BattleTech’s transition from tabletop to digital strategy game earlier this year was pretty successful one, but left us all wanting a way to speed up combat. Animations took a while, and while military mechs pounding each other with heavy ordinance will always be cool, sometimes you just want to get on with the action. The latest patch for the game lets you do exactly that – and addresses most every other substantial complaint niggling at the game with loads of new features.
Now, when an action is underway, you can tap spacebar to fast-forward that event until it’s complete. You can also now toggle a speed-up mode in the game options that will automatically make combat move faster across the board. Pauses for combat results and camera transitions have similar seen universal improvements, and those values are now surfaced in the game files for easier tweaking.
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You’ve also got options for custom campaign modes, which you can select whenever you start a new game. There’s now an ironman mode, which limits you to a single save slot that automatically overwrites things as you go. You can also check other hardcore options here, including forcing all hand-built mechs to start without loadouts, or increasing the amount of salvage you need to assemble new mechs.
There are also more granular difficulty settings, available for adjustment at any time during the game via the settings menu. You can customize how much experience your squad needs to level up, how much money and salvage you make from random missions, the strength of enemy forces, or even limit the number of rare drops you get from salvage.
There’s also loads more, ranging from general quality of life improvements to new events, ultrawide monitor support, and full MechWarrior customization. You can see all the details in the full 1.1 patch notes.
Harebrained Schemes posted their content roadmap back in May, and this sizable patch is the first stop on that map. The near future also includes a tutorial skip option, as well as further localization options and Linux support. If this all has you convinced to take the plunge, don’t miss our BattleTech tips, or check out our full BattleTech PC review if you’re still on the fence. It made for some fine strategic mech action even before these extensive updates.