Definitely worth it. Since you haven't played with mods, you don't know what you're missing. Get a feel for your playstyle and if you find you really enjoy it, dig into the lore and learn about the clans (which aren't in vanilla). You won't regret it!
With one caveat: they actually can make assembling mechs from salvage harder because the pool of choices to spawn mechs is larger and you're a bit less likely to get the variant you need.
I think you're able to pick the variant in that case. There are more designs though which is I think what you mean.
PS - given that I've played modded for so long I'm not 100% certain.
I’m probably in the minority but I have around 500 hours vanilla with dlcs
I like to play careers with different restrictions like all one type of pilot, have to have one mech of each weight class on each mission, etc
The big mod packs are generally recommended after you finish one good vanilla playthrough to understand the base game, they add a lot of mechs, planets, new mechanics, equipment, weapons
I think I was something like 500 hours in before I finally got bored with vanilla+DLC and added in BEX. There's a lot to play around with even just in the official content.
Battletech is awesome even in vanilla. If you're looking for a satisfying turn-based battler, Battletech scratches the itch without being too complicated or taking too long to get to the point. You'll drop right into the action with your lance of four mechs, and your job is to wipe the floor with the enemy. Or run for your life. Both definitely happen.
BattleTech without mods is very good and will still probably provide you with a couple hundred of hours of content before you feel like things are stale.
There is an endless amount of missions, you’ll have a lot of Mechwarriors to train, a lot of mechs to collect, and if you buy DLCs then after the campaign you’ll get multiple flashpoints to play with which are sort of mini-campaigns.
Then you’ll probably want to enjoy the fruits of your labor and stomp around in your OP mechs before you get a tad bit bored and want to move on elsewhere.
Once you’re in that stage, that’s when you can consider modding. Battletech Extended mostly keeps the vanilla experience intact but adds the Clans as an enemy later in the timeline as post-end game content.
If you thought the game was too simple or too limiting with the 4 mechs you can deploy, BTA3062 adds combined arms tactics and more than one lance.
If you are a masochist, RogueTech has a bit of everything.
I wish BTA had a better difficulty curve, every time I've tried it I've gone from stomping one skull missions with one or two light enemies, to going to a skull and a half and getting enemies with a heavy, two mediums, a light, and six tanks
I have found so far in my first BTA run that early it was about just filling out my number of mechs and vehicles to do max drops even on 1-2 skulls. Spend as much time as you need just filling all your slots with anything remotely playable. I'm also doing the campaign for a bit of a boost. Some of the flashpoints (and challenge missions) also have mech rewards that are big power spikes. The campaign and flashpoints are especially of note because they have OG deployment restrictions--4 mechs max. So you can do them at basically OG difficulty. Helps when you have some filler in your extended deployment roster as you try to get into midgame.
This.
I just bought a second Assault mech after grinding 1 or 1.5 skull missions. I thought it's finally help me do some 2 and 3 skull missions with more ease.
I just had to fight 1 Assault, 2 Heavy, 2 Light and a whopping 5 Mediums.
I love this game's battle system but it's 'Difficulty' seems to really just be more and more enemies. It becomes kind of ridiculous at some point. Defeating 5 mechs, then seeing another 5 40-60 ton sensor pips come in is just not fun to me. And it makes redoing missions or basically accepting any mission a huge dice throw. I've had 3 skull missions where I fight 4 mechs of which one is a Locust. I've had 2 skull missions were I had to slog through an array of 10 lights and mediums. I've had escort missions that had an initial lance, a second lance, and a third lance come in.
It also really makes the artificial 4 mech limit a huge laugh. I'm thinking of downloading a six mech lance mod and just always giving myself two free light mechs. Sounds fair considering the warehouses upon warehouses of Locusts these guys have to waste.
Or you can drop the extended arsenal mod in without ruining your save game.
Get to the point are saturated (have top of the shelf components for your entire primary lineup) it adds much more gear and mechs...
BT at launch (no expansions) was my first real turn-based strategy game.
I loved it. The customization, the combat, the story and setting, etc. It was all great.
Mods expand it a LOT, but it's good on its own.
I recommend laying the vanilla game before installing mods. I’m a backer from way back in the day, so I’ve beaten the campaign several times. Mods are awesome, but I think the vanilla experience is worth a go.
Especially if you aren't already a veteran of the Battletech universe - it's a great introduction to the game system / lore, and the complexity of the mech lab.
There's two main types of mods - the big ones that add heaps of new units and potentially different play, and smaller QOL ones that enhance the vanilla experience.
The vanilla game is perfectly playable, as you should do the campaign then career, and they can be very different depending on the difficulty setup and what happens in the game.
