Battletech

Think I'm done for the moment, at least until some things are changed. Just lost 2 of my original pilots, one game after another. I sucked up the first one, didn't want to save scum, but when the 2nd hit, that was enough. I had a brand new mech - melee-mod'd Crab brawler (try weird shit right?) - first mission ever. A stick of a Highlander (no weps) walks up, hits my completely untouched (not 1 armor point missing) Crab, and crits the head - found out the pilot died when the game was over. He had a +3 injury cockpit of course, but that doesn't matter for head crits.

If you play enough, every single one of your pilots will die, except "you". In the back of my head I knew this, and played on. But experiencing it is just soul crushing. I was trying to level pilots for the final mission, where you supposedly need 8 pilots, and now I'm 2x 10/10/10/10 pilots down.

Super super frustrating.

Save scumming to change frivoulous outcomes , get more loot etc is deplorable sure. Likewise recognizing you made mistakes that ended in a KO should be left as punishment.

But these absurd melee head kills i griped about before. Even super rare on tabletop wasnt so bad because its just a game you pack up and play another. But for a videogame with a very long played time campaign I think its a poor unfun mechanic. Since they cheese knocking down via one sourxe of damage I wouldnt mind seeing singular big head hits reduce to a sliver then its on you todo what you can to remove the mech safey before you get hit with a lowly mg....

If there was a skill that let you have a 50/50 of punching out instantly when you took a head crit or lost head structure, I'd take it on everyone. Needs an "oh shit" roll in there.

You just need two lances in the mech bay. You don't actually field two lances in a game.

Jalynfane said:

If there was a skill that let you have a 50/50 of punching out instantly when you took a head crit or lost head structure, I'd take it on everyone. Needs an "oh shit" roll in there.

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Reminds me, there is that eject button, I guess I'm at the point where losing a mech itself doesn't matter for shit since highlanders are abundant. It just seems so easy in most cases to just run like hell when you need to for the most part. I dont even know if eject is 100% pilot safe and recovered? Heck I'm not even sure what happens if in a non story mission you lose all 4 mechs? I would certainly think that's a much better gameplay option is just big head hits = instant pilot bailout/eject and basically max wounds and a couple months unavailable. Side effect could be even if it was a full health mech that got headshot, you lose it even if winning the mission. (Or I suppose you could waste salvage slots getting it back)

khorum said:

You just need two lances in the mech bay. You don't actually field two lances in a game.

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My understanding was you needed 2 separate lances of mechs/pilots to be used in 2 games in a row (not controlling 8 mechs in 1 game). Maybe I'm wrong /shrug I just like to be over-prepared.

The thing that I get tired of is running into 2 full lances. Right now, I'm working on 2 full lances, plus an extra special mob. So.... Great. 4 mechs vs. 9? WTF?

95 ton banshee seems worse than the other 85tonners I have.... full armor and it has only 15 tons or a hair less to play with wtf.

Even some dumb melee build is awful. 4mg's, 4 jump jets, and a +melee arm mod is overweight.

Sludig said:

95 ton banshee seems worse than the other 85tonners I have.... full armor and it has only 15 tons or a hair less to play with wtf.

Even some dumb melee build is awful. 4mg's, 4 jump jets, and a +melee arm mod is overweight.

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The Banshee being terrible is canon. It's legitimately a piece of shit mech.

Whelp, that's a cool mill at ieast, though id have been better finishing like 3 heavies thatmap to sell. Really wanted that second grasshopper because i think i will try to recreate my mediun/ heavy dream team and go back to fight 3-4 start planes target than just doing new campaigns.

Yeah the Banshee (both models) are gigantic sacks of shit. Only mechs you'll want to use end game are Atlas, King Crab, and Highlander. Maybe a Stalker too if you want a missile boat, but a properly kitted HL does an even better job. Edit: When I say Highlander, I mean the 733 model. Can mount the Gauss Rifle and 4 LRM packs on that beast.

The story in this game is ridiculous and I should have known right away when I saw 'They'.

After the story mission to start the war and attack Bastille, I am asked to swear loyalty to an ideologically possessed autocratic female dynast who talks about 'the people' and dresses in red and black.


