BattleTech coming back via Kickstarter

[NickAragua]

Campaign? Like, the main storyline and not career mode?

Not sure, honestly. The mod packs don't usually play well with the campaign. I've heard people say Battletech Extended 3025 does ok, but I haven't tried it personally, only with career mode. The main thing it'll do for you is introduce a much greater variety of mechs and tanks, as well as stuff like mech quirks, pilot fatigue and assembly from variants.

Two standalone mods that I like:
Battletech Performance Fix - self-explanatory, the game chugs in certain areas and this mod helps address that
Mission Control - lets you do stuff such as randomize spawn locations, bigger maps, spawn allied lances, spawn extra hostile lances. All that stuff is disabled for story missions and flashpoints by default.

I wish I could say that there are standalone mech and vehicle packs out there, but I'm not sure there are - most appear to have been folded into one of the big mod packs. Which is convenient on the one hand, but a shame in case you just want the units and not the gameplay tweaks. The good news is that HBS added plenty of mech and tank variety with 1.9, so even without mods you won't be hurting for opposition. I'd suggest looking into JK_Variants and Vehicle Improvement Project, but I don't know about their compatibility with 1.9.

If you're really playing the campaign for the first time, one other option might be just playing it without mods. It's actually a perfectly fine game even in vanilla.

[Blackhawk]

Campaign? Like, the main storyline and not career mode?

I assume. I picked it up during Christmas, but I have yet to launch it.

If you're really playing the campaign for the first time, one other option might be just playing it without mods. It's actually a perfectly fine game even in vanilla.

I will likely do that, then, or maybe take a look at the performance fix. I don't know the game, and there was enough mod talk going on that I figured I should check if there were any that were important to a hassle-free experience. "Nope" is a perfectly fine answer.

Besides, a lot of these seem to be focused on the hardcore Battletech fans. I played the tabletop version exactly once, clear back in '91 or '92. The rest of my experience has been with the various games (MW 2, 3, 4, Online, Mech Assault, Mechcommander 1.)

[$iljanus]

Started my career in 3039 and I like how viable the light and medium mechs are in the game. It’s a good start point for beginners but having played the vanilla game for a while I think I may restart in 3049 when rumors of planets going silent in the periphery start to be heard. Or I just play a ton of hours and get to the appearance of the clans eventually.

In any case the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod is quite impressive and fun.

[Doomboy]

Soooo, I downloaded the files in the instructions, and followed the instructions for installing the mod, and it is not working. It lists it at least in the mods menu in the main menu of the game, but it is not actually doing anything, since I can't choose my time period or anything other than to take the giant phoenix hawk crate or not.

Can someone that got it working post the steps they followed to make it work please?

[$iljanus]

Soooo, I downloaded the files in the instructions, and followed the instructions for installing the mod, and it is not working. It lists it at least in the mods menu in the main menu of the game, but it is not actually doing anything, since I can't choose my time period or anything other than to take the giant phoenix hawk crate or not.

Can someone that got it working post the steps they followed to make it work please?

When you start your career, advance the date one day (just click on the big arrow on the bottom of the screen) without doing anything else (taking the loot crate shouldn’t be a problem though) then the choices for start date will come up. I thought my install was bad until I read this in a search.

Happy stomping!

[NickAragua]

You injected modtek, right?

[$iljanus]

You injected modtek, right?

If you did this you should see a barebones loading bar showing the various mods being loaded on startup before the splash screen pops up which should have Extended 3025 on it.

[Doomboy]

Yep, modtek is installed. I did run the inject thing, but nothing at all happened until I installed it first by downloading it separately and running it that way.

I tried advancing the date, but after the big crate, nothing happened for 1 week. Kept it going for a month. Nothing changes.

The mod is listed under the mods menu in the game. So is CAB. They show they are enabled. I must just be missing something simple.

Before I downloaded and installed Modtek by itself, after installing CAB and putting the update mech commander mod in the mods folder and running the injecter thingy from within that, the mods didn't even show up when clicking on the mod menu.

[NickAragua]

Copy + pasted from reddit:

Step 1: goto main batteltech directory and create a folder named "Mods".

