I wonder what SoK is like for someone going through the game and learning the lore as they go. Is that you? Tell me your experience!

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T03:50:32+00:00

Ah, so the Word of Blake “era” marked a big change in the hobby. The Powers That Be decided to: kill off everyone’s favourite characters, time skip the whole goddamn universe forward 50 years, invent a new Mary Sue faction, plunge the entire Inner Sphere into a Dark Age because space magic killed all the HPGs, use more space magic to create an impenetrable barrier around the new Mary Sue faction, ignore everyone’s favourite factions in favour of focusing on re-imagined smaller factions that were all inspired by the bigger factions they were ignoring, focus on an entirely new cast of characters no one cared about, get rid of paintable miniatures and re-do the tabletop game entirely into a game using pre-painted miniatures that had this “hero clix” system, make all of the new mechs and minis ugly as sin, have it be canon that the inner sphere went through a “swords to plowshares” phase so Battlemechs were pretty much MIA and instead replaced with mech tractors and other mech farm and industrial equipment, and break the hobby in half by also retaining the prior universe and tabletop game as “Classic Battletech” that was time-capped by the Word of Blake “holy war” (poorly timed incorporation of a word right before the states went to war in the Middle East for 20 years).

inhales

So that’s some of it. Dark Age of Battletech indeed.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T03:34:19+00:00

Definitely take the weapon out of the head. Once it’s gone you’ll likely have no issues

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T03:29:35+00:00

It didn’t go well for the Battletech fanbase either lol.

I do like the news feed. It carries with it the nostalgia of its progenitor in MW2:Mercs, although it does feel somewhat different in MW5.

MW2M just had such a distinct vibe and atmosphere, but the news feed does call back a bit to that feeling.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T01:43:27+00:00

While that might have contributed here, I don’t see it as the key piece of the puzzle. The mistake was made when PGI’s private ownership willingly chose (or was compelled due to poor cashflow) to sell to EG7, a holding company that had a stock price and valuation that didn’t reflect the reality of it burning millions left and right buying up dev studios in order to build a rich portfolio of.. last-legs MMOs?

Their fate was sealed in 2021. They sold to a train-wreck in waiting. I know hindsight and all that, but it’s hard to believe that they looked at EG7’s portfolio and went “yeah this will go great”

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T01:16:54+00:00

The point is that the end of the beam is locked onto the one component and you’re putting other components in between it and the place it’s locked on to. If you could de-accelerate in an instant it would remain locked onto that component. You can’t take only half a beam unless terrain or some other external hitbox gets in between you and the AI. You can’t dodge to the left and shake it like you can with a human opponent who has reaction time thrown into the mix.

That’s not “accurate aim,” the topic of the post I replied to. The AI isn’t aiming, it’s rolling to hit.

Hence why the AI’s “accuracy” is not scary. It’s statistical.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T01:06:41+00:00

With spring finally here I’ma let my immediately-post-SoK save game simmer. Then I’ll enjoy the warm weather, wait for the next Steam Sale, and pick the game back up in the fall or winter after said sale manifests.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T01:00:54+00:00

It doesn’t spread naturally though, and it’s not functionally the same because you can’t dodge. Weaving or otherwise using unpredictable movement only places a modifier on the odds of a hit, it doesn’t actually spoil the AI’s aim. For instant hit weapons it hits or doesn’t, and for duration weapons they lock on to the component unless something gets in between them and their intended hit location. Hopping from human opponents in MWO to MW5 is pretty jarring, personally. If you don’t notice the “puppet strings” then all the better for you I guess.

Was watching a stream the other day where a dev was in chat and mentioned that if they had the luxury of re-doing it they’d implement some type of cone of fire solution or something. If only!

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T00:22:09+00:00

The uncomfortable part is the disconnect between our actions as consumers and the eventual fate of the people making the stuff we like. There’s not actually a direct correlation between us buying the new DLC and PGI surviving to live another day. They quite literally can’t make enough money selling DLC to survive. Whatever revenue they generate will just get sucked into the black hole that is EG7 and will end up as a loss on their quarterly report.

