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I got this game on the recent GOG sale, and saw my first Atlas today. The contract was to take out a Directorate lance, except Meyer said she was reading a heavier signature than expected, and even as little as I know about Battletech, I could still recognize one of their mechs as an Atlas. The others weren't great. A Javelin, a Centurion, and some LRM boat. I had the starter Shadowhawk kitted out for close range, a Wolverine, energy Marauder and an Orion with a UAC/10 and some LRMs. The last two were recently out of refit, I hadn't had much luck with the UAC on a lighter mech before. I took out the Centurion on the first turn, but then I got warned about a Marik dropship coming in. Haven't seen that particular mission before, but I've had some where two enemy factions were allied others where they fought, so I decided to get out of the crossfire zone and see what happens. Yep, the Marik guys think they're here to pick up the pieces. Fair enough, let them go toe to toe with the Atlas if they like. I get my guys further away, but Dekker in the Orion still has LOS on the Atlas. Eh, let's soften him up a bit with an aimed shot at his head, before he slugs it out with the Marik guys. Two hits, head destroyed. That'll do, Dekker.
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Apr 17, 2020 20:52
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:54 |
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I'm done with the campaign, and I'm looking to install some light mods before I start a career. I'm perfectly fine with the variety of mechs in the unmodded game, but I'd like more well-written flashpoints, if there are any. Also a better challenge, ideally some way to reduce the disparity between the player and the AI, once ++/+++ and HM gear comes into play. Is there such a thing? I'd be happy with just a basic AI upgrade, but I have no idea if the goon-made AI mod even works with the latest patch, or if there are any alternatives. I've picked up a bunch of stuff that sounds interesting, but I have no idea if these work together. It Came From the Rim Jinxed The Periphery is a Harsh Mistress These are flashpoints from the Hyades Rim campaign modder. BetterAI-1.7 Real Hit Chance Panic System Pilot Health Popup These all seem to be older and I have no idea if they still work properly. Flashpoints Worthwhile Rewards Stores Restored Better rewards from flashpoints, but fewer stuff in stores. I hope I can combine them. Mission Control SLDF Incoming Again, I have no idea if there are comflicts between these, or how well MC works out of the box. Am I missing anything else that's recommended? Anything to make recovering from low reputation less of a hassle? I also seem to remember a way to make easier flashpoints appear earlier, but I don't remember if that was a mod or just some editing instructions.
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May 3, 2020 01:18
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It just means you have two back to back missions, and you may need backup pilots and mechs in case your main team gets injured/severely damaged. If the first mission goes smoothly, you can just reuse the same team.
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May 10, 2020 16:01
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Is there any mod that adds non-mech/vehicle enemies or obstacles of some sort to the game? I'd like to play with a more crowded battlefield, that makes mechs stand out more. No idea if it's feasible with the engine, but I imagine you could do stuff like weapons teams that fire out of civvie buildings, mine fields, gun emplacements that are easy to destroy but start hidden until they fire a shot, etc.
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May 14, 2020 17:23
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PMush Perfect posted:Missiles suffer the most from the game rounding up damage reduction from guarding and cover, so pick your targets based on that. I'm pretty sure that the game calculates fractional damage correctly, only the floating numbers are rounded up or down. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 23:15 on May 17, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 23:11
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fennesz posted:Vindicator with a PPC & L Laser You've already been getting good advice; At the stage of the game you're at, a good rule of thumb is to have three brawlers with just medium lasers and SRMs, as these are the most efficient stock weapons, and one longer ranged one. The snub PPC is great, but a bit heavy for the Vindicator. I'd put it on the Centurion with some LRMs, but you can also run it as a pure LRM boat, if you prefer. The Panther is the best light mech you have, it should have 4 M lasers and a SRM6, full jumpjets. Jenners and Javelins are also good as backups, the rest you can sell or put in storage. Take off the SRMs on the Jenners for more armor, on the Javelin it depends which variant you have. You should also armor up more. At least the front side torsos should be fully armored. You can strip the CT a bit, if you really need to, though I usually don't.