Step 2: download BTECE from Nexus (https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/387?tab=files), select manual download and follow onscreen instruction (slow download).

Step 3: download latest Community Asset Bundle (CAB) from nexus.

Step 4: extract contents (a few dozen folders) of BTECE zip file to the recently created Mods folder.

Step 5: find "Modtek" folder within and double click the injector file.

Step 6: double click the CAB executable and follow the instructions, basically select your directory and then click update CAB (this may take a while, its going to download a few gigs worth of mech assets).

Step 7: run the game and look for the modtek version, if there is no modtek version you either forgot step 5 or put your mod folders in the wrong location (step 4).

Step 8: start a new career and have fun.

The main trick is that you don't want to use the built-in HBS mod folder, you want all that stuff in your [battletech install directory]\Mods folder. If you installed modtek correctly, the game version at the bottom left should show up as "1.9.1 w/Modtek", and the main title should look like "Battletech Extended: Commander's Edition".

[Doomboy]

Well, still not working. Uninstalled, deleted everything in the mods directory, reinstalling from scratch. Try again tomorrow following those instructions with a completely clean install. I think I installed the CAB first, and that might be why it isn't working. But when I try to run ModTek injector from within the mods folder, it doesn't seem to do a damn thing either.

[gbasden]

I swear I've tried searching, but I can't find anything. In this version, there are multiple colors indicating LOS - Red, blue and green, from what I remember. What do the blue and green colored lines represent?

[NickAragua]

I forget which color means what, but they're basically to indicate whether your shot will hit the front, side or rear arc of the target.

[AWS260]

Green means you're attacking from the rear, blue from the side.

[gbasden]

Awesome, thanks!

[Doomboy]

Oh my god! Finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I thought it was one mod, when it is actually a ton of little mods. It works after I extract all the files into the mod folder.

So, yay! Did a mission, pretty dang good. It makes a light mech fight interesting. Never would have tried running around in a lance of all lights before. Because that would have been suicide.

Not sure which time period to play in. I guess I will just stick with 3039 for now. New stuff, but no tough fight for a while.

Thank you for the help!

[$iljanus]

Is the Galaxy at War mod supposed to be included and enabled in the 3025 Extended Commander mod? I'm getting the news feeds about ongoing hostilities but when I cursor over a system there isn't any information about faction influence points and other attributes that the Galaxy at War page has listed.

Could I just download and install the mod separately and the 3025 mod will incorporate it?

[NickAragua]

Galaxy at War has been removed for this release of BEX in favor of canon timeline advancement. No more helping build that periphery state into a galaxy-spanning empire. Sorry.

Honestly have no idea if GaW is compatible. I would rate it as "risky", because there was a lot of work done on star system ownership changes, so the two things may conflict.

[$iljanus]

Galaxy at War has been removed for this release of BEX in favor of canon timeline advancement. No more helping build that periphery state into a galaxy-spanning empire. Sorry.

Honestly have no idea if GaW is compatible. I would rate it as "risky", because there was a lot of work done on star system ownership changes, so the two things may conflict.

Oh okay then. Glad at least that I'm not missing it due to a bad install.

Back to the merc life I go! And thanks for the answer.

[Zenn7]

Finally got around to downloading this so I can try it out (still working out how to get it installed exactly so I haven't actually done anything with it yet), but saw this in the credits for the mod:
NickAragua

Clan mech definitions
Tons of script related changes to files like integrating Inner Sphere map updates to the bespoke version
Many fluff based events

Absolutely no surprise on the last one given the amazing Battletech AAR you have so many of us involved in!

[NickAragua]

Heh. Yeah, look for the news articles if you do a 3039, 3049 or 3053 start. There's also a bunch of mech articles that another guy did.

[jztemple2]

Interesting article from Strategy Gamer: Riding the Line of Bankruptcy in BATTLETECH - A Guide

In BATTLETECH, there are two battles going on. The most obvious is taking your Mechs planet side and beating the opposition into scrap. The secondary front is the main economics of the game: keeping your mercenary lance solvent, while optimizing yourself for increasingly difficult scenarios. Managing your budget each month while staying ahead of the difficulty curve is just as important as managing your Action Economy in battle. Below are some strategies we’ve found helpful to getting yourself well equipped and ready for potential disaster scenarios.

