I see a lot of threads about technical problems, pre-order and discount price changes, but no threads about gameplay and bona fide player rage, so here it is. Feel free to post your moments of frustration with the game, stories of epic failure or great plans undone by the RNG deciding you'd lose that day. That doesn't mean it's a game bashing thread. I, for one, like the game quite a bit. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it has to be flawless, and tales of player frustration are almost as old as video games themselves. Something the devs actively encourage with their wounds system. One stray lrm shot grazed the cockpit of your sturdiest, and guarded, 'mech? Enjoy those 26 days in a med bay.

You know a mission is going to be hell when the literal first shot by enemies is a goddamn headshot.

Before I stated putting Guts as high as possible on every single pilot, I had Glitch die to a hail of missile fire. A couple lucky shots to the cockpit, and the knockdown did the rest.

Weirdly enough, the most infuriating missions I had to trudge through all have a swarm of light mechs in common. The little buggers are hell to hit, and with support from a few bigger mechs or missiles vehicles making your 'mechs unsteady they can be a real problem, almost by themselves. Now add an unfavorable starting position "yeah, attacking that big forested hill from a low and unprotected position is going to be FUN." an agressively hostile biome like the Mars biome who f*cks with your cooling and with mineral deposits to make your life harder, some turrets which are far out of reach (but you're in theirs), and a full lance of medium 'mechs, maybe with a couple of heavies to really make you feel it, and you have a recipe for long excrutiating missions. I think that's an actual oversight by the devs and where the "this game is so slow" complaints come from, because while the game is on the slow side, it's nothing insufferable when you're playing. Except when full initiative passes get filled by a squad of 'mechs, who all move, all shoot, some scoring headshots and take full minutes for turns when you can do nothing but take it. Then "your" initiative pass starts, and at this point, sharing it with the enemy becomes a lot less tolerable, even more when, after that initiative pass ends, another, where you still can't play, begins. I have no idea what the devs were thinking when they bloated the opposition like that.

Anyway, here is a story for the ride :

On a Martian biome, my lance is hired to destroy an enemy convoy. I have already done such missions before, so I know what to expect. I bring my Centurion with an AC20, and the fill the rest of my forces with a Trebuchet, Hunchback and Dragon. The plan is simple : Send my Centurion, with my experienced Commander by himself on the road, while I send the rest of my 'mechs to fight the enemy 'mech lance. That Centurion had face tanked and destroyed a full lance of vehicles comprised of two Manticores and two Strikers. I am not worried, he's got this. Things start getting awry though when I get busted by enemy 'mechs still pretty far from the road, so I rush towards it, taking pretty substantial fire from the opposition. When I finally reach the road, and the convoy, they are in stomping range, so my Centurion gets to work while my 'mechs fend off the enemy lance, in a battle that quickly turns sour due to some lucky shots, an inexperienced Trebuchet pilot, and fire support from the vehicles. Finally I am met with a choice : Do I stomp the Striker, the vehicle at the head of the convoy and which actually managed to pass beyond my Centurion, or the Manticore, second vehicle in the line, who is laying a beating on my 'mechs, with one very unsteady and who may very well get knocked down if the Manticore is allowed to fire. The AI having done a competent job at focussing fire, I begrudgingly step on the Manticore, killing it. Immediately after, the Striker starts driving away so hard I could almost hear Eurobeat blasting in the background. Never fear: I'll just shoot it in the back. That damn Striker really is quite far though. My other 'mechs keep fighting the good fight, but in a slow retreat, things aren't going so well. My Centurion's turn again. I unexpectedly can walk quite far, not enough to step on the Striker, but yeah for roads, so I get right behind it and shoot my AC20 in its back. There is no way he can take that amount of damage to its rear armor. I miss. The 85+ percent shot completely misses and my other 'mechs are terribly out of position to stop the Striker, who keeps driving like crazy to the sound of ever increasing Eurobeat blasting on his turn, and may just be one move away from reaching the exit point. Sure, I'll get another shot on my Centurion's turn, but what if THAT misses too? I'm eating the refire penalty now on top of it. In a complete panic I grab the Trebuchet and fire its last missiles at the Striker, to little effect, except that now the Trebuchet is out of position and gets focussed, losing his side torso. There is no way my Dragon and Hunchback can shoot the Striker in time, so I use them to keep the pressure on the enemy lance. My Centurion's turn again. All thought of managing SRM ammo, probabilities and heat are dead to me: Move behind the speeding Striker and unleash EVERYTHING.

