[Mechwarrior 5] Joining the party late...

[Kasey Chang]

MW5: Mercenaries came out a year ago, and since then there were two DLCs that added hero mechs as well as another extended campaign that had you join the Kestrel Lancers as an aux unit in a very tough campaign. Was watching the three streamers (Baradul, NoGutsNoGalaxy, and TTB) playing them and reminded me how much I miss these games. So when Fanatical had the Jumpship Edition (i.e. gold edition, base + both DLCs) for $36, and I found a $3 coupon code, I kinda HAD to get it, as I know it won't go any lower for MONTHS. And there's a TON of mod support for the game.

I'm just starting out in the scripted campaign (there's also a mostly unscripted "career" mode) which is organized similar to the Battletech game. The different is MW is an action game and BT is a turn-based game. However, they share a LOT of similarities. Typical in Battletech, you suffered some sort of great betrayal, great sacrifice was made to make sure you survive, and you start from almost nothing, rebuild your side, and take revenge upon your enemies. MW4 was like this, Battletech was like this, and MW5 continues the tradition.

Right now I do have a couple mods loaded, but they are not rebalance mods or mods that added like couple dozen "lore variants" of the mechs. There are QoL mods, like better zoom (4x instead of anemic 2x) but also added one extra mech and one extra pilot to help you fulfill the "145 ton drop limit" missions you encounter afterwards, as you can't find another pilot for a long while, and when your biggest mech is 50 ton Centurion, you really need 4 mechs and 3 pilots, the more mechs and pilots the merrier.

With 3 guys shooting enemies die a lot faster and each mech takes less damage overall, which also means less time spent being repaired and more time taking contracts. Took a couple mission for the old skills to come back. I really need to find a way to get more framerates out of this game. There seems to be some mods that simplifies meshes and hitboxes to accomplish that, but that may take a little experimentation.

All in all, I'd say $33 spent well, so far.

[Sepiche]

I picked this up when it came out, and it looked impressive, but the allied AI pilots were so braindead they would cause millions of c-bills in damage to their mechs every mission and wipe you out pretty fast.

If at any point they fixed that, it might be an okay game.

[Kasey Chang]

Downloading some of the larger mods seems to be a bust on NexusMods. Can't download MW5 SaveEditor nor Xenopax's Optimization. Keeps getting network errors.

Tried a couple settings to detune the graphics a little. Apparently Anisotropic filtering really kills framerates by 20-30%, even on RTX.

[Kasey Chang]

I picked this up when it came out, and it looked impressive, but the allied AI pilots were so braindead they would cause millions of c-bills in damage to their mechs every mission and wipe you out pretty fast.

There is a mod that supposedly improves the AI.

Or you can download the MechCommander mod and play it in tactical view instead.

In the initial few missions, the AI pilots don't seem to be too suicidal, at least when I'm not that way. I think I got a pilot killed when I charged in and was prompted surrounded by half dozen units and I died not long after running away. Next time I was far more methodical and enabled SLIGHT bit of aim assist (low) and they seem okay so far. But I'm dealing with lights and mediums at the moment.

[coopasonic]

Just for reference: https://octopusoverlords.com/forum/view ... =2&t=93704

[Daehawk]

Nexusmods started shooting itself in the foot a while back for some reason.

[NickAragua]

With the recent updates and expansions, the AI does ok from what I've been hearing. The main thing is that it actually makes use of weapon groups, so the way you configure the mechs matters (e.g. don't put small lasers and LRMs in the same weapon group on the mechs you plan to have the AI control, the weapons you want it to use the most go into the lowest-number weapon groups). There's also the TTRulez series of AI mods, but I don't know if those have been kept updated.

[Kasey Chang]

I've been watching a lot of Baradul videos, and it seems the AI will keep shooting the groups until the heat gets bad, depending on enemy range, and cycle through, so it's important to utilize all 6 groups (or something like that). But then, he's been playing this a lot longer than I did, and he has heavies and assaults that can core a lighter mech in like 3-4 hits.