[AWS260]

Just lost one of my most experienced pilots in my career game. She was tromping around in a Battlemaster, only to take a headshot from an Urbanmech.

An Urbanmech.

[NickAragua]

Just lost one of my most experienced pilots in my career game. She was tromping around in a Battlemaster, only to take a headshot from an Urbanmech.

An Urbanmech.

Damn trashcans.

[$iljanus]

After more than 1100 (in game) days using the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod I finally made my way from the "bottom" of the map to Clan held space. I started from humble origins with my heaviest mechs being a Vulcan and Assassin along with a cute Urbanmech. Those were harrowing but fun times as my little Urbie grew into being a feared sniper on the battlefield while my Vulcan became an effective brawler. I remember when I finally got a Trebuchet and could lay down some effective fire support. The addition of some Wolverines and Shadow Hawks beefed up my company and when I got my first heavy, an Archer, we started going to town. After enabling the massive drop option and building the needed upgrades along with a slow accumulation of improved weaponry we started dominating the higher difficulty missions. My core force for a while were three Archers, a Warhammer, Thunderbolt, one other heavy I don't recall and two mediums. The Shadow Hawk has been with my main character for a long time and it's armed with a AC10+++ while the Wolverine has a Gauss rifle. I like doing recon with the Shadow Hawk while the Wolverine waits for the opportunity to one shot or severely cripple mechs from a safe vantage point. Both are jump capable so can get out of the way when it's time for the heavies to mix it up. This is very important for the Wolverine since it seems to attract attention rather easily. Sometimes I have it too far in front of the main force because I'm eager to unload some Gauss rounds on targets and it becomes a juicy target in return.

Now I've acquired an Orion and Battlemaster along with a Longbow and I've been doing one pip missions in Clan held space. Got into some good scrapes but I'm slowly farming Clan mechs for weapons. Unfortunately, the amount of salvage you can take is limited since I guess the Great Houses will not be denied their right to the spoils. The Clan weapons are lighter than the Inner Space stuff so I get to up armor my mechs as I swap in the Clan equipment. Could use some Clan heat sinks in the future though and would like to put together a Clan chassis sometime.

Much fun being had in this game!

[AWS260]

After more than 1100 (in game) days using the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod I finally made my way from the "bottom" of the map to Clan held space.

Oh, I should try this. I've just been noodling around the bottom of the map, mainly trying to do Flashpoints when I can. Are there Flashpoints in other parts of the map? They only seems to show up down here.

[$iljanus]

They're concentrated in the bottom third in the extended mod map. I already did almost all of the flashpoints in my previous career with the vanilla version so I'm OK with not getting to them this time around.

[NickAragua]

After more than 1100 (in game) days using the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod I finally made my way from the "bottom" of the map to Clan held space.

Oh, I should try this. I've just been noodling around the bottom of the map, mainly trying to do Flashpoints when I can. Are there Flashpoints in other parts of the map? They only seems to show up down here.

Almost all of the "vanilla game" flashpoints are in the bottom, but the BEX 3025 mod has some flashpoints in the center and north. However, you won't see most of those until 3039 and 3050.

There are also a whole bunch of flashpoints that aren't part of the mod pack that work with it, by Hobbes and Ablomis, which I highly recommend (find them on modnexus).

[AWS260]

Thanks!

[AWS260]

I love this game.

[Madmarcus]

What is the lowest powered graphic card this game can run on? I played at launch but that was with my real gaming computer that is around the world (and aging into a potato as we speak I guess). My current Ryzen APU is fairly good at keeping me occupied but the thought of playing in the Battletech sandbox is calling me.

[NickAragua]

Minimum requirements, from steam:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or Higher
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-2105 or AMD® Phenom™ II X3 720
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti or AMD® ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 (1 GB VRAM)

I gotta say I have no idea what most of those numbers mean, relative to your system (or my system for that matter, I specced it out and built it some time ago but have completely forgotten the details by now). But my gut feeling is that it's not the most resource-intensive game. It does benefit heavily from being installed on an SSD, and there are a couple of mods out there that improve performance quite a bit on the "strategy" layer.

