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Jack B Nimble posted:I thought that might happen, I tried to imagine an atlas flipping back and forth like a contra character and couldn't; I'm guessing the piloting skill turning one evasion a turn into two will become a lot more useful then. Honestly I'm really looking forward to having some diversity in my front line options instead of three mechs playing musical chairs with tree stands while a third stands back at long range. The game wants you to move around because standing in a line and shooting until one side dies like it's the Napoleonic Wars is dumb and boring. Moving is usually going to be better than not moving, because you get some bonus evasion (even assault mechs getting one or two evasion pips with their slowass movement can make a difference) and can finagle your weapon ranges to be more optimal or hit a better arc on your opponents or whatever. Sometimes there are cases where you don't want to move, like if you can only see the enemy from the spot where you're already standing or if you're already in cover and can't reach any other cover from your current position, but generally speaking the game wants you to be constantly shifting positions to stop the fight from getting dull.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:26
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Bulwark used to be a skill that benefitted standing still prior to its current incarnation. Now, it buffs your defense if you're in any sort of cover. TBH, your defensive options are basically either having thick enough armor and cover to tank your opponents or have enough evasion pips to minimize the shots that can hit you. Evasion is a huge part in evening the odds against the greater numbers you face in any mission, so if you're not big on jumping, you you need to have Mechs that can generate at least 3 evasion pips just by moving and shooting, or have one of those expensive-as-hell gyros that maximizes hit defence.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:28
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Jack B Nimble posted:I thought that might happen, I tried to imagine an atlas flipping back and forth like a contra character and couldn't; I'm guessing the piloting skill turning one evasion a turn into two will become a lot more useful then. Honestly I'm really looking forward to having some diversity in my front line options instead of three mechs playing musical chairs with tree stands while a third stands back at long range. 
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Jun 7, 2021 14:28
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Ok, so I'm not failing to appreciate three equal movement options, great, thank you. Another question: PPCs? I think they're 50 damage vs a L Lasers 40, but double the heat, more tonage, no innate accuracy bonus, and a minimum range? I want to love them because they're my favorite mechwarrior weapon but they're a hard sell in medium Mechs. I'm hoping they make more sense in heavier mechs because dual PPCs is iconic Mechwarrior kit.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:31
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Vanilla PPCs just suck poo poo, sorry. The good news is there are a bajillion mods that tune them up to be on the level of all the other weapons.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:33
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Jack B Nimble posted:Ok, so I'm not failing to appreciate three equal movement options, great, thank you. PPC suck in vanilla on all mechs sadly. They generate too much heat. It's easy to mod the heat down to like 28 but unmodded only snub PPCs from the Heavy Metal DLC are good. I posted a link earlier that includes a PPC heat fix IIRC.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:36
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Jack B Nimble posted:Ok, so I'm not failing to appreciate three equal movement options, great, thank you.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:36
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Jabor posted:Vanilla PPCs just suck poo poo, sorry. The good news is there are a bajillion mods that tune them up to be on the level of all the other weapons. Ugh can I mod an in progress playthrough? Edit: sounds like it.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:36
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Jack B Nimble posted:Ugh can I mod an in progress playthrough?
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Jun 7, 2021 14:36
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Just find .json files with PPC in the name and use notepad to change heat from 35 to like 28 on the regular ones and 45 to 35 or even 32 for ER PPCs.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:38
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Jack B Nimble posted:Ugh can I mod an in progress playthrough? I posted a while back on how to make simple mods with .json edits. Its really easy. Organ Fiend posted:Its fairly simple to create mods that just change weapon stats. I'll use PPCs as an example.
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Jun 7, 2021 14:57
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Glad to see that this thread is still giving newbies good advice. I would have completely given up on the game years ago, but these chaps set me straight 
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Jun 7, 2021 17:28
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I just finished the campaign which was fun. Am I now in career mode and flashpoints will begin to pop up?
