|
General Battuta posted:She bailed out all her vehicle crews and tried pushing into the Hellstar with the crews "Excuse me sir, I'm not sure we copy. Say again, all after 'dismount and abandon the vehicles,' over?'"
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 04:59 |
|
|
^^^^ Yeah, especially with a pair of Medium VSPLs per vehicle  General Battuta posted:I think she's going to ask about rules to make vehicle immobilization crits less likely, because they seemed to happen constantly, and I imagine it's pretty frustrating getting your 200 ton Destrier immobilized when it still has 600 points of effective armor left. Is there anything like that we can enable in Megamek? You may want to suggest she looks at the Demolisher variant that inspired the Arrow IV carriers BTW, they have twice as many launchers and an extra three tons of ammo for less than half the BV. Or, TBH, just suggest she try out Ogre instead.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:15
|
|
|
Has there been anything new on our Kickstarter orders shipping?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:24
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:This ended up pretty funny, in that way only Battletech's ridiculous simulationism can allow. I (of course) ate poo poo, but killed all of Tank Girl's TAG units in the process. She ended up firing every single round of Arrow 4 or Long Tom ammo she had at the Clan cheeseball and mission killing every single one of them with some combination of pilot damage, leg damage and weapon destruction....except the Hellstar 2. Try looking under optional rules. If you hit the "cheats: y/n" "Nukes: y/n" "Really allow Nukes: y/n" you went a bit too far.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:41
|
|
|
There are TacOps rules for Enhanced Vehicle Effectiveness but if you're playing by BV they turn vehicles into horrifically efficient forces of nature that cannot be slowed or stopped. YMMV. They remove the (critical) from the side table 8 result entirely, remove motive damage from every 9 result, remove directional modifiers to motive damage, and reduce the vehicle type modifier by 1 (minimum zero). Strobe fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Apr 30, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 02:59
|
|
|
Hmm okay, I went and dug up the rules and did a little math. Using TacOps vehicle effectiveness rules, your chance of a motive system damage threat drops from 36% to 25% on any given to the front hit (if I've summed my 2d6 probabilities right). That seems...not appalling, balance-wise? It's funny that super heavy vehicles don't get any kind of mercy on motive hits, it's a pretty big gently caress you to the whole vehicle type. Why bring a 200 ton tank when it's more vulnerable to having its MP zeroed out than a 65 ton Rommel? MegaMek also gives you the option of adding a damage threshold for vehicle TACs which would prevent stuff like a machine gun one-shotting your Destrier by rolling two twelves. If that's the kind of thing you want to prevent! A friend has told me I should be using "compute BV by Geometric Mean", "increase overheating penalty in BV calcs," and "alternate pilot skill BV mod." Seems like fun! Arquinsiel posted:^^^^ Sorry, poorly communicated - she had the crews abandon all the immobilised vehicles, not the still mobile A4AVs. Unfortunately they were no match for the Hellstar's sheer unadulterated Optimality.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 03:09
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Hmm okay, I went and dug up the rules and did a little math. Using TacOps vehicle effectiveness rules, your chance of a motive system damage threat drops from 36% to 25% on any given to the front hit (if I've summed my 2d6 probabilities right). That seems...not appalling, balance-wise? It reduces the odds of a crit from the side from 7/36 to 2/36 (19.4% to 5.6%), and the odds of a motive system roll from 13/36 to 9/36 (36.1% to 25%), but it also drops the likelihood of that roll doing anything meaningful (meaning, at least -1 MP) from: Tracked, Front: 41.7%, No change (Immobilize chance: 2.8%, No change) Tracked, Rear: 58.3% to 41.7% (5.6% to 2.8%) Tracked, Side: 77.8% to 41.7% (16.7% to 2.8%) Wheeled, Front: 77.8% to 58.3% (16.7% to 5.6%) Wheeled, Rear: 83.3% to 58.3% (27.8% to 5.6%) Wheeled, Side: 91.7% to 58.3% (41.7% to 5.6%) Hover, Front: 83.3% to 77.8% (27.8% to 16.7%) Hover, Rear: 91.7% to 77.8% (41.7% to 16.7%) Hover, Side: 97.2% to 77.8% (58.3% to 16.7%) Which results in vehicles staying mobile 2-3x longer and turns hovers from annoying insects that you can fairly easily park if you hit to something that is extremely difficult to outright immobilize and will be zipping around the field the entire game. As always, play the game that appeals to you. That much benefit for free is a bit much for me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 03:38
|
|
|
GD_American posted:What would an Ost SolWarScout look like none of the art looks like it'd be very fun to mash together, tbh
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 04:30
|
|
|
Strobe posted:As always, play the game that appeals to you. That much benefit for free is a bit much for me. Yeah, I hear you. It feels like a thematic change that'd be appropriate for bigger armored vehicles but not for little stuff like hovers and light wheels. The vehicle rules are just trying to one-size-fits-all a bunch of stuff because Battletech ultimately isn't a tank simulator. Now I'm curious how a proper blue water naval ship would work - that's a support vehicle, right?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 16:45
|
|
|
They exist as Large Support Vehicles, you might want to check to see if the Andryusha-class has a MegaMEK entry. I'd bet not, since wet water naval vessels tend to be multi-hex and functionally stationary in actual play.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 17:05
|
|
|
Stationary!? It goes 40 knots!