Immediately after that, I am introduced to my over weight muslim engineer who has a sassy attitude. It is assumed (correctly) that I am shocked by there existing such a thing as a hijabi astronaut and she acts like I am mere seconds away from violently oppressing her beautiful culture at any moment.

This character was %100 written by a white beta male or a blue haired land whale. Guaranteed.

Anyway. The game is really a lot of fun, all that bullshit aside. I can see what many have said about the maps being a bit too small and I am beginning to get bored with endless 2v1 missions. The enemy out numbers me on every battle and so the tactics are the same each time. I wish there was more variety to the missions and not them just being a question of tonnage. That would probably require a more robust AI though.

I think there is a good base game here but also a lot of room to grow. I think this game has great potential if done right. I also like how they started out with the olden times mechs. This is a good idea as it allows them to expand into their own universe and not blow their whole load on the first game.

How's the victor? First time seeing one and like every called shot to other components went to fucking CT. (Though the 3 ac20 ammo side torso sure ripped the whole thing apart by itself I think)

Fadaar said:

Yeah the Banshee (both models) are gigantic sacks of shit. Only mechs you'll want to use end game are Atlas, King Crab, and Highlander. Maybe a Stalker too if you want a missile boat, but a properly kitted HL does an even better job. Edit: When I say Highlander, I mean the 733 model. Can mount the Gauss Rifle and 4 LRM packs on that beast.

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Yah, the Banshee is not a good time. The reason is that (True to the original game) the engine required to give that thing the extra speed it has is fucking huge at that mech weight, and leaves a lot less space for weapons and armor than a slower mech of the same weight, and theres no mechanic in this game for dropping to a smaller engine to free up more space. (Which is perfectly reasonable and in line with their maintaining-the-original-feel restrictions on the weapons each mech can carry.)

AngryGerbil said:

The story in this game is ridiculous and I should have known right away when I saw 'They'.

After the story mission to start the war and attack Bastille, I am asked to swear loyalty to an ideologically possessed autocratic female dynast who talks about 'the people' and dresses in red and black.

Immediately after that, I am introduced to my over weight muslim engineer who has a sassy attitude. It is assumed (correctly) that I am shocked by there existing such a thing as a hijabi astronaut and she acts like I am mere seconds away from violently oppressing her beautiful culture at any moment.

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I mean I rolled my eyes at the Muslim engineer, but your 'autocratic female dynast' bit just makes you look like a moron.

AngryGerbil said:

The story in this game is ridiculous and I should have known right away when I saw 'They'.

After the story mission to start the war and attack Bastille, I am asked to swear loyalty to an ideologically possessed autocratic female dynast who talks about 'the people' and dresses in red and black.

Spoiler

Immediately after that, I am introduced to my over weight muslim engineer who has a sassy attitude. It is assumed (correctly) that I am shocked by there existing such a thing as a hijabi astronaut and she acts like I am mere seconds away from violently oppressing her beautiful culture at any moment.

This character was %100 written by a white beta male or a blue haired land whale. Guaranteed.

Anyway. The game is really a lot of fun, all that bullshit aside. I can see what many have said about the maps being a bit too small and I am beginning to get bored with endless 2v1 missions. The enemy out numbers me on every battle and so the tactics are the same each time. I wish there was more variety to the missions and not them just being a question of tonnage. That would probably require a more robust AI though.

I think there is a good base game here but also a lot of room to grow. I think this game has great potential if done right. I also like how they started out with the olden times mechs. This is a good idea as it allows them to expand into their own universe and not blow their whole load on the first game.

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Your tail end is pretty spot on, but surprised you felt the SJW stuff was that strong. Given you are not as rabid as some of the other conservative politics posters, including myself.

I might be blinded by battletech love. But my take was, the muzzie engineer was about the worst of it. I think the only reason they had they as a pronoun option is that in the backer options some dropped big cash to be in the game (and book?) some of those were of course blue hair mentally ill people. So to placate them and their whatever let them pick that pronoun which I'm sure is what the major backer or two were, else we might have had her/he/zer (which having only that one and not a bunch of other ones which it would be easy to have a fill in the blank one since the pronoun is never spoken)

It never really comes up in the game after character creation, you have one of the backer created pilots that has some badly written trans shit in it that you can hire. However who the fuck reads pilot backstories in the hiring hall, they are just boring flavor text. Most of the computer ones have so much bad shit I'd just execute most of the pilots if story mattered anyways.

