3486

I picked up the DLC and am enjoying the career mode. I got an Assassin, a 40 ton mech, that has a thing-a-ma-jig that lets it ignore 3 evasion, so nice for taking down light mechs. Oh, and a snub PPC (shotgun ppc) on a Jenner was pretty fun. I maybe should not have done 5 parts to build a mech cause i cannot get any heavies.

3487

I love the new weapons; the Snub PPC and the LBX autocannons really feel like they add a lot to the game, and I wish some of the opposing mechs mounted them.

If you’re going to be doing a five-part assembly run, I really suggest my favorite mod:


The panic system stuff has added a lot to the game for me, both on a tactical and narrative level…and it means you’ll pick up 3 part mech salvage more often.

3488

Thanks. I like that idea. It damage immersion a bit when the last enemy mech is badly damaged and you have to hunt it down.

3489

I like the look of that—a lot of fighty games miss the effect of morale.

Does it affect your own pilots? If so, how often?

3490

Yeah, that looks great! I’ve been mulling over mods since 1.8 dropped, trying to figure out what still works; this one should do just fine.

3491

Just realized I own the season pass. I can try the new stuff once I’m no longer burned out on the game.

3492

FYI, The Waypoint podcast from Monday this week is about the game and the new expansion.

3493

I booted this up again after finishing up X-Com 2 last weekend. I bought all the DLC while it was on sale a few weeks back.

I am in love with my Phoenix Hawk. Put a highskill pilot in it, with high heat capacity, and just set it loose. It already saved me in the early game when my much smaller lance we ambushed by a significantly heavier lance. Phoenix Hawk just danced in their rear arc, blasting them with lasers and punching their faces in when the heat got too high.

I really hope they are planning a Battletech 2 that focuses more on the strategic layer. It would be nice to be able to grow the mercenary group up to a company that you can deploy, or even a full battalion… then you can send individual lances or companies on missions. In the books, the merc companies could also be awarded planets - it would be fun to build a planet up, defend it, etc. etc - Gray Death Legion style.

Would also like to see them expand upon the pilots skills. They could develop positive and negative traits based on their usage and results.

I’m thinking about installing some mods to help feed the strategic itch. Does anyone have opinions on RogueTech or Battletech 3025: Commanders Edition?

RogueTech looks great, but I wonder if it gets too ‘realistic’ to be much fun - whereas BTCE seems to be a little more into keeping the game fun while expanding on some of the concepts.

3494

I plan on using BTCE when I next play.

3495

I would like them to add more RPG stuff to BattleTech 2. Not sure which is harder to develop, a strategic layer or RPG. I won’t hold it against them if they don’t, as the game is currently okay, and doing either of the two is no joke!

3496

I’ve been secretly hoping since the Paradox acquisition that we’d get a grand strategy BT game. It obviously won’t happen, but good lord it would be awesome.

3497

I just want to have the ability to create my own scenarios, and use mixed units.

3498

I did installed BTCE last night to give it a go, and I like it A LOT. It adds enough depth on the strategic layer to keep things pretty interesting.

The full inner sphere map with changing borders from war and faction specific mechs has been a delight.

The notion of your mechwarriors needing rest after each engagement (x-com style) has really changed how i develop my argonaut. I rushed to get a full compliment of 8 mechwarriors so that I could run two missions at a time. Vanilla version had me ignoring the crew bays until i was overflowing with money.

Also some interesting bits where the great houses can screw you over. My starting lineup of mechs is… not great: Cicadia, Javelin, Urbanmech, Stinger, Wasp - so I’m grinding 1/2 star missions and 1 star missions. One mission saw me fight a Phoenix Hawk. I took it down and was excited to take the salvage. But surely enough, after the mission I get a message from the Federated Suns that they are claiming extra salvage from the mission - specifically all the mech salvage. I am given some options. I can accept this and take extra garbage salvage (in this case tons of heat sinks and small jet jumps). I can take a very small bump to my mission payout. I can pay $12k and dispute this in court and gain more salvage, or I can attempt to take the salvage for myself after and suffer a huge reputation hit in the process.

I try to take the Federated Suns to court, and they promptly destroy me and take all the salvage from the mission. Bastards!

The tactical battles feel a bit more challenging to me thus far, and money is far tighter. It feels more challenging to me to get upgraded mechs - especially because my settings require 4 mech parts to complete the mech - so I haven’t been as interested in gambling on tougher missions until i have a few more parts ready to rock for the few medium mechs that i’ve started on. It is hard enough that with my mech composition I completely ignore missions to destroy bases - the sniper and shredder turrets eat me alive.

The pilot panic system is nice - I’ve had a few enemies eject earlier than necessary when panicked after focused fire.

Melee is less effective overall, which has been nice. They also reduced the gunnery bonuses by a slight bit - which has made these early fights with low skill pilots and fast, high evasion mechs last longer and be more intense.

Finally, the pilot quirks add some much needed flavor to your team. There needs to be more here, but it is a good start.

