Main problem is that (in my relatively early game experience) you usually fight against opponents 3 to 4 times your numbers.
Lot of small mobile mechs, all raining down fire on you, so you take lot more hits than the enemy does, so you also take lot more pilot injuries.
Taking on two or three medium to heavy mechs, nowhere near as bad as having to take on half a dozen to dozen light mechs.
If you're fighting 3-4 times your number... I'm afraid you're doing it wrong. Advance more cautiously, make use of your sensor range (which I think increases with Tactics? Or at least you get more info, like tonnage) and if you find yourself in a bad spot, back up and limit the engagement to their faster units.
Me advancing slowly is not going to make those mechs, turrets or vehicles evaporate from the map.
The point i was making, that you take lot more hits than the npc's.
Because you are bigger, and thougher, but less numerous.
And that leads to more headshots and pilote injuries.
It doesn't delete them from the map, but it allows you to engage at range on your terms rather than having everything shoot you all at the same time. The fewer shots fired at you, the less damage you take. If you engage units 1-2 at a time, you get shot at less. If you run at the enemy guns blazing (and believe me, I love doing this and love short range brawling mechs so much) you take a lot of damage.
I know you are well meaning, but i was not, at any point, soliciting for tactical advice, or complaining about difficulty.
Nor am i a complete moron who simply charges into battle with no thought for tactics, or technical capabilities of my enemies.
My point was simple: more shots fired at you (and no, not every map, or enemy group, allows for simply hiding from the enemy fire), means more headshots taken, because unless you go out of your way to spare the mech, you probably kill the enemy before headshots to them start to accumulate.
Though some maps don't really give you much to work with as far as maneuvering goes.
Couple missions ago i was against 3 medium mechs (Blackjack, Hunchback, Shadow Hawk), 3 light mechs (firefighter, panther and locust) and 2 vehicles (tank and somekind of missile launcher), and the map was basicly a small bowl, with couple buildings in the middle.
Still kept all my armor in all my mechs except my trebuchet, which quite frankly has next to no armor to make room for more missiles for the 2xLMR20's.
I don't have time to dig through this thread but has anybody with the black screen bug had any success finding a workaround?
Right now it's looking like might have to get a refund.
Believe it or not i was able to get mechwarrior running by holding down the alt key when i clicked run battletech throgh the steam library interface, this brought up the settings for the resolution on startup which was messed up for me. After i made it in game and set my resolution through settings i havent had the same problem again..
I understand it's happening because I'm playing the game.
Is this just a normal thing and get used to it? Have 1-2 people in the med Bay after every mission?
That's just the game?
I'll sleep on it but I am feeling now like shutting it down and coming back after a couple patches.
It is part bad luck (my experience is about 1 every 2-3 missions), part subconscious bias, and part shit armor and mostly-vehicle makeup of those early enemies means you are getting shot at more than you get to shoot at mechs.
So, it seems that how many thirds you get from a mech kill is entirely dependent on how it was killed.
If you destroyed the CT, you get 1/3
If you blew off both legs, you get 2/3
If you incapacitated/killed the mechwarrior, you get the full 3/3
...how much damage up to that point doesn't seem to matter; blew off a leg and torso section of a mech once, but because of a previous knockdown that had nothing to do with legs, pilot was incapacitated, and the full three parts were available, even though only about 2/3rds of the mech was actually still intact.
So, it seems that how many thirds you get from a mech kill is entirely dependent on how it was killed.
If you destroyed the CT, you get 1/3
If you blew off both legs, you get 2/3
If you incapacitated/killed the mechwarrior, you get the full 3/3
...how much damage up to that point doesn't seem to matter; blew off a leg and torso section of a mech once, but because of a previous knockdown that had nothing to do with legs, pilot was incapacitated, and the full three parts were available, even though only about 2/3rds of the mech was actually still intact.
Thats supposedly how its supposed to work
but it dont.
I got full 3/3 salvage just from blowing a mech to shit. it seems entirely random.
