Well I've finally started Battletech, and while it's super cool having done the first few missions. GAWD.
What do I actually need to focus on? I haven't wrecked any of my mechs yet. But what's the strategy focus? Both for the tactical and management angles? I don't really know how to be using my lights, mediums, and heavies are just a theory at this point.
I have salvaged mech components which are valuable, but can't sell them? I'm taking contracts, but that doesn't seem to be enough to cover my overhead, and I'm just doing things like replacing lost weapon parts on my starting units and hiring a few basic pilots.
I also don't really know what weapon mixes are supposed to be good. I guess I'm matching pilot skills with roles. Meleers with piloting, tanks with guts, etc. I know overheating bad, stability damage good, but the finer points of destroying/capturing mechs is going to take some TIIIIME.
Are there any good tutorials?
Well I've finally started Battletech, and while it's super cool having done the first few missions. GAWD.
What do I actually need to focus on? I haven't wrecked any of my mechs yet. But what's the strategy focus? Both for the tactical and management angles? I don't really know how to be using my lights, mediums, and heavies are just a theory at this point.
I have salvaged mech components which are valuable, but can't sell them? I'm taking contracts, but that doesn't seem to be enough to cover my overhead, and I'm just doing things like replacing lost weapon parts on my starting units and hiring a few basic pilots.
I also don't really know what weapon mixes are supposed to be good. I guess I'm matching pilot skills with roles. Meleers with piloting, tanks with guts, etc. I know overheating bad, stability damage good, but the finer points of destroying/capturing mechs is going to take some TIIIIME.
Are there any good tutorials?
Play the tabletop for 10 years. The mechanics are different, but the principles and incentives are largely the same.
Less snarkily, evasion is your friend early on. Your mechs start off made of tin foil. Always be jump jetting. And when I say evasion, I mean the game mechanic, and just strategically. The more you move, and especially when you jump, you get evasion pips. These make it really hard to hit you when you have a ton of them. And then strategically, don't let yourself get surrounded. I always like the naval analogy of crossing the T. Let them come at you single file, they will, they are dumb AI. Have a solid firing line, falling back or pivoting as necessary, and sticking to cover when you can, that just picks them off as they come. Focus fire and take them down. The moment a mech of yours has crits exposed, try to have them fall back a little further and use the more forward mechs as spotters.
Personally, I love PPCs. Especially on light or medium mechs like the Panther or Vindicator. A lot of people dump on them because they generate so much heat. But in the early game, if you've crossed the T correctly, you're nailing that lead mech with 2 or 3 PPCs, and each one imparts a +1 difficulty to it's shots. Makes your poor tissue paper light mechs take even less fire. And also, early game you're dealing with other light mechs, often with incomplete armor. A PPC or two will take sections clean off. Plus their range is exquisite so you can keep hammering away with those deep cuts from extreme range.
Yea, that's the plan. I just hope I can reuse enough of these Dell XPX 8930 parts to break down the costs enough. Oh well, a house is better in the long run in any case
I managed to slip in a new videocard with all the amazon packages flowing to our front door. She hasn't noticed... Yet.
It kinda fits in my 20 year old case. Hdmi cable doesn't quite plug in all the way because the slot in the back is a bit off.
Yea, I want to bump up to a 2060 or 2070 I think, for 1440p 144hz CyberPunk goodness. But I'm worried about physical dimensions due to the weird XPS special edition tower case, so thinking I will just get a case and move everything over. I have a 600W BQ PSU on hand so it shouldn't be too expensive. Not sure what will be required with my Windows license, if I will need a new one or not.
And finding a case that isn't full of lights and clear plexiglass in a PITA these days.
Frickin cases. I'm using my Ooooooold as shit lian li I got back in like 99 or 2000. I can't find a decent, non ugly one that I want to swap it with. That and I have some weird attachment to the old disgusting thing even after 2 decades of abuse.
Yea, that's the plan. I just hope I can reuse enough of these Dell XPX 8930 parts to break down the costs enough. Oh well, a house is better in the long run in any case
I managed to slip in a new videocard with all the amazon packages flowing to our front door. She hasn't noticed... Yet.
It kinda fits in my 20 year old case. Hdmi cable doesn't quite plug in all the way because the slot in the back is a bit off.
Yea, I want to bump up to a 2060 or 2070 I think, for 1440p 144hz CyberPunk goodness. But I'm worried about physical dimensions due to the weird XPS special edition tower case, so thinking I will just get a case and move everything over. I have a 600W BQ PSU on hand so it shouldn't be too expensive. Not sure what will be required with my Windows license, if I will need a new one or not.
