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Early in the game, I'm doing the mission where you have to kill the captain of the enemy merc unit, and supposedly once he's dead, the rest of the company won't have any stake in it and back off. So, after several restarts (I hate losing components early in the game) I work my way around, batter my way through the storm of tanks and helicopters, whack the guy, and then of course they drop a couple of mechs on my head. Not a big problem, but what happened to the storyline?
Next mission, I'm doing one of those randomly created destroy missions, trying to take out a base on some hellhole of a planet - so uninhabitable that it's covered in belching fumaroles.
Uninhabitable, of course, other than the regiment of tanks and the other regiment of helicopters. That appear from nowhere. Because that's how it works with tanks and helicopters.
I can't see them of course, because they appear about three feet behind me and my marvelous 31st Century radar and display can't show anything behind me. Technology certainly has degraded . . .
But it wouldn't matter anyway if they were dropped 800 meters in front of me, because the same marvelous radar loses lock when we have a tiny hill between us.
Side note: I was both a tanker and an air-defense radar operator in the Marines, and I can assure you that the ancient crap we used to use is more advanced than what's in my Mech. Also, do you know how much it takes to maintain even a company of tanks? You need a lot of support, and your average bandit or merc company isn't likely to have that sort of cash and resources just lying around. Let alone the manpower needed. But I digress.
No, what eats my lunch is the two Urbanmechs (!?!?) armed with AC-10s that get dropped behind me, inevitably blowing arms off my starter Centurion.
I try and try, using tactics just like Battletech taught me, going around the long way (swatting a couple of helicopters and tanks on the way), attacking the objective from far outside in order to draw out defenders, but it never matters. Inevitably, something gets dropped right behind me and I start losing components.
Why do I even have long-range weapons when the spawns happen too close to make them useful? On the plus side, I've saved a lot of LRM ammo.
Now, I suppose that I should "git gud, n00b." Which is fair, although I'm getting a whole lot better at hitting a gunship with an AC-10 from range.
But I think that the developers missed what makes Mechwarrior different from a fast-twitch shooter. It should be obvious - the slow, lumbering walk of a Mech is totally different than speedrunning around a map with an assault rifle.
The tactics for a Mech game are completely different. There's more time to consider your actions when piloting a mech, and the game should allow us to do it.
So, my unwanted recommendations:
Get rid of the spawns. Completely. If it's not on the map at the beginning of the game, then then it doesn't come in. Or in the alternate, have limited and specific reinforcements that come in from a distance. So you can see them coming, which you should be able to do, with any sort of radar.
Sid Meier said that when developing, he "emphasizes the fun parts" of a simulation and throws out the rest.” The autospawns, right on top of us, are not fun.
This also actually allows us to use tactics - circling around the base, picking off the defense turrets, looking for outlying sentries, etc.
Next, improve the radar. You can't tell me that a Mech can't use radar to see behind itself and over hills - at least well enough to know that someone is there. Four previous Mechwarrior games and Battletech certainly did it. My Mech should be able to see anything metal moving within at least 800 meters, unless it is powered down.
Third, nerf the tanks and helicopters. We all came for Mech vs. Mech combat, not getting pecked to death by a literal division of tanks. Tanks and helicopters are part of the power fantasy, shrugging off their attacks like flea bites and destroying them almost without thought. They should never be a major challenge. I know that this differs a bit from the tabletop rules, but this sort of adaptation preserves the fun.
Lastly, the AI of both the companions and the enemy needs to be improved. I'm sure you are working on this. It would also help alleviate any need for autospawns.
Does this make the game easier? Sure, but you can implement difficulty levels, allow us to choose the autospawns, the strength of the tanks and helicopters, the number of enemy mechs we might see, etc.
I suppose that another way to put all of this is "make it more like the previous Mechwarriors." After all, they all had everything that I've just discussed.
Anyway, other than restarting the same mision over and over and over, it's a fun game and I enjoy stomping around in my Mech. But not enough to overcome the frustration.
Looking forward to the patches.
Edited by RoiEt, 29 December 2019 - 03:32 PM.