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Jun 7, 2021 18:34
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A Strange Aeon posted:I just finished the campaign which was fun. Am I now in career mode and flashpoints will begin to pop up? Yes they should appear pretty quickly once you advance the time.
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Jun 7, 2021 18:38
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Jack B Nimble posted:Another question: PPCs? I think they're 50 damage vs a L Lasers 40, but double the heat, more tonage, no innate accuracy bonus, and a minimum range? I want to love them because they're my favorite mechwarrior weapon but they're a hard sell in medium Mechs. I'm hoping they make more sense in heavier mechs because dual PPCs is iconic Mechwarrior kit. Snub PPCs are better in almost every single way, the only downside is that they spray damage like a shotgun instead of a single hit. Especially if you can find some of the ++ damage Snub PPCs, since they pump out 125 damage for only 35 heat.
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Jun 7, 2021 19:48
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A Strange Aeon posted:I just finished the campaign which was fun. Am I now in career mode and flashpoints will begin to pop up?
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Jun 7, 2021 21:13
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Zephro posted:Yes. Though note that, thanks to the campaign missions, you'll almost certainly have tanked your rep with the Taurians to -100. It's either very very hard or actually impossible, I forget which, to get it back up again. It's not the biggest deal but it does mean you're probably best off looking elsewhere on the map for missions. Yeah, I noticed they loathed me now. The tooltip says missions pay minus 90% and their stores won't sell to me, so theoretically it seems like I could eat poo poo for several missions to raise my reputation with them, but I guess my question is would that be worth doing? Do the Taurian have a unique flashpoint I'll miss out on if I don't?
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Jun 7, 2021 21:19
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A Strange Aeon posted:Yeah, I noticed they loathed me now. The tooltip says missions pay minus 90% and their stores won't sell to me, so theoretically it seems like I could eat poo poo for several missions to raise my reputation with them, but I guess my question is would that be worth doing? Do the Taurian have a unique flashpoint I'll miss out on if I don't? edit: to answer your question, no, I don't think there are any Taurian flashpoints Zephro fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 21:23
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A Strange Aeon posted:Yeah, I noticed they loathed me now. The tooltip says missions pay minus 90% and their stores won't sell to me, so theoretically it seems like I could eat poo poo for several missions to raise my reputation with them, but I guess my question is would that be worth doing? Do the Taurian have a unique flashpoint I'll miss out on if I don't? Nope, only the great houses give an alliance flashpoint, you can safely not give a poo poo about the Taurians
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Jun 7, 2021 21:30
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I don't think it's worth it anyway. I've never seen a Taurian flashpoint, they don't get along with anybody so allying with them is a bad idea, they make a good punching bag for Magistracy and FedSuns missions, and I don't think they have anything good in their faction store anyway. Just embrace the -100 rep and keep clowning on them forever.
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Jun 7, 2021 21:31
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Seeing horror stories of 4 skull missions and here I am trying to wait on 2 skull missions until I can get my first 80 ton plus mech purchased and going lol I am dropping in to my missions with: Wolverine (built with multiple SRM's and a Flamer + with maxed Armour. Jumping into back arcs My idea was a bigger Firestarter basically) Centurion Quickdraw(don't love this mech) Phoenix Hawk/Vindicator I am finally finding some PPC variations and AC/SRM/LRM + finally in stores I REALLY like the PPC so I'm working towards getting a Awesome and a Marauder purchased. Got my main merc, my guy, up to 9 in Tactics. I just wanna head shot Mechs  Missions are getting to the point where I take on 2 lances at a time over the length of a mission. Typically one is a bunch of light mechs and one in the 45-60 ton range
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Jun 7, 2021 22:09
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I sort of wish I'd had worse luck in getting big mech parts early because I have my team now and don't really see any reason I'd drop in with anything else unless I got absolutely wrecked and was forced to, but it's hard to see how that would happen, assuming the high skull missions I did throughout the campaign alongside the priority missions were the same as they'll be in career mode. Long way of saying, I see why people move on from vanilla. And I dunno, going for headshots all the time feels cheesy but it's so effective, it's hard to not do it. I liked looking at an enemy's load out and deciding what arm to try to target to knock out a fearsome weapon before my pilots were any good, whereas now it's almost always called head shot every time.