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May 18, 2020 13:41
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I'm doing the Prototype flashpoint for the first time, and I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around how you're supposed to use the Raven. Using it as a solo spotter seems to be straight-forward enough. Keep your other units out of sight, and bombard enemies with LRMs or long-range guns. But the ECM bubble seems to be fairly useless. As soon as a unit fires, it's open to counter-attack from every one and their grandmother. Maybe it's because I'm also using the AI mod, so the enemies will simply reserve down to the last phase if they have no target? Is anyone using ECM long-term in career mode, or is it just a gimmick? Edit: Ok, I missed that the missile defense is active even when you have no stealth charge.
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May 18, 2020 21:36
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Chef Boyardeez Nuts posted:I really find the ECM suite to be limited because the shielding mech inevitably gets sensor locked, especially on base assaults where all those turrets have nothing else to do. I think it would be more valuable if you could also bring multiple lances. Yeah, is there a way to read the ECM tooltip again? I thought the missile protection is supposed to prevent indirect fire even when you lose all stealth charges, but as soon as the Raven gets sensor locked, it gets bombarded from all over the map.
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May 18, 2020 22:33
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:* I'm not sure if I'm actually doing well, this probably comes back to my first point. I limp out of a lot of battles barely breaking even, which is good, keeps things interesting - but I don't know if I'm on a downward spiral or if that's OK. Does it get harder as time passes or is it based on story progression/reputation? I only just beat the mission where you capture Victoria and she completely destroyed my only Heavy mech (a Quickdraw, which I wasn't really that impressed with anyway) so now I have a Dragon. I feel a little underpowered. You're pretty spot on. It's a poorly optimized and janky game, but charming in a very old school way. But to address a few of your questions, it sounds like you could be doing better, but I'd say the greatest risk of falling into a downward spiral is losing experienced pilots. High tactics for a much better headshot chance is especially a game changing force multiplier. Don't hesitate to eject or withdraw to save a good pilot, but keep in mind that your main character can't die. There are good mechs and there are bad mechs, and heavier isn't necessarily better. Unless you're coming from tabletop, figuring out which is which is pretty intransparent, until you've learned how the system works. Heavy medium mechs like the Shadowhawk are much better than light heavy mechs like the Quickdraw or Dragon. Those two are pretty infamous for being bad. Between the DLCs and patches, there's so many different mechs in the game that I've been looking at a spreadsheet on the paradox forums to assess new mechs when I capture or encounter them. The campaign will also provide you with one top tier mech as you continue, and even by just finishing up all contracts on the current planet before continuing to the next story mission, I felt pretty overleveled by the end. In the campaign, overall map difficulty increases after every couple of story missions or so. But that also means you'll have better mechs to capture, and from about 3 skulls upwards, you'll also find better quality ++ weapons and gear in the loot. The starting systems will always be easier, so if you run into a wall you can return there until you've stabilized. You get the biggest speed increase from speeding up all combat animations in the settings, but I expect you've already done that. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 11:09 on May 19, 2020 |
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May 19, 2020 11:01
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You can get three of the Hyades Rim flashpoints as standalone mods, but I haven't gotten to them yet, so I can't tell you how good they are. I really like Mission Control, for livening things up a bit. Sometimes you get an allied lance that makes things easier, sometime the Opfor gets one (for a +75% cash reward) that makes things harder, sometimes you get both for a major battle. It also has a bunch of new contract types. But you also get situations where enemies spawn right next to you ( both sides start with 6 evasion in that case), and you can definitely get in unwinnable fights where you have to withdraw. If you can accept that, I absolutely recommend it.
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May 19, 2020 14:49
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Does anyone who uses that real chance to hit mod know if odd numbers of Gunnery do anything at all?
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May 20, 2020 06:26
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Conspiratiorist posted:AC20 is okay but you have to build around it: breaching shot + bulwark pilot, 3 tons ammo, full jump jets, and a medium laser or two as secondaries. And as with all Ballistics, the UAC20 is much better. That -8 recoil penalty on the UAC20 is no joke, though. If you want to use one before you have near maxed pilots and some decent TTS, you'll probably need to plan around only firing it every other turn. The basic AC20 and LBX20 only have 2 recoil, which you can pretty much ignore.