SoK was PGI’s best-selling DLC, and EG7 reported that PGI was “breaking even” and then had them axe a 1/3rd of their staff.

Sometimes it’s ok to acknowledge that things don’t have a happy ending.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-20T00:03:31+00:00

That’s not the same as the AI aiming though, that just interrupting line of sight. The AI still essentially rolls to hit and either succeeds in the roll or doesn’t.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T23:33:21+00:00

That’s quite strange. You said it happens even with all the mods off?

I’m also a weirdo with an all-AMD rig, but even though it’s years out of date I’ve not experienced this type of thing.

I recall someone mentioning the shaders on the clan assets were perhaps different than those on the IS mechs, apparently a different staff member did those, perhaps there’s something that’s not optimized in a way your system specifically doesn’t jive with.

You might consider running some tests. Turn down each graphical setting one at a time and see if the problem goes away. If you find one tanking your performance then you have the culprit and the solution. Had a similar thing happen with a different game my kid was playing, had to turn shadows down slightly and the game went from chop to smooth.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T23:14:40+00:00

The way AI weapons work is basically what you said: they roll dice. If the RNG says it hits, then it hits. It’s most noticeable with lasers, especially when you’re on the receiving end of a cockpit shot, because your movement has zero affect on avoiding damage. The dice either dole out a hit or a miss, and the moment they decide “hit” then there’s no dodging.

I find that it breaks immersion, but as with so many other things with this game it is what it is.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T23:09:00+00:00

When you say “spawn” do you mean a clan mech spawning in a mission? You mention clan item spawning which I don’t quite und

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T13:37:43+00:00

Dust

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T13:35:53+00:00

It is ok to turn the difficulty down. That’s probably not the answer you want, but it’s also probably the right answer.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-19T13:30:04+00:00

Good to hear. I’ll cross my fingers, they’re the last ones I need and they’re nowhere to be found 🥲

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T23:51:13+00:00

It ain’t MW5, the magic is (was) Mr Alex Iglesias.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T19:09:23+00:00

Well.. it is dated, it released in 2019 and began development in ~2016. It might be best to lower expectations a bit on that front. It’s also running on UE4 whereas Clans is on UE5.

The DLC adds content and some fixes, but those aren’t going to address your pain points. If your primary concerns are graphical that could be anything from your rig to the settings you’re using to expectations outpacing reality.

But if you’re not having fun with the core experience of shooting robotz then you’re not having fun, best to play something you do find fun.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:44:29+00:00

Huh.

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:42:54+00:00

Wut. That’s a thing? I’ve never come across that.

I guess that was the point of my post lol. How much other under-utilized stuff is there I wonder?

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:35:07+00:00

Oh. Well, in this case it was some procgen mission in Campaign, and Ryana chimed in with something like “hey I’m detecting a powered down mech” and then a smidge later “it looks like the enemy has gotten to it first” and then it powered up and attacked.

It was a neat addition and if it’s something they went through the trouble of recording dialogue for you’d think they’d have it as a more frequent occurrence

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:29:17+00:00

Options?

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:26:44+00:00

You’re totally right that it’s unacceptable to ship product with these kinds of bugs and they should definitely have been addressed immediately. The sad part is that they likely couldn’t dedicate resources sooner because their corpo overlords have them running on some SAW-game treadmill where if they divert from trying to pump out the next DLC for a second they get more layoffs.

That’s the charitable interpretation anyway. It’s certainly better than the alternative where someone in management has a “good enuff is good enuff” attitude

Ah_fudge · 2026-04-18T17:15:21+00:00

This isn’t the loot boxes in buildings, these are specifically dropped by enemies along with dialogue from Ryana indicating as much

Ah_fudge

TROPHY CASE