Yep, always sucks having to update. Going to swing by Fry's Electronics on my way home to see what they have in stock. Otherwise it seems that the whole build-a-box world is only on Amazon. I hate buying computer parts on the Internet since I know there is a high probability that there will be a failure and need to be exchanged. Been spoiled since I always had a place to buy parts up till now.
Yeah, I haven't purchased computer hardware online since Newegg shipped me a faulty power supply that cooked my mobo. Then they charged me for the privilege of RMAing it, just to add insult to injury. Donno what's happened to them over the years. I think I'd ordered the parts for 3 or 4 complete computers from them since 2005 or so. But they aren't what they used to be.
It's about an hour drive to my nearest Microcenter, but it's still worth it.
Gave BTA 3062 a try. They loudly proclaim that "Evasion doesn't go away when you're shot at! Light mechs are survivable now!" and yet they haven't fixed the ridiculous height modifiers Urban Warfare patch introduced to the base game. I was using my newbie pilots to shoot at a far-away moving light and had 99% chance to hit due to height modifiers. *sigh*
Gave BTA 3062 a try. They loudly proclaim that "Evasion doesn't go away when you're shot at! Light mechs are survivable now!" and yet they haven't fixed the ridiculous height modifiers Urban Warfare patch introduced to the base game. I was using my newbie pilots to shoot at a far-away moving light and had 99% chance to hit due to height modifiers. *sigh*
If you don't like it just change your CombatGameConstants.json file:
"ToHitElevationLevelHeight": 16, -> change to 30 meters to cut the total rate of bonus gain in half
"ToHitElevationModifierPerLevel": 1,
"ToHitElevationUseMultipleLevels": true, -> change to false to only apply the bonus once rather than every multiple of the elevation height above
"ToHitElevationApplyPenalties": false, -> change to true to apply penalties for firing from below
I find keeping multiple bonuses enabled but just increasing the height to 30 a good compromise.
Though I'd recommend setting up this change as a mod so you don't have to redo it every time they update the game.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Newegg was bought by a Chinese company roughly 8-10 years ago and has slowly gone downhill ever since. They've always had the shitty policy of making you pay for RMA shipping, but back in the 2003 timeframe I was able to convince cust serv reps to pay for return shipping. Unsure if that's even a possibility now.
If you want to go down that road, Microcenter/Fry's have some pretty fantastic CPU+Mobo deals for Ryzen 2nd Gen since they're trying to kill off inventory. I was able to get new mobo + CPU (Ryzen 5 2600) + RAM for $250 back in...July? (can't remember right now) Bonus: if you update the BIOS on the motherboard, you can slot in a 3rd gen CPU at a later date.
Yeah Newegg also had their data stolen which doesn't help their reputation.
Last time I bought something from them was before they were bought out and had a similar issue where they wanted me to pay to RMA something or send it to the Manufacturer for free.... Ended up doing both since the Manufacturer just returning the bad RAM telling me it was good, so I just ponied up for the Newegg RMA. Just not worth it and I never went back.
Anyways the funny thing is now that I can't play MWO or BT, I wanted to. I had a Dervish waiting to be equipped and run on Thursday.
So last night I got pulled into some FW as Clan. Mostly MS and friends with a 42 guy leading the group.
First game we got Skirmish on Terra Therma and we’re matched up against the BCMC and friends group that we occasionally see in group queue for Oosik nights. Did not go so hot for us but wasn’t a complete steamroll.
Second match was Siege defense on Emerald Taiga, and once again up against the same team. The pugs on both sides did quite a bit of suiciding, and it was a slugfest the rest of the way, brutal enough that their last 3 mechs (a Flea, a Rifleman, and can’t remember the other) were badly battered but still chewing down the gun as our last two mechs (my Adder and a Jenner IIC) dropped in.
Jenner takes out the unknown light pretty quickly and we set to taking apart the Rifleman, The Jenner distracting it as I core out the back, leaving the Flea which gets legged and dispatched. There was only about 25% left on the gun when the last one went down.
Wish I had screenshotted the final score from that one.
So, a while ago, I tried the tutorial, and wasn't quite enchanted, so I got to playing other stuff. But today I figured might as well try this game again. And honestly, it drives me insane just how little I know what is happening at any point? I'm just at the first mission after the tutorial, and I'm just... clicking blindly, with no idea of whether things will do any real damage or if distance affects things or why sometimes things go Unsteady or what causes pilot injuries (my Behemoth went inoperational within the first turn of the first encounter in the first mission after the tutorial, after everything shot at the same thing and the pilot took three wounds) or or or.
