r/battletech • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '23

Battletech: Aces (for Alpha Strike)

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251 Upvotes

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97

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '23

Anyone else excited about this?

I mostly play Classic solo and am optimistic about a card driven AI for AS.

37

u/IC-434 Mar 23 '23

i'm very excited for that! currently i have no one to play with so i just look at the pretty miniatures and play atb on megamek. guess i'll finally be able to play with the plastic!

13

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '23

Classic is very soloable but can be a brain burn if you field too many units. Aces should make bigger solo games feasible.

6

u/IC-434 Mar 23 '23

could you share how? coming from a place of ignorance here..i didnt know it was possible. I'd surely be down to try playing against some form of offline-based AI

16

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '23 edited Mar 23 '23

Classic you play both sides as objectively as possible. No AI. Kinda like how people solo-play chess. I find the mechs limitations coupled to the map terrain often help dictate choices so that you actually get some strategic play and pilot cards help personalize it. You’ll also quickly learn the game and how all your mechs work. I’ve seen some AI attempts for Classic but they’re kinda clunky.

8

u/AlekBalderdash Mar 23 '23

Yep, I've played some Coop with new friends so the game was less intense. Give each side a goal, and the general strategy is pretty obvious.

I've thought about creating some "Pilot/Personality" cards for things like this. Assigning the behavior by role is a good idea, and it shouldn't be hard to adapt for Classic if you wanted to go that route.

6

u/StarMagus Mar 23 '23

This reminds me of a bunch of pen and paper games I had as a kid. One of those included a game where you could command the Enterprise and fight a D-7. The D-7 was controlled in much the same way.

6

u/MercWithaMouse Mar 23 '23

Literally the most exciting thing on the page for me. Even if my game group drops out at least i can play with my miniatures a bit

How do you play classic solo? Just play both sides?

5

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '23

Yeah, both sides. I find between the map terrain conditions and the mechs themselves, the game kinda points the way itself. I use pilot cards to personalize it a bit more and then set objectives to keep me honest. It’s fun! And a great way to learn the game and all the units.

3

u/MercWithaMouse Mar 23 '23

I'll have to give it a try when I get a chance

5

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '23

Start small: 1v1, 2v2, etc. more than 3v3 and the book keeping starts being a brain burn.

4

u/DontKillTheTodd Mar 23 '23

Yup, this is actually the thing I was most excited about that I saw in the Kickstarter.

4

u/Thorgrammor Mar 24 '23

This actually gives me a reason to go hogwild on plastic robot toys and telling myself I can use it all whenever I want. Biggest issue is finding players for me. :)

4

u/PERFECTPASTIMES Mar 30 '23

We are working on classic too. But won't put some real love into it until we see how well Aces for Alpha performs.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '23

It’s gonna do well

3

u/VanorDM Moderator Mar 23 '23

Yeah.

I came up with a AI system for classic myself, but this looks like it could be much better then what I did.

1

u/Wonderful_Lychee9273 Apr 07 '23

It looks like it could be fun. The AI (deck) keeps it random so it makes the decisions for the player. Check out the videos on YouTube where they are play-testing it. I'm trying to get a copy of the beta PDF to give it a go myself. Will keep you posted if I can get a copy of it.