I am probably more fond than most of (a) armor and (b) jump jets. I usually run my King Crabs in two variants, up close and personal and LRM chucker. The AC/20 version gets one AC/20, 2 SRM6, 2-3 ML, and 2-4 SL. Here's one:
What it loses in alpha power it makes up for in durability (including a dead side arm) and positioning. At this point in the game all my pilots have tactics nine and are ping-pinging around the battlefield lining up side shots at a head or leg.
In regular career mode you rarely need more than 10 AC/20 shots. You will not infrequently fire that 10th shot, but that's almost always the point at which things are wrapping up. You do have to be mindful and not do things like use AC/20 shots on base buildings if there are still baddies on the field. 10 might be a little low for story missions in campaign, some flashpoints and possibly attack and defend missions.
For us newer types who don't have a ton of GXP saved up in MWO, PGI is now selling 200 GSP packs. In effect you fully skill up two mechs with left over for $10.
Granted, that's if you feel like spending money in the game which not everybody wants to.
I saw a Quickdraw build that was decent but it was basically set up like a Shadowhawk brawler. I think I'd rather have the earlier initiative and better movement in the 'hawk.
Also correct me if I'm wrong but the Shadowhawk has higher melee damage.
I saw a Quickdraw build that was decent but it was basically set up like a Shadowhawk brawler. I think I'd rather have the earlier initiative and better movement in the 'hawk.
Also correct me if I'm wrong but the Shadowhawk has higher melee damage.
Quickdraw and Shadowhawk have the exact same speed, but yeah 'Hawk has way higher melee damage than QD - 85 vs 55.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
How many JJs do you guys equip on average? I was using 3 at least, but wonder if I should use more.
As many JJs as possible, always. Only exception is Spider, where I remove one since 7 is plenty and that thing can use every extra gram of armor you can fit on it.
Edit: Speaking of jump jets, anybody know how much heat they generate? A Spidey can generate more than 30 if it jumps full 8 but I'm not entirely sure what the exact heat generation is ... 4 per hex? Base X heat for jumping and Y per hex? Something else?
How many JJs do you guys equip on average? I was using 3 at least, but wonder if I should use more.
As many JJs as possible, always. Only exception is Spider, where I remove one since 7 is plenty and that thing can use every extra gram of armor you can fit on it.
Edit: Speaking of jump jets, anybody know how much heat they generate? A Spidey can generate more than 30 if it jumps full 8 but I'm not entirely sure what the exact heat generation is ... 4 per hex? Base X heat for jumping and Y per hex? Something else?
1 heat per 6 meters, minimum 5 heat. So 4 heat per hex (24 meters) on flat ground. Except vertical distance counts, so a 5 hex jump isn't going to be exactly 20 heat.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Also, max jump distance in units (meters) is (number of jump jets]+1)*30, except the 8th, which adds only 15.
That's a (theoretical) max heat generation of 10 for the first jump jet, 5 for each additional one until the 8th, which adds only 3.
I made a graph at some point:
(spoilered for size. Whoops)
This is for mostly-flat terrain, shared "hexes"/rectangles are only sometimes reachable by the lower-amount of jump jets.
Top left corner: Distance in units, rounded up.
Bottom left: Heat generated (a + indicates usually 1 heat more due to rounding/height differences.)
Bottom right: generated evasion pips, not counting the possible extra one from the first Pilot skill ability.
underlined distances _120_ / _240_ , are exactly at the limit, and will only very rarely be reachable with the lower amount of jump jets,
parenthesised (150) distances are very near that limit, but will usually be reachable in ideal flat terrain.
(And I just noticed 210 is shared point as well, but I don't remember off-hand what the deal was there. Let's go with ... sometimes. ?)
I remember seeing a similar graph earlier that explained why the 8th jump jet isn't very useful and yours seem to agree with that. It doesn't always give you even one full hex of extra movement.
I remember seeing a similar graph earlier that explained why the 8th jump jet isn't very useful and yours seem to agree with that. It doesn't always give you even one full hex of extra movement.