[Kasey Chang]

Starting the get the hang of mech combat, but have to remind myself to keep moving around, as the temptation to turret is great, esp. when I have advanced zoom mod added. Need to send the others in while I stay back and snipe. FINALLY found a planet with pilots for hire, and just picked up my 7th mech... 4 mediums (2 centurions, Blackjack, and Vindicator) and Javelin (4xMlas), Panther (LLAS replacing PPC), Jenner. Actually had 8, but dropped a Jenner for a cantina mission. My 10 mil was down to just less than a mil with the acquisition and repairs. That previous battle was bad as I had an ammo explosion that wiped out a torso and arm, resulting in MAJOR damage that wiped out all the income from that mission. OTOH, several of my mechs have had the cantina upgrades installed, and more will be added soon. Still, I'm beginning to wonder if I was supposed to save those cantina upgrades for later when I unlock better ones and put them on heavier mechs.

[Kasey Chang]

Found "XenoAI - AI Balancer" at NexusMods, that supposedly retunes the AI so it is slightly more accurate at range and LESS accurate at knife-fight range. Compatible with the TTRulez AI mods. I'm not touching it as I tried installing 2 mods and it crashed the game. I think I'll enjoy my vanilla-ish setup a bit further before trying those mods.

Still unable to download the larger files from NexusMods.

[Kasey Chang]

Just picked up multiple high medium mechs (55 tonners) and playing difficulty 19-25 missions, and barely getting damaged. Up to 11 mechs (all mediums). The defense missions are turning out to be easier than the offense missions.

Need to find some HEAVY mechs, then it'd really be a party.

[Kasey Chang]

I am not getting the headshots or the leg shots to truly salvage the mechs to fulfill those Cantina missions. And sometimes they occur in systems with clients that I don't have enough clout to negotiate a lot of salvage to afford a mech. I guess I need to up my mission difficulty level to the 30's. Just went across the galaxy back into the easy part to fulfill a Cantina mission (I missed the part about the mission in a specifically named conflict zone, I thought it was a system name). Gave up a Shadow Hawk I rebuilt for a Cantina mission. But I have plenty of alternate mechs in that weight class (55t) like Kintaro and Dervish.

Now I am getting a lot of these high reward mission, but they're mutually exclusive, as both the Kurita and Davion side are calling for your help, and you can join only one side.

[raydude]

I've been watching a lot of Baradul videos, and it seems the AI will keep shooting the groups until the heat gets bad, depending on enemy range, and cycle through, so it's important to utilize all 6 groups (or something like that). But then, he's been playing this a lot longer than I did, and he has heavies and assaults that can core a lighter mech in like 3-4 hits.

Didn't this game come with co-op? I'm surprised no one has talked about trying that out.

[Kasey Chang]

I play at pretty irregular times, and my bandwidth ain't the greatest. :-/ Just dual DSL.

EDIT: I had installed the mod that added extra pilots / portraits / pilot editing, but that froze the game upon entering the mission from negotiation screen to the pick-mech-and-pilot mechbay screen. Ended up disabling those 2 mods. Didn't really need them.

Need to take my other pilots out as I still have some pilots with skills in the 20s. Need to bring them up to the 30's. Good news is if they survive the missions they're gaining almost a full point per battle.

[NickAragua]

There's a pretty active multi-player community; I'd love to get back to playing it but video cards that can run it are a little... expensive.

Re: mechwarrior skills, don't get too attached. What you really want is mechwarriors who have a 60 point cap, which means anyone you hire with a 30 point cap will eventually get fired because they can't hack it when you reach heavy/assault mech land.

[Kasey Chang]

There's a pretty active multi-player community; I'd love to get back to playing it but video cards that can run it are a little... expensive.

Re: mechwarrior skills, don't get too attached. What you really want is mechwarriors who have a 60 point cap, which means anyone you hire with a 30 point cap will eventually get fired because they can't hack it when you reach heavy/assault mech land.

I know. But I do need to even out my crew a little. Can't have half the crew in 40's while the rest are in 20's. The 20's are more likely to lose arms and whatnot on their mechs. I'm still roaming the spaceways looking for pilots.

[Hyena]

There's a pretty active multi-player community; I'd love to get back to playing it but video cards that can run it are a little... expensive.

