New Stable Release 0.48.0 for MegaMek, MegaMekLab, and MekHQ

[ThePW]

You rock. I just hope you don't still a habit of chewing on your kid's crayons

[TriplerSDMB]

Ranks have a nasty bug in stable, and only the Second Star League ranks can be selected.

As for prsx file import, that one is new to me. Please open an issue on our GitHub and I'll take a look.

Done, thank you!

You can also just define your custom rank system in the save file, as the issue solely relates to campaign options dialog. However, make a backup before doing so in case of typos.

I tried that, and my custom ranks seem to dissappear every time I save, close, and re-open the program.  I'll try StormForge's idea though. . . 

Trip

[Scotty]

Is there a slightly easier to read synopsis of the Stratcon rules?  I might just be missing it.

Also, if anyone knows the answer offhand, do those rules keep the asinine AtB weather/time of day options?  Because if those could get quietly removed and never mentioned again I'd be 100% on board.

[TriplerSDMB]

Done, thank you!

I tried that, and my custom ranks seem to dissappear every time I save, close, and re-open the program.  I'll try StormForge's idea though. . . 

Trip

And I tried this, replacing the "Second Star League" rank criteria with my own--loads perfectly every time!

[Windchild]

Is there a slightly easier to read synopsis of the Stratcon rules?  I might just be missing it.

Also, if anyone knows the answer offhand, do those rules keep the asinine AtB weather/time of day options?  Because if those could get quietly removed and never mentioned again I'd be 100% on board.

I do not, and... I'm pretty sure they do.

[dgorsman]

I don't mind most of the weather and lighting options.  Recon scenarios are a lot easier to carry out in darkness, and close air support is a bit safer (once searchlights are mostly dealt with).  Hide and seek is a little more interesting as well.

I find weather options a bit more of a mixed bag.  Wind can make taking on SRM and LRM carriers practical, snow and ice make longer games a bit more of a gamble.  But as a competing example, ignoring default wind conditions from TacOps but still using default (and usually overblown) temperatures, without notice.  There should be something done to prevent or limit wind and temperature conditions when there are large proportions of conventional forces are present (I've had it try to deploy an all-infantry force with Tornado conditions present).  Could use the variable wind strength and direction settings more.  High wind isn't doing damage to terrain on each turn either, which is straight out of TacOps.

[yukamichi]

Also, if anyone knows the answer offhand, do those rules keep the asinine AtB weather/time of day options?  Because if those could get quietly removed and never mentioned again I'd be 100% on board.

You know you can just disable those in the options, right?

[Scotty]

Genuinely, I did not.  Most of the time I'd be fine with one step in any direction (light rain, dawn/dusk, strong wind, etc.) but fighting in Moonless Night Heavy Fog is probably one of the all-time least fun games I've ever played.

[Thom293]

I have a contract with House command rights which I think means I get one bot controlled unit per lance.

All other contracts have been normal.  But For some reason this particular contract has never generated an ally.  I even had a base attack and did not get the 2 ally lances, although a spot for them in the mission was generated (you can see it says 0 BV).  The rest of the battles there isnt even a spot generated for them on the individual battles.

I suppose there could be some event that disabled them that I missed, but I dont recall an event that does that.  There were two employer betrayals the  first two months, but it only affected moral I think.  Enemy moral has been High both months, but I dont think that should make a difference.  Is this is a bug?  Screens attached.

[Windchild]

I have a contract with House command rights which I think means I get one bot controlled unit per lance.

All other contracts have been normal.  But For some reason this particular contract has never generated an ally.  I even had a base attack and did not get the 2 ally lances, although a spot for them in the mission was generated (you can see it says 0 BV).  The rest of the battles there isnt even a spot generated for them on the individual battles.

I suppose there could be some event that disabled them that I missed, but I dont recall an event that does that.  There were two employer betrayals the  first two months, but it only affected moral I think.  Enemy moral has been High both months, but I dont think that should make a difference.  Is this is a bug?  Screens attached.

