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Anyways, just got a raven and here are my thoughts: The ECM is an interesting gimmick. If I ever find a stand alone ECM pod it will go somewhere in my lance. That said, maintaining distance so no one is inside your bubble is harder than it sounds, and once you fire you're going to get focused. The AI seems pretty good about using sensor lock and getting LOS on you. As far as gameplay goes it seems pretty OK. I need to play with it some more but it doesn't feel crazy OP. BAP is situationaly useful. If you're close enough to blow your probe you're also close enough that they are almost certainly inside your bubble. Really it's more of a panic button for fast movers with lots of evasion bum rushing the ECM - probe them all and let your escorts cut them down. Again, useful, but not OP. The use is edge case enough that frankly if it was stand alone equipment I don't think I"d bother. Still, if you have it anyways (because you have the Raven) it's another tool and is welcome. The raven is . . . . I mean it's not BAD because it comes with the ECM/BAP combo, but it's a 35 tonner with 7 tons of that eaten up, and a decently beefy engine on top of it. It has paper thin armor for a 35 tonner (I think 30 on each torso), no jump jets, and just pitiful space for armament. It comes stock with an SRM6 and 2ML and when I went to tweak it I really couldn't do better. I suspect the alternate model that people end up using will be to go whole hog on the ECM aspect - armor it as much as possible, slap in jump jets, and cut the armament down to a single SL or something. It's a very fragile thing that you end up having to protect a lot. It also has to be right there with your main line mechs, so it's not like you can have it hide in the back. I can't imagine giving up a heavy or an assault to take one onto even a 4 skull mission. At the lower levels where losing the tonnage and weapons isn't such an awful trade off it could be useful. It comes over-heat sinked out of the gate, and pulling them off lets you do two more tons of armor which at least lets it hold its own when a medium looks its way.
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Jun 8, 2019 21:14
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The Raven would really cement its role as a support unit for a heavier lance if poo poo like TAGs and NARC Beacons (or EMPs, Inferno SRMs, etc.) were in the game. Then you could have your 2-stealth raven providing a bubble to get your brawlers into murder range, then continuing to support them by marking targets or disabling 'mechs.
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Jun 8, 2019 21:30
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Ghost of Babyhead posted:I'll give this a try next time it comes up. Seconding what was said about having to be close to the convoy above. I didn't know about the icon thing (I bet it's one of those status icons like climate, inspired, rough terrain, etc), but I ran into this earlier and the convoy split. It wasn't until I got another unit close that they went again. I wish they'd give a the convoy units an aura to make it clear how close you need to be at a glance.
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Jun 8, 2019 21:33
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Cyrano4747 posted:What are your specs? I've got zero problems with it with the exception of urban battles which feel a little unoptimized at the moment. 8 gb RAM, intel core i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50 ghz 2.70 ghz, video card is uhhh Intel HD graphics 620? I got this for free when my last laptop broke and I mostly use it for paradox map games (which also run pretty slow) and a moba or two every now and then.
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Jun 8, 2019 21:44
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BeAuMaN posted:Seconding what was said about having to be close to the convoy above. I didn't know about the icon thing (I bet it's one of those status icons like climate, inspired, rough terrain, etc), but I ran into this earlier and the convoy split. It wasn't until I got another unit close that they went again. I wish they'd give a the convoy units an aura to make it clear how close you need to be at a glance. Or maybe have the convoy follow each other because they're a convoy?
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Jun 8, 2019 21:56
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ECM Raven is great for Escort missions - use it to cover the convoy and when random light or medium mechs pop up they won't be able to alpha strike your vehicles.
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Jun 8, 2019 22:16
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Palemdromes posted:8 gb RAM, intel core i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50 ghz 2.70 ghz, video card is uhhh Intel HD graphics 620? I got this for free when my last laptop broke and I mostly use it for paradox map games (which also run pretty slow) and a moba or two every now and then. Try turning down your graphics options, even lowering the resolution.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:03
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To be fair, my laptop has a Core i5 6330Q (true quad core), 8GB of RAM and a 4GB GTX 960M and I still tank from ~60 fps on normal maps to a maximum of 17-18 fps on the Urban maps and about half of that game is spent in single digits. And that's with everything turned down or disabled.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:05
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My old desktop 970 handled things quite well but would get crushed trying to run 4k
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Jun 8, 2019 23:10
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Palemdromes posted:8 gb RAM, intel core i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50 ghz 2.70 ghz, video card is uhhh Intel HD graphics 620? I got this for free when my last laptop broke and I mostly use it for paradox map games (which also run pretty slow) and a moba or two every now and then. It’s your VC.
