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Hardpoint layouts are still basically the only differentiator between mechs of the same weight, and it's good to have some sort of differentiator instead of all your 55-tonners being literally interchangable. It definitely is weird, though, that the biggest determinant of whether something can be a good punchy mech is how many S Lasers it had on the stock fit.
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Dec 5, 2018 17:30
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It's gonna be so weird when the charger comes out and it's pretty decent.
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Dec 5, 2018 17:43
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raverrn posted:It's gonna be so weird when the charger comes out and it's pretty decent. It'll still have only 10 tons of armor and no room for jump jets.
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Dec 5, 2018 17:55
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Eldragon posted:HBS made the Hatchetman bad because they wanted to give the finger to all the fans begging for them to add it.
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Dec 5, 2018 18:21
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I bought some mech parts and am now the proud owner of a BJ-1 
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Dec 5, 2018 18:45
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I bet a 2x Lg. Las blackjack would actually be pretty decent nowadays.
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Dec 5, 2018 18:58
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that's a BJ-1DB, and it is in fact dece
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Dec 5, 2018 19:08
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Goddammit, you're all making me want to buy this game. 
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Dec 5, 2018 19:46
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Radio Free Kobold posted:I bet a 2x Lg. Las blackjack would actually be pretty decent nowadays. Undergunned. You can add 2 mlas but then have to make the choice on whether to run hot, drop jump jets, or drop armor. Dual AC5 or AC5+PPC is a more interesting loadout since at the cost of accuracy does pure sniping and adds more damage and also stab. damage into the mix, but it's still rather dubious. It's just an awkward chassis; Vindicator is much better.
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Dec 5, 2018 19:54
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MY ANCESTRAL FAMILY MECH is a piece of poo poo and I hate it
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Dec 5, 2018 20:01
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lmao Morgan Kell is a scrub on his one mission 9/7/6/5 means you'd be on my B-team, and that 2-PPC/LRM15 Orion is not great my dude On the other hand, his lancemate was named Rox and when I started the mission Glitch went "Hey look ... ROCKS" because we were on a lunar biome
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Dec 5, 2018 20:04
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sean10mm posted:Goddammit, you're all making me want to buy this game. You should, it's good.
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Dec 5, 2018 20:15
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Comstar posted:How? Socialised Health Care for all? Don't they have a tiny area of space compared to everyone else in the Inner Sphere? They finally got a decent leader in the 90s, replacing their run of frothing crazies. This trend continues through to today, but I'm fine with that because it's pretty much monarchy.txt: you win some, you lose some. More importantly, in the 90s they basically were said to be able to walk all over the Federated Commonwealth megastate and take back a bunch of their lost territory. Fans pointed out that this didn't seem likely, even with Marik help and the collapse of the FedCom. I always pitied the guys who were given the job of writing the sourcebook that was going to explain, militarily, how that operation was supposed to work, because there was going to have to be some major fiat cannons deployed, but perhaps for the best that book was shelved. They get St. Ives back in what to me felt to be a somewhat silly plotline. They get two major Periphery states under their thumb for a long while. One of them sticks around via a marriage alliance, which secures a Capellan border and adds more forces for them to use. Fast forward to the Dark Age, where they continued to build their military in secret during an age of quasi-peace and disarmament, so that when everything went south they had strong forces and a strong leader willing to use them. Couple this with the Republic walling themselves off, the Free Worlds League being written out of existence and the Suns being run by their own psycho (who then proceeded to lose most of their miltiary in a Snow Raven attack), and you have no neighbours able to stop them. The Lyrans are getting clowned on by the Wolves and Falcons and Marik and Civil Wars, and the Dracs are busy throwing everything they have at the Suns (which also helps the Capellans by dividing the attention of the remaining Suns forces). So even though their state still looks small, their military is the strongest, they have no strong external enemies, and they have a strong leader. Their current position is much less hamfisted than their earlier one from a writing perspective, but there's definitely a portion of the fanbase that's tired now of "The Capellans rising, year 20".
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Dec 5, 2018 20:19
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Xotl posted:So even though their state still looks small, their military is the strongest, they have no strong external enemies, and they have a strong leader. Their current position is much less hamfisted than their earlier one from a writing perspective, but there's definitely a portion of the fanbase that's tired now of "The Capellans rising, year 20". to give non-fans an idea, the capellan-resurgent storyline for at least 15 years of real-world time, broken only by a year-ish spent exploring the super boring early succession war period (the 29th and 30th centuries, mostly) and its nuclear wars. by contrast, the clans were introduced for the first time 29-ish years ago, in late 1989/early 1990.
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Dec 5, 2018 20:40
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Didn't they establish a dynastic union with the Magistracy of Canopus?