Was I supposed to, like, read supplemental materials or already know the board game or something, like in Pathfinder Kingmaker? (which in its Normal mode is absolutely designed for people who are already intimately familiar with tabletop D&D).
Unsteady is (usually) caused by the mech getting hit with impact weapons (PPCs, autocannons, missiles) and can be reduced by using brace.
Pilot damage is caused by head hits, losing side torsos, falling, and ammo explosions. Last time I played (a few months ago), ammo explosions, torso loss and falling would all get grouped together so you could only get one wound if more than one of those triggered from a single shooting event.
So, a while ago, I tried the tutorial, and wasn't quite enchanted, so I got to playing other stuff. But today I figured might as well try this game again. And honestly, it drives me insane just how little I know what is happening at any point? I'm just at the first mission after the tutorial, and I'm just... clicking blindly, with no idea of whether things will do any real damage or if distance affects things or why sometimes things go Unsteady or what causes pilot injuries (my Behemoth went inoperational within the first turn of the first encounter in the first mission after the tutorial, after everything shot at the same thing and the pilot took three wounds) or or or.
Was I supposed to, like, read supplemental materials or already know the board game or something, like in Pathfinder Kingmaker? (which in its Normal mode is absolutely designed for people who are already intimately familiar with tabletop D&D).
So, a while ago, I tried the tutorial, and wasn't quite enchanted, so I got to playing other stuff. But today I figured might as well try this game again. And honestly, it drives me insane just how little I know what is happening at any point? I'm just at the first mission after the tutorial, and I'm just... clicking blindly, with no idea of whether things will do any real damage or if distance affects things or why sometimes things go Unsteady or what causes pilot injuries (my Behemoth went inoperational within the first turn of the first encounter in the first mission after the tutorial, after everything shot at the same thing and the pilot took three wounds) or or or.
Was I supposed to, like, read supplemental materials or already know the board game or something, like in Pathfinder Kingmaker? (which in its Normal mode is absolutely designed for people who are already intimately familiar with tabletop D&D).
When you're selecting a move spot, each dot will have a number of chevrons ( > ) next to it. These represent evasive charges, which help with damage mitigation. Green spots provide cover and extra protection/damage reduction. Blue dots allow you to cool off (this was in the tutorial, but not really explained well; you're basically standing in water or on ice and so your heatsinks work 100+X%). Orange spots are unsteady terrain; which increases the stability damage a mech takes, but also gives a bonus damage reduction if being hit in melee (note: this "debuff" on the mech sticks around for 1 round if you move through an area with orange spots).
Basically, if a given mech takes too much damage from weapons with kinetic energy (ACs, punches, missiles, PPCs, MGs?), it can be knocked over. This is represented by Stability "damage", which is a bar of yellow rectangles under the nameplate (for lack of a better word) for each mech. Once that bar fills up, the mech is knocked down (prone). A mech is also instantly knocked down if it loses a leg. Every time the mech gets knocked down, the pilot takes damage (pilot death means you can salvage more of a mech).
My guess is Behemoth went unoperational because you overheated after an alpha strike. There is an orange bar that fills up, which represents your heat (bottom left of the HUD). Clicking weapons on/off before firing at a target changes how quickly this meter fills up. Heatsinks mitigate heat generation between turns. You *should* have heard a beeping, and a "OVERHEAT" blinking in the HUD prior to firing, showing you were going to overheat. When a mech overheats, they "shut down" for 1 turn and are rendered immobile. This is similar to being knocked down, in that weapons have higher percentage to hit, and you lose evasiveness.
====
I learned some of this by watching videos of others (it took me way too long to understand you could turn weapons on/off each round, and that for multitarget, you can click on the weapon to cycle through targets and on/off)
Gave BTA 3062 a try. They loudly proclaim that "Evasion doesn't go away when you're shot at! Light mechs are survivable now!" and yet they haven't fixed the ridiculous height modifiers Urban Warfare patch introduced to the base game. I was using my newbie pilots to shoot at a far-away moving light and had 99% chance to hit due to height modifiers. *sigh*
Yeah, the elevation bonus is especially ridiculous in BTA 3062 once it starts raining Gauss Rifles on you.
Also, I have no idea why BT grognards in the mod community are so enchanted by sticky Evasion. It makes the game a lot easier. Having played with sticky Evasion for a while now, it's pretty obvious to me that the vanilla game's decaying Evasion mechanic is a sop to make the AI actually dangerous. Assuming you play smart, the AI has no hope of effectively focus firing any of your mechs without a means to reduce your Evasion.
This is especially a problem in BTA 3062, where you can use EndoSteel and DHSs to free up enough tonnage to put JJs on pretty much any mech. In my current BTA 3062 career, I have a Black Knight I've named "LASER POINTER" because I just continually jump it around once its in range of the enemy, and the AI never stops shooting at it but also never hits it.
htm on
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Also, I have no idea why BT grognards in the mod community are so enchanted by sticky Evasion.
