BattleTech coming back via Kickstarter

[NickAragua]

Got my first heavy last night - a Thunderbolt. I'm going to have to tinker with it, as it comes with a flamer for some reason. That's great for a Firestarter, but a heavy mech is going to have trouble closing the distance to the kind of targets to which you want to be close. Probably get rid of the flamer and SRM launcher, and drop in 4 jump jets to simulate the Eridani Light Horse variant that I love so much in table top.

The AC/20 Centurion is still cleaning up, it's a one-shot kill machine.

Here's how my "recover the Argo" mission went:

Spoiler:

Blackjack, Vindicator, Shadow Hawk, Locust. I forget the skills I had at that point, but I do remember Dekker had sensor lock and was in the Locust.

Start by blasting the nearest turret generator. Locust and Blackjack flank right and take down enemy tanks as they come in one by one. Vindicator and Shadow Hawk flank left and blast the one turret to that side of the generator that's hooked up to a different generator. They also work on the nearest radar tower and blow away a bulldog that comes around the left side of that hill.

The Locust gets pulled back to avoid too much exposure to Striker LRM fire. As they chase him down around the right side of the hill, the string out and are easy pickings for the Blackjack. Vindicator and Shadow Hawk proceed to the further turret generator and take it out ASAP to get rid of those LRM turrets. Once everyone's wiped out, we blow the remaining radar tower then take a couple of turns to cool off as we advance to the target area.

The target area was a bit of a doozy, we had to fight about six mechs, but there's plenty of cover to keep them separated from each other. Focusing down one at a time and keeping my lance moving helped cut down the incoming damage.

One of the main differences from tabletop is that, sometimes the bad guy mechs will have super high evasion. In that case, you want to save your hardest hitting weapons for last and whale on them with the weak stuff to drop the evasion pips. Then, once they're down to one or two, bring out the heavy guns.

The other thing is that I use jump jets a lot and focus fire on one guy at a time.

[LordMortis]

My resolve to hold off on this is breaking.

[DD*]

After getting past the salvage mission, I decided to take on the next story mission since it paid the best (and was the least difficult at only 2 skulls - everything else on the board was 2.5+)...

With much trepidation, I started on the

Spoiler:

prison liberation. Use jump jets (all mechs have them) to mount the hill at the fork in the road. Kill the turret gens. Minor damage if that. Start cleaning house on the vehicles and dedicate one mech (my recovered Quickdraw) to killing the 4 turret gens clustered together. The big guy can alpha strike every turn in the tundra environment, and each attack kills the gen in one round. Easy peasy. Meanwhile all of my other mechs are wiping the floor with the tanks and whatnot. Are we sure *this* is a two skull mission??

On to phase 2 - 3 of my mechs jump onto or over the wall, with my Blackjack heading to the gate to flank at the right moment. The guard lance starts pouring out, the cutscene plays, and we go at it. Somehow, these dipshits that could not hit a barn from inside in the last mission are now expert marksmen. Torsos, arms, legs, you name it stuff is just flying around. No pilots wounded, some banged up mechs but nothing serious and we cleaned out the whole lance.

This mission was much, much, much easier than the last one. Like I said, I think this game has some balance issues but I'm not smart enough to say what would need to be done to fix them.

One further observation (and maybe this exists and I'm an idiot for not finding it) but this game screams for a mini-map. Trying to figure out where the next objective is located can be a royal pain in the ass when you have to scroll the damn screen all over the place. Can't believe something published in 2018 doesn't have a basic feature like that. Speaking of UI, when I hit the "J" key, it should switch me to jump jets, but it doesn't. Guess I'll have to play around and see if there is a way to set basic keyboard shortcuts.

EDIT - does not appear to be any way to set keyboard shortcuts, at least through the menu (maybe a .cfg or .ini file?). Kind of a disappointment there.

[NickAragua]

I'm pretty sure if you go to 'settings', there's a keyboard bindings section.

[IceBear]

I'm pretty sure if you go to 'settings', there's a keyboard bindings section.

There is, but I still haven't gotten around to checking them out to see if they're changeable. I'm pretty sure that bar is using the number keys -1 to attack, 2 to move, 3 to sprint and 4 to jump

I believe if you click on the objective listing it will take you to it on the map

[Max Peck]

The keybindings are in the Settings/Keybindings menu, and you can redefine the main bindings or set alternate bindings.