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May 20, 2020 14:55
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Klyith posted:Those duel missions are pretty much a bonus mech loot opportunity in the first place, so the narrow chance you get a SLDF mech seems ok. (Also the high difficulty duels pick from lances that might have a SLDF assault + a SLDF heavy, at which point it's gonna be a fun fight. :tgrin:) Hold on, I've been playing with SLDF Incoming, but the SLDF mechs don't show up in the loot table. I thought that was intentional?
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May 21, 2020 19:58
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Klyith posted:No, that's a bug which as far as I was aware only happens with the mechs from the DLC, crab & phawk. Have you had others besides those that didn't salvage? Ah, I only remember seeing two Crabs so far. This first time was in a mission where I was severely overmatched, and I lost a mech trying to stay long enough to kill it, so I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't get anything.
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May 21, 2020 20:39
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Is there a mod that tones down the Black Market? I think the store system is fine otherwise, and faction stores take sufficient effort to get to, but the BM is just a bonanza of top end gear as soon as you can access it.
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May 22, 2020 20:57
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Bulwark is still the default pick for anything short of a dedicated LRM/long-range sniper boat.
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May 22, 2020 23:13
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Once you have access to the black market, you get flooded with ++/+++ gear. It takes away any excitement. And I don't know about you, becoming friendly enough with the pirates for the buy-in discount has been consistently much easier for me than getting to an alliance for the faction stores.Conspiratiorist posted:Multi-Target without Breaching Shot, Sensor Lock without Master Tactician, and Ace Pilot have their defenders but those people are all wrong. Not that they're bad abilities, mind you, but they're simply outclassed by other skills in their tier. Eh. Ace Pilot backstabbers are great. You don't need Breaching Shot if you're targeting rear armor. Inferno launchers do some serious work with basic multi-targeting, it's the best way to use them. 60 heat each turn will pretty much take a mech out of a fight, and with 4 Infernos++, you can do that to two mechs at the same time while concentrating your normal weapons on a third target.
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May 23, 2020 04:41
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Google 'battletech one chart'. Then you want to look at the 'Usable @ max half-ton armor' column to see which mechs in a weight category can carry the biggest payload. Anything with a 60 base heatsink is a SLDF mech that's better than the default variants, but you can only find them and their parts in the Black Market or as Flashpoint rewards. Beyond just usable tonnage, the best mechs either have a lot of support weapon slots because those are the most weight efficient weapons, ignore evasion, and fire during melee attacks, or they have special quirks. Quirks range from cute to brokenly powerful, i. e. Marauder. Another rule of thumb is that the heavier mechs in a weight class are better the the lighter ones. The lightest mechs of a weight class tend to be worst than the heaviest of the class above them, i.e. 35t > 40t, 55t > 60t, etc. So for heavy mechs: Marauder 3R: doubles your chance to make headshots. With the right pilot and weapons, the game ceases to be any challenge. There's an SLDF variant too. Grasshopper: Load up with ++ machine guns and medium lasers, sprint/jump into rear arcs and delete mechs, or just punch them dead. Warhammer 6D: extra energy weapon damage, put ++ snub PPCs and/or ERMLs on it and just punch through the center torso. Also has an SLDF variant available. Archer 2S: The best SRM boat, more stab damage than anything else.
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May 24, 2020 19:35
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It's the same quirk; Marauders also provide 10% damage resistance to all friendly units. Or you may be using a mod?
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May 24, 2020 20:16
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I love combing SLDF Incoming with Mission Control. Just had an epic slugging match of a convoy destruction mission against 7 heavy vehicles and 9 mechs, with an allied pirate lance including an SLDF Black Knight and an ECM Cataphract. With that many enemies, the short range of MLs and SRMs really becomes a noticeable drawback. My Archer lost a side with three top end weapons, and my Grasshopper had some structural damage, so I had to draw both of them back. My longer ranged mechs were out of ammo or down to their last couple of shots at the end.
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May 24, 2020 23:03
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You know, I read about how overpowered a well-kitted Marauder is, but I've only seen it for myself today. Is there even a point in continuing to play after you have one? Feels like the rest of the career will just be a victory lap now, and mine isn't even as good as it could be, just 3 UAC2s++ and a LL+++. I guess I'll see how much sillier I can make it.
