There's point of difficulty where a fully-armored lance at your weight or heavier can be a huge problem, chiefly because you haven't skilled up the pilots and gotten higher-level gear.
By the time you're rolling with all heavies/assaults, you've probably got a whole lance that can do Called Shots on a regular basis with ++ weapons and that hugely mitigates the armor grind against heavier mechs. But when your lance is still rolling lights and mediums and you don't have weapon variants that hit nearly twice as hard as their normal counterparts, yeah, running up against an equivalent lance can fuck you HARD with attrition. Because you hit the nail on the head: you aren't doing enough damage, or more that you aren't able to take that damage and land it on focused spots.
The best option would be to get behind them, but that's not a great idea when the enemy has two other mechs to back him up and hit you in the back if you try it. So my suggestion is to try and string them out. Just run the fuck off at max speed, use whatever cover you can to get distance, and cool off. The Griffin will outpace the Kintaros and hopefully you can get far enough that you get at least a couple turns against without the other mechs backing him up. That four rounds of damage will count a LOT more if you dump it all on the back armor and I doubt, even without high skills, it would survive more than a couple rounds of focused fire on the back from your lance. Then when the Kintaros catch up, you've got them outnumbered (hopefully) 2:1, which will make flanking them easier.
A tip that helps here: facing MATTERS. If you square off against an enemy face-to-face, you'll scatter damage across all front portions of the mech (both arms, both torso sections, both legs, the center torso, and a slight chance of head damage). But if you move to the side, you can cut the number of target panels potentially in half (almost all the targeting potential shifts to one leg, arm, and torso section) which effectively DOUBLES the real damage you're dealing. So even if you can't get on the back easily, try to stack your mechs to one side of a problem target; this will bring down their arm (usually carrying weapons), side torso (which will cause pilot damage), and leg (which will knock them down, causing pilot damage AND giving free Called Shots at higher accuracy) much faster than simply hammering away from the front.
And if you've completed the mission objectives, just run away for good. You're mercs, mercs run when things get tough.
Oh. Like kite them across the map? That's a great idea, thank you.
I have a few guys with Called Shots (that's five of Tactics, right?) But the percent chance to hit as like 15% so I don't use it very often.
Or should I level Gunnery up then to make it better?
I like the flying on a razors edge feeling here, because it has that nice feeling of barely keeping your merc company running. But I am spending half the month getting to the next contract and usually only one in a system so it's like one mission a month.
High tactics improves called shot with a called shot bonus at 6 then mastery at 9. Bonus will improve it a lot. Mastery will allow most of your shots to hit whatever spot you pick.
Gunnery improves regular shooting which also improves called shot in that youll hit the mech but not directly.
Gunnery is about hitting the mech at all. Called shot is about hitting a specific part.
Called shot can always be done and costs morale.
Tactics 5 gives you Sensor Lock.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Okay so Called Shot helps you hit the specific part, while Gunnery hits the mech at all.
Then, if you're shooting a Called Shot and miss that, then Gunnery comes into play to see if you hit the mech at all?
I am in the business of saving lives.
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Other way around. First roll to hit the mech, then roll to see where you hit.
Called shot gives you a flat bonus to hit (20% I believe?) so it can help when you’re trying to nail a squirrelly light.
+3
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2022
The percentage on the called shot is how likely you are to hit that part instead of spread around the mech as normal.
With mastery you are looking at like 80-90% for ct. Things get cored.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I tried to find a simple Alpha strike playthrough so I could play with my 8yo, but all the videos i find are like full battle reports or way too in depth. Anybody have any recommendations?
Okay second attempt went a lot better. Focused on facing and for some reason they really, really wanted my Vindicator dead, so she kited then as everyone else moved into rear arcs.
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
I am in the business of saving lives.
+2
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Yeah the ai can be vindictive. It will go for a weakened mech relentlessly. Best to run them away.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I tried to find a simple Alpha strike playthrough so I could play with my 8yo, but all the videos i find are like full battle reports or way too in depth. Anybody have any recommendations?
