The board game sucks

[Mr Fantastic]

Nonsense rules and the moment you pick a piece you have to commit.

Were they even trying?

[ggsnake]

I'm an absolute fan of board games and other mini games (e.g, gwent), however I have to admit that Machine Strike really is not that great. The idea is good, but the implementation is rather lackluster.

- The rules are overly complicated
- Usability issues (can't drop down a piece once selected, can't hover over enemy pieces to see their stats at certain times where it's important, e.g. placement phase)
- Strategy issues: In a lot of setups the one who is attacking loses. The AI knows this and will deliberately not attack. If you also do not attack, the game goes on forever with no one attacking, forcing you to attack and lose.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Has there ever been a board game in a video game that's been any good? They're always just fillers.

[Midnight]

Another game breaking piece is the Slaughterspine. since it has 10 VP, you start the game with it moving and attacking twice per turn. At 3 move, 3 attack and 16 HP, you can do massive damage or hit and run tactics from the get go and you also have room for mistakes as well.

Also, I think you can start a game as long as you have 7VP or more. So if the Fireclaw has 7VP, you can just start the game with just that piece, making it move and attack twice per turn as well

[ggsnake]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Has there ever been a board game in a video game that's been any good? They're always just fillers.

Gwent in Witcher 3 was awesome, and even the board game in AC Valhalla (don't remember the name anymore) was pretty fun.

[longjohn119]

Yeah I think so too but since it is optional I don't really care one way or the other that it is in the game ..... I'm also skipping the arena and hunting grounds. In HZD there was some incentive to do at least 3 trials at the hunting grounds to open up the Hunter's Lodge questline but here it just doesn't seem to be at all necessary nor adds anything to the game unless you like those sorts of challenges.

[Midnight]

Originally posted by russell_john:

Yeah I think so too but since it is optional I don't really care one way or the other that it is in the game ..... I'm also skipping the arena and hunting grounds. In HZD there was some incentive to do at least 3 trials at the hunting grounds to open up the Hunter's Lodge questline but here it just doesn't seem to be at all necessary nor adds anything to the game unless you like those sorts of challenges.

Yeah you really should to the arena at least. Has some of the best gear in the game before Burning Shores or NG+. The hunting trials though I agree with as you only get a lousy tripcaster for getting full marks in every one of them...

[$$Billionaire Trash$$]

Originally posted by Ink Hyaena:

I hate the fact I have to play the board game for achievements lol. So many games are putting in this mechanic now and it's so unnecessary.

Achievements are unnecessary, but here we are. That said, the board game is pretty easy...

[Midnight]

Originally posted by Apollo:

Originally posted by ggsnake:

I'm an absolute fan of board games and other mini games (e.g, gwent), however I have to admit that Machine Strike really is not that great. The idea is good, but the implementation is rather lackluster.

- The rules are overly complicated
- Usability issues (can't drop down a piece once selected, can't hover over enemy pieces to see their stats at certain times where it's important, e.g. placement phase)
- Strategy issues: In a lot of setups the one who is attacking loses. The AI knows this and will deliberately not attack. If you also do not attack, the game goes on forever with no one attacking, forcing you to attack and lose.

It's really not that complicated, like at all. I have none of the problems you have.

Strike wasn't all that well designed for a M+KB player. If you use a controller, usability is fine

[TasmańskiZwierz]

Originally posted by ggsnake:

I'm an absolute fan of board games and other mini games (e.g, gwent), however I have to admit that Machine Strike really is not that great. The idea is good, but the implementation is rather lackluster.

- The rules are overly complicated
- Usability issues (can't drop down a piece once selected, can't hover over enemy pieces to see their stats at certain times where it's important, e.g. placement phase)
- Strategy issues: In a lot of setups the one who is attacking loses. The AI knows this and will deliberately not attack. If you also do not attack, the game goes on forever with no one attacking, forcing you to attack and lose.

You actually can drop piece once selected - just game fails to tell you so (UI design issue). In default keybind it's left CTRL. Found about it after longer while, searching reddit for answer, since it wouldn't be that much issue (like "once touched - have to move" rule in chess) if you could see all possibilities from a move before selecting, and, more important, if game wouldn't become nonresponsive time and time again and activate different piece than one you have mouse pointed at. Thankfully, you can abandon move, but, as I said, game says nothing about that (or hides it somewhere deep in glossary).

Also, I wouldn't say rules are overly complicated. In the essence, this game is just expanded chess. More pieces, height difference and few special interactions, but thats it. It LOOKS overcomplicated, but after you get used to it, you will see how fluid it is and how intuitive everything works. Actually, I'd want to see it as physical board game, as it's better than many dedicated titles I've seen in the past.

