Author Topic: Getting Started with Against the Bot  (Read 163595 times)

Drewbacca

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Getting Started with Against the Bot
« on: 02 September 2014, 16:07:15 »
How does one get involved with this?
« Last Edit: 01 September 2020, 20:53:29 by Hammer »

Rogue

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #1 on: 02 September 2014, 16:53:08 »
Download the AtB rules from http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,40948.0.html

Download the latest MekHQ release from http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=46 (at Dylan's Emporium - http://bt.dylanspcs.com/) Typically you will want the mekhq-<release version>-dylan-windows.zip file.

Unzip both files.
Open the 'rules 2.30.xls' file and go to the Company Creation tab
Start MekHQ and select Start New Campaign
Set the year, then fill out your company name, etc.
Select the 'Against the Bot' tab, tick the box to use the ruleset, click the two buttons to Use AtB costs, and choose any other options you wich to use.
Grab your dice (or a random number generator) and start rolling up the company.

MekHQ will handle contract generation, and once the contract commences, battle generation as well.

Snimm

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #2 on: 03 September 2014, 00:40:24 »
I don't know if anybody has ever bothered to put up a recommended set of options for a "standard" AtB campaign (as the idea is you play the kind of game YOU want to play), but here's a list to get you started.

General tab:

Enter your unit's name
Choose the InterStellar Ops rules for rating
Choose your start date
Choose your camo

Go to the Against the Bot tab:
Check the "Use the Against the Bot campaign rules"
Click the "Set AtB costs for Skills" button
Click the "Set AtB costs for Special abilities" button
Set your skill level.  If you're really new to Battletech, choose Ultra-Green or Green.  Just trust me on this.

Check these options (remember, these are recommended settings to get you started.  If you wish later to use different options for a different experience, feel free!  The idea is to give you an options set that gets you up and running):

Under 'Unit Administration':
-Use the Share System
-Exclude large craft from unit value
-Customize retirement rolls
-Use leadership skill
-Use vehicles
-Clan OpFors use vehicles
-Display a report when contract market refreshes
-Display a report when unit market refreshes
-Uncheck "Do Retirement/Defection rolls at contract completion"

Under 'Contract Operations':
-Limit lance deployment by weight
-Limit lance deployment by size
-Use commander strategy
     -leave base number of lances at 3
     -leave rank per strategy at 1

At the top of the next column to your right, under the 'Scenarios' heading:
-Allow enemy VTOLs
-If you're going to employ vehicles yourself, check "Adjust lance weight for player vehicles"
-Random enemy capture
-Set delay timer to at least 1000
-Finally, UNCHECK double enemy vehicles

You can select whatever RATs you want, but I would recommend only putting in those that involve your unit's current years.  You can always add more later once you reach the relevant years.

Repair and Acquisition tab:
I would turn off maintenance for now if this is your first time playing AtB.  You have enough to juggle as it is. 

However, if you insist on using it:
-Check Make maintenance checks
-30 days maintenance cycle length
-0 maintenance modifier
-Check Only damage parts that are already at "A" quality

Under 'Acquisition':
-1 day waiting period between rolls
-For now, set Acquisition Skill to Automatic Success so that you can instantly get your parts.  You will change this to Administration later once you have acquired your initial parts stockpile.
-Check "Only support personnel can make acquisition checks"
+2 penalty for Clan equipment
0 penalty for Inner Sphere equipment
2 maximum acquisitions per day

Under the 'Delivery' heading:
2d6+0 days delivery time
1 day minimum transit time
1 day delivery time reduction per MoS (stand for Measure of Success)

Tech Limits tab:
-Check limit units and parts by year
-For years past the Clan invasion, check Allow purchasing of Clan units and parts
-Check Allow purchasing of Inner Sphere Units and Parts
-Check Only allow canon units for purchase.  However, you will not be able to buy custom units you might create in this case.
-Maximum tech level Experimental

Personnel:
-Check Use Tactics Skill
-Check Use Toughness
-Check Allow Special Abilities
-Check Use Pilot Edge
-Check Use higher-precision skill averaging

Finances:
Leave these all unchecked until you have acquired your Mechs, Mechwarriors, and starting support personnel, EXCEPT for Limit loan parameters by unit rating.
I like to set the Clan price modifier to 4.0, but then I usually start in 3025 or earlier.  In an era where Clan parts are more common, you can use something smaller to your judgment.  There is no official AtB rule as far as I can find.

