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For those who dont know, you need 3 salvaged parts of the same mech (and variant! Can't build a locust m with locust v parts) and it auto builds itself. You get more parts the less destroyed the mech is (so long as it has 1 point of structure ldft its not destroyed). Blowing off both legs gets you 2 parts, a lethal headshot or pilot incap w/o breaking both right and left torso (I think from my experience it's ok to break one of them, not totally sure on it though) gets you 3, and killing the center torso gets you just one. Best way to injure the pilot is knockdown (breaking legs/stability damage), headshots, crits on ammo, or breaking the left or right torsos.

If you get stuck and have pushed the story too far too quickly a tip I saw to get around that is go into a mission, complete one objective then withdraw. Withdrawing is instant and you'll still get salvage and c-bills for it.

Currently running the grasshopper (6 flamers and MLs) double orions (one is a 20/20/10 lrm boat with damage/stability damage increases, the other a twin AC20 platform) and a highlander (mostly long range fire power). I'd like to get a king crab but I've only seen one and the armor was too low on it to knock down endlessly and injure the pilot.

I think I got through that with a really lucky shot on an ammo crate when ~4 of them clustered around it.

Yeah that mission was brutal, looking back on it, I would have gone into higher skull territory (manually by using the map) and farmed up some heavier mechs.

As for the stop the transports mission, I found that one to be bs too. One bad miss means the APCs won't all be killed fast enough, and they only take 2 moves to reach the base.

 Ouze wrote:
When do you guys start seeing assault mechs? I'm at about 425 days in, and the heaviest mech I've seen was 65 tons, and that was an outlier. I almost always see the same variants of shadowhawks, vindicators, jenners, locusts, and sometimes hunchbacks.

outside of the story mission, ~3.5 skulls or higher

edit: they're still fairly rare in 3.5, uncommon in 4 and very common in 4.5 or higher

 Avatar 720 wrote:
Were you seeing them at 3.5-4.5 before the story mission that introduced them? Because I'd not seen any up until then at 3.5-4, and not seen a single 4.5 mission available.

I've only just completed that mission, myself, so I'll see what happens later.

I think I had to complete the story mission, and even on 3.5 missions it's still very rare to see an assault, even a light 80 ton like the viktor.

Looking through some of the mods, heavier mechs are tied to story missions. If you don't like that there is a mod that changes it.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Wolfblade wrote:
Looking through some of the mods, heavier mechs are tied to story missions. If you don't like that there is a mod that changes it.

There are mods already?

Yeah, nothing groundbreaking like new mechs, but rebalances, or adding star league tech to shops, or skipping the intro missions.

Ah, interesting must have missed that, thanks! Coming up on the end of my first game, so I've been looking for ways to make the next more interesting.

Working on a house steiner scout lance here, up to 2 of the 4 atlas I need so far.

So, what's everyone's favourite loadouts? I usually run a mech loaded with LRMs (how ever many it can carry), a mid range mech (ac10s backed up by mlasers and SRMs) then a couple crawlers (max armor, jump jets and either 2 AC20s with either two SRMs or mlasers, or one AC20 then packed full of mlasers and as many SRMs as I can fit).

Honestly I think the balance could use some work overall. I want to like PPCs, but their heat usage is insane, and anything below an AC10 is just too heavy for how little damage it does later on, and Llasers just generate insane heat compared to mlasers, especially once you factor in that you can have 3 mlasers for every Llaser while Llasers only deal double of a Mlaser. On top of that, SRM4s are in a weirdly efficient place heatwise (2s are 3 heat per missile, 4s are 2 per, and 6s are 2.33 iirc) but overall SRMs are fantastic. It's not too huge, but it feels like late game is where a lot of build diversity dies compared to mid or early game where everything has it's use.

 Ouze wrote:
... I'm still stuck on that same mission. I got a Grasshopper, so now trying with a Grasshopper, a Trebuchet, a Shadowhawk, and a Centurion. Getting really, really mad at this point to be honest - if I back out and do a mission that is rated twice as hard, I can breeze through it, but this one stupid story mission just feels completely unwinnable to me.

I guess I am going to try watching some youtube videos and I guess grinding some more, maybe I can get an additional Grasshopper.

Which one? The one with ammo crates? I'd suggest going in with 4 heavies and no mediums, and play a mid range game forcing them close to you, and hopefully grouped up around an ammo crate or two for a couple easy kills.

