Lodium: One problem with low spec hardware even on turn based games coud be the number of units, stuff going on, size of maps, number of AI players. one of the Civilization games used to freeze or crash for me on a low spec hardware especially on huge maps with lots of AI players and units.
dtgreene: By the "number of units", do you mean something like that Berserker room in the first game (though, due to the way the game works, you don't see all of them, so it doesn't use up extra resources; it just takes time to get through all the battle messages).
(Incidentally, the high system requirements will likely mean I won't be able to play a game I've already paid for.)
Exactly, the number of units is irrelevant in this type of game.
trusteft: I haven't played BattleTech, but XCOM? I assume you are referring to the bastard child that was released a few years ago and not the original 90s one. Where did you see high graphical requirements in that? I can play the game in my Windows 8.1 tablet. 2GB of RAM, Dual Core CPU, Radeon HD 2600 XT. These are high requirements for you? They were not high when the game was released back in 2013-4 or something.
I just checked, even Battletech has a GTX 560 as minimum. So...what are you talking about? Requiring a GTX 970 for this game is just crazy. Either lazy optimization, or lazy market research.
tomimt: One of their aims in doing BT4 was graphical fidelity. Fargo stated that as BT 1-3 strived to be graphically better than the competition, BT4 would do the same, hence the requirements for better hardware.
I've watched a couple of beta vids of it, and in them the players have said that the game runs fine on lower HW than recommended though, so like always, the minimum requirments aren't necessarily gospel.
Nothing I have seen so far screams "this game needs a GTX 970!" As I mentioned before, this feels like either lazy work or lazy work. (programming/marketing)
And in the case the game does manage to run on lower specced systems. Is anyone with anything less going to gamble if it does or not? How many people in their right mind will buy a game knowing their systems is below the min req?
Mark my words, this is a sign of very poor work and I have now no doubt the game will be riddled (heh) with issues.