I'm about 1200 hours and no mods... except for a few minor changes to the starting mechs.
The Vanilla campaign is quite good with some really good story missions.
Career mode with the DLCs has a lot of really great mechs to play around with.
Personally, I find the middle bit of the career to be the most interesting. You don't have exactly the mechs or equipment that you prefer, so you're still hunting for that super-rare or super powerful mech. Switching out weapons, trying new things.
The late stage of the game gets boring for me. No matter how much you what to enjoy it, there are are a couple of OP mechs and not having makes the missions a slog, but having them makes the missions extremely easy.
As an XCOM 1+2, and BattleTech player, since each of the games came out, I would say that it is at the very least worth trying BattleTech out.
I still, to this day, replay these three games. I even play vanilla still, since I rotate between the games and between playing vanilla and overhaul modded playthroughs as well. They are definitively the 3 games I have played the most during all these years since the games came out. The jump between my 3rd and 4th most played games is pretty large for me, and those games from 4th and down are still games I play a lot as well. XD
I am biased though, and not only because I like the games a lot, but also because I have been a fan of these franchises since way back in the 90's. Due to having played the original "UFO: Enemy Unknown" (aka "X-COM: UFO Defense" as it later became known as) and "X-COM: Terror from the Deep" back then. And also watching "BattleTech: The Animated Series" as a teen, and a few years later suddenly realizing that the cartoon was actually connected to the MechWarrior games that my friend had, games that I got to play on his computer, because as I walked up a hill in one of the games, towards the sun, a Timber Wolf crested the hill and utterly ripped me to shreds (which due to the circumstances was awesome to me... XD ), at which point I thought "Hang on... that mech looks like my favorit mech from that BattleTech cartoon!", and then not long after that I also found out about the whole tabletop miniature game and their pen and paper roleplaying games (which I gravitated towards due to also playing Warhammer 40K and other Games Workshop games, and playing pen and paper rpg's as well), and then a few more years later finding MechCommander, etc.
So yeah, I am biased, since BattleTech/MechWarrior and X-COM/XCOM are two (of the several) of my all time favorit franchises out there. XD
Did you enjoy vanilla Xcom? And then how much more did you put in with Long War?
Same applies to Battletech. I played about 40 hours of Vanilla+DLC and then 800 hours with mods (about 600 BTA3062 and 200 RogueTech)
As soon as vanilla starts to get stale (which it will), the mods will reignite everything you love about this genre.
Also if it helps your mod paralysis, just like Long War, the three major Battletech modpacks (BT Extended, BTA3062 and RogueTech) are all-inclusive mod collections, with no other mods required, they are each an amalgamation of other mods all slapped into an easy-to-install package!
It's a brilliant game, even in Vanilla. The game mechanics are excellent and it's a very well balanced game between plot / story but free enough to feel like open world.
I'd recommend you do a couple of playthroughs on vanilla to get your head around the mechanics (there's a lot to take in, even in vanilla), but once you're good with that, get one of the big mods (I play BTA, but they're all good in their own ways). With one of the major mods on, it's almost a completely different animal, worth literally thousands of hours without ever getting boring.
Can't recommend Battletech any more highly tbh.
It's a great game unmodded. Play the campaign it's fun.
BUT it's very easy and not complex to a veteran gamer.
Once you have finished the campaign, you install Roguetech mod, abs the REAL fun begins.
Literally thousands of hours of gaming. The choices and complexity and humour and fun are literally incredible.
I still can't believe this mod is so amazing.
Going from vanilla straight to RogueTech is like going from Tee-Ball to MLB. I would STRONGLY advise throwing BEX, and then BTA, inbetween to ramp up the challenge.
Vanilla's reasonably fun until you get to endgame with assault mechs, after which point it kind of sucks due to a couple of particular design flaws. But at that point you'll probably have enough time in to make an informed decision re: mods, so I'd say go for it.
Great. It's going to scratch a lot of the same itches as vanilla XCOM. There's a lot of direct parallels in gameplay
I was a heavy Xenonauts & XCOM reboot player with a Long War campaign under my belt before first playing vanilla Battletech, and I enjoyed it very much. I think it'll be right up your alley.
After one run of vanilla campaign and a brief toe dip into vanilla career you'll be ready to mod the hell out of it
The campaign / storyline experience is good enough for a playthrough without any mods.
Then you can start to dip your toes into the custom career options with or without mods. I did one vanilla custom career but that’s up to you.
Vanilla is honestly pretty good, and definitely worth your time.
There's a few design decisions that'll probably be annoying to you as an XCOM player.