That's because even on a perfectly flat map, the game's underlying map geometry and pathing is calculated on a 4 meter square grid, not a hex grid. An exact 24m hex spacing across the flats in the X direction is a 20.8m spacing in the Y direction. So even ignoring vertical movement, the real pathing distance most of the time does not line up exactly with the 24 meter hex grid of the UI and it always rounds down.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
+1
Options
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
How are you fitting any guns with max armor and jumpy jets? That’s room for like 1 medium laser.
Yes, but it will be a medium laser where the enemy will least expect it.
I have started another career, this time in the Draconis Combine. Let’s see how the adventures of “Merry” Mary Stanaczek and her Quite Contrarians pan out.
Picked up the last piece of a Catapult last night because my pilots can't stop coring opposing mechs instead of knocking them out of action.
I'm going to try plugging it in the Dragon slot (AC+ML) and give it my AC20 for kicks. I'm not expecting a lot but it's a 10-ton upgrade so hopefully I can staple on a meaningful amount of armor.
My PPC boat is also the only LRM boat I'm using right now.
I wanted to really love this thing but it has no Goddamn missile hardpoints.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
No, the complaint is that HBS allows you to put jumpjets on everything. The stock mechs all have their canon JJ loadouts, whether they had them or not. The Shadow Hawk 2D, 2H, and 2K canon loadouts do only have 3 jump jets, despite being able to carry up to 5, I haven't seen HBS remove (or add) anything. My feeling is, the people complaining that the ability to add them exists at all apparently don't have the self discipline just to not add them if they don't like it. But I feel the same way about people wanting Ironman modes included in games. It's completely redundant if you have the discipline to do it.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
No, the complaint is that HBS allows you to put jumpjets on everything. The stock mechs all have their canon JJ loadouts, whether they had them or not. The Shadow Hawk 2D, 2H, and 2K canon loadouts do only have 3 jump jets, despite being able to carry up to 5, I haven't seen HBS remove (or add) anything. My feeling is, the people complaining that the ability to add them exists at all apparently don't have the self discipline just to not add them if they don't like it.
Yes, exactly. HBS lets you put JJs on mechs that canonically didn't have them. BT Extended changes this by including a mod (from the JK Variants guy) that imposes canonical JJ counts. And HBS definitely seems to have added JJs to everything. I never played the TT game, but according to Sarna.net, an Atlas has no JJs but you can definitely put them on an Atlas in the unmodified HBS game.
And I don't know that I was complaining about the ability to add them so much as noting that once they were gone, I enjoyed the game more. I have no particular devotion to the TT canon, but JJ kiting is so good (or, perhaps, it's so effective at confounding the AI) that it is, as noted earlier in the thread, a disadvantage in almost all case not to include JJs in your builds.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
No, the complaint is that HBS allows you to put jumpjets on everything. The stock mechs all have their canon JJ loadouts, whether they had them or not. The Shadow Hawk 2D, 2H, and 2K canon loadouts do only have 3 jump jets, despite being able to carry up to 5, I haven't seen HBS remove (or add) anything. My feeling is, the people complaining that the ability to add them exists at all apparently don't have the self discipline just to not add them if they don't like it.
Yes, exactly. HBS lets you put JJs on mechs that canonically didn't have them. BT Extended changes this by including a mod (from the JK Variants guy) that imposes canonical JJ counts. And HBS definitely seems to have added JJs to everything. I never played the TT game, but according to Sarna.net, an Atlas has no JJs but you can definitely put them on an Atlas in the unmodified HBS game.
And I don't know that I was complaining about the ability to add them so much as noting that once they were gone, I enjoyed the game more. I have no particular devotion to the TT canon, but JJ kiting is so good (or, perhaps, it's so effective at confounding the AI) that it is, as noted earlier in the thread, a disadvantage in almost all case not to include JJs in your builds.
