I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
I can say that my Orions didn’t come from headshots, the game threw them at me like they were on clearance and they needed to clear the shelves.
Ha, yeah. Every game I've played to completion has had a "geez I really hope I score an Orion" phase of varying length, acquisition of an Orion, followed at some tipping point by an "I'm awash in goddamn Orions" phase through the end of the game dependent only on how recently I've been through a +10% sale price system.
I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
Yeah, my Black Knight is working well with lasers-to-the-gills (and reasonable heat management, too); so one of my high-Tactics pilots will likely go there.
I still have my Shadow Hawk set up as a bruiser (ML + SRMs) to help thin out lances. And with a Precision Shot and a single PPC, I can either outright core any Light mech, or I can put them on the ropes to the point they are gone shortly after.
Catapult is currently AC + MLs, so that would likely be my secondary head shooter.
LRM support is a Centurion (debating dropping the MLs I have on it to add more LRMs).
I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
Yeah, my Black Knight is working well with lasers-to-the-gills (and reasonable heat management, too); so one of my high-Tactics pilots will likely go there.
I still have my Shadow Hawk set up as a bruiser (ML + SRMs) to help thin out lances. And with a Precision Shot and a single PPC, I can either outright core any Light mech, or I can put them on the ropes to the point they are gone shortly after.
Catapult is currently AC + MLs, so that would likely be my secondary head shooter.
LRM support is a Centurion (debating dropping the MLs I have on it to add more LRMs).
Congrats! You've now reached the point where some types ++ and +++ weapons are more valuable than most non-Assault mech parts.
What Mirkel said is exactly right: effective headshot sniping is a matter of doing >61 dmg to the head of your target in one shot. So arguably, the best non-LosTech weapon in the game is the AC/10+++ variant that does 70 dmg. It can decapitate a mech in one hit and it has much longer range than an AC/20. If you see one of those become available, grab it, for it will be your Precious.
Otherwise, AC/5+++ (55 dmg) and LL+++ (50 dmg) are the best weapons for sniping if you're going for quality over quantity while the ML++ (35 dmg) is Stalin's favorite. PPCs are pretty great, too, on a mech that can deal with their crazy heat.
Speaking of Lostech and +++ weapons, I have yet to see any Black Market invites. Any idea of how long it should take or what prereqs there are for it? Online discussion about it is all over the place.
I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
Yeah, my Black Knight is working well with lasers-to-the-gills (and reasonable heat management, too); so one of my high-Tactics pilots will likely go there.
I still have my Shadow Hawk set up as a bruiser (ML + SRMs) to help thin out lances. And with a Precision Shot and a single PPC, I can either outright core any Light mech, or I can put them on the ropes to the point they are gone shortly after.
Catapult is currently AC + MLs, so that would likely be my secondary head shooter.
LRM support is a Centurion (debating dropping the MLs I have on it to add more LRMs).
Congrats! You've now reached the point where some types ++ and +++ weapons are more valuable than most non-Assault mech parts.
What Mirkel said is exactly right: effective headshot sniping is a matter of doing >61 dmg to the head of your target in one shot. So arguably, the best non-LosTech weapon in the game is the AC/10+++ variant that does 70 dmg. It can decapitate a mech in one hit and it has much longer range than an AC/20. If you see one of those become available, grab it, for it will be your Precious.
Otherwise, AC/5+++ (55 dmg) and LL+++ (50 dmg) are the best weapons for sniping if you're going for quality over quantity while the ML++ (35 dmg) is Stalin's favorite. PPCs are pretty great, too, on a mech that can deal with their crazy heat.
For one-shot vs two-shot kills, odds favor quantity over damage. Assuming you use called shot mastery every turn with an 18% chance to hit the head.
Expected success:
one-shot kill (61+ dmg): 54% after 4 shots, 95% after 15 shots
two-shot kill (2x 35+ dmg): 50% after 9 shots, 95% after 24 shots
1x AC10+++/20/gauss: 15 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
2x LL/ML++/PPC/AC5/AC10: 12 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
3x ML++ (same heat as 2x LL): 8 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
8x ML++: 3 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Speaking of Lostech and +++ weapons, I have yet to see any Black Market invites. Any idea of how long it should take or what prereqs there are for it? Online discussion about it is all over the place.