That mission is one where you want heavies, no question. If recommend farming some. Just go on the hardest missions you can find.

If you have long load times, delete old saves. As for speeding up combat/turns,
https://www.reddit.com/r/Battletechgame/comments/8f6b3l/psa_how_to_really_speed_movement_up_not_from/

 Orlanth wrote:

Don't do allied headshots, your chances are 2%, consider headshots a lucky bonus for regular shooting.
To maximise headshots using multi targeting on pristine to spread the damage and mount heavy hitting weapons like PPC's and heavy autocannon. You wont get many headshots but you will from time to time get an early one which shifts odds greatly in your favour as well as providing quality salvage.

And there is no point seeking headshots unless you have enough salvage choices, even if you only have two choices you might get allocated the last piece anyway.

with the first rank of increased called shots, it's 5%. with mastery, it's 18%, not too bad honestly.

Headshots however have less risk if you want the incap, unless you're using missiles which only roll once to hit the head (and then only one missile will hit the head) per missile weapon fired.

The initiative skill only gets stronger the heavier the mech you get, that's for sure. That and bulwark are my go to skills for pilots. (Don't move to get remove stability damage and 50% DR rin a 270 degree radius? crazy good!)

I'm hoping it gives more to do along the lines of being merc company. You know, reasons to really gain rep with factions or something, picking a side between two warring factions and fighting for them or something.

Hunchbacks are pretty good, although I liked mine as a laser boat instead since MLs are REALLY good damage for the tonnage and heat, and the PPC is... underwhelming unless dedicated to it (like an atlas with triple PPC and every slot filled with heatsinks)

Everything outside of LRMs, SRMs, Gauss Rifle, and MLs are generally subpar. It doesn't mean you can't make it work, but the tonnage/heat gen generally aren't good. Support weapons overall are ok (MG is the worst, SL the best), but there are mods out there that have already been focused on the balance (mostly being closer to the table top)

 Ouze wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Ouze wrote:


I agree with Elbows that the difficulty curve is not very polished at all. I have 4 skull missions that are utter cakewalks and 2 skull missions that are super difficult. I'd really like to see that addressed in a patch; some of these missions really need to be adjusted - some up, some down.

The skull ratiings are intel estimates, sometimes they are inaccurate. This frankly is how it should be.

If accurate, I don't think I'd have a problem with that if the game made that more clear - that the skull estimates are based on best-guess intel. As you say, it would even add flavor. However like many things I've learned I don't believe the game supplies this information very well and without that information you have to assume it's bad game design.

The first mission after the opening tutorial mentions something about (the mission where you have to defend a base while killing some vehicles). It passes by really quick and it doesn't make much mention of it though.

They have a sensor lock, and other units can act as spotters

 Ouze wrote:
That artwork is neato. Real...... neato.

Are any of you guys using any mods? I'm more or less happy with the gameplay but have considered some sound mods. I'd love to get that proper PPC crackle and sizzle back.

There is also one that changes the maintenance from a flat fee per mech to one based on chassis type, which honestly makes sense - you would assume a rare assault costs more to maintain than a common light.

I'm using Battletech enhanced (which contains various other mods, but overall it adds a bunch of new equipment, i.e. small/large ammo bins, more heat sinks, more jump jets, a new armor type that reduces weight by a little (but takes up a slot), and adds SL tech to stores at pretty low chance (and only on SL worlds), along with a quick start mod to skip the intro for my second run. So far it seems nice, and I even got some really good luck with an AC20++ (stab/damage up) in the 3rd store I visited which is a godsend considering I'm still in the early stages (good bye lights or low armor mediums with a single called shot!)

 sebster wrote:

Kinda bummed the Raven isn't in the game. Shouldn't it be, timeline-wise? I sure could use an electronic warfare mech. It seems like it would be pretty easy to implement, too.

The Raven was a new design, built in 3048. I don't know how long this game goes in to the setting, but I'm guessing not that late? Anyhow, while the Raven was a new design the improved probes and counter measures the mech operated were recovered Star League tech. There's a period of about 200 years where the tech was lost to the Inner Sphere, but it wouldn't be that big of a deal to the setting if the player recovered an active probe or ECM some of this stuff. Especially not if you're getting some other lostech stuff.

iirc, Raven is coming post launch, only because they had trouble with the ECM stuff.