I’ve definitely been enjoying this game so far. Watching a stream beforehand definitely helps with understanding the combat flow. I play pretty conservatively and have had minimal issues keeping my mechs in the game while earning money. I’ve refitted all my standard mechs with max front armor at the cost of mostly jump jets and only a couple weapons. Getting ready to finally do the first story contract.
Still trying to figure out the locust/spider. I love their maneuverability, but I had refit for support weapons only to try to knock some mecha over. However I can’t seem to ever set up a good way to use that. So I put its m laser back on. I think I’m going to go max piloting and sensor lock on my scout pilot so he can provide a target as well as run in, punch or shoot twice and run out again.
Have managed to only salvage 1 mech so far. The trade off system is interesting, but not yet meaningful because I’m still struggling to pay bills. I’m almost always at one notch below max pay even without many repair bills. We will see how this changes after the first story contract.
So, it seems that how many thirds you get from a mech kill is entirely dependent on how it was killed.
If you destroyed the CT, you get 1/3
If you blew off both legs, you get 2/3
If you incapacitated/killed the mechwarrior, you get the full 3/3
...how much damage up to that point doesn't seem to matter; blew off a leg and torso section of a mech once, but because of a previous knockdown that had nothing to do with legs, pilot was incapacitated, and the full three parts were available, even though only about 2/3rds of the mech was actually still intact.
Thats supposedly how its supposed to work
but it dont.
I got full 3/3 salvage just from blowing a mech to shit. it seems entirely random.
Did blowing a mech to shit include ammo explosion and side total loss? I'm just wondering if there's an order of operations in play
+2
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I need to catch up with the last like five pages of the thread, but I wanted to point out a couple of things about how mission difficulty works.
A couple weeks ago Kiva (the lead dev on the the simulation half of the game) went into how mission difficulty is calculated and assigned. Basically, there's a hudden Difficulty number for a random mission: this number starts at 1 and goes up to 12. Every planet has a difficulty assigned to it (based on the planet's tags like how populated it is, who controls it, whether it's along a border or other warzone, etc). This number is the base difficulty. Then there's a global difficulty modifier, which starts at 0 and increases as you progress the campaign. This number is added to the planetary base. There are a couple of other factors that raise or lower the total slightly, like mission type and terrain, etc. And then there's a fudge factor: a random die roll (which I believe is weighted to a normal distribution) that adds anything from -2 to +2. Then the total Difficulty number is divided by two, and that's your skull rating (a 1 diff is a half-skull, a 6 diff is a three-skull, etc). However, the outcome of the random fudge factor is not included in the skull rating!
What this means is two things: first, a mission can be up to a full skull easier or harder than its listed difficulty, and this is the game working as intended. It also means that contrary to the impression some people had gotten, skull difficulty is not relative. A two-skull mission is a two-skull mission regardless of where you are in the game (except, of course, when it's not a two-skull mission, but is secretly a 1.5 or a 3 or whatever).
The fudge factor is there to simulate the fact that mercenaries sometimes get bad intel. If you get into a mission that seems like an absolute fuckfest, that's because it is. Pull the ripcord and get out. It's 100% intended that sometimes you'll just need to withdraw.
Also, the difficulty number counts higher than 10, so at the endgame you will sometimes get five-skull missions that are actually six-skull difficulty.
If they extend the game via updates to Clan times...I really hope they dont focus on the clan invasion of the IS, cause honestly..kind of done to death.
What i want to see, is my Merc unit be part of Taskforce Serpent, and to hear the word given by Ariana before the exterminatus of the Jaguar homeworld begins.
+1
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Tiger BurningDig if you will, the pictureRegistered User, SolidSaints Tuberegular
edited April 2018
Beginning to pick my missions a little more carefully, and to avoid the "Battle" missions that are "Go destroy this one lance of mechs which is definitely just one lance of mechs and no of course not always and everywhere actually TWO lances of mechs why would you even ask that?". Dealing with the fiddly bits of more specific mission objectives is better than incurring a month of mech/pilot downtime to those bloodbaths.