Okay second attempt went a lot better. Focused on facing and for some reason they really, really wanted my Vindicator dead, so she kited then as everyone else moved into rear arcs.
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
Okay second attempt went a lot better. Focused on facing and for some reason they really, really wanted my Vindicator dead, so she kited then as everyone else moved into rear arcs.
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
Ah, the Hunchback -4P. Call that a Disco Ball
I audibly said , "What the fuck?" when it first fired. I think it had like six.
Okay second attempt went a lot better. Focused on facing and for some reason they really, really wanted my Vindicator dead, so she kited then as everyone else moved into rear arcs.
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
Ah, the Hunchback -4P. Call that a Disco Ball
I audibly said , "What the fuck?" when it first fired. I think it had like six.
One of my greatest joys with the Battletech franchise is stumbling on a mech variant that makes me audibly curse, then start planning how to field it in the next tabletop game.
+6
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Okay second attempt went a lot better. Focused on facing and for some reason they really, really wanted my Vindicator dead, so she kited then as everyone else moved into rear arcs.
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
Ah, the Hunchback -4P. Call that a Disco Ball
I audibly said , "What the fuck?" when it first fired. I think it had like six.
Better. It's eight, with an additional Small Laser as a cherry on top.
I tried to find a simple Alpha strike playthrough so I could play with my 8yo, but all the videos i find are like full battle reports or way too in depth. Anybody have any recommendations?
Okay someone explain jump jets to me. What does the letter mean and do you get bigger jumps the more you put on them?
I've had two missions needlessly extended by ten minutes cause my guys couldn't hop up s tiny hill and had to walk all around it
You get longer jumps the more you put on. Your limit is based on the engine size.
The "letter" at the end relates to which size of mech it goes on. Bigger mechs require heavier jump jets
Is there any guide to how many jump jets you need to max out the range per engine? Are the engines just light, medium, heavy, and assault?
I had a great mission called "Clash of the Titans" where you run around trying to get two Assaults to fight each other so you can clean up the weekend one.
I got two pieces of Assault salvage and I've only done two story missions.
I am in the business of saving lives.
+5
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Okay someone explain jump jets to me. What does the letter mean and do you get bigger jumps the more you put on them?
I've had two missions needlessly extended by ten minutes cause my guys couldn't hop up s tiny hill and had to walk all around it
You get longer jumps the more you put on. Your limit is based on the engine size.
The "letter" at the end relates to which size of mech it goes on. Bigger mechs require heavier jump jets
Is there any guide to how many jump jets you need to max out the range per engine? Are the engines just light, medium, heavy, and assault?
I had a great mission called "Clash of the Titans" where you run around trying to get two Assaults to fight each other so you can clean up the weekend one.
I got two pieces of Assault salvage and I've only done two story missions.
Just keep putting them on until it says you can't anymore. Bam, maxed.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
In Tabletop the maximum number of jump jets you can have is the same as the walking speed of your mech, which is found by dividing your engine rating by your tonnage. Running is 1.5 time walking, rounded up.
So if you have a 50 tonner and put in a 300 XL engine, the walking speed and max jumpjets will be 6 (300 / 50 = 6). Movement rate is limited by maximum number of jump jets and you can face in any direction when you land.
In HBS Battletech, you cannot change engine ratings, so the maximum number of jump jets is fixed. Some mechs are not allowed to add jump jets for lore reasons. Movement rate is limited by maximum number of jump jets and you can face in any direction when you land.
In MWO, the maximum number of jump jets is always based on the mech chassis and nothing else. You could put 5 jump jets on a mech you also put a std 60 engine on. The maximum burn time is fixed (iirc 3.5 seconds) and adding additional jump jets gives you additional vertical thrust. Momentum is maintained, so if you fire JJ's from standing still you won't go forward far. But if you're running you retain that running speed.
Yeah, you might want to specify which version of Stompy Bots you're playing when asking how things work. Normally things work mostly the same, but there are some differences which can confuse things.
So, In HBS Battletech, I just got to the Ammo Dump mission.
Any advice? I'm pretty sure I'm under tonned at this point, most of my mechs are mediums (my heavy is a Jaeger), and none of my pilots have rating above 5 or 6.
