Battletech is back!!!

Started by Shelldrake, May 12, 2017, 06:20:53 AM

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Pete Dero

Got this in the mail from Green Man Gaming: 

You can get a massive 33% discount on these five top titles of 2018, and grab them for utterly mad prices:

    Frostpunk - 20,09€
    Battletech - 26,79€
    Slay The Spire - 10,71€
    Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - 30,81€
    Conan: Exiles 26,79€

But better hurry up - the voucher's only valid until the 25th of May!*


Use BEST33

https://www.greenmangaming.com/
 

sandman2575

Quote from: mikeck on May 18, 2018, 09:23:15 AM
Silliness.
Why the hell would I spend the time, money and effort building and maintaining a mech when I can carry more firepower in a vehicle. Seems like a cheap way to make a scenario harder or an unimaginative way of making vehicles relevant late game.

I know what you're saying but the game does provide a kind of answer to this -- which is that vehicles can really only survive as support weapons. A 'lance' of 4 vehicles, even of the fearsome 80T variety, can't really stand up to a lance of 4 Heavy Mechs with good mobility and good pilots. They're too easy to outmaneuver / flank / close-&-stomp on, or pick off at distance with PPCs/AC10s/Gausses.

But, a lance of 4 heavy vehicles supporting a lance of 4 enemy Mechs -- that's a lot more worrying situation to face.

sandman2575

So, having played BT for probably more hours than is good for me, it's starting to feel like the difficulty of battles all comes down to one thing:  Not really the RNG that determines what types of mechs you face, but the amount of armor they have.

The hardest battles, I find, are the ones where you face a full enemy lance supported by another lance of "reinforcements," which tend not to arrive as reinforcements but all at once, so it's easy to find yourself outnumbered 2:1.

When both those enemy lances are fully armored, even if they're not especially powerful Mechs (Heavies/Mediums and even some Lights thrown in):  you could be in for the fight of your life.

When one or both of those lances is badly armored -- even if all Heavy Mechs or worse:  fight's pretty easy.

Toughest fight I've had so far was a 4-Skull mission -- thankfully on an Arctic world with good covering terrain or it would've been impossible. Anyway, I immediately encountered the "reinforcement" lance of fully armored Grasshopper, Thunderbolt, and 2 Jagermechs (one of which was the super annoying 4-Hardpoint missile-carrying version). Was fending them off pretty successfully, when the fully armored 'main' lance shows up on my flank, in order of least to most worrying:  Shadowhawk, Dragon, Banshee, Highlander. I've never had a 'freelance' (i.e. not scripted campaign) mission where I faced off against 2 Assault mechs. It was pretty rough. But I managed to win through without losing any of my Mechwarriors.

But again, it so often seems to come down to the one thing above all:  are these guys fully armored or not?


Millipede

Found a good article over at Strategy Gamer that deals with the economics of maintaining your Lance and avoiding bankruptcy. https://www.strategygamer.com/articles/battletech-guide-campaign-management/

mikeck

Ok, is there any reason I should go exploring and visiting other planets since it costs $30k to do so? So far I do the storyline mission and then a few of the side missions the planet offers. Then off to the next storyline.
Any reason to pick particular stars and investigate? Doesn't seem to be
"A government large enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson

Jarhead0331

#725
Quote from: mikeck on May 21, 2018, 03:05:16 PM
Ok, is there any reason I should go exploring and visiting other planets since it costs $30k to do so? So far I do the storyline mission and then a few of the side missions the planet offers. Then off to the next storyline.
Any reason to pick particular stars and investigate? Doesn't seem to be

i asked the same question awhile back in this thread. The short answer is yes. Various systems contain different items of weaponry and gear in their shops and you will get offered new missions everytime you enter a new system. When the available missions start to get too difficult in one system, I tend to travel to a new one. You can see the average difficulty of the contracts in a system by clicking on it in the navigation map. You can also see other factors, such as the level of industry, technology, etc., whether there is Star League influence, black market, etc. These factors seem to give some insight into how valuable items in the local store might be.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Silent Disapproval Robot

Finally got the third bit of salvage I needed to get my King Crab.  Another tough random mission. My lance against the. Fab, a lance of 4 Quickdraws, another lance of 2 Quickdraws, a Cataphract, and a Demolisher  tank, and security forces of 2 Demolisher tanks and a Locust.  Had to restart the mission because I got slaughtered the first time but I was able to pull it off on the 2nd attempt with minor damage and only one injury tick against one pilot from a head hit.

The King Crab.  100T, slow as hell and not a lot of hard points.  Feels like a bigger version of the Dragon.  I'm a little disappointed. Going to try to get a Black Knight or an Awesome instead.