I got through the first story mission with only 1 day of repair for 1 mech and 20 days for that pilot. Why is the computer so lucky with hitting my guys.
At least nobody died to a tank this time.
Wooooooo! Finally got a Kintaro. Knocked him down then stomped his head off with my almost dead Cent who lost his AC20 arm and only had 34 structure left in the CT. Props to the Vindi with his PPC++ with 20 stability damage and LRM15++ with bonus stability damage for knocking him over.
Luckily I already had 1/3 of a KTO-18 in the bay because I only got 2 priority salvage. Now to retire the Shadowhawk for a while and load this thing up with Alllllllll the LRMs.
I need to catch up with the last like five pages of the thread, but I wanted to point out a couple of things about how mission difficulty works.
A couple weeks ago Kiva (the lead dev on the the simulation half of the game) went into how mission difficulty is calculated and assigned. Basically, there's a hudden Difficulty number for a random mission: this number starts at 1 and goes up to 12. Every planet has a difficulty assigned to it (based on the planet's tags like how populated it is, who controls it, whether it's along a border or other warzone, etc). This number is the base difficulty. Then there's a global difficulty modifier, which starts at 0 and increases as you progress the campaign. This number is added to the planetary base. There are a couple of other factors that raise or lower the total slightly, like mission type and terrain, etc. And then there's a fudge factor: a random die roll (which I believe is weighted to a normal distribution) that adds anything from -2 to +2. Then the total Difficulty number is divided by two, and that's your skull rating (a 1 diff is a half-skull, a 6 diff is a three-skull, etc). However, the outcome of the random fudge factor is not included in the skull rating!
What this means is two things: first, a mission can be up to a full skull easier or harder than its listed difficulty, and this is the game working as intended. It also means that contrary to the impression some people had gotten, skull difficulty is not relative. A two-skull mission is a two-skull mission regardless of where you are in the game (except, of course, when it's not a two-skull mission, but is secretly a 1.5 or a 3 or whatever).
The fudge factor is there to simulate the fact that mercenaries sometimes get bad intel. If you get into a mission that seems like an absolute fuckfest, that's because it is. Pull the ripcord and get out. It's 100% intended that sometimes you'll just need to withdraw.
Also, the difficulty number counts higher than 10, so at the endgame you will sometimes get five-skull missions that are actually six-skull difficulty.
Well that explains the 3 full medium lances vs my 1 medium Lance fuck fest... I would have done better but I could just not kill their Kintaro which tied up my cent for 8 rounds before I bailed. But by God I took down 4 without losing anyone.
+5
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Tiger BurningDig if you will, the pictureRegistered User, SolidSaints Tuberegular
I need to catch up with the last like five pages of the thread, but I wanted to point out a couple of things about how mission difficulty works.
A couple weeks ago Kiva (the lead dev on the the simulation half of the game) went into how mission difficulty is calculated and assigned. Basically, there's a hudden Difficulty number for a random mission: this number starts at 1 and goes up to 12. Every planet has a difficulty assigned to it (based on the planet's tags like how populated it is, who controls it, whether it's along a border or other warzone, etc). This number is the base difficulty. Then there's a global difficulty modifier, which starts at 0 and increases as you progress the campaign. This number is added to the planetary base. There are a couple of other factors that raise or lower the total slightly, like mission type and terrain, etc. And then there's a fudge factor: a random die roll (which I believe is weighted to a normal distribution) that adds anything from -2 to +2. Then the total Difficulty number is divided by two, and that's your skull rating (a 1 diff is a half-skull, a 6 diff is a three-skull, etc). However, the outcome of the random fudge factor is not included in the skull rating!
What this means is two things: first, a mission can be up to a full skull easier or harder than its listed difficulty, and this is the game working as intended. It also means that contrary to the impression some people had gotten, skull difficulty is not relative. A two-skull mission is a two-skull mission regardless of where you are in the game (except, of course, when it's not a two-skull mission, but is secretly a 1.5 or a 3 or whatever).