As far as I know, the normal invite is just a random event. However, there is a second invite event tied to being friendly with the pirates that has a higher weight to appear than normal events. So work on your pirate rep if you want that one. If you already had it appear and declined, it gets tossed in the discard pile and you'll just have to wait for the event deck to reshuffle, but the invite cannot reappear more often than every 90 days.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
I now have two pilots with Tactics 9. At least one (if not both) also has Penetrating Shot, so I intend to have a lot of fun trying to headshot (and missing) Heavies while I attempt to beef up my lance before the next story mission.
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
Yeah, my Black Knight is working well with lasers-to-the-gills (and reasonable heat management, too); so one of my high-Tactics pilots will likely go there.
I still have my Shadow Hawk set up as a bruiser (ML + SRMs) to help thin out lances. And with a Precision Shot and a single PPC, I can either outright core any Light mech, or I can put them on the ropes to the point they are gone shortly after.
Catapult is currently AC + MLs, so that would likely be my secondary head shooter.
LRM support is a Centurion (debating dropping the MLs I have on it to add more LRMs).
Congrats! You've now reached the point where some types ++ and +++ weapons are more valuable than most non-Assault mech parts.
What Mirkel said is exactly right: effective headshot sniping is a matter of doing >61 dmg to the head of your target in one shot. So arguably, the best non-LosTech weapon in the game is the AC/10+++ variant that does 70 dmg. It can decapitate a mech in one hit and it has much longer range than an AC/20. If you see one of those become available, grab it, for it will be your Precious.
Otherwise, AC/5+++ (55 dmg) and LL+++ (50 dmg) are the best weapons for sniping if you're going for quality over quantity while the ML++ (35 dmg) is Stalin's favorite. PPCs are pretty great, too, on a mech that can deal with their crazy heat.
For one-shot vs two-shot kills, odds favor quantity over damage. Assuming you use called shot mastery every turn with an 18% chance to hit the head.
Expected success:
one-shot kill (61+ dmg): 54% after 4 shots, 95% after 15 shots
two-shot kill (2x 35+ dmg): 50% after 9 shots, 95% after 24 shots
1x AC10+++/20/gauss: 15 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
2x LL/ML++/PPC/AC5/AC10: 12 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
3x ML++ (same heat as 2x LL): 8 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
8x ML++: 3 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
Oh, cool. What's the formula you're using to calculate those numbers?
And while I agree that the odds favor quantity over damage, isn't the Disco Ball Hunchback the only mech that can fit 8 MLs? I know that that the Black Knight and one of the Thunderbolt variants can fit 7 (and the BLK could actually probably carry that many and have a decent amount of armor left). And, of course, the Grasshopper is the Diva of (short-range) Disco.
Otherwise, there are a fair number of Assaults that could realistically pack 4LLs or an AC/10 and 3LLs. And an Awesome might be able to get 5 LLs with DHSs and/or Exchangers. Those seem like they'd be the most common configurations for late game headshot sniping.
It's just cumulative binomial probability. Chance of greater than or equal x number of hits out of y number of attempts.
The 8 ML was just a hypothetical example to show extremes. 4x LL is a reasonable balance of kill chance and range. 6x ML++ on the other hand would be 33% faster expected time to kill and 14 tons lighter for the same heat if you can take the range penalty.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
+3
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
It’s just the expected probability of a n or more events given m trials. Binomial distribution plus some addition for the consecutively lower events (eg the odds of landing 8 out 8 shots at 18% probability per shot). Things get more complicated with eg SRMs and machine guns, which take a penalty to hit a called shot that increases with each subsequent projectile in the launcher.
If you want a mental tool for getting a feel of how easy or hard it is to get a headshot kill with Precision Shots you can think of every weapon you shoot as one normal 6-sided die and you need to roll a 6 to hit the head*. Obviously if you are using 61+ damage weapons one 6 is enough and for 35+ damage ones you need to roll at least two 6s.
