Ach, the legendary series' most conflicted child
I'm not sure what the console remapping situation looks like, but I'm pretty sure I had both Center Torso to Legs and Center Legs to Torso bindings when I played it on my PC setup.TransatlanticFoe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 10:27 pm Still they fixed it with the update.... and they decided to rip out the incredibly useful button to centre the torso to the direction you're looking, and replace it with melee button. Which might be truer to Battletech but hasn't been in a Mechwarrior game up to now (well not directly, previously you applied melee-like damage by running into another mech), so whyyyyyy.
Yeah, the plot was pretty weak, and the cast a bit too plain to make up for it. Nothing so characterful as Spectre taking Star Colonel Aisa Thastus as a bondsman in MW4M; She might be a vicious clan marauder, but now she's our vicious clan marauderTransatlanticFoe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 10:27 pmI think it could have done with a more interesting story than "hunt down the group that killed your father" - which is pretty much the plot of the ye olde SNES Mechwarrior game!
I suspect it had a stronger identity at some point in development, but ended up getting dialed back for final release; there's some cut content floating around that suggests Ryana was going to be older and more rugged - a proper vet who you could see Mason taking orders from, rather than the clean and inoffensive manager we ended up getting.
They made the mistake of going all-in on procedural fluff for the base game and gradually expanding it with proper designed campaigns over time, which has the unfortunate side-effect of all the systems being specialized around generative content. Even several expansions later, the exciting authored parts don't feel well-integrated.TransatlanticFoe wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 10:27 pm Anyway huge nostalgia from the moment the mech startup sequence kicks in, right to scraping through a mission and barely able to afford repairs. Though a drawback is I would have preferred non-story missions (mandatory to get cash, mechs and level up to unlock story missions) more accurately reflect in-universe events. A news ticker keeps you informed of events while you're generally just doing one of a handful of objective types over and over, on randomly generated maps - but is kept interesting by the random mechs you face and some multi-mission contracts. There are some tougher missions with more of a storyline to them, but they're often punishingly difficult compared to what's around them - so are usually more of a "come back later" than use them for more interesting progression, which is a shame. Still the gameplay loop is satisfying as long as you move around the galaxy a bit and stretch yourself - otherwise you'd be slowly gaining money fighting the same set of mechs, with the same set of mechs. Nothing like grinding levels but not having heavy enough mechs to handle later missions!
A lot of it has been improved by the modding scene on PC; new maps, new mission types, massively improved AI and spawning, comprehensive mechbay with a bunch of cut features from the old games, even the gorgeous 3D cockpit HUD from the prerelease trailers and full-on VR.
But alas, the system design casts a shadow there too; every time a new expansion comes out, they make wide breaking changes to the codebase and nothing works anymore. Mod authors have to update to stay compatible and - inevitably - only some of them will. Some really awesome stuff (like the aforementioned 3D HUD) has been lost to time over the game's lifespan.
Which is why I call it the conflicted child; on paper it has the potential to be the best game in the series by virtue of modern tech, moddability, and an audience of enthusiasts willing to faithfully rebuild the whole Battletech-verse in it given enough time. But it's been dragged out for so long that the scene hasn't been able to settle on a stable version and really start chiseling.
I'll probably get back to it again sometimes, once it's percolated some more. Despite the flaws, stomping around in a giant walking tank is always great fun.