The fudge factor is there to simulate the fact that mercenaries sometimes get bad intel. If you get into a mission that seems like an absolute fuckfest, that's because it is. Pull the ripcord and get out. It's 100% intended that sometimes you'll just need to withdraw.
Also, the difficulty number counts higher than 10, so at the endgame you will sometimes get five-skull missions that are actually six-skull difficulty.
Did he mention how the difficulty score translated into what you faced? Just tonnage, or also other things like number or type or whether reinforcements show up?
Well, finally got my first heavy mech.
And got it all in one mission.
Dragon DRG-1N
AC5, LRM10, 2xMLaser
No idea how to build this.
Could make a decent long lange bombard with 2 AC5's or the AC20 and couple LRM5's and keep it down the back just hitting things once they are exposed by others.
Could give it couple MLasers and SLasers with 2 SRM6's and try to for a relatively speedy brawler, possibly with AC2 for long range potshots on downed enemies or turrets.
Well, finally got my first heavy mech.
And got it all in one mission.
Dragon DRG-1N
AC5, LRM10, 2xMLaser
No idea how to build this.
Could make a decent long lange bombard with 2 AC5's or the AC20 and couple LRM5's and keep it down the back just hitting things once they are exposed by others.
Could give it couple MLasers and SLasers with 2 SRM6's and try to for a relatively speedy brawler, possibly with AC2 for long range potshots on downed enemies or turrets.
Well, finally got my first heavy mech.
And got it all in one mission.
Dragon DRG-1N
AC5, LRM10, 2xMLaser
No idea how to build this.
Could make a decent long lange bombard with 2 AC5's or the AC20 and couple LRM5's and keep it down the back just hitting things once they are exposed by others.
Could give it couple MLasers and SLasers with 2 SRM6's and try to for a relatively speedy brawler, possibly with AC2 for long range potshots on downed enemies or turrets.
AC/20 has crap for range, it's the same as ML. I have a AC/20 and two MLs on my Dragon and it's not that great, just a Hunchback with more armor. AC/20 is not too bad with Breaching Shot though.
I wouldn't bother with AC/2 on anything btw, it weights way too much for the piddly damage it does - 6 tons for the gun and 1 for ammo and it hits for 25, same as a ML.
This made me realize I could just sell my Dragon, I don't really use it much anymore. I've gotten more mileage out of my SRM-boat Shadow Hawk (renamed it Umbral Ostrich to remind me I took out the jump jets) than the Dragon.
Behold, the Bloodthirster! Shoot PPC when too far, smash things up when too hot. Probably crap but I intend to give it a try. Couldn't really figure out what else to make out of a Grasshopper, I don't really like laser vomit builds as a rule.
Behold, the Bloodthirster! Shoot PPC when too far, smash things up when too hot. Probably crap but I intend to give it a try. Couldn't really figure out what else to make out of a Grasshopper, I don't really like laser vomit builds as a rule.
Behold, the Bloodthirster! Shoot PPC when too far, smash things up when too hot. Probably crap but I intend to give it a try. Couldn't really figure out what else to make out of a Grasshopper, I don't really like laser vomit builds as a rule.
b-b-b-b-b-but..grasshopper are lazur vamets~!
I still has 5 laz0rs, isn't that enough?
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Tiger BurningDig if you will, the pictureRegistered User, SolidSaints Tuberegular
edited April 2018
I just got one too, and I think Grasshoppers are cheating. 6 ML 6 SL an SRM4, jump jets, max armor, and 8 extra heat sinks. Things got, like, bird bones or something.
Well, finally got my first heavy mech.
And got it all in one mission.
Dragon DRG-1N
AC5, LRM10, 2xMLaser
No idea how to build this.
Could make a decent long lange bombard with 2 AC5's or the AC20 and couple LRM5's and keep it down the back just hitting things once they are exposed by others.