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Jun 8, 2019 23:41
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Palemdromes posted:8 gb RAM, intel core i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50 ghz 2.70 ghz, video card is uhhh Intel HD graphics 620? I got this for free when my last laptop broke and I mostly use it for paradox map games (which also run pretty slow) and a moba or two every now and then. Yeah integrated graphics is very much not gonna cut it. Maybe if you turn everything to minimum and lower the res to something like 1366*720
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Jun 9, 2019 00:21
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Palemdromes posted:Are there mods for this game? Performance ones? I got it and it just barely runs on my laptop, I like it a lot? But it’s runs really jankily? And makes it a pain to actually play? https://github.com/m22spencer/BattletechPerformanceFix/releases This improved my loading times many times over. Not sure it will help with low RAM. The game seems like it used to have issues with just 8GB system mem, but this was before 1.6.
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Jun 9, 2019 00:23
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Or maybe have the convoy follow each other because they're a convoy? That'd be ideal, and it would actually be easier! So much easier in fact that this is what would be done by default I'd think, so I imagine there's some reason they don't do it that way. BeAuMaN fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jun 9, 2019 |
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Jun 9, 2019 00:55
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BeAuMaN posted:That'd be ideal, and it would actually be easier! So much easier in fact that this is what would be done by default I'd think, so I imagine there's some reason they don't do it that way. That's how it acted at launch. The vehicles would rocket out of the gate by themselves and everyone was angry they didn't wait for the player's Lance to escort them. So, they changed it. Now people are unhappy they don't move as a convoy, there is no satisfactory answer to this. Best practice is this: Kill all initial OPFOR before starting convoy. Scout route for road/path and find red landing zone warning dots with holding Left ALT while picking a movement spot, it highlights all dots under your mouse cursor. Place your Lance evenly along the route to the LZ, faster unit at the starting hex. You now have 3 "checkpoints" with one unit to detect and in-route OPFOR spawns Fast unit touches the convoy hex, starting convoy. Fast unit escorts the vehicles and the others move up as they hit your "checkpoints." Make sure not to get in the path of the vehicles, keep them together and clumped up. Rush to be around, but not too clumped in to the LZ. You want to detect and be closest to the OPFOR when the first vehicle touches the landing zone, this spawns the final OPFOR. Tag every enemy once with multi-target ASAP so they don't fire on the convoy, bonus if you have a RVN and keep the convoy safe inside the ECM bubble. Convoy departs, kill everything. Amechwarrior fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jun 9, 2019 |
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Jun 9, 2019 01:23
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Move as convoy if one mech is close enough to any of the vehicles would work
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Jun 9, 2019 02:06
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Amechwarrior posted:That's how it acted at launch. The vehicles would rocket out of the gate by themselves and everyone was angry they didn't wait for the player's Lance to escort them. So, they changed it. It's good that they changed it because that was kind of annoying
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Jun 9, 2019 02:29
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I guess I get that... but it'd be neat if one vehicle in the convoy is designated as the "leader". Leader only goes when at least one mech is nearby, all other convoy vehicles follow the leader. If/when leader vehicle dies, new leader vehicle is designated, either immediately or before end of enemy's move (the vehicle that is designated is the vehicle that has the shortest travel time along the convoy path remaining). It might be even neater if we had more of a "convoy direction" minigame without directly controlling the convoy, but I'd be happy with a minimum viable product like above.
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Jun 9, 2019 02:35
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that sounds like a more complicated 'only move when a friendly mech is around' for questionable benefit
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Jun 9, 2019 03:10
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Just let me fuckin move them myself.quote:Mercenary unit, this is a joint Comstar and Pirate operation. Withdraw or you will be fired upon. Space Verizon just gives no fucks.
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Jun 9, 2019 03:29
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Deuce posted:Just let me fuckin move them myself. Usually companies at least pretend they're independent contractors
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Jun 9, 2019 03:32
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Re: Ravens Ravens seem like they'd make a lot more sense if you could field a second lance or if you got one riiight at the start of the game when a light mech isn't loving over your lance. (GIVE DEKKER A RAVEN DAMNIT) Even getting to 3-skull missions it starts to get hard to justify giving up a quarter of your firepower.
