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Scintilla posted:
 e: update in quoted post biosterous fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 21:53
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 07:50 |
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Slavvy posted:The biggest problem it has is being mediocre while looking super cool BattleTech runs on the "rule of cool". Not superhard, but pretty close. Is it possible for me to run this software on my system and just play solo? Because I really like how it seems to give news updates from the wider universe, which is awesome.
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Aug 23, 2023 22:38
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Mekhq has a whole campaign system you can play against the bot (called an atb campaign) You still have to manage a few things but it works fairly well
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Aug 23, 2023 22:48
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biosterous posted:
Marauder II 
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Aug 24, 2023 00:27
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Bloody Pom posted:Marauder II To bad it'll be like 3050 before we can claw them out of the dragoons hands
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Aug 24, 2023 00:34
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Bloody Pom posted:Marauder II and III, and IV, V, respectively weighing 55, 35, and 130 tons 
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Aug 24, 2023 02:23
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biosterous posted:130 tons this is haraam
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Aug 24, 2023 03:12
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Captain Foo posted:this is haraam Whatever you say Kerensky, Amaris doesn't play by your rules!
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Aug 24, 2023 03:32
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Why does the 130 ton one have fighter plane wings
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Aug 24, 2023 03:36
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Superheavy mechs always seemed pointless to me, because the construction rules for Mechs mean you're always going to end up with something that's equivalent to or outright worse in some way to a 100-tonner. Sure, you could make a lumbering 130-ton monstrosity that moves 2 hexes in a straight line on flat, clear terrain, but internal space and heat are such hard restrictions on weapon loadout that you might as well just use an Annihilator. Guess it makes sense that the only notable superheavy outside of Wobbie/Dark Age nonsense was an Amaris Fever Dream Special. Bloody Pom fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Aug 24, 2023 |
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Aug 24, 2023 03:40
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They have one (1) bigly situational non obvious advantage in that they fire from three levels of elevation and so can bypass some terrain. But mostly it's fun to push around 200 tons of metal, mostly when you also have a spotter and also have sacrificed some crits and mass to carry some artillery so you can't really be range bullied. Now you may think that that's nothing that two Annies can't do better and you'll be entirely right, it's all about sending a message.
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Aug 24, 2023 03:48
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Even in roguetech the only one I ever have use for is the one with railguns
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Aug 24, 2023 03:50
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SIGSEGV posted:They have one (1) bigly situational non obvious advantage in that they fire from three levels of elevation and so can bypass some terrain. Indirect fire is for cowards and vehicle crews. The Clans were right about one thing: If you aren't willing to fight your opponent face to face then you don't belong in a Battlemech 
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Aug 24, 2023 04:02
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Bloody Pom posted:Superheavy mechs always seemed pointless to me, because the construction rules for Mechs mean you're always going to end up with something that's equivalent to or outright worse in some way to a 100-tonner. Sure, you could make a lumbering 130-ton monstrosity that moves 2 hexes in a straight line on flat, clear terrain, but internal space and heat are such hard restrictions on weapon loadout that you might as well just use an Annihilator. in MW5, they at least have the benefit of being able to equip two engine cores, so they can actually move pretty drat fast at the cost of sacrificing either some armour or weaponry
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Aug 24, 2023 04:08
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Bloody Pom posted:Superheavy mechs always seemed pointless to me, because the construction rules for Mechs mean you're always going to end up with something that's equivalent to or outright worse in some way to a 100-tonner. Sure, you could make a lumbering 130-ton monstrosity that moves 2 hexes in a straight line on flat, clear terrain, but internal space and heat are such hard restrictions on weapon loadout that you might as well just use an Annihilator. There's a sweet spot around 125 tons where you can add an XL Engine and Endo-Steel structure and get a 3/5 movement profile with 57 tons worth of weapons /equipment space (60 tons if you use Ferro Fibrous armour and optimise by shaving off half a ton). Superheavy construction rules also halve the number of crits each weapon / component takes up, and let you cram two ammo bins into the same crit slot, so you have a lot more space to play around with. With that said, Superheavies are extremely niche units and you could easily field a whole lance of heavies /assaults for the cost of building one.
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Aug 24, 2023 05:56
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And then if you're making something that big, expensive, heavy, and easy to flank you'd really best just make it a tripod for the maneuverability advantages. And since tripods are all silly by default, your superheavy is too.
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Aug 24, 2023 07:49
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Miller's Marauders have the right idea, if they are playing BATTLETECH from HBS. The marauders in there are stupidly good.
