297 replies to this topic

[IllCaesar]

Ade the Rare, on 28 April 2018 - 02:16 PM, said:

Anyone know why the specs seem to be so high for what it is?

Part of it is a memory leak issue. Its effected a lot of things and its why their minimum RAM is 16 instead of 8 even though 8 would (and often is) enough.

[Koniving]

Once you put "all" the rules into play, though, BV doesn't seem very broken. Have you seen how often vehicles lose their "motivation"? Heh. Hit, swerves, wheels pop off. Hit, tracked. Hit, can't hover no more. Hit, spin out and crash.... (Sucks to be a helicopter.)

[MischiefSC]

Koniving, on 29 April 2018 - 10:34 AM, said:

Once you put "all" the rules into play, though, BV doesn't seem very broken. Have you seen how often vehicles lose their "motivation"? Heh. Hit, swerves, wheels pop off. Hit, tracked. Hit, can't hover no more. Hit, spin out and crash.... (Sucks to be a helicopter.)

Not if they don't move. Oh no! My tracks are broken!

Still smashed the other side in like 4 rounds due to insane firepower.

[Koniving]

Well in the BT PC game, I just had a scenario where its pretty definite that they are not all "agro" at once... at least in this case.

Random mission.
Evening.
Had to defend a repair facility. First attempt. 3 firestarters immediately descend upon the facility and destroy a building before I can react after entrenching the first round to see what I was up against. Didn't wanna risk my two lights to scout it.

Load game. (You can keep going after the building is destroyed but if you want the maximum payout they all gotta survive).

Bright daylight.
This time its a bunch of light and medium vehicles. Handled. One light mech. Handled. Combat ends, but after everyone moves there's an enemy turn. Well what the heck? So I send all four units out, fanning them in four different directions. 6 turns later, encounter 9 more enemies at the edge of one guy's sensors and now that they're detected, they make a straight B-line for the facility. 2 of them jump the wall for DFA strikes to buildings (Both were Spiders). The rest go the long way around the walls while attacking. Four buildings down in 2 turns.
(Also not a single firestarter to be found...)

Load game.

Bright daylight.
Swarmed from the opposite direction early on and then some additional forces came from the north (where they usually came from before). Entirely different forces. Curiously the north forces didn't move until Olivera said that there were additional signatures. This didn't occur the previous two times. LRM-totting Locusts were a first.

Load game...
Dark as ****.
Relatively modest force, just a lot of light vehicles and mechs. I'm being paranoid and guarding behind the base though there are no signs of any enemies there because I'm sick of getting hit from there. Made it. No rear forces at all this time. Only 7 enemies, too.
Scratch that, as soon as it looked like it was done, a Jenner and two tanks came from the south. Jenner jumped the wall and SRM'd and lasered the nearest building instantly bringing it down in a single turn. GRRAAH!!!
______________

(Am somewhat sad that the Blackjack is the only mech you can start with by default. Would be sweet if it had a bit of a luck of the draw or a bit of a your chosen past tidbit to it.)

-----------

Passed it. There's a hold for X rounds, and it seems on certain rounds additional enemies may appear. But if you clear the enemies super early... you'll be wondering "Where the heck". Also it didn't seem consistent on when enemies would appear so this may be random, too. In one case it was nearly 9 rounds before more came. In another they showed up on round 3.)

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2018 - 01:37 PM.

[Metus regem]

Just finished a story mission... got a Highlander 732 as part of the payment... first thing I did with it, pulled he Gauss Rifle for an AC/10... I dont want to lose that Gauss Rifle...

[Luminis]

I put that Gauss into my AS7. Gotta protect it with all the armour I can muster.

Currently in the process of farming up a secondary Assault lance... Ran into the "insta-reinforcement" issue on a contract or two. Gotta be the only times I save scummed, but fighting like twelve Heavies & Assaults can't be intentional.

[Koniving]

So this is interesting, I'm being hired to go over to Alloway by two different factions. Both are going to pay for my travel.

