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I have A) no familiarity with Battletech beyond playing Mechwarrior 2 as a kid on the PC and B) am mostly here because thanks to Shadowrun I have faith in Harebrained Schemes to tell good stories. How hard will this be to get into and understand?
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Dec 27, 2017 19:07
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vorebane posted:I think this would be a good touch, but I would also want the opportunity to use the directorate's offer to extort more cash from the restoration. If we're going to get really fancy that pay raise could come with the caveat of pushing the restoration a little closer to broke, meaning you I mean Has anyone here played HBS' games recently? I think literally every one of them has an 11th hour option to join the baddy. It's not bloody likely there'll be a fleshed out parallel arc for doing so, but I would not be surprised if there was...yet another 11th hour option to Join The Baddy ending.
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Jan 15, 2018 23:09
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Cyrano4747 posted:Honestly one of the biggest MW5 sins is the just absolutely poo poo-tier voice acting. It's just amazing how much they cheaped out on it. The mechanic guy sounds like he's probably one of the developers and did all his reads cold, never having seen the script before. The delivery is super stilted and just bad, for everyone. Again, like it's a cold read and one take. The cheeseball bad VA in MW5 is one of the best parts. Except the Commander himself he just sounds like he’s been drugged, that’s bad in a confusing way not a funny way. Nasal voice dude especially. Ours was named Captain Handy and he refused to die despite our best efforts. A real hero of the Inner Sphere 
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Feb 10, 2023 08:01
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The Historical Campaign stuff is pretty good about yelling at you to be like HEY YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME YOU GOOD WITH THIS? There will always be a conspicuous bird or snake themed priority transmission on the main screen if you’re in the Kestrel or Rasalhague windows.
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Feb 11, 2023 03:12
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Q_res posted:Scorched Earth is literally an improved version of Demolition that was added when the first DLC came out. Targeted Kill has the same relationship with Assassination. Why they added them as separate mission types is a loving mystery, my suspicion is that it somehow broke the campaign. It’s not really a mystery. It reflects difficulty. Scorched Earth missions have more aggressive reinforcement waves and are generally more dangerous than Demolition missions. The same is true of Targeted Kill relative to Assassination and Garrison Duty relative to Defense.
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Feb 11, 2023 04:15
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God drat it Taurians I can’t believe you’re going to make me ally with Davion because you’re such salty babies that allying with basically any of Davions regional counterweights ALSO makes you mad. I want to be cool with Cool Space Cuba not Hanse loving Davion!
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Feb 14, 2023 02:25
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Yeah it’s important to understanding how much the Battletech universe sucks that Battletech as a whole treats Anything Other Than Autocracy as essentially non-viable governance at the interplanetary level. So the galaxy is just a whole shitshow of despotic states of varying degrees. Marik is less bad than most but still feudal aristocrats. The thing is that while basically all the polities are dickheads, most people living in their space aren’t terribly affected by that dickheadery* *Unless we’re talking about Liao which is full on North Korea. Unfortunately Battletechs original writers were very white, very 80s/90s, and very center right so Battletech is just RIFE with yikes sinophobia and the legacy of “aughh the Japanese tech boom the perfidious celestials will soon cast down our society!” Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Feb 15, 2023 |
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Feb 15, 2023 06:55
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Also while we’re at it Kerensky was a coward and a moron who made things worse in both the short and long term. gently caress ‘im.
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Feb 15, 2023 22:57
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PoptartsNinja posted:This is not an opinion, it's just objectively correct. It is but a lot of the older writing very much implicitly agreed that he was an uWu so principled and honourable warrior Kerensky-senpai. Which in turn bled into a lot of the fans being primed at the pump to accept the Clans’ rhetoric completely uncritically. Masturbating constantly to Natasha Kerensky and Wolf’s Dragoons didn’t help.
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Feb 16, 2023 03:19
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Hey Rasalhague and Canopus are basically fine. …That’s all I got.
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Feb 16, 2023 08:36
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Kamea is about as good as it gets when hereditary monarchy is the completely unquestioned norm  Honestly my main beef with the campaign is there’s no option to retire into the service of the Aurigan state. Being a merc is for suckers when there’s an alternative like that around. Much like staying a Shadowrunner if you don’t have to is a sucker’s deal.