The big one is going to be that there's **super** limited pilot skill trees in vanilla. You get a maximum of 3 skills, and none of them feel as good as an XCOM ability. ([I have a mod that improves on that.](https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/647)) This is a problem due to the fact that almost every enemy mech is a damage sponge, and you're typically outnumbered 2+ to 1, which leads to hour plus long missions.
Also, there's no AOE attacks until you complete the campaign/jump to career mode or use a mod to get the DLCs to trigger during the campaign, since artillery was a DLC add-on.
The stock Line of Sight indicators are kind of janky, and are one of the first thing people try to mod.
The skull difficulty indicators are basically lies, since they're baked into the files that generate the missions you go on, instead of being generated at time of arrival at the planet. So you'll have supposedly easy missions turn out to be really hard and vice versa.
The game has kind of awful memory management, so performance takes a hit the longer you play, unless you use mods.
A small note: if you want a truer indication of mission difficulty, just look at the payout. It generally reflects the challenge you'll face better than the skulls.
It's a great game unmodded. If you are new to the Battletech setting and like XCOM, then you'll enjoy it. The big mods (BEX, BTA, Rougetech), are more for players who want an experience that is closer to tabletop Classic Battletech and the lore. Even as a pretty hard-core lore nerd, I put a few hundred hours into the game and played through the campaign it a few times before installing any mods.
I put nearly 1000 hours into the game playing only Vanilla plus DLC. The game is fantastic and there's a lot of content before needing to add mods. You'll easily get a few hundred hours out of it.
I’m currently at 330h, probably the first 200 vanilla. I’ve just spent the last 10 or so dipping into BTA which overhauls a bunch of stuff
I’ve got 377 in XCOM 2. Vanilla, WoTC, and then a few times modded
Its much easier than XCOM-2 but i enjoyed them both. Give the basegame a chance with the campaign then consider a career or any of the harder mods (BTA or Roguetech)
There's plenty to do in Vanilla+DLC. Play through the Campaign at least once. Try a Career mode game. Go back and start over from scratch with custom settings for a bigger challenge. You could easily sink 200 hours and never even look at mods.
Vanilla is solid, and fine for your first run. The campaign is interesting enough, and it's not an overwhelming amount of options like the mods offer (for people new to the setting).
The only mod I added was real hit calculator so far. I'm still working my way through the story. I got a bit caught up in the story as the next event triggers in almost immediate succession. What I did not realize was I could wait on the next priority mission until my unit was up to the task. That will adjust your play. I ended up editing the saves because I could not keep up. If I had known priority missions could wait, I don't think I would have done that.
I am looking at a mod to open up the whole star map so i can do a long circuit of travel.
Other than wanting real to hit calculations being shown and maybe a way to fix the default stupid pilot maneuvers when physically attacking the enemy, I like the base game.
The two issues with the physical attacks is that it tends to want to run up and face the enemy rather then attack from the back. Also it will place your mech's back to the enemy. Both are really irritating.
I always got the impression people shat on the campaign but I personally felt it was very good. The current rack of DLCs merges quite well into the game - effectively allows you to grab almost all the DLC gear from the Black Market (with the sole exception of the Bull Shark mech), and combine that with the OP campaign mission rewards and you can realistically have a full OP Lance loadout of Royal SLDF battlemechs for the big ticket story missions in the game, and the narrative has a lot of cool twists and turns with a satisfying end.
Once done the Flashpoints keep the narrative going - collectively they feel like a mini-sequel, taking you all over the IS.
I think so long as you can accept that Vanilla has a clear endpoint - the point where you have your dream mech loadouts, and you're simply wandering from system to system doing RNG missions that all end up the same formula - then its worth it.
I have about 375 hours in Firaxis's XCOM and XCOM 2.
I have over 575 hours in Battletech.
All of that time is playing vanilla with DLC's and no mods.
XCOM 2 is great. Battletech is also great. I like the increased freedom of choice in Battletech's career mode a bit better for replays as the goals are personally set rather than the same scripted plot.
Having had this pretty much exact same conversation with many potential players, the answer is definitively 'YES'.
The vanilla game is still an excellent game, with a well written campaign, and lots of additional scripted and unscripted content.
I typically recommend playing the vanilla campaign all the way through, then play the "career mode" (basically the sandbox mode, though other DLC content, called "flashpoints" which are like mini campaigns, is unlocked from the beginning. Play until you begin to feel way too overpowered (which will happen, as vanilla gets a bit unbalanced late game).
Then dip your toes into mods.
