As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
[BATTLETECH/MechWarrior] Stompybots? Stompybots. STOMPYBOTS! MW5 on Steam NOW!
Nips
He/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered User regular
He/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered User regular
Welcome to the combined BATTLETECH/MechWarrior superthread! It is here that we appreciate only the finest in stompy bot action.
"In the brutal conflict of the Succession Wars, the only thing that matters is getting paid."
BATTLETECH (www.battletechgame.com) is a new entry into the long line of BattleTech and MechWarrior products. Bringing the PC game line back to its roots, BATTLETECH is a tactical and strategic simulator, where your decisions on the battlefield and on the dropship will determine if your mercenary unit makes out like bandits, or dies bleeding out on some backwater planet.
https://youtu.be/tsIMfOo_VO0
In BATTLETECH you command a mercenary unit embarked upon the Argo, a lost-to-the-ages Jumpship design. Outfit with all of the essentials required to run a mercenary unit, you chart the course for the Argo across the Aurigan Reach, right between the Magistracy of Canopus, the Capellan Confederation and the Taurian Concordat.
Using a full roster of 'Mechs, pilots, and equipment, you will command your units across a vast number of star systems and planets, making bank and taking names, to achieve glory and notoriety beyond the Reach.
The game was originally Kickstarted in 2016., and is being published by Paradox Interactive (yes, those fine gents!). The game launched on April 24, 2018! It's out now!
"In the brutal conflict of the Succession Wars, the only thing that matters is getting paid."
BATTLETECH (www.battletechgame.com) is a new entry into the long line of BattleTech and MechWarrior products. Bringing the PC game line back to its roots, BATTLETECH is a tactical and strategic simulator, where your decisions on the battlefield and on the dropship will determine if your mercenary unit makes out like bandits, or dies bleeding out on some backwater planet.
https://youtu.be/tsIMfOo_VO0In BATTLETECH you command a mercenary unit embarked upon the Argo, a lost-to-the-ages Jumpship design. Outfit with all of the essentials required to run a mercenary unit, you chart the course for the Argo across the Aurigan Reach, right between the Magistracy of Canopus, the Capellan Confederation and the Taurian Concordat.
Using a full roster of 'Mechs, pilots, and equipment, you will command your units across a vast number of star systems and planets, making bank and taking names, to achieve glory and notoriety beyond the Reach.
The game was originally Kickstarted in 2016., and is being published by Paradox Interactive (yes, those fine gents!). The game launched on April 24, 2018! It's out now!
FOR THOSE OF YOU JOINING US FROM THE TABLETOP BATTLETECH GAME, HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND!!!
Mostly it's invisible stuff. To-hit rolls and location rolls are calculated differently. Missiles roll for hits and damage individually instead of in tranches of five. Some weapon ranges and damage/heat values have been tweaked (generally with the idea of bringing in the statistical extremes closer to the middle), and since the game uses different numeric scales than the tabletop, there would be no way to know this sort of thing unless you sat there actually mathing it out, or literally counting pixels on the landscape to figure out that the AC/5 is going ten meters further or something.
The most visible actual change is the initiative system. It has five phases, counting down from 5 to 1. Lights go on phase 4, mediums on phase 3, and so forth. Some characters will have skills letting them act one phase sooner than normal (so the rarely-used phase 5 is for pilots with that ability in light mechs). Mechs can reserve their initiative to act in a later phase, so lights can do stuff like reserve till phase 1, dart out from cover, attack, and then immediately go again at the top of the next round to dart back into cover before anyone can retaliate.
Pilots have four skills - Gunnery, Pilots, Tactics, and Guts - which confer different passive bonuses - gunnery and piloting are obvious; guts increases survivability as well as brawny stuff like reducing recoil penalties from AC shots, and tactics covers indirect fireand doing tricks with the initiative system. Each skill also grants two special active abilities (one at rank 4 in a skill, the other at rank 8). Pilots only have three skill slots, though, so even a veteran pilot with max ranks in all abilities will only ever have three active powers (the first three they qualified for), leading to a lot of different possible specializations.
Heat doesn't degrade performance; instead, when it's over a certain point (like 75%, but varies depending on pilot skills) it deals direct damage to internal structure.
Mechs have a stability meter, whose length is affected by the pilot's Guts score. Different weapon attacks suffered by the mech fill the meter to different degrees (AC20 or melee fills it a lot, lasers not at all). When it's halfway filled, the mech can no longer benefit from certain kinds of defense and movement bonuses. When it's full, the mech falls over.