As it turns out, I play this game on an old toaster until I can get my hands on my usual computer again. So I distinctly see the the AC20 slug go through the Striker, no damage number appearing, and my 8 missiles drunk flying right after it. With the shots from the Trebuchet, as long as the missiles more or less hit the back and not the sides, I should be good. When suddenly the Striker explodes as a faint orange "100" against the martial soil appears. A disgusting number of SRM hits were white though, so I doubt otherwise they would have done the trick.

I was so relieved on that moment that I didn't care that my Extraction Zone was behind the enemy lines and the Trebuchet could be killed by a deliberate attempt from the game to grief me. I calmly punched a couple of 'mechs, and scored a kill as my Trebuchet was falling back, its pilot more wounded than I cared to think about, and my Centurion reunited with the rest of my lance to finally turn the enemies into scrap heap. The bastards refused to be incapacitated though, so I didn't even get some good loot.

And that's all from me. What were your experiences?

Good to see a non-complaining thread. :)

Going to be lots of solid after action reports for this game. I'm still in the early stages (Deployment #6) and figuring out the game mechanics. It's nice the way you get quite a few cupcake missions to learn right out of the gate.

Will report back later with some tales from KK_Dragon's "Fire Breathers" later.

Edit:

Minor AAR:

Assassination Mission (early game) - Light mechs coming over the hill towards us one at a time. Stupid enemy pilots getting set up to receive my entire lance's firepower into their underarmored torsos. If this is all the Bad Guy has protecting him, we're going to be having a good time at the bar tonight on his dime.

Uh oh, a Medium just came around the hill. An Enforcer piloted by our kill target.

One final burst of medium lasers from the BlackJack takes out the last enemy Light Mech above us and now it's an unfair 175 tons versus 50 tons. My kind of odds.

First array of missiles hits the Enforcer. Leaves him unsteady and with no Evasion.

Bam, PPC hits the Enforcer right in the head. Pilot down and out. Mission accomplished. Not a called shot, just a plain lucky shot. We'll take the credit anyway.

CRAP!! We didn't negotiate very well. Didn't expect this many Mech salvage parts. All three of the Enforcer pieces are available and we can only grab one of them. Whew, got lucky and scored a second one before rolling out. Would have been nice to get that third one to be able to field a full lance of mediums for defensive missions.

Everything going well. Have a lance of 50 and 55 ton mechs ready for the "First Strike" story mission. Got everything repaired and fitted and some cash to spare.

Just one more mission to complete, then I can accept the story mission and travel there. Travel time is about 20 days. This mission is a milk run - low threat. Just making some extra cash to pay the bills.

Then my main character's mech gets hit by multiple long rnage missile volleys. Uh oh.

Sure enough, they score a head hit and I take a wound.

Okay, that is not the end of the world. I can heal up while travelling. One injury takes about 20 days to heal so....

Then a second LRM vehicle rolls up from out of sensor range and lets me have it. Ah ah ahhh.... Don't do it. Whew.

Then a third LRM vehicle rolls up and starts raining me with yet more missiles. No no no. [holds breath] Pheew.

Okay made it. Better move away from those LRM vehicles though. Let's move over to the other flank away from everyone.

Okay I should be safe he- [headshot out of nowhere] Uuuugh.

A couple more months of side missions with a substitute pilot while I heal then. Sigh.

