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e: Nevermind, I'm dumb, costs are in the OP. The best place to hide them! I'd definitely recruit the pilots with SPAs- Some are vehicle pilots and we have no vees for them yet, but Golden Goose is good, party van spec is good, and we should just in general scoop up all the skill 3 ones. I'd only pass on the skill 4s with no SPAs I think. Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 00:11
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Also, I'd go straight for the Wolf Empire premium raid contract. Take the most juicy option on the field while we're still totally fresh and un-damaged. My second choice would be the relief mission. It pays well in barter, and it has straight up money attached, as well, with a bonus to probably not making the locals hate us if we want to stick around on this planet for a while, vs the Wolf contract where raiding the local garrison isn't gonna do a lot to endear us.
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Apr 28, 2022 00:36
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Scooping up all the SPA or skill 3 warriors seems like a no brainer. I also agree with taking the hardest contract, especially if we get the Lawyer that lets us know when the locals are about to attack.
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Apr 28, 2022 01:06
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Contract wise: New Earth Trading Contract. (and/or local gov) Why? its 50/50 vs the wolves. Kill the clanners and take their stuff. Plus it gets locals on our side. If you're tempted by the wolf contract... we can take the other side of the coin and doing so while the company is freshest seems ideal there too. I would say scoop even the 4-skills to have spares in case of losses fighting our mission, and/or drill exhaustion. Whats the difference between a standard and a premium contract? Exclusivity? TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 01:31
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My staff picks: Halle Richards(company attornet): A parole officer that gets criminals back on their feet? Amazing. Support out of principle Sudir Muravtonic(Contract negotiator): See above. Two injuries a downtime pays for the staff cost, three makes a profit. This seems to be warriors, not mechwarriors, so... even more fun if we field vehicles, too. Its not the -ideal-, but its -fun-. Habib is great, but... I'm thinking if we take a tough fight, we come out ahead even after losses, maybe even fire someone if we wanna swap later. Hilarously, Halle Richards is the attorney, and leaves a genuine recruiter staff lot open. Better than he looks on paper! Shrewd. Mechwarrior picks: All the four skill too. Especially the guy with the jackalope specialty.(george cooms) At this point we need number of bodies more than quality. Are team leaders for infantry? TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 01:50
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TheParadigm posted:Are team leaders for infantry? Team Leaders are for infantry.
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Apr 28, 2022 01:53
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PoptartsNinja posted:Team Leaders are for infantry. Does deploying infantry work like vehicles, and/or is a team leader all you need to field an infantry squad?
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Apr 28, 2022 01:55
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Infantry are a bonus that deploy in missions that actually need them (unless you buy some battle armor teams). They can be deployed without team leaders but if you do they're skill 5, like vehicles.
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Apr 28, 2022 01:57
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Neat. Considering we don't have -any-... Am I right in assuming that 'Ambulance Chaser' works for any paid staff/named unit, just not blank ones? (ie, fielding a no-commander infantry doesn't work pay if they get flamethrowered or otherwide get injured, but if we hired rat party, and had a city mission where they took a hit, they'd generate barter from the insurance claim?) Edit: also is there a wiki or master list of what all the spa's do somewhere? TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 02:01
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TheParadigm posted:Am I right in assuming that 'Ambulance Chaser' works for any paid staff/named unit, just not blank ones? (ie, fielding a no-commander infantry doesn't work pay if they get flamethrowered or otherwide get injured, but if we hired rat party, and had a city mission where they took a hit, they'd generate barter from the insurance claim?) Correct, it'd be more accurate to say you get paid any time someone is forced to make a survival roll. Vehicles and infantry without an actual leader don't roll to see if anyone survives, so they don't generate any "bonus remuneration" Edit: It's also important to keep in mind: you're probably going to want at least 18 warriors in front line positions (Mechwarriors, Vehicle Commanders) as a bare minimum so you can fight 12 rest 6 and occasionally train. You can cover a bit with no-commander vehicles but a tank without a vehicle commander is a pretty big liability. Vehicles in Alpha Strike are generally pretty decent but all of the cheap ones are absolute crap. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 02:03
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PoptartsNinja posted:Correct, it'd be more accurate to say you get paid any time someone is forced to make a survival roll. Vehicles and infantry without an actual leader don't roll to see if anyone survives, so they don't generate any "bonus remuneration" Oh gosh, thats so good. Assuming you take losses, which we will. If someone gets injured (not killed) is it just forced Rest until they recover? And thanks for the clarification. if we have a vehiclecommander/aero pilot and no tank; they just drill and train and don't otherwise do anything? (ie, they don't 'count' towards the napkin math of 18 combat units)
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Apr 28, 2022 02:20
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TheParadigm posted:If someone gets injured (not killed) is it just forced Rest until they recover? Correct. Some medical staff can help them recover faster, others could enable people to fight while injured (at increased risk if they get shot out of their 'Mech a second time). This close to Terra you're mostly going to find lawyers.  TheParadigm posted:And thanks for the clarification. if we have a vehiclecommander/aero pilot and no tank; they just drill and train and don't otherwise do anything? Pretty much, yes.