Sadly, life stuff was never going to let me be on tonight. Hope the drops were filled with joy and exultation lots of dead hostiles!
I figured as much, but I had to ping you in honor of the Oosiks.
We had a good time of rolling around in mechs. Some wins and a few losses, but lots of armor was shared. Thanks for the group @Nobody@Erlkönig@Elvenshae .
Sadly, life stuff was never going to let me be on tonight. Hope the drops were filled with joy and exultation lots of dead hostiles!
I figured as much, but I had to ping you in honor of the Oosiks.
We had a good time of rolling around in mechs. Some wins and a few losses, but lots of armor was shared. Thanks for the group Nobody Erlkönig Elvenshae .
And many tiny holes were punched into both friend and foe alike!
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Okay I don't know if it's because Mac or because it's my work computer or Steam or what, but between some combination of all of those things I can't find the place I'm supposed to be putting all these glorious mods and oh my god I just wanna run some skirmishes with more mechs to choose from and more weapons and equipment and why must this be so complicated?
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
On a Mac? Yeah, sorry, can't help you there...you'll also need to locate mac versions of the mod helpers and I'm not sure if they exist yet or not? You're going to need to do some digging.
Okay I don't know if it's because Mac or because it's my work computer or Steam or what, but between some combination of all of those things I can't find the place I'm supposed to be putting all these glorious mods and oh my god I just wanna run some skirmishes with more mechs to choose from and more weapons and equipment and why must this be so complicated?
Yeah, installing on a Mac is different, because Steam stashes games way the hell down in ~/Library and the game itself is a unified app bundle rather than just a folder full of crap like it is on Windows.
Preliminary pro-tip: hold down option when you click on Go menu in Finder to get the Library folder to show up. The Library folder is inaccessible by default because it's full of stuff end-users should never to access directly.
Anyway, the instructions that Orca linked are correct, but they gloss over Mono installation. You need to have Mono installed in order to run the ModTekInjector tool. You can find the Mono installer here.
You can also install it via Homebrew, if you have that set up. The Homebrew formula for Mono is here.
htm on
0
Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
Is there a good repository for battletech mods or is it just a nexusmods kinda thing?
Edit: also is there a Gundam mod yet? Because I feel like there should be a Gundam mod.
Not going to say I was angry this match, but the MCII though...
(Bonus, my first kill was Larsh, and I shot him out of the air. My death was overheating while going toe to toe with a 6xAC/2 ANH who I left in such bad shape by the time I self destructed that a team member who rounded the corner quickly killed him).
BT Advanced 3062: compilation of mods that also adds tons of new mechs and mechanics. This apparently has 37 years' worth of more mechs than BT XT 3025 and a super-detailed mech configuration system that lets you change out more than just weapons and armor and a bunch of of mechanics changes, too. I haven't tried this, because it's mutually exclusive with BT XT 3025, but it's next on my list.
I got around to playing BT Advanced 3062 and it's wild:
-My first mission, my Jenner got mauled by an Enforcer with an AC/10 shotgun.
-My second mission, my Wolverine lost an arm to a Gauss Rifle Unicorn.
-My fifth mission, something literally shot my incoming missiles out of the air using one of these.
So yeah... if you want crazy weapons and more LosTech in your BattleTech, you should try out BTA 3062.
One of the cool things about it is that it somehow makes its own folder for saves, so there's no risk of it intermixing incompatible saves. That also means you have to start a fresh career/campaign for it, though.
I am giving the Extended 3025 CE a spin and man is this a hoot! Working along the Kurita/Davian border, 2/3rds of a year in and already help flip a couple of planets over to Kurita. Still getting used to 4 salvage to make a mech, and I've only recently gotten a fully working medium mech: the Wyvern. It's supporting two Firestarters (one of them the LL variant) and of course a Panther.
What I am loving:
Pilot Panic - making pilots eject is always a pleasure, and working to get back shots has never been more rewarding. I have felt sorry for those unfortunate Spider pilots I panicked, but could eject due to their mech quirk preventing ejection.
