Hi,
This has now been released see
here for details.We've been teasing work on Alpha Strike Cards in MegaMek since last fall. That code is finally going into review, and we anticipate its release in our our next release (version 0.49.11). Since we are close to a release we wanted to give a more detailed look at the feature.
I'm going to assume everyone here knows what MegaMek is, but if you aren't familiar with it please have a look
here. We worked off the most current rules and errata as well as input from the Alpha Strike devs to develop this. The Alpha Strike writers and developers have answered a huge number of questions for us. We want to thank them for their time and patience in helping us get this as accurate and current as we can. We also want to thank Mordel whose site has been instrumental in helping us get our calculations right.
Very important note: this is
NOT a playable version of Alpha Strike. At this time, we have no plans to implement a "MegaStrike" version of Alpha Strike. It is strictly a tool for getting Alpha Strike stats, conversions, and cards and to help both Alpha Strike players and BattleTech players see and learn about Alpha Strike.
There will be a couple of ways to access the unit cards in MegaMek.
1) From the Splash Screen select GAME-Browse Units (this can take up to 20 seconds the first time you start MegaMek).
Alternatively, you can go into Megamek via Start a New Game and then select "Add a Combat Unit" from the game’s lobby.
2) Either way you'll get our Unit Selector to open.
- In the Top left you'll see drop downs for Unit Type, Weight Class, Type, and a text filter (search box).
- In the center middle an Advanced Search, Clear the Search, and BV/PV button (switches between BV and PV).
3) The main display will list all the units by Chassis, Model, Weight, BV/PV, Intro year, and price
4) On the right window it will show three tabs - Summary, TRO, and AS Card
Summary TabThe summary tab display the standard BattleTech stats for the unit.
A note on the information around what era if would be available. This is based off the tables in Interstellar Operations - Alternate Eras and is best used for RPG style games. The
MUL is the official source for what is available in what era. Most units will have "
source field" that is a hyperlink and if you click that it will open the
MUL page for the unit.
TRO Tab The TRO tab creates a TRO style entry for the unit.
AS CardThe AS Card displays the Alpha Strike Stats
- The font will let you change to any system installed font.
- Card Size lets you change the size of the card up to 2x the standard size or down to 1/3 the standard size.
- The copy to clipboard will allow you to copy and paste the card into a photo program/document.
- The MUL button is a short cut to open the unit information on the the MUL
- Conversion report shows how we got the values. We've worked with the AS Developers to get this accurate to the time of this post and includes all current and pending errata.
Sample of Conversion Report
Using the Advanced Search. The advanced search button will open the search dialog with two tabs - Total Warfare and Alpha Strike
The advanced search "Total Warfare" tab lets you set the following search options
- Walk
- Jump
- Armor at least (as a percentage of maximum)
- Type of Cockpit
- Internal Structure
- Armor Type
- Weapons and Equipment - You can set table filters to limit equipment to unit type, Tech Class or Tech Level.
Selecting a unit type will limit the shown equipment to what weapons/equipment that unit can use. In addition to searching for a single piece of equipment, you can build filter expressions using the brackets as well as “AND” and “OR”.
For example: 1 AC/10 And ( 1 ER Large Laser (IS) Or 1 ER Large Laser (Clan) )
This says show me units that have 1 AC/10 and 1 ER Large Laser (IS) or 1 ER Large Laser (Clan)
It then returns the following
- Bushwacker BSW-X1
- Enforcer III ENF-6Ma
- Emperor EMP-7L
The advanced search for Alpha Strike lets you search by the following:
Unit Type,Size,PV,Movement (type and value), the following as a range - Armor, Structure, Threshold, Damage S/M/L/E, OV and by up to 2 special abilities. In the AS search you do need to specify a range using both boxes. i.e 2-10
But one of the coolest things is you can string the two searches together. For example, I can set this up in the Total Warfare search:
( 1 Active Probe (Beagle) And 1 ECM Suite (Guardian) ) And ( 1 ER Large Laser Or 1 ER Large Laser ) with a minimum walk of 5
then on the Alpha Strike side I set Long Range Damage at between 2 and 20.
This search will find only one result:
Custom UnitsYou can add custom units to MegaMek (ideally build with MegaMekLab) and add them per this this
wiki entry. This entry also covers what units MegaMekLab currently supports. Once added and MegaMek is restarted it will calculate the Alpha Strike stats. While building in MegaMekLab the lab will try to real-time('ish) give Alpha Strike Stats.
Limits- This is a new feature in MegaMek and while it's had a year of development there is still a chance of bugs. Currently it will only be available in the development releases starting in 0.49.11 and to install you'd need to upgrade to Java 11 only, and be aware of the release notes.
- MegaMek only includes units with record sheets, so while we have one of the most complete lists of units if it doesn't have an official record sheet you won't see it included.
- Please note we do not provide fluff or fonts with MegaMek due to copyright. Images in screenshots are for demonstration purposes
Future SupportWe do have future (non-gameplay) ideas for improving this including printing the Alpha Strike cards from MegaMekLab or using MegaMek's RAT generators to produce unit lists that in turn could be printed. But we have no ETA on that. We are still determining the at launch support in MegaMekLab and MekHQ.
We looking forward to everyone getting there hands on this soon.