The default ability bindings are mapped to the number keys:

1. Attack
2. Move
3. Sprint
4. Jump
5. Special 1
6. Special 2
7. Special 3
8. Precision Strike (morale)
9. Vigilance (morale)
10. Brace

[Paingod]

Early you should be using vigilance on the mech you think they will focus on. VERY powerful.

If I recall, Vigilance is Brace+Intiative (so you take less damage now and move earlier next turn)

I've tinkered with it, but felt like it was a very situational thing. I mostly spend Morale on called shots on legs to knock things over, or just keep it over 50% so I get a little boost in effectiveness. It might matter more if I thought I could tell who they were going to single out, but I keep my group pretty loose and in cover with Evade as high as I can get it, even at the cost of Heat (Jumping a lot).

I'd probably try and use it mostly as a way to get one step ahead of an enemy that moves in the same phase as a pilot I think could finish them, or on a Scout that just moved and was spotted and needs to get outta Dodge before anyone reacts.

this game screams for a mini-map. Trying to figure out where the next objective is located can be a royal pain in the ass when you have to scroll the damn screen all over the place. Can't believe something published in 2018 doesn't have a basic feature like that.

I believe if you click on the objective listing it will take you to it on the map

Bingo. I use this to help determine which is the primary and which is the secondary. If a patrol is off to the side, and the objective is dead-ahead, I'll look over both routes and make a choice on which I want to deal with first.

[DD*]

I'm pretty sure if you go to 'settings', there's a keyboard bindings section.

I went there but found nothing other than camera movement and a list of things that say "ability 1" through "ability 9". When I try to edit them, nothing can be changed. Methinks BT could have used a bit more time in the oven...



When I try to edit any of these settings, nothing happens other than my clicky finger gets tired.

[IceBear]

I too was using Precision Strike a lot early, but have come to find Vigilance is more useful (and since it costs more morale to use it than PS, the developers must as well). I agree it's situational, but I always seem to find multiple situations where I need it

[IceBear]

I'm pretty sure if you go to 'settings', there's a keyboard bindings section.

I went there but found nothing other than camera movement and a list of things that say "ability 1" through "ability 9". When I try to edit them, nothing can be changed. Methinks BT could have used a bit more time in the oven...



When I try to edit any of these settings, nothing happens other than my clicky finger gets tired.

I just tried it and I can edit mine. I click on it, then click on the button I wanted to use and it changes.

[NickAragua]

When I try to edit any of these settings, nothing happens other than my clicky finger gets tired.

I'll look tonight and see what happens when I try editing these. I'm pretty sure Max Peck had the correct "ability" numbers in this post:

The keybindings are in the Settings/Keybindings menu, and you can redefine the main bindings or set alternate bindings.

The default ability bindings are mapped to the number keys:

1. Attack
2. Move
3. Sprint
4. Jump
5. Special 1
6. Special 2
7. Special 3
8. Precision Strike (morale)
9. Vigilance (morale)
10. Brace

[DD*]

When I try to edit any of these settings, nothing happens other than my clicky finger gets tired.

I'll look tonight and see what happens when I try editing these. I'm pretty sure Max Peck had the correct "ability" numbers in this post:

The keybindings are in the Settings/Keybindings menu, and you can redefine the main bindings or set alternate bindings.

The default ability bindings are mapped to the number keys:

1. Attack
2. Move
3. Sprint
4. Jump
5. Special 1
6. Special 2
7. Special 3
8. Precision Strike (morale)
9. Vigilance (morale)
10. Brace

I'll give it a whirl later, have some errands to run now. I guess my beef is that this sort of guessing game and lack of features (clicking an objective does not excuse the lack of a minimap, IMHO) is why I say BT could have used some additional polish. I mean, you're coming in from outerspace on a dropship and no one can take an overhead picture of the area you're in? Seriously?

I am (starting to) enjoy the game, but where it could have been great it is trending to "OK". I'm hoping MW5 is significantly better...

[IceBear]

I don't mind the lack of mini map as you can zoom out and pan around. For most of the time the minimap would just be taking up valuable real estate.

When it comes to hot keys with most games I start it up, go to settings then keybindings and see what's what. In fact if you look at the UI each of the abilities has a number under it...it's small but it's there

They had a manual in the beta skirmish testing phase and I don't know why it disappeared in the final.

