• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Battletech

jmotivator said:
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure that one out. And they aren't the beefy APCs that you have to fight in earlier story missions. They get taken out by a JENNER's alpha strike.
Click to expand...

My best results came from just straight sprinting all four mechs hard forward on turn one to trigger immediate combat. If you stay out of sensor range the APCs will full-move forward, and they will trigger combat on their own... and get a second move forward before any of your guys. (they are phase 2) At which point they're dead. Putting all four assault mechs of mine in view first got the enemy's attention, but one of the APCs still got alphastriked by the enemy Orion.

One made it through and took over half the turrets, which trivialized the rest of the mission. Enemy reinforcements shot at the turrets a lot more than they shot at me.
 
Deuce said:
My best results came from just straight sprinting all four mechs hard forward on turn one to trigger immediate combat. If you stay out of sensor range the APCs will full-move forward, and they will trigger combat on their own... and get a second move forward before any of your guys. (they are phase 2) At which point they're dead. Putting all four assault mechs of mine in view first got the enemy's attention, but one of the APCs still got alphastriked by the enemy Orion.

One made it through and took over half the turrets, which trivialized the rest of the mission. Enemy reinforcements shot at the turrets a lot more than they shot at me.
Click to expand...

See, it seems weird to me that you guys had issues with the mission. I just went forward with my fastest(since it says the need for multiple lances, I took two assaults, 2 heavies, so I had a bit more speed) to reveal enemies, then sniped with LRMs while moving forward. None of the APCs where ever in danger, got all the turrets, only one mech even needed repair, and that was just structure. Maybe I just got lucky. I found the two end missions to be the easiest missions I had run in awhile with the last one lasting all of 3 turns.
 
Redress said:
See, it seems weird to me that you guys had issues with the mission. I just went forward with my fastest(since it says the need for multiple lances, I took two assaults, 2 heavies, so I had a bit more speed) to reveal enemies, then sniped with LRMs while moving forward. None of the APCs where ever in danger, got all the turrets, only one mech even needed repair, and that was just structure. Maybe I just got lucky. I found the two end missions to be the easiest missions I had run in awhile with the last one lasting all of 3 turns.
Click to expand...

Quite frankly, in a game that is so geared towards Min/Max-ing the final fight being 3 turns seems the perfect reward for all the hard work and number crunching. :)
 
Redress said:
See, it seems weird to me that you guys had issues with the mission. I just went forward with my fastest(since it says the need for multiple lances, I took two assaults, 2 heavies, so I had a bit more speed) to reveal enemies, then sniped with LRMs while moving forward. None of the APCs where ever in danger, got all the turrets, only one mech even needed repair, and that was just structure. Maybe I just got lucky. I found the two end missions to be the easiest missions I had run in awhile with the last one lasting all of 3 turns.
Click to expand...

Both of my APCs kamikaze charged into the base. They're way faster than even heavy mechs.
 
jmotivator said:
Quite frankly, in a game that is so geared towards Min/Max-ing the final fight being 3 turns seems the perfect reward for all the hard work and number crunching. :)
Click to expand...

I was trying to salvage whatsherface's King Crab (it's a unique model) but apparently you can't? I incapacitated her with multiple knockdowns but it didn't show up in the salvage list.
 
Deuce said:
I was trying to salvage whatsherface's King Crab (it's a unique model) but apparently you can't? I incapacitated her with multiple knockdowns but it didn't show up in the salvage list.
Click to expand...

I took out the legs and got 2 wrecks from it.
 
Redress said:
I took out the legs and got 2 wrecks from it.
Click to expand...
Weird. I didn't get any! And it was definitely an incapacitation kill, the knockdown triggered the dialogue. Even if somehow the CT was destroyed in the fall, I should have gotten one piece.

Anything less than three is, sadly, worthless. Her King Crab is a unique model, you wont get a third piece. Where the heck did she get pulse lasers anyway?
 
Deuce said:
Weird. I didn't get any! And it was definitely an incapacitation kill, the knockdown triggered the dialogue. Even if somehow the CT was destroyed in the fall, I should have gotten one piece.