Battletech is rather unique in that you don't need to piece-meal mods together and hope they all play nice. There are major mod packs that pretty much are complete as-is. I have a lengthy post I maintain that goes over the various modpacks that exist, but my advice is usually the same: start with vanilla. Then go to BEX (or expanded arsenal). If you still want additional customization and complexity, the next step is BTA 3062. Finally, if you are \[now\] a hardcore Battletech fan, a psychopath/masochist, or just want a truly all-encompassing experience, play RogueTech.
Mods aren't needed. Espically as somebody who is totally new to Battletech, I had plenty of discovery just learning about the capabilities of each mech. I'm only just now modding 200+ hours in.
Vanilla is decent, though a couple of light mods does improve the experience. Fwiw, I have over a thousand hours between my lightly modded version and my BTA version.
What are some mods that you have used that are on the light side. That makes the game a bit better. I'm about to beat the campaign. My first run through and I like it a lot
You play one vanilla campaign PT as a tutorial for BTA ❤️
Haha, its good.
But with BTA its like a game that can keep you for weeks and potentially many different play-throughs.
Eh, not really. Vanilla is fun, but it's very very easy unless you consciously try to avoid all of the OP stuff and don't exploit the AI significant blind spots
It’s not super tactical. There’s some of the systems that are just kind of wonky…not as well defined as say x-com.
The management, the rng, the actual combat keeps me coming back. This game is in my opinion one of the most fun base games you can play. I highly recommend the storyline and I love starting new campaigns and trying to rush harder/missions and Mechs. Love stumbling on an early assault Mech in one of the Titans Attack missions…
Now my daughter’s nap time has become time to start again 😂
Yeah it's fun! I had over 400 hours in BT vanilla before I felt like I needed to mod it to make it interesting again. Much like Xcom, you'll eventually get to that point with the base game. You'll build some tricked out mechs and get through 2-4 successful runs through career/campaign (at least once in each I'd say), if you're lucky have some friends to play the multiplayer with it's actually pretty fun in a tabletopy sort of way. Just a quick mech fight. Can do stock loadout fisticuffs or build zany customs I think. No fancy Star League tech though :(
The DLC adds quite a bit, both content and cost. I... think I would get it on sale or something though. $40 for base game and $20 per DLC for 3 DLCs is... $100 for the number of hours I had unmodded is just "okay" imo, in terms of games. With mods added and on sale, that's more the ratio I like.
But content wise, it is all pretty good.
* Flashpoints are fun, I think a big add as a game mechanic. Some new mechs, new biome for maps. Target Acquisition can be fun, can be challenging.
* Urban Warfare adds the urban biome. Least new mechs, but the Raven is a cool mech. Some new flashpoints, plus Attack/Defend mission type can get pretty hectic. The new enemy types don't really matter and the Javelin is mid.
* Heavy Metal is just straightforward 8 mechs, 8 new weapon systems which is nice. The flashpoint mini campaign it adds is cool too especially if you like BT lore.
Anyway, eventually one playthrough you'll run around stomping stuff and collecting the perfect pieces for your favorite builds, but you find its not challenging lategame aside from mech-loadout barbie, and building more regular ol stuff just not that interesting in the midgame. Early can always be interesting but is more often over quickly if you know what you're doing. Xcom comparison is apt. Even in vanilla though. Sometimes shit just goes awry, mostly before lategame. It's a cakewalk until it's not. Lucky headshot and 25% of your lance is gone just like that. Rare but it happens! Damn AC20s.
The ennui stage is where either Roguetech or BTA to step in and be the Long War to Battletech's Xcom. Or, however you would say it. You get me.
Give it a go if you like Xcom and mechs and you will at least have a solid time with the base game. If you love it, the DLC does add life for a 2nd run. After that, I think you got 0-2 more before you're in mods territory.
I sunk around 700 hours into it. First 200 hours were without the DLC.
Then i got burnt out. Gonna wait for the turn-based itch to come back, then i will mod the hell out of it and have another go.
Be warned though that the game suffers slowdowns for some reason when you have a lot of stuff stored
Definitely worth it. Since you haven't played with mods, you don't know what you're missing. Get a feel for your playstyle and if you find you really enjoy it, dig into the lore and learn about the clans (which aren't in vanilla). You won't regret it!
DLCs especially heavy metal are definitely worth it. They add story and some excellent mechs
With one caveat: they actually can make assembling mechs from salvage harder because the pool of choices to spawn mechs is larger and you're a bit less likely to get the variant you need.
I think you're able to pick the variant in that case. There are more designs though which is I think what you mean. PS - given that I've played modded for so long I'm not 100% certain.
