Battletech
May. 7th, 2018 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTLDR: The shiny is real. @.@
So, yeah. I backed it on kickstarter, and when it finally came out they gave me a Steam key which... didn't work. Steam couldn't finish installing it, and Steam support is utterly useless and claimed it was a network issue despite other steam games installing without problems *simultaneously*. I was able to install it using the Paradox launcher, but the release version had some issues that made it kind of... not work on certain peoples' machines. Including mine. And the Paradox launcher never updated with the new patches because apparently it's someone's side-project or something and in eternal beta.
After a week I was desperate enough to buy another copy on GOG.com and... well... that worked without a hitch. And has kept working since. KNOCK ON WOOD. This isn't quite as insane as it sounds since I should be able to refund the Steam version, since I have a total of around two hours of 'play time' consisting of repeatedly loading to the main menu where it would then fail to start the actual game -- and that's on the Paradox launcher version which I don't think Steam even counts. I haven't actually tried refunding it yet, though, since a week of repeated failing has me certain that the gog version is going to fail ANY TIME NOW and I'll have to go back to trying to get Steam to work again.
Now I just have to figure out where 50gb of disk space went to -- I thought I uninstalled all the extra installations and attempts at installation but my disk is mysteriously 50gb smaller now. x.x
The game itself is kind of mesmerizing. I think I played 20 hours of it over the weekend? SOMEHOW. I didn't even think there *were* 20 hours in a weekend. The way the game goes is, you get these mechs, see, and you have pilots that drive the mechs, and then you go fight other mechs and vehicles and stuff in a series of missions, most of which are procedurally generated.
Someone compared it to XCom, and it's not a completely wrong comparison? It's sort of in the same genre, except that the doom hanging over you between missions is the threat of going bankrupt and having the loan sharks foreclose on your space ship.
The actual combat is sort of like XCom if you didn't have cover, and instead had to run around at top speed every round to make yourself harder to hit, but still end up facing close enough to 'towards your enemies' to be able to fire. And you can fire all your weapons every round. And instead of 'reloading', you have to take a round off every now and then to cool down before your mech overheats, because overheating damages the structure and you'll have to pay to fix it after the battle. And instead of waking up a 'pod' of enemies that immediately run for cover, you'll get within sensor range of them and then go into phased combat mode until the blips are close enough to actually see.
The biggest difference is probably that you don't have grenades. No AoE at all! D8
Interesting moments:
On a scripted mission: "Watch out for those vehicle blips, they're SRM carriers. Don't let them get close!"
Me: "Oh, some Strikers? Those aren't so bad." *accidentally lets one get close*
SRM carrier: *fires* *fires some more* *keeps firing* *OH MY GOD STOP FIRING ALREADY* *keeps firing some more* *fires the rest of its missiles*
Dekker: "That shot went internal!" ... yes. Yes it did. After stripping off every last shred of armor from every section except the head. HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?
Later on, on a random mission... Dekker finally met his end. His mech was pretty beat up so I had him hiding behind a rock sensor-locking people for my mechs that weren't about to die. I'd just managed to blow both side torsos off an Orion and knock it down to kill the pilot (letting me salvage the whole thing) and all that was left was a single, beat-up Spider... which ran through my entire force to perch on top of the rock and shoot him.
He lived! This is where I should have had him eject. Instead, I had him run away and brace -- a spider's pitiful weapons shouldn't have been able to kill him. So... the spider did a Death From Above and managed to hit his center torso. RIP Dekker.
That was the last time I brought a Vindicator into combat. Those things are death traps.
*sigh* Later on I lost Medusa in basically the same way... she was really beat up and I had her try to hide instead of ejecting, and the enemies chased her down and blew up her mech. I don't think I like that getting your mech blown up automatically kills you -- it's not how it worked in the lore from anything I've seen. I mean, there's a reason you're in the head and not sitting right next to the reactor.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you have someone heavily damaged enough that you're having them go and hide, maaaybe you should have them just eject instead. Even though it means buying a new head for the mech. Heads are cheaper than torsos anyway.