Mercenary tab:
Click the first radio button (the IntOps Beta option), and also check "Base on equipment sale value."  Leave it at the default 5%.

Experience tab:
1 XP for each completed scenario
1 XP for every 1 kill
1 XP for every 25 successful tasks
1 XP for every 1 month on a 10+
2 XP awarded to the negotiator of a new contract
1 XP for each admin every week

Skills tab and Special Abilities tab:
These are already set for AtB rules as you clicked their buttons on the AtB tab earlier.

Skill Randomization, Rank System, and Name and Portrait Generation I leave at defaults.

Personnel Market tab:
Make sure this is set to AtB market

That takes care of the Campaign Options. 
Now, go set your MegaMek options, to whatever you like to use for MM.

Click the GM Mode button at the top right of the MHQ screen.
All right.  You are now ready to acquire your first 12 Mechwarriors and 12 support personnel (recommended breakdown is 10 Mech techs, 1 admin [probably Logistics], and 1 doctor).  You may or may not get 12 Mechs to start with - it is possible for a Mechwarrior to start the campaign Dispossessed!  If you want to generate random Mechs (or Dispossessed) for your initial unit, use the attached Excel file at the bottom of this post, in conjunction with the AtB Company Creation tab found in the rules file.

Go to the Marketplace menu option and select "Hire Personnel in bulk."  Hire 12 Mechwarriors.  MHQ will automatically generate them for you.  Some of them will have special piloting advantages (SPAs), most likely any elites or veterans you get.
     - Your first Mechwarrior is your unit commander, who gets a +1 to both piloting and gunnery skills, as well as 2 points distributed randomly between Strategy, Leadership, and Tactics - but you'll need to add those manually.  I add these on top of whatever points the commander may have started with (most often you'll see some starting MWs with Tactics points already).
     -your second, third, and fourth Mechwarriors are your other officers and gain +1 in either piloting or gunnery, whichever is lower.  If they are equal, you choose.  These Mechwarriors also get 1 point randomly in Strategy, Leadership, or Tactics.  Again, you'll have to manually figure that out and apply it.
     -Any Mechwarriors that are elite after the bonuses are applied get 2 SPAs, which are rolled on the table found in the AtB rules - Company creation tab.  Veterans get 1 SPA.  These can be on top of whatever natural SPAs those pilots may have rolled.  Any Regulars or Greens that happened to generate SPAs can keep those, as well.
     -Finally, when you edit your Mechwarriors, make sure all of your initial pilots get the 'Founding Member' check box marked.  This gives them each an extra share and also makes them more likely to stick around at retirement time.
     -Add your support personnel using the Marketplace menu as well.
     -Add your Mechs.  To actually add the Mechs you generated (however you did so) to your roster, go to Marketplace - Purchase Unit.  Use Add (GM) to add the units to your roster immediately (using the Automatic Success means you would still have to wait for delivery).
     -Assign your Mechwarriors to their Mechs by going to the Personnel tab, right-clicking on the MW, and choosing Assign to Unit.
     

Now you can assign your Mechs into lances.

To do this, go to the left-hand window of the TO&E tab and right-click on the unit name to bring up a pop-up menu.  Left-click Add New Force, then type in the name of the lance.  You can create more than one lance.   For each lance, right click on its name, then left-click Add Unit to add a Mech to that lance.  You may need to double-click on the unit name in order to expand the organizational tree so you can see the individual Mechs and Mechwarriors in their lances.  Lances must have at least 3 and no more than 6 units.  I highly recommend not placing all of your Mechs into lances from the start!  Keep two or three unassigned to use as reserves in the event of a unit or warrior being lost or damaged and not easily repaired.

Go back to your Campaign Options - Finances tab and check everything except the last two options.  Then, using the Add Funds (GM) button, give yourself a starting capital (I use 10% of total starting assets, which comes out to about 1.8-2.2 million Cbills.)  Next, take out a loan.  You likely won't make it to your first planet without taking out a loan for transport and/or maintenance costs.  Ensure your Collateral slider is at 100% and that you are repaying on a Quarterly basis when you do this (standard AtB ruleset here).  You will be limited as to just how much you can take out.