[Max Peck]

I mean, you're coming in from outerspace on a dropship and no one can take an overhead picture of the area you're in? Seriously?

The map itself isn't covered by by fog-of-war or anything, so you have the results from the orbital recce from the moment the mission starts.

[Rip]

Early you should be using vigilance on the mech you think they will focus on. VERY powerful.

If I recall, Vigilance is Brace+Intiative (so you take less damage now and move earlier next turn)

I've tinkered with it, but felt like it was a very situational thing. I mostly spend Morale on called shots on legs to knock things over, or just keep it over 50% so I get a little boost in effectiveness. It might matter more if I thought I could tell who they were going to single out, but I keep my group pretty loose and in cover with Evade as high as I can get it, even at the cost of Heat (Jumping a lot).

I'd probably try and use it mostly as a way to get one step ahead of an enemy that moves in the same phase as a pilot I think could finish them, or on a Scout that just moved and was spotted and needs to get outta Dodge before anyone reacts.

this game screams for a mini-map. Trying to figure out where the next objective is located can be a royal pain in the ass when you have to scroll the damn screen all over the place. Can't believe something published in 2018 doesn't have a basic feature like that.

I believe if you click on the objective listing it will take you to it on the map

Bingo. I use this to help determine which is the primary and which is the secondary. If a patrol is off to the side, and the objective is dead-ahead, I'll look over both routes and make a choice on which I want to deal with first.

Yea, it is. The situation being you are going to take fire. The brilliance is you can still shoot or sprint. Going to try and sprint past them and hope they all miss, use vigilance brace cuts the damage you do take in half and lets you move and shoot or sprint from danger next turn before most everyone else.

Moving into a position to shoot someone but know he or someone else will then shoot you. Use vigilance, you brace after the shot so half damage and next round again you go early so you can finish them off or at least make sure you get to shoot first in this round. For extra fun use it twice in a row or have two guys use it to decimate someone.

[Cylus Maxii]

So - I restarted last night (I had messed up too many of my pilots' skills.) I was able to get up to the Argos mission (not done yet) and have done about 8 random contracts. If I do the Argos mission now, I would go with Shadowhawk, Vindicator, Panther and my ancestral Blackjack.

I am having a much easier time with a little experience under my belt. I have only ever had one pilot injury (19 days) and two internal structures damaged (1 day and 6 days). One of the internal damages was my fault due to unnecessarily alpha striking with and overheating my Vindicator. The other was a lucky shot on my wimpy Spider. Consequently, I haven't lost any weapons or limbs and my repair costs have been minimal (maybe 25K total so far). This game definitely has a hump in the difficulty curve. Once you can perform well enough to take a lot less damage, you can do a lot more missions and make a ton more money and keeping it (rather than spending on repairs).

One thing I have done differently this time is negotiating with less emphasis on salvage for those half/single-skull missions that aren't assassinations - there are a ton of tanks and salvage is not worth it. If the mission has no rep component, I max money, otherwise I balance money and try to get at least a bit more rep. I can afford to buy reputation if I am spending a lot less on mech repairs. This strategy adjustment seems to be working out thus far, I have actually found + weapons for sale (once so far) and also had at least a few more missions available, probably due to rep. On assassination missions (or any mission that specifically talks about multiple mechs) I max salvage since I know a decent mech is at stake. Note: by maxing salvage, I mean maxing my choice picks - I won't necessarily take the last notch if it doesn't give me more choice parts.

One thing pointed out to me, by my son, is that the difficulty in skulls seems to be analogous to the star-rating (tonnage) when selecting mechs. I have a very easy time when fielding 1.5 stars against .5 skulls and a moderate time against 1 skulls. I am almost to the point where I can field 2 stars of tonnage and am deciding if I want to jump to the unvisited system for a few missions and come back to the Argos mission in a couple of months. I know that I will find multiple missions when I get in-system, even if I'm only being offered one that offers to pay my travel to go there. I have some parts from a Hunchback, Firestarter, and Trebuchet; I'd love to complete one. Note: I dropped both the Trebuchet and Hunchback from knockdown-induced pilot kills and a couple of luck shots; both on the same mission. So, I had full salvage from both at the end of the mission. Unfortunately, I had only one salvage pick since that was the max available on that cheap-ass mission. I chose the Trebuchet and got the single Hunchback section randomly. I was really hoping the RNG would at least give me a second Trebuchet section.

