Author Topic: New to MekHQ - Questions  (Read 47341 times)

cmoreland

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New to MekHQ - Questions
« on: 09 June 2015, 16:48:06 »
I have a few questions, if any of you could answer any it would be much appreciated!

- In a nutshell, what is 'Against the bot' in the campaign options? I add the bot when we drop into MM and then assign my unit's 'mechs to my friends that connect and we all vs the AI bot. Same thing or something else?
- Do you guys pull from external scenarios for your campaigns/contracts?
- I've seen a few Excel contract generators but is there one that is a standalone program or app that does negotiating?
- How do you convert a Dragoons numerical rating to an alphabetical one? (as seen in a few of the Excel-based contract generators)
- What does MoS mean in the Repair and Acq tab of the Campaign options?
- Are Mech Techs that are under skill 9 or 10 completely useless? They break like..everything. All the time.
- Why do I get a single random roll show up in the daily log during the refit process on a certain day and can I view the modifiers there? (<300 hours left on a 70,000 hour refit and lvl 8 tech consistently failed the roll, necessitating another 70,000 hours! Ain't nobody got time fo dat!)
- Opinions on whether or not I should hire astechs or just use the temp pools during jobs?
- What does TO&E stand for?
- What are the requirements specifically to say, import my own 150x150 pilot pic and make it work?
- What happens if I choose to take more salvage than the contract allows? Do I get penalized or not paid on the contract? Does the employer give you your percentage after the round or after the contract end if it's like, a 'mech chassis or something?
- Is there a need for a jumpship/dropship? Does it speed up space travel? I didn't buy either and am still able to travel and deploy to scenarios.
- Is there an option to GM a refit to completion?

Thanks!!!

EDIT: How I imagine a 'Regular' Mech Tech in the 'mech lab at any given time:
« Last Edit: 09 June 2015, 17:00:42 by cmoreland »

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #1 on: 09 June 2015, 18:18:04 »
Others will probably give more complete answers, but here's my best try:

1: The Against the Bot Campaign is a special set of random scenario and opposing force generators that allow you to run a campaign against the bot  as per http://bg.battletech.com/forums/megamek-games/campaign-rules-against-the-bot-thread-4/60/
Without those rules, MekHQ isn't nothing but a very nice(!) record keeping tool for campaigns.

2: It depends on what you want. Some use MekHQ to keep track of their table top campaign forces, others make their own contracts and scenarios, and then there are the Against the Bot rules (see link above).

3: The Against the Bot rules create random contracts for you, otherwise you'll have to manually obtain and enter all values.

4: Under campaign rules there should be an option of how to calculate the rating: either 'Interstella Ops Beta' or 'Field Manual Mercenaries: Revised'. The first is the default one and gives a numerical rating, the second is an older one that gives a letter rating (with a numerical value in brackets, though it won't match up with the IntStel OPs calculations).
As far as I can tell, the default method gives you lower ratings mostly because it requires a lot more administrative personell.

5: It stands for Margin Of Success, ie how many points you rolled above the target number. The higher the roll, the more potent the effect, usually.

6: General opinion appears to be that the maintenance rules were written by someone who didn't think through their implications for long term play. Yes, maintaining a mech is apparently a task requiring a veteran or better to not botch frequently. There is an opportunity to fiddle with the settings to make maintenance easier. I just turn maintenance off but keep assigning techs anyway, just pretending that they're doing their job. Battle damage usually gives them enough to do/fail at anyway.

7: When doing customisations, keep an eye on the time/money/refit class needed. The more complex the refit, the more time it will take and the more difficult the roll will be. Modifications only get one roll: pass at the end of the time and you're done, fail and it will take double time.
Changing structure, engines and/or Case are the worst offenders for driving up the time and target numbers.
(And a note: If you have a mixed IS/Clan tech mech and want to modify it further, meklab tends to switch the armour type to Clan Standard by default, regardless of what the mech had; if you don't set that back where it's supposed to be, you're in for a super long refit).

8: The temp ones are fine and will keep your personell list and save files smaller (helping performance). If you're playing Against the Bot rules, you'll be swimming in astechs soon either way, though.

9: Table of Organisation Equipment, I think. Basically anything in there is considered to be an active, deployable part of your unit. When an employer asks what you can bring to a fight, that's what you show them (ie contract payment is based on that).

10: Sorry, I don't know. The batch I got from the megamek forums uses 150*150 png files, though the default is a 72*72 gif. I think as long as they are in a folder called either 'male' or 'female' in data/images/portraits/ they might work?

11: I don't think anything happens at the end of the contract. After each scenario you get your pick (or a payment if the terms were 'exchange'). To total for both sides is tracked, so if you go over, you can't get any more salvage in future scenarios of the same contract until you've collected enough to go under your share again. That means you can grab as much as you can get away with in the last mission if you want, if that's how you want to play? Can't imagine the employer being too happy, but it's your game (that is the most important part about MekHQ, btw. It's your game.)