Falling over or being shut down from heat are what let enemy pilots make called shots to specific areas. A called shot doesn't guarantee a hit to that area, but weights the shot distribution.
Mechs have three main kinds of defense: evasion, cover, and guarded stance.
Evasion is usually granted by moving quickly, or using jump jets. It gives your mech a number (1-5) of little evasion chevrons depending on how much they moved. Each chevron imposes a stacking penalty on incoming fire. A Locust at full sprint is almost impossible to hit. However, each salvo fired at the mech strips away an evasion chevron, so that Locust is vulnerable if several enemies focus it down. Being hit in melee also immediately removes all chevrons.
Cover gives a flat damage reduction, usually something like 25%.
Guarded stance is an state a Mech can attain by taking the Brace action in lieu of attacking, or is granted by certain powers or in certain circumstances. It reduces damage and stability damage from incoming fire by 50%, but only on the front and sides. Bracing also completely drains the Stability bar, so the mech is in less danger of being knocked down.
In the Mechlab, Mechs use a hardpoint system similar to but different from MWO. Along with ballistic, missile, and laser weapon types, there's a fourth hardpoint type, called "support weapons," which covers machine guns, flamers, and small lasers. Support weapons fire automatically when you make a melee attack.
Weapons have different manufacturers with different bonuses (it's always a straight bonus, though, rather than some kind of tradeoff). Some weapons are of exceptional quality and are denoted as + or ++ weapons (so like an LRM20++). These pluses can mean different things based on the manufacturer but they're always significant bonuses.
Want more beginner tips?
Inquisitor wrote:First video in Party Elite's Battletech Basics video series, good for more visual learners who want a breakdown of UI elements and basic gameplay ideas:https://youtu.be/TCBGZeiNAB0
Christopher Eck's Eckcellent Primer to BattletEck Combat Systems (OpNote: I don't condone the excessive branding, but the content is good! This is also a smidge out of date.)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1365402907
Want to know all the stats, for all the things? There's a spreadsheet for that!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fnaqQv8nnYpy9gtQm75-D6fmYfNJ5u3OALSIe8ckOuo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true
More tips, locally-sourced from SE++
"Fiendishrabbit wrote:So. A few short notes on various types of weapons in Battletech:
LRMs:The LRM5, LRM15 and LRM20 are roughly equivalent. It might not seem so (due to weight differences etc), but it's basicly like this.SRMs
1. All LRMs take up 1 slot per 5 missiles.
2. LRM20s and LRM15s are heavier than LRM5s per missiles fired (LRM20 more so than LRM15), but that's because they have built in Heatsinks. Actually slightly better than normal heatsinks because it's better to not generate heat in the first place. Try it yourself by building a 60 missile salvo and then heatbalancing the various builds. Also, bigger launchers means fewer hardpoints used.
3. LRM10s suck. 1 LRM10 has 100% more missiles, generate 100% more heat but it weighs 150% more. Yeah. It sucks. Don't use it.
Conclusion: Avoid LRM10s. Smaller mechs (where total heat is less of an issue) should generally use LRM5s, singly or in pairs, since it has the best damage/ton. Once you're generating 30+ heat with all your weapons in the long rangeband LRM15s and LRM20s are roughly equivalent, with LRM15s having an advantage in cold regions and LRM20s an advantage in hot regions.While all SRM launchers are equal in terms of weight they're not equivalent in heat. SRM2s generate 3 heat per missile, while SRM4s only generate 2 heat per missile. SRM6s are basically a mashed together SRM4 and SRM2. SRM6s do have the advantage that it's the maximum amount of missiles per hardpoint.Support weapons:
The loadout principle for SRMs should be:
1. Fill out your hardpoints with SRM4s
2. Add sufficient ammo (6-15 full salvos is generally ideal. Closer to 15 the more you rely on SRMs to deal your damage for you).
3. Do you still have heat/weight left for more missiles. Replace SRM4s with SRM6s until satisfied.So Small laser or MG? Well, basically it depends on what you're going to use them for, and how many. Small lasers generate more damage per ton, but fire only one shot and generate heat. MGs fire 5 shots, have a bonus to crit (so they're amazing critseekers) but require ammo. And this heat vs ammo thing is really important. 1 ton of ammo for a ½ ton weapon is WAY overkill, and you'll basicly need to use 4+ MGs to even hope to make a dent in your ammo supply. On the other hand Small lasers start to generate significant amounts of heat once you have 3 or 4 of them. At the same time you have to take the heat from the rest of your arsenal into account, because once you need heatsinks a small laser basicly needs two heatsinks to compensate for the heat generated. Not so efficient.ACs:
My rule of thumb:
1. If you have a single Support weapon hardpoint, always use Small lasers. It has the best damage per ton of any weapon and 5 heat is piddly.