And finding a case that isn't full of lights and clear plexiglass in a PITA these days.
Frickin cases. I'm using my Ooooooold as shit lian li I got back in like 99 or 2000. I can't find a decent, non ugly one that I want to swap it with. That and I have some weird attachment to the old disgusting thing even after 2 decades of abuse.
Yeah, I would have recycled my old 2007 Lian Li case if I didn't want the computer that currently resides in it to live on. I have too many games of yore actually running properly on it in Windows 7 to roll the dice trying to get them going again in Windows 10. Although I've been using VirtualBox (WinXP), 86Box (Win98SE) and Dosbox (Win3.1) more and more, so we'll see. The really tough nuts to crack are getting fewer and further between.
On a lark I installed Borland C++ Builder 4.5 inside Windows 3.1 inside Dosbox to piddle around programming for Dos during my paternity leave. Because I never learned how to program for Dos. Then the baby got colicky putting a stop to that.
Anyways. I ended up going with a pretty cheap Thermaltake case which was good enough I guess. PSU went under and vents directly out. Cable management all goes in a crawlspace between the mobo and the back panel. Only barely was able to squeeze that back panel on after I ran the 24 pin mobo cable back behind it. Then I packed it full of 6 120mm fans.
The part that seemed hardest was finding a case with a 5.25" external mount! I guess computers don't have disc drives anymore. Most of the cases that did were just fucking weird too. Cube cases and micro cases and shit. I miss just giant beige boxes. Give me a 1993 vintage full tower.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Fractal Design makes some understated but well designed cases that still have 5 1/4” external bays. The Define R6 has one for example. Older designs of theirs have more external bays.
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ApogeeLancks In Every Game EverRegistered Userregular
And focus fire them down if possible, or at least until you take the scary weapons off of them.
Just don't forget that a disarmed mech can still kick you in the face.
At least most of the early enemies won't kick your face off. Other than Hatchetman, face-punching starts being really bad from enemy 50t mechs or heavier.
What do I actually need to focus on? I haven't wrecked any of my mechs yet. But what's the strategy focus? Both for the tactical and management angles? I don't really know how to be using my lights, mediums, and heavies are just a theory at this point.
I have salvaged mech components which are valuable, but can't sell them? I'm taking contracts, but that doesn't seem to be enough to cover my overhead, and I'm just doing things like replacing lost weapon parts on my starting units and hiring a few basic pilots.
I also don't really know what weapon mixes are supposed to be good. I guess I'm matching pilot skills with roles. Meleers with piloting, tanks with guts, etc. I know overheating bad, stability damage good, but the finer points of destroying/capturing mechs is going to take some TIIIIME.
Are there any good tutorials?
You can sell mech components if you really want from mech bay, go to the tab that has all those partial mech parts. I wouldn't sell them though, not unless you are really going to go bankrupt otherwise. Useless full mechs sell for more and useful full mechs increase your roster.
You shouldn't take so much damage that you aren't making a profit. You are either taking too difficult missions or just doing poorly in them. Minimizing your incoming damage maximizes your profits and that's mostly done by trying to get as much evasion you can and staying in cover as much as possible. Bulwark is almost mandatory for all pilots and Sure-Footed helps a lot as well even though it's a lot less flashy. One basic tactic in combat is first getting all your mechs into good defensive positions and then reserving down to initiative 1 while the enemy wastes its turns inflicting minimal damage to you. You then pick a target with least evasion/cover and focus it down with all your units. Meleeing with a mech that has support weapons strips two evasion pips as does Sensor Lock. Leave your heaviest hitting mechs last so they can fire at an enemy with no or very little evasion.
If you can get your forces on one side of the target and flank it, it dies a lot faster. If you can manage to get behind it, it's usually even better (though sometimes a mech that has heavy armor in the rear panels but already depleted front armor is better off flanked than backstabbed.)
You should also take a look at your mech loadouts. Stock mechs have usually way too little armor and generate too much heat. Some of them have jump jets even if there's very little free tonnage or they are generating way too much heat in the first place. The mech bay heat rating gives way too optimistic value for jump cost, the number it gives you is like jumping once per three turns instead of the full cost of doing a max jump every turn. While jumping is great, sometimes you just can't afford the heat of it or the tonnage for the jump jets. Take your ammo off from torso locations and put it in legs, that's the safest place for it. Put your jump jets in torso locations so if you lose one leg you can still jump around. Try to max your armor on frontline mechs or at least add some if maxing it leaves you with no room for weapons.
