Author Topic: Getting Started with Against the Bot  (Read 163580 times)

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #480 on: 09 January 2017, 01:36:23 »
I believe that during deployment, it is the mech that can mount compatible BA to carry them, not the other way around (ie look for the mount button while the mech is selected, not the BA).

As for mounting during movement, I forget the details, but double check again that you're looking for the button with the correct unit and that you've met the movement requirements (eg I think the BA cannot move that turn and the mounting must be either the first or last thing of the mounting unit's turn (but I can't remember which)). Basically, mounting a unit during the game is quite fiddly until you memorise the procedure.

And finally, as said not all BA can mount all mechs. Only BA with mag-clamps can mount non-omni mechs. Assault class BA cannot mount any mechs. Quad BA cannot mount any mech. Most (but not all) lighter bipedal suits can mount omni mechs (it depends on their claw/hand configurations).

pfarland

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #481 on: 10 January 2017, 02:13:54 »
WOW, just wow. I'm sitting here playing AtB.  So, I roll up a Chase Mission. Thankfully I have Heavy Fog in my favor as My single Medium Star has a whole Comstar Level III (36 mechs and vees Light to Medium) against it. I crank on the RECKLESS and beat feet. 2nd turn, my Shadow Hawk IIC fails his roll and falls. Is still surrounded, I'm thinking this is it. This is what fires (with about half hitting):

Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hermes II HER-2S (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Javelin JVN-10N (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (MG) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Locust LCT-1V (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Pegasus Scout Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scimitar Medium Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scorpion Light Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3G (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3R (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Striker Light Tank (LRM) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #4 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #5 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #6 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #7 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T #2 (Comstar)

Serious damage, the pilot blacks out from three head hits, it's over right? At this point they are already on top of him. NOPE the bot goes after the rest of my mechs at long/extreme range. The pilot WAKES UP the next turn, and is able to escape!
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PurpleDragon

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #482 on: 11 January 2017, 00:33:37 »
WOW, just wow. I'm sitting here playing AtB.  So, I roll up a Chase Mission. Thankfully I have Heavy Fog in my favor as My single Medium Star has a whole Comstar Level III (36 mechs and vees Light to Medium) against it. I crank on the RECKLESS and beat feet. 2nd turn, my Shadow Hawk IIC fails his roll and falls. Is still surrounded, I'm thinking this is it. This is what fires (with about half hitting):

Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hermes II HER-2S (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Javelin JVN-10N (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (MG) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Locust LCT-1V (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Pegasus Scout Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scimitar Medium Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scorpion Light Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3G (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3R (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Striker Light Tank (LRM) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #4 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #5 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #6 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #7 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T #2 (Comstar)

Serious damage, the pilot blacks out from three head hits, it's over right? At this point they are already on top of him. NOPE the bot goes after the rest of my mechs at long/extreme range. The pilot WAKES UP the next turn, and is able to escape!

I think princess was being nice.   You might be careful, she may have a crush on you.     :D
give a man a fire, keep him warm for a night. 
Set him on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life!

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JenniferinaMAD

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #483 on: 11 January 2017, 00:50:09 »
Princess sometimes considers KOed pilots past a certain trauma point to be unlikely to wake up, especially if the mech in question is crippled (as it is programmed to expect an ejection attempt, I think). At that point it will decide it can always finish the KOed unit later and goes for the next highest priority target.

Shutdown units from heat or low # pilot hits who are likely to reactivate soon and will then pose a serious threat, Princess will crush with no Mercy.

pfarland

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #484 on: 22 January 2017, 11:13:35 »
I think princess was being nice.   You might be careful, she may have a crush on you.     :D

I think she's more along the lines of my 2nd ex-wife.  Sweetness and roses until the blades come out.

Princess sometimes considers KOed pilots past a certain trauma point to be unlikely to wake up, especially if the mech in question is crippled (as it is programmed to expect an ejection attempt, I think). At that point it will decide it can always finish the KOed unit later and goes for the next highest priority target.

Shutdown units from heat or low # pilot hits who are likely to reactivate soon and will then pose a serious threat, Princess will crush with no Mercy.

Now that makes some sense.  Princess must have been updated since the last time I played with her (yes it's been awhile).  The last time I remember her alpha striking with multiple units at an ejected mechwarrior.
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JenniferinaMAD

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #485 on: 22 January 2017, 19:19:35 »
I believe Princess still does that. Each bot unit fires on its own, not caring what allies are already firing at what and thus easily overcommitting to killing weak targets. Ejected pilots have amongst the best odds of being destroyed by any given shot, and are considered full strength units (as they have not taken any damage or debilitating effect compared to a 1 man infantry platoon, which is what they really are in program terms). On top of that, their TMM mods will be bad. Princess therefore sees: "If I shoot that, I can easily take out a full strength enemy unit. SCORE!"