2. At 2 hardpoints you have to ask yourself, am I running a very cool or a very hot mech? Am I even going to use my small lasers outside melee? The hotter your mech is the more it favors using MGs.
3. At 4+ hardpoints you should probably use MGs. The Firestarter for example will use its support hardpoints mainly for short ranged damage, and since it runs very hot with its huge array of energy weapons it should probably use MGs. A Grasshopper should probably also use MGs, since it will probably use 6 of them. A shadowhawk on the other hand should probably use Small Lasers.The useful ACs seem to be AC/20 and AC/5.
The AC/5 is like a slightly heavier but much cooler PPC, and an ideal weapon for long range sniping. Especially if you're going to mount two of them since 2xPPCs is like rolling in molten lava.
The AC/2 and AC/10 on the other hand seem to have very pathetic advantages over the AC/5 at a huge cost in damage/ton. Comparing the AC/2 and AC/5...The AC/5 is 33% more weight for almost 100% more damage? Sign me up, because 540 meters is plenty of range. The more ammo per ton isn't really significant between the AC/2 and AC/5.
The AC/20 is another huge leap in damage over the AC/10, this at a very small extra cost in terms of tonnage. Also, the intimidation factor of the AC/20 is significant
My friend and yours @Iolo wrote a great pair of posts with guides to new players! You should read them!
The first one is here!
The second one is here!
Our man @Orca also has some tight advice! In fact, lots of us do! And some bad advice too! But feel free to ask in the thread! Yes, really!
We can't stop ourselves, what with the giving of all the advice!
Want to edit the Oosik Irregulars logo into the game? Say no more!
nonoffensive wrote:So I had a hell of a time guessing the right settings to modify the emblems to get the Oosik logo into the game. Dunno if anyone else has done it, but here is a download link you can copy right into:
Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/BattleTech_Data/StreamingAssets/emblems/player
It will replace the Paradox Logo and you can switch to it in your Quarters on the Argo in game.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G64xeFrOxCFTnaYTWARo-7eJHmzUW87x/view?usp=sharing
Simple!
Looking for some further background fiction? Look no further than these recommendations!
SiliconStew wrote: »
There's over a hundred books in the Battletech universe, so you're going to get a lot of opinions. Here's some decent ones, with the Grey Death Legion trilogy and Wolves on the Border probably my top picks from these. This list is in rough chronological order for their events in the Battletech universe as well.
Decision at Thunder Rift - Keith - Grey Death Legion #1
Mercenary’s Star - Keith - Grey Death Legion #2
The Price of Glory - Keith - Grey Death Legion #3
Warrior: En Guarde - Stackpole - Warrior Trilogy #1
Warrior: Riposte - Stackpole - Warrior Trilogy #2
Warrior: Coupe - Stackpole - Warrior Trilogy #3
Wolves on the Border - Charrette
Heir to the Dragon - Charrette
Lethal Heritage - Stackpole - Kerensky Trilogy #1
Blood Legacy - Stackpole - Kerensky Trilogy #2
Lost Destiny - Stackpole - Kerensky Trilogy #3
Previous Thread
Nips on
+4
Posts
Yes, it exists! You can currently buy it on the Epic Games Store. And Microsoft's Gamepass thing. And GoG. And now on Steam! And on Xbox? Crazy!
THE BOTTOM LINE: You blow stuff up using a 'Mech. You make money. You repeat. There's a story, or so I'm told.
It's very pretty.
Do you use a HOTAS? Do you want to use a HOTAS for MW5? Here's some help!
From our good friend @Goumindong, originally compiled by our friend @Forbe!, here's some Weapons Maths that might be useful to an aspiring Lance Leader.
Want to mod your game, but not using Steam? There's some powerful advice from @SiliconStew for that!
See the most amazing announcement in Oosik Irregulars history here, by the lead developer of CGL! The Oosiks are canon!
Reactor...online. Sensors...online. Weapons...online. All systems nominal.
Greetings potential pilot, and welcome to the Mark 4.2 Mechwarrior Online OP, now with 200% more WubWub and 5000% more hyphens and commas!
It has been reorganized, and in some spots rewritten, to provide more relevant and concise information for our growing roster of pilots.
If you have anything you would like to see added to the OP, or notice any errors, please contact @Nips and I'll do my best to update the post.