IIRC, my last drop was my Jaeger (AC/20, Mlas), two Cents (one brawler and one missile boat) and a Vindicator (med laser spam), and I got the enemy down to 2 mechs left before they had ground me down, and the first of the trucks was gone before I ever saw it, the second I can normally tag with some LRMs but not hard enough to slow it down.
Okay someone explain jump jets to me. What does the letter mean and do you get bigger jumps the more you put on them?
I've had two missions needlessly extended by ten minutes cause my guys couldn't hop up s tiny hill and had to walk all around it
You get longer jumps the more you put on. Your limit is based on the engine size.
The "letter" at the end relates to which size of mech it goes on. Bigger mechs require heavier jump jets
Is there any guide to how many jump jets you need to max out the range per engine? Are the engines just light, medium, heavy, and assault?
I had a great mission called "Clash of the Titans" where you run around trying to get two Assaults to fight each other so you can clean up the weekend one.
I got two pieces of Assault salvage and I've only done two story missions.
In the mechlab, below the tonnage or above the Right Arm slots, you'll see some numbers for how many ballistic, energy, missile, and support hard points the mech supports and just below that is an icon with upward pointing chevrons that says X/Y for the current and max jumpjets the mech can have.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Yeah, you might want to specify which version of Stompy Bots you're playing when asking how things work. Normally things work mostly the same, but there are some differences which can confuse things.
So, In HBS Battletech, I just got to the Ammo Dump mission.
Any advice? I'm pretty sure I'm under tonned at this point, most of my mechs are mediums (my heavy is a Jaeger), and none of my pilots have rating above 5 or 6.
IIRC, my last drop was my Jaeger (AC/20, Mlas), two Cents (one brawler and one missile boat) and a Vindicator (med laser spam), and I got the enemy down to 2 mechs left before they had ground me down, and the first of the trucks was gone before I ever saw it, the second I can normally tag with some LRMs but not hard enough to slow it down.
First bit of advice, completely ignore those trucks. You only get some extra c-bills for it and chasing them is a trap that exposes your backs to every mech and turret in the field. Second, if you aren't already doing it, you can blow up 2 of the ammo crates without penalty. Try to time your shot when multiple mechs/turrets are within the blast radius. If it doesn't kill them outright, it will severly damage them and make for an easy cleanup. I also tend to prioritize the near turrets first (the ones in the top half of the map should just be ignored), then focus fire down the light mechs, then worry about the slow heavier mechs last.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
+5
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
It’s also worth noting that it’s the most difficult mission in the game if you try to get all of the bonus objectives. Spoiler alert, you don’t need to!
Yeah, that is the hardest mission in the campaign. As SiliconStew said, ignore the ammo trucks and blow those ammo crates esp if they take out a turret. Don't get greedy with the ammo crates, either, waiting for that perfect three mech explosion. Take what you can get and keep moving.
Most of the lights won't do too much damage, but they will plink away your evasion pips leaving you to take more damage from the mediums, Dragon and all the bloody turrets. The exception is the Firestarter who will ruin your day. It's got to go and quickly.
With so many things shooting at you, stability damage and knockdowns are a real threat. Use your morale ability VIGILANCE to flush stability damage when needed (and get an initiative boost next turn).
Don't mess around with trying to maximize salvage or called shots this mission. You have to quickly reduce the number of things shooting at you, and reduce the amount of damage coming your way by taking out weapons.
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2022
Second time I have had to withdraw because a convoy unit gets itself stuck and completely gives up moving forever, meaning the others can't take off, and I'd have to sit there killing everything. Which is fine and all but I cbf dealing with that if I'm going to lose 3/4 of the convoy anyway.
New Rule 1 of Morninglord's Mercenaries "No, we do not escort people"
edit: We do however still do this shit because their commander is very dumb.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Second time I have had to withdraw because a convoy unit gets itself stuck and completely gives up moving forever, meaning the others can't take off, and I'd have to sit there killing everything. Which is fine and all but I cbf dealing with that if I'm going to lose 3/4 of the convoy anyway.