Yeah, in BT3062 around mid game I had an Enforcer with 2 +melee damage arm mods that I just sprinted around punching everything with. It would one-shot anything below an Assault if it hit the CT or would destroy any other location if it missed the CT.
It had 6 evasion pips if it moved the max distance so it would almost never get hit.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Also, I have no idea why BT grognards in the mod community are so enchanted by sticky Evasion.
Because that's how it works in TT.
Evasion is also supposed to reflect that the turn-based combat is an abstraction of realtime combat. A scout mech running a hundred KPH doesn't slam to a halt after so many steps; somebody shooting at it is shooting at it over a period of time, during which it's moving at a high speed. A fast mech shouldn't become easy to hit just because a bunch of shots were fired at it and missed.
When you're playing against a human opponent, an advantage like that means less because they'll use it too and be able to intelligently encounter it (there are also risks like falling on your ass if you run too fast and turn too hard). In base BT, losing Evasion pips makes it a system all but worthless for the player because they're outnumberd 100% of the time and thus will always be getting shot at by multiple enemies. Which means the player has to resort to bunkering up for some pretty stale combat later in the game, as they have no other way to survive the mass fire coming their way.
With sticky Evasion, you can have light mechs stay viable because they're trading armor for Evasion. That means much better viable variety to your lance as difficulty goes up, instead of having to just throw heavier and heavier mechs onto the field.
Also, I have no idea why BT grognards in the mod community are so enchanted by sticky Evasion.
Because that's how it works in TT.
Evasion is also supposed to reflect that the turn-based combat is an abstraction of realtime combat. A scout mech running a hundred KPH doesn't slam to a halt after so many steps; somebody shooting at it is shooting at it over a period of time, during which it's moving at a high speed. A fast mech shouldn't become easy to hit just because a bunch of shots were fired at it and missed.
When you're playing against a human opponent, an advantage like that means less because they'll use it too and be able to intelligently encounter it (there are also risks like falling on your ass if you run too fast and turn too hard). In base BT, losing Evasion pips makes it a system all but worthless for the player because they're outnumberd 100% of the time and thus will always be getting shot at by multiple enemies. Which means the player has to resort to bunkering up for some pretty stale combat later in the game, as they have no other way to survive the mass fire coming their way.
With sticky Evasion, you can have light mechs stay viable because they're trading armor for Evasion. That means much better viable variety to your lance as difficulty goes up, instead of having to just throw heavier and heavier mechs onto the field.
If an entire Lance shoots at a single enemy I would think the odds of hitting would go up from sending a wall of fire at it, between volume of fire, and there being only so many evasive maneuvers a pilot can take
In base BT, losing Evasion pips makes it a system all but worthless for the player because they're outnumberd 100% of the time and thus will always be getting shot at by multiple enemies. Which means the player has to resort to bunkering up for some pretty stale combat later in the game, as they have no other way to survive the mass fire coming their way.
This isn't true in my experience at all. +3 Avoidance gyro with a Ace Pilot/Bulwark mechwarrior piloting a 5/8/5 medium can avoid a lot of incoming fire, making such build far more tanky than an Atlas. Even for an Atlas the difference between 3 evasion pips and none is very noticeable. Of course the best defense is a combination of avoidance and cover + Bulwark, which is far better system than the old Bulwark that required you to stand still and exchange fire like your mechs were goddamn bunkers.
The new height modifiers crap on avoidance being decent, though. I understand they wanted player and AI both to jump on top of buildings in UW DLC and have it be a sort of high risk (the building will eventually be shot from under your feet and you'll get knocked down) and high reward (+1000000 accuracy for all your attacks, yay). It's the true reason evasion is useless in the un-modded base game right now.
Isnt there a built in modifier in HareBrained Battletech game where light mechs already have a bonus to evasion before the permanent evasion?
Light mechs have 3 (or 15%) avoidance, medium mechs 1 (or 5%). With the high base accuracy and massive accuracy bonus you can get from height advantage it can be easily negated.
Isnt there a built in modifier in HareBrained Battletech game where light mechs already have a bonus to evasion before the permanent evasion?
Yes, but it applies all the time, not just from movement.