Remember pilots, this is Battletech. Around these parts, common sense is Lostech.
What is Mechwarrior Online?
Mechwarrior Online is a free-to-play, PC-based, online shooter produced by Piranha Games Interactive. MWO places you in the command seat of a heavily armed and armored walking battle machine that you pilot in team-based matches against other Mechwarriors. Your mech is very customizable and able to field a huge assortment of energy, ballistic, and missile weapons along with an array of modules and other utility items. At the end of each match you earn C-Bills, the in-game currency used to buy more items and mechs, and experience that is used to enhance the piloting abilities of your war machines. Between matches, you can customize your mech with a variety of engines, weapons, subsystem modules, and chassis enhancements until you have your chosen chassis tailored to your liking.
There are currently six game modes:
- In Skirmish, your team is pitted directly against the enemy team in a battle to the death! The team with the last mech standing wins.
- In Assault, you and your team attempt to capture the enemy team's base without losing your own, or eliminate the enemy team.
- For Incursion, which is similar to Assault, each team controls a base with fixed and destructible defenses (turrets, walls, etc.). Three command vehicles in each team's base must be destroyed for total victory.
- Conquest is a traditional domination mode where you and your team are attempting to control resource nodes that generate victory points. The first team to reach 750 victory points, or that eliminates the opposing force, wins.
- Domination focuses on controlling a central zone on a map, with tertiary objectives to destroy. If a team is uncontested in the zone, their timer decrements until victory; destroying the tertiary objectives adds time back to the timer.
- Escort pits one team as the Defenders, escorting a (hilariously over-armored) VIP Atlas across the map. Meanwhile, the opposing Attackers attempt to destroy the VIP.
Also, Faction Play pits player-based Mercenary Corps and PGI operated Houses against each other for control of entire planets and territory throughout the Inner Sphere; see the following post for more information!Sounds good, where do I start?
1.) Download the client at http://www.mwomercs.com, or download it from Steam and install it.
2.) Once logged into the game, go through the Training Academy tutorials. This game has a bit of a learning curve to it and while it's not super-steep, it's definitely not just a jump-in-and-click-things-until-you-win sort of game. Be sure to watch the Weapon Grouping video as it'll do the most to help keep you alive. Chain fire is your friend, learn to use it.
2a.) Penny Arcade also did some Pilot Safety Posters and while they're humorous, they do have some good information in them.
3.) When you start the game you will have access to a number of trial mechs that rotate out for new mechs every month or so. These are non-customizable mechs, designed by PGI and the community for ease-of-entry into learning the game (except for the Stalker; that thing's a newbie death trap). Select a mech, and use the in-game Tutorial and Training Grounds to get a feel for how the game controls. Move around. Shoot your guns. Try overheating, then remember that overheating is bad.
4.) Jump into real matches! After each match you will earn some C-Bills, Mech XP, and General XP. C-Bills are the in-game currency used to buy everything except cosmetic items. At the end of each of your first twenty-five matches, you'll earn a Cadet C-bill bonus that you can save up to purchase your first mech. You'll also earn Mech XP, which is specific to the mech you earned it on and is used to buy piloting enhancements like faster torso rotation or better heat mitigation. You'll also also earn General XP that can be used on any mech, and can also be used to unlock modules and module improvements.
5.) Mech Credits (MC) are the in-game currency that you purchase with real money in order to shortcut your way to a new mechs and equipment. MC is also used to purchase premium account status and cosmetic items for your mech like new paint jobs, and items to put in your cockpit like bobblehead dolls.
6.) Need more advice? There's a solid Reddit thread here for new or returning players.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOosiks
Our anthem. (Caution: Loud)
We play on the Penny Arcade Ventrilo server; it's dangerous to go alone, so be sure to take this!
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php
Host: vent15.gameservers.com
Port: 4384
Password: Ask one of the thread regulars!
Our man @Gnome-Interruptus has also set us up with a MWO/BT specific Discord channel, for those so inclined:
https://discord.gg/dpbeXd2
Thanks Gnome!
The Origins of the Oosik Irregulars
Who are the Oosik Irregulars?
We are a very loosely organized (and by loosely we mean not at all) mercenary corp that is open to anyone who wants to join. The Penny Arcade community frequently makes loose groups for new games just to make it easier to find people to play with, and while this started out as just another one of those it has grown into so much more. We formed under the banner of The Oosik Irregulars as a way to honor the great forumer @A Flock Of Walrus who brought us closed beta footage at the expense of his access to the game, and have since become a tightly-knit group of very active players.