Anything less than three is, sadly, worthless. Her King Crab is a unique model, you wont get a third piece. Where the heck did she get pulse lasers anyway?
Click to expand...

I finally had some time to sit and play again and finished the story missions. I incapacitated the KC and got no salvage, ah well. This Highlander ended up being the MVP of the final series of battles:

n0cTdm.png


I had lost some nice SRM6+++ racks in previous fights, but this build could still easily core anything that came within medium range... and it did, repeatedly.
 
jmotivator said:
I finally had some time to sit and play again and finished the story missions. I incapacitated the KC and got no salvage, ah well. This Highlander ended up being the MVP of the final series of battles:


I had lost some nice SRM6+++ racks in previous fights, but this build could still easily core anything that came within medium range... and it did, repeatedly.
Click to expand...

Damn, that is a nice build. Just a bit of advice: move the ammo away from the slots with the +++ weapons, and move heat sinks into those slots. Crit to weapon or ammo would be really bad, so use heat sinks to lower the odds.
 
Redress said:
Damn, that is a nice build. Just a bit of advice: move the ammo away from the slots with the +++ weapons, and move heat sinks into those slots. Crit to weapon or ammo would be really bad, so use heat sinks to lower the odds.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that build is definitely one meant to fight AI opponents. I'd have never taken that build in to a table top game! ;)

The AI isn't so great at determining greatest threat and targeting weak points. As far as I can tell the AI picks strictly on total armor, and then on targeted shots it hits the weakest point, and never considers what is the best way to reduce return fire.

I have an Awesome on the A-squad and the AI picks it 9 times out of 10 when it has a choice because it has the lowest starting total armor. I think this is why the AI does such a bad job of prioritizing in the final missions. I was able to save all of the turrets and so the AI saw all of the turrets as the #1 target until they were all dead, then it switched attention to the PPC vehicles... and then it turned to me... well, no, they were dead by then.
 
So started a new campaign, just because. It is scary how much easier the game is now that I know more about what I am doing. Bulwark proves to be godly(50 % damage reduction much better than 5 % fewer hits). Catapults still are a pain to farm(though I got the non LRM version early on). I am mostly exploring out of the way systems, only doing priority contracts when money gets low and having fun.
 
Things that make Battletech great:

  1. Fitting out a King Crab as a fire support mech, just because you have spare Crabs laying around
  2. Medusa: Show me your war face!
  3. Accidentally getting a head hit with an AC/20 on a King Crab, leading to Number 1 above
  4. A contract where you face 5 assaults, 4 heavies, and a Locust
  5. Those occasions where a couple misses miss you, and you hear them explode in the distance a couple seconds later
 
Redress said:
Things that make Battletech great:

  1. Fitting out a King Crab as a fire support mech, just because you have spare Crabs laying around
  2. Medusa: Show me your war face!
  3. Accidentally getting a head hit with an AC/20 on a King Crab, leading to Number 1 above
  4. A contract where you face 5 assaults, 4 heavies, and a Locust
  5. Those occasions where a couple misses miss you, and you hear them explode in the distance a couple seconds later
Click to expand...

Glitch is the best pilot.

"After the mission, let's make snowmen!"
 
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/beta-battletech-update-1-1-release-notes.1106263/

Highlights:

Granular difficulty settings. Added a wide variety of Granular Difficulty Settings that can be adjusted at any time from the Settings menu.

Lethality - when enabled, MechWarriors that are disabled in combat will always be killed.
'Mech Destruction - when enabled, 'Mechs disabled from Center Torso destruction are permanently lost. This setting is intended for veterans and those seeking a significant challenge.
No Rare Salvage - when enabled, + and ++ items are no longer generated as salvage results (but remain purchasable in stores).
MechWarrior Progression - adjust the amount of experience that MechWarriors gain after each mission.
Advanced MechWarriors - increase or decrease the frequency of more powerful MechWarriors appearing in Hiring Halls in later parts of the game.
Enemy Force Strength - increase or decrease the baseline strength of the enemy forces you'll face in procedural contracts.
Contract Payment - increase or decrease the amount of C-Bills paid by procedural contracts across the game.
Salvage - increase or decrease the amount of salvage you may obtain from negotiation on procedural contracts.
Click to expand...