Quirks - I've never played with these on TT, but they do add a lot of variety to the proceedings. The sensor suites are fun on a lot of the lighter mechs - helps cement their purpose. But their utility is undercut when you have but 4 mechs - sacrificing a quarter of useful firepower is never truly made up with the effects of the suite.
Fatigue - I finally have a purpose for all of those habitation hubs! I am growing my roster if only to maintain a constant tempo of deployments. My vanilla career topped out of like, seven pilots.
Pilot experience with mechs - I love that a pilot gains bonuses with continued piloting of a single mech. The big one is reduced fatigue downtime, but I have a pilot with a +1 piloting with Firestarters already.
Tweaked AI - I've noticed the AI smartly reserving right along with me and not committing to activations blindly.
ALL OF THE MECHS and ALL OF THE VEHICLES. Nice to see Pegasuses amongsts others again instead of only Strikers, Bulldogs, Shreks, and Demolishers. (Yeah, I know there are others in vanilla but you et the point.) I had forgotten all about Wyverns until seeing them here.
I followed the dirt-simple install link instruction from above and it was a snap to install.
I saw a mod that allowed you to actually do full variants, with changes to engine size as well. Which got me thinking, has anybody seen or attempted or seen an attempt to allow "unbalanced" engine sizes? Not sure how useful it would be, necessarily, but it would be pretty sweet to be able to sprint stupid far.
I saw a mod that allowed you to actually do full variants, with changes to engine size as well. Which got me thinking, has anybody seen or attempted or seen an attempt to allow "unbalanced" engine sizes? Not sure how useful it would be, necessarily, but it would be pretty sweet to be able to sprint stupid far.
I think that the mod you're talking about is "Mech Engineer" or maybe "MechEngineer". Weirdly, it's not on Nexus, but it is part of BTA 3062. I'm not far enough along my BTA career to have engines to swap yet, but I can definitely see that it lets you change out ALL the things in the Mech Bay.
I saw a mod that allowed you to actually do full variants, with changes to engine size as well. Which got me thinking, has anybody seen or attempted or seen an attempt to allow "unbalanced" engine sizes? Not sure how useful it would be, necessarily, but it would be pretty sweet to be able to sprint stupid far.
You can trivially change the walk and sprint distance for any mech in their movedef files to any value. It's not tied to anything else. Though if you aren't using your own personal variant definitions that are blacklisted, enemies will get the benefit of the changes as well.
MechEngineer doesn't use the distances in the movedef files. I haven't looked into the details beyond that, but I assume it calculates the mech movement from the chassis weight and engine rating just like TT does. It might be possible to change the weight of engine parts in the mod files to make it "unbalanced", but I haven't tried it. Also, trying what you want with MechEngineer would require you to add a bunch of new, much higher rated engine definitions. They only go up to 400 by default, so for example, even if engines weighed nothing, a 55 ton mech can only get at most a 7 hex walk with a 400 rated engine. A 100 ton mech only 4 walk hexes max.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Balance adjustments to the Kamea story campaign:
Lowered mechwarrior hiring cost
Increased payout in c-bills for contracts
Increased base salvage for contracts
Increased the frequency of non-weapon rare items in salvage
Increased the starting cbills from 980k to 1000k
Increased the starting morale from 25 to 28
Increased MechWarrior XP per mission from 400 to 500
Updated difficulty settings to match new defaults
Posts
I'm hoping to luck into an Orion or maybe an Atlas before I move the story forward, but I'm not really holding my breath. I'm trying to find 2.5-3 skull missions that aren't too ridiculous in hopes one will show up.
The last two missions I did with that difficulty:
1- "take out this pirate stronghold because they have our agents and we want to kill them before they are interrogated" -- one Catapult and some tanks, along with a couple turrets
2- "these pirates need to be taught a lesson so take out their base" -- one Vindicator, 2 heavy tanks, 2 light tanks, and some turrets
I'm starting to believe the unproven theory that high-salvage missions throw shitty mechs at you so it's tougher to find good mechs to salvage, to beef up your inventory.