We don't care about player skill levels or general MWO experience. Our primary goal is to have fun and help each other out, including brand new players. If this is your first time launching the game we'll happily drop alongside you. We have a lot of experienced community members more than willing to help you out and I can't think of a single person that would refuse to let you roll in a lance with them. If you're an experienced pilot already then you'll also find players looking to push themselves as hard as possible in this game, and who are constantly working to improve their game. There is something for everyone in the Oosiks Irregulars!
How do I join the Oosik Irregulars?
The good news is you already have! There is no application, no interview, no skill level check, or anything else involved. Just show up, start playing, and don't be shy in the thread. We mostly don't bite.
Do you guys stream matches at all?
Several fine gentlemen in the Oosiks have thrown a stream party or two. Keep your eyes and ears on the thread! You just never know when.
Where can I get a sig from!?
PM @Nips, @TOGSolid, or @Kashaar
What the hell is a Targeting Computer? Or a Command Console? Why should I care?
You generally shouldn't care, but if you're interested (and not in-game, when you're doing your theorycrafting, follow this link to an image that details what these pieces of equipment do!
Command Console and Target Computer Stats
1.) Flanking is god.
If there is a primary battle line and you're not in a mech that needs to be holding that line then circle around and pounce the stragglers/high value targets like LRM boats. Jumping the LRM boats is an especially game-changing thing to do because once those LRMs stop flying PUG players get really emboldened and ballsy. Even if you die you will still be the big god-damn hero. Learning the maps is a huge part of this; use the terrain to your advantage to successfully jump and annihilate packs of targets.
2.) Learn your range bands and proper positioning.
If you are a brawler then that doesn't necessarily mean you need to get in ASAP. Allow the fight to evolve a bit and wait for targets of opportunity. Go off to the sides and see if you have open lines to approach on to catch your enemies unaware. Conversely, if you are sniper and can still freely shoot things then why move in if you don't have to? Obviously, if you need to reposition to take advantage of the changing battle lines then do so but moving in just to move in? Nah, don't do this. This also kinda applies to brawlers since this is how you end up with a giant clusterfuck of people all at 10 meters trying to get hits in.
3.) Learn your mech.
Trying to get into a hill humping contest with a Stalker while you're in an Atlas? Bad idea. Your guns are low slung and you have to expose yourself a lot to use them. Doing it in a Jager? Brilliant. That mech's hardpoints are tailor-made for this sort of thing. This also means using these hardpoints to your advantage and putting appropriate weaponry in them. For instance, don't put your big guns in the lowest slung points on your mech. Keep em high and you'll be able to take advantage of any hills. Of course, this depends on your mech but this goes back to playing your chosen variant correctly. Don't use the Cataphract CTF-4X as a hill-humper because all the big guns are super low slung. DO use it to keep people suppressed when you can and as a heavy fire support mech. Similarly, don't try to use a Victor as a frontline mech. You hit hard but don't have Atlas grade armor to absorb hits with. DO use an Atlas for that because it's a purpose-built party crasher.
4.) Play medium mechs a lot, even though the meta would make you think they're bad.
Yes, really. The better armor and firepower of a heavy or assault Mech is no replacement for good situational awareness and positioning. Pick a mech with a specific role to flesh out your skills in that area, i.e. if you want to be a better brawler then run a HBK-4G. You will die a lot, you will get your ass kicked, and it will make you a better pilot.
5.) Patience can help a lot.
There are just as many times when hanging back and waiting for the right moment is just as advantageous as crashing the gates and going nuts. This is especially true in the current meta where a lot of stuff out there that can vaporize you if you get too ballsy.
That said, there is a time and a place for coordinated, balls-out gate crashing. Going in with your buddies all at once can do amazing things to break the enemy's lines but it has to be done carefully and at the right time, which goes back to that whole fickle patience thing.
6.) Let the pubbies go first.
They tend to follow anyone that looks even remotely competent. Seeing as how we tend to love flanking maneuvers and speed we end up with a tendency to have the pubbies follow us when we're counting on them to blob to their usual locations. Wait a little bit at the start of the match before you strike out to do horrible things to the enemy's butts.
7.) Want some great fundamentals training? Don't be shy about taking your mech onto the training grounds and just cruising around checking out the maps to learn it.
While you're doing that keep moving at high speeds as you shoot up the dummy mechs to learn to move and shoot fluidly. Circle around them while keeping your crosshair on the target via torso twisting until you don't have to think about it. Practice popping up behind a hill, acquiring your target, firing, and hiding as fast as possible until it becomes second nature. The more skills you commit to muscle memory, the better a pilot you'll be. Remember, you fight like you train so train like you fight.