[Paingod]

So - I restarted last night (I had messed up too many of my pilots' skills.)

Unpossible! Unless you mean your personal pilot. If it's anyone else, you can dismiss them and start a new pilot and work them through some easy missions to build them up. My personal pilot so far has Split Shot and Evade skills and I haven't figured out which side I want to be his third.

I don't think there are any bad skills. I really like the split shot, but I also like the Sensor Lock, Bulwark, and Evasion skills. Just for different reasons. I want to build a roster of specialist pilots that are custom-made for different Mechs.

The brilliance is you can still shoot or sprint. Going to try and sprint past them and hope they all miss, use vigilance brace cuts the damage you do take in half and lets you move and shoot or sprint from danger next turn before most everyone else.

That's the part I was missing. I thought it was a turn-ender, like Precision Shot. I must not have been paying attention when I used it.

[LordMortis]

So, I broke wore down and am downloading on my two down connection and... Is it known if the game is time sensitive. I enjoyed the story line that I watched on line, but I see a calendar passing and so I'm wondering how much I get to just enjoy building my merc team while casually playing the campaign. As someone who played, for instance, Titans of Steel, building a team in skirmish mode until it essentially got boring because I maxes out 8 pilots with their skill sets, I'm interested in the campaign more interested in obsessing over building a team of elite squads over time learning the ins and outs of different mechs and different pilot classes.

[NickAragua]

So far, I haven't seen any time limits.

Other than the ever-present "time limit" of you need to keep taking contracts and do reasonably well in them because otherwise you'll run out of money and go bankrupt.

[Paingod]

I see a calendar passing and so I'm wondering how much I get to just enjoy building my merc team while casually playing the campaign. As someone who played, for instance, Titans of Steel, building a team in skirmish mode until it essentially got boring because I maxes out 8 pilots with their skill sets, I'm interested in the campaign more interested in obsessing over building a team of elite squads over time learning the ins and outs of different mechs and different pilot classes.

The calendar seems to have little effect, except to track how long things take. Storyline missions have - so far - been willing to wait as long as I wanted to put them off.

As for pilots, it takes progressively longer and longer to build levels. There's no real 'classes' - there are 8 skills. You choose two 1st tier skills, and then one 2nd tier skill above those two. After that, you're just working to build general skills like piloting and gunnery. I think some skills work better for different Mechs - like the Evasion & Tactical skills work for pilots in Scout Mechs. The Gunnery & Guts skill might work well in an Assault Mech holding the line. Evasion & Gunnery works nicely for Mediums. Just my thoughts, not rules.

The game is repetitious, though. Despite varying objectives, it all boils down to "Kill 'Em All!" ... which hasn't stopped me from really enjoying it for a dozen hours. I haven't even acquired a single Heavy, so I'm looking forward to that. It's nice that each Mech I add to my roster feels like an accomplishment.

[LordMortis]

As for pilots, it takes progressively longer and longer to build levels. There's no real 'classes' - there are 8 skills. You choose two 1st tier skills, and then one 2nd tier skill above those two. After that, you're just working to build general skills like piloting and gunnery. I think some skills work better for different Mechs - like the Evasion & Tactical skills work for pilots in Scout Mechs. The Gunnery & Guts skill might work well in an Assault Mech holding the line. Evasion & Gunnery works nicely for Mediums. Just my thoughts, not rules.

I must have been hallucinating in my youtube watching of Cohh, then. It seemed like different pilots had different skill trees available to them. Maybe I was lulled into thinking the trees were different because the pilots were labelled different as they were developing.

Your infomation caused me to look around and I see a neat mech "cheatsheet", something I am sure to come back to...

I suppose you could say this is a spoiler link but I don't think of understanding game elements as spoilers.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 1844655663

[coopasonic]

The story missions seems to hang out there as long as you want to screw around on other stuff. There are bills to pay every month though, so don't screw around too much.

[jztemple2]

I suppose you could say this is a spoiler link but I don't think of understanding game elements as spoilers.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 1844655663

Wow, that sure is a neat set of data. I love that stuff, even though I'll probably never dig down through it all.

I completed the "Capture The Argo" mission with the default pilots and mechs, although I took the Spider as the Locust is just too undergunned and since it has no jump jets it's just a waste. After ten hours or so of generic missions I had enough in the way of tactical insight to be able to take down the turrets, towers and outside vehicles with barely a scratch. My Spider was invaluable for this, combined with a pilot with Sensor Lock skill.