One thing about the mission difficulty is that nowadays the mission description can be fairly informative. If much-maligned Darius says it's going to be a hard mission, you might be fighting several lances. Ambush Convoys can be quite tricky as you need to fight 8 enemies at the same time and some of the maps make it easy for the AFVs to escape leaving you with failed mission. Target Acquisition missions require very fast mechs while Attack & Defend missions are just plain hard for their skull rating. Missions that pay suspiciously well are often harder than their skull rating.
That's a few tips, at least. Feel free to ask more specific questions here.
I just got my ship up and running. I'm pretty pleased overall since I haven't lost any units and I'm sitting on about 2 million C-bills. The Argo retrieval was tense, but I got it done with a combo of light mech dancing and heavy fire power from my Blackjack. I ran a few low skull missions just to get a bit more experience.
My new Centurion is up and running, and I have collected a few more minor mechs like the Commando and Locust.
What do I want to be spending my cash on? Other than + weapons? New pilots? Heavy mechs? Those parts are spendy but I'd like to get a heavy for sure. Plus the Warhammer is by far my favorite.
Is there anyway to see what a "normal" build is supposed to look like? I'm just sort of guess what weapons go best on which mech. I know customization is king and mixing with pilots for maximum impact, but I'm not sure if everything is effective.
I've started to get the basics of heat management and targeting parts. Focus firing down units seems to work, but I was only able to beat the Argo mission by splitting my damage and crippling some of the more gunboat Mechs like the Jenner swarms.
Ah, to be breaking into Battletech fresh again..I envy you.
The early game is really the most punishing and dangerous portion of the game; your pilots can't hit shit, you have no money, and limited mech/weapon options.
My ranking for Most Dangerous Early Game Threats
1. SRM Carrier
2. Double PPC or AC20 Tank
3. Hunchback with an AC20.
4. LRM Carrier.
The SRM carrier is basically battlefield kill priority numero uno the minute you see it on the field.
Beyond that focus on keeping your mechs in cover (trees) and abusing "reserve" so that all 4 of your pilots can fire in the same round. (This is huge early on because you can use poor accuracy mechs/pilots to strip evasion pips) My rule is remove dangerous weapons if necessary, but otherwise focus down one thing at a time. If you're removing a mech off the battlefield every turn and half, you're doing great and won't get overrun. I run a PPC on at least one mech until well into the mid game because they are godly for removing turrets and vehicles early on. Lastly, remember that you only move time when traveling or hitting the big play button while doing repairs. As such the most efficient play is to do as many missions on a planet as you can, and repair while traveling to new systems.
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
It definitely can go up and down. I have Liao ping ponging... Kinda. It went down to -1 now I'm back up to 0. But Davion has never dropped once I got it to Hero.
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Yeah my needle has not budged one bit on Davion rep but I'm seesawing pretty hard between Liao and Kurita atm so I assume the actual rep values scales past the actual meter
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
It definitely can go up and down. I have Liao ping ponging... Kinda. It went down to -1 now I'm back up to 0. But Davion has never dropped once I got it to Hero.
Right, but I'm talking about once it's maxed. Like getting 8-heart or 10-heart relations in Stardew Valley (for romanceable or non-romanceable townsfolk respectably). Once you're at those levels, almost nothing you do will make you lose a heart. I have never seen a maxed faction relation drop back below hero.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I'd love to play MW2. But it just will not play on my PC. I'm no beginner to modding, but I just can't get the AbandonWare working.
Maybe on GOG someday.
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
It definitely can go up and down. I have Liao ping ponging... Kinda. It went down to -1 now I'm back up to 0. But Davion has never dropped once I got it to Hero.
Right, but I'm talking about once it's maxed. Like getting 8-heart or 10-heart relations in Stardew Valley (for romanceable or non-romanceable townsfolk respectably). Once you're at those levels, almost nothing you do will make you lose a heart. I have never seen a maxed faction relation drop back below hero.
At this point im just trying to slog through and get the main quest done so i can cruise the IS at a leisurely pace and do whatever before my guy turns 72 and retires. The time that churns by while doing missions is nuts.
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
It definitely can go up and down. I have Liao ping ponging... Kinda. It went down to -1 now I'm back up to 0. But Davion has never dropped once I got it to Hero.