8.) Want some great aim training?
Pick up a copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 and setup a bot deathmatch with lightning guns only and the game speed mutator set to 150% speed. From here, practice getting headshots on the move in the training grounds. It's a hard target to hit in most mechs and it will help you fine tune your aim with MWO's weapons.
9.) Call your targets to aid in focus firing and for Kerensky's sake, press R to lock on to your targets!
With 12 vs 12 and the recent UI upgrades, we have more phonetic alphabet letters to learn to aid in target calling! For your reference here's the full list:
10.) Builds, Builds, Builds!
With PGI's launch of the new Skill Tree system in June 2017, many pilots have been left wondering "WTF do I do with this thing?". Also, the metagame is a constantly-shifting monster, and 'Mechs routinely come in and out of favor among the MWO regulars. To help a returning player get back in, the following metagame builds list was recommended by current MWO-grinder and friend to all @Nobody:
https://grimmechs.isengrim.org/
NOTE: The Heat Containment skill nodes in the Operations Skill Tree DO NOT FUNCTION; save yourself the SPs and spend them elsewhere!
0.) When in doubt, use Steam to install/load MWO. This way, you don't need to monkey around with the stand-alone launcher PGI originally released, that is rapidly approaching end-of-life.
1.) A lot of times when emailing support they will have you run the official MWO repair tool. The repair tool is built into the launcher, select the gear icon in the upper right corner of the window, then select "Start the MWO repair tool". Try this before going any more in depth with trying to fix things!
2.) A reinstall can do wonders if you're having problems with the bootstrap launcher (the patcher thing that pops up before you get the login window). Sometimes the uninstall goes wrong (because of course), so go here if it won't reinstall.
3.) Try manually deleting the shader cache (MWO should do this automatically, but sometimes fails and it gets corrupted). The post in the link also gives steps to set up a batch script to force the deletion each time MWO loads.
4.) This is a weird fix, but some people found that moving the install directory to another physical drive solves crashes. Literally cut/paste the directory and update shortcuts manually. Not sure if moving to another partition on the same drive helps.
5.) Force your video card to stop power-save throttling and disable ambient occlusion.
6.) Force multi-threading, in case the game isn't using all available cores.
Tips from @Cabezone!
7.) I recommend people run the repair tool even with a new installation. I've had crashing after a fresh install fixed by the tool.
8.) Setting my PC to high performance also fixed an issue I was having where Mechwarrior was set to some low powered mode and the video card wasn't able to run full out.
GOOD HUNTING, MECHWARRIORS.
Now to get that free Mech for April in MWO.
Steam: betsuni7
A Capellan, who cannot swim, asks a Davion to carry him across a river. The Davion hesitates, afraid of being betrayed by the Capellan, but the Capellan argues that if he did that they would both drown. The Davion considers this argument sensible and agrees to carry the Capellan. Midway across the river the Capellan stabs the Davion in the back anyway, dooming them both. The dying Davion asks the Capellan why he stabbed him despite knowing the consequence, to which the Capellan replies, "I couldn't help it. It's in my nature."
But goddamn, they make it so fucking hard to like them.
For the most part living in the Capellan Confederation as a regular citizen is pretty nice, at least compared to the rest of the Inner Sphere. Despite everything else they do, they tend to treat Mercenaries fairly well and plenty of Merc units like to work for them, if no other reason then it is a shot at Citizenship. edit- To go in a bit more detail; The Capellan Confederation is the only Power that provides mercenaries with a path to a life that isn't being a vagabond soldier of fortune. They'll get Citizenship, plots of land on a world, and become a proper House military Regiment. It is a very appealing goal to a lot of Mercs.
Davions may be Noble Bright Do-Gooders, but the FedSuns can be a very hit or miss place to live. Each planet can be ruled however the fuck the planetary ruler wishes so the quality of life varies wildly. Some worlds are pretty great others maybe kinda suck a whole helluva lot.
The FWL is similarly varied, though not as extreme as the FedSuns.
Draconis Combine is the Draconis Combine and of course perfect and glorious in every way.
Lyran Commonwealth is pretty good. Life varies from world to world as with the FedSuns and FWL, but generally speaking still pretty good quality of life throughout.
Rasalhague ranges from alright to pretty good depending pre or post Clan Invasion.
The Periphery is a bunch of banjo playing, cousin loving, rednecks. So if you're in to that then, super?