12: The idea is that if you don't have jump/dropships, the employer will get you to your contract destination somehow. MekHQ tracks payment per jump if you don't have 100% transport capacity, but I believe those rules are officially referred as 'a hack' for now because there are no official guidelines just yet. Note that if your contract has 100% transport costs covered by the employer, you won't pay either way.

13: Not really. What you can do is GM-> remove the unit to be refitted and purchase -> Add (GM) the unit you wished to refit it to (you may have to set your available tech limits in the campaign rules and probably allow non-canon units for purchase to find them, though).


2ndAcr

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #2 on: 09 June 2015, 18:28:20 »
I will give it a shot.

 1. Against the Bot basically meaning running a campaign against the bot. It will generate contracts, OPFOR for you and such
 2. HQ has a contract generator built in already and it does a pretty good job
 3. see number 2
 4. HQ will calculate the numerical and also show a "C" rating next to it for example
 6. DO NOT ASSIGN ANY TECH under Veteran to anything in my experience unless you cheat for example during transit, I will set all to Factory and allow Regular to polish them and such
 7. Only Elite should attempt any kind of refit and I only do a refit if it a simple one or I am between contracts to simulate sending the mech to a Factory to do the work
 8. I use both, I have about 55 astechs, but need 198 or so, so the temp pool fills the hole
 9. Tables of Organization & Equipment
 11. Not real sure as I pretty much stay below the contract amount
 12. No need to own transports, moving without simulates you hiring transport but having one or some sure makes life easier, I even simulate using my jumpship while on garrison contract doing cargo runs to nearby planets and such and adding the money to Finance each month or so
 13. Not that I have found.

cmoreland

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #3 on: 09 June 2015, 22:40:18 »
Wow I appreciate you guys taking the time to answer these questions. I do have some more that have been raised based on your answers there...

- On the 'Factory' Setting and others, if I were in the middle of a contract on a certain planet would I (roleplaying mind you) be able to just switch those around willy nilly or is there a theoretical movement time associated with those things?

- How do you cope with jumping all over the galaxy and taking months and months and months? Do you pretty much stick to contracts a couple months away tops? (like, the next planet or ?)

- Does the astech pool for instance stay on for a given period of time or do you pretty much have to release them when you are done?

PurpleDragon

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #4 on: 10 June 2015, 00:06:21 »
Just a note:  TO&E is a U.S. military term that means Training, Organization, & Equipment.  Not trying to step on any toes.  Just trying to make sure that we all understand the usage of terms.  That's not to say they could not have changed it in Battletech for their own use. 

I like to RP a lot for battletech.  While the program lets you change sites willy nilly, we all know that in real life that would not be the case.  For your game, do what is best for you and your players.  In mine, I might go so far as to draw a map and say "it takes you (# of minutes) time to travel from here to there.  (# of minutes) time to load immobilized units onto trucks and transport them from here to there...". 

Jumping all over the Sphere would be up to your players.  If they have the money to sit and wait for a contract that is closer, maybe they should do so.  If not...   >:D
Also, whenever possible, they might want to take the longer contracts as opposed to the shorter ones.  AtB tends to generate the same types of battles regardless of the type of contract. 

Keep the astech pool full at all times or you will suffer if you are using the maintenance cycles.  I would make sure the maintenance cycles are set to 30 day checks as well.  For RP purposes, you can just hodge podge/assume the astechs are sent home.  One other thing you could do is to put your units into mothball.  No maintenance required during the time they are in mothball.  But, What do you do when you get to the target planet of a planetary assault and you are the attacker?  Hmmmmm?   
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JenniferinaMAD

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #5 on: 10 June 2015, 01:06:33 »
The Against the Bot rules have specific rules for when you are at what facility levels, and I think automatically implement them. Generally speaking, if you are a deployed combat unit, your commanders/employers will be trying to keep the fighting (and thus you) far away from the maintenance depots and factories.
Using those would thus result in some serious time away from the front lines, I'd imagine.
That said, it's your game. You may find Strategic Operations helpful in assessing what is right for you and your game.

Travelling the Galaxy takes a lot of time. If you can't afford the wages, you could try to take out a loan (just make sure you'll have the means to pay it back when it's due).

Astechs I think are supposed to be a steady stream of short term contractors. However, they're easy to (re)hire and their impact on anything is so small, that the MekHQ offers this shorthand for tracking them. Basically, unless your GM (you?) says there aren't enough available due to exceptional circumstances, just keep cruising with a full complement.


pheonixstorm

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #6 on: 10 June 2015, 06:47:39 »
For time away from dropship, use in the field unless you have a MFB or some kind of repair vehicle. For a dropship or MFB leave it at transport bay. If you are away from your dropship but have trailing support units that can help with repairs use the second option (the one below transport bay but above in the field). I always keep a small support team handy for salvage and repairs. Usually two repair trucks and two recovery trucks. Use VTOL and Hover for running supplies (spare parts).