Next, use the money you just acquired to build a stockpile of parts, weapons, and ammo.  You should be paying from your initial capital for these, but it's up to you whether you're also going to wait for transit times or just instantly have stuff show up, as this is supposed to represent your initial stockpile that you've already acquired (you can use GM mode to instantly deliver everything.  Shift-click to select all.). 

Once you have finished getting all your parts, go back to the Repair and Acquisition tab and set the Acquisition Skill to Administration.

Next, get a contract in the Contract Market.  You always get two contracts to begin.  You are NOT required to accept either of them if you don't want them, but you will have to then find a way to fund your unit until new contracts become available at the first of the next month!  Also, these contracts may possibly be poor for a newly created unit to engage.  If you want to really get a beginner's contract, try for Garrison Duty or a Cadre Duty contract (GM generate until you get one).
 
To shorten your travel time, pay attention to the number of jumps in your contracts!  You can customize the distance for locations of your contract offers in Campaign Options - Against the Bot tab.  The default is 800 light years; you can experiment with 500 or 250 or even lower.  While this will potentially reduce the number of contract offers you see, it will greatly reduce transportation cost and the number of times you have to "Advance Day" to get to your contract location and your first MegaMek battles in your campaign.

Once you accept a contract, Go to the Interstellar Map tab and type in the name of your target planet for the contract.  Don't Begin Transit just yet though, as there's one more step to complete.

You'll need to fill out your Tech and Doctor teams with assistants.  Do this in Marketplace - Astech Pool - bring all Tech teams to full strength, and do the same for the Medic Pool. 

Normally, this would be the point where you would want to assign a Tech to each Mech.  If you are playing with maintenance, however, you can avoid having to deal with maintenance issues by mothballing your Mechs until you arrive at your destination planet.  Travelling to your destination can take time, and if you didn't start with a veteran or elite tech, you could find your Mechs falling apart before you ever start your first contract!  To mothball a unit, go to the Hangar tab and right-click on the desired Mech.  Choose "Mothball unit" from the menu and select a Tech to perform it.  Mothballing usually takes at most two days for any given tech and cannot fail.  Know that it will unassign any Mechwarriors and techs assigned to that unit, as well as remove it from the TO&E (but you had to HAVE a TO&E to get a loan in the first place!).

Now go back to the Interstellar Map tab, and click on Calculate Jump Path.  Then Begin Transit.  Now sit back and keep clicking "Advance Day" until you reach your destination.  Know that sometimes news bits pop up on a given day, so you might not want to click TOO quickly.

Once you're on planet, the first thing you should do is Activate all your mothballed units, reassign the Mechwarriors to them, assign techs to them, and then reassign your Mechs into their lances.  Your contract will require you to deploy at least one and possibly two lances for some type of "standard duty" as dictated by the type of contract.  You'll see this in the Briefing Room tab, in the lower-right corner of that window.  Assign your lances so the requirements for each duty type are filled by at least one of your lances.  After you do this, you can just click on Advance Day until a battle crops up.  Have fun!
« Last Edit: 26 August 2015, 09:18:54 by Snimm »
Need help getting started with Against the Bot in MekHQ?  Click here to get yourself up and running!

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=41494.msg957784#msg957784

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #3 on: 03 September 2014, 02:23:16 »
Can this be done with more than one player?

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #4 on: 03 September 2014, 02:53:57 »
<snip>
Thank you for posting that - I've not really managed to get started with MekHQ before, so I'm still using the old spreadsheet-based campaign rules from a couple of years ago, but I think with this post it may be time for me to lurch across to a MekHQ campaign.

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #5 on: 03 September 2014, 04:04:04 »
I don't know if anybody has ever bothered to put up a recommended set of options for a "standard" AtB campaign (as the idea is you play the kind of game YOU want to play), but here's a list to get you started.  I'm sure plenty of arguments will crop up here.

General tab:

Enter your unit's name
I think we're ideally supposed to use the FMM:Revised rules for rating, but you can use either
Choose your start date
Choose your camo

Go to the Against the Bot tab:
Check the "Use the Against the Bot campaign rules," then click the two buttons for AtB costs for skills and special abilities.  Everything else leave at default.