Though post-Jihad I think everywhere is kind of shit, except for the Capellans. Which is kind of a annoyance I have with that whole Era (and beyond) as the writers wanted to shake things up so they simply up ended everything. Back during this time, in the real world, this had become a somewhat popular trope among long running series. "How do we reignite people's interest in [insert whatever]?" "Take the status quo and simply reverse it!" -high fives all around-
Edit: Why yes, I did vote for Terra Therma with my 8x multiplier. Oosik for life.
Steam: betsuni7
I thought my piloting a Piranha is already proof enough I'm a monster.
SOP for Oosiks to vote for Terra Therma.
Steam: betsuni7
Yeah what always got me was that the setting was already in a Dark Age. That was kind of the point.
Keep in mind the Succession Wars was a point in history where the varied Powers nuked themselves damn near to the Stone Age and often refused to use certain Mechs in combat because they were literally the last examples of them.
If the IS didn’t resort to using Industrial Mechs during the Successions Wars, then they certainly wouldn’t during the “Dark Age” era.
Still, I like the idea of Industrial Mechs, just that their place in history feels a bit off.
Edit- their place in the setting was pretty short lived. As soon as the concept was introduced things moved back to a point where the IS wasn’t just building more BattleMechs, but fancy new ones as well.
There's people who play this game hell bent on getting cold maps to make their "all dakka no heat management" shit work out. So I vote hot maps all the time to disadvantage them.
As someone whose Mech loadouts tend toward benefiting from cold maps I have to agree.
Any friggin time a cold map is an option it is the one getting overwhelming votes. Most of them I find just plain boring.
I tend to take my ridiculous multiplier and vote otherwise, even when it puts me at a disadvantage. Heat management is a thing for a reason.
Edit- I’d rather the system randomly picks a map and players simply vote for Game Mode.
iirc caustic is actually quite a bit hotter, especially since the combat tends to happen around the caldera
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Pardon me, shopkeep, but do you happen to have any cockpit mods?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Also, Clans were kinda balanced because of their zellbrigen thing...and, apparently, it's real hard to simulate that in a PC game or something.
1. Ease of Implementation: The number and quality of equipment, pre-Invasion, is relatively small compared to the Post-Invasion era. Also, introducing Clantech presents wild challenges to balance, especially in the beginning to middle Invasion era before the Inner Sphere powers began to catch up.
2. Popularity: Outside of the Invasion itself, the pre-Invasion era (specifically the lead-in period of the 3rd and 4th Succession Wars) is the most popular among people familiar with the brand.
3. Easy future development roadmap: Since there's a natural progression from 3rd/4th Succession war into the Invasion, saving the Clan Invasion for future DLC or sequels is an obviously easy plan.
4. Nostalgia: Note that both MW5 and BATTLETECH posit your character as a Mercenary. This plays on memories of fondly remembered games like MW2:M and the like, allowing the player freedom to pursue their own ends without a Major Power necessarily having to drive the narrative forward (though that inevitably plays in, regardless. No one escapes the reach of the One Percenters Great Houses). The Clan Invasion is such a central and all-encompassing story, it makes it more difficult to fit the free-wheeling nature of that kind of narrative into it.
I think Zellbrigen could be done. Certainly would be easier in a turned based game, but not impossible for a Mechwarrior game.
For those not in the know;
Clanners fight stupidly.
Clanner Mechwarriors typically 1v1 their enemies. They don't concentrate fire like their IS counterparts would. Even if it is obvious they are about to lose they wont ask for help and even if they did the other Clanners might not even give it.
Clanners look for opponents in a similar state to themselves. So if their Mech is at 100% they'll ignore damaged enemies in search of someone who is also in pretty good shape. If all that is left is damaged enemy Mechs then they'll mop up.
Clanners have a great disdain for melee. If you get in their face they will reflexively pull their Mechs back. IS would use this tactic, once they realized what was up, to pretty good effect to "push" Clanners in to kill zones.
They fucking hate LAMs. They will stop whatever they are doing to try to kill one, even at the risk of their own Mech or victory. LAMs don't ever appear in the games, AFAIK, so this isn't a big concern.
The Clan Invasion itself, story wise, is basically the IS getting their shit pushed in for a couple years straight. It was largely a tale of poorly dressed, genetically engineered super soldiers, piloting Mechs that bordered on Space Magic who were shit-stomping neo-feudal assholes piloting primitive equipment held together by duck tape and prayer.