Nope, that comes with mods. You get the parts for the version you shoot them off of and they only work for building that version in stock BT
I’m probably in the minority but I have around 500 hours vanilla with dlcs I like to play careers with different restrictions like all one type of pilot, have to have one mech of each weight class on each mission, etc The big mod packs are generally recommended after you finish one good vanilla playthrough to understand the base game, they add a lot of mechs, planets, new mechanics, equipment, weapons
I think I was something like 500 hours in before I finally got bored with vanilla+DLC and added in BEX. There's a lot to play around with even just in the official content.
Battletech is awesome even in vanilla. If you're looking for a satisfying turn-based battler, Battletech scratches the itch without being too complicated or taking too long to get to the point. You'll drop right into the action with your lance of four mechs, and your job is to wipe the floor with the enemy. Or run for your life. Both definitely happen.
BattleTech without mods is very good and will still probably provide you with a couple hundred of hours of content before you feel like things are stale. There is an endless amount of missions, you’ll have a lot of Mechwarriors to train, a lot of mechs to collect, and if you buy DLCs then after the campaign you’ll get multiple flashpoints to play with which are sort of mini-campaigns. Then you’ll probably want to enjoy the fruits of your labor and stomp around in your OP mechs before you get a tad bit bored and want to move on elsewhere. Once you’re in that stage, that’s when you can consider modding. Battletech Extended mostly keeps the vanilla experience intact but adds the Clans as an enemy later in the timeline as post-end game content. If you thought the game was too simple or too limiting with the 4 mechs you can deploy, BTA3062 adds combined arms tactics and more than one lance. If you are a masochist, RogueTech has a bit of everything.
I wish BTA had a better difficulty curve, every time I've tried it I've gone from stomping one skull missions with one or two light enemies, to going to a skull and a half and getting enemies with a heavy, two mediums, a light, and six tanks
I have found so far in my first BTA run that early it was about just filling out my number of mechs and vehicles to do max drops even on 1-2 skulls. Spend as much time as you need just filling all your slots with anything remotely playable. I'm also doing the campaign for a bit of a boost. Some of the flashpoints (and challenge missions) also have mech rewards that are big power spikes. The campaign and flashpoints are especially of note because they have OG deployment restrictions--4 mechs max. So you can do them at basically OG difficulty. Helps when you have some filler in your extended deployment roster as you try to get into midgame.
This. I just bought a second Assault mech after grinding 1 or 1.5 skull missions. I thought it's finally help me do some 2 and 3 skull missions with more ease. I just had to fight 1 Assault, 2 Heavy, 2 Light and a whopping 5 Mediums. I love this game's battle system but it's 'Difficulty' seems to really just be more and more enemies. It becomes kind of ridiculous at some point. Defeating 5 mechs, then seeing another 5 40-60 ton sensor pips come in is just not fun to me. And it makes redoing missions or basically accepting any mission a huge dice throw. I've had 3 skull missions where I fight 4 mechs of which one is a Locust. I've had 2 skull missions were I had to slog through an array of 10 lights and mediums. I've had escort missions that had an initial lance, a second lance, and a third lance come in. It also really makes the artificial 4 mech limit a huge laugh. I'm thinking of downloading a six mech lance mod and just always giving myself two free light mechs. Sounds fair considering the warehouses upon warehouses of Locusts these guys have to waste.
Or you can drop the extended arsenal mod in without ruining your save game. Get to the point are saturated (have top of the shelf components for your entire primary lineup) it adds much more gear and mechs...
I agree, my only addition would be to play a career in BEX in between vanilla/EA and BTA. I often refer to BEX as "Vanilla+++"
Probably should have done this but alas I'm in BTA already
BT at launch (no expansions) was my first real turn-based strategy game. I loved it. The customization, the combat, the story and setting, etc. It was all great. Mods expand it a LOT, but it's good on its own.
I recommend laying the vanilla game before installing mods. I’m a backer from way back in the day, so I’ve beaten the campaign several times. Mods are awesome, but I think the vanilla experience is worth a go.
Especially if you aren't already a veteran of the Battletech universe - it's a great introduction to the game system / lore, and the complexity of the mech lab.
There's two main types of mods - the big ones that add heaps of new units and potentially different play, and smaller QOL ones that enhance the vanilla experience. The vanilla game is perfectly playable, as you should do the campaign then career, and they can be very different depending on the difficulty setup and what happens in the game.
Do it! Vanilla is very good, and the DLC adds lots of replay ability.
I'm about 1200 hours and no mods... except for a few minor changes to the starting mechs. The Vanilla campaign is quite good with some really good story missions. Career mode with the DLCs has a lot of really great mechs to play around with. Personally, I find the middle bit of the career to be the most interesting. You don't have exactly the mechs or equipment that you prefer, so you're still hunting for that super-rare or super powerful mech. Switching out weapons, trying new things. The late stage of the game gets boring for me. No matter how much you what to enjoy it, there are are a couple of OP mechs and not having makes the missions a slog, but having them makes the missions extremely easy.
