I imagine in Mercs you'll be part of BULLDOG and then there'll be a Clans DLC where you're fighting against Task Force Serpent. So far they've been following along the timeline but I don't see why they couldn't go back and add in DLC for earlier events.
Apparently the Clan game/DLC aren't selling as well as the IS products, so they seem to be focusing on Mercs, hence why we're having two Merc DLC in a row instead of Mercs and Clan DLC alternating.
When played through clans when it came out I realized pretty quickly that it would not replace mercs (or BTA) as my goto mechwarrior game. When you play clans you can expect the same story beats, the same mechs, the same missions. With mercs there is a bit of a rougelike element to it where evey play through is a little different. And I think that goes a long way for keeping people playing the game. That and a very healthy modding scene.
Only if the chucklefucks that wrote the first game don't have any hand in it. The story was so gay it doesn't even let you betray the girlboss in proper mercenary fashin.
I never cared much about playing as the Clans. They make for okay antagonists, but I have always been an IS boi, and the Merc setup is pretty much the best way to experience BattleTech as a videogame. Each Merc entry for its game was the superior version - this was true for MW2, and for MW4, and now for MW5 as well.
I remember a very specific point in 5 clans. One of the turtle beach missions if I remember correctly. At the start of the mission, you and another star are making a beach-head for the initial invasion. And shortly after landing you make contact with a heavy lance of kurita mechs accompanied by a Atlas.
Jokes on you, the next game will have a trans lesbian girlboss with a disability to show the chuds.
First game already had that, though.
I dont know what B2 could offer after a decade of mods besides a better refined/optimized engine. The base game has been so mod raped that it could never live up to expectations unless they advertised it as a solid foundation for mods
That's exactly what people would want it for. At the end of the day people just want a moddable Battletech TBT that doesn't run like ass. It doesn't matter how good the story is as long as the game has a good sandbox. [People sure as hell weren't coming to MW5 Mercs for the story before the DLCs...]
That's exactly what I want. I want a Battletech 2 with a better engine that a future Roguetech2 or BTAU2 can bounce off of. I'll even be magnanimous and allow for Paradox to rape it with 3 DLCs a year for the next 10 years as long as the damned thing gets released and doesn't run like liquid monkey ass.
I think there are ways to iterate on some of HBS BT's mechanics to separate it from the more TT accurate mods and MegaMek, but if it was just the same again but on an engine that didn't run like crap and had easier mod support I'm still sure plenty of people would pick it up.
Better optimization, more modding capabilities, ability to deploy battle armor, vehicles and aerotech (without janky mods), fighting infantry and, most importantly for me, an actual BattleTech universe to explore with a variety of campaigns, party members to find and recruit (with their own quests and interactions), a campaign that is actually focused on the player (ala MW5), instead of the player being a side character in a troon's YASS KWEEN SLAY fanfic about a nigger woman taking what is "rightfully" hers.
I really wish they let you get chassis and weapon pilot traits through gameplay, its kind of annoying to have a pilot who has been in the exact same mech with the exact same weapons for tens of drops and when you send them off to the academy they just spin the wheel.
Yeah, this is something Clans got right, in that you can add new mechs and classes to your pilots' affinity lists.
They've needed to fix that mechlab/market memory leak for ages. Glad to see its getting fixed.
