Author Topic: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)  (Read 164913 times)

BirdofPrey

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1230 on: 22 May 2020, 21:41:50 »
I ALMOST lost Dekker my first playthrough because I knew exactly how fragile a spider is and how bad an idea it is to leroy jenkins one into the enemy.  He was standing right in the middle of the base when it went turncoat because that WAS away from the front lines.

Nothing quite beats this achievement, though:
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You Can't Kill Me
Have a 'Mech and its Pilot survive being knocked down, shutdown, and shot in the head
After that, Firestarters were a priority 1 target even among heavier forces.

Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1231 on: 22 May 2020, 23:31:47 »
it got a little dicey for dekker earlier this evening - i was tasked with destroying a pirate convoy and while my mediums tried to brush off the light lance acting as cover, the spider ended up on classic flanking duty. no problem, i said to myself. vees get stomped. well, this convoy had a manticore and SRM carrier. shit stings. thank goodness for jump jets. fortunately the internal damage was fixed up on the way to the jump point

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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1232 on: 23 May 2020, 00:34:17 »
On one of my play throughs Dekker got headcapped by a panther's PPC on first turn of shooting on my second or third mission even though he'd jumped max distance. Sometimes RNG happens.

The first iteration of the game's AI seemed to have something against Dekker, too.
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Daryk

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1233 on: 23 May 2020, 03:07:01 »
I still don't get how it's easy to have him, or anyone else, damaged enough to be near death in that mission. It's really not that hard, imo.

Like, I feel like you'd have to be downright suicidally aggressive.
That first mission, most people are still figuring out the interface.

Euphonium

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1234 on: 23 May 2020, 09:34:34 »
That first mission, most people are still figuring out the interface.

Definitely! One time I lost Dekker early on was because I mis-clicked and instead of jumping him out of trouble, froze him in place with his back to the enemy.
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Caedis Animus

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1235 on: 23 May 2020, 13:03:51 »
Weird. Maybe I just picked up the controls oddly quickly.

Though I've done the 'back facing the enemy' bit a few times, usually when drunk.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1236 on: 23 May 2020, 13:29:15 »
My general issue with controls has been when it's decided to jump to a different target than the one I was actually trying to select and causes my mech to spontaneously face in the opposite direction of an enemy heavy mech with only one pip worth of movement instead of facing it with four.
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MarauderD

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1237 on: 25 May 2020, 11:23:02 »
it got a little dicey for dekker earlier this evening - i was tasked with destroying a pirate convoy and while my mediums tried to brush off the light lance acting as cover, the spider ended up on classic flanking duty. no problem, i said to myself. vees get stomped. well, this convoy had a manticore and SRM carrier. shit stings. thank goodness for jump jets. fortunately the internal damage was fixed up on the way to the jump point

Sartris:

Glad you started into HBS’ Battletech.  With the DLC included, I think it is probably the best BattleTech game I’ve played.  It is really enjoyable, both the single player campaign and then career mode once you have the game down and need to ramp up difficulty.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1238 on: 25 May 2020, 17:58:53 »
Turn based strategic and tactical games on PC have never been my favorite (I could never get into any of the Civ entries, for example). If weren’t BattleTech-branded I probably wouldn’t even have looked at it. HBS is lucky I’m a sucker

If I can get through the restoration campaign I’ll consider it money well spent.


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Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1239 on: 27 May 2020, 20:17:16 »
Who knew that MoC was a such a huge hotbed of LosTech

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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1240 on: 27 May 2020, 21:59:27 »
The same people who knew that pirates are an excellent source of Star League mechs so rare that the best military people in the Inner Sphere didn't even know those mechs existed.
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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1241 on: 27 May 2020, 23:47:36 »
yeah a striker narc'd me. i showed it who's boss with a ridiculously OP Snub Nose +

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MarauderD

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1242 on: 29 May 2020, 10:36:23 »
Started a new campaign play through with lots of mech parts required (7) and stingy salvage and a couple other difficulty increases for funsies.

Most recent mission had 3 of my starting 4 pilots get an injury from head shots.  Time to find some cockpit mods....