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Apr 28, 2022 02:26
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PoptartsNinja posted:Pilots have to rest when they're out of actions, which means they have to skip going on a mission. That means, three missions from now, if you haven't hired enough warriors to rest in shifts (or rest everyone at once) it's a mandatory double downtime which will charge you upkeep twice while everyone rests. With this in mind, here's my hiring picks and why. Spoilers, its all but 1 of them. Afterburner. Skill 3 aero pilot, and medium/heavy proficiency, with an SPA. We don't have aeros yet, but we will want them eventually so... snap them up and train. Impact. Skill 4, but with a jackalope specialization. Hired, thats fine, we use those. Hardpoint. Skill 3, medium, nothing else. Need bodies. Sahara. Skill 4 light pilot. Not great.. need the bodies. Frontline. Skill 4 medium pilot. Not great... still need the bodies. Fisher: Skill 3 light pilot. Need bodies. Rat Party: I'm all for loading up on infantry commanders. Urban spa seems useful. Bonus points using infantry with the insurance negotiator. extra bodies are useful for drills and whatnot! Lioness: 3 skill light/medium vehicle commander. We don't use vehicles right now, but I don't mind having one with exp from training when one falls into our lap. This leaves us with 8/12 in this bank of staff slots, and still room to grow, plus 'one more' mechwarrior needed to stave off hastle later. TheParadigm fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 02:55
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Got my votes in! For Staff Vote I put in one for Sudhir and Halle. I think both of them have some neat angles for future coverage of personnel contingencies either way when the inevitable casualties or firings start to take a toll on the roster. I'm more partial to Halle's bonus myself but I think it's a good deal either way for the 2 barter. Warrior wise, I put in votes for Rat Party, Afterburner, Frontline, Flycatcher, and Fisher. Rat Party - Operational knowledge of urban fighting with Hauberk battle armor to boot feels likea good deal to get. Afterburner - An eventual air support element will be a real game changer I'm thinking. Hopefully we can get them a wingman soon too. Frontline - I put a vote because I think he sounds like a ROTS intel agent and that could be interesting/fun Flycatcher - in the inverse of wanting to get air support, it'll be good to have a commander who is able to knock down VTOLs or enemy air. Fisher - The background and tags for them just appealed to me from a character potential standpoint.
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Apr 28, 2022 05:28
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As much as I loathe the Wolf empire in the fiction, I am gonna have to vote for working for them. The pay is good and the company might do well to keep in their good graces.
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Apr 28, 2022 09:47
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I might need to lower my acceptance threshold. Right now there's a good chance the company won't be hiring anyone which would be not great for your long-term prospects.
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Apr 28, 2022 17:19
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Go for Plurality, not Majority, especially when there are so many options.