I do agree a fair amount of writers/developers or otherwise people involved are at least PC leaning or if they are SJW's, they didn't inject it as strongly in this game as others that have been ruined by them.

Maybe 'female dynast' was going too far, but it's true. I literally couldn't give a shit about her or her house or her legacy. My attitude and the one of my avatar should be nothing more than fuck you pay me.

And to be honest it isn't all that offensive that there is a hijabi. I really don't care that much other than the fact that it means my video game is now a platform for Political Correctness and I'd really just rather not see that sort of stuff in any form. It insults my intelligence. Social Justice is so dumb. So cripplingly retarded. It's a little bit of a shame to see it infest such a great homage to such a great franchise. If they could write a convincing muslim female engineer, then that would be very difficult, it would be fine. I can live with that.

But what we are given is a sassy twat who is obviously not what any sort of competent 'engineer' would actually act like. Only social justice activists speak with that attitude. They have to because they don't actually know anything else. But an engineer? A competent engineer would have no fucking time for any of this shit. Facing Mecca 5 times a day and being able to talk of nothing else but hijabs and beautiful cultures? I'll hire a decorator for that sort of babble, not an engineer.

Instead of a blob who insults me, I would have actually hired the person who had never even heard of Mecca and can only think in terms of protons and metal alloys.

Probably a male. Probably not very religious if at all. Someone like Geordie Laforge.

All art is propaganda.

Why weren't any of the characters Protestant Christians?

I detected exactly zero Taoists. The Buddhism count was zippo and I believe we never once made the needle on the Jewish meter move.

Did anyone make any references to Orwell or Paine or Jefferson?

Just how far do we want ancient midieval barbarism to infest our culture? Battletech is our culture.

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I mean, who summoned Mecca and the Hijab into the universe of Battletech? Wasn't me. The House of Davonian or whatever had no knowledge of The Koran or the Jihad. But now it does.

Now it does. Muhammad and Aisha now exist in Battletech.

Someone hire me to retcon this game. I'll have the lance fly to Earth with 4 80 ton missle boats full of LRM20+++'s and fire them all directly into the Black Stone from the other side of Mount Arafat.

AngryGerbil said:

Maybe 'female dynast' was going too far, but it's true. I literally couldn't give a shit about her or her house or her legacy. My attitude and the one of my avatar should be nothing more than fuck you pay me.

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I don't remember a single loyalty conversation with Kamea that didn't have an 'only in it for the money' choice. Your whole rant sounds unhinged, especially since the insane culture of the clans results in a 10 year death toll that 1400 years of Muslim barbarism can only dream of, and later the Word of Blake is responsible for engulfing the entire region in 14 years of conflict in a period that is flat out called the Word of Blake Jihad, or just the Jihad. Muslims are barely even a blip on the savagery radar of the Battletech universe.

AngryGerbil said:

Why weren't any of the characters Protestant Christians?

I detected exactly zero Taoists. The Buddhism count was zippo and I believe we never once made the needle on the Jewish meter move.

Did anyone make any references to Orwell or Paine or Jefferson?

Just how far do we want ancient midieval barbarism to infest our culture? Battletech is our culture.

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I mean, who summoned Mecca and the Hijab into the universe of Battletech? Wasn't me. The House of Davonian or whatever had no knowledge of The Koran or the Jihad. But now it does.

Now it does. Muhammad and Aisha now exist in Battletech.

Someone hire me to retcon this game. I'll have the lance fly to Earth with 4 80 ton missle boats full of LRM20+++'s and fire them all directly into the Black Stone from the other side of Mount Arafat.

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Not that I disagree that other things weren't represented in the game. But, by canon, Muslims are represented in Battletech. Specifically in the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns. This was well before any blue hairification of the franchise. So while the character writing is super poor (like ninety percent of the games flavor or story text) there isn't a reason she can't be there in all her hijabihood.