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Jun 9, 2019 03:32
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Rather than a second lance, what about unlocking the ability to deploy a fifth dedicated support mech? You get a fifth slot but can't put anything heavier than a Light mech in there. So you could run a Raven for ECM, or a Firestarter for heat shenanigans, or an Urbanmech to make sure you always have a Good Boy on your team.
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Jun 9, 2019 04:35
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https://github.com/BattletechModders/cFixes/releases/tag/v1.6.1.1 cFixes for BT 1.6.1 is finally ready. We fixed a lot of new things, but also culled so many things that 1.6 fixed. AI Pilot skills are still outdated and those are still here in cFixes. In new file bugs, we corrected some flipped factions in the "Double Agent" FP that would give rep to a totally unrelated faction and inverted factions in 3-way battles. The RVN is also given the requirement to spawn only if the player has beaten "The Prototype" FP in addition to the stock min. appearance date of 1-1-3027. The new Gallant vehicle is also buffed by making it match TT armor, however we also matched the slower TT speed. Not sure how the Gallant is going to play out, it might have been an intentional change, but with all the tag errors in all mechdefs I'm just not sure.
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Jun 9, 2019 04:49
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Deuce posted:Re: Ravens Aff! If they are adding more 'Mechs of all weight classes I'm really tempted to start a new Career or Campaign to see if I can randomly roll one for my starting lance, especially since the Spider wasn't good for much aside from jumping around and drawing aggro. I have kept Dekker alive throughout the Campaign though.
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Jun 9, 2019 04:53
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Lars Blitzer posted:Aff! If they are adding more 'Mechs of all weight classes I'm really tempted to start a new Career or Campaign to see if I can randomly roll one for my starting lance, especially since the Spider wasn't good for much aside from jumping around and drawing aggro. I have kept Dekker alive throughout the Campaign though. It's not part of the random start roll pool. Options: Centurion CN9-A Enforcer ENF-4R Blackjack BJ-1 Vindicator VND-1R Cicada Firestarter FS9-H Panther PNT-9R Jenner JR7-D Spider SDR-5V Urbanmech UM-R60 Commando Locust
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Jun 9, 2019 05:10
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Is there a way to bump up building health a little? It's annoying to take cover behind a skyscraper, only to have it evaporate from a stray machine gun bullet.
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Jun 9, 2019 05:41
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Deuce posted:(GIVE DEKKER A RAVEN DAMNIT) The best thing for Dekker is to give him a pink-slip. He's the single most death-prone character in any game that has ever existed. Firing him is mercy.
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Jun 9, 2019 06:24
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And Tyler Too! posted:The best thing for Dekker is to give him a pink-slip. He's the single most death-prone character in any game that has ever existed. Firing him is mercy. Only because people put him in that Spider, which inevitably gets damaged when someone sneezes at it. Now it's in repair time so you load up that Locust you have as a backup mech, not realizing that the plant where they built Locusts got delivered bricks of ramen noodles instead of armor plates and they just fuckin went with it.
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Jun 9, 2019 16:01
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Post the Kelly edit
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Jun 9, 2019 16:08
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Deuce posted:Only because people put him in that Spider, which inevitably gets damaged when someone sneezes at it. Now it's in repair time so you load up that Locust you have as a backup mech, not realizing that the plant where they built Locusts got delivered bricks of ramen noodles instead of armor plates and they just fuckin went with it. Absolutely. First thing I do once the intro mission is done is try to find a decent half or single skull mission to harvest a better light mech. Most recently I lucked into a Jenner laser boat, so that went well.
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Jun 9, 2019 16:34
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Just get rid of the jump jets and armor it up; it's the fastest mech in the game so it doesn't need jumping to get around, and as a 30 tonner its structure/armor values aren't very different from a Jenner or Panther. It's still bad, but super flimsy it needn't be.
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Jun 9, 2019 16:41
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Ok, so if we're going to have APCs to escort they should be able to survive one volley from a light battlemech that gets to spawn, move, and fire all in the same round. Or let me fuckin drive
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Jun 9, 2019 16:46
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Just launched on my first attack and defend mission and EXCUSE ME HOW MANY WAVES?
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Jun 9, 2019 20:40
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Yeah those missions are loving insane. I think the waves stop if destroy their base but the skull earring is all out of whack. I saw 3 heavies plus misc lights and mediums on a loving 2.5. Needless to say I didn’t finish that mission.