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Dec 5, 2018 20:54
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If I got Battletech super cheap but never got round to playing too much of it and am looking to reinstall it while on my Christmas holidays should I buy Flashpoint for my initial playthrough or just leave it? Like I said I got it cheap so getting Flashpoint will basically just put the price of the game up to what it would have cost to buy at the normal price. Just wondering if it's one of those "you may as well just get it asap cause it'll make the game better" kind of expansions?
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Dec 5, 2018 21:08
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I'd just go through the campaign first then if you want more buy it. Career mode is free roam more or less and Flashpoints mostly happen around mid to late game or post-campaign anyway.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:10
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thebardyspoon posted:If I got Battletech super cheap but never got round to playing too much of it and am looking to reinstall it while on my Christmas holidays should I buy Flashpoint for my initial playthrough or just leave it? Like I said I got it cheap so getting Flashpoint will basically just put the price of the game up to what it would have cost to buy at the normal price. Just wondering if it's one of those "you may as well just get it asap cause it'll make the game better" kind of expansions? The biggest changes the expansion adds are the titular flashpoints (which only come into play after the campaign) and the career mode (which is great but also doesnt interact with the campaign). It adds a few new mechs, a new mission type, and a new map biome, but nothing essential for a first time player.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:12
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Piell posted:The biggest changes the expansion adds are the titular flashpoints (which only come into play after the campaign) and the career mode (which is great but also doesnt interact with the campaign). It adds a few new mechs, a new mission type, and a new map biome, but nothing essential for a first time player. Career mode was basically the 1.3 patch for the base game. It free and included in the base. Flashpoint expansion has the new mechs and the flashpoint missions.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:16
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Piell posted:The biggest changes the expansion adds are the titular flashpoints (which only come into play after the campaign) and the career mode (which is great but also doesnt interact with the campaign). It adds a few new mechs, a new mission type, and a new map biome, but nothing essential for a first time player. Ah Ok, I thought the Flashpoints might be sprinkled throughout or something. Cool, will just wait until I'm near the end of the campaign to decide. It might be in the ol Christmas sale as well I guess.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:22
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thebardyspoon posted:Ah Ok, I thought the Flashpoints might be sprinkled throughout or something. Cool, will just wait until I'm near the end of the campaign to decide. It might be in the ol Christmas sale as well I guess. Just be sure to save some of your medium mechs, because by the end of the campaign you won't be able to get any anymore and some flashpoints have tonnage restrictions.
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Dec 5, 2018 21:45
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Jabor posted:Hardpoint layouts are still basically the only differentiator between mechs of the same weight, and it's good to have some sort of differentiator instead of all your 55-tonners being literally interchangable. They have enough mechs now that they should start introducing hardpoint size limits to further differentiate mechs.
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Dec 5, 2018 22:35
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Is there a limit to how many mechs you can have in storage?
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Dec 5, 2018 22:42
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Gobblecoque posted:I remember that campaign mission, but none of my pilots have multi-target and I'm definitely not gonna train up more just for one mission. That sounds miserable anyway, between at least one multi-target bitch and the stock hatchetman you're saddled with that leaves you with only 2 actually good active fighters and 2 mechs would take quite a while to cut through all those enemies. I assume the FP's main reward is probably a hatchetman which I already have so it's really probably not worth the bother. Lancers (which will have multi target) are still the best, IMO for fire support and totally worth training. That said, like an idiot, I forgot to take my one multi-target pilot for this mission. I was still able to pull it off even though I lost 3 or 4 buildings. I had a HBK-P, TDR, and ENF. ENF was fire support, TDR was mixed/mostly close, and the HBK-P was exactly what you'd expect with a coolant flush pilot. HCT (pilot has bulwark) went in the lead and stayed in the forest where the first lance shows up. HBK and TDR go in close and ENF holds back. Jenner was killed fast, and I was able to triple team the side of the CN9 to kill it fast. HCT then tied down the JM6 and tanked fire from the second lance. HBK and TDR went to work on second lance, and ENF kept switching targets to keep them off buildings. When the third lance showed up, the ENF jumped off to tie them down. HCT died, other mechs were mostly intact, and opfor had like one tank and 2-3 mechs left before the turn limit ran out. It might be possible to keep all the buildings alive with one very fast jumper (to spot targets before they take shots at buildings), a heavy multi-target LRM boat, and a heavy infighter (HBK-P or TDR-SS built like a HBK-P).