Almost certainly a bug, possibly related to it being a contract for the Federated Commonwealth. Please open up an issue with your campaign file, log files, and customs using the link in my signature and I'll take a look shortly.

[Thom293]

Almost certainly a bug, possibly related to it being a contract for the Federated Commonwealth. Please open up an issue with your campaign file, log files, and customs using the link in my signature and I'll take a look shortly.

Will do. It will be a few hours. Been a while since I have been on github. Have to find my credentials.

FYI it was an auto generated contract but the only unusual thing was it had like 160+ day travel time, if that helps. 

[MoleMan]

I usually play with weather on but lighting conditions off, the reduced movement for not bringing your nvg's was just insane imo

[dgorsman]

I usually play with weather on but lighting conditions off, the reduced movement for not bringing your nvg's was just insane imo

There's an option buried in there to ignore darkness movement restrictions.  And an RFE to ignore restrictions for units with searchlights.

For what it's worth, night vision gear is pretty bad for depth perception, contrast, fine detail, and other small bits which make fast movement difficult.  But I do find it annoying jumping units have zero penalties - there should be a piloting check on landing, or something that makes it risky.

[BATTLEMASTER]

For what it's worth, night vision gear is pretty bad for depth perception, contrast, fine detail, and other small bits which make fast movement difficult.  But I do find it annoying jumping units have zero penalties - there should be a piloting check on landing, or something that makes it risky.

I'd think those problems with night vision would be solved a thousand years from now  ;)  That said, I play the game with weather and lighting effects turned off assuming that the sensor technology at the time would compensate for any weather conditions.  Gravitational effects are a lot of fun to play around though!

[dgorsman]

I'd think those problems with night vision would be solved a thousand years from now  ;)  That said, I play the game with weather and lighting effects turned off assuming that the sensor technology at the time would compensate for any weather conditions.

At the mortal risk to numerous catgirls, physics and materials engineering remains mostly the same - especially if the mantra of "The future of the 1980's" holds.  There are many problems which simply cannot be engineered or science-d away regardless of time.

Gravitational effects are a lot of fun to play around though!

I do the opposite - weather and lighting, but no gravity effects since Princess tends to make inappropriate movement decisions with that.  Similar to turning on sprinting, while it would be fun to include it's much less so when Princess misuses it.

[Scotty]

At the mortal risk to numerous catgirls, physics and materials engineering remains mostly the same - especially if the mantra of "The future of the 1980's" holds.  There are many problems which simply cannot be engineered or science-d away regardless of time.

Night vision was a solved problem in the 80s that BattleTech is the future of.  It's absolutely bonkers that it notionally doesn't exist in 'Mechs.

[Sartris]

if the mantra of "The future of the 1980's" holds.  There are many problems which simply cannot be engineered or science-d away regardless of time.

it does

[dgorsman]

Night vision was a solved problem in the 80s that BattleTech is the future of.  It's absolutely bonkers that it notionally doesn't exist in 'Mechs.

In the '80s there night vision existed various sizes and applications, but it still had a host of problems in blooming, oversaturation, and narrow field of view.  That's hardly a solved problem.  Even with real-world modern night vision gear, driving around safely while using it is tricky.  Night vision, even mixed display (digital overlay of optical, passive thermal, light intensification, and contrast/brightness diddling with LIDAR/mm wave radar input) does exist in BattleTech, and there will *still* be operational problems.

Put another, more rule-wise, way - if there's no changes between day and night, or weather... what's the point?  It's there to address the many "Hey wait, shouldn't there be a benefit to attacking under the cover of darkness/snowstorm/whatever condition?" questions and "OK, here's how to handle that..." answers.

But in the end, it's all still BattleTech.  You can do you, as you want to.  I can do mine, as I see fit as well.  I have reasons for the way I see things, and they're well founded.  I'm only communicating how I see things and the reasoning behind it.  I'm not insisting that you *must* play this way, or that it's somehow not BattleTech otherwise.