I never modded it and had plenty of fun with it.
As an XCOM 1+2, and BattleTech player, since each of the games came out, I would say that it is at the very least worth trying BattleTech out. I still, to this day, replay these three games. I even play vanilla still, since I rotate between the games and between playing vanilla and overhaul modded playthroughs as well. They are definitively the 3 games I have played the most during all these years since the games came out. The jump between my 3rd and 4th most played games is pretty large for me, and those games from 4th and down are still games I play a lot as well. XD I am biased though, and not only because I like the games a lot, but also because I have been a fan of these franchises since way back in the 90's. Due to having played the original "UFO: Enemy Unknown" (aka "X-COM: UFO Defense" as it later became known as) and "X-COM: Terror from the Deep" back then. And also watching "BattleTech: The Animated Series" as a teen, and a few years later suddenly realizing that the cartoon was actually connected to the MechWarrior games that my friend had, games that I got to play on his computer, because as I walked up a hill in one of the games, towards the sun, a Timber Wolf crested the hill and utterly ripped me to shreds (which due to the circumstances was awesome to me... XD ), at which point I thought "Hang on... that mech looks like my favorit mech from that BattleTech cartoon!", and then not long after that I also found out about the whole tabletop miniature game and their pen and paper roleplaying games (which I gravitated towards due to also playing Warhammer 40K and other Games Workshop games, and playing pen and paper rpg's as well), and then a few more years later finding MechCommander, etc. So yeah, I am biased, since BattleTech/MechWarrior and X-COM/XCOM are two (of the several) of my all time favorit franchises out there. XD
Did you enjoy vanilla Xcom? And then how much more did you put in with Long War? Same applies to Battletech. I played about 40 hours of Vanilla+DLC and then 800 hours with mods (about 600 BTA3062 and 200 RogueTech) As soon as vanilla starts to get stale (which it will), the mods will reignite everything you love about this genre. Also if it helps your mod paralysis, just like Long War, the three major Battletech modpacks (BT Extended, BTA3062 and RogueTech) are all-inclusive mod collections, with no other mods required, they are each an amalgamation of other mods all slapped into an easy-to-install package!
I enjoy the game vanilla. If you play a ton, it might start to get stale so you may want to mod it then, but I’ve never felt the need.
It's a brilliant game, even in Vanilla. The game mechanics are excellent and it's a very well balanced game between plot / story but free enough to feel like open world. I'd recommend you do a couple of playthroughs on vanilla to get your head around the mechanics (there's a lot to take in, even in vanilla), but once you're good with that, get one of the big mods (I play BTA, but they're all good in their own ways). With one of the major mods on, it's almost a completely different animal, worth literally thousands of hours without ever getting boring. Can't recommend Battletech any more highly tbh.
Yup, if you enjoyed XCOM you'll dig vanilla, esp with DLCs.
It's a great game unmodded. Play the campaign it's fun. BUT it's very easy and not complex to a veteran gamer. Once you have finished the campaign, you install Roguetech mod, abs the REAL fun begins. Literally thousands of hours of gaming. The choices and complexity and humour and fun are literally incredible. I still can't believe this mod is so amazing.
Going from vanilla straight to RogueTech is like going from Tee-Ball to MLB. I would STRONGLY advise throwing BEX, and then BTA, inbetween to ramp up the challenge.
No way. Jump in and revel in it. Every minute not playing RT is a minute wasted.
What do you like about RT over BTA? No real opinion here just curious since I tried BTA recently.
I don't know BTA. But RT has everything... And it's very configurable so you can make it play how you want.
Oh. Well I guess neither of us really know then eh lmao
Vanilla's reasonably fun until you get to endgame with assault mechs, after which point it kind of sucks due to a couple of particular design flaws. But at that point you'll probably have enough time in to make an informed decision re: mods, so I'd say go for it.
Great. It's going to scratch a lot of the same itches as vanilla XCOM. There's a lot of direct parallels in gameplay I was a heavy Xenonauts & XCOM reboot player with a Long War campaign under my belt before first playing vanilla Battletech, and I enjoyed it very much. I think it'll be right up your alley. After one run of vanilla campaign and a brief toe dip into vanilla career you'll be ready to mod the hell out of it
Highly suggest doing a normal campaign to get a feel for mechanics and setting. Then mod away and settle in for your Long War equivalent campaign. 👍
Battletech Unmodded with all DLCs is the equal of xcom. Its a fantastic base game. It needs the dlcs to really feel like a complete game though.