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Dec 5, 2018 22:44
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I R SMART LIKE ROCK posted:Hmm, in terms of engineering projects. I went Repaired Power Conduits -> Training Module 1 -> Structural Repair -> Drive Repairs -> Automation -> Beta Pod -> Training Module 2 -> one of the + Mech Tech Points Training module 2, this early in the game, is very nice. However, I'm not sure it (and the upgrades it requires) are worth it. The main things limiting your progression are mechs, not pilots. Power conduits -> Training Module 1, and whatever tech point boosters you can get off the bat are probably worth it given their low price. In hindsight, I would have dumped all of my other cash into mech parts. My first tipping point was when I got my first new medium: a WVR-K (bought parts + assassination mission salvage). With 1000 armor and a mass of MLs and SRMs and its strong melee stat, it really boosts the missions you can take. I went from maybe being able to do 1.5 stars to being able to easily do 2 stars. This really opened up me up for more medium salvage. The next tipping point was a month where I salvaged a complete ENF from an assassination mission, a HBK-P from two missions, and a GRF-S from salvage and bought parts. 2.5 stars was easy at this point, and things just started snowballing.
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Dec 5, 2018 22:53
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Organ Fiend posted:They have enough mechs now that they should start introducing hardpoint size limits to further differentiate mechs. Mechwarrior 4 had the best MechLab design for weapon hardpoints (other than making customization incredibly difficult, which is unfortunately probably not an option if you want the game to sell) and it even managed to give a reason for OmniMechs being better with the wildcard hardpoints. It could have used a few tweaks but the combination of size and type limitations worked well for giving options without allowing total role changes.
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Dec 5, 2018 22:56
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blackmongoose posted:Mechwarrior 4 had the best MechLab design for weapon hardpoints (other than making customization incredibly difficult, which is unfortunately probably not an option if you want the game to sell) and it even managed to give a reason for OmniMechs being better with the wildcard hardpoints. It could have used a few tweaks but the combination of size and type limitations worked well for giving options without allowing total role changes. Yup. Best of any in the MW/BT games so far. Also loving lol look at the lore text for the Big Steel Claw.  Honestly I'm pretty entertained that their lorum ipsum has a brief history of lorum ipsum.
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Dec 5, 2018 22:58
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The mektek mod made it alot better creating direct fire for energy/ballistic but no missiles and another 1 or 2 combo bays that werent full omni. Edit: the problem with mw4' s system is that ammo, heat sinks, jumpjets, ewar, ams, and other equipment take up no space in the mech and cant be damaged or destroyed in combat Stravag fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Dec 5, 2018 |
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Dec 5, 2018 23:26
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Cyrano4747 posted:Yup. Best of any in the MW/BT games so far. Not the only issue with that thing, I put mine in storage and now I can't take it out again. It gets removed from storage when trying to reactivate it, but doesn't show up in the queue or a hangar bay - good thing I'm not doing iron man. So leave it out if you ever plan to use it.
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Dec 5, 2018 23:27
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Organ Fiend posted:Training module 2, this early in the game, is very nice. However, I'm not sure it (and the upgrades it requires) are worth it. The main things limiting your progression are mechs, not pilots. Power conduits -> Training Module 1, and whatever tech point boosters you can get off the bat are probably worth it given their low price. In hindsight, I would have dumped all of my other cash into mech parts. Yeah like I said upstream, it had never occurred to me that it'd be faster to stock up on cash and buy mechs outright instead of purchasing salvage in shops. I was focusing on getting upgrades that either gave me a bonus for time passing or reduce the amount of time passing between contracts. I've been trying to line up retrofits between planets and playing conservatively This is my first attempt at these settings so there's definitely optimizations that could be made for next time
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Dec 5, 2018 23:41
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Organ Fiend posted:My first tipping point was when I got my first new medium: a WVR-K (bought parts + assassination mission salvage). With 1000 armor and a mass of MLs and SRMs and its strong melee stat, it really boosts the missions you can take. I went from maybe being able to do 1.5 stars to being able to easily do 2 stars. This really opened up me up for more medium salvage. The next tipping point was a month where I salvaged a complete ENF from an assassination mission, a HBK-P from two missions, and a GRF-S from salvage and bought parts. 2.5 stars was easy at this point, and things just started snowballing. IMO there are four main tipping points when the power of your lance increases dramatically: 1. When you get your first Centurion, Hunchback, Enforcer, Griffin, or Wolverine or second Shadow Hawk. good firepower upgrade from the 45-tonners and puts a lot more armor on the field 2. When you get your first legit heavy -- Orion, Grasshopper, or Black Knight. Serious firepower upgrade (Orion in particular). Can also include Jagermech or Thunderbolt in here since the one lets you credibly mount two AC/5s and MLS and the other is just a big slab of armor that can draw a lot of aggro. 3. When you get the spoilermech. suddenly you have a long-range headcapper mounted on a max-armor jumper which will never die if you play it right 4. When you get your first legit assault -- Atlas, Highlander, or King Crab, possibly a Stalker or Cyclops. Now you've got the potential to do things like stack AC/20s or shitloads of SRMS/LRMs and a good called shot can let you one-shot heavies and some assaults. Pattonesque fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Dec 5, 2018 |
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Dec 5, 2018 23:50
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I R SMART LIKE ROCK posted:that's a BJ-1DB, and it is in fact dece Well, there's no such thing as a bad BJ.