Once I got inside and started the big fight I started off OK, but screwed up by allowing my Spider to get too involved. He ended up badly hurt at the end of the mission with the Spider in tatters. However, by being a bullet sponge I was able to avoid getting too much damage on the other three mechs. My biggest issue was that I hadn't added enough heat sinks to the Black Jack or the Vindicator. I ended up missing a combat round with each of them and even had to voluntarily take some internal damage by heat on the Vindicator when the fight got to the critical point.

For salvage I picked all the three parts of a heavy mech, since getting any other combination of parts with the mech parts I already had in storage wouldn't give me a complete mech. And then I was told that I was getting another mech that they had found in a broom closet somewhere. So I now have seven mechs, but I put the Locust in storage but that still means I have to pay the bills on six of them.

Overall I'm starting to like the game more as I'm seeing more in the way of a variety of missions. The maps are pretty amazing, lots of terrain to cover, hide in and run through. Now I just have to keep my budget in line.

[Sepiche]

Overall I'm starting to like the game more as I'm seeing more in the way of a variety of missions. The maps are pretty amazing, lots of terrain to cover, hide in and run through. Now I just have to keep my budget in line.

This reminds me of one of my few annoyances with the game... does anyone know if there's a way to see what terrain is passable, and what terrain is not without being close to it?

I'm often running into the situation where I think I see a path up a slope, only to find once I get close, it's impassable. You only seem to be able to tell this when your mech is close enough to go through that spot in it's current turn.

[IceBear]

No, and that's one of mine too. There almost needs to be a hex overlay with something showing impassible terrain.

Just got myself a cockpit mod (+2 injury resist), a leg mod (-20 DFA self damage), and a range finder (+25m view distance).

[coopasonic]

Got my first heavy last night - a Thunderbolt.

That's the mech that got me to bail on my first contract. It was a hunting mission with goals to kill the lance and kill the reinforcements. They all found me on the second turn. 7 light mechs and a Thunderbolt. I tried to use terrain to split them up, but I was in a canyon on a martian planet so jump jets were hazardous to heat reduction (and I had one mech without them).

I loaded a pre-mission save and took the rep hit to cancel the contract. In case anyone didn't know, accepting a new contract will cancel an existing contract.

[Cylus Maxii]

I loaded a pre-mission save and took the rep hit to cancel the contract. In case anyone didn't know, accepting a new contract will cancel an existing contract.

You could also just try running the contract again. There is definitely some randomization.

[coopasonic]

Good call. I saw that posted before but didn't think about it at the time. I was using an in mission save to see if I could make it work.

Right now I am on an assassination mission. I already killed the ambush and the escort without ever even seeing the target. Now it's just my 4 mechs (1 a little worse for wear with RT and LT damage) against the target, a Kintaro, which I would love to have. On first try he ran with 3 damn HP left on his left leg. I have a save right before I engaged so I am getting that mech tonight. Sadly only 2 priority salvage on this one and 5 other mechs downed so odds are long for getting the whole thing even if I do manage to double leg it.

[jztemple2]

Dumb question, what's the distance between hexes/dots on a map? I'm looking at some weapon specs and they list ranges in meters and I realized I have no idea how far that is on the map.

By the way, rather than the commander, I just want to be Yang, the chief of the Mech Bay. I love playing around with loadouts. As I stated a couple of pages ago, this game really needs an on-the-ship combat simulator so I can test my loadouts. Of course I'd probably just spend hours on that too

[jztemple2]

Sorry, another stupid question. I'm recovering from my Argo mission and happened to check out the store and saw a Federated AC/10++ cannon for €187,000 which includes a 10% markup because they are indifferent to me. Now I know that the plus signs indicate a better weapon of that type, but is there such a thing as a single "+" weapon? I've never seen one. If so, does the ++ mean it's really rare, or am I going to see a lot more of them later on when that €187,000 isn't going to be so dear to me?

[Freyland]

Very rare.

[Sepiche]

Dumb question, what's the distance between hexes/dots on a map?

Not sure if this has changed with the PC game, but traditionally each hex is 30m across in the tabletop game.