Jarhead0331

OMG! Behemoth took a PPC+ to the face instantly destroying the head of her Thunderbolt5S. It was a three skull mission and we were kicking so much ass. It was extremely one-sided due largely to geography and some lucky hits. After nearly 1,000 days of campaigning with my company, The Black Watch, we lay Behemoth to rest. She is only the second mechwarrior I have lost in combat.

May God have mercy on her soul.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


sandman2575

The head-shot instakill is a real bummer...when it happens to you. I have to confess, the other night, when a Demolisher one-shot head sniped my 10-10-10-10 ace scout Medusa, I quit w/o saving. Don't feel good about it. But I really didn't want to lose him!

Black Watch is a great co. name, btw. My avatar is Python. Our company is Python's Flying Circus. He pilots a Black Knight, which is also our logo. Yes, I deem myself very clever for coming up with that.

@SDR -- I initially found the King Crab disappointing too, because I figured I had to load it up with AC20s. But I'm convinced pure tanking does not work in this game, when you're usually facing 2:1 odds, you need to be as mobile as possible. I just can't survive without jumpjets on all my Mechs. Anyway, loaded up the KC instead with 4 ML+++, 2 LRM 15++ and 2 SRM 6+++, and nearly full armor and JJs. Has pretty terrible heat efficiency, but my idea was that it begins a fight by launching salvos of 30 LRMs, and then when it closes with the enemy, uses its MLs and SRMs, so usually never Alpha Striking because the heat cost is so high. Seems to be working out for me so far.

joram

My main guy got headshotted in one of the early story missions.  I thought it was game over!  But I guess he can't die but he was laid up for more than three months.   While otherwise have had a few near death experiences, haven't lost any member yet. My stable is getting strong enough that if it were to happen it would be sad but not a disaster.

SirAndrewD

Just FYI.  The beta for 1.0.4 is up on Steam now.  It corrects the "Financial report time stop" bug that has crippled the game for a lot of people since the 1.0.3 beta went live. 

Things are now working for me again.   It'll be nice to end my forced break from the game tonight.
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback

mikeck

I'm starting to get reeeeely frustrated with some of these missions. Seems like I go first, move my mech and detect sensor contacts. Next, every single enemy mech gets to go and shoot at my mech. Dead. I can't seem to get the "reserve" and then sensor lock thing down. I reserve a unit, enemies go and bust it up. I sensor lock, then the rest of the enemy blows it up. Lol. I know it's ME but still frustrating. It's ALWAYS "Glitch" getting beat on...with her constant whinging

Now I know that's perception...but the reality part is that I just had 2 pilots injured in 2 successive turns by a locust firing machine guns. One mech was a Vindicator and the other a Trebuchet. Neither had been hit yet. So I'm to understand that with all this armor on a giant metal beast, some guys .50cal is going to punch right through?  I dunno. Seems like I'm constantly getting hit in the head. Meanwhile I can't hit the enemy in the head but once a match
"A government large enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson

mikeck

I should say that I love this game but any turn based game frustrates me to no end...sitting there watching my guys get pounded and pleading for it to be my turn

On a less bitchy note, is there a way to turn off the combat walking animations? It's cool when it's 4 v 4 but I'm on a story mission and there are about 7 enemies. Gets old
"A government large enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson

DennisS

Quote from: mikeck on May 22, 2018, 06:55:53 PM
I'm starting to get reeeeely frustrated with some of these missions. Seems like I go first, move my mech and detect sensor contacts. Next, every single enemy mech gets to go and shoot at my mech. Dead. I can't seem to get the "reserve" and then sensor lock thing down. I reserve a unit, enemies go and bust it up. I sensor lock, then the rest of the enemy blows it up. Lol. I know it's ME but still frustrating. It's ALWAYS "Glitch" getting beat on...with her constant whinging

Now I know that's perception...but the reality part is that I just had 2 pilots injured in 2 successive turns by a locust firing machine guns. One mech was a Vindicator and the other a Trebuchet. Neither had been hit yet. So I'm to understand that with all this armor on a giant metal beast, some guys .50cal is going to punch right through?  I dunno. Seems like I'm constantly getting hit in the head. Meanwhile I can't hit the enemy in the head but once a match

Until I get a sense of what I am up against, I reserve my actions. Getting two consecutive actions is terrific..one to move into range, get a sensor lock, and then unload. Crippling the first mech in the battle, the one out front, helps with battlefield management tremendously. Often, I can kill the first one, and get a headstart on the second while only taking minimal damage.

sandman2575

Anyone attempt/complete the final mission?  Very minor spoiler - you're told you need to be able to field 2 full lances of Mechs. I assume this means you need 8 pilots in addition to 8 Mechs -- can anyone confirm?  I only have 6 pilots in my roster, so was really not prepared for this.