Re: mechwarrior skills, don't get too attached. What you really want is mechwarriors who have a 60 point cap, which means anyone you hire with a 30 point cap will eventually get fired because they can't hack it when you reach heavy/assault mech land.

This was my biggest issue with the game (well, maybe not the biggest, but still...) was having the original pilots with such a low ceiling. I am ordinarily very loyal to the NPC's, and I get stupidly attached to that little thumbnail icon. Ditching them for the new, shiny pilots was always hard for me. I usually just keep them on, despite their salary, and pretend that they are helping train the new guys or helping with maintenance on the mechs...

[Kasey Chang]

FWIW, there's a mod called "Last Man Standing Rewards" that not only gives you a Blackjack and a pilot (it assumes that the pilot who ejected right at the beginning was also recruited and his BJ was salvaged) it also makes you, the lieutenant that came with the plot, and the BJ pilot, Lt. Said, all potential 60 pilots.

[Blackhawk]

(it assumes that the pilot who ejected right at the beginning was also recruited and his BJ was salvaged)

Nothing worse than wasting a BJ with a premature ejection.

[Kasey Chang]

I walked into that one, didn't I?

[Kasey Chang]

Enjoy a mech somersault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVumAq8tEu4

[Kasey Chang]

Was reading some MW5 reviews and one reviewer claimed to have missed the "crew banter" (those little between mission extras, like "commander, help us resolve issue X" where the one crew gets a +1 and one crew gets a -1 on mood that was in Battletech, but not in MW5.

I agree with that on PRINCIPLE, in that it's true the pilots just feel like a bunch of numbers and voices, and no more than that, in MW5. And you simply go around the Inner Sphere looking for better ones in numbers, and try to match up your mech to the right pilot. However, I wouldn't say BT's interaction system is that much more advanced either.

However, instead of explaining that system to you, I'll let the BT's designer Kiva explain it herself. And yes, I do wish MW5 have a bit more of that in-between mission story bits, but I wouldn't say MW5 is a disappointment.

[Kasey Chang]

Played some difficulty 60 "campaign" or "high value" missions, with "barely" heavy mechs, and it was a pyrrhic victory. I think I ended up with 2 million in damages, and all four mechs out for at least 2 weeks, being a conflict zone and all that. One guy was out for 80 days, and one mech needed 74 days in the shop. Reputation is a bit of a bummer, as Liao is now neutral, but both Davion and Independents, which used to be +3 are now 0 or -1.

In fact, that was the THIRD time I did that mission. Attempt 1, took too long to demolish the base, I got cored by an enemy. Second time, I didn't get cored but one of the lancemates did. At least I did kill the base (100% destruction). Finally, redid the mission a third time, and this time, got it done right... ONLY suffered a million in damages.

Also did an assassination mission, also difficulty 60 (I'm used to difficulty in the 30's) but got lucky time this, was able to stand on a hill and shoot down at the enemies.

Seems the upgrades should be done 1 or 2 at a time, between transits, rather than go all out and do all 5-7 at a time, which would make the mech unavailable on missions.

[Kasey Chang]

My lance feels seriously underpowered as I'm not finding the heavy and assault mechs, and when I do get them for salvage I don't have enough salvage portions to get one. I've wiped out Orions, Awesome, and more, but always a few points shy of salvaging one of those. ARGH! Heaviest I got is the 70 ton Archer, which is really a fire support mech.

The Cantina missions are getting weird. They want specific tier of weapons now, which is like... WHY? And obviously finding them will be a PITA. Same with the mech finding missions. Find no less than THREE Spyders? Probably cheaper to go to a place and kill them and see if they show up in salvage, but you can't count on that.

Tried to do Will of Kali flashpoint (multi-missions) , part 1 is simple enough. difficulty 60, doable. Next one is difficulty 70 and dropweight of 320? Even if I field my heaviest mechs I only got up to like.. 250, tried it once, all four mechs are pretty much wrecked. WTF... Decided I need better mechs and pilots, and put off that mission. Now I got the Marik flashpoints, which I believe I've seen yields a Heavy Mech by the end. Will probably go after that first. THEN come back and do Will of Kali.

