[Mechwarrior 5] Joining the party late...

[Blackhawk]

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.

Ouch, that went badly. I tried going in solo several times, but dodging the enemy mechs didn't work - I died three times in a row at under 50% of the damage done. So I took some lancemates to keep the enemy busy. Mission success. Payout, 700,000. Damage taken, 2,700,000. Two mechs inoperable, one pilot dead.

[Kasey Chang]

You can restart the mission or load an earlier autosave if it went that badly. No need to go ironman on us.

[Kasey Chang]

And I re-iterate... Galactic East, Valentina system that's just above the Davion / Kurita border.

Spoiler:

You will find an SLDF spec Wolverine there, that's worth a couple million in itself, and probably the heaviest mech you have for a long while, esp. if you're just starting up.

[Kasey Chang]

I think I'll start a new career and play normally, without the campaign missions.

In BT lore, a mercenary company rarely gets employed by more than 2 Great Houses, as they get into favor with one and basically stayed in their territory. The really big ones gain favor with the sector governor and become private armies in all but name.

[Blackhawk]

You can restart the mission or load an earlier autosave if it went that badly. No need to go ironman on us.

Yep. Three failed solos, one borderline TPK. Fifth time was the charm. I really just need a few decent mechs.

And I re-iterate... Galactic East, Valentina system that's just above the Davion / Kurita border.

No need to re-re-iterate - I located it and was mission-hopping my way there (gotta make the rent...)

If you're playing the campaign, are any of the DLC worth the price of admission?

[Blackhawk]

I think I'll start a new career and play normally, without the campaign missions.

Hey, if you reinstall, can I ask you a favor? I'm running a few mods - mostly interface/visual tweaks plus the AI mod. There are three that I'd like to have that are Steam Workshop only. The problem is that I am playing the Game Pass version, which means I can't get access to the Steam Workshop for MW5. Would you be willing to install those, send me the folders, and then uninstall (or not?) If you don't want to mess with it, that's fine, too.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2507466797
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2509859048
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2509890520


According to smart folks:

The folders for those three will be named "2507466797", "2509859048" and "2509890520" and by default they'll be stored in \steamapps\workshop\content\784080 on your steam friend's machine)

(Note for others - this isn't shady - it's free public content, but Steam set it up to only download if you own the game on Steam.)

[Blackhawk]

God, this AI is awful, even with the AI mod. I go in to break things down, leave my lance nearby... and they get slaughtered.

The enemy don't have mechs. They're getting mass-murdered by helicopters and tanks, and as far as I can tell they can't do anything about it. It doesn't help that they interpret 'go to location' as 'go to somewhere kinda maybe near there.'

/edit - ugh, six tries on a simple demo mission, multiple approaches and builds, and I still lose 1-3 AI mechs per attempt. The 'fast mech with flamers' approach failed because the AI is incapable of defending me (or themselves) while I take down the target. They are so. Fucking. Stupid.

[Kasey Chang]

If you're playing the campaign, are any of the DLC worth the price of admission?

Kestrel lancers campaign is pretty neat, really gives you that "OMG we're so ****ed" feel, unless you have built up your lance by that point that you make it through just fine.

Heroes of Inner Sphere basically added hero mechs, more variants, and a few more flashpoints... I mean "high reward quests" around the Inner Sphere that awards you said hero mechs. If you can get them cheap, why the heck not.

There are three that I'd like to have that are Steam Workshop only.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2507466797
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2509859048
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2509890520

Sent you PM.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks! And thanks for being patient with my frustrated ranting. I tend to think a certain way, and it interferes with games sometimes. I'm very much a strategy/planning person, so when I see a situation like these missions, I immediately start coming up with plans for handling it using the tools that are available. The problem is that those plans rely on the tools working correctly, like the AI doing their part - which they don't.

My brain looks at the situations, and sees a solution. Like, 'you two cover this approach, you cover that approach.' When the AI is so stupid that they can't take out two helicopters with two 35+ ton mechs bristling with weapons that can bring them down in one shot, and they die as a result, or let the enemy mechs walk right past them to murder me while I'm doing my part, then all of my strategic planning works against me.

[Kasey Chang]

FWIW, if your AI's fairly low level they may have problem with the helos, and if they don't have long range weapons like large laser or PPC.