Repair and Acquisition tab:
For a first-timer, I would probably ignore maintenance for now.  It can be kind of fiddly.  Everything else can be left default.

Tech Limits:
Check everything except Use ammo by Type.

Personnel:
Leave everything at default

Finances:
Leave these all unchecked until you have acquired your Mechs, Mechwarriors, and starting support personnel.

Mercenary tab:
Click the first radio button (the StellarOps Beta option), and also check "Base on equipment sale value."  Leave it at the default 5%.

Experience tab:
1 XP for every 1 kill, and 1 XP for every 6 months on a roll of 7+.  Remainder on defaults.

Skills tab and Special Abilities tab:
These are already set for AtB rules if you clicked the buttons on the AtB tab earlier.

Skill Randomization, Rank System, and Name and Portrait Generation I leave at defaults.

Personnel Market tab:
Make sure this is set to AtB market

That takes care of the Campaign Options.  Now you'll probably want to set your MegaMek options to your liking, using whatever rules you like to use in MM.

Now, Go to GM Mode to get your first units, mechwarriors, and support personnel (recommended is 10 techs, 1 admin [probably logistics], and 1 doctor).  You shouldn't have to worry about paying for them if you left all your Finances tab options unchecked up to this point.  You can also GM edit your characters so they match whatever you rolled up for your initial company (if you use MHQ to give you your first 12 MWs, you'll find that a lot of them are lousy MWs, even after commander bonuses are applied.  Better off rolling them up yourself to start).

Finally, go back to your Campaign Options - Finances tab and check everything except the last two options.  Then, using GM mode, give yourself a starting capital (I use 10% of total starting assets, which comes out to about 1.8-2.2 million Cbills.  you might want to start with more).  If you need more money, and you will, take out a loan, making sure your Collateral slider is at 100% when you do so.  You will be limited as to just how much you can take out.

Next, use the money you just acquired to build a stockpile of parts, weapons, and ammo.  Ideally, you should be paying for these, but it's up to you whether you're also going to wait for transit times or just instantly have stuff show up (you can use GM mode to instantly transit in your purchases), as this is supposed to represent your initial stockpile that you've already acquired.

Two steps left.  Next, get a contract in the Contract Market.  You always get two contracts to start with, but if you want to really get a beginner's contract, try for a Garrison Duty (GM generate until you get one).  Once you accept a contract, Go to the MHQ Interstellar Map tab and type in the name of your target planet for the contract.  Don't Begin Transit just yet though, as there's one more step to complete.

You'll need to fill out your Tech and Doctor teams with assistants.  Do this in MHQ, Marketplace - Astech Pool - bring all Tech teams to full strength, and do the same for the Medic Pool (and, if you ARE playing with maintenance, this would be the time to ensure all your Mechs have a Tech assigned to them.  Some techs will have to have 2 Mechs assigned to them).  Save your game at this point.

Now go back to the Interstellar Map tab, and click on Calculate Jump Path.  Then Begin Transit.  Now sit back and keep clicking "Advance Day" until you reach your destination.  Know that sometimes news bits pop up on a given day, so you might not want to click TOO quickly.

Once you're on planet, your contract will require you to deploy one, and possibly two, lances for some type of "standard duty" as dictated by the type of contract.  You'll see this in the Briefing Room tab, in the lower-right corner of that window.  Assign your lances so the requirements for each duty type are filled by at least one of your lances.  After you do this, you can just click on Advance Day until a battle crops up.  Have fun!
Working my way through this but my personnel market is empty. I advanced a day and it is still empty.

RahTol

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #6 on: 03 September 2014, 05:30:43 »
Personnel Market in AtB mode updates every Monday, but that's not really relevant at this point. You hire your starting personnel using the "Hire" option (3rd from the bottom under 'marketplace' tab.)

If your relatively 'green' at BT there are a couple options your going to want to change in the AtB tab of campaign options. First set the 'skill' level to Green or Ultra-Green, while this dose not guarantee easier fights, it applies a modifier to the OpFor Lance composition rolls. You will also want to make sure you take off 'double enemy vehicles' check. Most of the other options are basically just how strictly you want to 'play by the rules' or flavor options. You also may want to take off the 'Planetary conditions,' 'weather' and 'light conditions' until you get used to AtB battles. Make sure you check the victory conditions for any battles you get, in AtB you are not expected to fight, and almost never just strait up beat the enemy victory conditions.