The best way to blow up a mech's head is to use a lot of 35 damage ML++s and hope two of them hit, though those are hard to find in great numbers. LLs also work, or you can go with a Grasshopper that's loaded to the gills with both MLs and SLs and hope three of them hit. Firing single weapons at 18% chance to hit to the head is a waste of a Precision Shot IMO. The best thing about firing a lot of smaller weapons is that you can get 1-2 hits per attack even if you don't destroy the head in one go, making it way easier to succeed the next time.
As for trying to find an Atlas, you aren't going to see one in any normal 2.5-3 skull mission. The reason you are seeing shitty mechs is that you are doing easy missions. You'll need to either do missions that have a mech or two that are heavier than the skull rating (assassinate missions, some of the new Battle+ missions like Bounty Hunting) or man up and take 4+ skull missions.
Theoretically. We've got WATCH DOGS kick-off night at my son's school tonight.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Ha, yeah. Every game I've played to completion has had a "geez I really hope I score an Orion" phase of varying length, acquisition of an Orion, followed at some tipping point by an "I'm awash in goddamn Orions" phase through the end of the game dependent only on how recently I've been through a +10% sale price system.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Yeah, my Black Knight is working well with lasers-to-the-gills (and reasonable heat management, too); so one of my high-Tactics pilots will likely go there.
I still have my Shadow Hawk set up as a bruiser (ML + SRMs) to help thin out lances. And with a Precision Shot and a single PPC, I can either outright core any Light mech, or I can put them on the ropes to the point they are gone shortly after.
Catapult is currently AC + MLs, so that would likely be my secondary head shooter.
LRM support is a Centurion (debating dropping the MLs I have on it to add more LRMs).
Congrats! You've now reached the point where some types ++ and +++ weapons are more valuable than most non-Assault mech parts.
What Mirkel said is exactly right: effective headshot sniping is a matter of doing >61 dmg to the head of your target in one shot. So arguably, the best non-LosTech weapon in the game is the AC/10+++ variant that does 70 dmg. It can decapitate a mech in one hit and it has much longer range than an AC/20. If you see one of those become available, grab it, for it will be your Precious.
Otherwise, AC/5+++ (55 dmg) and LL+++ (50 dmg) are the best weapons for sniping if you're going for quality over quantity while the ML++ (35 dmg) is Stalin's favorite. PPCs are pretty great, too, on a mech that can deal with their crazy heat.
For one-shot vs two-shot kills, odds favor quantity over damage. Assuming you use called shot mastery every turn with an 18% chance to hit the head.
Expected success:
one-shot kill (61+ dmg): 54% after 4 shots, 95% after 15 shots
two-shot kill (2x 35+ dmg): 50% after 9 shots, 95% after 24 shots
1x AC10+++/20/gauss: 15 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
2x LL/ML++/PPC/AC5/AC10: 12 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
3x ML++ (same heat as 2x LL): 8 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
8x ML++: 3 turns for almost guaranteed headshot kill
As far as I know, the normal invite is just a random event. However, there is a second invite event tied to being friendly with the pirates that has a higher weight to appear than normal events. So work on your pirate rep if you want that one. If you already had it appear and declined, it gets tossed in the discard pile and you'll just have to wait for the event deck to reshuffle, but the invite cannot reappear more often than every 90 days.
Oh, cool. What's the formula you're using to calculate those numbers?
And while I agree that the odds favor quantity over damage, isn't the Disco Ball Hunchback the only mech that can fit 8 MLs? I know that that the Black Knight and one of the Thunderbolt variants can fit 7 (and the BLK could actually probably carry that many and have a decent amount of armor left). And, of course, the Grasshopper is the Diva of (short-range) Disco.
Otherwise, there are a fair number of Assaults that could realistically pack 4LLs or an AC/10 and 3LLs. And an Awesome might be able to get 5 LLs with DHSs and/or Exchangers. Those seem like they'd be the most common configurations for late game headshot sniping.
