MechWarrior 5: Clans Announced

[Dragon Cat]

Do targeting computers actually do anything?  I haven't noticed a difference for having one or not.

I see no use for the same with ECM and Active Probe at least in MW5M you saw the bubble your ECM covered I didn't notice a difference

It sounds brutal, I had watch a play through by Mage Leader on youtube. He pretty brunt about how it went; high and lows.  Use the Mech XP to buy the OmniPods first, make sure to pay attention to the Science Lab, pilot skills with exception of evade were not as important.

He ended up using Dire Wolves in end try get though later fights, which reminds me how MW1 was when you had face off against BattleMasters at the game's final scripted fight.

It's weird I've played games and lost my entire star one play through them the very next replay got through it with everyone still up, it's certainly not the same every play through and how you play does effect the outcome

Thus far (finishing turtle Bay at the moment)

Unlocked Hellbringer it needs more armour on it (which is really easy to do)
ER lasers are better than pulse
ERPPCs are awesome but heat is mental
LRMs are fun but don't have enough impact
ACs make a lot of bangs (haven't used biggest yet)
Gauss Shadow Cat is lethal in AIs hands
Firestarters are brutal in close (overheating is not fun)

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

It's very weird that you have to research slug rounds for autocannons.

[Luciora]

The Scientist Caste is definitely the Clans Comstar, keeping them in check. 

It's very weird that you have to research slug rounds for autocannons.

[MarauderD]

I've noticed that your Starmates can quickly and easily focus down any one target.  Most engagements it takes them about as long to down a Mech as it takes me to solo one, so between the F1 spam and my pulse laser vomit, things go down 2 at a time.

Still running a Twolf with 8 or 9 Medium Pulse Lasers.  Have two Warhawks and two more Twolfs as star mates. 

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The awkwardness of having to toggle between different TICs has led me to only choose mech loadouts that have three weapon groups and avoid anything with a larger loadout than that.

Fortunately, there aren't a lot of mechs where you really need to do that.

I've also noticed that the companion AI seems to be even stupider than it was in Mercenaries.  Your starmates absolutely will not spread out in combat so they're much better at blocking your shots or your movement.

[MarauderD]

The awkwardness of having to toggle between different TICs has led me to only choose mech loadouts that have three weapon groups and avoid anything with a larger loadout than that.

Fortunately, there aren't a lot of mechs where you really need to do that.

I've also noticed that the companion AI seems to be even stupider than it was in Mercenaries.  Your starmates absolutely will not spread out in combat so they're much better at blocking your shots or your movement.

I've noticed using F1, then pointing at a spot and using F3 (defend this location) helps avoid that problem.  Sometimes it is hard to know when to use it, but generally setting your team up in geographic location then sitting on a flank is the best way to avoid getting shot by your starmates and also avoiding having them stroll in front of you while you are alphaing away at someone.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I've tried that, but it tends to result in them sitting somewhere uselessly too often.

[Colt Ward]

I was hoping that the Clans expansion would offer your merc command a chance to face them during the Invasion in the same sand-box type environment of MW5's other content- like the Ronin War.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Would have been interesting, but that would have been an enormous expansion.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Oh wow.  Morgan Kell was given the absolute goofiest accent.

[Wrangler]

Given how it plays I would think game would be a good experience for console players, though no mods would be possible however

[Dragon Cat]

I'm certainly enjoying it on Xbox Series X runs great

I got the Timber Wolf

[Caedis Animus]

It's very weird that you have to research slug rounds for autocannons.

For Ultras, slugs are downright broken.

You can dump out 3+ 20 damage shells in less than a second if you've got a quick trigger finger. Melts torso armor.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Well, I beat it.  Not like this game has any real surprises or plot twists- it's one of the most storied parts of Battletech lore, after all.  Overall a good game, but the linear nature of it inhibits replay value compared to MW5 Mercenaries.  Will have to see what sort of DLC gets released for it.  There are some things I'd talk about but will avoid doing so owing to the forum's lack of functioning spoiler tags.

[Apocal]

Well, I've made it to Turtle Bay and I have to say, it feels like Clan Smoke Jaguar is full of nice reasonable people... and also Cordera Perez, who's definitely a guy who'd blow up a city because he got mad.

I actually like it as a take on CSJ that isn't "we're all mustache-twirling evil"* because you can really see how there are people who believe in the ideal -- the way of the Clans -- and at the same time see how the Clans could develop a culture that pushed people towards personality like that. Or filtered them; just the cutscenes with how saKhan Sarah Weaver treats Star Colonel Emilie Wimmer made it clear that the sort of no-compromise, aggressive attitude leadership is not just standard but encouraged as one goes higher, at least in CSJ. And that in turn is passed down to her subordinates.