New Rule 1 of Morninglord's Mercenaries "No, we do not escort people"
edit: We do however still do this shit because their commander is very dumb.
Convoys I have to escort: Armed with a medium laser.
Convoys I have to destroy: 3 Assault tanks and an LRM carrier with Mech support.
Ever notice how bad the mouse lag is in the menus? Building a mech in game (rather than building in MWO DB and importing the code) is a pain, with clicks not registering or even causing armor levels to bounce back.
This was, apparently, an intentional setting in cryengine. The mouse input is set to 30 fps, while the game (while using a GPU) is capped at 60 fps in menu. The net effect was that it was causing clicks and moving items into the mech to just...disappear.
The good news is that It can be fixed if you're using a user.cfg file.
Second time I have had to withdraw because a convoy unit gets itself stuck and completely gives up moving forever, meaning the others can't take off, and I'd have to sit there killing everything. Which is fine and all but I cbf dealing with that if I'm going to lose 3/4 of the convoy anyway.
New Rule 1 of Morninglord's Mercenaries "No, we do not escort people"
edit: We do however still do this shit because their commander is very dumb.
Surprised that keeps happening to you. While stuck convoys were a common issue, they mostly eliminated those issues with patches. I assume you are keeping a mech near the vehicles? They won't move if you've gotten too far away so I just got in the habit even before the fixes of bringing up the rear with a LRM boat and not have anybody stand on any road hex they may want to drive into. They can drive through you and other vehicles but can't stop if something is in their only destination hex. I've actually used that to fix bad pathing by parking a mech in a known bad hex so the vehicles would avoid it. But if you do leave them to go kill stuff, coming back always seems to kick them into gear again. At least it's been such a long time since I personally had one truly stuck I assumed that frustration had been finally expunged from the game, so I feel your pain at it still being around. Convoy missions should autocomplete when all enemies are destroyed, regardless of convoy position but obviously reinforcements can make that a tricky proposition, especially early on.
But "we don't do escorts" is a generally good plan anyway.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
+2
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I still refuse to do escort missions. They're boring and one-sided and way more hassle than they're every worth.
I'll attack bases. I'll defend bases. I'll do a blind drop to assassinate some random pilot I've never met, mostly because it usually means a shot at a mech I want. I'll blow up convoys.
But fuck no will I ever do escorts missions in Battletech. Also, not one fucking fight ever on that fucking awful red Martian-wasteland style map, where it's nothing but wide open space with a couple little spots of cover from sand dunes. Takes all the shittiness of the way the game stacks mechs against you and multiplies it because now you can't get cover from fucking anything, you just keep getting hammered by three lances at once. Fuck that map.
Second time I have had to withdraw because a convoy unit gets itself stuck and completely gives up moving forever, meaning the others can't take off, and I'd have to sit there killing everything. Which is fine and all but I cbf dealing with that if I'm going to lose 3/4 of the convoy anyway.
New Rule 1 of Morninglord's Mercenaries "No, we do not escort people"
edit: We do however still do this shit because their commander is very dumb.
Surprised that keeps happening to you. While stuck convoys were a common issue, they mostly eliminated those issues with patches. I assume you are keeping a mech near the vehicles? They won't move if you've gotten too far away so I just got in the habit even before the fixes of bringing up the rear with a LRM boat and not have anybody stand on any road hex they may want to drive into. They can drive through you and other vehicles but can't stop if something is in their only destination hex. I've actually used that to fix bad pathing by parking a mech in a known bad hex so the vehicles would avoid it. But if you do leave them to go kill stuff, coming back always seems to kick them into gear again. At least it's been such a long time since I personally had one truly stuck I assumed that frustration had been finally expunged from the game, so I feel your pain at it still being around. Convoy missions should autocomplete when all enemies are destroyed, regardless of convoy position but obviously reinforcements can make that a tricky proposition, especially early on.
But "we don't do escorts" is a generally good plan anyway.
Yeah I don't know what's happening. In both cases the apc tries to drive straight through a cliff, got confused, and stopped. The first one kept trying to move even though my mechs weren't near it, it just moves back and forth in front of the cliff. It didn't give me the "I'm stopped and wont move again until you come back to me" error. It just....screwed up its pathfinding.