Same with the mech quirks. So far I haven’t seen them come into play much - but it is nice to have some interesting distinctions on each mech. In this vein, I would love to have hidden quirks that only come out after a pilot has used the mech for awhile. In the books (if I remember) the mechs are basically cobbled together with whatever can be found to keep them running. That means that some mechs have funny characteristics that you wouldn’t expect - they run a little hot or have trouble when turning a certain direction, etc. etc. - It would be cool if those hidden quirks came out over time - or if you had to go buy a rare part of find a rare mech factory to get it permanently fixed.

Anyway, I’ve very pleased and it has breathed some new life into the game. Will play this for awhile and then give RogueTech a look.

3499

I tried one of them a while back, and killed my mechs because I forgot what the markings for the dropship landing looked like on the map (oops). Then I never got back to it, but I remember the starting mechs from the mods are definitely worse than what you had with vanilla.

3500

I’m fine with it - it makes me feel like a mercenary company like I read in the books - just scraping by, watching the balance book - hoping that I can get a few more mech parts on each map without losing something that is going to cost me a bunch of money.

The SRM Javelin isn’t too bad either. Just jump in close and let loose and hope for the best. Wasp has been able to serve a similar role to the Phoenix Hawk in my vanilla run. Jump around and do lots of punching.

The cicadia can go to hell. I hate that thing.

3501

I started a new campaign tonight with extended. I got a couple of locusts, a firestarter, an urbie, and something else. Took the Uribe out on the first mission which was training a planet’s forces. Their mechs made up the rest of the lance. I cant remember doing a mission like that before, but it went okay. Had to take down a wasp and then optionally a Griffin. Got 3 salvages off the griffin, so hopefully we will get a 4th soon.

3502

The starting mechs can be so trash, but I’ve really been loving the firestarter. I sure run into a lot of them. I think I’ve completed 3 of them so far, and I currently run two on my team. One is pretty much the default flamer build. The other is 4 ML, 6 MG, 1 JJ, nearly max armor. Great for getting in close. Fire everything when there’s room for the heat, and otherwise go for melee.

3503

Urbies are pretty good early mechs - they hit like an angry nerd that’s been picked on for too long - but you need to customize them a bit if you want them to be superior to a Panther, who does well in the same role.

A Grasshopper is one of the most horrifying Mechs you have at your disposal, and you can use it like a Firestarter’s Big Brother. Give it to somebody who has Initiative and reserve until you have the last move, then jump behind an Assault. Use your Focus Fire (whatever it’s called) ability and attack the CT with everything. Do it again next round before the enemy Mech has a chance to move.

I always call the Spider the zombiemech, since both medium lasers are in its CT, so you really have to kill it rather than just “kill” it, to keep it from firing. Stupid one legged, no armed thing hopping around causing very unwelcome damage.

The Jenner is the only Light Mech that has potential, though it’s pretty fragile. You can do some interesting work with a Javelin as well, though, again, it’s kind of hard to use well.

3504

Nonsense, a Firestarter loaded with light lasers has more damage output than a Jenner and a more manageable heat situation. Firestarter and Urbanmech (and Raven if you play up to its cheesy strengths) are the only good light mechs. Panther comes close and is very usable in a light lance if you can’t get better. Though honestly all light mechs are sideshows in this game, the real game is medium mechs and up! If Vyshka puts together that Griffin it’s gonna outclass light mechs significantly.

I actually have quite the soft spots for Griffins right now as the latest patch made the Star League era GRF-2N available pretty commonly in Black Markets. It’s the best medium mech available because it moves like the faster 55 tonners (it’s a Griffin) but due to Start League Endo-Steel magic it has more payload space available than the slow 50 tonners (Centurion/Trenchbucket). Even in the late game I’d keep three of them fully kitted out in case a flashpoint threw a tonnage limited mission at me. I’d go Griffin/Griffin/Griffin + Firestarter for a 200 ton mission, Griffin/Griffin/Griffin + Marauder for a 240 ton mission, and once I had to go Griffin/Griffin/Griffin + Thunderbolt for a 230 ton mission.

3505

Firestarters are a bit of easy mode. Last night I finished an Archer, Shadow Hawk and Wolverine, so I figured I would let my 2 Firestarters become my B team lance and I would move to heavier tonnage. I went into the next mission and was completely lost without my mech killers. I was destroying missions with 2 Firestarters and 2 Phoenix Hawks.

Firestarters loaded with either Small Lasers or MG are just ridiculous (dump the flamers). Put them with high evasion pilots and let them run at full evasion, then jump behind a mech, let loose and watch the mech burn - then sprint or jump away. Dump heat and do it again. Or if you can’t do that then jump in and take a precision shot at the head. Even with low percentages you will still have enough hits to injury.

It has left me in a bind, because I want to enjoy the game by building out those heavy and assault lances… but now I know there is this gap in my performance by not using the Firestarters.