Right, but I'm talking about once it's maxed. Like getting 8-heart or 10-heart relations in Stardew Valley (for romanceable or non-romanceable townsfolk respectably). Once you're at those levels, almost nothing you do will make you lose a heart. I have never seen a maxed faction relation drop back below hero.
At this point im just trying to slog through and get the main quest done so i can cruise the IS at a leisurely pace and do whatever before my guy turns 72 and retires. The time that churns by while doing missions is nuts.
Yeah, there's a reason why I'm so bad at games like this and Sid Meier's Pirates! ...I keep getting side tracked and want to do all the things, collect all the money, buy all the mechs, and make everybody love me.
Hopefully there's an endless mode being planned for the game (or can be easily modded in).
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
What do I want to be spending my cash on? Other than + weapons? New pilots? Heavy mechs? Those parts are spendy but I'd like to get a heavy for sure. Plus the Warhammer is by far my favorite.
If you have the normal difficulty settings (3 pieces per mech, mechs come equiped) buying mech parts is the easiest way to increase your combat strength. You just need to decide which mech you can get and start buying only parts for that mech, trying to buy 1 part of this and 1 part of that will not get you anywhere with the early game income. Another thing you'll need to do is to upgrade Argo, the mech bay upgrades are an absolute necessity to keep your mech refitting timers manageable.
+Weapons are nice but some of them are kinda expensive early on for little benefit. I'd concentrate on getting heavier mechs first, maybe grab cheaper useful stuff like +dmg SRMs when you see them.
Is that a story mission? I just did the anti-pirate mission where you first recover the Argo and met Princess mecha again. Now the only contracts I see are ransoms.
Is that a story mission? I just did the anti-pirate mission where you first recover the Argo and met Princess mecha again. Now the only contracts I see are ransoms.
Oh right, you don't actually have Argo yet. Been a while since I last did the campaign, sorry if I spoiled things for you.
I respect the fact that you guys are mostly just thinking out loud, but if any of you would like help with your setup, I'd be more than happy to give some guidance. You can also chat with all of us at the PC Build Thread. (We can explain how Windows licenses work, too)
Cases have come a long way the past 4-5 years and companies are actually putting some thought into them. I still hate that Dell uses custom cases, but moving to something new isn't particularly difficult. And they aren't $Texas expensive for something reasonable (example: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009GXZ8MM)
Thanks to USB drives being cheap and ubiquitous now, the industry is moving away from internal disk drives. That being said, USB 3 external versions are capable and cheap alternatives.
(Also thanks for answering my questions as I stumbled through my first run of BT)
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
I said it during Krampusnacht, and I'll say it again:
Gravity is LosTech.
@Tox I want an official Roughneck too (and Sun Spider, Corsair, Bull Shark...), but I don't know that the Clan box is a good fit for an Inner Sphere WorkMech gang-pressed into service.
I'm looking hard at the alternatives, that's for sure.
I said it during Krampusnacht, and I'll say it again:
Gravity is LosTech.
Tox I want an official Roughneck too (and Sun Spider, Corsair, Bull Shark...), but I don't know that the Clan box is a good fit for an Inner Sphere WorkMech gang-pressed into service.
I'm looking hard at the alternatives, that's for sure.
It's more than just a "bad fit" though. CGL's official position is that the PGI original designs like the Roughneck, Corsair, and Sun Spider, and I assume that goes for HBS's Bullshark, are not canonical, so unless that changes, they aren't ever going to be making official minis of them.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
I said it during Krampusnacht, and I'll say it again:
Gravity is LosTech.
Tox I want an official Roughneck too (and Sun Spider, Corsair, Bull Shark...), but I don't know that the Clan box is a good fit for an Inner Sphere WorkMech gang-pressed into service.
I'm looking hard at the alternatives, that's for sure.
It's more than just a "bad fit" though. CGL's official position is that the PGI original designs like the Roughneck, Corsair, and Sun Spider, and I assume that goes for HBS's Bullshark, are not canonical, so unless that changes, they aren't ever going to be making official minis of them.
Yeah, there's that too. I had a hint of hope that the B.Shark might be in the Arano book that got released, then I remembered (sadly) that the book came out well before the Heavy Metal DLC so there was zero chance of that happening.
So, it's off to third party sources for those particular chassis.
I said it during Krampusnacht, and I'll say it again:
Gravity is LosTech.