The magistracy of Canopus wants me to eliminate a pirate lance.
The planetary government of Alloway wants me to get rid of a Canpupian supply depot.

This makes me wonder: Who is in the wrong? Is that actually the planetary government or is it just pirates pretending to be the local government?

I know if we go the money route, Canopus is offering 4x the payment.

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2018 - 01:48 PM.

[Brody319]

Anyone create a "hero" mech for a pilot?

My man Medusa has been with me since the beginning and been on nearly every mission. At some point I managed to snag enough parts to make a Grasshopper and he's been in that ever since. No one else has gotten to pilot it. Clutched a few missions with that grasshopper. Had 1 round left to destroy a generator or I lost and he jumped next to it and alpha'd to save the day. Tanky as all hell, only had to replace one arm and a medium laser. Decided to name the mech after him just in case a bad luck roll happens.

[Koniving]

Has anyone else found "Christoph Nick"? He is a merc that has an almost ridiculous amount of backstory compared to the typical recruits found on random planets. And its told not by him, but by "rumors". (In fact as far as I can tell he might not even have a voice, I haven't hired him yet but he has no voice clip when clicking on him.)

Not to mention his avatar has things you can't get on yours, and looks illustrated as opposed to snapshot 3D.

He registers as a "Defender" when others are registering as recruits, vets, gladiators. And he has an insanely high Guts stat (which makes sense, considering how many intermittent assassination attempts he's "avoided.")

I get a feeling if I pick him up, something bad is gonna happen... (Least if I designed this game, I'd totally do that.)

Huh.
http://www.sarna.net.../Christoph_Nick
Apparently he's a tribute. He's also incredibly well drawn in game.

Edited by Koniving, 29 April 2018 - 03:49 PM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I made the mistake of underestimating vehicles once. Only once. I took my lance around to try to hit a set of reinforcements before taking on the main group- I think it was a pair of lights and a pair of tanks. I figured "no big deal" since I had more than twice the tonnage, and just waded right in. Bad idea.

The lights soaked up enough firepower that I wasted my whole first combat round knocking one of them out... and then the tanks cheerily drove around behind my poor Blackjack and took half its weapons off. The other half of the enemy force picked the very next round to start showing up, and then I had another two vehicles focusing my 'Jack with LRMs. Knockdown. The second light, which was a Firestarter, took advantage of the opportunity to stomp on my face and toast me, and at that point the Blackjack was so badly messed up I had to punch out to avoid losing it completely.

That was about when I decided I was going to dedicate at least one of my 'Mechs to vehicle squishing at the outset of any engagement. I'm pleased with how dangerous vehicles are, overall. It always bothered me in the other PC games that it took so little effort to knock out the crunchies- hell, in MW4 you could take on entire armor columns just by driving through them and not suffer any meaningful damage in return. Even a Demolisher II could be instagibbed by having a fender-bender with a 'Mech half its tonnage. Vehicles in HBS/BT still feel inferior to 'Mechs, as they should, but are powerful enough that it's clear why they're still maintained and fielded. I'm happy with that. There should be things other than 'Mechs to induce "fetch me my brown pants!" moments.

My other three 'Mechs ended up pulling through, but were all beat up to greater or lesser degrees thanks to the other enemy lights, which were both Jenners (or, as I've taken to calling them, "bloody hell not this again"). Fortunately for my blood pressure, the game crashed after the debrief screen and I was spared the indignity of wasting the entire contract payout on a solid month of crew healing and 'Mech repair downtime. The second go at that mission, I stuck to cover, prioritized the vehicles and Jenners, and came away with only minor armor damage and a headshot injury. Speaking of which...

Headshot injuries are starting to wear on my nerves just a little. I can't seem to get through a single mission without somebody getting dinged by an incredibly minor amount of headshot damage, and even if they've got 3-4 bars of health left, they can't go on another mission for weeks. IMO, you should be able to drop with an injured pilot as long as they've got 50% or more of their health remaining, and just get a penalty to the amount of time they take to heal or something. Either that, or make headshot injuries require a certain damage threshold.