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Jun 7, 2021 23:32
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i want to play more BTA because i really like the extended mechlab it has, but the new crash bug is a real turnoff. i wish there was also a reason to ever use chemical lasers or rifles or any of the other primitive tech.
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Jun 7, 2021 23:42
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Fwiw I've had no issues at all as long as I don't melee, but... that's my favorite kind of mech :x My poor berserker just sits on the Argo doing nothing!!
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Jun 7, 2021 23:47
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A Strange Aeon posted:I just finished the campaign which was fun. Am I now in career mode and flashpoints will begin to pop up? Yes, given you have the DLC (each one has different FPs, but get all 3) and remember, it takes a bit for them to first appear. I can't recall if it's like 30 days in, but I remember it taking some time.
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Jun 8, 2021 01:48
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yeah melee and dfa are my favourite things in battletech
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Jun 8, 2021 02:11
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A Strange Aeon posted:I just finished the campaign which was fun. Am I now in career mode and flashpoints will begin to pop up? By the way, it's usually better to start a new career mode game rather than playing past the story ending in campaign mode and doing the flashpoints, because you'll be super overleveled for like half of them from doing the story first.
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Jun 8, 2021 03:09
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sean10mm posted:By the way, it's usually better to start a new career mode game rather than playing past the story ending in campaign mode and doing the flashpoints, because you'll be super overleveled for like half of them from doing the story first. Probably a good idea, I feel massively OP already and I don't have many goals left, so starting over would make sense. I captured some assaults pretty early, too, so I haven't played around with many lights or mediums.
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Jun 8, 2021 03:10
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Try a career with mech salvage higher than 3 parts. 4 or 5 is a good middle value where it slows down your pace through the game but doesn't completely refocus your strategy towards buying whole mechs on the black market. It's worth trying 8-part salvage at least once. But either way, yeah it's way better to start over. You could probably solo some entire flashpoints with one of the two SLDF assaults the campaign gives you for free.
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Jun 8, 2021 03:15
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vyelkin posted:Try a career with mech salvage higher than 3 parts. 4 or 5 is a good middle value where it slows down your pace through the game but doesn't completely refocus your strategy towards buying whole mechs on the black market. It's worth trying 8-part salvage at least once. But either way, yeah it's way better to start over. You could probably solo some entire flashpoints with one of the two SLDF assaults the campaign gives you for free. Something like 8 part salvage only seems like it would work with vanilla to me. The big mods add so many mechs completing anything would be an absolute nightmare.
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Jun 8, 2021 05:16
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Some of the mods let you combine variants, which could alleviate some of the issues with requiring sets of 8.
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Jun 8, 2021 05:49
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Yeah, unless it's a really unique variant (like the optional Quicsell oddities, or Legendaries), RogueTech lets you kludge together different variants for a price, and the mechbay will tell you which variants any given part is compatible with. Quicsell appears to only work with other -QS of the same type, and in 3-part assembly, you need at least two of the legendary variant to build one - two Arctic Wolf parts plus one of any other Archer makes the special one, but it costs extra just to assemble; three parts is free assembly, and everything has the same chance to recover non-wrecked parts and components. RT also has Primitive variants, which are what they say on the tin, but will work just fine as kitbash-fodder, or if you need something relatively decent but low-combat-value for low-skull missions. Or, if you're interested in a more difficult game and want to run grody pirate poo poo with dual stacks spewing more smoke than the Admiral Kuznetzov. Pit the cream of the Clans against Methwarriors stomping around in diesel-powered garage builds, giggling "LOL chainsaws go BRRRRRRT" and welding rotary autocannon feeds into Thundebolt missile magazines.