Imagine years of professional development under someone who would choke the ****** out of you for accepting responsibility for the failures of your command...

As for the game, I was disappointed but not surprised that PGI went with the "just drop more at them" angle for increasing difficulty, rather than making the mech combat more complicated and lethal. I get people don't want to play Mechwarrior (or any big robot product) as a cover shooter but having my Star taking down the better chunk of a full IS mech battalion was a bit much. It also meant they had to leave ammo boxes and repair stations around, even in places where it strained my suspension of disbelief. If nothing else, I'd expect the enemy to use them.

They also decided to cave into fear so I never once used my night vision. The night maps were bright enough to see just fine without it an the extreme weather didn't gut visibility it could have.

The gameplay isn't bad but I really wish they either used the composer from MW2 or HBSTech. The music wasn't bad but for a product that was trying to ape MW2, the music was a key part of that experience.

[Dragon Cat]

The problem with not fighting a mini battalion of enemies and not having ammo and repair bays is your mission would be just stand up scenarios of you against a couple of lances of enemies... It may as well all be instant action games (which doesn't work for a computer game)

I know how BattleTech works, I know how it's played, as a game based on the universe I can forgive the licence taken with enemy numbers etc. I'm not fan of the boss fights but again it's a licence taken because it's a game

[Alan Grant]

It's a game with 1 mode of play, BattleMech combat. That shoehorns you into having to create more BattleMech combat in order to do stuff. That means coughing up more 'mechs and vehicles to fight, at a minimum.

Compare that to a Battletech novel or maybe even an RPG game, where maybe the characters also do stuff outside the cockpit, you have a broader array of options for scenes, storytelling and play. You can run around on foot, investigate, have conversations with different characters, get into shoot-outs and fist fights. Get into car chases, float around in a space suit.

And I'm not talking about the cutscenes, I mean actual gameplay.

When the gameplay is 100% about BattleMech combat, your solution to every play situation is more BattleMech combat.

It is, what it is. But that's the WHY behind the game revolving around you having to wreck a truly tremendous number of opposing BattleMechs and vehicles.

In this game BattleMech combat is the cowbell. The solution to everything is more cowbell. (If you know you know, if you don't know the reference, ignore this, old joke)

Now an argument that there could have been more variety of BattleMech combat. Situations that required night vision, underwater, in space, (and probably some other BattleMech combat situations I haven't thought of) that as a critique of the game I can understand.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Wait, there was an actual night-vision mode in Clans?

[Colt Ward]

Well, Clan stars did destroy IS mech battalions even with some armor support.

[Dragon Cat]

Wait, there was an actual night-vision mode in Clans?

Not a usable one I've seen although it appears to change the screen a bit if it's darker it's by no means a night-vision mode

[Apocal]

When the gameplay is 100% about BattleMech combat, your solution to every play situation is more BattleMech combat.

It is, what it is. But that's the WHY behind the game revolving around you having to wreck a truly tremendous number of opposing BattleMechs and vehicles.

In this game BattleMech combat is the cowbell. The solution to everything is more cowbell. (If you know you know, if you don't know the reference, ignore this, old joke)

Now an argument that there could have been more variety of BattleMech combat. Situations that required night vision, underwater, in space, (and probably some other BattleMech combat situations I haven't thought of) that as a critique of the game I can understand.

The problem with not fighting a mini battalion of enemies and not having ammo and repair bays is your mission would be just stand up scenarios of you against a couple of lances of enemies... It may as well all be instant action games (which doesn't work for a computer game)

My argument is that they didn't make fighting another mech particularly difficult at all. This was something that even MechWarrior 2 did better, because even with that absolutely horrible AI (the only thing it ever did was close to short range and circle to your right) facing a full lance/star was legitimately difficult. There were other factors in play -- UACs did insane damage, for one -- but when a product almost three decades in the past manages to do better, maybe the problem isn't in fundamental design and more what they chose to prioritize.

I wouldn't harp on it as much, but PGI was trying call back to MechWarrior 2, where it was relatively slower paced and more flight sim-esque (remember the vertical velocity indicator and external camera options?) yet didn't think to raise the difficulty of individual enemies? Or how to make an ambush an actual effective ambush?

Wait, there was an actual night-vision mode in Clans?

It is just an early 2000s FPS-style green filter setting. You can safely ignore it.

[tassa_kay]

I was genuinely hype for this, but I just can't bring myself to finish it. The core characters are incredibly bland and generic (beyond Sarah Weaver and Cordera Perez, everyone just acted like Generic Clanners; there was no sense of who the Smoke Jaguars were as a Clan), the voice acting for about half the cast needed some serious work, the AI was a joke (we're playing characters literally from the ToP and there's no zellbrigen, c'mon), and I think the Super-VTOLs-as-boss-fights were where I just threw up my hands and set the game aside. That said, the WarShips were absolutely fantastic to see.