Could give it couple MLasers and SLasers with 2 SRM6's and try to for a relatively speedy brawler, possibly with AC2 for long range potshots on downed enemies or turrets.
I built mine the second way, without the AC2. It's an amazing brawler. Hasn't left the team since. It's as fast as a fast medium and tanky as hell, and has the melee punch of a heavier heavy.
It's probably my favorite mech so far.
Also, ALSO, you can paint the front like a dragon snout.
Tiger Burning on
Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Wait, wait, wait. You can name Mechs?! God dammit game you never tell me anything!
Man I was just thinking, “I’d really love to be able to name my Mechs for ease of remembering what they’re for.”
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Behold, the Bloodthirster! Shoot PPC when too far, smash things up when too hot. Probably crap but I intend to give it a try. Couldn't really figure out what else to make out of a Grasshopper, I don't really like laser vomit builds as a rule.
b-b-b-b-b-but..grasshopper are lazur vamets~!
I still has 5 laz0rs, isn't that enough?
change the MG's for lasors, or burny things.
Nyysjan on
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
Lots of heavy mechs in the missions, but it's always a unique variant from the previous ones, so my bay is full of 1/3 and 2/3 heavies.
The mediums aren't cutting it anymore, not sure how much longer I can continue like this.
Yeah the fact that salvaging mechs requires that you salvage three parts of a specific variant is getting pretty annoying.
I'm only 16 hours in but I still haven't managed to put together a single salvaged mech of any kind.
I like the way you can put pieces of mechs together to make a whole one, but I would prefer each salvaged mech counted as 1 piece of salvage. If you headshot and kill the pilot, you get a 3/3 piece of salvage. If you take out both legs, you get a 2/3 piece of salvage. Core a mech and that's a 1/3 piece of salvage. Otherwise, what? You have a complete mech left after the battle but are going to cut into pieces to share with your employer?
Question: Is there any way to check the keywords a pilot has before hiring them? All the randomly generated pilots are cool, but I'd like to know what those keywords -do-. I did pick up a unique pilot, Blockade, and a Kickstarter backer character that didn't have a ludicrous callsign. I left 'God' and 'Ice Trey' where I found them, but Flatline had a cool portrait and backstory so I picked him up when I saw him.
I'm rolling with a pretty redheaded female backer pilot named Whisper that I'm liking so far. Well, her and one of the developers, Chris Eck. I was pretty lucky to come across them.
Wait, wait, wait. You can name Mechs?! God dammit game you never tell me anything!
Man I was just thinking, “I’d really love to be able to name my Mechs for ease of remembering what they’re for.”
You can only name them in the Mech Bay and it counts as a 0 day job, kinda clunky but it works. I wish you could re-write the mech roles as well, feel stupid that they say something like "Long Range Cavalry Brawler Stuntman" when it's really now a LRM Boat or a Lazer Rave or Punchbot.
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
I have been doing well so far and haven't made any significant losses besides the occasional minor injury, but I suppose I should confess that I've extremely conservative with my overall global story progress. I cleared the Argo mission but apart from that it's all been 0.5-1 skull contracts that barely scratch the paint. It's been profiting decently purely by how little significant damage occurs within the outcome, maybe someone in the roster gets knocked out for a few weeks (not a problem at all with the barracks filled out enough for a backup) and internals need a few days to fix.
Even my big story missions have been relatively smooth sailing despite the scare dealing with my first heavy mech, but even with that I lucked out, got full salvage and even spare parts for a Shadowhawk. The legging strategy someone posted earlier has been paying dividends for me really nicely
After getting the argo, i've been doing 1,5 to 2 skull missions.
Not really making much of profit, and what i have saved up is getting burned by repairs and upgrades to argo.
Figured that i could max out the morale facilities and then lower the amount i pay to people while i get powerful enough to do higher difficulty missions.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Now I have an Assault Mech
Ho-Ho-Ho
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Okay I've only done two missions, but what exactly is the indirect fire Tactics is supposed to boost? I haven't seen anything other than direct aiming so far.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
Okay I've only done two missions, but what exactly is the indirect fire Tactics is supposed to boost? I haven't seen anything other than direct aiming so far.