Allowing you to do something is not the same as doing it. The stock mechs all have the loadouts they are supposed to have. No enemy mech's can have non-stock loadouts (unmodded game). Yes, HBS lets you add jumpjets up to the walking speed, which just matches what the TT general construction rules already allow you to do for any mech build. They didn't add anything extra to the game there.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
If you want to play Career mode (which is the best way to play with mods), definitely get the Flashpoints DLC. The "flashpoints" themselves (which are multi-step missions, some of which have impose interesting gameplay limits) are kind of hit or miss, but some of them are good fun and they add some much needed variety to Career mode.
There's a few comprehensive, themed mod compilation that are really popular:
RogueTech: hardcore compilation of mods that add tons of new mechs and mechanics to the game and makes it much more difficult. Very popular, but I haven't tried it because I'm not that interested in playing a rogue-like exercise in masochism.
BT Extended 3025: compilation of mods that adds tons of new mechs and new mechanics. Not substantially more difficult than the base game. This is my go-to favorite and, IMO, a better and a more interesting improvement to the game than any of the paid DLCs.
BT Advanced 3062: compilation of mods that also adds tons of new mechs and mechanics. This apparently has 37 years' worth of more mechs than BT XT 3025 and a super-detailed mech configuration system that lets you change out more than just weapons and armor and a bunch of of mechanics changes, too. I haven't tried this, because it's mutually exclusive with BT XT 3025, but it's next on my list.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
No, the complaint is that HBS allows you to put jumpjets on everything. The stock mechs all have their canon JJ loadouts, whether they had them or not. The Shadow Hawk 2D, 2H, and 2K canon loadouts do only have 3 jump jets, despite being able to carry up to 5, I haven't seen HBS remove (or add) anything. My feeling is, the people complaining that the ability to add them exists at all apparently don't have the self discipline just to not add them if they don't like it.
Yes, exactly. HBS lets you put JJs on mechs that canonically didn't have them. BT Extended changes this by including a mod (from the JK Variants guy) that imposes canonical JJ counts. And HBS definitely seems to have added JJs to everything. I never played the TT game, but according to Sarna.net, an Atlas has no JJs but you can definitely put them on an Atlas in the unmodified HBS game.
And I don't know that I was complaining about the ability to add them so much as noting that once they were gone, I enjoyed the game more. I have no particular devotion to the TT canon, but JJ kiting is so good (or, perhaps, it's so effective at confounding the AI) that it is, as noted earlier in the thread, a disadvantage in almost all case not to include JJs in your builds.
ehhhhh....
Really it depends on the ethos of your lance and it's constituent components; for the cost of the JJs you could be packing more ammo, more armor or more weapons which could be considerably more valuable to you then the JJs.
Like If I'm rolling a LRM boat then there isn't much point in loading them since mobility is going to be less valuable to me then more ammo or bigger launchers.
My biggest issue with the forced JJ limitations thing in 3025 Extended is that it further limits the number of useful mechs. I already wanted Firestarters, Jenners, 55 ton mediums and Grasshoppers for example and now that many other mechs can't have JJs at all that behavior is further reinforced. Thunderbolts may be ok heavies but when I'm looking for medium-range brawler I'm not going to consider a mech that can't use JJs so I'll just use my 55t mediums until I get Grasshoppers every career/campaign I do. I'm not sure if that's very interesting over multiple playthroughs, just using the same mechs over and over and over again.
It's a bit sad that even with all the new mechs the mod adds, none of those are as good as the old staples (except for LRM boats).
Yes, HBS lets you add jumpjets up to the walking speed, which just matches what the TT general construction rules already allow you to do for any mech build. They didn't add anything extra to the game there.
Ah, that's cool. I didn't know that. HBS's "JJs on everything" makes a lot more sense now.
My biggest issue with the forced JJ limitations thing in 3025 Extended is that it further limits the number of useful mechs. I already wanted Firestarters, Jenners, 55 ton mediums and Grasshoppers for example and now that many other mechs can't have JJs at all that behavior is further reinforced. Thunderbolts may be ok heavies but when I'm looking for medium-range brawler I'm not going to consider a mech that can't use JJs so I'll just use my 55t mediums until I get Grasshoppers every career/campaign I do. I'm not sure if that's very interesting over multiple playthroughs, just using the same mechs over and over and over again.