[Scotty]

Put another, more rule-wise, way - if there's no changes between day and night, or weather... what's the point? 

Non-Mech conventional units.  And it's not like I'm suggesting that there should be no changes for lighting conditions, it's that the changes that currently exist are nightmarish to work through, especially the heavier 'Mechs with no jump jets that can be limited to 1-2 hexes at a time under the harsh and outlandish conditions of "it's a new moon tonight".  Night vision doesn't make the world light up as if there's no difference from day time, but you can at least see where you're going and move/fight with reasonable effectiveness.

Not so with a giant bipedal warmachine that is the culmination of a centuries of military technology, apparently.

[Simon Landmine]

I'm not sure that the day/night/weather thing is a MegaMek issue, though - more one with the core rules that MM simply implements.

[Sir Chaos]

Ranks have a nasty bug in stable, and only the Second Star League ranks can be selected.

I think I found a work-around that will at least allow other canon rank systems to be selected: Right-click someone in the Personnel tab, select Change Rank System, and pick the system you want. (Use Ctrl-A to select everyone at once, ideally.)

So far at least, it appears that this "individual" rank system selection is correctly applied upon saving and re-loading.

[Windchild]

I think I found a work-around that will at least allow other canon rank systems to be selected: Right-click someone in the Personnel tab, select Change Rank System, and pick the system you want. (Use Ctrl-A to select everyone at once, ideally.)

So far at least, it appears that this "individual" rank system selection is correctly applied upon saving and re-loading.

Correct. However, this only works for canon setups, as we do not support multiple custom systems (that support is part of 0.49.0).

[abrosheen]

Hey everyone, I did a little googling and couldn't find this issue anywhere.  I did a paid recruitment roll for a few weeks in MekHQ (48.0 stable version) and then turned it off.  But for some reason it's still making the roll, I can't figure out how to stop it.  I'm even getting charged twice for it every week now even though I have it turned off.  Is there any way I can force the recruitment rolls to stop?

[Windchild]

Hey everyone, I did a little googling and couldn't find this issue anywhere.  I did a paid recruitment roll for a few weeks in MekHQ (48.0 stable version) and then turned it off.  But for some reason it's still making the roll, I can't figure out how to stop it.  I'm even getting charged twice for it every week now even though I have it turned off.  Is there any way I can force the recruitment rolls to stop?

That is a new one for me, but if you have a save file where it continues after reload I can take a look.

[abrosheen]

I attached a copy of my most recent save. The save is on Sunday, and the box for normal roll next week is checked in the personnel market.  I've clicked over to Monday a few times on this save after reloading, and it looks like it's only charging me once now; the week where it happened twice was the previous week in this save.

[Windchild]

I attached a copy of my most recent save. The save is on Sunday, and the box for normal roll next week is checked in the personnel market.  I've clicked over to Monday a few times on this save after reloading, and it looks like it's only charging me once now; the week where it happened twice was the previous week in this save.

You just need to disable it in the personnel market dialog and it will disable when running your save file.
As for the double, somehow you managed to trigger an event twice that should only occur once (and is only triggered once in the code).

[abrosheen]

Ok, it seems like it's just working now, maybe I was just looking at the game cross eyed or something when I was choosing options.  Thank you for taking a look!

[McSlayer]

I have a question regarding refit kits in HQ...

Why are only some variants listed as refit kit options in MekHQ?

Sometimes even lower tech mech variants are not available as refit kits, while higher tech variants are available?

Why does that make sense?

Is there something that we need to change to see all variants?

[Hammer]

I have a question regarding refit kits in HQ...

Why are only some variants listed as refit kit options in MekHQ?

Sometimes even lower tech mech variants are not available as refit kits, while higher tech variants are available?

Why does that make sense?

Is there something that we need to change to see all variants?

Check tech level set for the game and play year.

[McSlayer]

Check tech level set for the game and play year.

The year is set after 4000, and the tech level is unofficial... should it be limited to Experimental?