@Tox I want an official Roughneck too (and Sun Spider, Corsair, Bull Shark...), but I don't know that the Clan box is a good fit for an Inner Sphere WorkMech gang-pressed into service.
I'm looking hard at the alternatives, that's for sure.
The best was the Harasser just chilling out on a vertical cliff wall, but I didn't get a snap of that.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Fairly certain I’ve seen Roughnecks, Sun Spiders, and even Corsairs on Shapeways
Oh they're out there, for sure. All four of 'em. Hell, if you want a Roughneck in metal, I know a guy. It's just a matter of settling on a supplier; the digital artists ripped all those assets within a week of each chassis going live.
Fairly certain I’ve seen Roughnecks, Sun Spiders, and even Corsairs on Shapeways
Oh they're out there, for sure. All four of 'em. Hell, if you want a Roughneck in metal, I know a guy. It's just a matter of settling on a supplier; the digital artists ripped all those assets within a week of each chassis going live.
Yep, the free models are even on Thingiverse. Honestly @Nips it is time for you to invest in a 3D printer, they're awesome to make your own "unprinted".
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited December 2019
BATTLETECH
So I finally landed a pair of Gauss Rifles last night.
This is a dumb question, but what do I put these on? I'm currently using AC/20s on my Atlas and Marauder, and quad UAC/5s on my Bull Shark, and don't think I want to change them.
Nips on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
They're a replacement for AC/20s for any mech you want to give both headshot potential and long range. They're devastating with a Marauder, though you can do better with a different loadout by making the effective range shorter (see also my 2x UAC5 + 4x MLas+++ build). So I have that Marauder backed by one with an AC/10 +10 damage and a Gauss Rifle. One for headshots at long range, one for headshots at short range.
I'd love to play MW2. But it just will not play on my PC. I'm no beginner to modding, but I just can't get the AbandonWare working.
Maybe on GOG someday.
MW2 (Mercs in my case, but it's true about all three games) is kind of hard to get working on anything after Windows 8.1.
Yes, that sounds weird. I'm pretty sure I mean Windows 8.1, not Windows 7. Why? Because there's a costume kernel that was updated all the way to Windows 8.1 (including 7) to allow you to run the Windows 95 release (I want to say 3DFX version, but it may not actually matter at this point) with hardware acceleration. That means environmental and mech textures, etc., as well as a different soundtrack (some people prefer the older audio). It ran at a good framerate on top of that.
But that kernel was never modified to support any version of Windows 10. It's an effective dead end. That leaves what is the most common alternative, Dosbox emulation of the MS-DOS version of the game (which was not 3D accelerated). It does not run well in this software mode--expect low framerates even with a i5 or i7. But it's generally pretty straightforward, even if the lag is bad enough to effect the gameplay and controls.
I ended up buying a used small formfactor Windows 7 machine exclusively for old game. Yes, it was tedious to get running. But ti runs the Windows 95 release of the Titanium Trilogy very well.
Well, doing pretty good in the campaign still. My crew just did the Star League robbery missions and that was a lot of fun. My Warhammer has enhanced heavy lasers which can just *delete* units from across the entire map. But has enough heavy short range guns and jump jets to position myself either for sniping, or for melee depending on the target. It's not often my favorite "designed" mech is also the perfect match for my main character, but it certainly is in this case.
I fought another King Crab in a random mission and THIS time I did it legit. It took 20 rounds of dancing or so. But I was able to get another assault in my roster.
Also for the escape mission, boo, no Atlas, but the Highlander seems pretty cool. I think I'm at the point in the campaign where they just start *dumping* enemies at you. Still, by some miracle I even kept Kamea's soldiers alive. Although the Black Knight and Griffin were shot to pieces.
I'm just a piece or two away from having an entire lance of Assault Mechs, so that will be fun. This game really does make you feel like a tactical genius when you get everything *just* right.
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What do I actually need to focus on? I haven't wrecked any of my mechs yet. But what's the strategy focus? Both for the tactical and management angles? I don't really know how to be using my lights, mediums, and heavies are just a theory at this point.
I have salvaged mech components which are valuable, but can't sell them? I'm taking contracts, but that doesn't seem to be enough to cover my overhead, and I'm just doing things like replacing lost weapon parts on my starting units and hiring a few basic pilots.
I also don't really know what weapon mixes are supposed to be good. I guess I'm matching pilot skills with roles. Meleers with piloting, tanks with guts, etc. I know overheating bad, stability damage good, but the finer points of destroying/capturing mechs is going to take some TIIIIME.
