BattleTech coming back via Kickstarter

[Bakhtosh]

Well, congratulations to Harebrained Schemes for keeping me up til almost 4am playing:
I'm just going to start this next contract then I'll go to bed;
I'm just going to advance to contact with the enemy, then I'll go to bed;
Wow, that was fast - I'd better scout their forces to make sure I don't need to reload from the drop, then I'll go to bed;
I'm already halfway through their forces, I'll wipe them out then I'll go to bed;
Gotta collect my salvage and repair my mechs, then I'll go to bed.
I'm just going to start this next contract, then I'll go to bed...

[Bakhtosh]

Also, I had to replay the first merc mission 3 times cause I was taking unacceptable damage and kept forgetting to save after destroying the turret generator.

[coopasonic]

I think I had 4 days of repairs coming out of that mission... the real problem was the headshot to the commanders mech that sent him to med bay for 26 days. He only just came back in time for the Argo mission... F Grim Sybil.

[tgb]

Also, I had to replay the first merc mission 3 times cause I was taking unacceptable damage and kept forgetting to save after destroying the turret generator.

I restarted that mission several times, and took each one as a new learning experience. Even at that I ended up with a dead pilot and two more in the medbay for 19 and 26 days, respectively.

I suck at this. Gimme more.

[Paingod]

I suck at this. Gimme more.

I'm encouraged to hear that it gets harder after the first few story missions.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, it seems that even a single "ding" to a mechwarrior will put him in the medbay for upwards of 20 days.

Right now, I'm swimming in SRM launchers and mech torsos, but what I really need is an AC/20 to put on the new Centurion I got. But, nobody's got a freaking AC/20 for sale. So am I going to have to put AC/5s on it meanwhile? That makes me sad.

[Bakhtosh]

Also, I had to replay the first merc mission 3 times cause I was taking unacceptable damage and kept forgetting to save after destroying the turret generator.

I restarted that mission several times, and took each one as a new learning experience. Even at that I ended up with a dead pilot and two more in the medbay for 19 and 26 days, respectively.

I suck at this. Gimme more.

I sent my PPC mech around the mountain and had her take out the generator while my other 3 took on the 2 light mechs.
I failed to give the guard mech at the other platform enough respect the first time I met it. Took a punch to the cockpit...that hurt. Kept my distance next time and let it walk into the kill zone.

[Rip]

How do you scrap a mech? That may help with my money issues - when I go the store there is no option to sell under mechs, but I had multiple partial chassis. The documentation I’ve seen does leave a bit to be desired...


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You can't sell parts, only complete mechs and they have to be in storage.

[NickAragua]

You can totally sell parts. Go to the Leopard (or, I guess if you're that far along, Argo) store interface. There's a 'sell' tab. Now you can get rid of all those spare SRM/2s, ammo bins and small lasers that you've been gathering from all those bug mechs you've been blowing away.

[Rip]

Also, I had to replay the first merc mission 3 times cause I was taking unacceptable damage and kept forgetting to save after destroying the turret generator.

You are going to hate me. Took out the turret gen while only taking a couple half-assed hits. Entire mission with no internal damage and no wounds.

[coopasonic]

You can totally sell parts. Go to the Leopard (or, I guess if you're that far along, Argo) store interface. There's a 'sell' tab. Now you can get rid of all those spare SRM/2s, ammo bins and small lasers that you've been gathering from all those bug mechs you've been blowing away.

I believe he is referring to "Mech parts", you know, the perfect thirds that defeated mechs fall into.

[IceBear]

Yeah I only started taking damage after the Argo mission really. Although I just was wiped out on a 2 skull assassination mission. Had 5 mechs attack from all directions...Griffin, Wolverine, Trebuchet, and a Loctus. Lost my missile boat to an unlucky crit early...was wondering where all the missiles were coming from when a catapult showed up on top of a mountain (which was of course whom I was supposed to kill). Was much more on the heavy side than previous 2 skull missions

[NickAragua]

You can totally sell parts. Go to the Leopard (or, I guess if you're that far along, Argo) store interface. There's a 'sell' tab. Now you can get rid of all those spare SRM/2s, ammo bins and small lasers that you've been gathering from all those bug mechs you've been blowing away.

I believe he is referring to "Mech parts", you know, the perfect thirds that defeated mechs fall into.

Bah, you people and your "english".

But yeah, you can't sell parts of mechs. Whole mechs and systems though, yeah.