The second time I got a little too far away so it complained at me, but I literally took three mechs back and grouped them around it at various distances, and it skipped its move every turn. I'm sure there was a tile somewhere I needed to put a mech on, but in the meantime, the other members of the convoy reached the destination, and triggered the enemy dropship, while three of my mechs were dicking around trying to get mr can't be fucked to do anything.
Like
->APC > cliff. stuck in the depths of that ">" cliff. Refuses to move. Seems to be what happens.
I didn't used to have these problems before my new rig, maybe something about it is messing with it, but from now on I ain't messing with them either.
Instead I'll just take on missions where everyone tells me I'm an idiot and I'm going to break all my mechs. Which, I mean, fair enough.
I also need to stop going to lunar planets because I tend to run my mechs hot and that really doesn't work. If I was efficient I would remove some lasers and put more heatsinks on as I fly to the planet, but, I mean, we've already established I put myself in bad situations.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I've taken to saving before spawning the escort convoy. These days it's uncommon for one of them to freak out, but it does still happen.
What I do is pre-possition 3 of my mechs well forward and keep them well forward of the convoy so I'm not playing catchup and they're not interfering with convoy pathing. The last mech stays just behind the convoy and keeps it moving.
I've had one convoy freak out since I started doing that technique and they fixed most of the pathing bugs.
Is there something I can do with HBS Battletech to make it not minimize when I switch focus to a different window?
I tend to watch Twitch on a second monitor while playing, and having my stompy bots minimize when I bounce over to make a snarky comment is a bit annoying.
Is there something I can do with HBS Battletech to make it not minimize when I switch focus to a different window?
I tend to watch Twitch on a second monitor while playing, and having my stompy bots minimize when I bounce over to make a snarky comment is a bit annoying.
Set your video settings to WINDOWED, and Resolution to your monitor resolution. Exit the game. Add
-popupwindow
to the battletech launch options, and if you're getting it on the wrong monitor, add
-adapter N
where N = your monitor number - 1, so monitor 1 is 0, 2 is 1, etc.
It's a Unity engine thing why there's no borderless windowed option.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Posts
High tactics improves called shot with a called shot bonus at 6 then mastery at 9. Bonus will improve it a lot. Mastery will allow most of your shots to hit whatever spot you pick.
Gunnery improves regular shooting which also improves called shot in that youll hit the mech but not directly.
Gunnery is about hitting the mech at all. Called shot is about hitting a specific part.
Called shot can always be done and costs morale.
Tactics 5 gives you Sensor Lock.
Then, if you're shooting a Called Shot and miss that, then Gunnery comes into play to see if you hit the mech at all?
Called shot gives you a flat bonus to hit (20% I believe?) so it can help when you’re trying to nail a squirrelly light.
With mastery you are looking at like 80-90% for ct. Things get cored.
I don't think the flat bonus is 20%, but yeah that's how it works.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Ran into two Hunchbacks which both apparently had every laser weapon ever made equipped and a Shadowhawk / Kintaro group. No Griffin this time which really made it easier.
Signaling the @Nips .
Also maybe post this also in the Battletech thread?
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/235644/battletech-clan-invasion-out-now-new-clan-berenstain-bears#latest
Steam: betsuni7
Ah, the Hunchback -4P. Call that a Disco Ball
I audibly said , "What the fuck?" when it first fired. I think it had like six.
One of my greatest joys with the Battletech franchise is stumbling on a mech variant that makes me audibly curse, then start planning how to field it in the next tabletop game.
Better. It's eight, with an additional Small Laser as a cherry on top.
Come, join us in the land of tiny plastic robots and too many sheets of paper!
Pleasedontfiretheac20andhitpleasedontfiretheac20andhitpleasedontfiretheac20andhit
This is me in MW5
Because even in my Marauder II that thing fucking hurts
And then I leg it with my dual LBX20s because lol get rekt you little 50 ton jerk
I've had two missions needlessly extended by ten minutes cause my guys couldn't hop up s tiny hill and had to walk all around it
You get longer jumps the more you put on. Your limit is based on the engine size.