It's a bit sad that even with all the new mechs the mod adds, none of those are as good as the old staples (except for LRM boats).
Well, if JJ mounts are your pre-requisite, then yeah... you're going to have to hold out for Grasshoppers. You could also just disable the JJ-disabling mod.
Otherwise, you're right that it's still true that nothing 3025 XT adds is better than an Orion, but I've gotten good use out of Archers, Chargers, and Warhammers. The only new heavy in 3025 XT that really disappoints me is the Marauder (which is sad, because it looks so cool). It's just not very useful until you have Tactics 9.
For DLC
Better flashpoint missions: Flashpoint. personal opinion, but I thought the flashpoint stories were better in this than the flashpoints you get in Urban Warfare.
Better map/biome: Urban Warfare. the urban maps add far more variety to gameplay than the tropical biome in Flashpoint.
Better mechs: Urban Warfare. Flashpoint's Cyclops' full lance initiative boost is great, but the ECM of the Raven in Urban Warfare is brokenly OP.
For mods, it really depends on what you are wanting to do, because you can do almost anything. htm covered some popular major overhaul mods. Here's popular, more individual mods (most of which are already included in some form as part of the overhaul mods previously mentioned)
General QoL:
Battletech Performance Fix - significantly reduces the load times of mechbay and store
Attack Improvement Mod - change colors and line styles of targeting info to make it far easier to tell what's what.
MechSpin - lets you spin your mechs around in the mechbay
Gameplay (add to taste):
Panic System - adds pilot panic checks to eject for both enemies and your own lance. Makes the game easier due to overall increase in mech salvage.
Permanent Evasion - mechs don't lose evasion pips when shot at. Makes the game more difficult overall from lower hit chance and makes light mechs more survivable.
Lower head hit chance mods are rather popular, but I personally don't like them because the hit chance is already very low (1%) and they blunt the importance of the sim game.
For more mechs:
Community Asset Bundle (CAB) - all the models and textures for all extra mechs and vehicles added to the game so far. Note it does not have any actual files to put any mechs into the game, you need other mods for that.
JK_Variants - adds a bunch of mech and vehicle canon variants to the game. Uses CAB for mech models not in the base game.
JK_Rarity_Tables - works with JK_Variants and makes enemy mech appearance chances closer to canon. Adds year of introduction tags, you won't see mechs before they were first built.
Timeline - works with JK_Rarity_tables to enable year of introduction of mechs and vehicles
Adjusted Mech Assembly - build complete mechs from parts of different variants. Also assembles mechs broken and with no equipment by default. If you add a bunch of new mechs to the game, it will make it much harder to complete any single variant, this counteracts that.
Of course there's a whole bunch of individual additional mech mods out there that can be added.
Complete mechbay overhaul:
MechEngineer - changes mechbay to be closer to TT, allowing changes to engine, armor types, chassis types, heatsink types, sensors, actuators, etc. Note that this requires changes to every mech and most items in the game, but the mod itself doesn't include any of that. You need other mods to make this functional. So I'd probably recommend one of the big overhaul mods that includes mechengineer already if you want to use it. Other mech mods, like JK, will often have MechEngineer specific files for the mechs you'll need to use instead if you are using this mod.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Career mode is essentially the campaign without the campaign missions - you do all the contract work, go from system to system, etc. You have 1200 days to get the highest score possible starting from scratch.
I just finished the campaign mode in HBS Battletech! Yay!
Now what? Does it automatically roll into Career mode? When next I want to play, do I hit the campaign or the career button?
Yes, it opens into sandbox play afterwards. It also opens up the DLC flashpoint missions. Downside is all the planets will stay permanently at higher difficulty, which can cause issues with reputation maintenance.
In career, the full map and DLC flashpoint missions are available from the start, planets stay the same difficulty, but you'll have to live without that powerful mech for completing the campaign.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
No. Are you talking about the popups on nexusmods? Because all the mods I'm aware of are either there or on GitHub and are all free. Nexusmods as I recall only lets you download up to a certain small filesize limit without registering. If you register a free account you can download anything, your download speeds will just be capped. But they also have paid memberships that have unrestricted speeds which they will keep reminding you about.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I see it now. I'm a dumb and they're halfway decent at making you think you HAVE to pay to have an account.
e: I feel like they really missed it with Flamers. They could have just decided to go with vehicle flamers, which use ammo. Also I found a mod that adds in Inferno SRMs and I just can't stop lolling at that.
Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
They need an expansion that adds vehicles as supplements to your lance. Maybe include a few that run ammo out to units from a supply point. It sure would help for those missions where you have to fight 2+ heavy mech lances.
Posts
What it loses in alpha power it makes up for in durability (including a dead side arm) and positioning. At this point in the game all my pilots have tactics nine and are ping-pinging around the battlefield lining up side shots at a head or leg.
In regular career mode you rarely need more than 10 AC/20 shots. You will not infrequently fire that 10th shot, but that's almost always the point at which things are wrapping up. You do have to be mindful and not do things like use AC/20 shots on base buildings if there are still baddies on the field. 10 might be a little low for story missions in campaign, some flashpoints and possibly attack and defend missions.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
*highfive* @Iolo
Granted, that's if you feel like spending money in the game which not everybody wants to.
Also correct me if I'm wrong but the Shadowhawk has higher melee damage.
Quickdraw and Shadowhawk have the exact same speed, but yeah 'Hawk has way higher melee damage than QD - 85 vs 55.
This has all the handy details.
I won't even look at a model variant that won't let me put jumpjets with an effective weapon loadout. The mobility advantage of jumpjets is just completely essential to me, since you will never ever outnumber opponents but jumpjets do let outmaneuver them and force bottlenecks.
Even in the late game when everything is tedious LRM spam, being able to force the enemy team to approach you with only one enemy in LoS at a time avoids enormous amounts of damage.
Steam: betsuni7
As many JJs as possible, always. Only exception is Spider, where I remove one since 7 is plenty and that thing can use every extra gram of armor you can fit on it.
Edit: Speaking of jump jets, anybody know how much heat they generate? A Spidey can generate more than 30 if it jumps full 8 but I'm not entirely sure what the exact heat generation is ... 4 per hex? Base X heat for jumping and Y per hex? Something else?
1 heat per 6 meters, minimum 5 heat. So 4 heat per hex (24 meters) on flat ground. Except vertical distance counts, so a 5 hex jump isn't going to be exactly 20 heat.
That's a (theoretical) max heat generation of 10 for the first jump jet, 5 for each additional one until the 8th, which adds only 3.
I made a graph at some point:
(spoilered for size. Whoops)
Top left corner: Distance in units, rounded up.
Bottom left: Heat generated (a + indicates usually 1 heat more due to rounding/height differences.)
Bottom right: generated evasion pips, not counting the possible extra one from the first Pilot skill ability.
underlined distances _120_ / _240_ , are exactly at the limit, and will only very rarely be reachable with the lower amount of jump jets,
parenthesised (150) distances are very near that limit, but will usually be reachable in ideal flat terrain.
(And I just noticed 210 is shared point as well, but I don't remember off-hand what the deal was there. Let's go with ... sometimes. ?)
That's because even on a perfectly flat map, the game's underlying map geometry and pathing is calculated on a 4 meter square grid, not a hex grid. An exact 24m hex spacing across the flats in the X direction is a 20.8m spacing in the Y direction. So even ignoring vertical movement, the real pathing distance most of the time does not line up exactly with the 24 meter hex grid of the UI and it always rounds down.
I have started another career, this time in the Draconis Combine. Let’s see how the adventures of “Merry” Mary Stanaczek and her Quite Contrarians pan out.
Some days you deal over 1100 damage and get a 700+ matchscore.
I'm going to try plugging it in the Dragon slot (AC+ML) and give it my AC20 for kicks. I'm not expecting a lot but it's a 10-ton upgrade so hopefully I can staple on a meaningful amount of armor.
My PPC boat is also the only LRM boat I'm using right now.
I wanted to really love this thing but it has no Goddamn missile hardpoints.