It's irritating as hell when some pissant Locust lands a single missile from an LRM5 on the head at a 50% damage reduction for a whopping 2 points out of 45 total head armor... and still it takes your strongest, healthiest pilot out of rotation for the next mission. It happens to somebody every. Bloody. Drop. Whereas I've had pilot injuries from any other cause all of... what, three times? Two of which were during the above-mentioned incident with the Blackjack? I must have dozens of headshot injuries by now. I feel like I'm re-enacting Three Stooges episodes with Battlemechs here. It's silly.

Otherwise... still having fun with it. Lost about another seven hours to the game today, and only stopped when I lucked out big and salvaged a complete Orion in one go (I figured if RNGeezus was being that generous, then disaster could only be just around the corner). I refitted it as the brawler from hell's sub-basement (since I already had plenty of ranged support and was itching for an excuse to stuff an AC20 in something) and called it an evening.

[Koniving]

Kill vehicles first, then wittle away at the lights. I found engaging lights from the sides does wonders for breaking legs. Behind works too, but if it fails to kill, they just back up and return the favor.

Also: I have six pilots just for such problems.

Which I'm expanding now that I'm finally taking a mission from our mysterious benefactor.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Yeah, picking up spare pilots was one of the first things I did after modifying the stock 'Mech armor values. I'm working on just having a virtual clone of each of my A-team, but some of my substitutes get hit literally every single time they drop, which has made skill-matching them with other, luckier pilots... problematic.

My Commander, on the other hand, has been exceptionally lucky, and only got injured in that one positioning blunder- which was erased by a game crash anyway- so despite being the pilot with the most drops (and consequently the pilot who's taken the most enemy fire), the Boss has thus far never been benched.

I'm really starting to wonder if there's not just a hidden luck modifier, because one of my other pilots has suffered about as many injuries as the rest of the team put together, and it's not the positioning either- she just gets hit in the head by the first thing she gets shot by in almost every drop, and usually by something else by the end of the mission. I even tried keeping her way back behind everyone else, but that actually resulted in more injuries because she got focused by the LRMers instead of the lasers and ACs. The poor lady's hopelessly cursed.

[Koniving]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 29 April 2018 - 04:49 PM, said:

I'm really starting to wonder if there's not just a hidden luck modifier, because one of my other pilots has suffered about as many injuries as the rest of the team put together, and it's not the positioning either- she just gets hit in the head by the first thing she gets shot by in almost every drop, and usually by something else by the end of the mission. I even tried keeping her way back behind everyone else, but that actually resulted in more injuries because she got focused by the LRMers instead of the lasers and ACs. The poor lady's hopelessly cursed.

What is she riding in? I'm starting to wonder if its what you shoved her in? Have you tried shuffling pilots around? When Kon was injured, I moved the best gunner into the BJ and put a random into the other mech. Just seems like that mech was prone to being attacked.

[Koniving]

Its funny actually, two years ago when I first put Koniving into a Battletech campaign in Megamek, I used my classic Blackjack build. Twin UAC/5s, XL 180 engine.

Spoiler

I planned on making a blackjack with twin AC/5s in the BT PC. Can do it without resorting to XL or sacrificing jumpjets.

Just a shame that the inherited Blackjack wasn't random or given to me based on my choices, I would've thought it to be fate. (When making my choices, I probed and checked out many choices it was always a Blackjack).

Now I just need one more AC/5 and I can do it. But at this point I'm bouncing between planets for single contracts so time to do another story mission.

[evilauthor]

Koniving, on 29 April 2018 - 05:37 PM, said:

I planned on making a blackjack with twin AC/5s in the BT PC. Can do it without resorting to XL or sacrificing jumpjets.

I did this as soon as I could. Twin PPCs. Four Medium Lasers. The rest of the tonnage went into near maxing out armor. And that was before I realized that AC/5s did nearly twice as much damage as Medium Lasers.