The "letter" at the end relates to which size of mech it goes on. Bigger mechs require heavier jump jets
Is there any guide to how many jump jets you need to max out the range per engine? Are the engines just light, medium, heavy, and assault?
I had a great mission called "Clash of the Titans" where you run around trying to get two Assaults to fight each other so you can clean up the weekend one.
I got two pieces of Assault salvage and I've only done two story missions.
Just keep putting them on until it says you can't anymore. Bam, maxed.
...in TT. And! That rule/formula still applies in MWO/Btech, generally.
I'm pretty sure they do not give you access to quite as much info as you need to run that math yourself, but there's a more annoying one you can run.
Top Speed / 16.2 KPH = 1.5(X)
Where X is the max number of JJets your mech can carry.
If they straight give you engine ratings (not weight, ratings), then just divide that by the weight of the 'mech
So if you have a 50 tonner and put in a 300 XL engine, the walking speed and max jumpjets will be 6 (300 / 50 = 6). Movement rate is limited by maximum number of jump jets and you can face in any direction when you land.
In HBS Battletech, you cannot change engine ratings, so the maximum number of jump jets is fixed. Some mechs are not allowed to add jump jets for lore reasons. Movement rate is limited by maximum number of jump jets and you can face in any direction when you land.
In MWO, the maximum number of jump jets is always based on the mech chassis and nothing else. You could put 5 jump jets on a mech you also put a std 60 engine on. The maximum burn time is fixed (iirc 3.5 seconds) and adding additional jump jets gives you additional vertical thrust. Momentum is maintained, so if you fire JJ's from standing still you won't go forward far. But if you're running you retain that running speed.
For example, Blood Asp A starts with 3 JJ, often it goes down to only 1 by swapping out the side torsos.
By contrast, the BAS-B has no JJ, but can gain them by adding a pod with them.
In other words, if you really want you can go up to 7 with the BAS-A keeping the side torsos and swapping in the BAS-E legs.
So, In HBS Battletech, I just got to the Ammo Dump mission.
Any advice? I'm pretty sure I'm under tonned at this point, most of my mechs are mediums (my heavy is a Jaeger), and none of my pilots have rating above 5 or 6.
IIRC, my last drop was my Jaeger (AC/20, Mlas), two Cents (one brawler and one missile boat) and a Vindicator (med laser spam), and I got the enemy down to 2 mechs left before they had ground me down, and the first of the trucks was gone before I ever saw it, the second I can normally tag with some LRMs but not hard enough to slow it down.
In the mechlab, below the tonnage or above the Right Arm slots, you'll see some numbers for how many ballistic, energy, missile, and support hard points the mech supports and just below that is an icon with upward pointing chevrons that says X/Y for the current and max jumpjets the mech can have.
First bit of advice, completely ignore those trucks. You only get some extra c-bills for it and chasing them is a trap that exposes your backs to every mech and turret in the field. Second, if you aren't already doing it, you can blow up 2 of the ammo crates without penalty. Try to time your shot when multiple mechs/turrets are within the blast radius. If it doesn't kill them outright, it will severly damage them and make for an easy cleanup. I also tend to prioritize the near turrets first (the ones in the top half of the map should just be ignored), then focus fire down the light mechs, then worry about the slow heavier mechs last.
Most of the lights won't do too much damage, but they will plink away your evasion pips leaving you to take more damage from the mediums, Dragon and all the bloody turrets. The exception is the Firestarter who will ruin your day. It's got to go and quickly.
With so many things shooting at you, stability damage and knockdowns are a real threat. Use your morale ability VIGILANCE to flush stability damage when needed (and get an initiative boost next turn).
Don't mess around with trying to maximize salvage or called shots this mission. You have to quickly reduce the number of things shooting at you, and reduce the amount of damage coming your way by taking out weapons.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
New Rule 1 of Morninglord's Mercenaries "No, we do not escort people"
edit: We do however still do this shit because their commander is very dumb.
Convoys I have to escort: Armed with a medium laser.