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Aug 24, 2023 08:11
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Xarn posted:Miller's Marauders have the right idea, if they are playing BATTLETECH from HBS. The marauders in there are stupidly good. Yeah, in unmodded Heavy Metal they are absolutely gamebreaking with their headcap capabilities
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Aug 24, 2023 12:38
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get me a lance that fields marauders and catapults then we'll talk
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Aug 24, 2023 14:18
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Space Kablooey posted:get me a lance that fields marauders and catapults then we'll talk I think i see where you’re going with this
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Aug 24, 2023 14:26
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State of the Company, Castor VI, January 9th 3016 It's the end of our first contract, and now it's time to take stock of the company and prepare for what comes next. Successfully completing all of our missions has boosted our success rate to 100% and boosted our reputation by five points. Our unit composition remains 100% battlemech, all of which are in tip-top shape. Overall, our physical situation is as good as it could possibly be.  I've made a few changes to our lance loadouts. Yukiko now has the Shadow Hawk, Alexander has the Trebuchet, and Mike has the Phoenix Hawk. I've put their original mechs in storage rather than giving them to other pilots; those are their personal mechs, and technically not company property.  Our personnel roster shows that our members are gradually gaining experience. I have a few ideas for how it could be spent, including the possibility of some kind of skill tree / progression mechanic. I'll try to have it up and running by the end of the next contract. Also, we have two new mechwarriors courtesy of the previous personnel vote.   I've updated their bios and have pasted both into the active personnel section in the OP. Let's hope they both manage to redeem themselves.  Here's what's in our hangar at the moment. I've mothballed the unused mechs to save on maintenance. Mothballing can be a bit game-y, so I won't be mass mothballing our active lances unless we finish a contract early again.  Our warehouse is now full of salvage. I've made sure to stock up on armour, but now I notice we're running low on heat sinks. We also have a few ICE vehicle engines we can sell if the need arises.  Here's our financial breakdown. The company has earned just under half a million C-Bills over the course of the contract. We remain cash-poor, but salvage has given us some assets that could be sold in an emergency. Obviously that wouldn't be ideal, but it gives us a bit of leeway. --  Contract VoteThe time has finally come to vote on the next contract! Pick the one that you like best and post your answer in the thread below! Contract A - Undermined  Contract B - Blood and Circuses  Contract C - Cold Reception  Contract D - Boot Camp 
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Aug 24, 2023 18:07
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Contract C - Cold Reception Good combination of payout, loss compensation, and salvage, and it's picking on the Combine.
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Aug 24, 2023 18:14
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C. Money is good, salvage is good, opfor is in poor shape.
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Aug 24, 2023 18:19
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Voting C as well. I don't think we're ready for fighting actual warfare yet. I would have preferred D actually, but the payout is a bit low, and if they're not paying for damages in full then get lost.
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Aug 24, 2023 18:29
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as much as i like all the periphery states at the "south" end of the map, C seems like a better choice
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Aug 24, 2023 18:42
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C is good, but I'm voting Contract D - Boot Camp. Simulated battles, so less danger, and while there's no direct salvage we do get first pick of possibly working Star-League era tech. Plus there's a surprise at the end!
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Aug 24, 2023 18:45
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I would vote D, if only because we aren't trained enough to handle the tougher fights yet.
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Aug 24, 2023 18:45
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C I would love to pick B or D because they sound like a lot of fun. But we’re in kind of an unsteady position financially. Picking either one and then flubbing an engagement could be the end of the company. C is a bit safer, and we have confirmed salvage from the enemy to grab at and a better monthly pay. If we had like, a million more C-Bills in our account I would absolutely jump at B or D though
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Aug 24, 2023 18:47
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C looks good to me too!
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Aug 24, 2023 18:48
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D, because I have a soft spot for the Aurigans
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Aug 24, 2023 18:53
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Clearly, working for the Draconis Combine is the best choice. There's no way working directly for one of the five great houses could go wrong! A Plus, if you take too many missions against the Draconis Combine, they're likely to throw a battalion at you the next time you take a mission on one of their borders.
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Aug 24, 2023 19:17
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Scintilla, could you elaborate further on what the various Command Rights values are in these contracts? Do they have an impact on decision-making during battles?
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Aug 24, 2023 19:19
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Voting D, and hoping that the surprise is "playing" the HBS campaign afterwards. 