A problem with permanent evasion is that the AI isn't programmed for it, so they continue to use now sub-optimal tactics such as firing off a single weapon to no effect and they don't weigh melee high enough in those situations where continuing to fire isn't going to help to get them to consistently charge in and punch. It makes the game easier than is intended from the change alone.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
When you're selecting a move spot, each dot will have a number of chevrons ( > ) next to it. These represent evasive charges, which help with damage mitigation. Green spots provide cover and extra protection/damage reduction. Blue dots allow you to cool off (this was in the tutorial, but not really explained well; you're basically standing in water or on ice and so your heatsinks work 100+X%). Orange spots are unsteady terrain; which increases the stability damage a mech takes, but also gives a bonus damage reduction if being hit in melee (note: this "debuff" on the mech sticks around for 1 round if you move through an area with orange spots).
Basically, if a given mech takes too much damage from weapons with kinetic energy (ACs, punches, missiles, PPCs, MGs?), it can be knocked over. This is represented by Stability "damage", which is a bar of yellow rectangles under the nameplate (for lack of a better word) for each mech. Once that bar fills up, the mech is knocked down (prone). A mech is also instantly knocked down if it loses a leg. Every time the mech gets knocked down, the pilot takes damage (pilot death means you can salvage more of a mech).
My guess is Behemoth went unoperational because you overheated after an alpha strike. There is an orange bar that fills up, which represents your heat (bottom left of the HUD). Clicking weapons on/off before firing at a target changes how quickly this meter fills up. Heatsinks mitigate heat generation between turns. You *should* have heard a beeping, and a "OVERHEAT" blinking in the HUD prior to firing, showing you were going to overheat. When a mech overheats, they "shut down" for 1 turn and are rendered immobile. This is similar to being knocked down, in that weapons have higher percentage to hit, and you lose evasiveness.
====
I learned some of this by watching videos of others (it took me way too long to understand you could turn weapons on/off each round, and that for multitarget, you can click on the weapon to cycle through targets and on/off)
No, Behemoth went to the ground because all the enemies in the encounter shot at her specifically - after the third pilot wound the mech fell over, but I don't know if it was because the pilot was down or because the stability damage knocked it down, since you mention missiles do kinetic and there were rather a lot of missiles shot her way. I know what heat is, I may not have played Battletech but I know battletech mechs are very heat conscious, because once I was playing in a freeform Super Robot Wars RP game and the dude playing a Battletech character was an annoyance that tried to insist everyone else's mechs should also worry about heat (it is kind of hilarious to see someone trying to assert Getter Robo needs to count ammo and worry about heat).
Anyway, restarted and got through the first mission. I still am not entirely sure of why sometimes I shoot a turret and it implodes in one shot, and sometimes it barely scratches the paint, but I assume that while the tutorial just mentioned that pieces are destroyable, the game has internal crits in addition to the mentioned "peel armor, break thing" and these turrets are just very crittable. One of my mechs got their left arm totaled in the ambush at the end because I misunderstood how meleeing worked and so I left the poor bastard right next to a tank having failed to melee correctly, but otherwise they mostly made it out alright. Now I guess I get to find out if the timers between missions allow for repair times or not.
Thanks for the links to basics guides, btw, @SiliconStew .
When you're selecting a move spot, each dot will have a number of chevrons ( > ) next to it. These represent evasive charges, which help with damage mitigation. Green spots provide cover and extra protection/damage reduction. Blue dots allow you to cool off (this was in the tutorial, but not really explained well; you're basically standing in water or on ice and so your heatsinks work 100+X%). Orange spots are unsteady terrain; which increases the stability damage a mech takes, but also gives a bonus damage reduction if being hit in melee (note: this "debuff" on the mech sticks around for 1 round if you move through an area with orange spots).
Basically, if a given mech takes too much damage from weapons with kinetic energy (ACs, punches, missiles, PPCs, MGs?), it can be knocked over. This is represented by Stability "damage", which is a bar of yellow rectangles under the nameplate (for lack of a better word) for each mech. Once that bar fills up, the mech is knocked down (prone). A mech is also instantly knocked down if it loses a leg. Every time the mech gets knocked down, the pilot takes damage (pilot death means you can salvage more of a mech).
My guess is Behemoth went unoperational because you overheated after an alpha strike. There is an orange bar that fills up, which represents your heat (bottom left of the HUD). Clicking weapons on/off before firing at a target changes how quickly this meter fills up. Heatsinks mitigate heat generation between turns. You *should* have heard a beeping, and a "OVERHEAT" blinking in the HUD prior to firing, showing you were going to overheat. When a mech overheats, they "shut down" for 1 turn and are rendered immobile. This is similar to being knocked down, in that weapons have higher percentage to hit, and you lose evasiveness.