[Lunatic]

Can someone elaborate on how this is even an issue to people? What stops you from turning around and... idk... just not playing it then?

When someone here said "They shouldve just made it an optional DLC". What?
So should we also make Sidequests an Optional DLC, because some ppl may dislike sidequests?
Or better, let's make voicelines an optional DLC, because what about deaf people?

[TasmańskiZwierz]

Originally posted by Lunatic:

Can someone elaborate on how this is even an issue to people? What stops you from turning around and... idk... just not playing it then?

When someone here said "They shouldve just made it an optional DLC". What?
So should we also make Sidequests an Optional DLC, because some ppl may dislike sidequests?
Or better, let's make voicelines an optional DLC, because what about deaf people?

People get mad, because there are some skillpoints gatekeeped behind Strike games (those from victories against 3 different players on given difficulty. But so they are behind any other optional activity, AND you don't need to obtain literally every single skillpoint in game in order to complete it (as, unlike HZD, most will be spent to boost up Valor Surges, and you would rather stick to one/two builds per ng cycle instead of maxing everything out). And if you are completionist - I think it's nice to have something completly different to do inbetween runing around the world, as farming materials for upgrades of legendaries, and searching up for all those loose datapoints of "World" category can be truly maddening.

[Helifax]

I think too many people take "games and gaming as a job" :))
Nobody is forcing you to do something, if you don't want too!!! Jesus!!!

[ggsnake]

Originally posted by TasmańskiZwierz:

Originally posted by ggsnake:

I'm an absolute fan of board games and other mini games (e.g, gwent), however I have to admit that Machine Strike really is not that great. The idea is good, but the implementation is rather lackluster.

- The rules are overly complicated
- Usability issues (can't drop down a piece once selected, can't hover over enemy pieces to see their stats at certain times where it's important, e.g. placement phase)
- Strategy issues: In a lot of setups the one who is attacking loses. The AI knows this and will deliberately not attack. If you also do not attack, the game goes on forever with no one attacking, forcing you to attack and lose.

You actually can drop piece once selected - just game fails to tell you so (UI design issue). In default keybind it's left CTRL. Found about it after longer while, searching reddit for answer, since it wouldn't be that much issue (like "once touched - have to move" rule in chess) if you could see all possibilities from a move before selecting, and, more important, if game wouldn't become nonresponsive time and time again and activate different piece than one you have mouse pointed at. Thankfully, you can abandon move, but, as I said, game says nothing about that (or hides it somewhere deep in glossary).

Also, I wouldn't say rules are overly complicated. In the essence, this game is just expanded chess. More pieces, height difference and few special interactions, but thats it. It LOOKS overcomplicated, but after you get used to it, you will see how fluid it is and how intuitive everything works. Actually, I'd want to see it as physical board game, as it's better than many dedicated titles I've seen in the past.

Wow, that's quite helpful that CTRL works. Quite stupid that the game won't tell that, seeing that it always portrays all available commands. Then again, I still don't quite enjoy the game. It is like chess, yes. but the reason chess is so great is the simplicity and at the same time the unlimitless depth. You can tell right away what each piece can do because there are so few, however each piece has function and purpose.

In this game there are just too many pieces to remember, and each one also has 4 different stats, and armor, and special abilites, and a unit type. That's too much to learn when only playing 1-3 games in each town. Additionally, there are pieces that are just outright better than other pieces. Yes I get it, you're supposed to earn better pieces to beat tougher opponents, but just having good and bad pieces hurts the gameplay a lot in my opinion.

Still, I'm not complaining about Machine Strike that much - I will still play it and finish all available boards. I just wished it were... better. It had potential for sure.

[AshHinton]

Originally posted by CTUJack_Bauer:

Machine strike can be good same as Gwent in Witcher some people really did not like that, i like machine strike and gwent for that matter.

Gwent really put me off trying Machine Strike, although I know I shouldn't write one off just because I didn't like the other. I don't mind board games but I sucked at Gwent, couldn't get it, so moved on. Maybe I'll have better luck with Machine Strike - next time I'm passing a Machine Strike player I'll stop chickening out.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by Lunatic:

Can someone elaborate on how this is even an issue to people? What stops you from turning around and... idk... just not playing it then?

When someone here said "They shouldve just made it an optional DLC". What?
So should we also make Sidequests an Optional DLC, because some ppl may dislike sidequests?
Or better, let's make voicelines an optional DLC, because what about deaf people?

I'm starting to suspect that a lot of people that play these open worlds games have OCD. Hence this obsession with needing 100% complete things.

Most of these games are a lot better though if you pick and choose which optional quests and mini-games you engage with.