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[Rince Wind]

Company level in BT is 3 lances I think, so I expect him to want something like a turn based, closer to the tabletop rules MechCommander.

[puke]

it is, but.... God, now I want to go all grognard on inner sphere TO&E.  Haven't played in so long...

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, for what they call a pre-alpha, a lot of the game on the tactical level already seems to be there.

Might want to redact the link though, the video's probably unlisted for a reason.

[Neonivek]

I really wonder if the game is going to keep pilot hits.

Almost no Battletech/MechWarrior game actually keeps that. In fact, there is only one I know of.

I can't argue for or against it really... It is like how they redesigned magic in Shadowrun to have no drain... The lack of faithfulness to the source material is balanced out by the huge mercy it is (that and... frankly drain is easier to track if you only have to take care of one character... not four).
-Though once again: I am not a fan of their shadowrun series. Invisable Inc is a better Shadowrun game.

[Kanil]

Almost no Battletech/MechWarrior game actually keeps that. In fact, there is only one I know of.

Didn't both MW4 and MC2 have pilot casualties?

Given that AC/20s appear to dish out their damage in 5 (one TT) point clusters, the only way you're losing a pilot in a single turn is due to multiple head hits, or a head critical hit. Both of which are quite unlikely (in TT, at least.) Most of the time you'll get a chance to at least consider retreating the 'mech in question, if the pilot is particularly important.


Anyway, I have a bunch of little questions and nitpicks, but I guess I'll just say I hope the game is a little more mechanically transparent in actual play... ... I suspect it will be.

[Neonivek]

Silly Kanil they just raised all the hit points by x5.

Likely because it looks cooler.

[Kanil]

Yeah, but there's definitely some mechanical weirdness going on with the ACs.

PPCs just do a flat 50 damage, you'd expect the AC/20 to do a flat 100, but it instead does a whole bunch of 5s. If those 5s aren't hitting the same location, then the one 3025 headcapping cannon isn't a headcapping cannon anymore.

If they still hit the same location, and they're just doing it for the visuals (ACs in lore typically shoot streams of shells, after all) then pilot losses will be more common... since the headcapping cannon is quite efficient at headcapping (compared to every other weapon, at least.)

[Rince Wind]

On their forum they confirmed that the AC 20 only hits 1 location.

And the multiplied damage is probably for more nuances between the different weapons manufacturers.

[Kanil]

As it should.

I guess we will see some abrupt instagibs then. Keep your waifuwarriors away from Hunchbacks.

[Flying Dice]

Um. The pre-alpha footage they sent us included the Atlas getting headshotted by the AI, and the devs joking that while not all mech kills will be pilot kills headshots are pretty much guaranteed. They openly discussed how they were balancing things to make losing either a 'mech or a MechWarrior a meaningful loss. So yeah, I'd wager that pilot kills are in.

And FWIW MWO technically has pilot kills in the sense that your mech getting the head opened and destroyed is an instant death even if everything else is pristine, even if the "pilot" just goes into another match in another mech. 

[Neonivek]

I am not meaning a Pilot dying... Which yeah has been in quite a bit of MechWarrior/Battletech games.

So much the mechanic for Pilots to take hits everytime the head is struck (and heat builds to a certain level >_>). A feature that to date only one Battletech game I know of has done.

[Flying Dice]

Ah, right.

Honestly, that's probably a finer level of granularity than this game needs. I mean, sure, for a single engagement that would be interesting, but including it would mean having to track injuries outside of the tactical level. Which means something like X-Com style injury timers, medical management, shit like that that has effectively nothing to do with 'mechs. Otherwise you're left with the question of why the game bothers to track that in combat if the slate is wiped afterwards. In other words, if you treat pilot well-being as a binary alive/dead outside of combat, you might as well do the same in combat, otherwise you're left with either annoying mechanics which dilute focus or situations which don't make sense.

[Neonivek]

Well it isn't the whole injury and medicine that is the issue. That isn't why most games don't feature it (and the only one I know of that did... had mech salvaging)

It is that defeating a mech by knocking out the pilot can seem a bit cheap to some people.

[Parsely]

Hmph! Hmph, I say! I just want company-level sci-fi combined arms strategy computer game. ;<;

What, like TA?  Or any of its successors, like Supreme Commander or Planetary Annihilation?

Or like Dune 2, or any of /ITs/ successors, like any RTS ever made, including the above?

Or did you mean with turns?  If so, post this over in the "recommend me a game" thread, I'd like to see what people have to say.

They all have the right scale, but the wrong feeling. All those games you listed are far too gamey. I don't want any part of that units being built in buildings nonsense. The closest thing to what I'm talking about is Men of War: Assault Squad. Roughly company-level strength, and a strong importance in taking a mixture of different types of weapons (infantry, crew-served weapons, light vehicles, tanks, and artillery). Ground Control is probably the only game that fits that nebulous "mostly grounded in reality" (I'd rather not say 'realistic') feeling but I haven't played it very much.

[Erkki]

Hmph! Hmph, I say! I just want company-level sci-fi combined arms strategy computer game. ;<;

What, like TA?  Or any of its successors, like Supreme Commander or Planetary Annihilation?

Or like Dune 2, or any of /ITs/ successors, like any RTS ever made, including the above?

Or did you mean with turns?  If so, post this over in the "recommend me a game" thread, I'd like to see what people have to say.

They all have the right scale, but the wrong feeling. All those games you listed are far too gamey. I don't want any part of that units being built in buildings nonsense. The closest thing to what I'm talking about is Men of War: Assault Squad. Roughly company-level strength, and a strong importance in taking a mixture of different types of weapons (infantry, crew-served weapons, light vehicles, tanks, and artillery). Ground Control is probably the only game that fits that nebulous "mostly grounded in reality" (I'd rather not say 'realistic') feeling but I haven't played it very much.

Have you played Combat Mission series? Or old Steel Panthers?

I do enjoy MegaMek but its difficult to find an opponent. Theres some online campaigns running... But, to me, they have issues of their own.