One of the best things about paying BT Extended 3025 (CE or plain) is that it's pretty easy to change the frequency which certain mech types show up. Edit a few .json files and... no more 4 Stalker reinforcement lances! It makes the endgame so much better.
Back to the subject of JJs, one of the other things BT XT 3025 (optionally) does is to impose the TT game's canonical JJ configurations. Apparently, the HBS game adds JJs to a lot of mechs that don't have them in the canon. So a lot of Mediums have a reduced JJ count (the Shadowhawk goes from 5 to 3, for example), and most Heavies and Assaults lack them altogether. At first, I hated that, but I've come to appreciate it. It really teaches you to how to study the terrain and move your mechs with precision. The AI is kind of bad at coping with JJ kiting, so it also eliminates a big advantage that players have over the AI.
Less JJs combined with fewer LRM bots transforms the endgame into direct fire slugfests between massive chonks, which feels exactly right for a game about giant stompy mechs.
Any top-5-ish mods?
No, the complaint is that HBS allows you to put jumpjets on everything. The stock mechs all have their canon JJ loadouts, whether they had them or not. The Shadow Hawk 2D, 2H, and 2K canon loadouts do only have 3 jump jets, despite being able to carry up to 5, I haven't seen HBS remove (or add) anything. My feeling is, the people complaining that the ability to add them exists at all apparently don't have the self discipline just to not add them if they don't like it. But I feel the same way about people wanting Ironman modes included in games. It's completely redundant if you have the discipline to do it.
Yes, exactly. HBS lets you put JJs on mechs that canonically didn't have them. BT Extended changes this by including a mod (from the JK Variants guy) that imposes canonical JJ counts. And HBS definitely seems to have added JJs to everything. I never played the TT game, but according to Sarna.net, an Atlas has no JJs but you can definitely put them on an Atlas in the unmodified HBS game.
And I don't know that I was complaining about the ability to add them so much as noting that once they were gone, I enjoyed the game more. I have no particular devotion to the TT canon, but JJ kiting is so good (or, perhaps, it's so effective at confounding the AI) that it is, as noted earlier in the thread, a disadvantage in almost all case not to include JJs in your builds.
Allowing you to do something is not the same as doing it. The stock mechs all have the loadouts they are supposed to have. No enemy mech's can have non-stock loadouts (unmodded game). Yes, HBS lets you add jumpjets up to the walking speed, which just matches what the TT general construction rules already allow you to do for any mech build. They didn't add anything extra to the game there.
If you want to play Career mode (which is the best way to play with mods), definitely get the Flashpoints DLC. The "flashpoints" themselves (which are multi-step missions, some of which have impose interesting gameplay limits) are kind of hit or miss, but some of them are good fun and they add some much needed variety to Career mode.
There's a few comprehensive, themed mod compilation that are really popular:
RogueTech: hardcore compilation of mods that add tons of new mechs and mechanics to the game and makes it much more difficult. Very popular, but I haven't tried it because I'm not that interested in playing a rogue-like exercise in masochism.
BT Extended 3025: compilation of mods that adds tons of new mechs and new mechanics. Not substantially more difficult than the base game. This is my go-to favorite and, IMO, a better and a more interesting improvement to the game than any of the paid DLCs.
BT Advanced 3062: compilation of mods that also adds tons of new mechs and mechanics. This apparently has 37 years' worth of more mechs than BT XT 3025 and a super-detailed mech configuration system that lets you change out more than just weapons and armor and a bunch of of mechanics changes, too. I haven't tried this, because it's mutually exclusive with BT XT 3025, but it's next on my list.
ehhhhh....
Really it depends on the ethos of your lance and it's constituent components; for the cost of the JJs you could be packing more ammo, more armor or more weapons which could be considerably more valuable to you then the JJs.
Like If I'm rolling a LRM boat then there isn't much point in loading them since mobility is going to be less valuable to me then more ammo or bigger launchers.
It's a bit sad that even with all the new mechs the mod adds, none of those are as good as the old staples (except for LRM boats).
Ah, that's cool. I didn't know that. HBS's "JJs on everything" makes a lot more sense now.