Rockets, especially long range (LRM) ones can be shot behind cover as long as you have someone who sees the enemy, or has target lockdown on them.
Very usefull for shooting enemies who can't shoot back.
+3
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Okay I've only done two missions, but what exactly is the indirect fire Tactics is supposed to boost? I haven't seen anything other than direct aiming so far.
For LRMs when you shoot over stuff (like ridges, buildings or etc) or when you fire your LRMs at a target that is being spotted by a friendly, but is otherwise out of range for your LRM Mech.
If you’ve a LRMboat it is pretty important.
Though maxing Tactics over Gunnery can lead to funny situations where your Pilot is deadly accurate at blind firing at a target miles away, but can’t hit shit that is looking right at them. :razz:
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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TIFunkaliciousKicking back inNebraskaRegistered Userregular
Putting your newest warrior in the Spider is like an airtight case for murder
+6
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Oh and I’ve encountered my first vehicle that carries a million fucking LRMs.
*new enemy contact*
“Oh it’s just a vehicle I don’t need to worry about that right now.”
Then I hear the LRM swoosh.
Then I continue to hear the LRM swoosh.
And I continue to hear the LRM swoosh.
“I probably need to worry about that right now.”
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Okay I've only done two missions, but what exactly is the indirect fire Tactics is supposed to boost? I haven't seen anything other than direct aiming so far.
Also Tactics will at higher levels also boost called shots and reduce the minimum range for long-range weapons, which makes it good for everybody once you have the skill points to spare.
I've been thinking about how to build an optimized salvage lance and my thinking is missle boats with as many separate LRMs or SRMs as possible, machineguns, and as much + Stab Dmg as possible. Aiming for head shots and knockdown to take out the pilot while leaving the mech intact.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
One thing I'm really not a fan of is the save system. I save compulsively and without being able to name/overwrite saves, my save list gets really big, really fast. Then I have to go in and delete old saves, which consists of clicking the X next to each one and hitting enter, then waiting 2 seconds. I haven't been able to find the save file location to delete the manually. I'd rather it use a traditional save menu where you type in the name of the save so I can keep a rolling group of saves.
I now have an Orion, ON1-K.
Slapping a couple PPC's, couple LMR5's and half a dozen heat sinks and call it a day.
Behemoth will have fun with it, will add jump jets when i get some.
Posts
I know you are well meaning, but i was not, at any point, soliciting for tactical advice, or complaining about difficulty.
Nor am i a complete moron who simply charges into battle with no thought for tactics, or technical capabilities of my enemies.
My point was simple: more shots fired at you (and no, not every map, or enemy group, allows for simply hiding from the enemy fire), means more headshots taken, because unless you go out of your way to spare the mech, you probably kill the enemy before headshots to them start to accumulate.
Though some maps don't really give you much to work with as far as maneuvering goes.
Couple missions ago i was against 3 medium mechs (Blackjack, Hunchback, Shadow Hawk), 3 light mechs (firefighter, panther and locust) and 2 vehicles (tank and somekind of missile launcher), and the map was basicly a small bowl, with couple buildings in the middle.
Still kept all my armor in all my mechs except my trebuchet, which quite frankly has next to no armor to make room for more missiles for the 2xLMR20's.
Believe it or not i was able to get mechwarrior running by holding down the alt key when i clicked run battletech throgh the steam library interface, this brought up the settings for the resolution on startup which was messed up for me. After i made it in game and set my resolution through settings i havent had the same problem again..
It is part bad luck (my experience is about 1 every 2-3 missions), part subconscious bias, and part shit armor and mostly-vehicle makeup of those early enemies means you are getting shot at more than you get to shoot at mechs.