Are there any good tutorials?
Got a UAC5, LBX10 and Streak2
Also found the hero TDR. 9 Energy hardpoints, but I'm a little disappointed my options are 8 S/M laster and 1 that can be an L or PPC.
Play the tabletop for 10 years. The mechanics are different, but the principles and incentives are largely the same.
Less snarkily, evasion is your friend early on. Your mechs start off made of tin foil. Always be jump jetting. And when I say evasion, I mean the game mechanic, and just strategically. The more you move, and especially when you jump, you get evasion pips. These make it really hard to hit you when you have a ton of them. And then strategically, don't let yourself get surrounded. I always like the naval analogy of crossing the T. Let them come at you single file, they will, they are dumb AI. Have a solid firing line, falling back or pivoting as necessary, and sticking to cover when you can, that just picks them off as they come. Focus fire and take them down. The moment a mech of yours has crits exposed, try to have them fall back a little further and use the more forward mechs as spotters.
Personally, I love PPCs. Especially on light or medium mechs like the Panther or Vindicator. A lot of people dump on them because they generate so much heat. But in the early game, if you've crossed the T correctly, you're nailing that lead mech with 2 or 3 PPCs, and each one imparts a +1 difficulty to it's shots. Makes your poor tissue paper light mechs take even less fire. And also, early game you're dealing with other light mechs, often with incomplete armor. A PPC or two will take sections clean off. Plus their range is exquisite so you can keep hammering away with those deep cuts from extreme range.
Frickin cases. I'm using my Ooooooold as shit lian li I got back in like 99 or 2000. I can't find a decent, non ugly one that I want to swap it with. That and I have some weird attachment to the old disgusting thing even after 2 decades of abuse.
Yeah, I would have recycled my old 2007 Lian Li case if I didn't want the computer that currently resides in it to live on. I have too many games of yore actually running properly on it in Windows 7 to roll the dice trying to get them going again in Windows 10. Although I've been using VirtualBox (WinXP), 86Box (Win98SE) and Dosbox (Win3.1) more and more, so we'll see. The really tough nuts to crack are getting fewer and further between.
On a lark I installed Borland C++ Builder 4.5 inside Windows 3.1 inside Dosbox to piddle around programming for Dos during my paternity leave. Because I never learned how to program for Dos. Then the baby got colicky putting a stop to that.
Anyways. I ended up going with a pretty cheap Thermaltake case which was good enough I guess. PSU went under and vents directly out. Cable management all goes in a crawlspace between the mobo and the back panel. Only barely was able to squeeze that back panel on after I ran the 24 pin mobo cable back behind it. Then I packed it full of 6 120mm fans.
The part that seemed hardest was finding a case with a 5.25" external mount! I guess computers don't have disc drives anymore. Most of the cases that did were just fucking weird too. Cube cases and micro cases and shit. I miss just giant beige boxes. Give me a 1993 vintage full tower.
Just don't forget that a disarmed mech can still kick you in the face.
At least most of the early enemies won't kick your face off. Other than Hatchetman, face-punching starts being really bad from enemy 50t mechs or heavier.
You can sell mech components if you really want from mech bay, go to the tab that has all those partial mech parts. I wouldn't sell them though, not unless you are really going to go bankrupt otherwise. Useless full mechs sell for more and useful full mechs increase your roster.
You shouldn't take so much damage that you aren't making a profit. You are either taking too difficult missions or just doing poorly in them. Minimizing your incoming damage maximizes your profits and that's mostly done by trying to get as much evasion you can and staying in cover as much as possible. Bulwark is almost mandatory for all pilots and Sure-Footed helps a lot as well even though it's a lot less flashy. One basic tactic in combat is first getting all your mechs into good defensive positions and then reserving down to initiative 1 while the enemy wastes its turns inflicting minimal damage to you. You then pick a target with least evasion/cover and focus it down with all your units. Meleeing with a mech that has support weapons strips two evasion pips as does Sensor Lock. Leave your heaviest hitting mechs last so they can fire at an enemy with no or very little evasion.
If you can get your forces on one side of the target and flank it, it dies a lot faster. If you can manage to get behind it, it's usually even better (though sometimes a mech that has heavy armor in the rear panels but already depleted front armor is better off flanked than backstabbed.)