Can this be done with more than one player?
Short answer is yes, but it is designed to be single player, so it takes a little effort to make it a real multiplayer game.

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #7 on: 03 September 2014, 05:45:14 »
Thanks for the help. I noticed the hire option right after I posted.  #P

mikecj

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #8 on: 03 September 2014, 07:53:24 »
Thank you!
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Nielic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #9 on: 03 September 2014, 08:46:12 »
Ok i am sorry for this question but i am trying to do against the bot campaign im not sure where to extract it to. I can open the file, and extract it to to mekhq, but i dont have an against the bot tab when i start a new campaign. i'm missing something about what i need to do not sure what it is. ive read the spreadsheet and understand the how it works, just not seeing the options. I have MekHQ stable 0.2.0 downloaded
« Last Edit: 03 September 2014, 16:32:35 by Nielic »

Random

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #10 on: 03 September 2014, 17:04:01 »
0.2.0 is a tad out of date.

Have a look a Ralgith's site for the bleeding edge stuff.

http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=46


or the latest development build on Source Forge 0.3.5, although it doesn't have AtB implemented either.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mekhq/files/development/

Nielic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #11 on: 03 September 2014, 17:11:15 »
Thanks. I was actually just relooking at Rogue's post and http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=46 and downloaded the development one instead and it has the options. That would explain why i couldnt find the tabs. This thread helps a lot in setting it all up as i was curious and wanted to try it out.

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #12 on: 03 September 2014, 17:50:06 »
OK, one problem. I have no mechs to fight with. I have 10 mech techs, a ton of astechs and the mechs keep breaking down.

Netzilla

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #13 on: 03 September 2014, 18:25:04 »
Turn off maintenance (Campagn Settings).
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MM Bug & Feature Requests:
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MHQ Bug & Feature Requests:
https://sourceforge.net/p/mekhq/_list/tickets

Random

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #14 on: 03 September 2014, 18:33:39 »
OK, one problem. I have no mechs to fight with. I have 10 mech techs, a ton of astechs and the mechs keep breaking down.

What Netzilla said.

and/or

Do you have any Mech Techs to repair said breakdowns?
AtB rules provide 12 support staff at the beginning.

Snimm

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #15 on: 03 September 2014, 18:34:04 »
Yeah, I'm sorry.  I meant to turn off maintenance when I said ignore it.  I see now how that can be misread.
Need help getting started with Against the Bot in MekHQ?  Click here to get yourself up and running!

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=41494.msg957784#msg957784

Rogue

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #16 on: 03 September 2014, 19:53:20 »
There appears to be an issue with the 1978 release and resolving battles. See the thread at http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/showthread.php?tid=444 for more details. Page 2 includes a download link the the r1970 build which seems to be working OK for now.

I'd also suggest watching that thread for any notification from Raglith as to a newer build.


Xenon54z

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #17 on: 03 September 2014, 21:43:49 »
I believe a warning must be added to this thread that the AtB stuff in MekHQ is still fairly new. Which means that there will be bugs. Which also means you can be a great help by posting bug reports on the sourceforge MekHQ project bug tracker page. O0 Just make sure they are new bugs and not repeat ones. :)
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ralgith

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #18 on: 03 September 2014, 22:37:38 »
There appears to be an issue with the 1978 release and resolving battles. See the thread at http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/showthread.php?tid=444 for more details. Page 2 includes a download link the the r1970 build which seems to be working OK for now.

I'd also suggest watching that thread for any notification from Raglith as to a newer build.

Don't watch the thread. Watch this forum. You can even subscribe to that specific forum if you're a member there, and then you'll get notification of new release threads.

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #19 on: 04 September 2014, 01:17:38 »
Yeah, I'm sorry.  I meant to turn off maintenance when I said ignore it.  I see now how that can be misread.
Thanks. I was wondering about how every mech I had was breaking down even with a tech assigned to it.