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May 25, 2020 02:08
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Do the different houses favor specific mech variants in the base game, or do you have to use a mod for that? And if so, is there one that doesn't also add dozens of new variants on top of that?
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May 25, 2020 15:14
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Rorahusky posted:Ugh, trying to do the Prototype final mission, and I got bamboozled by the fact that the LRM Turrets can lock on and rail you with all the loving missiles, even though the guide I used explicitly said that they can't do a Sensor Lock as long as your ECM is up. Kind of defeats the purpose of ECM. You and me both, brother. They tweaked the way ECM works in a patch, but never adjusted the mission to match. If you want to fight during that mission, you'll have to stay outside the turret's detection range until you've taken out their mobile forces. You can still use the Raven and... Javelin? as your spotters for your two long range mechs if you do that. You'll need to take out the light mechs quickly when they try to get inside your ECM bubble to disable it.
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May 25, 2020 21:00
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Klyith posted:There are faction tags in the mech files, and there are new faction lance generators so a Davion lance will use all Davion mechs. They only got added in Heavy Metal though so the only content they show up for in the base game is heavy metal stuff. Thanks for breaking it down in detail, I appreciate it. I didn't realize it would be so limiting, or so much work.
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May 25, 2020 21:33
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You can get the Mercenary Collection, which is the main game plus season pass, for another couple of bucks cheaper.
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May 26, 2020 20:03
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Rorahusky posted:I was mainly comparing baseline weapons against one another, since you generally only get semi-reliable access to ++ weapons once you unlock either the black market or a factional store, the former being a crapshoot since you're often stuck waiting for a random event to trigger and the latter requiring an alliance and 100 rep. FYI, to get a Black Market invitation, you need to be in a Black Market system. If you plan your routes accordingly, it shouldn't take long. Otherwise, the tooltips on the nav map will tell you which advanced tag a system needs to have for whichever weapons you're looking for to show up in the regular shop. I generally don't even bother to buy lower than ++ versions, except maybe right at the start. WhiteHowler posted:After some flying around and shopping in my new career mode, I've managed to snag a MAD-3R very early in the game. It's by far the best mech I have; my other "primary" lance is two Centurions and a Shadow Hawk. I'd try either 2 LL, 2 AC5 or 3 LL, 1 AC5 if you don't have the tonnage for the former. UAC2s would be even better. I wouldn't bother with Medium Lasers on a dedicated long-range build. I tend to run pretty near-maxed armor. I usually take some off the legs, and rear. You can probably also afford to reduce the CT a bit if you want to go lightly armored, but I'd always max the arms and front side torsos. For rear armor, I usually don't go lower than withstanding a PPC hit without risking a crit - so 55. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 17:39 on May 27, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 17:27
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Sazabi posted:Trying to decide if I wanna get back into this or buy battlefleet gothic 2. Is the recent dlc worth the price and have there been any super important changes since like 4 months past launch? I can't tell you how it compares to BFG2, but the last time I checked on isthereanydeal, you can get the main game + DLC for about 30 bucks, which is absolutely worth it if you want to play the open ended career mode, or with any of the big modpacks. I assume you already played through the campaign? The GOG Summer Sale is already on, so it might be even cheaper now, or soon.
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May 28, 2020 23:29
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binge crotching posted:The -HQ is somewhat useful if you don't have a Marauder, because you get the -incoming damage bonus, in addition to the +initiative bonus. I'm pretty sure the damage resistance stacks with the Marauder's, for whatever that's worth.
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May 31, 2020 04:23
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Lol, the Hyades Rim flashpoints and their shipboard events are utter bullshit. I only played one of them, but during the course of it, one of my top mechwarriors turned out to be a traitor working for some po-dunk religious nutbags, and now that I concluded it, another two of my best warriors died of some plague and I lost 10 morale. This was with a fully upgraded medbay, mind. Otherwise, it would have been -20 morale and three dead pilots instead.
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May 31, 2020 20:04
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So, apart from the SLDF Griffin, is there a 'best' 55t mech? I tend to use the Shadow Hawk the most, since it has higher melee damage than the others.