I've decided to delete this game after liberating House Karosas because all side missions became insanely difficult suddenly.
The last straw was the battle mission. First of all I've encountered two Wolverines, one Blackjack and one Commando. 4 vs 4 - it's a fair fight with a little bit overpower on my side - got 2 Dragons, 1 Trebuchet and 1 Hunchback. So, I've destroyed 2 Wolverines and started to aim two others mechs, but got a bunch of rockets in my back from the other side of map. This was a three mech reinforcements - Griffin, Quickdraw and ORION. Yes, ORION, who destroyed one of my Dragons with one launch.

I've tried to take some other side contracts - no luck, game constantly generates a hordes of med and heavy mechs in combinations, which you can't beat no matter how hard you try. I think it's possible to replay and to win even in this type of game balance, but without 3 minutes loading screens before battles.

First mission 3 years later was hell. Thought I'd hold back and lead the enemy to me, pick them off one by one and my main guy got obliterated by missile salvos. 120 days out of action. Then repairing the mechs took about 60 days. Usually save scum like nuts but 3 missions later I've salvaged like 6 mechs including maybe 5 panthers. Guess that'll keep me going.

Quite amazed how the difficulty level varies, from some initial missions where its my 4 mechs vs 4 vehicles to taking out 8 firestarters and panthers in the most recent game. Still, at least I'm more stable and don't need to abuse the save function.

idk about rage, but theres definitely a learning curve here, not alot of info in game (or a pdf manual) to xplain things thats for sure.


expected a front mission kinda game, thinking its more xcom, basically staying alive & having enough $ to survive the next monthly board review.


are pilots supposed to be expendible - like xcom?


i know im going to have to start over. literally a day away from going bankrupt, just landed for the last mission.


be careful /w those turret laden missions, thought they'd be easier money.


unlike mechs they can detect & attack (not to mention signal lock - kill your evasion - w/o line of sight) you from miles away.


then the turret generators dont appear when you mouse over them for some reason, makes it hard to shut them down.

You gonna find a lot of strange things such indirect strikes with PPC from mechs even not in sensor range soon :)

And yeah, I've started all over - it doesn't help much even if you have a big pool of pilots and rush through plot missions. Balance is completely broken: if developers fix the fact that you sell mechs at 20-30% of their actual price on planets it could help. At least enemies will overwhelm in numbers, not in technical superiority. What's the point of liberating a planet if it sell parts of Griffin I can't simply afford?

Difficulty curve in this game has no common with normal learning curve.

On the other hand, I rushed one of my pilots to have Sensor Lock and now I'm the one delivering PPC blows from beyond my sensor range...

There doesn't appear to be a time limit on missions, so Sensor Locks from behind a mountain teamed with long range firepower is wicked.

(I'm still early game, so will keep learning new tricks I'm sure. Plus, I'm sure there will be a massive bug / balancing fix update that changes everything in the next week or two. I usually wait till the "Gold Box" version for this reason, but couldn't resist this trip down nostalgia lane...)

To make an attack with PPC or LRM you have to scout designated mech with the other mech. In some missions I could see that there is no any sign of sensor lock or even enemies within sensor range (as contours) - only the markers. In this case I can't use my Sensor Lock skill but somehow enemy mechs could shoot from that distance - and this is totally infuriating.

On the other hand Battle Missions which come after some tutor missions have a lot in common: there's always a lot of light mechs (about 2-4) who spot your positions - and 2-4 med and heavy mechs, who use their long-distance weapon advantages with full power.

IDK how to describe this right but I feel like a main victim of a bad B-horror movie in this scenarios. It's so frustrating because you understand that your typical selection of mechs could not win this battle even with a long streak of critical hits.

I've been blocked on a story mission, two missile turrets, one sniper, 4 light mechs, 3-4 medium mechs, one heavy and I need to spend the first turns getting out of position to shoot at a couple of vehicles, all on a martian biome. Even when I hink things are going well, the massive enemy firepower concentrated on my 'mechs just cannot be tanked with the tonnage that I bring. They always eventually get a knockdown and the piranha swarm of light mechs just feast. And that's when a Firestarter doesn't do its thing. Multiple enemies are hell, they take a fucking long time on their initiative passes, multiplying shots also mean multiplying your odds to get a lucky headshot and score wounds, and they never miss an opportunity to punch through your armor, even when I use vigilance every turn, even when I'm standing in a mineral field.