====
I learned some of this by watching videos of others (it took me way too long to understand you could turn weapons on/off each round, and that for multitarget, you can click on the weapon to cycle through targets and on/off)
No, Behemoth went to the ground because all the enemies in the encounter shot at her specifically - after the third pilot wound the mech fell over, but I don't know if it was because the pilot was down or because the stability damage knocked it down, since you mention missiles do kinetic and there were rather a lot of missiles shot her way. I know what heat is, I may not have played Battletech but I know battletech mechs are very heat conscious, because once I was playing in a freeform Super Robot Wars RP game and the dude playing a Battletech character was an annoyance that tried to insist everyone else's mechs should also worry about heat (it is kind of hilarious to see someone trying to assert Getter Robo needs to count ammo and worry about heat).
Anyway, restarted and got through the first mission. I still am not entirely sure of why sometimes I shoot a turret and it implodes in one shot, and sometimes it barely scratches the paint, but I assume that while the tutorial just mentioned that pieces are destroyable, the game has internal crits in addition to the mentioned "peel armor, break thing" and these turrets are just very crittable. One of my mechs got their left arm totaled in the ambush at the end because I misunderstood how meleeing worked and so I left the poor bastard right next to a tank having failed to melee correctly, but otherwise they mostly made it out alright. Now I guess I get to find out if the timers between missions allow for repair times or not.
Thanks for the links to basics guides, btw, SiliconStew .
Rookie pilots start with 3 health (Guts skill less than 4). Current health is shown by the little bars underneath each of their portraits in game or listed in the barracks. Your pilot was unconscious or dead from wounds.
Turrets have different levels of armor depending on type or condition, shown in the target info panel at the top of the screen when targeted. Some can be killed in a single shot depending on weapon and others have hundreds of points of armor. But they also have extremely low internal structure, so you're unlikely to get any crits on them before just outright killing the thing.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
The turrets in the first mission are the weirdest thing, because you're supposed to shoot the critically weak Control Building which blows up all four at once, but this mechanic is never used again from what I remember. Helpfully, the UI will auto-target the turrets by default instead of the building, unless it picks enemy mechs which are a far less deadly threat in that situation.
In most cases, you have to destroy each turret individually from that point on except for maybe one or two story missions?
The turrets in the first mission are the weirdest thing, because you're supposed to shoot the critically weak Control Building which blows up all four at once, but this mechanic is never used again from what I remember. Helpfully, the UI will auto-target the turrets by default instead of the building, unless it picks enemy mechs which are a far less deadly threat in that situation.
In most cases, you have to destroy each turret individually from that point on except for maybe one or two story missions?
Most story missions with turrets have some sort of power generator or building you can destroy to disable them. I dont think any of the procedurally generated missions do though.
That whole mission, all I could think about was how if I had my normal team, I'd core 3/4 of the opposition before they got a shot off.
I first went into it being all nervous, but nothing put up much resistance until the final lance of Assaults. And I was able to work from a save state that had my whole lance available and nearly on top of the Battlemaster (at full health) with all other AI mechs dead.
Current plan is to set the BM up as a replacement for one of my Black Knights. The jury is still out on the Highlander. For now, I kept the stock loadout but removed (iirc) the MGs and a heatsink to staple on more armor. Some commenters said they set theirs up as a LRM/Sniper boat, which seems kind of a waste for an Assault.
One of these two will eventually get a AC/20 bolted on, but I'm waiting to find a AC with bonuses.
One of the Highlander variants is the best LRM boat in the game. King Crab has the same number of hardpoints, but doesn't spread them between two locations so you don't have room to get as many LRMs on there.
I don't know if it's the best use of your first Highlander. And any Highlander with special gear should be assessed as such before major reconfigurations are undertaken. But at some point if you play long enough, you'll have a few Highlanders. If you want an LRM boat in your lance, you really can't do better.
Current plan is to set the BM up as a replacement for one of my Black Knights.
Battlemaster isn't any better than a Black Knight, they both have the same speed and same 42.5 tons of free space with BK having 1 better initiative. Not sure if the slightly more varied hardpoints and +20 melee damage BM has are worth losing 1 initiative but that's up to you.
Yeah, I know. I'm always insulting any new mechs you get. :P
Got to the point in skill points where I said "f it" and swapped the Pakhet to 4 SSRM-6, light tag, light probe, and 2xERML. It's absolutely hysterical when a light tries to dive an assault near me and discovers the hard way that he's taking 48 undodgeable damage.
Once I finish skilling it up I may swap out pods so I can add some variety of streak launchers so I can avoid the ghost heat situation (right now I chain fire them).
Also, settled on the Purifier (Kit Fox hero) for my free light. I realized I can just get a FLE-20 and it'll be virtually as good as the Pirate's Bane.
@htm I took on a mission and managed to headshot a Awesome. Currently equipped with 2x PPC and a MLaser + 3xPPC (srsly an energy hardpoint on the head sucks balls). Haven't tried it out yet, but I"m hoping for some sniping fun.