Anyway, I'm loving this game. I just got a Thunderbolt, armed it with an LRM-20 and SEVEN Medium Lasers with eight Heat Sinks, and I'm having an absolute blast (literally) with it. AND it's piloted by a guy who has the skill to reduce minimum range. The gameplay itself feels very much like Megamek, except with better graphics and a smarter AI.

My only complaint is the lack of Unseen. PGI needs to hurry up and win their court case because it annoys the heck out of me that the Orion is the only 75 ton mech in the game.

[Zergling]

I'm currently running with 6 pilots and 6 mechs; the 2 spares give me just enough safety margin to do another mission if I'm nearly broke.

evilauthor, on 29 April 2018 - 06:00 PM, said:

My only complaint is the lack of Unseen. PGI needs to hurry up and win their court case because it annoys the heck out of me that the Orion is the only 75 ton mech in the game.

Fortunately, the court case only affects the Macross Unseen: Wasp, Stinger, Valkyrie, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Rifleman, Archer, Warhammer, Marauder, Longbow, Marauder II.

Thunderbolt, Locust, Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Griffin and Battlemaster are non-Macross Unseen, so fortunately they were included in the game. It'd definitely suck if all those weren't in the game.

And the Black Knight is ingame, that's a second 75 tonner.

Edited by Zergling, 29 April 2018 - 06:13 PM.

[evilauthor]

Zergling, on 29 April 2018 - 06:06 PM, said:

I'm currently running with 6 pilots and 6 mechs; the 2 spares give me just enough safety margin to do another mission if I'm nearly broke.

I run with 6 or 7 pilots and keep 8 mechs out of storage. I only hire new pilots when I need to for a mission because too many are busy convalescing.

Quote

Thunderbolt, Locust, Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Griffin and Battlemaster are non-Macross Unseen, so fortunately they were included in the game. It'd definitely suck if all those weren't in the game.

Seen em all. The Battlemaster in a very nasty Assassination mission that I was under geared for. I managed to kill the target, but only one mech made it to the extraction point. Two pilots dead before I could eject them and it's only by sheer luck the third survived. He's spending the next 80+ days healing though (my actual player character was near the end of her own 80+day medical leave).

Thank God the extraction point spawned right next to where my mechs were fighting. So I actually walked away with a win and a third of a Battlemaster. I could have had 2, but I bargained for money instead of salvage.

Quote

And the Black Knight is ingame, that's a second 75 tonner.

Huh, you're right. I've actually seen it. Once. In another mission I was woefully undergeared for that I had to restart the mission, and got completely different mechs.

Every other time, it's been Orions, Orions, and more Orions whenever a 75 ton mech shows up.

[Metus regem]

evilauthor, on 29 April 2018 - 06:34 PM, said:

.


Huh, you're right. I've actually seen it. Once. In another mission I was woefully undergeared for that I had to restart the mission, and got completely different mechs.

Every other time, it's been Orions, Orions, and more Orions whenever a 75 ton mech shows up.

Just did the grave robbing mission, got to use a royal Black Knight... wow was she a beast.

[PocketYoda]

Its a really good game, which has a few issues at this time.. The RNG is atrocious.. and it has some game breaking bugs like reinforcements all jumping on you at once.. etc..

I'd wait till they patch a few things before playing through.

[evilauthor]

Metus regem, on 29 April 2018 - 07:05 PM, said:

Just did the grave robbing mission, got to use a royal Black Knight... wow was she a beast.

I'm holding off on doing that until I get a working Orion. My first 75 tonner! I'm currently two thirds of the way there. It's slow going because I'm weighting my contracts towards C-Bills in order to meet monthly expenses as I grind missions and only getting one select on missions.

Edit:

Samial, on 29 April 2018 - 07:10 PM, said:

The RNG is atrocious..

Try playing Megamek some time which is more faithful the TT game. RNG is just as atrocious there. The gameplay for HBS Battleteck feels almost identical to Megamek. The graphics are just prettier and the AI smarter than in Megamek.

Edited by evilauthor, 29 April 2018 - 07:15 PM.