Convoys I have to destroy: 3 Assault tanks and an LRM carrier with Mech support.
Finally got past the Ammo Dump mission.
Ever notice how bad the mouse lag is in the menus? Building a mech in game (rather than building in MWO DB and importing the code) is a pain, with clicks not registering or even causing armor levels to bounce back.
This was, apparently, an intentional setting in cryengine. The mouse input is set to 30 fps, while the game (while using a GPU) is capped at 60 fps in menu. The net effect was that it was causing clicks and moving items into the mech to just...disappear.
The good news is that It can be fixed if you're using a user.cfg file.
Surprised that keeps happening to you. While stuck convoys were a common issue, they mostly eliminated those issues with patches. I assume you are keeping a mech near the vehicles? They won't move if you've gotten too far away so I just got in the habit even before the fixes of bringing up the rear with a LRM boat and not have anybody stand on any road hex they may want to drive into. They can drive through you and other vehicles but can't stop if something is in their only destination hex. I've actually used that to fix bad pathing by parking a mech in a known bad hex so the vehicles would avoid it. But if you do leave them to go kill stuff, coming back always seems to kick them into gear again. At least it's been such a long time since I personally had one truly stuck I assumed that frustration had been finally expunged from the game, so I feel your pain at it still being around. Convoy missions should autocomplete when all enemies are destroyed, regardless of convoy position but obviously reinforcements can make that a tricky proposition, especially early on.
But "we don't do escorts" is a generally good plan anyway.
I'll attack bases. I'll defend bases. I'll do a blind drop to assassinate some random pilot I've never met, mostly because it usually means a shot at a mech I want. I'll blow up convoys.
But fuck no will I ever do escorts missions in Battletech. Also, not one fucking fight ever on that fucking awful red Martian-wasteland style map, where it's nothing but wide open space with a couple little spots of cover from sand dunes. Takes all the shittiness of the way the game stacks mechs against you and multiplies it because now you can't get cover from fucking anything, you just keep getting hammered by three lances at once. Fuck that map.
Yeah I don't know what's happening. In both cases the apc tries to drive straight through a cliff, got confused, and stopped. The first one kept trying to move even though my mechs weren't near it, it just moves back and forth in front of the cliff. It didn't give me the "I'm stopped and wont move again until you come back to me" error. It just....screwed up its pathfinding.
The second time I got a little too far away so it complained at me, but I literally took three mechs back and grouped them around it at various distances, and it skipped its move every turn. I'm sure there was a tile somewhere I needed to put a mech on, but in the meantime, the other members of the convoy reached the destination, and triggered the enemy dropship, while three of my mechs were dicking around trying to get mr can't be fucked to do anything.
Like
->APC > cliff. stuck in the depths of that ">" cliff. Refuses to move. Seems to be what happens.
I didn't used to have these problems before my new rig, maybe something about it is messing with it, but from now on I ain't messing with them either.
Instead I'll just take on missions where everyone tells me I'm an idiot and I'm going to break all my mechs. Which, I mean, fair enough.
I also need to stop going to lunar planets because I tend to run my mechs hot and that really doesn't work. If I was efficient I would remove some lasers and put more heatsinks on as I fly to the planet, but, I mean, we've already established I put myself in bad situations.
What I do is pre-possition 3 of my mechs well forward and keep them well forward of the convoy so I'm not playing catchup and they're not interfering with convoy pathing. The last mech stays just behind the convoy and keeps it moving.
I've had one convoy freak out since I started doing that technique and they fixed most of the pathing bugs.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
What's that disco ball vindicator? You do too? Yeah hi5 little buddy, hi5.
I tend to watch Twitch on a second monitor while playing, and having my stompy bots minimize when I bounce over to make a snarky comment is a bit annoying.
Set your video settings to WINDOWED, and Resolution to your monitor resolution. Exit the game. Add
-popupwindow
to the battletech launch options, and if you're getting it on the wrong monitor, add
-adapter N
where N = your monitor number - 1, so monitor 1 is 0, 2 is 1, etc.
It's a Unity engine thing why there's no borderless windowed option.