Campaign Rules: Against the Bot Thread #4

[dgorsman]

Avoid very flat, open maps.  Those give a lot more potential places to move to and paths to get there.

But most of all, just be patient (think chess, not craps).  Princess, on average, takes less time to move than most humans.

[NickAragua]

Avoid very flat, open maps.  Those give a lot more potential places to move to and paths to get there.

But most of all, just be patient (think chess, not craps).  Princess, on average, takes less time to move than most humans.

Another point in favor of avoiding flat open maps is that the RNG loves giving the bot swarms of obnoxious hovercraft that swarm your mechs and pelt them with SRMs until they blow up.

Also yes, think back to the last time you played tabletop. Even 30-60 seconds for a unit is nothing compared to that guy sitting there at the table, muttering to himself for five minutes.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

For me, I have seen the bot thinking about its next move for more than ten minutes. I have seen it often, actually, although it does not do so all the times. I was allowed 4096m memory after it was too slow but wasn't it enough?

The problem is AtB automatically gives the roaster for me... Although I can fix it on MegaMek before the actual combat begins.

I suspect high MP would be an another problem, I think. My first mission was on the low-gravity world where you can move more but you may damaged if you move that much.

Thanks for the help. I will do what you guys suggested.

[NickAragua]

10 minutes for a single move is a pretty significant amount of time. It'd be pretty helpful if you could provide a save of where that occurs (the autosave at the start of the turn is fine, just make sure to specify the exact moves you made on your turns.

[Stormforge]

From what I have experienced individual initiative has the biggest impact on speeding up the bot, followed by multiple bots with each bot having 4 unit lances. Also look to what other programs you are running in the background. I have noticed that watching videos or even listening to music while the bot is moving can have a severe impact on its speed to move units. Also map size will slow bot down a bit, and not with just wide open maps. Noticed this when I started adding 40 hexes per map side in Megamek after it loaded from MekHQ.

In the end though upgrading to a faster PC had the biggest impact. I had to use the above with my old laptop to make Megamek playable before I built my first and current PC a couple years ago. This was also before some of the improvements that have been made to princess's speed. Sadly this can be expensive, and is not available to everyone. The rig I am currently playing on, the bot, with unit speeds 8/12+, tends to move in less than 30 seconds. I do get some slow down on maps 100x100 hexes with up to a reinforced company per bot, but it is still usually less than a minute. If curious I am running a i7 4790K CPU and 16gb RAM with 4096m allocated to MM and 2048m to MekHQ.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

10 minutes for a single move is a pretty significant amount of time. It'd be pretty helpful if you could provide a save of where that occurs (the autosave at the start of the turn is fine, just make sure to specify the exact moves you made on your turns.

I think I can give you some. Well, if I have any custom units must I provide all of them as well?

[Windchild]

Yes, customs will be needed too.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Got it. Then I must prodive the customs as well.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Well, I found that a part of the reason. When I changed the bots to testbot, it gets far better, usually ends the movement of a unit within 1~2min. and even on the very complicated situation(full of inferno fire areas nearby) some of them are needs more to run(more than 5min for limited situation, perhaps it was a bit complicated to resolve). Also it says it calculcates for how many units right now(it was reduced from 4, 3, 2, and 1 before finalize the movement) so it was more easier to check. It seems that making many bots and distribute the units to them was finally have some meaning, for it does not making much difference on princess.

In contrast, Princess(which is the default bot on AtB) usually takes five minutes or more only for one unit's movement. Although I have spammed inferno Arrow IV many times, I have seen more than 20 or 30mins to make the movement of only one unit even on the first turn of the battle(that doesn't have much dangerous area) recently. Even if my force only have around 12 units on the field and either forces are far from the range. Well, the map was 40x40 so it may a reason, though. I was really consider running them manually but at that time I was found that testbot is far faster.

[NickAragua]

Just be aware that the testbot will be glacially slow for anything more than 3-4 units, and can pretty much only handle mechs.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Thanks. Then I still need princess for tanks and aeros.

[Maelwys]

Are there any writeups for the unofficial pilot abilities out there somewhere?

[Hammer]

Are there any writeups for the unofficial pilot abilities out there somewhere?

You should be hover over them to get a description.

[plutonick]

AtB initial Starting Capital. Where is this mentioned in the 2.31 rules? Or do we use a rule CO?

[Hammer]

AtB initial Starting Capital. Where is this mentioned in the 2.31 rules? Or do we use a rule CO?

You can use either, but AtB is what the system is based on using.

[plutonick]

I can't find the reference on the excel document. I am talking about the 'starting funds'. I found references in post of 5-20% of your units cbill cost, but I suppose this is not covered in the excel?

[Hammer]

I can't find the reference on the excel document. I am talking about the 'starting funds'. I found references in post of 5-20% of your units cbill cost, but I suppose this is not covered in the excel?

Check the MekHQ\docs\AtB Stuff for the starter guide it's a bug help.

[plutonick]

Couple of questions regarding mekhq/atb

1. How to I randomly roll for a civilian mechs in MekHQ (i got the bonus roll award from a support operation)
2. How do I salvage stuff from a mechs that has no damage and as a result does not appear in repair bay?
3. What kind of techs do i need in order to reload infantry with ac20? I got a techmech and a mechanic but it seems they are not the ones needed.
Thanks

[Windchild]

1) Should have been automatically done?
2) You need to go to the hangar, then swap the repair/salvage flag to salvage

[plutonick]

1. I am not talking about the weekly (or is monthly) bonus rolls. I am talking about the (same) bonus roll that triggers when you perfom a troop operation (which is not coded in MekHQ yet)
2. Ok, this worked. I would swear it's what I did before though...

[Windchild]

Then the list in the the AtB rules document

[plutonick]

I am doing retirement rolls by year, not by contract. I am also using the shares option.
My question is how does raising % of shares when getting a contract affect the yearly roll?

[Gallienus]

The link to the 2.31 rules download seems to be busted due to some formatting weirdness. See this support thread for details: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=68812.0.

In case anyone else comes into this thread with the same issue I had.

[plutonick]

the rules are also included in the doc directory of the mekhq download anyway

[dragonkid11]

I can't tell if I'm being stupid or not, but I currently cannot start any mission.

I got a contract, wait until there's a mission, put in my lance, but the start the game button is just plain greyed out so I cannot press it no matter what.

i haven't been playing the game for a long while but I'm pretty sure this isn't how it supposes to work?

EDIT:
Wait nevermind the date isn't correct yet.