Got to the point in skill points where I said "f it" and swapped the Pakhet to 4 SSRM-6, light tag, light probe, and 2xERML. It's absolutely hysterical when a light tries to dive an assault near me and discovers the hard way that he's taking 48 undodgeable damage.
Once I finish skilling it up I may swap out pods so I can add some variety of streak launchers so I can avoid the ghost heat situation (right now I chain fire them).
Also, settled on the Purifier (Kit Fox hero) for my free light. I realized I can just get a FLE-20 and it'll be virtually as good as the Pirate's Bane.
The Flea 20 is ok, but its armor quirks makes it easier to leg than the Pirate's Bane. At least that's what I noticed while piloting them both.
Ugh, nothing ruins your day like a Catapult-C4 in the reinforcements lance showing up and throwing like 70 points of stability damage on you unexpectedly. Granted, I knew the reinforcements were out there and was playing a bit loose, closing ground without cover. Still hurts...
psst, hey kids, want to see what happens in Domination when everybody's running missile only builds and everybody runs out of ammo?
We just danced around each other for a bit and then the Cyclops went and stood outside the circle so we wouldn't be waiting 8 minutes for the game to end (we were up :15 remaining to his :55).
Posts
Steam: betsuni7
It's about an hour drive to my nearest Microcenter, but it's still worth it.
If you don't like it just change your CombatGameConstants.json file:
"ToHitElevationLevelHeight": 16, -> change to 30 meters to cut the total rate of bonus gain in half
"ToHitElevationModifierPerLevel": 1,
"ToHitElevationUseMultipleLevels": true, -> change to false to only apply the bonus once rather than every multiple of the elevation height above
"ToHitElevationApplyPenalties": false, -> change to true to apply penalties for firing from below
I find keeping multiple bonuses enabled but just increasing the height to 30 a good compromise.
Though I'd recommend setting up this change as a mod so you don't have to redo it every time they update the game.
If you want to go down that road, Microcenter/Fry's have some pretty fantastic CPU+Mobo deals for Ryzen 2nd Gen since they're trying to kill off inventory. I was able to get new mobo + CPU (Ryzen 5 2600) + RAM for $250 back in...July? (can't remember right now) Bonus: if you update the BIOS on the motherboard, you can slot in a 3rd gen CPU at a later date.
Last time I bought something from them was before they were bought out and had a similar issue where they wanted me to pay to RMA something or send it to the Manufacturer for free.... Ended up doing both since the Manufacturer just returning the bad RAM telling me it was good, so I just ponied up for the Newegg RMA. Just not worth it and I never went back.
Anyways the funny thing is now that I can't play MWO or BT, I wanted to. I had a Dervish waiting to be equipped and run on Thursday.
Steam: betsuni7
First game we got Skirmish on Terra Therma and we’re matched up against the BCMC and friends group that we occasionally see in group queue for Oosik nights. Did not go so hot for us but wasn’t a complete steamroll.
Second match was Siege defense on Emerald Taiga, and once again up against the same team. The pugs on both sides did quite a bit of suiciding, and it was a slugfest the rest of the way, brutal enough that their last 3 mechs (a Flea, a Rifleman, and can’t remember the other) were badly battered but still chewing down the gun as our last two mechs (my Adder and a Jenner IIC) dropped in.
Jenner takes out the unknown light pretty quickly and we set to taking apart the Rifleman, The Jenner distracting it as I core out the back, leaving the Flea which gets legged and dispatched. There was only about 25% left on the gun when the last one went down.
Wish I had screenshotted the final score from that one.
Was I supposed to, like, read supplemental materials or already know the board game or something, like in Pathfinder Kingmaker? (which in its Normal mode is absolutely designed for people who are already intimately familiar with tabletop D&D).
Unsteady is (usually) caused by the mech getting hit with impact weapons (PPCs, autocannons, missiles) and can be reduced by using brace.
Pilot damage is caused by head hits, losing side torsos, falling, and ammo explosions. Last time I played (a few months ago), ammo explosions, torso loss and falling would all get grouped together so you could only get one wound if more than one of those triggered from a single shooting event.
If you left without playing anything but the tutorial, just start a new game with the tutorial. But this guide covers the basics and much more if you don't want to do that: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1365402907
When you're selecting a move spot, each dot will have a number of chevrons ( > ) next to it. These represent evasive charges, which help with damage mitigation. Green spots provide cover and extra protection/damage reduction. Blue dots allow you to cool off (this was in the tutorial, but not really explained well; you're basically standing in water or on ice and so your heatsinks work 100+X%). Orange spots are unsteady terrain; which increases the stability damage a mech takes, but also gives a bonus damage reduction if being hit in melee (note: this "debuff" on the mech sticks around for 1 round if you move through an area with orange spots).