Sorry, another stupid question. I'm recovering from my Argo mission and happened to check out the store and saw a Federated AC/10++ cannon for €187,000 which includes a 10% markup because they are indifferent to me. Now I know that the plus signs indicate a better weapon of that type, but is there such a thing as a single "+" weapon? I've never seen one. If so, does the ++ mean it's really rare, or am I going to see a lot more of them later on when that €187,000 isn't going to be so dear to me?

There are weapons ranging from + to +++. All that indicates is it has bonuses of some sort, and the number of pluses is a way to compare relative quality. A +++ item will always be better overall than a + item. That said, two items that are both + are not necessarily the same, and if you mouse over the individual item it will tell you what it's bonuses are (i.e. +50 crit, +2 damage, etc).

They appear randomly, and if you look at the system modifiers on the main map, you'll see some systems have attributes that give them higher chances for better items to appear. You'll also get them as salvage as you go along in the game.

[NickAragua]

The distance between dots on the map is approximately 30 meters.

As for ++ items, if you ever anticipate using it, scoop it up. I've got an AC/20 with an accuracy bonus, which is partly why the Centurion is cleaning up so well. I haven't played around with special actuators and such yet, mostly because they take up weight that I feel is better used for guns, armor and heat sinks - I don't really feel that +10 melee stability damage is worth a ton of armor or a medium laser, for example. I did see a targeting system that increased all weapon ranges by some small amount, but I passed on it since it cost about a third of my company's available funds.

[jztemple2]

Thanks for the replies, I did grab that A/C10++ since I had a new mech to fit out.

This game turned a corner for me today at 15 hours in. It was getting to be a "fly here, fight, fly there, fight" kind of a game, but I was in the mech bay playing around with loadouts and suddenly I'm jotting down configurations and looking at armor numbers and trying to decide if, for instance, I really need all that back armor for my missile mech.

And why should my Centurion's default loadout not include jump jets? I love jump jets

[NickAragua]

And why should my Centurion's default loadout not include jump jets? I love jump jets

Amen to that. Not only do they get you over cliffs, other mechs and other such nonsense, but you get a free facing change at the end of the jump. Walking is for chumps (and people who don't want their mechs to melt).

I'm really glad they made jump jets useful, unlike in the Mechwarrior (and, to a lesser extent, MechCommander) games.

[Sepiche]

One question about another thing I keep running into:
Is there some trick to manually adding and removing armor?

In some instances when I've tried to selectively change the armor in a section, it adds/removes it in weird tonnages that result in a decimal on the tonnage that I can't easily get to equal out. I've taken to generally stripping all the armor off a mech, adding/removing the components I want, and then using the max armor button to use the remaining weight for armor, but the base algorithms it uses result in a lot of back armor and less leg armor than I usually prefer.

I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing, but I haven't been able to get that to really work yet.

[jztemple2]

Update info: BATTLETECH 1.0.1 Release Notes [BETA]

Spoiler:

Thank you for playing BATTLETECH! We appreciate your patience and support as our team works to quickly investigate and address reported issues with the game. Release 1.0.1 is now available on the public_beta branch on Steam and GOG. If you are experiencing any of the issues listed in the Release Notes below, we recommend opting in to the public_beta branch at this time. If you are experiencing any issues running the game that aren't listed below, or if updating to public_beta does not address your issue, please contact Paradox Support here: https://support.paradoxplaza.com

We expect to advance the default BATTLETECH branch to Release 1.0.1 early next week.

Switching to the public_beta branch (Steam):

• In the left column games list of your Steam library, right-click BATTLETECH.
• Select Properties
• Click on the tab labelled BETAS
• In the dropdown menu, select public_beta (Note: if you do not see this available, you may need to restart Steam and/or wait a few minutes.)
• Click the CLOSE button
• BATTLETECH should start updating automatically
• When the update has completed, right-click BATTLETECH again, select Properties, and open the LOCAL FILES tab.
• Click the VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES button.
• When this completes, restart Steam and then launch the game.

Switching to the public_beta branch (GOG):

1. When you hover over the BattleTech library entry, find the small menu expansion arrow in the bottom right corner of the BattleTech App - select “Settings” (or "More" if you've already selected the BATTLETECH entry in your library)

2. Click Beta Channels on the right side of the header and select “On”

3. Click the Channel dropdown menu and select "public_beta"

4. It should automatically update
​
On either platform, if you don't see the "public_beta" branch available, please exit the platform client and relaunch.

