Character Creation

[Dahzer]

I am curious how everyone makes their characters and maintain them through their campaigns. I follow the 2.31 way mostly with a little bit extra added in. But again curious how other do theirs. I know I have seen BLOODWOLFS screen captures of his and I actually would like to see how he does it, but brought in the question or others too. I believe BLOODWOLF did have a thread, maybe, but I could not find it.

[BLOODWOLF]

So, right off the bat I dont like really anything about AtB so made my own system.  I was in the Marine Corps and battletech is not realistic on many things so I have to force my system on HQ which was designed for a merc unit.  Which means I have to do a lot of things manually with the images outside of HQ and in the personnel logs manually rolling for certain RP related things.  But, now as of HQ 0.45.0 Bandildo has coded the awards feature for HQ that I can now manipulate to get the program to do all the image stuff i was having to do in Gimp(like photoshop) so, am currently working on the project but users will have fully flushed out US military medals, ribbons, rank insignia, badges, and all the shinies along with sets for all the BT factions as well (prob will take 2 months or more).  But the set that comes with HQ will only be the default which will be just for generic mercs while all the others will be a pack that can be downloaded off the megamek.org website just like how the colored-ink portraits are done(copyright reasons).

This is where I explain what I used to do https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=51864.0

But, things in my ranks spreadsheet are going to change now that we have the HQ awards feature.  Just going to take a lot of time to add the images, all the variants with stars and devices, fill out all the xmls, and a few things in the code need tweaked and it will be complete.

[Hammer]

I'd also suggest joining our Slack channel - http://megamek.org:3000/

You can often find people to bounce ideas and questions off of.  BLOODWOLF is often around on it.

[Dahzer]

I had a feeling you were ex-military Bloodwolf, current law enforcement (I know not that same but saw it regardless) and don’t mind doing the work and rolling myself done many times for other stuff. I haven’t joined the slack, but been tempted to just don’t have the time these days, usually my questions come late at night or when I cannot go on slack at the time.

The reason I wanted to see how others do it as sometimes that will give you ideas, I really liked what I have seen in your screenshots and wanted to lay some ground work to make a similar system, but figured if I could get a head start that would help with some time management.

[Schugger]

I did create my commander with the AtB rules. She started as a 4/3 or something with some points in commander skills.
By now she pretty damn good at piloting and shooting but most of her points went into commander skills. Only thing she needs to learn is avoiding flying stuff falling on her nut..

[yukamichi]

I use MW3 (aka CBT RPG) rules to make a commander, then the FM Mercs Revised mercenary unit creation rules with a couple tweaks. StratOps P/G skills, pilot's use the tables in the AtB "Dev" tab for factions, vehicles are rolled randomly using MHQ's tables.

Then endlessly press the Regenerate button in the hiring dialogue until I get someone whose PG skills match up and hire them. Any randomly rolled Officer Skills are removed, and I use AtB default for them; secondary skills and pilot abilities stay if MHQ rolls them randomly.

After that it's pretty much by-the-book as far as managing the unit goes.

[Cenalt]

I generally start a campaign at the company level, and do my initial staffing by turning off Campaign Options / Finances / Pay for personnel recruitment, then doing a "Marketplace -> Hire Personnel in Bulk" for Mechwarriors. I hire 16 for 12 mechs, switch the Personnel view to Tactical Skills, and tap the people with Tactics skills to be the initial officers (lance commanders). On the very rare occasion that someone starts with a Strategy skill, they get tapped to be the company CO, otherwise I pick among the tacticians to promote. This is a highly specialized selection based on how cool their name sounds, what their generated portrait looks like, their P/G skills, etc. Having a couple extra Mechwarriors in the initial cadre allows me to screen for additional skills like Medical (Congrats, Doc) or Admin. Leftovers who don't have a Battlemech to ride or some other useful function get sacked.

I initially get Aero Pilots and vehicle crews by doing a Hire full complement on their platform in the hanger. I get support staff by purchasing a platoon or two of conventional infantry then editing them into Mechanics, Mech and Aero Techs, Administrators, etc. by setting their tech/admin/whatever skill points equal to whatever their small arms points were.

Once I've got a fleshed out company, I switch personnel recruiting costs back on and live by the AtB rulesets.

[TS_Hawk]

mine is from 30 years ago. :)