[jztemple2]

I don't know if this will help, but I have in the past used this PassMark Software Videocard Benchmarks site to try to get an apples to apples comparison of video cards. It at least helps to identify which might be an equivalent card to one you are looking at.

For instance, the Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti card mentioned above in the minimum requirements has a Passmark G3D Mark value (higher is better) of 3050. My GTX 1060 6GB isn't listed, but the GTX 1060 5GB which is listed has a value of 4140, so I'm assuming my 6GB card is a bit better than that. So I should be able to run the game OK (which I can).

The site also allows comparison of CPUs as well.

[Madmarcus]

I gotta say I have no idea what most of those numbers mean, relative to your system (or my system for that matter,

This AMD apu system is weird and I can never tell what it compares too. Thanks for the link JZTemple. The Ryzen 3400G isn't listed but I can find a number of entries for the Vega 11 that it incorporates and get some idea (there are many entries because the Vega 11 integrated graphics is used in many models and behaves slightly differently depending on the attached cpu). Technically I can't run it but it is close enough that I might well reinstall on this computer and try.

Strange bit though. The HD 5870 is a much weaker video card than the 560Ti (the two cards listed by Steam). My system is above the 5870 but below the 560Ti.

[AWS260]

After more than 1100 (in game) days using the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod I finally made my way from the "bottom" of the map to Clan held space.

I finally made it up to Clan space, and holy smokes, those Clan mechs are tough.

I cheerfully waltzed into a 4.5-star mission against Clan Steel Viper and oh boy. I only managed to pull it off because the map allowed me to create a chokepoint (and because I had an SLDF Bull Shark in my lance). By the end, my Longbow had exhausted its 720 rounds of LRM ammo and was just sprinting around like crazy, trying to draw fire away from its shot-up lancemates.

[$iljanus]

After more than 1100 (in game) days using the Extended 3025 Commander’s Edition mod I finally made my way from the "bottom" of the map to Clan held space.

I finally made it up to Clan space, and holy smokes, those Clan mechs are tough.

I cheerfully waltzed into a 4.5-star mission against Clan Steel Viper and oh boy. I only managed to pull it off because the map allowed me to create a chokepoint (and because I had an SLDF Bull Shark in my lance). By the end, my Longbow had exhausted its 720 rounds of LRM ammo and was just sprinting around like crazy, trying to draw fire away from its shot-up lancemates.

You are a braver Mechwarrior than I since I've been content to farm Clan mechs in 0.5-1 skull missions. But I think I've beefed up my mechs enough to start ramping it up...to 2 skulls!

[AWS260]

Yeah, next I tried a 3-star mission and while I won, my mechs were seriously beat up, with missing limbs galore.

On the plus side, after just those two missions I have my first complete Clan mech, a Man o War. Time to take her out for a spin.

[$iljanus]

Are you playing with the bigger drops mod enabled? Dropping two lances really helped even the odds for me. But even with 8 mechs on the field it was a hard fought win and in the beginning my mechs were getting limbs shot off and the occasional weapon system destroyed on a regular basis.

[AWS260]

No, I should look into that.

[$iljanus]

No, I should look into that.

In the files section of the extended mod page there's a zip file with everything you need to easily enable bigger drops. Also if you haven't already done so there's an updated version of the extended mod. But don't forget to use a recent version of the CAB exe if you're updating the mod. When I download and installed the new stuff initially and ran the CAB program it stalled out at the very end. Was worried I had to revert to the previous version of the mod then noticed that there was a newer version of the CAB. Ran that one and I was good to go!

I'm not playing with drop costs enabled though because I have a crack team of accountants who are very frugal when managing my budget....

[AWS260]

Thanks for mentioning this! I didn't know there was an updated version of the mod. I've got everything updated and it seems to be working smoothly. Can't wait to get those bigger-drop upgrades completed on the Argo.