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 17:13
|
|
|
A turn in BattleTech is 10 seconds, in the several minutes it takes a large vessel to begin to turn multiple 'Mech fights can begin and end. In terms of real world capabilities, pretty much every BattleTech naval vessel has to be absolutely incredible to still be in service; since they have to be able to dodge space lasers. That means they're either incredibly fast (by large ship standards) or submarines like the Argo Submersible Aircraft Carrier PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Apr 30, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 17:21
|
|
|
This appears to be where my reviews left off.Arquinsiel posted:Threads of Ambition, <snip> Dagger Point by Thomas S. Gressman is about the Eridani Light Horse under new leadership back in the Inner Sphere. It's a really interesting book where they keep getting baited into committing warcrimes by the Maskirovka in response to the SLDF sending them to St. Ives as peacekeepers. Mostly they just spend a lot of time waiting for stuff to happen and talking bout how evil Sun Tzu is. Not vital to read, but fun. Next we're into the MechWarrior series, which shared branding imagery with MechWarrior 3. These are mostly short books where a plucky underdog unit pulls out a victory against overwhelming odds and somehow manages to avoid really losing anything in the process. Book 1: Ghost of Winter, by Stephen Kenson. Sturm Kintaro wants to drive robots like his nordic mother, but his stern japanese father doesn't approve. THEN THE CLANS ATTACK! Except they're pirates. Then cleverness and he wins. Nothing special, but does what it sets out to do. Book 2: Roar of Honor, by Blaine Lee Pardoe. A Trinary of Misfit Ghost Bears (that like the Confederacy for some reason) are used to bait Clan Wolf into doing something silly so the Ghost Bears can kick Wolf teeth in elsewhere. It's actually a really solid read, and one of Pardoe's better works, even with yet another faction being full of General Lee fans for some reason. Book 3: By Blood Betrayed, by Pardoe again, but with Mel Odom too. Harley Rassor has to join Able's Aces to investigate the ambush that killed his brother. There may be a traitor in the unit! Can you guess who it is? Conveniently answered for you on the front cover. Twice. The artwork is of the final showdown between Harley, the red herring traitor, and his brother who isn't dead at all. It's servicable. At this point the reading order breaks, and we're onto Illusions of Victory by Loren Coleman. It's a weird book where pre-FedCom Civil War tensions errupt on Solaris and a match between a FedSuns and Lyran contender for champion spirals out of hand. The timescale in the novel feels like weeks are passing, but it seems to all take place over just a few days. A very odd book that ends leaving you kind of wondering what they point was. It gets referred to later quite a bit, but only in the most broad of terms. Flashpoint, again by Loren Coleman, is the first of the series of FedCom Civil War books where a veteran of Bulldog/Bird dog returns home with PTSD and takes his spot in the planetary militia only for Katrina to give the garrison vague orders and them to twirl mustaches and be evil. Then the hero has to remember how to fight good and beat them with his scrappy underdogs. It's like the MechWarrior series, but on a larger scale. Lots of pointless evil. Kind of forgettable really. Measure of a Hero, by Pardoe, kicks off the Archer's Avengers storyline. It's basically the same broad story as Flashpoint, except the villains twirl their mustaches harder and the hero is even better at "unconventional" tactics. Yet another inexplicable pile of Lost Causers show up, but it's at least an entertaining read. Pardoes politics are starting to become really obvious though. Path of Glory is Randall Bills' first novel. It's a kind of weird story about a Nova Cat who thinks they've lost their way, contrasted with the Black Dragon Society getting notions again and is resolved with the Nova Cats figuring stuff out via magic and trying to prevent the Alshain Avengers kicking off the Combine-Dominion war. Which, obviously, they fail