Colt Ward

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1243 on: 29 May 2020, 11:26:15 »
yeah a striker narc'd me. i showed it who's boss with a ridiculously OP Snub Nose +

Yeah, it gets greater sensor dampening?  My point got caught between a pair of Schrek Snubs that were in some woods . . . the 1.5 skull mission I decided to send in the B team to get them some experience . . . my 3 gunner on the Treb trying to get through the draw was not getting a very good TH for the LRMs.  Then the Schreks switched to the Kintaro that landed between them- all that targeting degradation from the Snubs made him have a harder time hitting.

I think I might have to get into the files like some folks say . . . turn off some of the 'advanced' weapons that start showing up everywhere.
Colt Ward
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Top Sergeant

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1244 on: 29 May 2020, 17:38:26 »
I have yet to complete the main story line (almost though!) and I was wondering: how high do you need to get your faction with another power (in my case the Magestry) before you can travel there?
We hear that there are tumults and riots in Rome, and that voices are raised concerning the army and the quality of our soldiers. Make haste to reassure us that you love and support us as we love and support you, for if we find that we have left our bones to bleach in these sands in vain, then beware the fury of the legions.


DarkSpade

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1245 on: 29 May 2020, 17:47:24 »
I have yet to complete the main story line (almost though!) and I was wondering: how high do you need to get your faction with another power (in my case the Magestry) before you can travel there?

The story restricts travel.  You should be able to go anywhere once you've beaten it.  Flashpoints will start opening up afterwards too.
Space Marines are guys who look at a chainsaw and think, “That should be balanced for parrying.”

Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1246 on: 30 May 2020, 01:05:20 »
been grinding a lot of 1 and 1.5 skull missions and my lance is now Centurion (weird config since i didn't have an AC/10), Pixie K, Vindicator, Shadow Hawk with about $6.5m in the bank. Snub+ on the PXH and VND mean i can reliably put 140+ damage on a target and the PXH's TAG gives an extra boost. the SHD pilot is 9 gunnery and the other three are at 8. a rifleman 3C showed up in the last drop and lost both its arms the turn it came into LOS.

one skull missions are a total joke and two skull are starting to average toward a cakewalk.

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Colt Ward

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1247 on: 30 May 2020, 01:20:04 »
Not designed for pilots of that skill level.
Colt Ward
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"We come in peace, please ignore the bloodstains."

"Greetings, Mechwarrior. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Daoshen and the Capellan armada."

Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1248 on: 30 May 2020, 01:31:22 »
obviously, yeah. also i'm assuming the LosTech wasn't in the base game this early. the two skull missions i imagine would be a lot tougher i couldn't hit so ridiculously hard

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Interviewer: Since you’ve stopped making art, how do you spend your time?
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1249 on: 30 May 2020, 03:25:03 »
Yeah.  Of course, difficulty ratings can be rather random anyway.
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Colt Ward

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1250 on: 30 May 2020, 09:47:21 »
Yeah, honestly its why I was looking for a off switch . . . before the latest DLC, you were skewing your contract to salvage options b/c that is how you got the larger mechs.  Now its just get cash and then hop around until you find all the parts you need.

I do not really want Snubs, LBX, Ultras or anything else that did not come from that Castle Brian- especially in career.  You did get some flashpoints were you uncovered a sort of cache- how the Cyclops came into play IIRC?  I need to play through more of the flashpoints!  I have never gotten that one, though I finally DID get the Raven chain.
Colt Ward
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"We come in peace, please ignore the bloodstains."

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1251 on: 30 May 2020, 10:43:26 »
yup. i ran into a two-skull escort mission the other day where an entire third lance got dropped on top of me when i reached the LZ already pretty beat up. there was also the one with two heavies and an entire lance of big-racked LRM indirect support (strikers and javelin As i think)

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Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1252 on: 31 May 2020, 10:56:34 »
After 15 hours of ****** around I finally tackled the prison break mission. When the big bad lance appeared from the courtyard I burst out laughing because it was spearheaded by a jagermech. The one outrage was when Kamea breached the walls and stole not one but two kills by going full kintaro into the rear arc. I am overqualified for this work.

Picked up a griffin to replace the vindicator and a Wolverine. Unfortunately the only energy hard point is in the head so it can’t carry the ridiculous snub+. Dekker will ride on in the pixie for at least the foreseeable future

So far this is climbing the power rankings of my favorite bt games

1. Mech Commander 1
2. MW2 / Mercs
3. HBS Game
4. Crescent Hawk’s inception

It has a shot at 2nd place but it’s going take a magical experience to replace my homies gunman, hitman, and gator

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Luciora

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1253 on: 31 May 2020, 12:46:55 »
I can still remember their voices to this day.  Hah!