If you destroyed the CT, you get 1/3
If you blew off both legs, you get 2/3
If you incapacitated/killed the mechwarrior, you get the full 3/3
...how much damage up to that point doesn't seem to matter; blew off a leg and torso section of a mech once, but because of a previous knockdown that had nothing to do with legs, pilot was incapacitated, and the full three parts were available, even though only about 2/3rds of the mech was actually still intact.
Thats supposedly how its supposed to work
but it dont.
I got full 3/3 salvage just from blowing a mech to shit. it seems entirely random.
Still trying to figure out the locust/spider. I love their maneuverability, but I had refit for support weapons only to try to knock some mecha over. However I can’t seem to ever set up a good way to use that. So I put its m laser back on. I think I’m going to go max piloting and sensor lock on my scout pilot so he can provide a target as well as run in, punch or shoot twice and run out again.
Have managed to only salvage 1 mech so far. The trade off system is interesting, but not yet meaningful because I’m still struggling to pay bills. I’m almost always at one notch below max pay even without many repair bills. We will see how this changes after the first story contract.
Did blowing a mech to shit include ammo explosion and side total loss? I'm just wondering if there's an order of operations in play
A couple weeks ago Kiva (the lead dev on the the simulation half of the game) went into how mission difficulty is calculated and assigned. Basically, there's a hudden Difficulty number for a random mission: this number starts at 1 and goes up to 12. Every planet has a difficulty assigned to it (based on the planet's tags like how populated it is, who controls it, whether it's along a border or other warzone, etc). This number is the base difficulty. Then there's a global difficulty modifier, which starts at 0 and increases as you progress the campaign. This number is added to the planetary base. There are a couple of other factors that raise or lower the total slightly, like mission type and terrain, etc. And then there's a fudge factor: a random die roll (which I believe is weighted to a normal distribution) that adds anything from -2 to +2. Then the total Difficulty number is divided by two, and that's your skull rating (a 1 diff is a half-skull, a 6 diff is a three-skull, etc). However, the outcome of the random fudge factor is not included in the skull rating!
What this means is two things: first, a mission can be up to a full skull easier or harder than its listed difficulty, and this is the game working as intended. It also means that contrary to the impression some people had gotten, skull difficulty is not relative. A two-skull mission is a two-skull mission regardless of where you are in the game (except, of course, when it's not a two-skull mission, but is secretly a 1.5 or a 3 or whatever).
The fudge factor is there to simulate the fact that mercenaries sometimes get bad intel. If you get into a mission that seems like an absolute fuckfest, that's because it is. Pull the ripcord and get out. It's 100% intended that sometimes you'll just need to withdraw.
Also, the difficulty number counts higher than 10, so at the endgame you will sometimes get five-skull missions that are actually six-skull difficulty.
If they extend the game via updates to Clan times...I really hope they dont focus on the clan invasion of the IS, cause honestly..kind of done to death.
What i want to see, is my Merc unit be part of Taskforce Serpent, and to hear the word given by Ariana before the exterminatus of the Jaguar homeworld begins.
At least nobody died to a tank this time.
Luckily I already had 1/3 of a KTO-18 in the bay because I only got 2 priority salvage. Now to retire the Shadowhawk for a while and load this thing up with Alllllllll the LRMs.
Well that explains the 3 full medium lances vs my 1 medium Lance fuck fest... I would have done better but I could just not kill their Kintaro which tied up my cent for 8 rounds before I bailed. But by God I took down 4 without losing anyone.
Did he mention how the difficulty score translated into what you faced? Just tonnage, or also other things like number or type or whether reinforcements show up?
And got it all in one mission.
Dragon DRG-1N
AC5, LRM10, 2xMLaser
No idea how to build this.
Could make a decent long lange bombard with 2 AC5's or the AC20 and couple LRM5's and keep it down the back just hitting things once they are exposed by others.
Could give it couple MLasers and SLasers with 2 SRM6's and try to for a relatively speedy brawler, possibly with AC2 for long range potshots on downed enemies or turrets.
Its a dragon.
I say its time for some bowling.