[Kasey Chang]

Okay, got my first assault mechs... did a couple good missions for Liao side, and salvaged a Zeus, then found a wrecked Charger in the Market (both 80 tonners). Salvaged an Orion earlier, so the mechs are now all heavies, with 2 assaults being refitted. Will be going back for the missions I left undone earlier. Can't field a full 320 ton lance yet, but can go over 300 when the two assault mechs are done.

[Kasey Chang]

Did a couple high reward missions, but it's now 3026 and the Kestrel Lancer campaign is about to start. I have 51 days to join the contract/campaign. The game gave me a 6-month warning. Since last update, I've collected a Stalker (85t), another Zeus (80t), and a Black Knight (75t), plus a hero Orion (75t) (from Hazing of the Weak flashpoints), AND an Awesome (85t) (had to replay a mission 4 times, from Chasing Ghosts flashpoints) so I guess I am probably ready to tackle the Kestrel Lancers campaign. I can use some more assault mechs.

Unfortunately, the Awesome I salvaged appears to be the 8R or 8T model (2 LRM15 + 1 or 2 Large laser) instead of triple PPC of the 8Q. Somehow I head-shotted both but 8Q took less damage and needed more shares than I can afford.

[Kasey Chang]

The Awesome turned out to be the 8T model, 2 PPC and 2 LRM hardpoints. So my tactic basically is sandblast any enemies out of 990meters with LRM salvos, then zoom in and feed it multiple PPC bolts in the face or center torso if it gets close enough for the PPCs.

Also did the flashpoint where you recover a hidden Archer mech. There was an enemy that's missing. Turns out he ran off to a section of map that was just off sensor range and just STOOD THERE. I had to shoot him in the back to get him to attack me, and I had to kill him to trigger the final events of the mission and trigger the final attack wave.

Used the Awesome 8T on the flashpoint where you got hired by a shady agent who used you to get rid of a political candidate's guards so he can attack. Due to tonnage limits I brought Stalker, Awesome, and Zeus and was slightly underweight. Did not have problems handling the guards, but was a bit chewed up in the big battle afterwards. Lost one side torso and arm, and my Zeus actually went down. Did salvage it and the pilot survived. And even got the bad guy's Rifleman, which is a hero mech.

Encountered a Banshee (95t?) in a market, but didn't have the C-bills for it, not with the need to upgrade the existing mechs.

Did the "attack the mining consortium" flashpoint and the final mission got quite exciting, as I had to deal with artillery AND a ton of friendly and enemy mechs. I brought 2 airstrikes and used them on enemy dropships, which helped quite a bit dealing with the mechs they dropped. There were like 12 different mechs available for salvage after the battle, and I faced a very hard choice: Battlemaster (85t), Marauder (75t), or 2 double heatsinks (VERY rare part) and some light mechs. Ended up choosing the Marauder as I didn't like the Battlemaster (too many different weapons), and while 2 double heatsinks are nice, they aren't "essential" to me. Having another heavy mech seems more important.

Went to nearest Industrial hub, and found a Highlander (95t) assault mech in the market. Bought it immediately after selling off lighter mechs, as Highlander is pretty rare, being an almost losttech Mech.

Now need to wait until some mechs are repaired, then off to another flashpoint, this time only rep 6 (so difficulty in the 30's and 40's)

Did get some ER PPCs from the previous missions so I'm putting those on the Awesome 8T giving it superior range and ability to reach out and touch someone.

Put all medium mechs in storage, and even some of the lighter heavy mechs, as I'm fixing up the various assault mechs. If the mission calls for a lighter lance, I'll go down to 3 or even 2 mechs.

There's a Cantina mission looking for 2 Centurion 2AL's. Those are a pretty rare variant, as Centurions are usually 2A's and 2AH's. Found one, but may have to hunt for the other.

[Kasey Chang]

Just went through Tikonov, Tigress, and now on Mission 4 in Sarna, and I know this will be hard as ****, as I just got one of my 80t Assault Zeus cored fighting almost impossible odds. It's a difficulty 70 mission with only 300 tons, and I was forced to field 3 mechs only and 50 ton under because I don't have 4 x 75 ton mechs to send. Got my Highlander (90t) seriously damaged in the mission before that.

I did pick up a Cyclops (90t), and putting away one of my 85t Stalkers to reactivate 1 of my Orions (75t), so I can field 2 Orions, 1 Black Knight, and 1 Marauder. I can sub one of the Zeus (80t) if the drop weight is 305t. Orion is getting SRM6+SRM4+SRM4 plus AC10 and some lasers. AC for smaller threats, SRM salvo for bigger threats, lasers for tiny threats.

In hindsight, I should have left the Awesome 8T home. The 2 x LRM15 2x PPC loadout is great for long-range but horrible for brawling.

[Kasey Chang]

When through some Rep 10 and 11 missions, but I can see the Rep 12 missions with drop weight of 400 tons, which means I need Atlas or Marauder IIs and similar superheavies.

The problem with the game's setup is you can put "upgrades" on the mechs and there are anywhere from 5 to 9 "slots" you can use for that. Some upgrades use more than one slot and can take up to 20 days to install (more if in conflict zone and subject to cost and time penalties). If you put the mech into cold storage, the upgrades are removed (and AFAIK, not refunded). So swapping your mechs in and out is just wasting money, since you need to put the upgrades back in. And the upgrades can be significant, if small percentage edge between surviving and dying. 10% extra energy weapon damage. 7.5% higher missile pattern. 5% faster reloads on ballistic weapons. 5% extra heat dissipation. 5% bonus armor, 10% bonus internal structure. Those little things add up. And spending millions and 2 months to put a mech back together after cold storage, sort of makes sense, but makes you wish there's an in-between option.

Call it a "wish list"... "warm storage". Mechs put in warm storage cannot be sold (as they still have the upgrades installed), but do have weapons removed. Labor must be spent to put a mech into warm storage (removal of weapons) and there is still a maintenance fee involved per mech, albeit reduced from the "active" mechs. And "warm storage" is limited to 4 bays (i.e. 4 mechs) at most. This is just an idea.

Right now, there are only 12 active mech bays, and you need to keep a mech bay empty because you cannot buy a mech into cold storage. So there are only 11 mechs you can use on missions. This makes multi-mission contracts problematic unless you start sending out 3 mech, or even 2 mech lances... or send mechs out damaged. SOME missions MUST conclude within certain days. Others are more open-ended and can wait until your repairs are done.

[Kasey Chang]

Oh, crapola. My recorder switched microphones to my webcam instead of my podcast mic. Audio of my past dozen hours of MW5 play are ruined.

[Blackhawk]

Watching your videos gave me the urge to finally install and play this thing.

[Blackhawk]

Tonight went... poorly. Two failed missions in a row, and I had to run to an Industrial system in order to sell an extra chassis just to make salary.

I officially despise 'protect the outpost' missions, purely because I have yet to figure out how to get my AI lancemates from literally walking through the allied buildings and walls and destroying them. The enemies didn't need to do much - we destroyed their target for them! And the other was a two-part mission. The game didn't bother to explain that two part missions mean you don't get to repair. I went into the second mission with one leg and one arm. Ended up getting destroyed and one of my only two AI pilots ended up in the hospital.

The game isn't really doing a good job explaining things. I go into the star map and there is a massive pile of icons with no legend, missions with minor faction boosts to one faction and major penalties to another, but with zero input on what that means, whether Bad Things happen if I get one of them particularly low, or any other element of the faction system other than the fact that it exists. I have zero clue as to which missions I should take. I'm supposed to be a native of this universe - my character would have this knowledge, but it isn't being communicated to me. I have advisors - they should be advising.

[NickAragua]

I'd recommend, without pause, to grab the TTRulez AI mods. They drastically improve the AI's capabilities. Also grab the Thug mod, because Thug (it's an 80 ton mech, you won't see it for a while).

The other thing to remember is to make sure that your weapons groups are set up correctly for the AI mechs. The weapons you want used most frequently go into the lower-ranked weapons groups. Don't mix weapon ranges (or, honestly, even weapon types). This way, your LRM-equipped mechs will hang out in the back and pelt with LRMs instead of trying to close in and fire small lasers.

It's been a little while since I played it, but low faction rep a) reduces your negotiation points, meaning you get less salvage or damage insurance or airstrikes or whatever and b) I'm pretty sure it either increases prices in that faction's industrial zones and even maybe locks you out of buying stuff entirely (not sure about that last part). Best thing to do when managing rep is take contracts against "pirates" and "independents", as they don't have territory.

[Kasey Chang]

If you're in career mode, sure. But in Campaign mode you're doing a lot of campaign missions for Interstellar Exploration, which is Independent.

You can compensate for the pirate rep by doing Cantina missions. They give small bonus to pirate / outlaw rep.

[Kasey Chang]

I officially despise 'protect the outpost' missions, purely because I have yet to figure out how to get my AI lancemates from literally walking through the allied buildings and walls and destroying them. The enemies didn't need to do much - we destroyed their target for them!

Generally the defense missions are hard to lose as you can go as low as 20% on the base and it's still a win. In fact, if you managed to keep the base 80+% five times there's an achievement.

And the other was a two-part mission. The game didn't bother to explain that two part missions mean you don't get to repair. I went into the second mission with one leg and one arm. Ended up getting destroyed and one of my only two AI pilots ended up in the hospital.

Yeah, that's... difficult. You need spare mechs (and/or pilots) to do multi-part missions.

The game isn't really doing a good job explaining things. I go into the star map and there is a massive pile of icons with no legend, missions with minor faction boosts to one faction and major penalties to another, but with zero input on what that means, whether Bad Things happen if I get one of them particularly low, or any other element of the faction system other than the fact that it exists.

If you are friends with a faction, you get extra negotiation points (thus, extra pay or salvage), and the market and mech market has a discount for you. The opposite is also true. If you are unfriendly with a faction, you get reduced negotiation points, and market has a surcharge for you.

The icons are mission types. If you get the SMMO mod (enable it in the mod menu under the main menu) the rollover will explain the mission's employer and who's the mission against. There's also "Intel" that will tell you what factions are there, and what sort of enemies you can expect. At the beginning, you can only handle difficulty in the teens, maybe 20's. I don't have a rule of thumb on what difficulty you can handle vs your lance weight or composition yet.

I have zero clue as to which missions I should take.

Early on, if you have a very fast mech (Javelin is not bad) do demolition and raid missions... by replacing some of your lasers with flamers to mount extra armor. Flamers do extra damage to buildings, and you can just crash into buildings too. Dodge around enemies, no need to kill them when you're not getting paid for it. Wreck the weaker outer buildings, no need to go inside the walls if you don't have to. In fact, the enemies spawn indefinitely on these missions, so the faster you finish the better.

Once you figured out your brawling mechs and can reliably kill something in a few salvos with a good aim to the enemy cockpit, configure mechs with high alpha strikes (like Kintaro I mention below) and high speed, and do assassination / targeted kill missions.

Centurion is a bit of "everything" mech, with a big hitbox (square shoulders). For a medium, I prefer the Kintaro, loaded with SRMs. Get behind enemies and you can wreck them by shooting their backs or butts. But Wolverine or Griffin are not bad either.

I believe you get a hero mech early on if you go to the Galactic East and find the planet Valentina and do the flashpoint there.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks, Kasey. I'll dig through that in a bit.

The problem was that it's early in the game, and there are limited mission options available. It's hard when half of the missions are doubles, but I only have three mechs to my name, and I'd have to do missions to get enough mechs to do the missions.

It also doesn't help that the difficulty numbers aren't explained. There are a few 8s, some 9, some 10s, some 11s, but no indication on how much tougher an 11 is than a 9, or whether I'm capable of handling a 10. It's data without context.

I officially despise 'protect the outpost' missions, purely because I have yet to figure out how to get my AI lancemates from literally walking through the allied buildings and walls and destroying them. The enemies didn't need to do much - we destroyed their target for them!

Generally the defense missions are hard to lose as you can go as low as 20% on the base and it's still a win. In fact, if you managed to keep the base 80+% five times there's an achievement.

At the time I did that one, it was me (Centurion) and two other pilots (Javelin, Jenner.) The defense target was a round base with tall walls and several openings on different sides. The problem was that every time new enemy mechs would arrive, they'd arrive on the opposite side of the base from me. I'd either have to go into the base to fight them, resulting in my AI lancemates stomping through the middle of the buildings and doing more damage than the enemy, not to mention missed shots hitting the buildings, or I had to leave them in there to do what they wanted. I couldn't find any way to get the enemy to come out and play. If I put my lance on 'hold fire', hit the enemies a couple of times, and moved away, the enemy would just stay in the base leveling it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

If you are friends with a faction, you get extra negotiation points (thus, extra pay or salvage), and the market and mech market has a discount for you. The opposite is also true. If you are unfriendly with a faction, you get reduced negotiation points, and market has a surcharge for you.

That much I knew. But again, data without context. I don't really have anything by which to judge which of the dozen or so factions I can see are meaningful. I've got to make decisions, but I don't have any information beyond a name and a logo to make them on. I do have some familiarity with the universe, but it's been a long, long time since MW3, 4, and Mech Commander (and even longer since my minor experience with the tabletop game in... '91, I think.

Early on, if you have a very fast mech (Javelin is not bad) do demolition and raid missions... by replacing some of your lasers with flamers to mount extra armor. Flamers do extra damage to buildings, and you can just crash into buildings too. Dodge around enemies, no need to kill them when you're not getting paid for it. Wreck the weaker outer buildings, no need to go inside the walls if you don't have to. In fact, the enemies spawn indefinitely on these missions, so the faster you finish the better.

I'll give that a whirl, thanks.

[Blackhawk]

I believe you get a hero mech early on if you go to the Galactic East and find the planet Valentina and do the flashpoint there.

Is 'Galactic East' a region, or just the east side of the map somewhere? There must be 500 planets on that sucker, and no filter/search option.

[Kasey Chang]

The problem was that it's early in the game, and there are limited mission options available. It's hard when half of the missions are doubles, but I only have three mechs to my name, and I'd have to do missions to get enough mechs to do the missions.

It also doesn't help that the difficulty numbers aren't explained. There are a few 8s, some 9, some 10s, some 11s, but no indication on how much tougher an 11 is than a 9, or whether I'm capable of handling a 10. It's data without context.

Go to a different cluster if you run out of doable missions in your current cluster. As long as they have nearly the same rep requirement they have about the same difficulty levels. But I don't find 11's that different from 9, for example. But then I've been playing this for only 122 hours.

I find the rep level doesn't mean much. It's the difficulty level that's more meaning full. Until you get a full lance of 4 mechs don't do missions with dif 30's. And I'd immediately try to upgrade to 55 tonners (Wolverine, Kintaro, Griffin, Dervish, etc.) first. Once you got a good brawler mech setup salvage enemy mechs become easier.

Stay in one House territory and do the high reward missions for that same faction to build up rep faster. You need those negotiation shares to pick over the better salvage. Once you're semi-established you can move onto other house territories.

The problem was that every time new enemy mechs would arrive, they'd arrive on the opposite side of the base from me. I'd either have to go into the base to fight them, resulting in my AI lancemates stomping through the middle of the buildings and doing more damage than the enemy, not to mention missed shots hitting the buildings, or I had to leave them in there to do what they wanted. I couldn't find any way to get the enemy to come out and play. If I put my lance on 'hold fire', hit the enemies a couple of times, and moved away, the enemy would just stay in the base leveling it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Order your lance mate to go to a spot and stay there. Then run over to the other side of the base. You each have to take one side.

Base attack enemies try to avoid you, unless you do a LOT of damage on them, causing them to "aggro" on you. A few shots may not trigger them enough to come after you.

If you have the Kestrel Lancer DLC you can melee the enemy mech. I've demolished lighter mechs by literally running over them and punching them.

[Kasey Chang]

I believe you get a hero mech early on if you go to the Galactic East and find the planet Valentina and do the flashpoint there.

Is 'Galactic East' a region, or just the east side of the map somewhere? There must be 500 planets on that sucker, and no filter/search option.

Just east side in general, in Lyran territory (where you start)

[Daehawk]

I almost bought this on the black friday sales. I LOVE MW games..always have. Finished them all even on SNES. MW4 is still my favorite followed by Mercenaries.

But I passed. I was thinking it may be on a better sale later and I was worried about bad AI teammates. Also my system is 10 years old so it may look and play bad.