Well, if JJ mounts are your pre-requisite, then yeah... you're going to have to hold out for Grasshoppers. You could also just disable the JJ-disabling mod.
Otherwise, you're right that it's still true that nothing 3025 XT adds is better than an Orion, but I've gotten good use out of Archers, Chargers, and Warhammers. The only new heavy in 3025 XT that really disappoints me is the Marauder (which is sad, because it looks so cool). It's just not very useful until you have Tactics 9.
I really need to try BTA 3062.
For DLC
Better flashpoint missions: Flashpoint. personal opinion, but I thought the flashpoint stories were better in this than the flashpoints you get in Urban Warfare.
Better map/biome: Urban Warfare. the urban maps add far more variety to gameplay than the tropical biome in Flashpoint.
Better mechs: Urban Warfare. Flashpoint's Cyclops' full lance initiative boost is great, but the ECM of the Raven in Urban Warfare is brokenly OP.
For mods, it really depends on what you are wanting to do, because you can do almost anything. htm covered some popular major overhaul mods. Here's popular, more individual mods (most of which are already included in some form as part of the overhaul mods previously mentioned)
General QoL:
Battletech Performance Fix - significantly reduces the load times of mechbay and store
Attack Improvement Mod - change colors and line styles of targeting info to make it far easier to tell what's what.
MechSpin - lets you spin your mechs around in the mechbay
Gameplay (add to taste):
Panic System - adds pilot panic checks to eject for both enemies and your own lance. Makes the game easier due to overall increase in mech salvage.
Permanent Evasion - mechs don't lose evasion pips when shot at. Makes the game more difficult overall from lower hit chance and makes light mechs more survivable.
Lower head hit chance mods are rather popular, but I personally don't like them because the hit chance is already very low (1%) and they blunt the importance of the sim game.
For more mechs:
Community Asset Bundle (CAB) - all the models and textures for all extra mechs and vehicles added to the game so far. Note it does not have any actual files to put any mechs into the game, you need other mods for that.
JK_Variants - adds a bunch of mech and vehicle canon variants to the game. Uses CAB for mech models not in the base game.
JK_Rarity_Tables - works with JK_Variants and makes enemy mech appearance chances closer to canon. Adds year of introduction tags, you won't see mechs before they were first built.
Timeline - works with JK_Rarity_tables to enable year of introduction of mechs and vehicles
Adjusted Mech Assembly - build complete mechs from parts of different variants. Also assembles mechs broken and with no equipment by default. If you add a bunch of new mechs to the game, it will make it much harder to complete any single variant, this counteracts that.
Of course there's a whole bunch of individual additional mech mods out there that can be added.
Complete mechbay overhaul:
MechEngineer - changes mechbay to be closer to TT, allowing changes to engine, armor types, chassis types, heatsink types, sensors, actuators, etc. Note that this requires changes to every mech and most items in the game, but the mod itself doesn't include any of that. You need other mods to make this functional. So I'd probably recommend one of the big overhaul mods that includes mechengineer already if you want to use it. Other mech mods, like JK, will often have MechEngineer specific files for the mechs you'll need to use instead if you are using this mod.
Now what? Does it automatically roll into Career mode? When next I want to play, do I hit the campaign or the career button?
Yes, it opens into sandbox play afterwards. It also opens up the DLC flashpoint missions. Downside is all the planets will stay permanently at higher difficulty, which can cause issues with reputation maintenance.
In career, the full map and DLC flashpoint missions are available from the start, planets stay the same difficulty, but you'll have to live without that powerful mech for completing the campaign.
You have to pay a fee to get access to the mods?
fuuuuuck that.
What are you talking about? You need to pay a fee to get access to the new biomes, mechs, and missions. It's DLC, that's what DLC is.
Mods are of course free, though some may depend on the DLC to work.
Hmm, I must be using the wrong link then. Can someone drop a link to where they're getting their mods?
e: I feel like they really missed it with Flamers. They could have just decided to go with vehicle flamers, which use ammo. Also I found a mod that adds in Inferno SRMs and I just can't stop lolling at that.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Steam: betsuni7
Steam: betsuni7