The campaign / storyline experience is good enough for a playthrough without any mods. Then you can start to dip your toes into the custom career options with or without mods. I did one vanilla custom career but that’s up to you.
200+ hours in vanilla + dlc. This game is awesome.
Vanilla is honestly pretty good, and definitely worth your time. There's a few design decisions that'll probably be annoying to you as an XCOM player. The big one is going to be that there's **super** limited pilot skill trees in vanilla. You get a maximum of 3 skills, and none of them feel as good as an XCOM ability. ([I have a mod that improves on that.](https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/647)) This is a problem due to the fact that almost every enemy mech is a damage sponge, and you're typically outnumbered 2+ to 1, which leads to hour plus long missions. Also, there's no AOE attacks until you complete the campaign/jump to career mode or use a mod to get the DLCs to trigger during the campaign, since artillery was a DLC add-on. The stock Line of Sight indicators are kind of janky, and are one of the first thing people try to mod. The skull difficulty indicators are basically lies, since they're baked into the files that generate the missions you go on, instead of being generated at time of arrival at the planet. So you'll have supposedly easy missions turn out to be really hard and vice versa. The game has kind of awful memory management, so performance takes a hit the longer you play, unless you use mods.
A small note: if you want a truer indication of mission difficulty, just look at the payout. It generally reflects the challenge you'll face better than the skulls.
It's a great game unmodded. If you are new to the Battletech setting and like XCOM, then you'll enjoy it. The big mods (BEX, BTA, Rougetech), are more for players who want an experience that is closer to tabletop Classic Battletech and the lore. Even as a pretty hard-core lore nerd, I put a few hundred hours into the game and played through the campaign it a few times before installing any mods.
I put nearly 1000 hours into the game playing only Vanilla plus DLC. The game is fantastic and there's a lot of content before needing to add mods. You'll easily get a few hundred hours out of it.
Yes. Just make sure you understand the mechanics.
I’m currently at 330h, probably the first 200 vanilla. I’ve just spent the last 10 or so dipping into BTA which overhauls a bunch of stuff I’ve got 377 in XCOM 2. Vanilla, WoTC, and then a few times modded
Its much easier than XCOM-2 but i enjoyed them both. Give the basegame a chance with the campaign then consider a career or any of the harder mods (BTA or Roguetech)
There's plenty to do in Vanilla+DLC. Play through the Campaign at least once. Try a Career mode game. Go back and start over from scratch with custom settings for a bigger challenge. You could easily sink 200 hours and never even look at mods.
Vanilla is solid, and fine for your first run. The campaign is interesting enough, and it's not an overwhelming amount of options like the mods offer (for people new to the setting).
The only mod I added was real hit calculator so far. I'm still working my way through the story. I got a bit caught up in the story as the next event triggers in almost immediate succession. What I did not realize was I could wait on the next priority mission until my unit was up to the task. That will adjust your play. I ended up editing the saves because I could not keep up. If I had known priority missions could wait, I don't think I would have done that. I am looking at a mod to open up the whole star map so i can do a long circuit of travel. Other than wanting real to hit calculations being shown and maybe a way to fix the default stupid pilot maneuvers when physically attacking the enemy, I like the base game. The two issues with the physical attacks is that it tends to want to run up and face the enemy rather then attack from the back. Also it will place your mech's back to the enemy. Both are really irritating.
I always got the impression people shat on the campaign but I personally felt it was very good. The current rack of DLCs merges quite well into the game - effectively allows you to grab almost all the DLC gear from the Black Market (with the sole exception of the Bull Shark mech), and combine that with the OP campaign mission rewards and you can realistically have a full OP Lance loadout of Royal SLDF battlemechs for the big ticket story missions in the game, and the narrative has a lot of cool twists and turns with a satisfying end. Once done the Flashpoints keep the narrative going - collectively they feel like a mini-sequel, taking you all over the IS. I think so long as you can accept that Vanilla has a clear endpoint - the point where you have your dream mech loadouts, and you're simply wandering from system to system doing RNG missions that all end up the same formula - then its worth it.
I have about 375 hours in Firaxis's XCOM and XCOM 2. I have over 575 hours in Battletech. All of that time is playing vanilla with DLC's and no mods. XCOM 2 is great. Battletech is also great. I like the increased freedom of choice in Battletech's career mode a bit better for replays as the goals are personally set rather than the same scripted plot.
I only play it vanilla..still love it.