IMPORTANT: If you switch to the public_beta branch, please note that when playing Multiplayer Skirmish, you will only be able to play against other players on the public_beta branch. The Lobby browser does not currently denote which players are on the public_beta branch and which are not (but will in future releases.) If you switch to the public_beta branch and then want to create a multiplayer lobby, please add [BETA] to the front of your Lobby name.


Release 1.0.1 Notes, 4/27/2018

• Trial fix aimed at improving video player stability for some users experiencing video playback issues and crashes. (Windows: Switching from Media Foundation to DirectShow API with AVP Pro. Including additional filters for compatibility.)
• Trial fix for an issue where save games could sometimes fail to appear upon re-launching the game.
• We now immediately apply changes to the windowed mode and fullscreen monitor selection settings.
• Added the ability to change the Callsign associated with your multiplayer profile.
• Fixed issues with the Vsync setting sometimes not applying correctly.
• Setting Vsync to be ON by default.
• Fixed an issue where redeeming a valid unlock code could cause a long loading screen.
• Fixed an issue where 'Mech model variants unlocked using an access code could be seen clipping through other Argo UI screens, after selecting the unlocked 'Mech in the Mech Bay.
• Fixed minor graphical issues with the pre-order Shadow Hawk Umbra skin.
• Fixed an issue where enemy AI could sometimes act slowly during Defend Base contracts.
• Improved loading sequence stability when alt-tabbed.

Release 1.0.1 Known Issues

The base Shadow Hawk model is currently missing its paint schemes. (This will be resolved before 1.0.1 becomes the default / live branch.)

[IceBear]

One question about another thing I keep running into:
Is there some trick to manually adding and removing armor?

In some instances when I've tried to selectively change the armor in a section, it adds/removes it in weird tonnages that result in a decimal on the tonnage that I can't easily get to equal out. I've taken to generally stripping all the armor off a mech, adding/removing the components I want, and then using the max armor button to use the remaining weight for armor, but the base algorithms it uses result in a lot of back armor and less leg armor than I usually prefer.

I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing, but I haven't been able to get that to really work yet.

I have had similar experiences and I'm not sure if it's a bug or if the armor for different sections weigh differently. It seems like the arms and legs might be .1 tons where the chest and torso is .2 or .25 or something like that

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Still loving this. Outfitted my blAckjack with an ac20 and my best shot. Only 5 shots due to tonnage but with aime fire it takes everything it hits down.

About to do panzyr story mission. Sitting on 2 million cash and 7 warriors (as at any time usually 2 or 3 are healing).

[DD*]

Welp, the "bugs" are rearing their ugly head.... in the mission "Humanitarians"

Spoiler:

You have to escort 4 APCs from a base to a dropship landing zone, then watch over them until they get on board. Needless to say, not quite so straightforward.

At the base itself, you have to battle a mixed light/med lance. Did that, won, had my one heavy get a leg crippled so he is Mr. Pokey now. Other mechs hit the rendezvous point to start escorting the APCs. After 5 or 10 endless turns of watching these stupid APCs drive everywhere but on the road, we reach the LZ. Queue the "surprise..."

Over the hill to the east comes another lance of medium and heavy mechs. I'm down to three effective mechs, all beat up, as Mr. Pokey is still churning along trying to make the pick-up point. By hook, luck, and poor AI I managed to kill all 4 mechs in lance two, with Mr. Pokey's pilot biting the dust (one of my best, of course).

During this whole fiasco, the objective was "Embark on the dropship with X/Y units - 1 round" - I took this to mean the APCs would have to get into the LZ and hold for a 1 round until the dropship (which was sitting there) could dust off. Well, two APCs did get into the zone, one got killed by lance 2 as I was desperately battling them, and APCs 3 and 4 are parked outside the zone with their thumb up their asses not moving at all. After I managed to kill lance 2, I figured "well, maybe I need to be in the LZ too" even though there really was no indication that was the case. So I park all of my remaining mechs in the LZ. APCs 3 and 4 do nothing, the game will not advance, and I'm basically fucked. I waited roughly 4957 rounds to see if anything would change, but not so much.

You can't command or otherwise order the APCs, they just sit there, nothing I do with my mechs makes a damn bit of difference at all. Tried saving and reloading. Nothing. Exit the game, then reload again. Nope.

Looks like a big old "fuck you" bug from Harebrained.

I think it really may be time to shelve this as it is obviously not quite finished.

/rant off

Back to the Steam library with you, incomplete game.