PurpleDragon

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #7 on: 10 June 2015, 06:57:11 »
I just noticed the question about owning your own dropships/jumpships.  While the others have already posted, correctly, that it does not affect your ablility to get to and from jobs/hiring locations, it does affect your dragoons/mercenary rating. 

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

Sir Chaos

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #8 on: 10 June 2015, 08:32:25 »
I just noticed the question about owning your own dropships/jumpships.  While the others have already posted, correctly, that it does not affect your ablility to get to and from jobs/hiring locations, it does affect your dragoons/mercenary rating.

And your transportation costs.
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PurpleDragon

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #9 on: 10 June 2015, 08:35:32 »
And your transportation costs.

That too.   But since I never play with that option on  ::)   I guess I forgot to mention that part of it.    O:-)
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

Kovax

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #10 on: 10 June 2015, 10:32:50 »
Roughly a 2 modifier to the default difficulty should allow you to use the maintenance and repair system.  Green techs will be able to reload ammo with no problems, and fix armor or replace actuators in a "field repair" more often than not, mostly by taking double or quadruple time, but you'll want at least Regulars for more complex tasks, and to make use of transport bays when you can justify it (that's mostly an RP thing, because there's nothing technically stopping you from just setting everything to "Factory").  The "norm" is to try a repair with a Green tech.  When (not so much "if") they botch the attempt, try again with a Regular.  If that fails, try a Veteran, and if that fails, then you resort to your Elite tech with as many bonuses as you can manage for facility and time, because if he fails, you need to scrap the part.  I've run campaigns with one Veteran tech, two Regulars, and the rest Green, but it may require "renting" proper repair facilities for a few days every couple of months for those really nasty jobs where you absolutely NEED to succeed (such as a CT structure repair).  If you use the default settings, your entire force will likely turn to scrap in about 6 months to a year.

Jumpships and Dropships are expensive and hard to acquire even if you have the funds.  They're included for those "major" mercenary units that have them, or the lucky few smaller units that manage to acquire one, but a lot of smaller 'Mercs don't.  Consider them "moneymaking assets" that give you additional funds on the "transportation" line of the contract, and don't do a whole lot else unless you manually consider and limit yourself to what they can deliver to the battlefield.  I don't know if the latest MegaMek release has fixed the bug where adding a landed DS to a ground map would break line-of-sight for every other unit on the map not directly adjacent to the enemy it's looking at.

ralgith

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #11 on: 10 June 2015, 10:46:52 »
Actually TO&E is Table of Organization and Equipment. Not Training.

scJazz

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #12 on: 10 June 2015, 13:08:09 »
If you use the default settings, your entire force will likely turn to scrap in about 6 months to a year.

It has been about 20 months since I joined the bandwagon and declared the Canon Maintenance Rules... not just simple garbage but like... horrifically stupid, didn't think it out, didn't have an Editor, failure to Spreadsheet, or just plain old failure to roll some dice. The failure is older than this... by a lot... is there some reason why we can't get better Canon Rules?

pheonixstorm

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #13 on: 10 June 2015, 14:49:15 »
I don't know if the latest MegaMek release has fixed the bug where adding a landed DS to a ground map would break line-of-sight for every other unit on the map not directly adjacent to the enemy it's looking at.
This was fixed awhile ago. I couldn't live with out it being fixed as I use my DS a lot.

cmoreland

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #14 on: 10 June 2015, 14:58:28 »
Is there a way currently to track most damage done by a particular pilot? I'm getting some feedback from my mates that the XP system could be a little more robust.

Consider this: A pilot does most of the work on an enemy unit, another pilot steals the killing blow and get the XP from the skill system in MekHQ post-battle.

How would you tackle this?

pheonixstorm

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #15 on: 10 June 2015, 16:07:44 »
Thats  GM decision so it would require manual XP assignment. Usually though as far as TW play is concerned (according to SO anyway) each scenario is worth 1xp and kills (at least I haven't run across this) do not count toward that total. In my own campaign I use 1xp per 5 kills. AtB uses 1 per kill but the cost of upgrading skills is a lot higher as well. Plus when you resolve a scenario in HQ you can always change the kill assignments as well ;)

PurpleDragon

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #16 on: 11 June 2015, 00:57:48 »
In the campaign options there are tabs that allow you to change xp (both how much it costs for skills and how much you gain when; for the most part). 
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

cmoreland

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #17 on: 11 June 2015, 10:14:15 »
In the campaign options there are tabs that allow you to change xp (both how much it costs for skills and how much you gain when; for the most part).