Even if BV value factors into that, the other factors seem to more than weigh against that.

(Which is why I play AtB with 'Ejected pilots autoflee' turned on.)

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #486 on: 06 February 2017, 02:39:35 »
I'm trying out AtB for the first time, and its pretty impressively complex. 

I've managed to muddle through:
Generating an initial force
Acquiring and assigning pilots
Building a TO&E
Acquiring a contract/mission

One thing I'm having trouble figuring out/finding an answer to: How do you actually get your force from the starting planet to the contract planet?  I see how to plot a jumpship route there, but every time I try to "Begin Transit" I end up leaving all my mechs behind.  Even though I have verified they're assigned to the "transport bay".

I even tried just giving my force enough dropships in case AtB doesn't use abstracted dropships (like it apparently does for jumpships...), but I still just leave my dropships behind when I begin transit. I feel like I'm missing something easy/basic, but I can't figure out what it could be.

« Last Edit: 06 February 2017, 02:44:58 by Tai Dai Cultist »

Southernskies

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #487 on: 06 February 2017, 06:30:02 »
The unit locations don't get reassigned until you reach the target planet. 

You can't leave units behind; its not an available function (even though larger unit players would like to do multiple planet contracts at once).

PurpleDragon

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #488 on: 06 February 2017, 11:15:16 »
What Southernskies said.  Just keep going forward in time until you arrive on planet then check the briefing room to make sure you have the required assigned forces assigned to the correct mission types. 
give a man a fire, keep him warm for a night. 
Set him on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life!

The secret to winning the land/air battle is that you must always remain rigidly flexible.

I like tabletop more anyway, computer games are for nerds!  -  Knallogfall

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #489 on: 06 February 2017, 13:48:03 »
Thanks guys.  I was overly hung up on the report tab that showed "no mechs in transit" during the voyage.

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #490 on: 06 February 2017, 22:14:44 »
'In transit' in the hangar means 'being delivered to you' and refers to units that you purchased but haven't made their way to you from the previous owner/factory yet.

'Transport bay' as a location isn't a precise location, but describes the maintenance gear quality available to that unit. It ranges from 'In the field', which means you're lucky if you have enough tarp to cover the mech+workspace if it rains, to 'factory', which means you've literally got spare parts on tap.



plutonick

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #491 on: 08 February 2017, 02:43:16 »
Is this considered considered to be a continuation of this thread "Campaign Rules: Against the Bot Thread #4"
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=2ks9meu2t70bv04f5rr6v3vtt7&topic=45803.0 ?

For some reason it doesn't have a post for quite some time.
Need a newbie guide for Against the Bot (AtB / MekHQ)? Click here (v3 updated August '19)

Iern

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #492 on: 16 August 2017, 04:30:03 »
resurrecting an ancient post  O0

After a long time I downloaded the last stable version of MekHQ and this interesting thing happened - I got to play exactly one battle in AtB campaign, and after that, no opponents load, ever, in any of the battles. I went through all of this thread (and some others) and no answers were detected to this specific problem. Does anyone have an idea wtf, and how can I fix it? (I used MekHQ few years back so I am not a total novice)....
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Kovax

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #493 on: 16 August 2017, 08:46:33 »
I've occasionally had enemy units load, but fail to deploy on the map.  Normally that happens if you play out a battle, do your repairs, and then have another battle without reloading MekHQ between fights.  I save, reload, and the problem goes away.  Not sure if that's the issue you're seeing, or not.

Flying Toaster

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #494 on: 08 November 2017, 12:26:44 »
I have a question about the AtB campaign, and I haven't been able to find the answer here.
Sometimes I come across a mission that won't let me start. At all. I've tried manually assigning individual mechs - going through every single one I have, yet it still won't let me start.
In order to move on, I've used GM mode to remove the battle, but this seems to result in me never getting another battle from that contract.
I have two questions:
1: How do I tell which unit/mech I'm supposed to assign to the battle?
2: Does removing the battle with GM mode actually cancel all further battles? Is it a bug or feature, or is the RNG deciding I don't get any more battles?

Rince Wind

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #495 on: 08 November 2017, 13:23:04 »
Allowed mechs are usually in the description, if there are restrictions.

From where did you try to assign the mechs, the TO&E?

It would help if you said what kind of battle that was, because I never had that.

Flying Toaster

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #496 on: 08 November 2017, 14:28:56 »
It was a 'star league cache' mission. The description talked about one mech (chosen at random) has to hold off 3 other mechs, helped by the star league mech powering up.
I tried to deploy the units from the TO&E - opening the groups, right clicking on each unit, and choosing deploy to battle.