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Jun 9, 2019 20:43
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Cyrano4747 posted:Yeah those missions are loving insane. I think the waves stop if destroy their base but the skull earring is all out of whack. I saw 3 heavies plus misc lights and mediums on a loving 2.5. Eight mechs plus turrets were on the field before any waves even spawn. My base had no turrets. Their turrets were sniper turrets so could provide direct fire support if I moved forward. It was 1.5 skulls, the enemy mechs were all light pirate mechs but had full armor values. I just don't have the DPS to gun down that many mechs before the next wave appears. The AC/20 urbanmech was the final straw, nearly cored out my heaviest mech (Wolverine) and I said fuuck that. On your own, Kamea.
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Jun 9, 2019 20:56
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So, after ragequitting the game a year ago, I decided recently that I want to try it again. I haven't played since the first time they changed the skills up, and got probably halfway through the campgaign. Any suggestions / tips for understanding any other weird balancing / changes they may have done in the interim?
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Jun 9, 2019 21:23
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Even after this latest patch, the Aurigan Directorate still lives within my game. That's come as quite a surprise to me! Still haven't had a chance at some of the new mission types outside of the flashpoints, so we'll see how they turn out.
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Jun 9, 2019 21:29
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I just got the game for the first time and have no idea what I’m doing. My experience with games like this is that some weapons, items, mechs and skills are not as useful as others. Anyone able to offer some tips on how to load out mechs, which weapons/items are good vs bad and how to min max skills on your mercs? Any advice on c bills vs salvage?
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Jun 9, 2019 21:29
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Weapons-wise Medium Lasers are almost never a bad choice. Weapons to avoid are the AC/2, you can stick with the dual 2s on the Blackjack until you get comfortable enough to know what you want to do with it. Also the PPC, you're almost always better off replacing a PPC with a Large Laser. In terms of salvage, I tend to move the slider 1 notch towards salvage. Some contracts that's not a good idea, but most of the time it'll end up with the best balance between salvage and cash across multiple contracts.
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Jun 9, 2019 21:38
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Kraftwerk posted:I just got the game for the first time and have no idea what I’m doing. On standard settings, always salvage. - Take the Bulwark skill (Guts 5) on everyone. - Never leave ammo in the center torso. - Max head and front CT/ST armor on all your mechs. Arms too if they have any weapons on them. - SRMs and MLas are the the best general weapons, followed by AC20 and LRMs (which are more specialized, and benefit from having the mech+pilot built around them). LLs are good, AC5s less so. The rest range from bad to really bad and are just very rarely worth bothering with. - Support Weapons (SLas, MGs) are exceptionally damage efficient, but it's dangerous to get into melee range once you start running into 55+ ton mechs on the regular. Note a melee hit strips 2 evasion pips if you have support weapons equipped. - Ammo goes in the legs. They are tough and have a low chance to get hit compared to other sections, and while getting crit and knocked down sucks, it sucks more to get crit and instantly lose several rare weapon variants.  - Jump Jets go in the torsos. Even if you lose your legs you can still jump just fine - unless you also put your JJs in the legs, ensuring your mobility is compromised no matter what. - If playing correctly you shouldn't be taking any unintentional rear shots at all, such that when you do it should be a calculated risk (ie a few potshots), therefore you don't need much back armor. I slap in just enough to block a medium laser so that I don't immediately start rolling criticals in such a case. - Empty side torsos, on the other hand, need no such protection. If the enemy hits them and starts doing structure there, that's a net win - means you didn't get hit on the bits you actually care about. - Lopsided builds are better than more distributed designs. If you have nothing on the right arm and nothing on the right torso, that's 29.6% of hits going on fully expendable sections. It's effectively ablative HP. Empty segments, and putting ammo away from your weapons, gives you much better control over your HP. It makes designs like the Centurion below quite in this game - it both punches above its weight with an efficient weapons package, and has the structure of its arms and right torso as entirely disposable HP.  The good pilot skill combos: Guts 2 / Pilot 1 (general use/brawling) Guts 1 / Gunnery 2 (AC20 mediums and LRM builds only) Guts 1 / Tactics 2 (initiative plays) Mech progression is generally linear (bigger is better), with the following caveats: - All mechs at the bottom of their respective weight class are bad compared to their near peers, with the exception of the AWS-8T which is okay. - The Crab, Hatchetman, Trebuchet, and Banshees (except the -S) all have less available pod space than their peers, sometimes combined with unfortunate hardpoints, and as a result range from meh to awful. - Missiles > Energy > Ballistics, broadly speaking, so Energy+Ballistic mechs are at the lower rungs of the totem pole for their weight.
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Jun 9, 2019 21:57
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