I did see that, but I'm really confused as to how the columns work with the rows. I just need to wrap my brain around that a little better...

scJazz

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #18 on: 11 June 2015, 10:26:07 »
The 0 Row shows the cost to purchase the skill. Each additional row shows how much it costs to advance to that level.

So for instance...

Assuming Gunnery/Mech was 5xp all across the board... and you had 20XP to use on a totally new pilot...

5 XP buys the skill, then 5, 5, 5 to advance to Level 3 for a total of 20xp.

It can get way more complicated though :) That was just the easy example.

-1 in a Row for a particular skill means it can not be purchased or it is skipped over for that Level.
So using AtB rules... Tech/Mech goes -1, 10, -1, 20, 40. You can't buy it at Zero Level, the first Level is 1, 2 is skipped, then 3 and finally 4.

cmoreland

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #19 on: 11 June 2015, 17:08:02 »
The 0 Row shows the cost to purchase the skill. Each additional row shows how much it costs to advance to that level.

So for instance...

Assuming Gunnery/Mech was 5xp all across the board... and you had 20XP to use on a totally new pilot...

5 XP buys the skill, then 5, 5, 5 to advance to Level 3 for a total of 20xp.

It can get way more complicated though :) That was just the easy example.

-1 in a Row for a particular skill means it can not be purchased or it is skipped over for that Level.
So using AtB rules... Tech/Mech goes -1, 10, -1, 20, 40. You can't buy it at Zero Level, the first Level is 1, 2 is skipped, then 3 and finally 4.

How do you make it double and triple at each skill purchase? Right now it cost 8 to upgrade gunnery, it seems rather broken than another easy 8 can move you to godlike never miss level. Shouldn't it be like, 16 or even 32 pts to go from a +3 gunnery modifier to a +2?

2ndAcr

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #20 on: 11 June 2015, 18:17:59 »
 That setting is if you are using the Against the Bot options....................if so, you should see 2 buttons above the RAT selection on right side of screen, click them and you will need some hefty EXP points to advance

pheonixstorm

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #21 on: 11 June 2015, 19:07:45 »
Not at the default rate. To go from 3 to 4 cost 8pts, but you have to survive 8 scenarios. Don't forget you have other skills to raise as well. Default setting also doesn't give xp for kills either.

Dulahan

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #22 on: 19 June 2015, 19:13:22 »
OK, so I'm wanting to use this to do my own TT Campaign I'm GMing.  (Controlling the Opfors, etc).   But the GM mode stuff is all greyed out so I can't change Mechwarrior skills or names or anything.  But I also can't find any way to turn that on?  So... what am I missing?

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #23 on: 19 June 2015, 20:21:25 »
There should be a button labelled 'GM Mode' in the upper right, next to the 'Advance Day' button. It's supposed to change shade depending on wether GM mode is on, but it's a very subtle change, easy to miss. If you can't use the GM options, click it once. That should set you right.

Dulahan

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #24 on: 20 June 2015, 11:26:51 »
Thanks!  Turns out I needed to maximize my window to see that.  Whoops.

Now playing around is continuing to baffle me.  Upgrades.  I'm trying to see how 'refits' work, but no matter what I do it says I don't have any Astechs.  I have 12 temps, and some hired ones.  But it doesn't seem to matter.  I have the parts,  the money, everything.  But I seem to be missing another thing that must be done to have the Astechs there.

Ironboot

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #25 on: 20 June 2015, 12:39:46 »
Check in MekHQ/docs folder..  There is a MekHQ Tutorial document inside that might get you started.


2ndAcr

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #26 on: 20 June 2015, 18:29:16 »
 Use the drop down and fire all your temp astechs and then re-hire the temps, I find that sometimes clears stuff up. Very rare, but seems to help me at times.

 Does not matter if you have the parts, everytime I do a refit, it buys all the stuff anyway whether I have it in inventory or not.

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #27 on: 20 June 2015, 20:11:14 »
It sometimes does that for me, too. I think there may be a bug with damaged items in the warehouse?

I had a 8 ER-mediums, most damaged. By the time I repaired them I had four stacks:
1 ERmed never broken
4 ERmed repaired by regulars
2 ERmeds repaired by veterans
1 ERmed repaired by an elite

When I tried for a refit, it would pull ERmeds out of one stack, and buy the rest, never checking if there were more stacks. Each refit would find a first stack, though.

That's what I noticed, I have no clue how correct my guesses are, of course.

pheonixstorm

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #28 on: 20 June 2015, 21:25:58 »
Could be each stack had a different quality rating.

JenniferinaMAD

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Re: New to MekHQ - Questions
« Reply #29 on: 20 June 2015, 23:58:11 »
Of course! That hadn't even occurred to me. Shouldn't it still draw from the other stacks before buying new parts for a refit?