You should also take a look at your mech loadouts. Stock mechs have usually way too little armor and generate too much heat. Some of them have jump jets even if there's very little free tonnage or they are generating way too much heat in the first place. The mech bay heat rating gives way too optimistic value for jump cost, the number it gives you is like jumping once per three turns instead of the full cost of doing a max jump every turn. While jumping is great, sometimes you just can't afford the heat of it or the tonnage for the jump jets. Take your ammo off from torso locations and put it in legs, that's the safest place for it. Put your jump jets in torso locations so if you lose one leg you can still jump around. Try to max your armor on frontline mechs or at least add some if maxing it leaves you with no room for weapons.
One thing about the mission difficulty is that nowadays the mission description can be fairly informative. If much-maligned Darius says it's going to be a hard mission, you might be fighting several lances. Ambush Convoys can be quite tricky as you need to fight 8 enemies at the same time and some of the maps make it easy for the AFVs to escape leaving you with failed mission. Target Acquisition missions require very fast mechs while Attack & Defend missions are just plain hard for their skull rating. Missions that pay suspiciously well are often harder than their skull rating.
That's a few tips, at least. Feel free to ask more specific questions here.
My new Centurion is up and running, and I have collected a few more minor mechs like the Commando and Locust.
What do I want to be spending my cash on? Other than + weapons? New pilots? Heavy mechs? Those parts are spendy but I'd like to get a heavy for sure. Plus the Warhammer is by far my favorite.
Is there anyway to see what a "normal" build is supposed to look like? I'm just sort of guess what weapons go best on which mech. I know customization is king and mixing with pilots for maximum impact, but I'm not sure if everything is effective.
I've started to get the basics of heat management and targeting parts. Focus firing down units seems to work, but I was only able to beat the Argo mission by splitting my damage and crippling some of the more gunboat Mechs like the Jenner swarms.
The early game is really the most punishing and dangerous portion of the game; your pilots can't hit shit, you have no money, and limited mech/weapon options.
My ranking for Most Dangerous Early Game Threats
1. SRM Carrier
2. Double PPC or AC20 Tank
3. Hunchback with an AC20.
4. LRM Carrier.
The SRM carrier is basically battlefield kill priority numero uno the minute you see it on the field.
Beyond that focus on keeping your mechs in cover (trees) and abusing "reserve" so that all 4 of your pilots can fire in the same round. (This is huge early on because you can use poor accuracy mechs/pilots to strip evasion pips) My rule is remove dangerous weapons if necessary, but otherwise focus down one thing at a time. If you're removing a mech off the battlefield every turn and half, you're doing great and won't get overrun. I run a PPC on at least one mech until well into the mid game because they are godly for removing turrets and vehicles early on. Lastly, remember that you only move time when traveling or hitting the big play button while doing repairs. As such the most efficient play is to do as many missions on a planet as you can, and repair while traveling to new systems.
EDIT: That first one is consistently anchoring higher on the page, so you might have to scroll down 3-4 posts. Strange...
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
So there must be no upper cap to relations. I did a bunch of Davion missions so it was maxed out for the longest time. Then because I really needed the money (screw you 300% repair cost. Wtf is with that?) I started doing Liao missions. I've done almost a dozen now against Davion and my relations with them havent suffered at all.
I could've sworn I said that about two days after the game's launch.
Or maybe I just posted it in the PA Discord. Either way, it's either the relations doesn't cap or you can't lose relations. Even though I've since moved on into Marik space and am taking contacts against Liao (not to mention how many of Davion's ace pilots I've assassinated), I am still a hero to both factions and have all the negotiation points.
It definitely can go up and down. I have Liao ping ponging... Kinda. It went down to -1 now I'm back up to 0. But Davion has never dropped once I got it to Hero.
Right, but I'm talking about once it's maxed. Like getting 8-heart or 10-heart relations in Stardew Valley (for romanceable or non-romanceable townsfolk respectably). Once you're at those levels, almost nothing you do will make you lose a heart. I have never seen a maxed faction relation drop back below hero.
Maybe on GOG someday.
At this point im just trying to slog through and get the main quest done so i can cruise the IS at a leisurely pace and do whatever before my guy turns 72 and retires. The time that churns by while doing missions is nuts.
Yeah, there's a reason why I'm so bad at games like this and Sid Meier's Pirates! ...I keep getting side tracked and want to do all the things, collect all the money, buy all the mechs, and make everybody love me.
Hopefully there's an endless mode being planned for the game (or can be easily modded in).
