Battletech (PC) - Heavy Metal expansion released (p21)

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Chillreaper**

Mr Morden wrote:
Voss wrote:
Yeah, well. That's the other big secret of Battletech. Battlemechs are actually the worst option of the setting's available weapon platforms, once you open the field to combined arms.

Not a secret if you are playing the game and run into a SRM carrier or two and it fires first :(

I once read somewhere that someone postulated that SRM carriers don't actually have SRM launchers mounted on them. Instead they have wormhole generators that open a wormhole to an alternate SRM universe. The portal opens and the SRMs just flow through into our universe, seemed like a fairly accurate theory to me...

**Ouze**

Voss wrote:
Yeah, well. That's the other big secret of Battletech. Battlemechs are actually the worst option of the setting's available weapon platforms, once you open the field to combined arms.

When I played Mechwarrior Clix (which admittedly is a very loose interpretation of Battletech), my favorite units were most certainly not actual mechs for sure. There was some VTOL flyer that was the most absolutely savage beater and would actually do more damage once it had taken some, and I also loved artillery (like Long Toms). My friends hated the artillery, but it was so useful tactically I never understood why they never used it: since you placed blast markers and the shells took a turn to arrive, the opposing mechs were forced, every single turn, to either stay and fire all weapons (and take arty hits) or move, and do less damage and maybe generate heat and damage.

Mechwarrior Clix was actually a super fun game. At the same time I ordered my 40K starter set, we got the MW Clix starters to pass the time while I got them painted up, and we found that MW Clix was generally more fun to actually play than 40k - fast, easy, fun, with tons of tactical options and a minimum of tedium. I wish it had not gotten discontinued.

Anyway now that Urban Warfare is out, time to start that. I should probably just buy the season pass.

**H.B.M.C.**

New expansion announced!

So, from that video we learn that we are getting 8 new 'Mechs:

Flea (a more different but equally useless Locust - would'a preferred a Valkyrie)
Vulcan (why? Wouldn't a Whitworth make more sense?)
Assassin (ok?)
Phoenix Hawk (yay!)
Rifleman (

)
Archer (

x2)
Bullshark (95-tons)
Annihilator (whoa...)

The Bullshark is a new design, and a 95-ton Assault 'Mech equipped with COIL Lasers, which are new, and a frickin' Thumper Artillery cannon!

Also included in the update are tons of lore-breaking weapons, including Snub-Nosed PPCs, the full suites of UAC and LB-X autocannons, and TAGs (for the Thumper, no doubt), plus other new things like the aforementioned COIL guns, and Narcs and Inferno missiles.

Also the Warhammer and Marauder are coming to everyone in a free patch.

Also mod support will be included in this update.

**Voss**

Huh. I guess the Paradox buyout had an effect. The early days were filled with 'we have one of the original devs, adhering to the lore and the timeline is one of our #1 priorities.'

But 8 mechs and few weapons? That's yet another really thin skin of content for another wildly overpriced dlc.

Those are really poor choices on the light and 40 ton end, but I'm not surprised. Phoenix Hawk can be functional once you strip it down and rebuild it, though their slot system will keep it a fairly predictable laser boat.

**Chillreaper**

Well, that's a nice line up of mechs, but do we need a completely new one?

I'd be perfectly happy with the mechs, sans the Bullshark and the sudden appearance of all this Lostech/experimental stuff. I can understand the Annihilator if Wolf's Dragoons pop up, but not if every five star mission that you do has you up against them.

If the Great Houses didn't have this stuff, what's it doing in Butthole, Hicksville? I know that the original story pushed the line with the tech but I could just about cope with that.

**beast_gts**

Download patch & load game - 3 Atlas & 2 Highlanders for sale...

This could be interesting...

**Mr Morden**

Thte last update was a bust for me - had to roll back - hope this one has fixed the issues - otherwise looks like a lot of good stuff!

**beast_gts**

I've only installed the 1.8 patch (via Steam), not Heavy Metal. All the stores seem to have more stuff available now (in Career mode) - including far too much LosTech.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I now have two Gauss Rifle ++s, but no ammo.

**Ouze**

Voss wrote:
But 8 mechs and few weapons? That's yet another really thin skin of content for another wildly overpriced dlc.

~~At $20 I'd agree, but it's half off right now on steam. For $10, it's not so bad.~~ This is incorrect, I misread the chart.

**beast_gts**

Ouze wrote:
Voss wrote:
But 8 mechs and few weapons? That's yet another really thin skin of content for another wildly overpriced dlc.

At $20 I'd agree, but it's half off right now on steam. For $10, it's not so bad.

£15.49 in the UK - and don't forget the "NEW FLASHPOINT MINI-CAMPAIGN"

**Overread**

It shouldn't be half off already - that's the other DLC that's half off on Steam.

**Talizvar**

I can say I am a bit of a historian when it comes to Battletech, pretty much played them all since "Crescent Hawk's Inception" (1988!).
I have not got the Heavy Metal expansion yet but I have all the rest.