Qwertronix

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #497 on: 09 November 2017, 02:32:48 »
It was a 'star league cache' mission. The description talked about one mech (chosen at random) has to hold off 3 other mechs, helped by the star league mech powering up.
I tried to deploy the units from the TO&E - opening the groups, right clicking on each unit, and choosing deploy to battle.

That's the right way to go about it, but just to be sure, did you double-check that the current date was the date the mission is scheduled to happen?

Flying Toaster

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #498 on: 09 November 2017, 17:35:18 »
The date might have been the problem, I don't recall what it was.

roman117

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #499 on: 26 November 2017, 18:48:35 »
Hey,

I'm trying to give one of my mechs a TAG in MekHQ, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that. I figured that right-clicking on my mech (in this case a Stinger, if that has anything to do with it) and selecting the option to customize it in the mek lab would allow me to do so, but when I go to the Equipment tab I don't see any TAGs anywhere, even though I bought two (though the equipment tab DOES have a few items that I haven't bought, like flamers and hatchets, for some reason)

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
« Last Edit: 26 November 2017, 18:59:19 by roman117 »


Words really can win wars. Especially when those words are missiles and lasers.

Hammer

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #500 on: 26 November 2017, 19:55:39 »
Hey,

I'm trying to give one of my mechs a TAG in MekHQ, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that. I figured that right-clicking on my mech (in this case a Stinger, if that has anything to do with it) and selecting the option to customize it in the mek lab would allow me to do so, but when I go to the Equipment tab I don't see any TAGs anywhere, even though I bought two (though the equipment tab DOES have a few items that I haven't bought, like flamers and hatchets, for some reason)

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

What version of MML are you using? What year are you building the Mech? What Tech Level is the mech set for?
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roman117

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #501 on: 26 November 2017, 20:02:58 »
What version of MML are you using? What year are you building the Mech? What Tech Level is the mech set for?

I'm using MekHQ 0.43.5 which comes with MML. The year in my campaign is currently 3046 and the tech level is 'Introductory'


Words really can win wars. Especially when those words are missiles and lasers.

2ndAcr

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #502 on: 26 November 2017, 21:53:47 »
3046 I am pretty sure you need to be at advanced or even experimental rules to be able to equip TAG

Hammer

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #503 on: 26 November 2017, 22:23:30 »
I'm using MekHQ 0.43.5 which comes with MML. The year in my campaign is currently 3046 and the tech level is 'Introductory'

3046 I am pretty sure you need to be at advanced or even experimental rules to be able to equip TAG

This.  TAG isn't Intro rules.
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roman117

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #504 on: 26 November 2017, 22:27:55 »
Yeah, when you mentioned the tech level I figured that had something to do with it. I set the tech to Standard and it's working now. Thanks!


Words really can win wars. Especially when those words are missiles and lasers.

Hammer

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #505 on: 28 November 2017, 20:49:30 »
Another option for running a profitable Merc Company.

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Rince Wind

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #506 on: 07 December 2017, 16:12:31 »
A lot safer as well!

PurpleDragon

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #507 on: 11 December 2017, 16:46:02 »
A lot safer as well!

Where's the fun in that? 
give a man a fire, keep him warm for a night. 
Set him on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life!

The secret to winning the land/air battle is that you must always remain rigidly flexible.

I like tabletop more anyway, computer games are for nerds!  -  Knallogfall

commando001

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #508 on: 14 March 2018, 11:20:10 »
Is anyone having issues with the AtB always sending more than 4 times your forces, regardless of the mission type?

NickAragua

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #509 on: 14 March 2018, 12:52:29 »
AtB opposition units will very frequently outnumber your force. Mostly because the assumption is that the player is much better than the bot. Additionally, very often, the opfor uses fairly crappy units (Vedettes, Scorpion tanks, etc) that just aren't as good as the hand-picked units a player will field.

That being said, there are several ways (in-game and settings) to manage the opfor size:

1) Set difficulty level to easiest or second easiest. This will greatly limit the number of enemy units deployed.
2) Uncheck the "double opfor vehicles" checkbox in the AtB tab, this will reduce the number of tanks the opfor fields.
3) Uncheck the 'allow enemy infantry' and 'allow enemy aeros' checkboxes in the AtB tab.
4) Make sure you're running at or close to the lance weight brackets. 130/200/280/380. If your lance weighs 135 tons, you'll be fighting opponents rolled from the opfor table for a 200-ton lance.
5) If you're still getting your clock cleaned, feel free to send extra guys in as reinforcements anyway or manually remove units once you get to Megamek, the bot won't mind.