If you have the normal difficulty settings (3 pieces per mech, mechs come equiped) buying mech parts is the easiest way to increase your combat strength. You just need to decide which mech you can get and start buying only parts for that mech, trying to buy 1 part of this and 1 part of that will not get you anywhere with the early game income. Another thing you'll need to do is to upgrade Argo, the mech bay upgrades are an absolute necessity to keep your mech refitting timers manageable.
+Weapons are nice but some of them are kinda expensive early on for little benefit. I'd concentrate on getting heavier mechs first, maybe grab cheaper useful stuff like +dmg SRMs when you see them.
Oh right, you don't actually have Argo yet. Been a while since I last did the campaign, sorry if I spoiled things for you.
Cases have come a long way the past 4-5 years and companies are actually putting some thought into them. I still hate that Dell uses custom cases, but moving to something new isn't particularly difficult. And they aren't $Texas expensive for something reasonable (example: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009GXZ8MM)
Thanks to USB drives being cheap and ubiquitous now, the industry is moving away from internal disk drives. That being said, USB 3 external versions are capable and cheap alternatives.
(Also thanks for answering my questions as I stumbled through my first run of BT)
my god i love the physics in this game.
This is a turret from a tank...
what is this? an enforcer? So many more crazy mechs flying all over the screen tonight.
Also I just realized I kinda wish they'd made a Roughneck mini for the Clan Invasion box set. Totally would have bought one.
Gravity is LosTech.
@Tox I want an official Roughneck too (and Sun Spider, Corsair, Bull Shark...), but I don't know that the Clan box is a good fit for an Inner Sphere WorkMech gang-pressed into service.
I'm looking hard at the alternatives, that's for sure.
It's more than just a "bad fit" though. CGL's official position is that the PGI original designs like the Roughneck, Corsair, and Sun Spider, and I assume that goes for HBS's Bullshark, are not canonical, so unless that changes, they aren't ever going to be making official minis of them.
Yeah, there's that too. I had a hint of hope that the B.Shark might be in the Arano book that got released, then I remembered (sadly) that the book came out well before the Heavy Metal DLC so there was zero chance of that happening.
So, it's off to third party sources for those particular chassis.
The best was the Harasser just chilling out on a vertical cliff wall, but I didn't get a snap of that.
Oh they're out there, for sure. All four of 'em. Hell, if you want a Roughneck in metal, I know a guy. It's just a matter of settling on a supplier; the digital artists ripped all those assets within a week of each chassis going live.
Yep, the free models are even on Thingiverse. Honestly @Nips it is time for you to invest in a 3D printer, they're awesome to make your own "unprinted".
Steam: betsuni7
So I finally landed a pair of Gauss Rifles last night.
This is a dumb question, but what do I put these on? I'm currently using AC/20s on my Atlas and Marauder, and quad UAC/5s on my Bull Shark, and don't think I want to change them.
MW2 (Mercs in my case, but it's true about all three games) is kind of hard to get working on anything after Windows 8.1.
Yes, that sounds weird. I'm pretty sure I mean Windows 8.1, not Windows 7. Why? Because there's a costume kernel that was updated all the way to Windows 8.1 (including 7) to allow you to run the Windows 95 release (I want to say 3DFX version, but it may not actually matter at this point) with hardware acceleration. That means environmental and mech textures, etc., as well as a different soundtrack (some people prefer the older audio). It ran at a good framerate on top of that.
But that kernel was never modified to support any version of Windows 10. It's an effective dead end. That leaves what is the most common alternative, Dosbox emulation of the MS-DOS version of the game (which was not 3D accelerated). It does not run well in this software mode--expect low framerates even with a i5 or i7. But it's generally pretty straightforward, even if the lag is bad enough to effect the gameplay and controls.
I ended up buying a used small formfactor Windows 7 machine exclusively for old game. Yes, it was tedious to get running. But ti runs the Windows 95 release of the Titanium Trilogy very well.
I fought another King Crab in a random mission and THIS time I did it legit. It took 20 rounds of dancing or so. But I was able to get another assault in my roster.
Also for the escape mission, boo, no Atlas, but the Highlander seems pretty cool. I think I'm at the point in the campaign where they just start *dumping* enemies at you. Still, by some miracle I even kept Kamea's soldiers alive. Although the Black Knight and Griffin were shot to pieces.
I'm just a piece or two away from having an entire lance of Assault Mechs, so that will be fun. This game really does make you feel like a tactical genius when you get everything *just* right.