After 15 hours of ****** around I finally tackled the prison break mission. When the big bad lance appeared from the courtyard I burst out laughing because it was spearheaded by a jagermech. The one outrage was when Kamea breached the walls and stole not one but two kills by going full kintaro into the rear arc. I am overqualified for this work.

Picked up a griffin to replace the vindicator and a Wolverine. Unfortunately the only energy hard point is in the head so it can’t carry the ridiculous snub+. Dekker will ride on in the pixie for at least the foreseeable future

So far this is climbing the power rankings of my favorite bt games

1. Mech Commander 1
2. MW2 / Mercs
3. HBS Game
4. Crescent Hawk’s inception

It has a shot at 2nd place but it’s going take a magical experience to replace my homies gunman, hitman, and gator

Nav_Alpha

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1254 on: 31 May 2020, 18:13:24 »
After 15 hours of ****** around I finally tackled the prison break mission. When the big bad lance appeared from the courtyard I burst out laughing because it was spearheaded by a jagermech. The one outrage was when Kamea breached the walls and stole not one but two kills by going full kintaro into the rear arc. I am overqualified for this work.

Picked up a griffin to replace the vindicator and a Wolverine. Unfortunately the only energy hard point is in the head so it can’t carry the ridiculous snub+. Dekker will ride on in the pixie for at least the foreseeable future

So far this is climbing the power rankings of my favorite bt games

1. Mech Commander 1
2. MW2 / Mercs
3. HBS Game
4. Crescent Hawk’s inception

It has a shot at 2nd place but it’s going take a magical experience to replace my homies gunman, hitman, and gator

Exactly the same thing happened on this play through - Jagermech and lance came bursting through to face... my Quickdraw, Warhammer, Centurion and Vindy.
It was a farce - PPCs and heavy AC fire ripped the enemy Mechs apart, while my CO jumped all over the place, trick shooting with LRM salvos that ignore guarded and cover or sandblasting off armour with masses medium laser fire.

And then the princess turns up and fires everything into the Jag that was down a leg and about to lose the other - giving me decent salvage - and blows though the centre torso

It really goes to show what grinding out some easy contracts does. My first play through, I damn near lost the whole lance having Grim Cybil and her pirates because my stock lance was so green. This time, the only real damage we took was from heat as four experienced warriors tore through the pirate scum


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Sartris

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1255 on: 31 May 2020, 18:28:12 »
You’ve had more metal than me, dang

I just upgraded my pixie to a griffin 1n. I’m about to do the second liberation contract with a shadow hawk / griffin 1s / griffin 1n / centurion. Granted I have a pair of snub ppc+ and gunnery skills of 8-10 so I can usually effectively slag a heavy in two or three turns of concentrated fire.

All my units besides the CNT are 5/8/5 so I do a death circle where I can pound one side until the CT pops

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Daryk

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1256 on: 31 May 2020, 18:59:14 »
The trick I found before the patches exceeded my system resources was LRMs to knock them down, then called shots to the CT.  That made short work of even Atlases...

Nav_Alpha

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1257 on: 31 May 2020, 19:49:47 »
The trick I found before the patches exceeded my system resources was LRMs to knock them down, then called shots to the CT.  That made short work of even Atlases...

Or knock them down and work on the legs - great way to get two salvage slots


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- last words of unknown merc, Harlech, 3067

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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1258 on: 31 May 2020, 20:08:01 »
The trick I found before the patches exceeded my system resources was LRMs to knock them down, then called shots to the CT.  That made short work of even Atlases...

I think they have changed stability damage since then. On my first campaign playthrough massed LRMs let me get intact heavy & assault mechs by knocking them down til the pilot was incapaciated far quicker than I could actually kill the 'mech. I think that stopped working after the first DLC
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Re: HBS Expansion Thread- its time for II (spoilers)
« Reply #1259 on: 31 May 2020, 20:19:29 »
Never saw that effect... The first 'mech or two would knock down the enemy, then the rest would just drill the CT...

 

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