Some of that is nice.

MechLab quality-of-life improvements. Including the below additions. See UI section for further UI improvements.

A shortcut button is now available to bring up the Store directly from the MechLab, allowing players to buy weapons, equipment, and ammo without leaving the MechLab. (Must still be in-orbit to purchase items.)
The running total C-Bill cost of a work order is now displayed while the player is working in the MechLab.
Added tooltips for all 'Mech Rating bars in the Mech Bay and MechLab that show and explain more of the specific numbers behind that rating.
Improved warning communication and tooltips in MechLab.
Added Scrap button to the Mech Bay Storage screen, to allow scrapping complete 'Mech chassis directly from Storage.
Gear components now display their stat benefit directly on their component UI (instead of only in their tooltip.)
Click to expand...

Very nice.

Accelerate the current action with SPACEBAR. Players can now press SPACEBAR to greatly accelerate the current action. Game speed will return to normal after the action completes.

Speed-Up mode to accelerate all combat actions. Added an option in the Gameplay Settings menu that significantly speeds up combat. Note that this setting is ignored during Multiplayer, and while story dialogue is playing during campaign missions.

General combat speed optimizations. To decrease turn times even when not using new speed-up options. In addition, the settings for combat result pauses and camera transition times have been exposed in CombatGameConstants.json for easier modding.
Click to expand...

Thank god!!!
 
I'm assuming that you're talking about the board game. My first and most introduction to the series comes from Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, and Mercenaries. My father, who got me into the game back when I was like, eleven, was dissatisfied with MW3, and neither of us continued the series after that. My brother and I still watch Youtube videos of game footage and soundtracks, and he's thinking about building a Windows 98 PC that's capable of playing the game.

I read a couple of the Battletech books in the sixth grade. I love how extensive the future history and the similarities between that, and the dawn of the middle ages, the Star League being a metaphor for Rome and whatnot. I'm currently writing a sci-fi novel that's heavily influenced on the Battletech universe, though it's mostly a romantic comedy with a drastically different tone.

I don't know if I'll ever get back into the series, but I'm open to it. Nostalgia, ironically, is a bit in the way of me appreciating newer games in the series.
 
DH Kirkwood said:
I'm assuming that you're talking about the board game.
Click to expand...

It feels like reading even one sentence from the first post would have made you assume otherwise...
 
Deuce said:
It feels like reading even one sentence from the first post would have made you assume otherwise...
Click to expand...

I read it. After about three days of only sleeping three hours a night. In any case, I R a tard.
 
DH Kirkwood said:
I read it. After about three days of only sleeping three hours a night. In any case, I R a tard.
Click to expand...

Fatigue is no joke! But hey, no reason we can't talk about OG tabletop Battletech or the books a bit. I reread a couple of the books recently, actually. As an adult reading them, definitely not as good as I thought they were when I was a kid. An adult perspective on The Clans, for instance is... less favorable. Their society makes no sense. Ostensibly they do this ritualistic bidding system for warfare to minimize the damage inflicted to either side so things don't escalate too far. But that's not how warfare works. Carefully adjusting your assault force so that you can just barely overcome the defenders will maximize casualties, not minimize them. They also have live-fire combat in the place of a promotion evaluation:

Every single mechwarrior earning their stripes must destroy a mech in actual combat. This means for every mechwarrior they train and recruit, a 50-100 ton engine of destruction must be built and destroyed. They face off against three opponents, already-proven mechwarriors from their own clan. Destroying two of them promotes you to a command position over a small unit. All three, a bigger unit. This means almost universally that the candidate warrior will have his own mech destroyed as he tries to ascend the ranks by eliminating at least two opponents. If he succeeds, well, another machine or two destroyed. This is a tremendous waste of resources, and that's not to mention that some percentage of these pilots will simply be killed in the trial. And now command is decided on direct combat skill (and luck). Not experience. Not leadership capacity. If you shoot two dudes down, you get to be in charge.

And that's just the very basic structure of how their military personnel are recruited and promoted. There's numerous other ways their society approves of killing each other. Imagine the US Marine Corps had a list of scenarios in which you are allowed, even encouraged, to battle your fellow marines to the death.
 