You have to configure the weapon groups. The AI works by checking each group to see "can I shoot this without overheating?" so you have to separate the weapons that do a lot of heat. Like if you have two PPCs and some SRMs, then separate them into 3 or 4 groups would probably be better. You have 6 weapon groups to play with, and leave one for the arms/hands for melee. If AI can't shoot something without overheating it will stand around and wait until it cools down enough to shoot.

Sidenote: This makes flamer a very risky but potentially rewarding weapon in mech combat.

I built my pilots up to L60 and they rarely miss, even at range. They sometimes shoot at targets before I was able to. And they nail all air assets before anything can get in range.

[Kasey Chang]

Started new career from scratch, with the following mods:

* (Almost Clear) Night Vision -- make the night-vis actually clear enough to see in
* Mod Options -- displays a mod option to the options menu for tuning some mod options
* Pilot Overhaul -- adds positive and negative traits to pilots, which can improve or debuff their stats and/or potentials, as well as fatigue and more injuries. Pilots now need 2-4 days rest after each mission so you need a whole stable of pilots if you want to take on multi-battle missions, or you can send them out with reduced skills (representing fatigue)
* TTRulez_AIMOd2 -- improves both friendly and enemy AI
* SMMO Logos -- improves starmap system rollovers to show which faction have what missions against whom, so you can decide on where to go.
* Rothe Formation -- instead of you leading the diamond, you're now in the back.
* Remove jump ship animation -- eponymous
* QoL upgrades -- some convenience like "repair all"
* MechAttribute Viewer -- rollover to see what's in the mech
* Large_Markets Expanded -- makes market offer more stuff
* Enhanced Cooldown Pips -- cooldown pips now also show range for that weapon group
* Compass Headings -- shows it in degrees
* Battle FX Enhanced -- general improvement of looks, like debris, smoke, etc.
* Advanced Zoom -- up to 8x
* Xenopax Optimize -- improves framerate among other things
* Throttle Gauge with Line Markers -- adds 25/50/75 percent marker
* Higher Visibility Torso Twist -- makes torso twist yellow and more visible
* (Colored) Heat Gauge -- added color to the bar graph

These worked well so far and I'm up to Rep level 5 (and a lot of kills), only losing one mech (got cored) and it's a Spyder. Did lose the super weapon ultraAC/5 though. Darn it. Started with Enforcer / Spyder / 2 Locust. Now have Wolverine, Enforcer, Vulcan, Jenner, Assassin. Hope to salvage heavier mechs soon, need to find a way to cool down Wolverine as it's overheating too often. May shrink L Laser to Medium, or trade jumpjets for more heatsinks.

I had more mods loaded, but one of them broke the game (I can't add any points at the contract negotiation screen) and had to disable stuff to get things working again.

[Blackhawk]

Nice, I will look some of those up.

Started new career from scratch, with the following mods:

* Mod Options -- displays a mod option to the options menu for tuning some mod options
* TTRulez_AIMOd2 -- improves both friendly and enemy AI
* SMMO Logos -- improves starmap system rollovers to show which faction have what missions against whom, so you can decide on where to go.
* MechAttribute Viewer -- rollover to see what's in the mech
* Throttle Gauge with Line Markers -- adds 25/50/75 percent marker
* Higher Visibility Torso Twist -- makes torso twist yellow and more visible
* (Colored) Heat Gauge -- added color to the bar graph

I am also running those. I also have (mostly cosmetic):

• Better Lighting (Light Fog) - Improves hangar visuals
• Better Crates - (not OP, but makes the crates worth picking up instead of $1k and some machine gun ammo.
• Casual Hires - Switches the pilot names around to display their handle/last name instead of their full name
• Better Lighting on Bridge - Improves home screen visuals
• Lore Armor Repair - Armor repairs are quicker, as in the books. All internals are still at the same rate.
• Portrait Effect - Makes the 'talking head' portraits look like transmissions
• Purchase Salvage - Lets you pay for a couple of extra salvage points worth of stuff out of your cash reward
• Salvage Tweaks - Adjusts the chances of salvaging mechs/components based on how they were destroyed (mostly improves the chances of getting the mech if you legged them.)
• Updated High Employment - Increases the max number of job options per system

[Blackhawk]

FWIW, if your AI's fairly low level they may have problem with the helos, and if they don't have long range weapons like large laser or PPC.

You have to configure the weapon groups. The AI works by checking each group to see "can I shoot this without overheating?" so you have to separate the weapons that do a lot of heat. Like if you have two PPCs and some SRMs, then separate them into 3 or 4 groups would probably be better. You have 6 weapon groups to play with, and leave one for the arms/hands for melee. If AI can't shoot something without overheating it will stand around and wait until it cools down enough to shoot.

Sidenote: This makes flamer a very risky but potentially rewarding weapon in mech combat.

I built my pilots up to L60 and they rarely miss, even at range. They sometimes shoot at targets before I was able to. And they nail all air assets before anything can get in range.

I have been working in accordance with this guide.

I built my pilots up to L60 and they rarely miss, even at range. They sometimes shoot at targets before I was able to. And they nail all air assets before anything can get in range.

Did you use one of the mods that up pilot potential to 60? Or did you just train up all new end-game pilots?

[Kasey Chang]

In the new run I am just swapping out pilots, though with Pilot Overhaul it's possible to increase their potential through perks and quirks and training. Still, it's usually easier to swap them than to train them.

By potential I just mean the maximum possible, not their actual numbers.

Pilot overhaul also means you don't have to play as yourself. You can... uh... possess one of your pilots, i.e. play as him or her in the game, and thus, gain a lot more skills than "natural" growth. In one of the missions I had a pilot grew from 20 to 25 in a single battle, because I was playing him and shooting / dodging all over the place. Most AI pilots barely gain a point or two in the mission.

----

Pilot Overhaul, as mentioned before, fatigues the pilot out for 1-4 days after a mission, and 20-30 days out for minor injuries (bruised), and 60-90 days out for major injuries. This means you need to keep more pilots around, esp. if you take on multi-part missions. Also, the optional training are not that expensive (max of about 160K thus far) but also makes the pilot unavailable for like 80 days, esp. for "reveal true potential" (where you try to find if the existing "potential" is really it, or can it be expanded). And if the pilot developed a negative trait you can spend $$$ to "rehabilitate" him out of it. Some pilots can be trained to increase their stats or potential. It certainly adds some interesting choices to the pilot management.

[Kasey Chang]

The 65t Jaegermech is in the same family of ballistic fire support mech as Blackjack, Rifleman, and so on, but its FOUR ballistic hardpoints are hard to provision. You cannot put 4 x AC2 as that would leave practically no room for ammo unless you cut down on armor to the point of being glass cannons. Putting 2 AC5 and 2 MG seems pointless as the MG is a point-blank weapon. And once the ammo runs out it's left with only 2 medium lasers. Right now I have 2 Medium Rifle and 2 AC2 which seems to work but the low cycle rate of the medium rifle means its net damage is lower than that of AC/5 despite bigger damage per shot. But Medium rifle allow me to fit 2 of them plus 2t of ammo that delivers decent amount of salvos (22) each gun, whereas AC/5 would have left me with no room for ammo.

Another POSSIBLE loadout would be AC5's and 2 light rifles, may have to try that next time I hit an industrial hub.

[Blackhawk]

By potential I just mean the maximum possible, not their actual numbers.

That I knew. I'm tempted to add the mod that gives all pilots the skill-60 potential from the start. I get attached to my lance, dammit! I want them with me until the end, not kicked to the curb!

I may try that overhaul if I go back and do a career campaign (I'm doing the main story campaign right now.)

[Kasey Chang]

Checking forums, it seems Jaegermech build CAN fit 4x MC/2, if you leave out the lasers. The alternate loadout is 2 x AC/10 and 2 MG and no lasers.

Mix and match AC/10 and AC/5 is also a possibility, Just put one of each, and MG in a third group, forget the lasers.

The main problem is Jaegermech have everything in the arms and if you lose the arms you get NOTHING.

Apparently there's a HERO Blackjack that has 6 small ballistic hardpoints. Load it with all MG and you can demolish buildings in no time, while you deal with turrets and VTOLs with your lasers. Practically solo the base.

EDIT: Jaegermech with 4xAC/2 is doable, 3 tons of ammo and no lasers. I was dakka dakka enemy mechs left and right, doing enough damage to matter, but not enough for them to go aggro on me, esp. if I'm not the first to shoot them. AND a couple shots into center torso and/or cockpit will kill the enemy... But it's not very... exciting. AC/2 is also long distance, but not precise enough to be a "sniper". Lots of "splash damage" around the area, out to 500m.

EDIT2: According to the game, firepower rating of the 4xAC/2 Jagermech is... 11. Compared to like 50-60 of other mechs its size. Though firepower rating is based on alpha strikes, i.e. "fire everything!" But this mech can do alpha strikes every 2-3 seconds with no heat problems. It's basically a bullet hose. And AI seems to use it just fine.

I just got an Orion-VA and a Thunderbolt, I'll try to recreate my mech-killer config, but that's with an Orion V, which has an extra missile launcher.

Getting high reward quests from Liao and Marik territories, will start to head that way, as I put my 50t mechs on ice to open up more room for the heavy and possibly assault mechs.

Was kinda reminded that headshots are NOT always desirable. Sometimes, a clean-headshot mech will cost you too many shares (unless you have "buy shares" mod where you can pay a sum to buy a couple MORE salvage shares to afford that mech you always wanted), that you MAY want to wound it a bit more (cripple a leg, shoot off the arms) before delivering the coup de grace to the cockpit... assuming your buddies didn't kill it while you're trying to line up the shot.

Configured my Marauder D (the one with energy weapons only) with 3 L Chem Lasers (which require chemicals to act as "ammo") but the result is so cool, my temperature barely got warm. Before when I fire PPC in quick succession I just shut down. These Chem lasers may not be as powerful as PPC (they're more like large laser short-burst) I can fire them faster than a regular large laser, and with 3 tons of ammo I have 1ike 160+ shots. I've taken it to 2-3 battles and I think I only used about 100-110 shots per battle, and that's using them on everything from flyers to mechs to armor.

You *can* get Medium and Small Chem lasers, but what's the point? The BIG ones, on the other hand, is a valid alternative to the regular lasers, which just require heatsinks. But again, it's about damage curve. Ammo-based weapons can do more damage (until they run out of ammo) than energy-based weapons. And doing damage fast should be your goal.

----

Made it to Liao / Davion border and embarked on the high reward quests. Also grabbed a Catapult, not sure if I'll take it to battle yet. Put the Jagermech on ice as I need the room for something else. Time to get more heavy mechs and retire the mediums.

Not sure why, but my Cantina missions for Equipment Hunter are the impossible ones, like "4 Tier 2 Light Rifles" or "2 Supercharger IV". I found like 2, and never saw more of the first, and I got the second as a cantina reward, never saw one in the market. Time to abandon them and do something else.

[Kasey Chang]

Made it to Liao / Marik space (south side of Inner Sphere) and was doing high reward missions there. Did the one for the Canopians and got a Warhammer. Tried to do two missions in Hazing of the Weak and it was... not pleasant, as I went in 30 tons under max weight. And those are the heaviest I got. Lost one of the mechs (the Catapult I picked up). Clearly I don't have enough mech for these missions. So I went shopping.

Decided to travel north to near Terra and look for assault mechs at the industrial hubs in that area. Was able to score Banshee E, Stalker F, Cyclops Z, Black Knight 6L, Victor B, and Hero Wolverine (medium mech). They are all being outfitted right now. To afford all that, I retired and sold almost everything that's not a heavy mech or assault mech with exception of 2 mechs.

[Hyena]

Ok, this thread made me reload my old game. Unfortunately, there are some strange things I don't remember. Every time I fire my weapons now, it stops allowing me to use my torso twist or fire weapons. If I hit escape and then resume, it fixes things, but next time I fire the weapons, same thing. I can still drive the mech, but my mouse no longer controls my torso and I see the cursor floating around instead of the target reticle.

[gbasden]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how are you guys controlling your mech? Are you mouse/keyboard, controller, or something else?

[Hyena]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how are you guys controlling your mech? Are you mouse/keyboard, controller, or something else?

I use mouse and keyboard.

[Blackhawk]

Kouse and meboard.

[Freyland]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how are you guys controlling your mech? Are you mouse/keyboard, controller, or something else?

Neurohelmet. Duh!

[NickAragua]

Neurohelmet. Duh!

In the absence of neurohelmet, mouse and keyboard works just fine for me.

[gbasden]

Neurohelmet. Duh!

In the absence of neurohelmet, mouse and keyboard works just fine for me.

[Kasey Chang]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how are you guys controlling your mech? Are you mouse/keyboard, controller, or something else?

Mouse and keyboard.

I *could* haul out my Logitech G16 for this, but decided not to. I need to move my room, not haul out more crap.

