Map Size Map Size Map Size

[Captain Australia]

Coming back to this game, I'm remembering what I liked about it, but also (what I feel are) some pretty grave failings that should be improved:

1) load times: they're just woeful, awful. The only positive is that they're so long, they actually bore me enough that I read a book or talk to my wife or (god forbid) actually do something constructive

2) map sizes: they need to be roughly double what they are. Sophisticated cover and flanking options are useless when the opposing forces are crunched together fighting in Farmer Joe's back field.

On number 2, it really is a glaring thing (IMO). If the maps were a smidge bigger, events firing off wouldn't feel so weird. Right now it's like ...

Enemy forces. Here
Reinforcements. Two steps away, triggered literally the same round as the enemy or a round after.

Escort missions similarly feel a bit like a joke. "Your mission, Jim, if you choose to accept it, is to interecept this convoy, as you can see, they will be travelling between 120 Smith St and 126 Smith St, and will therefore be vulnerable for 2.5 seconds whilst in-between 122 and 124 Smith St."

Make the map size twice as large (at least) and you can hide, flank a team around completely behind your enemies, do sneaky stuff like that ? In it's absence, it's a very rote process of move forward a little, kill, move forward a little, kill more. Or in a convoy mission, instead of looking at multiple possible routes, placing a heavy HERE and a light HERE just in case they go the back way, you just need to get all lights and rush for it. Dunno. Sorry if it's just me.

This isn't another of those whiney - aww, I lost the game - posts. I *like* punishing games, I'm a masochistic freak for difficult games. (Cheaper than therapy). I don't think Battletech is punishing, in fact I think it rewards vanilla rock-scissors-paper thinking, whereas it could feel a bit bigger and dangerous with a bit of work.

PS: please dont make the "TBC" DLC a gladiator pack with arena fighting or anything like that, that would suck - more improvements and re-tooling to the base game please.


(they're not "reinforcements" if they arrive at the same time and place as the primary opposition)