My initial impression of Battletech was lukewarm as I was struggling with the UI and finding the tutorial missions to be rather dull. However, the longer I’ve spent with it, the more it seems like a huge step up from Harebrained Schemes’ previous games. I’m enjoying it immensely now. I was afraid I would find it too slow, but that’s not been the case at all. Further, I’ve gone from hating the UI, to liking it after figuring out what everything means. The tutorial missions should have done a better job explaining everything though. I’m also having an issue of accidentally moving—maybe an issue with my mouse button being too sensitive—and wish there was a further confirmation for it. Thankfully, nothing too bad has happened yet.
As for the different mechs, I’m a big fan of the Trebuchet and liking the Jenner and Shadowhawk as well. My Centurion also gets a lot of use as a close-range specialist. My first heavy is a Dragon from one of the story missions, but its pilot died within three rounds the first time I used it (during a two-skull mission that had two heavy mechs) so I did not get a good sense of it. On the other hand, the Blackjack your main starts with has been underwhelming to me, and I have not liked any of the other light mechs I’ve used so far except the Jenner and, in certain situations, the Spider.
The loan repayments disappear after you do the next mission for her. However, they get replaced with another expense.
I think I’m not understanding the called shots correctly … does that just affect the chance to hit a specific location, or if you miss that location are you missing the target mech entirely?
The percentages listed next to each part in the called shot display are your chance of hitting that part. A called shot increases your chance to hit the targeted location, without regard to the difficulty of the shot. If you’re using the Precision Strike ability, or whatever it’s called, you increase your chance to hit in general along with getting a called shot.
Thanks for the reply on called shots, I was passing up shots on knocked down mechs cause I didn’t want to miss.
I found my all medium lance couldn’t hit hard enough for the missions in the system you’re in after the first priority mission. One neat thing I found is that if you’re on a multi-jump be travel you can pause time and look at contracts. If you like what you see you can stop in that system instead of continuing to your destination. Still pay the travel cost, but saves time. I found a system with three in-system missions I can do back to back hopefully for no damage at 300k each, which should serve better than doing 1 at 900k, having to spend a bunch on refits and waiting for ppl to get out of the hospital
I was running 4 meds for a while but after making a dedicated LRM boat I am playing around with a light mec now. Light mec can sensor lock, which lets you take out distant targets. This made it very useful as I just started meeting enemy LRM carriers.
Saw an interesting bit about light mecs, if they are in a position to even get shot, you’re doing it wrong! Now I think more about how much damage they take. I make them guard, or flee, etc etc.
Ok, I’m missing something and need to figure it out, I think vigilance and precision strike are morale based options, but where do I see that choice in the UI? I’ve made called shots I blieve, but I don’t recall ever using vigilance or precision strike and i’m pretty sure I need to be taking advantage of both.
The 970M found in laptops is much weaker than a desktop 970.
When the 10x0 series launched Nvidia changed that so the models were the same between mobile and desktop. You still have thermal throttling though, which is much more likely in a mobile device.
They are like 7,8 on the skill bar. They only show up when you have sufficient morale to use them thought.
The morale a thin vertical blue bar to the left of the skill bar. IIRC you need around 25 pts to use (some temporary buffs decrease or increase that number)
Ok, got it, saw morale bar, paying close attention to that, but pretty sure I’ve not used either of these mentioned and I’m particularly interested in precision strike. Going looking for this on next mission. ;)
I am loving this game so much. Keep finding myself still awake hours past my planned quitting time.
I played a story mission where I had two heavies in great shape to maximize salvage and while I was carefully attempting surgery the AI assistance decided to alpha strike them both into a puddle.
I am a few hours in and still running 3 mediums and a Spider/Jenner depending.
One tip that isn’t potentially obvious is that the stock configs tend to be under armored. You can massively boost survivability with devoting an extra ton or two to armor.
The UI is actually pretty great for providing info but it is unfortunate that you have to watch a fan video to get the details.
I’m only a couple missions in still so I haven’t messed with configs yet. Are there set alternates that are easily changed to or do you need to manually configure anything other than the basic stock setup? krazykrok mentions an M variant above - does each mech have a set number of variants you can easily pick?
The mech variants like the Locust 1M or 1V change the “hard point” layouts. Basically, for balance and differentiation they use a system where each of the mechs has a maximum number of the different weapon types (energy and missiles) and where you can place them on the mech. To actually swap out of the stock configs you do need to refit them and manually change stuff. I have had to refit and swap things out just from running out of some parts due to damage and not wanting to buy new ones. Same with changing the armor, you’ll need to go in and strip out something (JJ’s, a ML or something) to add the armor. But it can make a huge deal. Drop a couple JJ and bulk up the armor on the Spider and it’s pretty solid.
I am super into the whole refitting aspect of it, but after a few missions with a mech it should be pretty easy to see how you might want to use it differently and go in and swap a few things out.
Makes sense, thanks! I was going to see if I can’t reconfigure my starting mech a bit and come up with something better than those paired AC/2s. Just don’t seem like they do much for me usually.