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Dec 5, 2018 23:52
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Organ Fiend posted:Lancers (which will have multi target) are still the best, IMO for fire support and totally worth training. That said, like an idiot, I forgot to take my one multi-target pilot for this mission. I was still able to pull it off even though I lost 3 or 4 buildings. Eh, multi-target feels like a really tough sell over bulwark and master tactician. But y'know, I'm beginning to think the mission might just be bugged. The third lance appears at the same time as the second and with no announcement which is very unlike the game. In addition, there's another flashpoint for the Capellans of higher difficulty rating which ends with a base defense mission that only has two enemy lances (and again, you don't have to drag a stock hatchetman with you) and while difficult, it's plenty doable. I feel like either that third lance is not supposed to be there or it's meant to arrive a bit later, either of which would make the mission actually reasonable.
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Dec 5, 2018 23:53
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Jedit posted:Well, there's no such thing as a bad BJ.  that's a wrap folks close the thread
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Dec 5, 2018 23:56
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How come they didn't put in an AI option to eject, or surrender? I've been in a bunch of fights where it's down to one enemy mech that's weaponless just charging me to die. I know that it's something that could happen. It just seems pretty unlikely that every enemy will fight to the death every time.
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Dec 6, 2018 00:09
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Just ending base destruction missions (and a couple other types) when the opfor is defeated would be a great qol improvement.
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Dec 6, 2018 00:16
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spacetoaster posted:How come they didn't put in an AI option to eject, or surrender? I thought about this too and i bet it's so it doesn't break the salvage economy one way or the other. If you got full salvage from enemies punching out, then the amount of salvage increases drastically. If you make it so ejecting only gives one salvage, it makes legging/headshotting mechs carefully an exercise in futility.
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Dec 6, 2018 00:28
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Jedit posted:Well, there's no such thing as a bad BJ. I had to really try hard not to make a BJ comment, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's mind immediately went there! For anyone wondering about the Griffon 4N you can get from the flashpoint:  That's how you get it, didn't change anything yet. It has 33 tons free space on it! deathbagel fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Dec 6, 2018 |
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Dec 6, 2018 01:05
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Comstar posted:How? Socialised Health Care for all? Don't they have a tiny area of space compared to everyone else in the Inner Sphere? Well they have the most densely populated area of space, both in manpower and production facilities. On top of that, during basically every plotline after the Clan Invasion, they started getting competent. Or less incompetent than their neighbors, which is enough. Through the Jihad the Capellans married into the Canopian line, basically taking it over, and they poached Andurien after the FWL's collapse. They trusted the WoB the least and were therefore the most ready and able to resist them alone, without the help of Stone's Coalition when the betrayal happened. During the chaos of the Jihad they won back most of what they lost in the 4SW and then proceeded to keep going. And afterwards, when the Republic of the Sphere was established, negotiated for territory, and organized a general draw down of military resources across the IS, the Capellans response was "lol" The Republic Era was generally one of smaller conflicts since nobody really took any chances at a big play while the RotS was around, but a lot of those smaller conflicts were basically the Capellans and Republic basically field testing their units against each other. When the HPG Blackout kicked off the Dark Age the Capellans overran a bunch of Republic worlds very quickly. And when Caleb Davion launched his doomed invasion of the DC the Capellans saw a woefully underprotected FS, shrugged, and then proceeded to bowl the Davions over like a wrecking ball.
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Dec 6, 2018 01:40
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Alright, this should finally be my last post about the Joint Venture flashpoint, I'm sure you're all tired of my all bitching on the subject.  I managed to complete the base defense, and this time it was waaay easier than my previous attempts. It wasn't due to me changing my strategy or bringing different pilots/mechs. Instead, in the briefing before the escort mission where the employer gives you the option to engage the known force or wait and see what unknown odds give you, I chose the second option this time. It changes the escort mission slightly in that the first enemy lance is heavier but you fight them before the convoy arrives so it's actually easier all things considered. The enemy composition at the base defense, however, is very different. In my case now, the first lance had 3 instead of 4 mechs, the second lance that arrives by dropship atop the mountain doesn't even happen, and the third lance was mostly vehicles. Night and day difficulty change where before it looked impossible but now I didn't even lose one building. So yeah, if you have any trouble with that flashpoint take the second option at the briefing.
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Dec 6, 2018 02:05
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