There's already a mod on the paradox forums that someone put out that makes it so that you have to have five mech pieces instead of three to make a new mech.

[Rip]

Yeah I only started taking damage after the Argo mission really. Although I just was wiped out on a 2 skull assassination mission. Had 5 mechs attack from all directions...Griffin, Wolverine, Trebuchet, and a Loctus. Lost my missile boat to an unlucky crit early...was wondering where all the missiles were coming from when a catapult showed up on top of a mountain (which was of course whom I was supposed to kill). Was much more on the heavy side than previous 2 skull missions

Assassination missions are notoriously hard but great for picking up bigger mechs.

[IceBear]

Yeah...I had to eject 2 of my pilots when they were down to 1 wound each and even then I almost beat the catapult but he ran away and got to the evac zone before I could finish him off

[Hyena]

I'm planning on starting over tonight. I only got to the first mission after the scripted ones, and didn't even finish that one before slumber took me. I want to create a different commander. I read the few articles posted on here regarding the skills, but I'm considering a pilot/gunner/gunner setup with the backgrounds. Any thoughts on it? The additional movement and stability from pilot is nice, and I would love to start with a 5 gunner and improve from there to start sniping for salvage.

Speaking of which, what is a "good" salvage ranking? All the info is rather spotty on what a good number is. I had a "2/8" on the mission I didn't finish, but I don't know what that means.

[wonderpug]

Speaking of which, what is a "good" salvage ranking? All the info is rather spotty on what a good number is. I had a "2/8" on the mission I didn't finish, but I don't know what that means.

The 2/8 means you get two 'first pick' choices of the salvage choices, and then 8 6 random pieces of salvage on top of that.

[coopasonic]

Speaking of which, what is a "good" salvage ranking? All the info is rather spotty on what a good number is. I had a "2/8" on the mission I didn't finish, but I don't know what that means.

The 2/8 means you get two 'first pick' choices of the salvage choices, and then 8 random pieces of salvage on top of that.

If you don't need money desperately, go one notch up on salvage to get max priority salvage to get more mechs.

[Bakhtosh]

When you're looking at the payout for a contract, it will show the max salvage payout. If you want that much salvage, you'll have to give up the c-bill reward. If the Max is 2/10, then you'll probably get 1/6 if you split the reward 50/50. There will probably be 2 steps up: 2/8 and 2/10 - each resulting in less cash payout.

[Rip]

I'm planning on starting over tonight. I only got to the first mission after the scripted ones, and didn't even finish that one before slumber took me. I want to create a different commander. I read the few articles posted on here regarding the skills, but I'm considering a pilot/gunner/gunner setup with the backgrounds. Any thoughts on it? The additional movement and stability from pilot is nice, and I would love to start with a 5 gunner and improve from there to start sniping for salvage.

Speaking of which, what is a "good" salvage ranking? All the info is rather spotty on what a good number is. I had a "2/8" on the mission I didn't finish, but I don't know what that means.

That is what I have went with, I use him for Sniper/Skirmisher ina ShadowHawk. For heavies and especially assaults I would lean more towards guts(Bulwark) than piloting. The only skill I don't see myself using is Juggernaut which is the second level guts skill. I tend to shy away from melee if I have a choice.

As ar as salvage the first number is how many you get to pick the second number is how many items you get total. I tend to take the lowest salvage that will give me one pick unless an storyline or assassination mission in which case I crank salvage up to get the most picks I can. Random salvage is of minimal value to me.

[Rip]

Speaking of which, what is a "good" salvage ranking? All the info is rather spotty on what a good number is. I had a "2/8" on the mission I didn't finish, but I don't know what that means.

The 2/8 means you get two 'first pick' choices of the salvage choices, and then 8 random pieces of salvage on top of that.

Correct except you get eight total so two picks and six random.

[jztemple2]

Am I right to think that there is no such thing as opportunity fire? I'm playing the first Mercenary mission and upon spotting the enemy my first instinct is to pull back and let them walk into my zone of fire.

[Rip]

Am I right to think that there is no such thing as opportunity fire? I'm playing the first Mercenary mission and upon spotting the enemy my first instinct is to pull back and let them walk into my zone of fire.

The ideal thing is to reserve and let them move up while still being out of visual range. Then you paint them with sensor lock from your scout and paper them with LRM fire while they still can't see you. Next turn they move into visual and the next volley of LRM/AC/PPC fire puts them on their back. At least that is how I prefer to initiate contact.