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Apr 28, 2022 17:25
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We're not trying to pick just one, though. I still need a cutoff. If I dropped it to 'more than a third' I think the company would pick up a reasonable number. Especially since firing them is a 'free' action that can be done at any time and not a major downtime action. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 17:31
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Yeah, the warrior vote looks like almost everyone wants to pick up most of the warriors. At most 17 voters, and 7 warriors have at least 12 votes on them. e: Oops I'm dumb and it shows how many people voted. Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 17:34
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PoptartsNinja posted:I might need to lower my acceptance threshold. Wouldn't we at least hire Rat Party and Impact on the current votes, since there's 31 people voting and they got 17/16 votes? Or am I misunderstanding how the thresholds work? (Possibly still a good idea to lower the cutoff regardless though)
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Apr 28, 2022 17:35
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I'm a dumbass and missed a trick, so we're going to relaunch the Warrior and Staff polls again. This time the thread can vote 'yea' or 'nay.' They don't need to exceed a 50/50 threshold, they just need to exceed the number of voters who do not want them. If there's anyone you don't care about at all, just skip them. New Warrior Poll is here! New Staff Poll is here!
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Apr 28, 2022 17:46
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Gonna take the chance while people are looking at voting I suppose to shill for Sudhir in the staff vote. Alpha strike is WAY more rng deadly, I think, than normal Battletech, and getting barter in exchange for every injury seems awesome. I think the way Alpha Strike works is basically after a scenario you make a roll for each unit based on it's pilot skill and amount of damage- The more damaged the unit is, the more likely it is that the pilot suffered a wound in combat. So it's not just a matter of very low chance head shots or ammo explosions causing injuries, any unit that comes home with damage has a chance to get dinged. Because pilot skill is involved in the roll, injuries are going to be less likely as time goes on and we get a more experienced crew, but this is the kind of bonus that will be huge for the early game start of our career. It should really help us snowball, and at only 2 barter to hire him, it won't take much at all to pay back the investment. Gwaihir fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 17:47
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Hiring the warriors doesn't cost anything? Honestly, I can't make heads or tails what the stats mean. 3 is better than 4, but there are soft attributes as well? So like, what's better the 3 skill pilot who's drunk, ornery, and an ex-con or the 4 skill pilot who's friendly, is a team player, and knows first aid? It's hunting for the trap options, but I don't really believe that PTN would put in honest-to-god trap options so I don't know what I should be looking for or caring about. Bounced right off. Like, I'd almost rather the poll be 'hire no-one, hire half, hire everyone' and then randomly roll who you get afterwards because I get the feeling that in the long run the stats don't matter when hiring. I just clicked 'hire' to all the warriors because we need bodies and that's all that matters. Staff, that looks different because there's actually a cost per person and they individually do very different things.
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Apr 28, 2022 18:16
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I don't think there are trap options here. The background and tags are fluff/plot hooks and don't affect the combat stats (skill level, SPAs, and size specialization).
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Apr 28, 2022 18:29
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El Spamo posted:Hiring the warriors doesn't cost anything? Yeah I gotta be honest I can't parse any of it either so I'm just gonna skip these votes.
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Apr 28, 2022 18:32
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El Spamo posted:Hiring the warriors doesn't cost anything? Correct, they add to upkeep after a certain level but they cost nothing to hire, they just add to your upkeep whenever they exceed certain numbers. They're hoping for a chance to show off and get a chance to pilot 'Mechs again / have a steady paycheck. As a general rule having more warriors is better provided you're either minimizing upkeep or choosing contracts that pay really well. quote:Honestly, I can't make heads or tails what the stats mean. 3 is better than 4, but there are soft attributes as well? So like, what's better the 3 skill pilot who's drunk, ornery, and an ex-con or the 4 skill pilot who's friendly, is a team player, and knows first aid? It's hunting for the trap options, but I don't really believe that PTN would put in honest-to-god trap options so I don't know what I should be looking for or caring about. Tags and backgrounds are there mostly to help me remember how to write for them. They could influence events, like a belligerent Kuritan or Davion picking fights with mercs from a rival nation and injuring warriors outside of combat. You can try to catch problems early but it's also pretty easy to fire problems later. As a general rule, you should be looking at: Skill (low skill is better), what weight class(es) they can pilot (a skill 4 who can pilot assault 'Mechs is still pretty valuable if no one else can do that), whether they're specialized in anything (even if they're specialized in a 'Mech you don't have that could be pretty valuable eventually!), or whether or not they have any SPAs. For example: Flycatcher's Sandblaster SPA means they have a bonus to hit with FLK, LRM, and SRM weapons if they fire only weapons of that type and deals bonus damage with FLK, LRM, and SRM weapons as well so they can turn a 1/1/1 Partisan into a 2/2/2 since it only carries FLK weapons but they also perform really well in any LRM or SRM heavy vehicles. With a minimum 2 point investment for Cluster Hitter they could turn a Heavy LRM Carrier from a 3/5/5 into a 4/7/7 at an effective skill 3 without the investment in getting them to skill 3. Flycatcher's "better than they look" if the right vehicles show up but they're also just as bad as they look if the right vehicle never gets purchased. There's a lot to manage so not voting or only voting for the people you 100% want or 100% don't want is absolutely OK. If you have to pick one vote, the contract vote is probably the most important. Right now things are pretty close, so even a few votes could swing the mission either way. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 18:34
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What exactly is a "Premium" contract and what do the number of stars mean, does that mean anything beyond bigger potential rewards or rolls for rewards? Is it difficulty, odds of getting screwed by the employer? Like, why would we take the Assassinate contract for less reward and worse salvage? Also what's remuneration, is it pay for friendlies that die?