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Feb 16, 2023 10:37
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Jimbot posted:So I decide to fire up the game again after falling off of it some time after launch and I'm immediately overwhelmed by choice. So, uh, can anyone just give me some quick n' dirty builds mechwarriors and mechs, that'll just carry me through the game for some time while I figure out all this junk? Game starts you up then throws a 25k page technical manual at you and goes "have fun!" and while there's an appeal for certain players, to me it just paralyzes me with choice and I just want to turn the game off, uninstall and go play something else. The easiest way to condense the choices at first for a new player is this: If you want to use a mech, pull everything off, max armor, remove some armor from the rear until you reach a whole number, then slam a bunch of SRMs and medium lasers in there. It’s more complicated than that but BROADLY speaking SRMs and medium lasers are the most effective and efficient weapons when you start out. Eventually though you have to start evaluating tonnage and heat limits and hardpoints on a mech for yourself because it’s all very “it depends”. As for pilots, even post nerfs the safe bet is usually “Bulwark then either specialize in another tree or go up to Coolant Vent and get Multi-Shot or Sure Footed”. Also raise Tactics high enough for the Called Shot bonus as soon as humanly possible and when it won’t interfere with your ability choices. It’s also possibly just Not Your Kind Of Game but hopefully this gets you over the initial hump that you become comfortable making decisions. If not, hakuna matata. Most folks here prefer to play modded where there’s exponentially more fiddly choices. Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Feb 19, 2023 |
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Feb 19, 2023 20:10
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The most difficult battle of all is the impulse to use a UAC20 because they’re cool vs the knowledge and understanding that they’re not very good Big boom tho
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Feb 21, 2023 06:46
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Klyith posted:Are you thinking of LBXes? Those are the ones where the 2 & 5 are good, the 10 is kinda ok, and 20 is meh. Nah it’s the same with UACs. UAC 2s and 5s are strictly superior for both damage weight and tonnage to 10s and 20s. There is no universe in which the 20 isn’t basically a gimmick. It’s a very entertaining gimmick! But you could kill mechs more efficiently with other weapons. I still do it for funsies sometimes but I ain’t gonna convince myself I’m not loving around. Two UAC2s and two ERMLs is the same damage for less heat at better range than a UAC20. Same net slots used too. Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Feb 22, 2023 |
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Feb 22, 2023 05:25
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Ensign Expendable posted:Oh, I have two of the big AC10 shotguns on my King Crab, am I doing it wrong? Do you mean the LBX-10 AC? If so, no that’s an excellent weapon in MW5. Both the regular version and the SLD are quite good, regular LBX got buffed significantly in Call to Arms. If you mean an actual AC 10 or AC10 BF then yeah you’re undergunning the King Crab badly.
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Feb 22, 2023 07:49
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Psycho Landlord posted:Excellent post/username combo Mmmm? I’m simply correct though. 230 for the UAC2s and ERMLs vs the 240 of the UAC20. Better range and binomial probability favors the multiple shots of the former grouping for coring out mechs. It’s objectively better.
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Feb 22, 2023 19:50
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Psycho Landlord posted:In Mechwarrior 5 you absolutely want big damage single shot weapons because you are an elite mechwarrior and can click center mass and or heads Yup. MW5 is a way different environment. Big ungainly bruisers like the Banshee 3S and the Battlemaster are excellent in MW5 due to shorter engagement ranges and the ability to, well, aim. Whereas BT heavily favors just Called Shotting from across the map into CT or head with larger quantities of mid damage weapons rather than fewer larger damage weapons for consistent coring and headcapping before anyone gets to do anything. Also Gauss and LBX are actually worth using in MW5, instead of basically joke weapons. Overall I would say I prefer MW5 but HBS Battletech is a fun filler activity. Biggest tragedy of MW5 is that the Annihilator is just too slow to be really useable. It’s hilarious but totally impractical. Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 23, 2023 |
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Feb 23, 2023 05:34
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Mode 7 posted:Didn't realise there was MW5 discussion happening here so forgive me if this sort of thing has been discussed a bunch recently but - So the general rule of thumb is that you most likely won’t get big difficulty spikes in MW5 unless you head into a conflict zone of a much higher rep level. As for easiest on ramp…the easiest start is to start Davion then as soon as humanly possible fly north into Kurita space to the Valentina system to get a free Wolverine, a medium mech. It’s an easter egg and helps grease the wheels a bit. The Davion start is VERY close to Valentina. The dlcs don’t DIRECTLY make the game harder no, you should definitely not turn them off. What you should be aware of though is that they added new mission types which ARE a bit harder but can be avoided if you are still Babby mode. Scorched Earth is a harder version of Demolition, Warzone is Battlefield but harder, Garrison Duty is Defense+, and Targeted Kill is Assassinate+. They all tend to have higher tempos and tougher fights than their lesser versions. Beachhead missions are also frequently a bit rough in the early stages. But for the most part I don’t think anything unusual happened in your case. Just sounds like inexperience. It can be an unforgiving game early on.