Deuce said:
Fatigue is no joke! But hey, no reason we can't talk about OG tabletop Battletech or the books a bit. I reread a couple of the books recently, actually. As an adult reading them, definitely not as good as I thought they were when I was a kid. An adult perspective on The Clans, for instance is... less favorable. Their society makes no sense. Ostensibly they do this ritualistic bidding system for warfare to minimize the damage inflicted to either side so things don't escalate too far. But that's not how warfare works. Carefully adjusting your assault force so that you can just barely overcome the defenders will maximize casualties, not minimize them. They also have live-fire combat in the place of a promotion evaluation:

Every single mechwarrior earning their stripes must destroy a mech in actual combat. This means for every mechwarrior they train and recruit, a 50-100 ton engine of destruction must be built and destroyed. They face off against three opponents, already-proven mechwarriors from their own clan. Destroying two of them promotes you to a command position over a small unit. All three, a bigger unit. This means almost universally that the candidate warrior will have his own mech destroyed as he tries to ascend the ranks by eliminating at least two opponents. If he succeeds, well, another machine or two destroyed. This is a tremendous waste of resources, and that's not to mention that some percentage of these pilots will simply be killed in the trial. And now command is decided on direct combat skill (and luck). Not experience. Not leadership capacity. If you shoot two dudes down, you get to be in charge.

And that's just the very basic structure of how their military personnel are recruited and promoted. There's numerous other ways their society approves of killing each other. Imagine the US Marine Corps had a list of scenarios in which you are allowed, even encouraged, to battle your fellow marines to the death.
Click to expand...

The two books I read, I read back in the sixth grade. Back then, I found them difficult to consume, but I'd wager good money that if I read the same books today, I would criticize the writing style.

As for the clans, it's my understanding that their society isn't meant to be portrayed as something that's practical--'honor before reason'. All the clans come from the same remnants of the Star League, and then they went off and isolated themselves. They might have all been able to function under this insane, warrior-centric society simply due to a lack of competition with groups operating under more practical traditions. When the clans came to the Inner-Sphere, they were better warriors, and had better technology, but often lost battles because they wouldn't fight two on one, or wouldn't use tactics that they considered to be beneath them, and they were never actually successful in conquering the Inner Sphere.

No, this is not how wars are fought, but for the clans, war is basically a religion.

I don't know if resources would have been that big of an issue. I know that the Inner Sphere had problems with infrastructure and manufacturing, due to the constant in-fighting, but the clan's odd tactics may have kept them from knee-capping their ability to produce mechs and other technology in the same way that the IS had. More importantly, space-mining should prove to garner resources on a scale multitudes larger than what we could possibly obtain from our own planet. Asteroids would provide a seemingly endless supply of metals.
 
First DLC, Flashpoint is live. Just starting a new career mode game.
 
First impressions:

1: Being able to organize mechs in the mech bays is godly!
2: Career mode is how I have wanted to play BT, and I am liking it so far. Nice challenge early on, staying ahead with money while upgrading what you need without the big funds from the story missions. I play with the option for mechs to start out without gear when you complete a salvage set, which early on means 2 + weeks before you get that nice new mech ready to go. Started with a Vindicator and 4 lights, missions got hard really quickly. Thank god I have a Kintaro now, though the wait to get it outfitted was rough.
3: Being able to go to the store while outfitting a mech = win!
4: Bulwark nerf means total change in playstyle.

Have not tried a flashpoint yet(might go back to an earlier playthrough to run some of them quickly), but overall, the expansion/patch has some really great stuff. Career mode alone is worth it to me.
 
Now that flashpoint is out- I started playing the campaign.

What bothers me most are these somewhat fixed weapons hardpoints, so modifications on mechs are limited. Arrgh. Is there a way to modify the hardpoints to say, make them all energy ones? :confused:
 
Another new expansion out. Urban biomes look great and are fun to fight on, but you will notice a loss of frame rate on them. Star map is about 50 systems larger, and now has filters. 2 new Mechs, the Javelin(awesome light mech) and the Raven(ECM platform). A couple new mission types. Not the biggest expansion, but I found it worth the money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom