AtB lesson learned

[John_Hawk]

I just fought my first ever big battle!  It was really cool, but I learned a few things.  But first, the praise:

MM and MekHQ are finally letting me do something I've wanted to do since 1986 -- running a campaign over a period of time where I can grow my force.  The fact that I can do this under quarantine conditions at my leisure on my computer is just wonderful.

The Princess AI has come a long way since it was first introduced, and the program is so much more stable than it used to be when trying to run multiple sides of an engagement that it's really refreshing to see play, despite the gripes I list below.

Now for the downsides: 

1) my laptop computer still struggles when trying to run multiple bots with lots of units -- that's entirely on me.

2) large mass, large amounts of units, and multiple changes in elevation really bog the game down, just due to the game mechanics;

3) the night time rules make this even worse.  I'd read about the woes on here before starting the mission, and I re-read the rules in Tac Ops, so I knew what I was getting into. It's interesting for small unit engagements, but after 20+ rounds of pillow fighting, and more than 6 hours in real time broken up over two days, I'd had enough.  I won't be using night time rules for large engagements any more, but I wanted to see what it was like before I made that decision, or at least until I get some better gunnery skills!

For what it's worth, I also wouldn't use those night time mechanics in a tabletop game for more than about a lance of forces, unless I had a huge amount of time; it's cool that they are in the game, but they're too much of a time multiplier.

Once again, thanks to the developers fo MM and MekHQ!

 

[pfarland]

Breaking Princess down into multiple clients, each set to use different settings for their role per the MUL, will help speed things up a bit and will improve her performance tactically.

[BairdEC]

If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit version of Java and modify the MekHQ.l4j.ini and MegaMek.l4j.ini files with "-Xmx2048m".

[Trailblazer]

Does that also work with 4096?

[Stormforge]

Does that also work with 4096?

Sure does! I run MM with 4096 and MekHQ with 2048.

[John_Hawk]

At one time I knew how to arrange multiple bots, and how to enter the command line for memory, but that data got overwritten a long time ago.  Can you help me out?  I’m running OS X, and I remember that I have to open the .jar package, but I can’t remember how to do that.

[NickAragua]

Extra bots is something you can do in the lobby via the add bot button, then 'change owner' on the units you want to offload.

I forget about the memory (how ironic).

As far as night fighting goes, I definitely agree with you - I'd never use those rules in tabletop. They slow gameplay down way too much and you spend most of your time missing 11+ shots.

There are a few things you can do to make it more tolerable in MegaMek, though:

- Bring a mech with a searchlight, e.g. Warhammer. Click 's/light on' during the movement phase, then use the 'searchlight' button to light 'em up during the firing phase. This eliminates the darkness penalties on anything you light up (including the unit with the light, so uh, keep it in the back). You need stratops quirks turned on for that.
- Set things on fire (TacOps starting fires rules). Just about anything you can think of, you can set on fire. I think there are also artillery illumination rounds for your arty pieces and tracer rounds for your autocannons.
- Give your mechwarriors the 'blind fighter' SPA to reduce night time penalties a little
- When your mechwarriors get to be elite, the night time penalties actually work to your advantage - when your to-hit number goes from 4 to 7, while the bad guys go from 7 to 10, you can pretty much pick them off with impunity
- Use jump jets liberally to move around a lot faster
- If your guys have good piloting, use reckless movement to run around faster, but careful of the PSRs
- and, of course, if you get a night-time tornado battle and run out of weather rerolls, don't feel bad about turning some of that weather off in megamek

[John_Hawk]

Extra bots is something you can do in the lobby via the add bot button, then 'change owner' on the units you want to offload.

That’s much easier than what i was thinking.  At one point in time, I recall having to brute force the program to open multiple instances, then connect each instance, and have each instance running a bot.  There was some kind of change that had to be made in OS X to the launch program, because otherwise a second click of the .jar just took you to the instance that was already open.

I’ll give this way a try!

[Iceweb]

One other nighttime trick I learned is that even in darkness physical attacks are still just as (in)accurate.  If you want to set up some skilled pilots with jump jets and melee SPAs and hand to hand weapons vs a large amount of ranged troopers being ambushed at midnight, you can have some fun with it. 

[John_Hawk]

If you have a 64-bit machine, install the 64-bit version of Java and modify the MekHQ.l4j.ini and MegaMek.l4j.ini files with "-Xmx2048m".

Is this file called something different in the Linux/Mac OS X versions?

[BairdEC]

I have no idea.  I run a Windows box, and it's been years since I last played in Linux.  There might be an equivalent file in /bin/ or the user directory.

[ThePW]

Apparently its probably just as bad for Infantry (more specific, BA Infantry) to have loaded Inferno SRMs, because I killed off a entire WoB squad of Loginious BA from a trooper's death, resulting in his SRM tube igniting the rest of his team (and a Sacarbus above them). Now I'm assuming that's a bug because I am not certain that Inferno detonation (accidently or otherwise) is supposed to be a thing with Infantry (or at least, BA). Is it? Is it a thing on table-top as well?

[Sir Chaos]

Apparently its probably just as bad for Infantry (more specific, BA Infantry) to have loaded Inferno SRMs, because I killed off a entire WoB squad of Loginious BA from a trooper's death, resulting in his SRM tube igniting the rest of his team (and a Sacarbus above them). Now I'm assuming that's a bug because I am not certain that Inferno detonation (accidently or otherwise) is supposed to be a thing with Infantry (or at least, BA). Is it? Is it a thing on table-top as well?

I think that is working as designed. The only exception, IIRC, is BA with fire-resisting armor, like the Salamander.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Apparently its probably just as bad for Infantry (more specific, BA Infantry) to have loaded Inferno SRMs, because I killed off a entire WoB squad of Loginious BA from a trooper's death, resulting in his SRM tube igniting the rest of his team (and a Sacarbus above them). Now I'm assuming that's a bug because I am not certain that Inferno detonation (accidently or otherwise) is supposed to be a thing with Infantry (or at least, BA). Is it? Is it a thing on table-top as well?

It exactly follows the rules of Inferno SRM on Battle Armor. There is some chance to ignite if a trooper in a Battle Armor unit with Inferno SRM round is killed.

Besides, how funny. That's the fate of the criminal.

[ThePW]

For my future knowledge, what is the reference book & page?

[John_Hawk]

It’s on page 229 of TW.  Doesn’t show up in the index, but the text reads:

Infernos Battle Armor units carrying infernos follow all the standard rules for that special munition (see Infernos, p. 141). Additionally, when ever a battle armor trooper that is not equipped with Fire Resistent armor and is carrying inferno missiles at the moment it is eliminated (regardless of how the damage is infl icted), the controlling player must immediately roll 2D6. On a result of 8 or more, the inferno detonates; all units within the hex are treated as though they were successfully struck by a number of inferno rounds equal to the number of inferno missiles the trooper carried when eliminated.
Weapon Type: Standard SRMs
Technology Base: Clan or Inner Sphere

[ThePW]

Thank you. I for one, did not know that BA could carry alterative ammo... it was certainly a surprise to me seeing the bad guys going boom (during set-up in the lobby, I actually selected infernos but it never occurred to me what could happen IF....

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Note that only Inferno SRM can cause such effect if one of BA is killed. The other missile rounds are not cause any further harmful effect against their survived friends.

[MyndkryM]

Sure does! I run MM with 4096 and MekHQ with 2048.

Curious....what does that actually do?

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Curious....what does that actually do?

It increase the limits of memory. For example, set 4096 on MegaMek means your MegaMek can use up to 4096mb of RAM memory.

[ThePW]

Always check the maps before play. There are several german/non US generated maps that are really only usable with the group they are involved in set play. I tried playing a scenario involving vehicles and at one map transition, the road drops 2 levels which resulted in the chased unit getting caught/destroyed/mission FAIL. I love Country Road I & II (those two are the top pieces I used for running "Running from the Devils" (Total Chaos, Pg. 56-58) but instead of using the Coast map with the road bridge, I used something else. Apparently the map maker made the template base of 2 Hex High elevation (including the winding road through town). Off hand, does anyone know the cannon CF for the bridges on Coastal Map? I did like it but I rolled Torrential Downpour, stuck with it but its required to stay on the road...

[ThePW]

Why does it seem like i'm always fixing things on my dropships? Not one, not two but 39 hits? I think it's actually BAD to have more than one actual Tech/Vessel trained individual because it seems like, just as with Infantry, it curves the tech repair rolls if more than one crewman on a ship has Tech/Vessel as a skill. In fact i keep having to move my best Vessel techs to the ship stricken in order to have any successes...