at. Pretty skippable. Test of Vengeance by Bryan Nystul is from the Ghost Bear side of things in that same war. It's basically about an Elemental ristar who keeps getting dunked on by a DEST agent before The Hells Horses try take a few planets from them. Also pretty skippable. Patriots and Tyrants is Coleman channeling Stackpole, to the point of just fleshing out an outline Stackpole left for him. It's really just yet another "big picture" story with Victor and Katherine reacting to stuff that happens. Moderately important for the meta-plot, but really suffers from being a story about things that were mentioned in sourcebooks getting setup. Nothing vital in this, and it's started to lose track of who did what and said what about the things that were done a little. Call of Duty is Pardoe's second Archer's Avengers book. The mustache twirling at least has a point to it all, but the villains are rather coincidentally recurring ones from the first book. It's a pretty typical "there's a misunderstanding and two honourable people fight" story, and once the dust settles the solution is the exact same obvious one you've thought it was from the start. It's at least a fun read, and you get to see Snord's Irregulars being weird. Book 4: Finally, Initiation to War by thread favourite Robert N. Charrette. I thought this was one of the MechWarrior series reading it, because it is. A new recruit joins a ducal militia on Epsilon Eridani, politics happens, and then fights. It's really well written but ends kind of abruptly. There are no less than three love interests in the story, and none of them are resolved. The main plot of the story is also pretty much left unresolved. It's a shame because the main character is quite likable and the low-level politicing is interesting. General Battuta posted:Sorry, poorly communicated - she had the crews abandon all the immobilised vehicles, not the still mobile A4AVs. Unfortunately they were no match for the Hellstar's sheer unadulterated Optimality.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 18:07
|
|
|
I said come in! posted:Has there been anything new on our Kickstarter orders shipping? Revised shipping rates are up on Backerkit.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 19:03
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:Book 2: Roar of Honor, by Blaine Lee Pardoe. A Trinary of Misfit Ghost Bears (that like the Confederacy for some reason) are used to bait Clan Wolf into doing something silly so the Ghost Bears can kick Wolf teeth in elsewhere. It's actually a really solid read, and one of Pardoe's better works, even with yet another faction being full of General Lee fans for some reason. For a bit I found it weird that the clans would idolize a loser, but then I realized that they were idolizing a dude who did an unsuccessful war against a massively superior industrial base and then it made perfect sense. He's the one who's a straight up nazi isn't he?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 22:26
|
|
|
He's a Lost Causer, so a different strain of white supremacist.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 23:03
|
|
|
Contingency posted:Revised shipping rates are up on Backerkit. It's still expensive. Friggen VAT 
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 23:16
|
|
|
Apparently it's not possible for them to apply the correct VAT rate for books, so we'll just have to deal with it. Oh well!NinjaDebugger posted:For a bit I found it weird that the clans would idolize a loser, but then I realized that they were idolizing a dude who did an unsuccessful war against a massively superior industrial base and then it made perfect sense.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 23:27
|
|
|
Arquinsiel posted:Apparently it's not possible for them to apply the correct VAT rate for books, so we'll just have to deal with it. Oh well! I don't understand what he held over CGL that they read Hour of the Wolf and were like "okay print this." I wouldn't have even said what happened on Terra, it's not interesting and our major characters don't know about it. Why bother paying someone for 400 pages of some of the least interesting prose I've ever encountered?