I dunno I mentioned the gauss rifle several times iirc. Never talked about ER lasers or pulse variants though.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to talk about them, so long as we avoid story spoilers. I mean it's been nearly an entire month, expecting to go totally spoiler free on even the most minor detail is a little silly.

 Formosa wrote:
I have bulwark on none of my pilots, ace pilot is my go to , the pilot tree is so good, that extra evasion and ability to move after shooting combined with the super OP fire starter mech, so far I am using 4 fire starters over my assaults etc. 2 med laser, 6 small laser and max armour/JJ

That’s 170 damage per alpha for very little heat.

On the downside they have very little armor, combined with facing enemies with high gunnery/melee it might be a bit dangerous, especially since a 170 alpha is really low.

Personally, 2tact 1gun/guts seems to be the way to go imo.

 Ouze wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
Generally wise, though it is generally wise to thin opponents and the spotters present themselves early. Sure they might have lots of evade chevrons, but a couple of PPC shots is a good as a Sensor lock, it removes one chevron and one limb. A good trade in practice.

I guess I never thought of it that way but you're right. I'm hesitant to unload heavy stuff on someone with a lot of chevrons - I'll give up a sensor lock instead. In reality a heavy attack is half a sensor lock but also, with damage. I will have to reconsider how I've been doing that.


Hey, campaign question.

Spoiler:

How long did it take before you guys were able to leave the starting.... sector or what have you? I just got a contract in Steiner space that I couldn't take because I didn't have enough rep. This made me realize that a really big percentage of the map is not accessible by me - travel restricted. I'm mostly just bouncing back and forth between the 8 or whatever planets that make up the Arano area. I'm also hated by the Capellans now.

So, messing with mods a bit, JK variants adds a lot of interesting mechs, like a commando that's a baby black knight/grasshopper (~3 MLs and ~6SLs) and is actually a pretty scary force to be reckoned with even against heavies. Or notables so far are a panther variant with a LL-, and upon finishing building it the quip about it is something along the lines of "first chance I get, I'm ripping that piece of gak laser out"

Overall it adds a lot of new variants that actually make some mechs worth using or a bigger challenge to face (I.e. the treb that's loaded up with SRMs)

beast_gts wrote:
I've got a difficult decision to make. I got a complete Banshee as salvage for a Pirate mission, but:

Spoiler:

my Highlander lost it's Gauss Rifle :-( So do I reload and keep the Gauss Rifle, or continue with the Banshee?

IMO, reload for the gauss rifle, without mods it's gone forever and is a great weapon for it's heat/weight.

I recently replayed it and it was quite easy. I initially moved a couple mechs in the direction of the ammo trucks (got both of them), limited LoS to my own units and picked them apart one by one, while saving the an ammo crate to soften up the dragon (which I assume is the only real scripted spawn as I've never seen it spawn as anything else), and took an opportune shot on another crate when a couple of mechs wandered too close to a crate.

Basically, I hung out where the game starts you off, finished it with a Black Knight, start Centurion (modded to have a total of 20 LRMs/2MLs), Jaeger mech (turn into an LRM boat w/ 3 extra MLs), and a laser boat hunchback.

 sebster wrote:

 Wolfblade wrote:
while saving the an ammo crate to soften up the dragon (which I assume is the only real scripted spawn as I've never seen it spawn as anything else)

I faced a Thunderbolt as the enemy heavy.

Hm, personally I think that'd make it easier so long as you take out anything that spots you.

 Ouze wrote:

 -Loki- wrote:
That same battle got me a Kintaro, so I can't be too mad.

I found the Kintaro to be a really good mech. It's like the Trebuchet, but way better. I think I used it for lurms originally and then changed it to tons of SRMs later but it was good at both.

 Chillreaper wrote:
After having lost all of my original starting mechwarriors first time around, I'm being far more precious about them, to the point of having them punch out when things get shot up.

It's gotten to the point that I don't want to equip cockpit stuff so I can retain that option. Repairing the head is cheap and I'd prefer that then trying to hide a limping, smoking deep orange mech for the remainder of a tension-filled mission.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

OK, I just got offered the last mission with a warning that

Spoiler:

I can field more than one lance.

Oops, I only really keep about 6 mechs and pilots on hand. In a few turns I've ramped up to 8 pilots and mechs. Without any mission or story spoilers, should I be aiming for more than 2 full lances

?