Also, buy the game. It's fun. n.n
So, yeah. I backed it on kickstarter, and when it finally came out they gave me a Steam key which... didn't work. Steam couldn't finish installing it, and Steam support is utterly useless and claimed it was a network issue despite other steam games installing without problems *simultaneously*. I was able to install it using the Paradox launcher, but the release version had some issues that made it kind of... not work on certain peoples' machines. Including mine. And the Paradox launcher never updated with the new patches because apparently it's someone's side-project or something and in eternal beta.
After a week I was desperate enough to buy another copy on GOG.com and... well... that worked without a hitch. And has kept working since. KNOCK ON WOOD. This isn't quite as insane as it sounds since I should be able to refund the Steam version, since I have a total of around two hours of 'play time' consisting of repeatedly loading to the main menu where it would then fail to start the actual game -- and that's on the Paradox launcher version which I don't think Steam even counts. I haven't actually tried refunding it yet, though, since a week of repeated failing has me certain that the gog version is going to fail ANY TIME NOW and I'll have to go back to trying to get Steam to work again.
Now I just have to figure out where 50gb of disk space went to -- I thought I uninstalled all the extra installations and attempts at installation but my disk is mysteriously 50gb smaller now. x.x
The game itself is kind of mesmerizing. I think I played 20 hours of it over the weekend? SOMEHOW. I didn't even think there *were* 20 hours in a weekend. The way the game goes is, you get these mechs, see, and you have pilots that drive the mechs, and then you go fight other mechs and vehicles and stuff in a series of missions, most of which are procedurally generated.
Someone compared it to XCom, and it's not a completely wrong comparison? It's sort of in the same genre, except that the doom hanging over you between missions is the threat of going bankrupt and having the loan sharks foreclose on your space ship.
The actual combat is sort of like XCom if you didn't have cover, and instead had to run around at top speed every round to make yourself harder to hit, but still end up facing close enough to 'towards your enemies' to be able to fire. And you can fire all your weapons every round. And instead of 'reloading', you have to take a round off every now and then to cool down before your mech overheats, because overheating damages the structure and you'll have to pay to fix it after the battle. And instead of waking up a 'pod' of enemies that immediately run for cover, you'll get within sensor range of them and then go into phased combat mode until the blips are close enough to actually see.
The biggest difference is probably that you don't have grenades. No AoE at all! D8
Interesting moments:
On a scripted mission: "Watch out for those vehicle blips, they're SRM carriers. Don't let them get close!"
Me: "Oh, some Strikers? Those aren't so bad." *accidentally lets one get close*
SRM carrier: *fires* *fires some more* *keeps firing* *OH MY GOD STOP FIRING ALREADY* *keeps firing some more* *fires the rest of its missiles*
Dekker: "That shot went internal!" ... yes. Yes it did. After stripping off every last shred of armor from every section except the head. HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?
Later on, on a random mission... Dekker finally met his end. His mech was pretty beat up so I had him hiding behind a rock sensor-locking people for my mechs that weren't about to die. I'd just managed to blow both side torsos off an Orion and knock it down to kill the pilot (letting me salvage the whole thing) and all that was left was a single, beat-up Spider... which ran through my entire force to perch on top of the rock and shoot him.
He lived! This is where I should have had him eject. Instead, I had him run away and brace -- a spider's pitiful weapons shouldn't have been able to kill him. So... the spider did a Death From Above and managed to hit his center torso. RIP Dekker.
That was the last time I brought a Vindicator into combat. Those things are death traps.
*sigh* Later on I lost Medusa in basically the same way... she was really beat up and I had her try to hide instead of ejecting, and the enemies chased her down and blew up her mech. I don't think I like that getting your mech blown up automatically kills you -- it's not how it worked in the lore from anything I've seen. I mean, there's a reason you're in the head and not sitting right next to the reactor.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you have someone heavily damaged enough that you're having them go and hide, maaaybe you should have them just eject instead. Even though it means buying a new head for the mech. Heads are cheaper than torsos anyway.
Also, buy the game. It's fun. n.n
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Date: 2018-05-09 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-09 07:49 pm (UTC)