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 23:51
|
|
|
Catalyst wanted to return to the novels driving the whole product line the way they did back in the golden age of Battletech in the 90s. Which is an admirable goal, it's just, unfortunately, they kicked it off with one of the worst Battletech books ever written.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 00:01
|
|
|
cgl update the pods and reopen the center
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 00:27
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Catalyst wanted to return to the novels driving the whole product line the way they did back in the golden age of Battletech in the 90s. Which is an admirable goal, it's just, unfortunately, they kicked it off with one of the worst Battletech books ever written. Also the core audience of the game isn't 11 anymore, so they need better writers now.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 00:28
|
|
|
Defiance Industries posted:I don't understand what he held over CGL that they read Hour of the Wolf and were like "okay print this." I wouldn't have even said what happened on Terra, it's not interesting and our major characters don't know about it. Why bother paying someone for 400 pages of some of the least interesting prose I've ever encountered?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 01:31
|
|
|
LIC agents tell me that his first draft was essentially rejected for being too awful and this is the version they said was good enough to print. Which is just a chilling thought.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 01:35
|
|
|
Contingency posted:Revised shipping rates are up on Backerkit. I just want my little dudes already.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 02:08
|
|
|
Official word on shipping is that things are still being tweaked until they make an official announcement in a backer update. They still haven't calculated mine yet, but I pledged through backerkit in late December so I'm probably near the end of the list.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 04:06
|
|
|
Megamek continues at an unhealthy pace. Tank Girl insisted on dropping a Davy Crockett on a bot-controlled force and blew up most of her own spotters. I also played an absolutely bugfuck 3 player FFA, 4000 BV each, on a randomly generated jungle map with lots of deep wet holes. I brought a Blood Reaper and a Howler 2 because I was feeling ATMs. The other players ran, respectively, a double Firemoth H/Fire Falcon H speed list and a pair of Ice Ferrets with flamer Elementals. The Ice Ferrets ate poo poo and died pretty quick while I struggled to land a single hit on the speed demons. I do not think at any point in the game I could've accurately predicted who would win it was the Ice Ferret/Elementals player, whose Elementals caught up to the fight just after my Howler ran out of ammo and my Blood Reaper legged the last Firemoth. She promptly cooked the Blood Reaper's Mechwarrior out of his cockpit with flamer shots and swarmed the defenseless Howler until the pilot beat himself to death trying to knock them off. This game is pretty hilarious
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 05:30
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Megamek continues at an unhealthy pace. Tank Girl insisted on dropping a Davy Crockett on a bot-controlled force and blew up most of her own spotters. war is hell
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 06:04
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Megamek continues at an unhealthy pace. Tank Girl insisted on dropping a Davy Crockett on a bot-controlled force and blew up most of her own spotters.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 15:41
|
|
|
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/posts/4092099 Welp. Guess nobody's getting away with $0 extra shipping, are they
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 00:27
|
|
|
I love that they still don't understand VAT and QML give zero fucks.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 00:40
|
|
|
Am I going to the wrong place to see my shipping? My pledge summary at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/backing/details still shows zero.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 00:40
|
|
|
Owlbear Camus posted:Am I going to the wrong place to see my shipping? My pledge summary at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/backing/details still shows zero. I had the same problem, it’s visible on Backerkit.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 01:12
|
|
|
I still don't understand backerkit at all. I signed up for it with my same e-mail as the kickstarter and nothing appears under my pledges. I don't remember messing with anything like this on the previous Battletech kickstarters, my stuff just showed up one day. edit: Was able to manually add the pledge by searching for the kickstarter on backerkit and having them send me my survey. Wizard Whateley fucked around with this message at 02:51 on May 3, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 02:39
|
|
|
Wizard Whateley posted:I still don't understand backerkit at all. I signed up for it with my same e-mail as the kickstarter and nothing appears under my pledges. I don't remember messing with anything like this on the previous Battletech kickstarters, my stuff just showed up one day. It’s bizarre. I didn’t have a Kickstarter account when I pledged and created one after I did but still do not have the Mercs campaign listed in my pledges either. I have to find the email where they first sent the link to the survey and use that. Edit: Also they made it very clear it wasn’t possible to add non-book extras to the Paper Pusher tier because it would be sent out as media mail or whatever, but the Savannah Masters are included in my order now anyway. I will/would not mind getting them but is this something that’s gonna cause new problems wrt the shipping, I wonder a cyborg mug fucked around with this message at 05:16 on May 3, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 05:11
|
|
|
Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/posts/4092099 Mine didn’t even go down, still $75 on a $150 pledge (with some add-ons).
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 06:30
|
|
|
I started reading Hour of the Wolf because I wanted something brainless to read while traveling to and from a conference and I'm starting to think that Pardoe wasn't let go for his horrible politics as much as his horrible prose.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 11:46
|
|
|
Yeah even by the standards of Battletech it's dire. And even then I think (author's politics aside) it could've been saved if the events it was narrating weren't completely predictable.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 12:59
|
|
|
Almost anything would have improved it, but the core problem is just how fawning it is. It reads like someone wrote fan fiction of their favoritest character Alaric, except this is actual published material.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 16:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 04:59 |
|
|
I did a literary crime today at the Little Free Library. that's the legend of the jade phoenix
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 20:36
|
|