Astech

[Saboe]

  I have just noticed that Mekhq will randomly add or remove astechs from my roster. Is there a reason behind this? Or has it always been this way and I have just never noticed?

[Giovanni Blasini]

Temporary ones, or the named ones who get picked up as dependents?

[JenniferinaMAD]

Are you playing AtB campaigns? If so, random amounts of astechs can be added as scenario rewards (mostly the scouting missions), and at the end of each year if your reputation is good. If it's bad, it might also remove them.

[neoancient]

There is also a roll once a year in AtB that can add or remove dependents.

[Giovanni Blasini]

What the heck are you supposed to do with dependents, anyway? Training them up for anything seems near impossible, and while they're marked as astechs, they don't seem to count towards my astech pool.

[JenniferinaMAD]

I'm not sure what they're for, either. At the default XP rate over time (10+ on 2d6 once per month), it takes years to get them to qualify as anything (after which they can finally start earning XP in some role or other). And are you then supposed to mark them as not dependent anymore?
AtB does not seem to be dealing with them in any mechanical way other than to have the fill up the save file and draw salaries?

That said, if they don't count for your astech pool, something is wrong. Note though that 'bring all astech teams to full strength' does not remove astechs if you have more than you need, it only adds them if you're short. To get exactly what you'll need you have to first 'release all temporary astechs' and then 'bring all astech teams to full strength', at which point the astech dependents in your roster should be taken into account.

[Saboe]

Temporary ones, or the named ones who get picked up as dependents?

 Named ones. Just one advance day and it told me four different names that had been removed from roster. I really do not know if the ones I lost had been hired or were added after a mission. It could have been year end. I would have been somewhere near there but it was bot done in the retirement rolls.   Either way I was just curious what the point was.

[JenniferinaMAD]

Personnel marked as dependent isn't meant to make retirement rolls. The will leave if your unit rating is low, but that's the only way they'll leave that I know of.

[Southernskies]

As soon as a dependent gets enough xp, buy Admin and assign them to a job.  Depending on your settings, they should start earning xp nearly every week.  After a year or so, you have replacement 5/4 mech pilots!

Of course, then there is the newborn dependent I have with Tactics +2...  (can't talk, yet can plan a major battle.  Those teddy bears are in big trouble!)

[BLOODWOLF]

I have my dependents turn into mechanics once they get 3XP and can become 6+ Astechs I'll just turn them into whatever tech that I'm short on.  But I also do my XP custom 9xp for a new skill, 3xp from 7 to 6+, then 9,18,30,etc.  I think the idea behind dependents is that they are family members of people in your unit.....or something.

[PurpleDragon]

The only problem I have had with the dependents showing up, other than age, is that when they decide to leave, or whatever happens, its all of them and there is no way to GM edit any of them back.

[pheonixstorm]

This part is item I dislike about AtB, though the rules from FM:Mercs was somewhat the same in this regard, though in official rules they do not count as astechs but can contribute to your tech pool. Downside they cost c-bills for upkeep. CO does away with that and just has them affect your rating if you can't transport them. This is not part of HQ yet, and will be optional if or when it is.

[MoleMan]

Most of mine seem to come with a small arms skill, so I marry them to someone, then chuck them into a squad in the training Lance and use them to replace the cannot fodder. Unless they have a random skill like vehicle gunnery already.

[JenniferinaMAD]

cannot fodder

I have to know, pun or typo?  :D

[BLOODWOLF]

Lol if your sterile your going to the infantry son xD

[Snimm]

Dependents who work as astechs reduce the number of temp techs you'd have to hire when you get to a new planet.  In theory, having dependent Astechs should reduce some of your costs.  I'm not sure if that's how they work in practice, however.

[JenniferinaMAD]

Dependents who work as astechs reduce the number of temp techs you'd have to hire when you get to a new planet.  In theory, having dependent Astechs should reduce some of your costs.  I'm not sure if that's how they work in practice, however.

I'm not sure, but I think in MekHQ it's the opposite: dependents still draw a salary based on the skill and job, while temp astechs and medics don't (though I'm not sure on the latter).

[Rince Wind]

I had a weird situation where I ran out of astech-hours repeatedly, even though I had more than enough temp ones. Especially as the aero- and ground unit techs only had their maintenance to do.
Releasing and rehiring the temp astechs helped, but it seems the man hours didn't get updated on new days. Might have been because of the mass repairs.
Didn't report it as I am still using .42, not the cutting egde stuff.

[JenniferinaMAD]

Something I've found in earlier versions is that when you GM->Complete a repair task that is already scheduled for completion (i.e. the tech ran out of time), that frequently triggered the '0 astech minutes' bug when you switched to the next day and the tech tried to complete a no longer existing task. I made sure not to do this once I noticed the potential pattern, so I can't say what, if any version, stopped having this quirk (if I was in fact not just seeing things).

[Jayof9s]

while temp astechs and medics don't (though I'm not sure on the latter).

They're supposed to. If they aren't adding to overall salaries it's broken. Then again, astechs and medics don't exactly get paid a lot.

[pheonixstorm]

yeah, medics and astechs are treated as green so it is 400 x .6 which is not the case RAW.

As for dependents as astechs they should not be getting paid. Outside of AtB at any rate.. not sure if AtB pays them or is supposed to. That would be a question for scjazz and neo

[2ndAcr]

 I released my 756 temporary astech and medics and my payroll did not change an cent. It does change if I release any of my 400 hired astechs or medics.

 SO I have almost 800 folks working for free.

 This is under MekHQ 0.42.0

 I have not switched over to the newest version yet