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Feb 23, 2023 06:13
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Ensign Expendable posted:Speaking of suddenly difficult missions, I ran into one where I got hit by a swarm of helicopters and tanks, I've never seen anything like it. They chewed through my rocket boat instantly, killing the maxed out elite pilot and causing 8 million worth of damage to the mech. Everyone else finished the mission with minimal damage somehow. Assuming this is MW5… So early on, you kind of learn to treat tanks and helicopters as inconsequential gnats. This is a mistake. You need to learn the high priority targets. The bigger tanks and vtols are basically glass cannons. They are: SRM Carriers. An SRM60 can gently caress your whole day if disregarded Manticore/Pattons/Demolishers: These are your heavy tanks. Some of them are gonna be loaded with poo poo like AC20s, perhaps multiple even (Demolishers do this). I’m 99% sure there’s a fourth heavy tank that I’m totally blanking on the name for. Igors: Igors are the heavy tanks of the sky. Kill them immediately. Psycho Landlord posted:Just install yaml and load up with MASC and TSM, enjoy your 100kph annihilator Naw. YAML is butts.
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Feb 23, 2023 06:36
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Psycho Landlord posted:gotta say everyone oohing and aahing over the hatchetman at the end of Joint Venture hits a bit different when it took one single punch, the only damage it received the entire fight, to the CT from a near limbless griffin and promptly blew the gently caress apart because of course someone put ammo there I wish the Hatchetman was good in either game lmao. It’s probably more fitting that it not be, I suppose.
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Feb 23, 2023 09:25
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Ensign Expendable posted:Speaking of stripping armour, do specific weapons excel at that in MW5? Or is the only difference between rockets, lasers, and bullets what kind of ammo they use? Damage is damage. The difference is heat generation range and ammo or lackthereof. For HBS Battletech I honestly typically do not recommend LRMs until the heavy and assault class of mechs. They’re poo poo unless you have 60 of them but have a good reputation because of launch when they were much stronger pre-changes to stability damage.
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Feb 23, 2023 22:31
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Oh and on the subject of Mechwarrior 5: You should pay close attention to how you have the weapon groups set up for mechs piloted by AI in your lance. They will prioritize behavior based on the ordering of weapon groups. If you want a mech to attack from long range, put their longest range weapons in weapon group 1. If they have a bunch of LRMs and a couple medium lasers and you put the medium lasers in weapon group 1, guess what, they're gonna close to medium laser range.
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Feb 23, 2023 22:35
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LosTech has been steadily demystified in the Battletech setting circa 3025 for some time now. It’s overall availability has gone from being depicted as “basically Excalibur” to “rare but extant and not reproducible”. The Argo, while neat, has literally zero military applications that existing hardware available to the Successor States and ComStar don’t already do so neither have much reason to care. It is a very convenient ship for a mercenary but does not actually change the game for anyone who isn’t living in the Periphery. The Bullshark is the only noteworthy LosTech thing the merc company has and well…canonically it’s just one mech. Absolutely unnoticeable in the grand scheme of things. Or to put it another way, the merc company still has orders of magnitude less plot armor than someone like Wolf’s Dragoons or Morgan Kell. Captain Oblivious fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Feb 27, 2023 |
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Feb 27, 2023 14:20
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Kanos posted:You can completely ignore all the weird super-dropship stuff like the habitation pods because that's not immediately useful from a military standpoint, but the Argo has a fully functional internal mech part factory and machine shop with heavy automation that I'm sure every successor state and ComStar would absolutely love to have. "We can make new leg actuators with our dropship's 3D printer instead of hoping we can find some on the market" is absolutely a pretty powerful game changer, especially circa 3025 when a lot of relatively common mechs in service haven't been actively produced for a long time. The Argo itself isn't that important because it's just one ship, but learning to duplicate that kind of internal functionality would be very useful. And it would be trivial to ice out the Kell Hounds or, especially, Wolf’s Dragoons from the resources needed to bring that combat power to bear if having a bunch of LosTech was REALLY as important as it was in old Battletech. Which of course is where the plot armor comes in. To a degree it’s for the best though. The way LosTech was written in old Battletech, and ComStar, was essentially an unsubtle “no one but characters in books can have fun” decree.
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Feb 27, 2023 14:59
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They’ve already confirmed it’s not Battletech 2. I believe last we heard it was something “horror” related but beyond that no details of note.
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Feb 27, 2023 18:49
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Azhais posted:Doesn't Paradox own the World of Darkness stuff these days? They do and the connection you’re drawing is the most common guess as to what HBS has been up to.
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Feb 27, 2023 19:59
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Whoooooo’s excited to play dead eyed theocratic zealots? Yaaaaaaaay
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Feb 27, 2023 21:19
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Hanse Davion is a space loli for some reason
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Feb 27, 2023 21:26
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KITCHEN SINK MOD EVANGELISTS: THREAT OR MENACE? I want pictures! Pictures of Spider-5V man!