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Aug 24, 2023 19:30
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Command Rights is relatively straightforward. Independent means the company is free to pick and choose how, where, and when it fights. If an enemy company lands and the mercs decide to play guerillas, they can. It's fairly rare for a small command to be offered independent contracts; it's typically only done as a way to save face or for plausible deniability. If you see independent command rights on a raid there's a good chance your employer thinks you're all going to die. Liaison means the company has been saddled with a liaison officer who is responsible for making those command decisions. Liaison officers can be persuaded, but if they say jump the mercs have to say 'how high.' There's also usually a penalty if they die; but they often come with their own BattleMech and depending on the house or mercenary command it could be a really solid 'Mech. You can, in theory, disobey a liaison officer if they're being obstinate; but it'll go before a tribunal and you could (will, if you failed) be charged with breaching contract. It should be noted, since one of our options is the Draconis Combine: some Liaison officers can be pretty chill; but DCMS liaison officers almost never are. They consider 'babysitting duty' to be beneath them and they will absolutely punish the unit for anything they think they can get away with (In this era you could get someone cool like Minobu Tetsuhara; but that's a rarity). It should also be noted: the Draconis Combine assigning you a Liaison officer is actually a sign of trust. It means they think you might be able to operate independently. Operating under direct DCMS command is significantly worse. The Draconis Combine almost never offers Independent command rights outside of suicide missions (and even then they're likely to assign you a Liaison to make sure you suicide properly). House command means you're under control of the local military authority. If an enemy company lands and they tell you to stand directly under their DropShips to try to convince them to leave, you stand directly under their DropShips or you're at risk of breaching contract. With some Great Houses this is NBD, they'll basically give you independence and just assign you objectives to complete. But with others they are absolutely hiring you to catch bullets with your teeth so their regular troops can keep their paint looking pretty and you will catch those bullets. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Aug 24, 2023 |
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Aug 24, 2023 19:35
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anakha posted:Scintilla, could you elaborate further on what the various Command Rights values are in these contracts? Do they have an impact on decision-making during battles? Just from the MekHQ definition: House and Liason both mean the employer determines which of your forces are deployed to any given mission, and Liason means you'll have a employer liason mech with you that needs to survive or you lose contract status. Independent is what it says on the tin, you determine which forces you send, and the employer is pretty hands off.
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Aug 24, 2023 19:37
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anakha posted:Scintilla, could you elaborate further on what the various Command Rights values are in these contracts? Do they have an impact on decision-making during battles? PoptartsNinja has explained this quite well. Mechanically, it only matters if you choose to play an AtB (Against the Bot) campaign, where it determines how many NPC allies your employer will deploy to help you.
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Aug 24, 2023 19:42
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And if you are playing AtB Liason and Independent are fine, avoid House contracts because they're big fans of "There's a company of assault mechs attacking a civilian outpost, you must defend! Who to send... assault lance, no, second assault lance, no, wait, what's this, four Wasp LAMs? That''ll do. Go destroy 80% of the enemy forces before they kill the three fuel trucks and one machine gun turret that you have for support"
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Aug 24, 2023 19:48
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Just for funzies, in this era this is about what you should expect from each of the Great Houses, command-rights wise: Federated Suns House Command: Usually pretty safe Liason Command: Unusual for them to offer, usually means they have an objective they don't want to tell you about (higher risk missions) Independent Command: Either a suicide mission or something they don't care about. Pay close attention to the mission target. Lyran Commonwealth House Command: Fairly risky, it just depends on who's in control of the local theater and whether or not they're competent. Liason Command: Usually pretty safe, you'll get a junior officer who may not have Social General poisoning yet... provided they're a Captain or below. Pray you don't get a Major, that's the buy-in rank for most wealthy idiot failchildren. If your liaison is a Major you'll be babysitting them rather than the other way around. Independent Command: Usually very safe, it means they trust you and want to build better relations with you. Draconis Combine House Command: YOU WILL JOIN THE SUICIDE MISSION Liason Command: As long as you can tolerate your liaison officer, this assignment will probably be pretty safe. The Draconis Combine is hiring you to fight, but they don't assign a Dragon's Tear unless they have to. Independent Command: We have an emergency suicide mission that needs doing. Free Worlds League House Command: Varies Liason Command: Usually fairly safe Independent Command: Usually fairly safe Capellan Confederation House Command: Usually fairly safe Liason Command: Usually fairly safe Independent Command: We have an emergency suicide mission that needs doing.
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Aug 24, 2023 19:56
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Azhais posted:And if you are playing AtB Liason and Independent are fine, avoid House contracts because they're big fans of "There's a company of assault mechs attacking a civilian outpost, you must defend! Who to send... assault lance, no, second assault lance, no, wait, what's this, four Wasp LAMs? That''ll do. Go destroy 80% of the enemy forces before they kill the three fuel trucks and one machine gun turret that you have for support" Those four Wasp LAMs will also have 6/7 pilots and immediately trip over their own feet as soon as they try to move. You'll also be penalised if any of them die. Against the Bot can be really fun, but it's still got issues.
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Aug 24, 2023 20:12
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 07:50 |
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I suppose that's the sort of thing you can GM edit?
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Aug 24, 2023 20:37
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