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #20 on: 04 September 2014, 01:35:48 »
Thanks. I was wondering about how every mech I had was breaking down even with a tech assigned to it.
I had the same thing - by the time I got to my first planet, half my 'Mechs were inoperable. Kind of scary.

How do you deploy units? I accepted a contract and transitted to the target world, but the deployment window in the lower right of the briefings pane remains greyed out. I thought at first it might be because I didn't adjust the 'Mech status in the Hangar Bay to "In the field", but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm not picking up any battles other than special events when I advance the calendar, and even when I hit a special event battle day, all of the buttons in the upper right pane regarding launching the battle remain greyed out. I went through all the settings and options I could find before I decided I should get at least 5 hours sleep before work today...

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Rogue

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #21 on: 04 September 2014, 01:51:27 »
Do you have mechs assigned to Forces in the TO&E tab?

Each Force (lance) is then assigned to an activity in the Briefing tab - Fight, Defend, Scout, Train. Each Monday the battles are generated, and will appear at the bottom of the Briefing tab.

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #22 on: 04 September 2014, 02:38:03 »
That must be it - I couldn't find anything to interact with on the TO&E tab, so I'd been ignoring it.

And it's ten hours before I can get home and check :(

Are there any instruction guides or videos showing how to use MekHQ out there? I feel like a complete duffer trying to work it out.
« Last Edit: 04 September 2014, 02:48:27 by BrokenMnemonic »

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Rogue

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #23 on: 04 September 2014, 03:40:51 »
The only one I know of is http://megamek.info/forums/index.php?topic=304.0 but it is very outdated. Still some useful explanations in there (such as TO&E  ;) ) but some areas that are completely obsolete now due to more recent development work.

From a very high level, I think it should go something like:
Create company
Buy mechwarriors & meks
Buy support staff
Assemble company in TO&E
Add starting funds (10% of company value)
Select contract (may need to advance day to the next Monday)
Use funds/advance to buy a stockpile of parts, ammo, armor, etc
Move to contract planet (find planet, plot jump path, begin transit, advance day x many)
Wait for the next Monday to get battles generated
Fight, repair, promote, replace x many
End contract, select next contract

I'm sure there is plenty more in there I missed.

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #24 on: 04 September 2014, 04:40:53 »
I can't access the attachment on the forum from work, but I'll grab a copy as soon as I get home, thanks again :)

Is it possible to create your own contracts when playing the AtB campaign? It looked from the briefing room tab as if it might be possible,  but when I tried fiddling with it I invariably ended up somehow assigned to hunt pirates at A Place.

Following up on the hamfisted Tech damage issue - is there a way of automagically demanding the spares to replace a 'Mech, rather than having to work out what's broken and order the items manually?

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Drewbacca

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #25 on: 04 September 2014, 04:41:28 »
That must be it - I couldn't find anything to interact with on the TO&E tab, so I'd been ignoring it.

And it's ten hours before I can get home and check :(

Are there any instruction guides or videos showing how to use MekHQ out there? I feel like a complete duffer trying to work it out.
you and me both

Snimm

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #26 on: 04 September 2014, 05:28:03 »
I edited my post to state how you put unit into the TO&E.  I completely overlooked that part; my apologies.

As far as the repair issue, if you have enough in your initial stockpile you shouldn't have to worry about techs acquiring the parts.  However, you may find that as you grind through your contracts, you're starting to run out of supplies, or at least they don't arrive when you wish they would, and techs do indeed have to try to find the parts (and when you're in the middle of a contract, not all parts will be available!).  You can always GM mode to instantly complete transit, if that's more realism/micromanagement than you want to deal with.  You ARE supposed to eventually have at least SOME trouble keeping everything in tip-top shape all the time, though.

As for automating it, I don't know if that's in the cards right now or not.  I would think the danger of overly automating repairs is you'll run out of supplies before you realize it...
Need help getting started with Against the Bot in MekHQ?  Click here to get yourself up and running!

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=41494.msg957784#msg957784

Dohon

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #27 on: 04 September 2014, 05:33:24 »
If you want more videos on how to use MekHQ, ThomasMarik has a few videos up on his youtube channel.