New mech chassis and new weapons are a very welcome edition, I REALLY hope they manage to round-out all the funky weapons in Battle-tech (Arrow IV system or C3 network?).
The good thing with all the modding going on we could have an Arrow system since we have area effect weapons now.
I always liked the Phoenix-Hawk (Super Veritech??) just the look of it, so I am happy.
Disappointing that the classic "Warhammer" or "Marauder" could not make an appearance, back in the Mechwarrior early days they were the go-to chassis.

I suppose we could "never" be happy but the game sure does scratch the itch for stomping mech combat that I dare-say is more enjoyable than the tabletop "boardgame".

Some reach goals:

1) Start seeing some Clan stuff appearing here or there.
2) Protomechs
3) Infantry
4) A deeper dive into the "fluff" of the universe: Starleague, Comstar, Word of Blake.

Anyway, I will have to download and see.

**beast_gts**

Talizvar wrote:
Disappointing that the classic "Warhammer" or "Marauder" could not make an appearance, back in the Mechwarrior early days they were the go-to chassis.

I don't think the Unseen situation will ever be resolved. I have run into one of the new Marauders as an opponent and it is recognisable as a Marauder - and damn tough as well!

**Ouze**

Overread wrote:
It shouldn't be half off already - that's the other DLC that's half off on Steam.

You're right, I misread the chart. Thanks!

**Sterling191**

Talizvar wrote:

Some reach goals:

1) Start seeing some Clan stuff appearing here or there.
2) Protomechs
3) Infantry
4) A deeper dive into the "fluff" of the universe: Starleague, Comstar, Word of Blake.

There isn't going to be a timeline shift in this game. Any Clan, Star League, Jihad or Dark Age entries from HBS will occur in separate standalone games. Ditto for feature advancements. Heavy Metal is the end of the product cycle for this game. We'll likely get a few QoL updates, but anything beyond that is sequel content.

**Voss**

Overread wrote:
It shouldn't be half off already - that's the other DLC that's half off on Steam.

If you get the season pass 'bundle,' it comes really close. It adds an additional percentage off, and drops all three down to 45%, about $33 rather than $60.
It may not be as good if you already bought the earlier dlc individually (though, the season pass was discounted at launch, and repeatedly in various sales, so I have no idea why anyone would do that), but if you're buying them right now its a pretty good deal. Or rather changes the dlc as a whole to a reasonable price.

-----
Decided to take the dive and get it, and go into the campaign, which I never finished (mostly because of the writing). Some interesting mission changes, though I've no idea what dlc they belong to. Some have severe difficultly problems- had an attack and defend at 1.5 difficulty, that didn't tell me I'd be facing 4 waves of lances (with a hidden fifth wave) during the mission. It did tell me I should target the enemy base to end early, but all the enemies spawned at the foot of my base, so that was non-viable. Ended up with a lot of damage that's taking forever to fix (as I'm still in the leopard and a single blown arm is a month).

Came across a Marauder on another 1.5 difficulty mission. Much easier, because it involved an allied lance, who unfortunately CT shot the marauder. But it showing up at all was a nice moment, I'll admit.

Got to say, the new mechs are significantly better than the existing ones. The specialty systems really make a huge difference.

**H.B.M.C.**

The unseen thing was resolved recently. That's why the Warhammer and Marauder are in the game.

That's why the Warhammer, Marauder and other Unseen designs are coming back looking far more like they originally did than ever before (certainly more than the Project Phoenix stuff).

**Ouze**

Ok, kind of a dumb question. With the various Steam sales going on, Urban Combat is $10.

I haven't actually bought any of the DLCs for this. How do the DLCs for this game work exactly? I beat the campaign - does it appear as a new campaign, or does it streamline into the existing one, or do you beat the campaign and then do a DLC? If so, what order, does it matter?

**H.B.M.C.**

If you're doing the campaign, then the Flashpoint things won't show up until after you complete the story.

If you're just doing career mode sans the whole story, then they'll show up on the map from time to time.

**Lord Perversor**

Ouze wrote:
Ok, kind of a dumb question. With the various Steam sales going on, Urban Combat is $10.

I haven't actually bought any of the DLCs for this. How do the DLCs for this game work exactly? I beat the campaign - does it appear as a new campaign, or does it streamline into the existing one, or do you beat the campaign and then do a DLC? If so, what order, does it matter?

DLC for Battletech are Addons to the whole core of the game, they add missions, events, Mechs and Biomes for the game wich it's mostly a Sandbox where you start with a merc company and you go from planet to planet doing missions and upgrading your lance.

So far aside the Main Campaign wich is a bonus aside the Sandbox part there is nothing else at least on the Horizon.

**Voss**

Ouze wrote:
Ok, kind of a dumb question. With the various Steam sales going on, Urban Combat is $10.

I haven't actually bought any of the DLCs for this. How do the DLCs for this game work exactly? I beat the campaign - does it appear as a new campaign, or does it streamline into the existing one, or do you beat the campaign and then do a DLC? If so, what order, does it matter?

HBMC covered the latter bit well, but I'd point out that buying Urban Combat (or any of them individually) is a bad idea. They're way overpriced for what they bring to the game. When bundled and discounted they aren't bad, but I wouldn't recommend buying them any other way. There is a season pass bundle* on the store page which cuts the earlier ones below half and discounts heavy metal as well.