[Kasey Chang]

Had some progress since, as I'm just collecting mechs now, mostly. Just hit Rep 13, and completed the Kestrel Lancers campaign (the Sarna portion) plus Bow and Arrow quest chain, then did Bring Her Home, and a few others. Now I have 3 Atlas (2 7Ds, and 1 7RS), a Marauder II (4A) I salvaged, plus Highlander (732B), Victor BSK (hero mech), Archer AGN (hero mech), Charger (1A5), Stalker (3F, 2 L CHEM Laser, 4 M Laser, and 4 SRM launchers), 2 Battlemasters (1G and 1M?), plus some misc mechs I picked up in heavy or assault class. I have like 20 mechs on ice, but as I'm heading into Kurita space for some quest lines there, I'm not selling just yet.

I am rather enjoying the pilot overhaul mod, which adds positive and negative quirks to each pilot. Positive quirks add capacity to one or more of the six existing skills (ballistic, energy, missile, protection, heat management, evasion), while negative quirks decrease the same capacities. I've seen 6 positive quirks and up to 3 negative quirks. Training can add positive quirks, and undo negative quirks, but requires time and money (as if the person was wounded). There's also "self-discovery" which can be done several times but takes a VERY long time (180+ days?!) Also, each pilot needs a few days to rest after a single mission, and chances of being bruised (short-term injuries, 1-2 weeks) iare now present. It used to be either the pilot's totally fine, or incapacitated for like 90 days. The overall effect is to make you look at your pilots more often, and swap them out more often. Also, you no longer have to play as "the Commander". You can play as any of your pilots.

----

Found a King Crab 0000, and a 4th Atlas, so Steiner Scout Lance complete!

Spoiler:

It's a Battletech meme about how Steiner side are so rich they can afford to send Assault Mechs to do scouting.

Just finished "Stop the Launch" and got the KGC-CAR. Also found the other Victor Hero mech in the market.

I've been roaming the battlefield in the Archer AGC while my lancemates deal with the field in 100t mechs. And it's the first time I ran out of missiles. I guess I really was spamming them everywhere.

I've trained every pilot to over 50.

Will either head south into Marik / Liao space for some Cantina missions (mech hunter) or else head into Kurita space to do a few quest chains there.

[Hyena]

Yeah, reading this got me jonesing for more. Been up late the last couple nights reliving this. I never actually finished my first run-through, but it's been too long and I wanted to start fresh. (I figured out the interface problem...turns out I'm a dumbass and just needed to restart my computer.)

I'm not running any mods, but I am intrigued by the one that lets you buy salvage points. I've missed out on some pretty kick-ass mechs at the lower level by a point or three, so I might put that one on tonight. I'm still early on, only Rep 5, but I've found my skill has increased in several weapons I never really liked before. I have fallen in love with the AC 10-BF for legging mechs. I am currently in a Dragon and I have my original Centurion and a laser-based rare Blackjack rounding out my trio. Haven't hit any missions yet with tonnage limits that allow me to take a 4th mech, but I have a couple waiting in mothball storage for when I do. I love just tooling around the Davion system doing missions against Kurita, then dropping in to fix my mechs at an industry site.

Thanks for the spur to get back into this...but my New World character hates you for it.

[Blackhawk]

Ugh, I just spent two attempts trying to destroy an enemy base while all three of my mechs got whittled down to nothing and destroyed, and yet I still can't find whatever they want for the last 5%.

[Blackhawk]

Switched to a different demo mission. Two more tries, not a single mech survived. Two Centurions, me in the Wolverine, pilots experienced enough to be able to handle difficulty 18 missions without too much hassle. It was a difficulty 13 mission, and once again we were all whittled down to nothing by endless enemy waves while I ran all over the ruins of the base trying to figure out WTF the last thing I needed to kill for the final 3% was.

Other-than-fun.

[NickAragua]

One strategy for demolition missions is to just bring a single fast light mech (preferably with jump jets) and just gallivant about the enemy base without worrying about the mechs. You don't get any salvage, but with a light mech, all the bad guys will miss you anyway.

Note: may not work later in the game when facing off against swarms of assault mechs.

[Blackhawk]

One strategy for demolition missions is to just bring a single fast light mech (preferably with jump jets) and just gallivant about the enemy base without worrying about the mechs. You don't get any salvage, but with a light mech, all the bad guys will miss you anyway.

Note: may not work later in the game when facing off against swarms of assault mechs.