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Jun 8, 2021 08:24
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I love the scales that the plot in this game operates on. The Aurigan Coalition, this little podunk nothing, have the entire course of their civil war swung by the support (or lack thereof) of the Taurians and the Canopans, both of whom control more than twice as many systems as they do! In the context of this story being told, it effectively makes you feel like you're just small potatoes in the context of a larger world. Which is good, because you scale out a step farther, and realize that this is the Periphery, and everybody involved all together would still be more of an annoyance to the great houses than a threat. It's like they're having a "my dad could beat up your dad" argument, and you look at both dads and they're just kind of dumpy and out of shape. Meanwhile their uncle Capellan is sharpening his katana, and Grandpa Com-Star's got his shotgun and is watching from the porch.
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Jun 8, 2021 09:44
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How well the Battletech lore has been developed had to have been both a benefit and a hindrance to the devs when they were storyboarding this game. They had to be careful not to step on canonical events or rehash storylines that were already done in other Battletech/Mechwarrior/Mechcommander games, but at the same time, there were still whole areas of the Inner Sphere that existing Battletech lore had not dug into yet that the devs could utilize with the simmering Great House conflicts as the backdrop. If there's ever another BT/MW/MC-related game in the works, I'd love for them to dive into the bandit kingdoms or a smaller holding like the Outworlds Alliance - a place advanced enough to build its own Mechs (hello Merlin!) but underdeveloped enough for a game to work with.
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Jun 8, 2021 11:37
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anakha posted:How well the Battletech lore has been developed had to have been both a benefit and a hindrance to the devs when they were storyboarding this game. One of the devs, when they posted those long blog posts talking about the game design, dug into this a little bit. They said that was one of their first concerns, finding a time period and a location where the lore was not fleshed out and where they could create a lot of little systems and factions and conflicts that didn't contradict any of the lore and could fit into it, while also letting them tell the more serious and less goofy story they wanted to tell. It's such a tough line to walk in a game universe with this much superfluous backstory, because you want to have a game where the player feels like they're making a difference but also without feeling like they're on rails acting out things somebody already wrote into lore thirty years ago.
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Jun 8, 2021 16:20
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A Strange Aeon posted:Probably a good idea, I feel massively OP already and I don't have many goals left, so starting over would make sense. I captured some assaults pretty early, too, so I haven't played around with many lights or mediums. When you've finished the Campaign and feel massively OP, then its time to try career mode. You won't get the SLDF Highlander and Atlas just handed to you, you won't have any campaign missions injecting huge quantities of c-bills early on, and you start with slightly worse mechs. Flashpoints are there for extra cash and rep farming, but they're not as hand-holding as the campaign missions. If you need goals, the career mode has a scoring system. It will actually test your ability in/knowledge of the game (you can't waste any time, so if your mechs are getting wrecked every mission, you won't reach max score), although meeting the 800 million c-bills goal is a bit grindy. When you can get to max (or near max) score in career with no issues, then its time to start thinking about one of the mega mods.
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Jun 8, 2021 16:48
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Dont you have to basically plot your jumps perfectly to get the systems visited score to max and start farming 4+ skull missions with headchoppers at day 800ish to get the cbill score to max?
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Jun 8, 2021 17:17
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Organ Fiend posted:When you can get to max (or near max) score in career with no issues, then its time to start thinking about one of the mega mods.
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Jun 8, 2021 17:43
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Zephro posted:I think this is a bit harsh, tbh. I never played vanilla career and jumped straight into BEX after finishing the campaign. It's been going fine. (Though it may help that I don't really care what score I get and am just playing to have fun) Sorry, wasn't meant to be harsh. It was more of a "this is when you've broken the game over your knee and have nothing left to extract from it" than a "if you wanna play a mega mod, then you need to GIT GUD you n00b!"
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Jun 8, 2021 17:51
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The score mechanism is so arbitrary and ridiculous that my judgment of when you've broken the vanilla game is when you can land on a 5-skull planet and clear out every contract without needing to repair any of your mechs.
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Jun 8, 2021 17:58
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