Basically, if a given mech takes too much damage from weapons with kinetic energy (ACs, punches, missiles, PPCs, MGs?), it can be knocked over. This is represented by Stability "damage", which is a bar of yellow rectangles under the nameplate (for lack of a better word) for each mech. Once that bar fills up, the mech is knocked down (prone). A mech is also instantly knocked down if it loses a leg. Every time the mech gets knocked down, the pilot takes damage (pilot death means you can salvage more of a mech).
My guess is Behemoth went unoperational because you overheated after an alpha strike. There is an orange bar that fills up, which represents your heat (bottom left of the HUD). Clicking weapons on/off before firing at a target changes how quickly this meter fills up. Heatsinks mitigate heat generation between turns. You *should* have heard a beeping, and a "OVERHEAT" blinking in the HUD prior to firing, showing you were going to overheat. When a mech overheats, they "shut down" for 1 turn and are rendered immobile. This is similar to being knocked down, in that weapons have higher percentage to hit, and you lose evasiveness.
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I learned some of this by watching videos of others (it took me way too long to understand you could turn weapons on/off each round, and that for multitarget, you can click on the weapon to cycle through targets and on/off)
Yeah, the elevation bonus is especially ridiculous in BTA 3062 once it starts raining Gauss Rifles on you.
Also, I have no idea why BT grognards in the mod community are so enchanted by sticky Evasion. It makes the game a lot easier. Having played with sticky Evasion for a while now, it's pretty obvious to me that the vanilla game's decaying Evasion mechanic is a sop to make the AI actually dangerous. Assuming you play smart, the AI has no hope of effectively focus firing any of your mechs without a means to reduce your Evasion.
This is especially a problem in BTA 3062, where you can use EndoSteel and DHSs to free up enough tonnage to put JJs on pretty much any mech. In my current BTA 3062 career, I have a Black Knight I've named "LASER POINTER" because I just continually jump it around once its in range of the enemy, and the AI never stops shooting at it but also never hits it.
Because that's how it works in TT.
It had 6 evasion pips if it moved the max distance so it would almost never get hit.
Evasion is also supposed to reflect that the turn-based combat is an abstraction of realtime combat. A scout mech running a hundred KPH doesn't slam to a halt after so many steps; somebody shooting at it is shooting at it over a period of time, during which it's moving at a high speed. A fast mech shouldn't become easy to hit just because a bunch of shots were fired at it and missed.
When you're playing against a human opponent, an advantage like that means less because they'll use it too and be able to intelligently encounter it (there are also risks like falling on your ass if you run too fast and turn too hard). In base BT, losing Evasion pips makes it a system all but worthless for the player because they're outnumberd 100% of the time and thus will always be getting shot at by multiple enemies. Which means the player has to resort to bunkering up for some pretty stale combat later in the game, as they have no other way to survive the mass fire coming their way.
With sticky Evasion, you can have light mechs stay viable because they're trading armor for Evasion. That means much better viable variety to your lance as difficulty goes up, instead of having to just throw heavier and heavier mechs onto the field.
If an entire Lance shoots at a single enemy I would think the odds of hitting would go up from sending a wall of fire at it, between volume of fire, and there being only so many evasive maneuvers a pilot can take
This isn't true in my experience at all. +3 Avoidance gyro with a Ace Pilot/Bulwark mechwarrior piloting a 5/8/5 medium can avoid a lot of incoming fire, making such build far more tanky than an Atlas. Even for an Atlas the difference between 3 evasion pips and none is very noticeable. Of course the best defense is a combination of avoidance and cover + Bulwark, which is far better system than the old Bulwark that required you to stand still and exchange fire like your mechs were goddamn bunkers.
The new height modifiers crap on avoidance being decent, though. I understand they wanted player and AI both to jump on top of buildings in UW DLC and have it be a sort of high risk (the building will eventually be shot from under your feet and you'll get knocked down) and high reward (+1000000 accuracy for all your attacks, yay). It's the true reason evasion is useless in the un-modded base game right now.
MWO: Adamski
Light mechs have 3 (or 15%) avoidance, medium mechs 1 (or 5%). With the high base accuracy and massive accuracy bonus you can get from height advantage it can be easily negated.
Yes, but it applies all the time, not just from movement.
A problem with permanent evasion is that the AI isn't programmed for it, so they continue to use now sub-optimal tactics such as firing off a single weapon to no effect and they don't weigh melee high enough in those situations where continuing to fire isn't going to help to get them to consistently charge in and punch. It makes the game easier than is intended from the change alone.