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Apr 28, 2022 19:52
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PoptartsNinja posted:I might need to lower my acceptance threshold. I think complex votes should be handled in a thread. Same bold style as last time. Strawpoll is nice for getting -trends- and seeing what people's hot picks are, but I think we can all agree making no hires when everyone's voting a lot is a bad system. (like, strawpoll is bad because there's a trend of 'hire the insurance fraud pair' or 'hire the free contract generator', but you don't want to end up in a situation where the poll says 'hire 2 staff, but popularity mismatches them, when real question was 1 expensive or 2 that good together' Tldr; shortlist -> thread confirm trends.
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Apr 28, 2022 20:00
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I think it'll start making sense quite quickly once we have a few missions under our collective belts.
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Apr 28, 2022 20:12
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Dachshundofdoom posted:What exactly is a "Premium" contract and what do the number of stars mean, does that mean anything beyond bigger potential rewards or rolls for rewards? It's a general measure of pay/salvage quality, but since those are determined semi-randomly it is possible for a 'worse' contract to generate better rewards than a higher quality one. As a general rule, 1 star pay/salvage can't generate the best results, 2 star can generate anything, while 3 star pay/salvage can't generate the worst. Contracts can have different pay/salvage ratings, but that's planet dependent. A contractor that can't make much use of salvage will probably reward better salvage rights. Premium is a flat increase in pay (or an elimination of more bad salvage options). Some planets can also generate a flat pay increase for all of their contracts. quote:Also what's remuneration, is it pay for friendlies that die? Remuneration is an upkeep discount, your upkeep for that downtime will be reduced by that amount because your employer is covering those costs. Generally speaking it's a minor bonus but if you get into a tight spot a contract with decent Remuneration can help make sure you can repair all your 'Mechs.
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Apr 28, 2022 20:25
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It's just that with the mechwarriors there's so many of them and there aren't any bad options (just like, long-term vs. short-term thinking and a bit of gambling) so it's hard to suss out optimizing things down to "pick these 8 but not that one, and this one, and not that one either." AND also have that be something I could even begin to meaningfully communicate to the rest of the thread to maybe possibly influence voting. Maybe someone who has a deep level of system mastery could do that, but right now they're all XCOM recruits. Just get a bunch of 'em and see who stands out/survives. That said, I still really like the strawpoll method. Keeps the thread tidy and the options clear. Also should not hire the sketchy lawyers, afaik we haven't gotten up to anything that would require us to call Saul.