AC/20 has crap for range, it's the same as ML. I have a AC/20 and two MLs on my Dragon and it's not that great, just a Hunchback with more armor. AC/20 is not too bad with Breaching Shot though.
I wouldn't bother with AC/2 on anything btw, it weights way too much for the piddly damage it does - 6 tons for the gun and 1 for ammo and it hits for 25, same as a ML.
This made me realize I could just sell my Dragon, I don't really use it much anymore. I've gotten more mileage out of my SRM-boat Shadow Hawk (renamed it Umbral Ostrich to remind me I took out the jump jets) than the Dragon.
But no AC2, takes too much weight away from the armor.
It's not going to be fast, so better make it though.
Behold, the Bloodthirster! Shoot PPC when too far, smash things up when too hot. Probably crap but I intend to give it a try. Couldn't really figure out what else to make out of a Grasshopper, I don't really like laser vomit builds as a rule.
b-b-b-b-b-but..grasshopper are lazur vamets~!
I think i have 2/3rds of one, bet haven't seen one in, couple years in game time i guess.
I still has 5 laz0rs, isn't that enough?
I built mine the second way, without the AC2. It's an amazing brawler. Hasn't left the team since. It's as fast as a fast medium and tanky as hell, and has the melee punch of a heavier heavy.
It's probably my favorite mech so far.
Also, ALSO, you can paint the front like a dragon snout.
Man I was just thinking, “I’d really love to be able to name my Mechs for ease of remembering what they’re for.”
change the MG's for lasors, or burny things.
I like the way you can put pieces of mechs together to make a whole one, but I would prefer each salvaged mech counted as 1 piece of salvage. If you headshot and kill the pilot, you get a 3/3 piece of salvage. If you take out both legs, you get a 2/3 piece of salvage. Core a mech and that's a 1/3 piece of salvage. Otherwise, what? You have a complete mech left after the battle but are going to cut into pieces to share with your employer?
I'm rolling with a pretty redheaded female backer pilot named Whisper that I'm liking so far. Well, her and one of the developers, Chris Eck. I was pretty lucky to come across them.
You can only name them in the Mech Bay and it counts as a 0 day job, kinda clunky but it works. I wish you could re-write the mech roles as well, feel stupid that they say something like "Long Range Cavalry Brawler Stuntman" when it's really now a LRM Boat or a Lazer Rave or Punchbot.
Even my big story missions have been relatively smooth sailing despite the scare dealing with my first heavy mech, but even with that I lucked out, got full salvage and even spare parts for a Shadowhawk. The legging strategy someone posted earlier has been paying dividends for me really nicely
Not really making much of profit, and what i have saved up is getting burned by repairs and upgrades to argo.
Figured that i could max out the morale facilities and then lower the amount i pay to people while i get powerful enough to do higher difficulty missions.
Ho-Ho-Ho
Rockets, especially long range (LRM) ones can be shot behind cover as long as you have someone who sees the enemy, or has target lockdown on them.
Very usefull for shooting enemies who can't shoot back.
For LRMs when you shoot over stuff (like ridges, buildings or etc) or when you fire your LRMs at a target that is being spotted by a friendly, but is otherwise out of range for your LRM Mech.
If you’ve a LRMboat it is pretty important.
Though maxing Tactics over Gunnery can lead to funny situations where your Pilot is deadly accurate at blind firing at a target miles away, but can’t hit shit that is looking right at them. :razz:
*new enemy contact*
“Oh it’s just a vehicle I don’t need to worry about that right now.”
Then I hear the LRM swoosh.
Then I continue to hear the LRM swoosh.
And I continue to hear the LRM swoosh.
“I probably need to worry about that right now.”
Also Tactics will at higher levels also boost called shots and reduce the minimum range for long-range weapons, which makes it good for everybody once you have the skill points to spare.
Slapping a couple PPC's, couple LMR5's and half a dozen heat sinks and call it a day.
Behemoth will have fun with it, will add jump jets when i get some.