I think the main issue, and why I'll make different saves for different points, is that story missions are big "okay, upgrade most of your 'mechs to higher tonnage now. Your favorite 'mechs are medium sized? Tough luck for you, you need heavies. And not a 60 ton 'mech. Go 75 tons or go broke."

That's also one of the issues with 'mechs of different tonnage in this game. In Battletech, there isn't a big difference between a 55 and 60 tons 'mech, and having lighter heavies can be good, you just need to watch that BV. Then when the battle starts you move your 'mechs in the order you want. But since here initiative passes are organized by your 'mech class (light, medium, etc...), going from a medium to a heavy is a sizeable tactical investment, your heavy 'mech must bring something to the table to balance that. And 60,maybe 65 tons 'mechs just don't bring to validate that investment, so in campaign play you end up "killing" a bit of Battletech's 'mech diversity. Which sucks.

So yeah, I think I'll need to test more, but it sucks seeing your favorite 'mechs simply not having a place in your campaign anymore. Even that sucky BJ-1 managed to grow on me, damnit.

I play this like I play mechcommander 2. I get in, agitate them and then start to retreat and pick them off at range. Just past 10th mission, the equipment is awful, can't find a large laser anywhere or don't have enough money. Also morale doesn't mean much to me, best to keep everyone on minimal rations and just a few strips of toilet paper every month. Morale may be bad but I'm wasting a lot of cash keeping them happy.

Wondering how debt mechanics work in late game....

I know which mission you had mentioned. You can blast ammo crates - they have explosion radius and can take down a light mech or two (I've destroyed Locust, Jenner and seriously damaged the medium one, don't remember which). Also there is a crate which can take down two sensor locking LRM-turrets - so if you don't wanna stay under serious fire, try to take a mech with a long range weapon.

Despite all that this mission is poorly balanced, I never had a chance to accomplish secondary task, destroying weapon convoys - even after shooting down the crates on the other part of map. All I can do is to "hide-and-seek" at starting area - there is a little hill for LRM-mech, pilots must have a high guts rate and the other three mechs should be a brawler type to take down like Firestarter with melee attacks. It's not obvious, I found this combination after third replay - and it's really disappointing, cause you can't actually know which lance will play better (brawler-type or gunnery-type - or something with high maneuver rating). Don't know how to call it right - it's like some sort of scum balancing, game plays very unfair most of the time.

PS After this plot mission real hell unleashes. All the contracts are insanely hard (even 1 with 1/2 skulls), mech parts are overpriced, so you can't afford even one part of good medium or so-so heavy mech - and your mech garage will totally suck. All you can get from this mission is a second Dragon or Griffin if you lucky enough to hit him right.

definitely look for the areas on the map where theres cover (forrest) & make sure you move maximum distance & brace @ the end of your turn, if youre not in a position to attack. even if you're just sprinting or jumping, that @ least gives you x2 evasion.

^ this gives you the best chance possible of avoiding damage.

on your turn, you can press tab - to cycle enemies. easier than trying to select them via mouse. can also see the #s of weapon attacks this way, ala xcom remakes.

you can disable weapon groups, on the right if theyre not looking like theyre going to hit anyway, avoid building heat & alpha striking in a low to no chance to hit situation.

sensor lock is definitely the way to go. line of sight does make a difference too otherwise. the less number or red lines pointing towards you when you stick your face out to attack, the better.

i end /w ?

death from above, are you better off using a heavy or light mech, does it matter if its from the front or behind? your legs still take damage no matter what?

I knooooooooooow, but I'm sure there is a secret "dont blow up any crate" that I was after, and I always destroy those to convoys, due to my love for AC20s, but then the spamming begins.

Also, if I never pick up this game again, I want the official ending of my Mercenary career to be shooting Darius in the face for gross incompetence, add that he doesn't have first name privileges, and f*ck off.

Don't do battles kids.