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Apr 28, 2022 20:48
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El Spamo posted:It's just that with the mechwarriors there's so many of them and there aren't any bad options (just like, long-term vs. short-term thinking and a bit of gambling) so it's hard to suss out optimizing things down to "pick these 8 but not that one, and this one, and not that one either." AND also have that be something I could even begin to meaningfully communicate to the rest of the thread to maybe possibly influence voting. Maybe someone who has a deep level of system mastery could do that, but right now they're all XCOM recruits. Just get a bunch of 'em and see who stands out/survives. Counterpoint: Ghost Regiments were cool, I want some Yakuza MechWarriors so I have to vote for Halle lol I went all in for hiring everybody after reading this post. The XCOM parallel ticked the box in my brain, it makes sense that the first few missions and training cycles will see some standouts. And firing is easy to do 
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Apr 28, 2022 21:03
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Holybat posted:Counterpoint: Ghost Regiments were cool, I want some Yakuza MechWarriors lol Thats literally why I voted for the shady underworld lawyer tbh
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Apr 28, 2022 21:04
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Really we ought to hire the metalocalypse lawyer
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Apr 28, 2022 21:08
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I could just say 'when you're hiring warriors you'll hire everyone' and then tell you who you got so you can fire anyone you don't want. I'll keep the vote for the staff, though. I'll probably make fewer warriors available in that case, but if that's what the thread wants I can roll with it.
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Apr 28, 2022 21:20
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Isn't pilot upkeep increased only by each dozen we have? By which I mean, isn't exactly as costly to hire 1 than to hire the lot? EDIT: The only thing I know about Mechwarrior is that meat is cheap, so I voted to hire all of them.
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Apr 28, 2022 21:27
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That's correct, it doesn't cost anything to hire, but it does increase your upkeep on the next Downtime. You could hire everyone and then fire any you don't like before they increase your upkeep.
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Apr 28, 2022 21:42
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El Spamo posted:It's just that with the mechwarriors there's so many of them and there aren't any bad options (just like, long-term vs. short-term thinking and a bit of gambling) so it's hard to suss out optimizing things down to "pick these 8 but not that one, and this one, and not that one either." AND also have that be something I could even begin to meaningfully communicate to the rest of the thread to maybe possibly influence voting. Maybe someone who has a deep level of system mastery could do that, but right now they're all XCOM recruits. Just get a bunch of 'em and see who stands out/survives. Yeah, it's just early game right now. No need to think about it all that much, we just hire all the pilots to fill seats, and after we have a good stable then we can only be on the lookout for very specific needs- Like "OK, we want to have a dedicated vehicle lance, we need one more Vehicle commander." or only looking out for ones that show up with special abilities, or to fill specific holes. I think PTN's method as is right now is good, because after two or so rounds the choices will be a lot more clear.
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Apr 28, 2022 22:33
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Runa posted:Thats literally why I voted for the shady underworld lawyer tbh Fun fact! The shady underworld lawyer is a recruiter that doesn't take the dedicated recruitment staff slots. PoptartsNinja posted:That's correct, it doesn't cost anything to hire, but it does increase your upkeep on the next Downtime. For the thread: another way to look at this is that if we have anyone on column 2 it costs us a buck a downtime. Past the first, the other 11 are free. (slots 13-24 specifically)  In this particular instance we want staff reserves, and didn't get the magic # of 6 spare mechwarriors to do things while people sleep. El Spamo posted:It's just that with the mechwarriors there's so many of them and there aren't any bad options (just like, long-term vs. short-term thinking and a bit of gambling) so it's hard to suss out optimizing things down to "pick these 8 but not that one, and this one, and not that one either." AND also have that be something I could even begin to meaningfully communicate to the rest of the thread to maybe possibly influence voting. Maybe someone who has a deep level of system mastery could do that, but right now they're all XCOM recruits. Just get a bunch of 'em and see who stands out/survives. I voted for a near-clean sweep not for the 'optimization 'of warriors, but the action economy angle. We do not want to have to 'hire' or 'drills' 4 times in a row to cherrypick the 'best'. This will murder us on upkeep, the sooner you make an 'unideal' hire, the sooner you can train them. Its the x-com angle, but nu-com, staffing your facilities properly with scientists and engineers, not soldiers and their stats. To put things in perspective: a skill 4 with four actions to train is a skill 3.
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Apr 29, 2022 00:04
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I am very excited I caught this before it got too deep. Thanks for running this PTN. I really hope we get Rat Party, what a callsign!
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Apr 29, 2022 05:09
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