Yeah, I've heard that strategy. Spent quite a while trying it out, including different builds and approaches. I don't think I ever got the enemy bases below 60% trying that - You can do massive amounts of damage to buildings, but when three tanks and two enemy mechs are in the base with you, you can't just run 'past' them, and you die fast.

One thing that doesn't help is that about 90% of the builds and strategies out there are built around the late game, and are tied to things that simply aren't available along the way. Yeah, I'm sure it would help if I put all of my AI teammates in hero mechs with high-end tier 3 weapons, or into a specific variant of a mech I've only seen once (in a different variant), or into mechs I've never encountered.

[NickAragua]

The other thing that usually works for me is to "game the system" a little bit. This is also with the understanding that last time I played, I was using the TTRulez AI mod, and had all my lancemates' weapons groups set up correctly. The former improves lancemate AI behavior significantly over the base game, while the weapons groups set up prevents stuff like your LRM boat trying to close in to use its small lasers.

The thing about demolition missions is that I'm about 99% sure that additional unit spawns are tied to the base's damage level. So, for example, there's the initial group of dudes guarding the base, then another group drops in at 75%, another at 50% and so on and so forth.

Thus, it may be a reasonable strategy to blast the initial guards, then find a good place outside the base to camp out, order your lancemates to stay there, then slowly whittle down the base with long-range weapons, making sure to keep your heat low so you can deal with the next batch of bad guys. When said bad guys drops in, focus them down quick without damaging the base. Rinse and repeat until you reach 0%.

[Kasey Chang]

Personally, if I do a demo mission, I drop all the air strikes I can get on the base before I get within 1000 meters of the place.

Then I run around the outside, one shot into each building, while running into things myself. Do not shoot the walls. That doesn't count. However, the towers on the walls do count. There are various bits like half-buried barrels on the outside of the base are generators. One little laser into each. Crash your way through modular buildings and basically ANY building. Radar dish may require more than a few hits, so lob the missiles at it from a distance, esp. those high up. Remember, the walls don't count. Structures that look solid that take a good hit will have their "facade" fall away. That's destruction, but obviously you only need one shot per section, else it's waste of ammo. Pop all the chemical tanks and such outside as much as possible. THEN head inside and start taking the facades down on large buildings, and look for radars and sat dishes inside the "corners" and "nooks" inside the base. You can crash into the low level while shooting at the higher level. Run out when you're done.

[Blackhawk]

The problem wasn't surviving to do the damage. I've got that down. The problem was getting down to 5% or less with everything inside and outside of the walls reduced to rubble, all the roofs shot off, and everything else I can find destroyed, then spending ten minutes looking for whatever the last 3% of the damage required while waves of enemy mechs ground us down. It was a poor gameplay design decision - don't require the based to be completely reduced. There is no margin for the player to not not find targets. Set the 100% damage marker at 95% destroyed to keep from turning the mission into a pixel hunt.

[Kasey Chang]

I guess it takes a bit of experience to note what counts for destruction and what doesn't.

Just put up this video that starts with a demolition mission.

[Kasey Chang]

in my experience, if you drop airstrikes on the base before getting within 1km (2-3 would be great) you can do 50-70% damage on the base before you get in, then you only see 1-2 waves of reinforcements, instead of 3-4.

Drop them over different parts of the base, so you don't end up bombing something already bombed.

[Hyena]

You guys have mentioned airstrikes...what is this sorcery you speak of?

[Montag]

VR folks, have you tried VRWarrior?

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5m ... escription

I am curious how well it works. I do not have MW5, but might get it if it's in VR.

[Blackhawk]

VR folks, have you tried VRWarrior?

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5m ... escription

I am curious how well it works. I do not have MW5, but might get it if it's in VR.

I have not. I want to, but I'm hesitant to mess with my campaign-in-progress.

I have been having better luck with my demo/scorched earth missions. Part of the problem was that my wingmen were way behind the curve. I did a bunch of jobs, horded a lot of c-bills, then spent a couple of months just flying around industrial sectors looking for better mechs. Now that I have both of my lancemates in Centurions (and pilots in the high-30s skill range), I'm having fewer issues with them handling the enemy mechs while I destroy the target.

Most of the time I'm running the Wolverine with a mix of weapons, a Dervish set up as an LRM boat, or a Shadow Hawk set up with a heavy rifle, depending on the mission.