[Apocal]

I was genuinely hype for this, but I just can't bring myself to finish it. The core characters are incredibly bland and generic (beyond Sarah Weaver and Cordera Perez, everyone just acted like Generic Clanners;

That's odd, I thought that Weaver, Perez and Wimmer acted like typical clan warriors -- albeit not mustache-twirling villains -- but one of the most common complaints about the main cast is that they didn't. They acted more like characters in a YA novel. Not really an issue for me but a lot of people I've spoken with didn't like it.

They do get more development later in the game though.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

One thing that's minor but I still found offputting was that they have a character with EI neural implants but when they're inside their mech they're still shown wearing a neurohelmet.

[warriorsoul]

My argument is that they didn't make fighting another mech particularly difficult at all. This was something that even MechWarrior 2 did better, because even with that absolutely horrible AI (the only thing it ever did was close to short range and circle to your right) facing a full lance/star was legitimately difficult. There were other factors in play -- UACs did insane damage, for one -- but when a product almost three decades in the past manages to do better, maybe the problem isn't in fundamental design and more what they chose to prioritize.

I wouldn't harp on it as much, but PGI was trying call back to MechWarrior 2, where it was relatively slower paced and more flight sim-esque (remember the vertical velocity indicator and external camera options?) yet didn't think to raise the difficulty of individual enemies? Or how to make an ambush an actual effective ambush?

It is just an early 2000s FPS-style green filter setting. You can safely ignore it.

 That's my problem with it. I've beat the game on Expert now without any major issues other than an actual game glitch on "The Golden Forge" and my biggest complaint is that the missions simply run on far, far too long because Russ decided to just keep chucking more enemies at the player.

 It honestly just gets tiresome after a while, and it tends to make encounters forgettable because it's just you wading through oceans of Inner Sphere 'mechs. After a while it starts to feel like you're the Doomslayer, not a Mechwarrior lol

[Alan Grant]

I think they should have focused instead to making AIs that would occasionally just retreat or hit and fade. More dynamic fights through more dynamic AI programming.

That way they maybe could have achieved much the same thing with fewer waves of 'mechs. The fights you did have would have probably lasted longer. Because once they got to point blank range that fight tends to be over in seconds one way or another.

I'm mentally comparing these fights with AI to fights against players on a game like Mechwarrior Online, how some players would hold ground, fall back, suddenly change position and try to flank you etc. I would agree that the game could have been dramatically improved by fighting opponents who just used a more diverse range of tactics and maneuvers. I know it wouldn't be as sophisticated as fighting humans, but I think even a few pre-programmed "maneuvers" like this wave will initially push at you, but then fall back to this nav point, then move to that nav point that is a lateral move across the probable battlefield, all the while shooting at you, then it would move to that nav point behind a hill and so possibly pop up again on your flank (yet another nav point)... some really simplistic and even pre-programmed AI maneuvers could have created a bit more of the illusion of a more complex enemy mind.

When I really think about it, once triggered, they mostly just charged at you. That did get very repetitive and predictable.

 
On the characters/voices etc. Some of the later campaign cutscenes were better (along with some of the in-mission dialogue). Still not great, but better. I felt like we were finally seeing some real character development that was getting really interesting, basically right close to and at the climax of the campaign story. Those last few missions.

It was like watching a series on Netflix where there are 10 episodes, and the first 9 are a snooze or just aren't that great. Episode 10 has you thinking "this is finally getting interesting" and it's over. For me it wasn't QUITE as bad as that, but with the full benefit of hindsight now, it reminds me of that. Which has definitely happened a few times with shows that I thought I'd really like.

Don't get me wrong, overall, I still give the game a thumbs up and would recommend. I did enjoy it overall. But I've played games that I view as true masterpieces, and this wasn't that.

[Fire Scorpion IIC]

One thing that's minor but I still found offputting was that they have a character with EI neural implants but when they're inside their mech they're still shown wearing a neurohelmet.

Aren't helmets part of the pilot cooling system?

[ColBosch]

Aren't helmets part of the pilot cooling system?

And I'd still like something to protect my brainmeats in combat.

[Agathos]

Finished it yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot, especially considering my muted expectations. Smarter AI would be nice but this is PGI we're talking about. It was honestly thrilling to see some of the big story beats "in person."

[MarauderD]

That's my problem with it. I've beat the game on Expert now without any major issues other than an actual game glitch on "The Golden Forge" and my biggest complaint is that the missions simply run on far, far too long because Russ decided to just keep chucking more enemies at the player.

What is the difference between expert and normal?  Is it noticable?