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Mar 1, 2023 16:44
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Best Friends posted:I’ve avoided all mods just because I find the base game slow on my (not terrible!) machine, so I’ve figured mods would make that worse. But, is that assumption accurate? Yes. No.
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Mar 1, 2023 19:20
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Kanos posted:The magic of MW5's terrible enemy drop system, where enemy waves just constantly appear out of the ether 300-400 meters from your position constantly. Eh? Enemies are largely pre-seeded on mission start in MW5, they spawn during Defenses and Battlefields and the like but they do so way further out than 300-400 meters.
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Mar 3, 2023 09:12
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Third World Reagan posted:I love the preseeded enemies where they spawn right under you as you drop It absolutely is not how enemy spawns work in MW5, no. Enemy spawns are locked in as you enter the map. Reinforcements can spawn at the edges of the map, notably VTOLs will literally fly in from off map and additional enemies in wave mode missions will spawn near edges. Leopards can drop enemies lances near you but their appearance is called out on comms and sensors and their trajectory is predictable. If an enemy seems to be “manifesting” behind you, you were not picking them up on sensors due to terrain more likely. All of this is trivially demonstrated and proven by replaying missions! This is not hidden lore lmao
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Mar 3, 2023 16:43
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I know the truth hurts. I am a little amazed at how people in here seem to have gaslit themselves on basic game mechanics tho.
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Mar 3, 2023 20:07
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Psycho Landlord posted:PS Don't play the MW5 campaign just always do career, the campaign is complete rear end and the DLC content is not This is mostly exactly correct but there are some mitigating factors worth considering. While the campaign IS rear end, campaign and career both A) have different rewards for the high priority mission chains and B) have completely different configurations of which conflict zones are what difficulty. In campaign mode the high end conflict zones tend to be at the Periphery, in campaign they’re all clustered around Terra. Which you preferred on that second point is very much down to personal preference. The conflict zones being super densely packed around Terra is convenient but it doesn’t make for much variety in employers overall. Or enemies. The high priority mission chain rewards in career mode are also just kind of a mess/not very rewarding. I would still lean career mode MOST times that said, but not always.
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Mar 3, 2023 20:13
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Psycho Landlord posted:people make fun of you because you post like this That would bother me more it I wasn’t right. Like for example the gotcha video posted is someone loading into a fresh mission (specifically a Defense or Garrison Duty) with a weak machine, thus there is pop in. This is being used to demonstrate that enemies manifest from thin air as a general rule, despite that not being what it shows.
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Mar 3, 2023 20:32
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tactlessbastard posted:Restarted MW5 and having much more successful but the first 6 or 7 planets that I've gone to don't have any pilots to hire. I've got 5 mechs now but it's just me and the first LT. Is there something missing on the map that shows where pilots are available? The constellation looking connected systems on the star map are Industrial Hubs. Everything is cheaper there, so whenever you get SORELY hosed up it's usually best to repair in an industrial hub, and also it's where you find the vast majority of pilots for hire.
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Mar 4, 2023 04:18
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PoptartsNinja posted:For the same reason Wolf's Dragoons had WarShips. It’s this. Also play the campaign because the priority mission rewards are way better than in career mode where they’re mostly a pittance
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Mar 17, 2023 16:01
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Yeah and while we’re at it, how ridiculous is it that a tiny diaspora of militarized fascists with no industrial base to speak of would do better at preserving technology than hundreds and hundreds of star systems, when the fascists ALSO had their own brutal civil war with WMDs? Anyway, the Nightstar, you were saying?
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Mar 17, 2023 17:57
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Psycho Landlord posted:I dunno if you think that's a gotcha but yeah the clans are dumb too. "The mechwarrior 5 writers crowbarred in their favorite mech in in a dumb way when there were better ways easily available to them" is not the same thing as weeb endorsement. It’s basically that everything involving the Clans is so loving stupid top to bottom that a Clanner having an antique Nightstar is the most small potatoes issue to possibly focus on. It is by far the least implausible thing involving them.
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Mar 17, 2023 18:20
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RBA Starblade posted:Oh I didn't know it did that To get into detail here, because A) I don’t know if I would agree that the campaign has less interesting conflict zone distributions and B) informed decisions… In career mode the high rep conflict zones arenall heavily clustered around Terra and it’s surroundings. Practically speaking this means most of your employers and enemies are gonna be FedCom and Dracs. In campaign mode the game starts you in the Davion interior and you sort of spiral outwards going clockwise from lower rep to higher rep so the higher rep conflict zones tend to be at the Periphery. Rasalhague, Taurian Corridor, that kind of thing. There’s merits to both layouts, career mode clustering is undeniably convenient. The choice is yours and yours alone in the shrine of the Silver Monkey.
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Mar 17, 2023 18:25
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