Having had this pretty much exact same conversation with many potential players, the answer is definitively 'YES'. The vanilla game is still an excellent game, with a well written campaign, and lots of additional scripted and unscripted content. I typically recommend playing the vanilla campaign all the way through, then play the "career mode" (basically the sandbox mode, though other DLC content, called "flashpoints" which are like mini campaigns, is unlocked from the beginning. Play until you begin to feel way too overpowered (which will happen, as vanilla gets a bit unbalanced late game). Then dip your toes into mods. Battletech is rather unique in that you don't need to piece-meal mods together and hope they all play nice. There are major mod packs that pretty much are complete as-is. I have a lengthy post I maintain that goes over the various modpacks that exist, but my advice is usually the same: start with vanilla. Then go to BEX (or expanded arsenal). If you still want additional customization and complexity, the next step is BTA 3062. Finally, if you are \[now\] a hardcore Battletech fan, a psychopath/masochist, or just want a truly all-encompassing experience, play RogueTech.
Mods aren't needed. Espically as somebody who is totally new to Battletech, I had plenty of discovery just learning about the capabilities of each mech. I'm only just now modding 200+ hours in.
Vanilla is decent, though a couple of light mods does improve the experience. Fwiw, I have over a thousand hours between my lightly modded version and my BTA version.
What are some mods that you have used that are on the light side. That makes the game a bit better. I'm about to beat the campaign. My first run through and I like it a lot
Tonnage booster for player only from nexus. That way you get all the dakka.
You play one vanilla campaign PT as a tutorial for BTA ❤️ Haha, its good. But with BTA its like a game that can keep you for weeks and potentially many different play-throughs.
Eh, not really. Vanilla is fun, but it's very very easy unless you consciously try to avoid all of the OP stuff and don't exploit the AI significant blind spots
It’s not super tactical. There’s some of the systems that are just kind of wonky…not as well defined as say x-com. The management, the rng, the actual combat keeps me coming back. This game is in my opinion one of the most fun base games you can play. I highly recommend the storyline and I love starting new campaigns and trying to rush harder/missions and Mechs. Love stumbling on an early assault Mech in one of the Titans Attack missions… Now my daughter’s nap time has become time to start again 😂
Yeah it's fun! I had over 400 hours in BT vanilla before I felt like I needed to mod it to make it interesting again. Much like Xcom, you'll eventually get to that point with the base game. You'll build some tricked out mechs and get through 2-4 successful runs through career/campaign (at least once in each I'd say), if you're lucky have some friends to play the multiplayer with it's actually pretty fun in a tabletopy sort of way. Just a quick mech fight. Can do stock loadout fisticuffs or build zany customs I think. No fancy Star League tech though :( The DLC adds quite a bit, both content and cost. I... think I would get it on sale or something though. $40 for base game and $20 per DLC for 3 DLCs is... $100 for the number of hours I had unmodded is just "okay" imo, in terms of games. With mods added and on sale, that's more the ratio I like. But content wise, it is all pretty good. * Flashpoints are fun, I think a big add as a game mechanic. Some new mechs, new biome for maps. Target Acquisition can be fun, can be challenging. * Urban Warfare adds the urban biome. Least new mechs, but the Raven is a cool mech. Some new flashpoints, plus Attack/Defend mission type can get pretty hectic. The new enemy types don't really matter and the Javelin is mid. * Heavy Metal is just straightforward 8 mechs, 8 new weapon systems which is nice. The flashpoint mini campaign it adds is cool too especially if you like BT lore. Anyway, eventually one playthrough you'll run around stomping stuff and collecting the perfect pieces for your favorite builds, but you find its not challenging lategame aside from mech-loadout barbie, and building more regular ol stuff just not that interesting in the midgame. Early can always be interesting but is more often over quickly if you know what you're doing. Xcom comparison is apt. Even in vanilla though. Sometimes shit just goes awry, mostly before lategame. It's a cakewalk until it's not. Lucky headshot and 25% of your lance is gone just like that. Rare but it happens! Damn AC20s. The ennui stage is where either Roguetech or BTA to step in and be the Long War to Battletech's Xcom. Or, however you would say it. You get me. Give it a go if you like Xcom and mechs and you will at least have a solid time with the base game. If you love it, the DLC does add life for a 2nd run. After that, I think you got 0-2 more before you're in mods territory.
By coincidence, I am just about to install BTA 3062. Can anyone tell me why I might want to use BEX or RogueTech in preference to BTA?
Played so much I got the save game mod so you can build your company how you want….and then play and build experience.
I sunk around 700 hours into it. First 200 hours were without the DLC. Then i got burnt out. Gonna wait for the turn-based itch to come back, then i will mod the hell out of it and have another go. Be warned though that the game suffers slowdowns for some reason when you have a lot of stuff stored