The IS had a handful of pyrrhic victories here and there, but until the Battle of Tukayyid it was a story of defeat after defeat. The victory at Tukayyid wasn't even earned by the Great Houses but instead by Space AT&T. Even then that victory was one Zapp Brannigan would've been proud of. They threw bodies at the problem until the problem went away. If you're sticking to the Lore it wouldn't really even be something a player could take part in. Of course if they wanted to skirt the lore I wouldn't complain.
I mean, it could work...but there's no way in hell PGI could pull it off. Hell, I've had vehicles ram my mech and suicide. I've also had enemy mechs wedge themselves into my mech's crotch and then their pathfinding just breaks.
So, yeah. It could be done. But since we've apparently lost the capability to even make a dynamic campaign in games, I have no faith that a company would do it.
Or hell, have their lesser forces be the standard enemies, and one of their big mechs be the boss of each stage.
Truth be told, this is exactly how it was in the lore. IS generally fought Clan at least 3 to 1.
Clanners may have had superior firepower, but at the end of the day the Inner Sphere could throw Mechs at em 3, 4 or even 5 to 1. The IS could've wiped out every Clan Mech in existence doing this and still have probably 20x as many Mechs compared to what the entirety of the Clans had in total.
Clan population is very, very small. In and around the Clan Invasion the entire Clan Warrior caste (that's Mechwarriors, aerospace pilots, infantry, tank crews) only numbered around 200k-ish. That's not the numbers for a single Clan, but all the Clans combined.
As a comparison, the Lyran Commonwealth (before the merger with FedSuns) had roughly fifteen million people in their armed forces.
And then used them to play the Clans like a fiddle abusing their ROE, egos, and inability to fight long campaigns. The only Clan that realized what was going to happen was the Wolves, and they made the changes required (having two Khans with experience fighting Inner Sphere style campaigns helped).
They did have to resort to throwing bodies at the Wolves to try to slow them down, but everybody else was outmaneuvered and beaten through logistics.
That being said
I don’t think you could do a canon-friendly PVP game that was Clan vs IS because you’d need the Clan side to have less players than IS (or have the balance willing to play Elementals) and I just don’t see that happening. MW5 could do an expansion that was Clan focused (and probably will), but we’ll have to see what the DLC brings because I haven’t really heard much on that front since it was announced.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
They attacked from the Deep Periphery. Neither the Lyrans or Combine had any real military presence there because why would they.
Nobody really understood what was actually happening at first. Lyrans and Combine more or less thought it was the other doing some sneaky shit as a diversion from the real invasion. So reaction times were very slow.
Once they did understand the extent of the problem they faced the Lyrans and the Combine still didn't trust each other and kept their best units on each others borders for the first couple years of the war.
Even when they started a proper military campaign against the Clans they originally conducted their military operations in the same manner they would against anyone else in the Inner Sphere. Which didn't turn out very well when one of your opponent's Mechs are worth at least three of yours.
The actual invasion targets didn't make any sense to the IS, for the most part. That is to say, the Clans seemed to attack at random with no real rhyme or reason. ie: Inner Sphere military analysts are pretty sure they'll attack this world because it is an industrial hub and its loss would limit the Inner Sphere's military operations in the area. The Clanners instead attack a random agri-world with seemingly no strategic value. This made actually trying to mount a proper defense near impossible.
First one to Terra is the winner.
edit- I joke, but largely that was it.
The Clans were unrivaled at winning battles, but they quite literally had no idea how to persecute a war.
Every world they conquered they would leave behind a token force, usually those recovering from wounds. Then the Clans would be shocked and offended when the locals rose up or the IS counter attacked. They literally could not comprehend such a thing.
They had no real concept of supply chains or logistics. Point of fact they had left most all their resupply back in Clan Space.
That seems like it should have been easy to see where they're going by just drawing a straight line through the planets they hit
so the IS was completely incompetent as usual
got it
Also, everyone gets all up about Zellbrigen, but it is widely understood that the various Clans adhered to it only when facing other Clan forces, or those forces were willing to engage by Clan rules. And even then, there's shades of gray to Zellbrigen, ranging from loose to strict, allowing certain tactics or not.
There are so many other smart ideas they could do to bring about the ilClan Era.
Which, if they had moved fast enough then the winner would have had access to a massive fleet of warships and could have potentially hammered down every capital and major world.
We are your friendly neighborhood telecommunications company. We do not own nor have any desire to own advanced military hardware.
We do control a very modest security detail, but this is simply to provide protection for our HPG facilities and in no way is intended for any sort of theoretical hostile takeover of sovereign nations.
We at ComStar are happy to continue to control, connect your life.