The 8 ML was just a hypothetical example to show extremes. 4x LL is a reasonable balance of kill chance and range. 6x ML++ on the other hand would be 33% faster expected time to kill and 14 tons lighter for the same heat if you can take the range penalty.
Steam: betsuni7
*Not 100% accurate of course but close enough.
I figured as much, but I had to ping you in honor of the Oosiks.
We had a good time of rolling around in mechs. Some wins and a few losses, but lots of armor was shared. Thanks for the group @Nobody @Erlkönig @Elvenshae .
Steam: betsuni7
And many tiny holes were punched into both friend and foe alike!
Granted, I don't think I killed any blues with them.
https://github.com/BattletechModders/ModTek/wiki/The-Drop-Dead-Simple-Guide-to-Installing-BTML-&-ModTek-&-ModTek-mods
https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/8rg67v/modding_on_a_mac/
Yeah, installing on a Mac is different, because Steam stashes games way the hell down in ~/Library and the game itself is a unified app bundle rather than just a folder full of crap like it is on Windows.
Preliminary pro-tip: hold down option when you click on Go menu in Finder to get the Library folder to show up. The Library folder is inaccessible by default because it's full of stuff end-users should never to access directly.
Anyway, the instructions that Orca linked are correct, but they gloss over Mono installation. You need to have Mono installed in order to run the ModTekInjector tool. You can find the Mono installer here.
You can also install it via Homebrew, if you have that set up. The Homebrew formula for Mono is here.
Edit: also is there a Gundam mod yet? Because I feel like there should be a Gundam mod.
Edit2: Preferably an 0079 Gundam mod.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
(Bonus, my first kill was Larsh, and I shot him out of the air. My death was overheating while going toe to toe with a 6xAC/2 ANH who I left in such bad shape by the time I self destructed that a team member who rounded the corner quickly killed him).
I got around to playing BT Advanced 3062 and it's wild:
-My first mission, my Jenner got mauled by an Enforcer with an AC/10 shotgun.
-My second mission, my Wolverine lost an arm to a Gauss Rifle Unicorn.
-My fifth mission, something literally shot my incoming missiles out of the air using one of these.
So yeah... if you want crazy weapons and more LosTech in your BattleTech, you should try out BTA 3062.
One of the cool things about it is that it somehow makes its own folder for saves, so there's no risk of it intermixing incompatible saves. That also means you have to start a fresh career/campaign for it, though.
Gangsta-style? 8-)
I picture an Atlas holding a Hollander sideways now.
What I am loving:
I followed the dirt-simple install link instruction from above and it was a snap to install.
Oo\ Ironsizide
I think that the mod you're talking about is "Mech Engineer" or maybe "MechEngineer". Weirdly, it's not on Nexus, but it is part of BTA 3062. I'm not far enough along my BTA career to have engines to swap yet, but I can definitely see that it lets you change out ALL the things in the Mech Bay.
You can trivially change the walk and sprint distance for any mech in their movedef files to any value. It's not tied to anything else. Though if you aren't using your own personal variant definitions that are blacklisted, enemies will get the benefit of the changes as well.
MechEngineer doesn't use the distances in the movedef files. I haven't looked into the details beyond that, but I assume it calculates the mech movement from the chassis weight and engine rating just like TT does. It might be possible to change the weight of engine parts in the mod files to make it "unbalanced", but I haven't tried it. Also, trying what you want with MechEngineer would require you to add a bunch of new, much higher rated engine definitions. They only go up to 400 by default, so for example, even if engines weighed nothing, a 55 ton mech can only get at most a 7 hex walk with a 400 rated engine. A 100 ton mech only 4 walk hexes max.
In what ways?
Lowered mechwarrior hiring cost
Increased payout in c-bills for contracts
Increased base salvage for contracts
Increased the frequency of non-weapon rare items in salvage
Increased the starting cbills from 980k to 1000k
Increased the starting morale from 25 to 28
Increased MechWarrior XP per mission from 400 to 500
Updated difficulty settings to match new defaults