No, really. When the mission is "Battle" just don't f*cking take it. It's a case of way too much stick and way too little carrot. "Battle" is the short-hand for "fight two lances with only one." For some mission for the Arano I dropped down a Martian world. I have to fight an enemy lance, and one of reinforcements arrives. Of course, unlike some better coded missions, those reinforcements don't seem to arrive by dropship after a set time. They're here from the start. Okay, so let's look at this pre-Panzyr mission level opposition (I did a roll-back) :
2 Quickdraws (both at half armor)
2 Thunderbolts (one at half armor)
1 Vindicator
1 Griffin
1 Shadow Hawk

Go to the middle and you'll get pincered attack. Go right and you'll get flanked left while the 4 full strength 'mechs destroy you. Go left and you may be able to ambush two of the weakened targets early. But of course, since the reinforcements are all in the field from the start, you get peppered by PPC and LRM shots from afar from the start of the actual combat. Oh and there is a massive tonnage difference when you finally go for the real 5v4 battle. I mean come on, A full lance of Atlas would be under-tonned, much less a 225 tons lance. Now that's not to say that this mission didn't have exhilirating moments, flanking and hounding the weakened thunderbolt while under heavy fire, with darings advances that still strategize heat gain, outflanking maneuvers with a Griffin getting punished for over-extending while my Grasshopper takes insane amounts of damage. Drama as that damn Griffin DFAs my Centurion, the Vindicator overheating himself into shooting PPCs to further imbalance him, the Shadowhawk meleeing to finally knockdown my 'mech, and the surviving Thunderbolt capitalizing with heavy damage. The counter-attack as they focus my downed 'mech that just won't die, taking down the damaged Griffin and Shadow Hawk, as my own Shadow Hawk sprints to the Vindicator. My Centurion surviving against all odds, and still with his left torso, Vigilance, go to the back of the Thunderbolt and unleash everything. That Vindicator finally dies, the Thunderbolt gets back attacked, back attacked, and finally I overheat into an alpha-strike from my Hunchback all over its back, destroying it and ending the mission.

At this point I'm calling myself a goddamn moron. I've just lost so damn much on this mission, the repairs are going to be hell, and the wounded will prevent me from taking another job for almost a full month. Finishing that optional objective of killing the reinforcements really f*cked me up, I should have just left when the last of the three damaged 'mechs died.

And then of course come the closing screens. "Good job commander." and that's it. That second lance wasn't a secondary objective. I was supposed to destroy 410 tons of 'mechs with my single lance. My dudes should be heroes, they did the impossible, didn't even lose a single 'mech, and I won't even be paid enough to last their time spent in mechbay. The only legitimate "mercenary" answer to that is to shoot Darius in the face for ever highlinting such contracts, telling the "Sword of Restoration" to pick up her damn boylover and het fuc*ing ship, tell ger good luck with her family problems and leave with the Leopard.

Seriously, that's insane. The numbers when you pick up a contract shouldn't be the max numbers, but the normal ones. If I am to fight such fuc*ing odds, then three quarters of a million C-Bills is the least you could do, not half that, and 3 pieces of salvage should be the norm, not what I'd have to sacrifice everything to get.

Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much stick, waaaaaaaaaay too little carrot.

Actually, in the "battle" scenarios the second lance is not on the map to begin with, but gets spawned a soon as you get close enough to the point whre they are supposed to spawn at. A boring strategy dealing with it is to carefully approach your first target, withdraw to your starting area as soon as combat starts and fight them there, not triggering the second lance in the process. When most of the first lance is dealt with move someone fast to where the targets came from, which should trigger the "picked up reinforcements" call from Darius, and deal with them at your leisure.

Also, I think being undertonned should be your exspectation when taking Restoration missions at that point. You do have a rather great reputation with them, in turn they entrust you with their most dangerous assignments. If you feel like you want to try things out without having to fight for you live all the time, I tend to take a break by going to the independent systems to train new people with easier jobs.

I do fully agree that you should get way more money and salvage from missions where you are deliberately outgunned in order to make them "high risk, high reward" and not getting beaten half to death with a little carrot hanging over your head.