*steam bundles are weird. They offer discounts then slap another discount on top of the total. They're almost always worth checking, but sometimes you have to know they exist and/or double check the store page for the main game and not the dlc page..

**H.B.M.C.**

And there just happens to be a Steam sale on now...

**Ouze**

OK, thanks - I bought the season pass.

Now trying to decide what to prioritize what I want to play from the most recent Steam sale. Decisions, decisions....

**Elbows**

The absolute best deal right now is for people who don't own the game, the $33 "everything released so far" bundle is superb...and a bigger discount than the season pass, oddly.

I was tempted by the sale, but had my "play Battletech for a month" a while ago, so it'll be another while before I dive back in - so I'll wait for the next Steam Sale.

**Overread**

I've seen that before where an "all in" bundle deal ends up better than the season pass during steam sales and the like. It's the way percentage discounts are calculated that can throw up things like that. However its also true that most season passes tend to have a limited ilfespan and after the last DLC is out they can devalue and become a more expensive option than discount sales on the individual options.

**H.B.M.C.**

The final patch has arrived, and with it a lot of new 'Mech variants and colour-blind support:

LIVE - BATTLETECH 1.9 Update Release Notes

Thank you for playing BATTLETECH! Release 1.9 is now available on Steam, GOG, Humble, and Paradox Plaza. The main areas of improvement are: ‘Mech and vehicle variants, gameplay options, Convoy AI, and mod support.

Release 1.9 Notes, 2/20/2020

‘Mech Variants
Trebuchet TBT-7K
Grand Dragon DRG-1G
Warhammer WHM-7A
Marauder MAD-2R
Marauder MAD-3D
Zeus ZEU-5T
Zeus ZEU-6T
BattleMaster BLR-1GB
BattleMaster BLR-1S
Crab CRB-27b
Cyclops CP-10-HQ
Javelin JVN-10A
Raven RVN-3X
Cataphract CTF-0X
Phoenix Hawk PXH-1b
Rifleman RFL-4D

Vehicle Variants
Striker Narc
Scorpion Mk.II
Schrek Snub PPC Carrier
Galleon TAG
Demolisher LBX
Inferno Carrier
Arvakr APC
Alsvin APC

Gameplay Options
Added a Career Mode Difficulty Setting that allows players to reduce Argo upgrade costs
Added a Settings option that allows players to speed up the real-world time it takes for an in-game day to pass
Added a Settings option to assist those with color blindness allowing them to select alternate LOS lines and indirect fire colors

Mod Support
The mod installation folder is now configurable
The ModLoader is now patchable
Added more Dynamic Enumerations
Added more logging and error reporting
DLC checks have been added to ModDef
The ModLoader is now easier to use
Fixed many other mod support related bugs
Added several mod support quality of life improvements

Convoy AI
Fixed some long-range and short-range pathfinding issues
Escort vehicles can now move through the player’s ‘Mechs and each other
Killing the entire OpFor now auto-completes escort missions

Other
A new ammo tab is now in stores and the ‘Mech Bay
Half-ton machine gun ammo is now available
+/++ variants of machine guns are now available
Fixed an issue that prevented some players from being able to delete their GOG saves=

Known Issues (to be fixed asap)
The debug console, build number widget, and combat debug options cannot be evoked when using their corresponding shortcut combinations
Under certain circumstances the game does not exit cleanly after saving

**Voss**

Looks like they finally, finally created a 'fix' for the Day 1 convoy escort mission bug where one vehicle just stops and doesn't move to the exit zone.

And by fix, I mean they force exit after the OpFor is destroyed and turned off collision between friendly models.

Had that bug in my first playthrough and my again in my heavy metal playthrough a couple months back. Aggravating, and a sloppy workaround to finally put it to bed.

**Overread**

I'm only sad that they are moving on and not making more mechs for the game :( I just hope that they return to the game and make a sequel that can take a step further and include the Clan Mechs. That would double the mech count very quickly

**Mr Morden**

I like it now to see i this patch will work as the last few would not :(

**Voss**

Overread wrote:
I'm only sad that they are moving on and not making more mechs for the game :( I just hope that they return to the game and make a sequel that can take a step further and include the Clan Mechs. That would double the mech count very quickly

Clan mechs have been a big speculation thing since the Kickstarter. Personally I don't think it would work very well unless they did it from the Clan side (Or do a game solely based around pre-invasion Clan infighting, or the test run invasions of some very little known Deep Periphery 'kingdoms').

Clan mechs as the player's force works a lot better with their single lance design than the opposite. At least that way, the Clan bidding system gives some logic to the small combat team, and deals better with routinely being outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1.
If, in any game against the Clans, the Clans have a numerical advantage over the Inner Sphere forces, its a laughable slaughter (especially early on) and a background failure. The fact that they were handing out lostech like candy in this game was bad enough, especially in such a backwards area of the periphery, AND pre-Grey Death cache.

As for the Mech count, any advancement in the timeline brings more mechs. Though IMO, the designs get worse and less recognizable as the timeline moves on.