unless you work under the assumption that highly-skilled pilots are worth way more than high-quality mechs. In my MekHQ/Megamek game, which follows the contracts/payments rules pretty closely, the total cost to hire my four-lance company for six months would pay for all of its assets a few times over.