No, Behemoth went to the ground because all the enemies in the encounter shot at her specifically - after the third pilot wound the mech fell over, but I don't know if it was because the pilot was down or because the stability damage knocked it down, since you mention missiles do kinetic and there were rather a lot of missiles shot her way. I know what heat is, I may not have played Battletech but I know battletech mechs are very heat conscious, because once I was playing in a freeform Super Robot Wars RP game and the dude playing a Battletech character was an annoyance that tried to insist everyone else's mechs should also worry about heat (it is kind of hilarious to see someone trying to assert Getter Robo needs to count ammo and worry about heat).
Anyway, restarted and got through the first mission. I still am not entirely sure of why sometimes I shoot a turret and it implodes in one shot, and sometimes it barely scratches the paint, but I assume that while the tutorial just mentioned that pieces are destroyable, the game has internal crits in addition to the mentioned "peel armor, break thing" and these turrets are just very crittable. One of my mechs got their left arm totaled in the ambush at the end because I misunderstood how meleeing worked and so I left the poor bastard right next to a tank having failed to melee correctly, but otherwise they mostly made it out alright. Now I guess I get to find out if the timers between missions allow for repair times or not.
Thanks for the links to basics guides, btw, @SiliconStew .
Rag tag militia have reduced armour, which includes base defences and turrets
MWO: Adamski
Rookie pilots start with 3 health (Guts skill less than 4). Current health is shown by the little bars underneath each of their portraits in game or listed in the barracks. Your pilot was unconscious or dead from wounds.
Turrets have different levels of armor depending on type or condition, shown in the target info panel at the top of the screen when targeted. Some can be killed in a single shot depending on weapon and others have hundreds of points of armor. But they also have extremely low internal structure, so you're unlikely to get any crits on them before just outright killing the thing.
In most cases, you have to destroy each turret individually from that point on except for maybe one or two story missions?
Most story missions with turrets have some sort of power generator or building you can destroy to disable them. I dont think any of the procedurally generated missions do though.
MWO: Adamski
Pilot in a Griffin: *DFAs and takes out the pilot of the Battlemaster, while losing one leg.*
*fistpump*
Got all 3 pieces.
Nice!
Yeah none of your pilots that mission have Tactics 9, so harvesting a whole mech can be a bit dicey. But, hey, 9th time's the charm, right?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I first went into it being all nervous, but nothing put up much resistance until the final lance of Assaults. And I was able to work from a save state that had my whole lance available and nearly on top of the Battlemaster (at full health) with all other AI mechs dead.
Current plan is to set the BM up as a replacement for one of my Black Knights. The jury is still out on the Highlander. For now, I kept the stock loadout but removed (iirc) the MGs and a heatsink to staple on more armor. Some commenters said they set theirs up as a LRM/Sniper boat, which seems kind of a waste for an Assault.
One of these two will eventually get a AC/20 bolted on, but I'm waiting to find a AC with bonuses.
I don't know if it's the best use of your first Highlander. And any Highlander with special gear should be assessed as such before major reconfigurations are undertaken. But at some point if you play long enough, you'll have a few Highlanders. If you want an LRM boat in your lance, you really can't do better.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Battlemaster isn't any better than a Black Knight, they both have the same speed and same 42.5 tons of free space with BK having 1 better initiative. Not sure if the slightly more varied hardpoints and +20 melee damage BM has are worth losing 1 initiative but that's up to you.
Yeah, I know. I'm always insulting any new mechs you get. :P
The 9th try is just the third third time.
It's like, the super charm.
The special toy it comes with is currently in storage, I don’t really have a mech it’d go on right now.
“What’s worse than a gauss rifle? A flying gauss rifle.”
Got to the point in skill points where I said "f it" and swapped the Pakhet to 4 SSRM-6, light tag, light probe, and 2xERML. It's absolutely hysterical when a light tries to dive an assault near me and discovers the hard way that he's taking 48 undodgeable damage.
Once I finish skilling it up I may swap out pods so I can add some variety of streak launchers so I can avoid the ghost heat situation (right now I chain fire them).
Also, settled on the Purifier (Kit Fox hero) for my free light. I realized I can just get a FLE-20 and it'll be virtually as good as the Pirate's Bane.
The Flea 20 is ok, but its armor quirks makes it easier to leg than the Pirate's Bane. At least that's what I noticed while piloting them both.
Steam: betsuni7
Farewell ++Melee mod Punchhopper.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
We just danced around each other for a bit and then the Cyclops went and stood outside the circle so we wouldn't be waiting 8 minutes for the game to end (we were up :15 remaining to his :55).