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Jun 2, 2020 17:42
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Klyith posted:My answer for "best" as far as what mech I will keep using even when I've got heavies is the Shadowhawk 2D, for the 2 AP hardpoints and extra melee damage. Sorry, AP hardpoints?
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Jun 2, 2020 19:13
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Thanks, let's make a brief segue into hardpoint discussion. Orginally, I assumed arm hardpoints would be preferable because of the accuracy bonus, but weapons there are more easily destroyed, which starts to matter once you use lostech and ++ gear. The center torso should always have a gyro, so you're limited to one small weapon there. For the head, once I have enough decent spare pilots, I usually don't mind using a weapon instead of a cockpit mod, if I have the tonnage/heat/ammo to spare. One mech gets a comms system, and having a good rangefinder on one long-range mech is also useful. Side torsos are better than arms for your main armament. Leaving an arm and side completely empty as ablative armor is the kind of advanced build strategy I rarely use, but chassis that can make use of that have an additional advantage. I think that about covers it. Are there techs other than the Cicada 3C that have hard points in the legs?
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Jun 2, 2020 19:33
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The SLDF Highlander is an absolute bastard in the opfor. I thought I'd leave him for last to salvage, and his first Gauss shot caused a crit on my +3 hit defense gyro.
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Jun 4, 2020 03:37
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Sipher posted:Is there a reason for me to buy this gauss rifle for 5 million, when UA/Cs exist? It's -3 ton and -1 slot but 5mil is a bunch of credits, but but it's also the only gauss rifle I've seen so far. I assume that's the ++ gauss? It's not the *~*most efficient*~* ballistic weapon compared to the UAC2++, but it's still a good weapon for head capping and punching through armor, and the guaranteed 5 structure damage can be hilarious when you're up against mechs with ammo in the CT.
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Jun 4, 2020 21:53
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Ardlen posted:Look for a MAD-2R and you can run 3 LPL++ just fine. You'll be better off with 6 ERML++, if you can find enough of them.
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Jun 4, 2020 23:10
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Agamemmnon used to be my favorite Battletech character after I first encountered him in a pirate Marauder almost single-handedly dismantling the opposition while I was still running around in lights and mediums. But now his place in my heart has been taken by Calamar Gigante!
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Jun 6, 2020 07:42
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BUG JUG posted:I have never played Battletech before..I bought this game two weeks ago. I'm loving the campaign but I am so loving lost with mech building/weapons/ammo. Are there any good guides out there for someone with literally zero knowledge coming in? Before you're getting heavier mechs and ++ weapons, the most efficient loadout is to just take a bunch of medium lasers and SRMs on most of your mechs. You'll want to have ammo for 8-12 salvos. Heat is basically your mana bar, running too cold is wasting damage potential. I'd say a heat delta of 15-20 is good until you figure out what you're most comfortable with. Slower mechs can carry more tonnage. Don't mix short and long range weapons. Lobg range weapons are less weight-efficient, but a slower mech with LRMs, large lasers or AC5 is good for support.
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Jun 6, 2020 10:32
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Baron Porkface posted:Name my company please. Dead Kerenskys
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Jun 9, 2020 00:00
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5 ERSL and melee mods is good, 5 machine guns and 4 medium lasers makes for a great low budget backstabber. Jump jets optional.
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Jun 16, 2020 16:39
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:54 |
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Cyrano4747 posted:Yeah, autocorrect strikes again. On mechs with 165 or better movement, you really can consider playing them without jumpjets. But even if you do take jets, you should seriously consider only taking 4 instead of the maximum on light mechs, which will reduce heat and give you more payload for sinks, armor or weapons. For backstabbing light mechs, you can develop a rhythm of sprinting into a good position at the end of one turn, then attacking rear armor (and moving/jumping afterwards, if you have Ace Pilot) at the start of the next. The dirty secret of evasion tanking with light mechs is that once the AI drops below a certain chance to hit, (40%, I believe) it will never alpha strike you and only fire single weapons to strip evasion. And between max piloting, gyros and the innate bonus of light mechs, more often than not the AI will not be able to strip enough evasion off you to get back into alpha strike accuracy before you get to go again.
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Jun 17, 2020 01:59
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