Let's MegaMek Season 0 (Started before AtB was implemented and thus slightly outdated, but he does take time to explain stuff)
Let's MegaMek with the FWLM (Uses AtB, but less room for explaining. I highly suggest you watch the link above first)

These vids helped me to get a grip on MekHQ. :)

RahTol

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #28 on: 04 September 2014, 06:12:34 »
Are there any instruction guides or videos showing how to use MekHQ out there? I feel like a complete duffer trying to work it out.

Don't get down on yourself, we've all been there. MHQ is awesome, and very complex. To make a lance goto TO&E, right click on "My Campaign" from the list of options there select "Add New Force," this new force will be your Lance. Double-click "My Campaign" and it will expand so you can now see your new force "My Lance." Again right click on "My Lance" and select "Add Unit," if this option is greyed out you have not yet assigned MechWarriors  to your Mechs. After you've added units to"My Lance" you can double click on there and it will expand again showing you those units. Yes, selecting "My Lance" you'll see the units to the right, but you cant do anything with them from there. Right clicking on a unit will bring up a couple options, most notably, "Remove unit from TO&E" (it took me FOREVER to figure that one out) once you have multiple lances you can also "click and drag" units from one lance to another.

Now get your contract, (now you'll see your getting paid for it cause pay is calculated based on the forces in TO&E) then switch to the "Briefing Room" tab, on the left-hand side you'll see the details of the contract, double-click on the "Location" copy (ctrl-c) then switch to "Interstellar Map" select the planet find box just above the map and paste (ctrl-v) and hit enter, the map should jump to that planet. Then click "Calculate Jump Path" and finally "Begin Transit." You are now on your way to the location of the contract, you should see, above the tabs "Current Location" has changed from "On planet" to "In Transit" if not, you did something wrong.

Now you're going to have to click "Advance Day" a gazillion times until you reach your destination. Once you arrive, it should be the same day the contract actually starts, you need to go back to the "Briefing Room." In the lower middle you should see the name of the contract with some red numbers "0/1" or so to the right of the contract name. Below that will be a list of your Lances, if you click on the "Roll" column you'll get a drop-down there (should start as "Unassigned") now assign them how you want to fill all the "Roles" that have a red number under them, when the forces needed for that role have been filled the number will change to black, you are now ready to actually begin the game.

Battles are generated automatically every Monday, the chances that there will be a battle any given week varies depending on the campaign type. "Advance Day" to each Monday until a battle appears under the contract details (called scenarios.) Beside the battle will be a date, you have to advance to that day. Once on that day, you can select that battle (scenario) and now in the middle section you'll see the details of the battle, if you go down the scroll bar there you'll see the victory conditions, keep these in mind because you will need to do "/victory" or "/defeat" command in MM when those conditions are met. Above the scenario details you should be able to select "Start Game," if not you need to deploy your force manually, this will generally only happen for two reasons. Either you got two battles that week and it auto-deployed you to the later battle, or it's a battle that allows restricted units and your lance dose not qualify, generally it requires only one Mech/MechWarrior. Unfortunately these battles are bugged because you have to manually deploy the singe unit from the TO&E tab, but doing it that way can create several problems, do so at your own risk.

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Getting Started with Against the Bot
« Reply #29 on: 04 September 2014, 06:57:43 »
I edited my post to state how you put unit into the TO&E.  I completely overlooked that part; my apologies.

As far as the repair issue, if you have enough in your initial stockpile you shouldn't have to worry about techs acquiring the parts.  However, you may find that as you grind through your contracts, you're starting to run out of supplies, or at least they don't arrive when you wish they would, and techs do indeed have to try to find the parts (and when you're in the middle of a contract, not all parts will be available!).  You can always GM mode to instantly complete transit, if that's more realism/micromanagement than you want to deal with.  You ARE supposed to eventually have at least SOME trouble keeping everything in tip-top shape all the time, though.

As for automating it, I don't know if that's in the cards right now or not.  I would think the danger of overly automating repairs is you'll run out of supplies before you realize it...
I was thinking of something much more basic than that - basically, being able to select a damaged unit, and say "go to the market and try and order all the replacement bits" so that if, say, I lose an arm on one of my 'Mechs, I don't have to root around manually ordering the arm, the armour, the weapons and actuators... although I may just be lazy ;)

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

 

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