[gbasden]

I tend to shy away from melee if I have a choice.

Really? I find melee super useful. Some bug mech runs up with 4 pips of evasion? Melee ignores at least 4 pips, so run up and punch him in the face. He loses at least two pips, and maybe all of them if he's staggered.

[NickAragua]

Melee has its uses, but in most cases leaves the mech carrying out the melee attack quite exposed. So if you're planning on meleeing a target in a crowd, you want to do it with a fast, light mech after all the enemy units have moved. That way, you can move in, throw a couple of punches, then sprint away beginning of next turn. Alternately, attack a target such that you wind up in some woods or a mineral field at the end of it and with a lot of evasive pips.

Not only does it ignore evasion, but the attacking mech also fires up all of its "support" weapons (flamers, small lasers, machine guns) to supplement the damage, and it knocks off one of the "guarded" states that makes enemy units harder to hit/damage.

Also, stomping on vehicles does double damage (not sure if the associated ranged attacks also do double damage).

[Bakhtosh]

Stomping on that annoying little crap tank that's been peppering the rear arc of your armor is extremely satisfying.

[Rip]

I tend to shy away from melee if I have a choice.

Really? I find melee super useful. Some bug mech runs up with 4 pips of evasion? Melee ignores at least 4 pips, so run up and punch him in the face. He loses at least two pips, and maybe all of them if he's staggered.

I can remove two pips of evasion from across the map with sensor lock, why get close? Then LRM the other two away while I pound them up to unsteady. I drop most mechs before they can even get within medium laser range. The risk of melee is simply not often worth the reward.

[Rip]

Stomping on that annoying little crap tank that's been peppering the rear arc of your armor is extremely satisfying.

Egads, you actually allow people to get behind you?

[IceBear]

You must have better LRM boats than I do. I can rarely do much damage with my LRMs - certainly not enough to drop them before they get within medium laser range. I do like using my one Trebuchet to knock down mechs that have taken stability damage though.

[jztemple2]

I finally finished the "Three Years Later" mission, the first mission acting as a Mercenary Company. Having previously read the Eck's BattleTech Tactical Combat Guide last night and played the mission today, I have a much better understanding of the tactical combat. Now I'm on the Leopard for the first time and I am rather lost.

First thing, three of the Mechwarriors/Pilots/Bioderms I took on the mission are out for 26 days. And one Mech is really hammered and another has some damage. So I guess I'm going to repair the mechs, heal the pilots and head towards the next mission. And try not to get talked into adding that disco ball to the crew lounge. I just have to draw the line somewhere...

[NickAragua]

You may consider hiring some replacement mechwarriors so you can keep up a higher tempo of operations (especially once you grab a few extra mechs for salvage). You've got monthly expenses, so every day you're sitting around waiting for repairs to finish or bones to knit back together you're burning money.

[coopasonic]

Of course those mechwarriors gotta get paid too so don't go too crazy. Stupid ass random headshots.

[NickAragua]

Heh, at least it's not like in tabletop, where even a random plink from a machine gun could potentially set off an ammo bin or KO your mechwarrior.

[Bakhtosh]

Yeah, think I heard the Devs say they doubled the armor on the head during the Beta.

[Bakhtosh]

Oh, I meant to mention this earlier, in combat, the default action is always move. If you want to stand still and shoot, you have to manually select the attack action. Otherwise, it will assume you want to melee (which is a move action).

[jztemple2]

I decided against hiring any Mechwarriors at this time since I'd have to hire at least two and when the three injured ones are healed that seems like a lot of personnel to hold on to. I guess I just have to be careful to avoid having so many injured.

I did read through every tutorial on the strategy level of the game. It really shines there, lots to think about, lots of "interesting decisions" to make.

[IceBear]

Btw....you can pass time by clicking on the button on the dropship tab if you want to wait for repairs and injuries. I will often take a contract offworld so the travel time eats up a lot of the wait and then I wait before doing the mission once I arrive

[Bakhtosh]

Took me a while to figure out how to get back to that screen. I was getting frustrated.

[tgb]

Just found this over on the Paradox forum, Cyttorak's Illustrated Tutorial, has info on the strategy level of the game as well as the tactical.

I wish I could print that out.

[IceBear]

If you read that thread it should have a link to Ek's Guide on Steam. He was a developer of the game. I saved it as a PDF