BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
Other BattleTech Games => MechWarrior and BattleTech Computer | Console Games => MegaMek Games => Topic started by: Drewbacca on 02 September 2014, 16:07:15
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How does one get involved with this?
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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.
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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!
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Can this be done with more than one player?
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<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.
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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.
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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.
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Thanks for the help. I noticed the hire option right after I posted. #P
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Thank you!
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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
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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 (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/ (https://sourceforge.net/projects/mekhq/files/development/)
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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.
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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.
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Turn off maintenance (Campagn Settings).
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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.
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Yeah, I'm sorry. I meant to turn off maintenance when I said ignore it. I see now how that can be misread.
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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.
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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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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 (http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=46). You can even subscribe to that specific forum if you're a member there, and then you'll get notification of new release threads.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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
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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...
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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 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbDnCvS8khy17pg2-iroT80Y4zIRe90W) (Started before AtB was implemented and thus slightly outdated, but he does take time to explain stuff)
Let's MegaMek with the FWLM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrsj36-ZNkA&list=UUG7qYAwV8Pd6Zdtjjb1pxxg) (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. :)
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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.
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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 ;)
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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 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbDnCvS8khy17pg2-iroT80Y4zIRe90W) (Started before AtB was implemented and thus slightly outdated, but he does take time to explain stuff)
Let's MegaMek with the FWLM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrsj36-ZNkA&list=UUG7qYAwV8Pd6Zdtjjb1pxxg) (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. :)
Excellent, thank you - that'll give me something to watch while I eat dinner. I could be playing MegaMek by the end of the evening!
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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.
How do you deploy your forces manually? I noticed that the only battles I was getting were those listed as special events, including one where bizarrely it had one of my Tech's salvaging a Highlander from a Star League cache and due to fight three veteran MechWarriors in light 'Mechs. If a lance has to be 3-6 units, I'm not sure how you could deploy a single unit...
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How do you deploy your forces manually? I noticed that the only battles I was getting were those listed as special events, including one where bizarrely it had one of my Tech's salvaging a Highlander from a Star League cache and due to fight three veteran MechWarriors in light 'Mechs. If a lance has to be 3-6 units, I'm not sure how you could deploy a single unit...
Sorry, right-click on the lance/unit in the TO&E, deploy is one of the options if there is a battle available.
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 not too far from that. If you have a damaged Mech and you goto the Repair Bay, just above the list of repairs needed you'll see a tab "Acquisitions" this will list the parts you need for that mech/vee and you can order them from there.
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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.
I've just got home and tried to download the 1970 build, but I'm getting a 404 error - are you still hosting it, perchance?
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Sorry, right-click on the lance/unit in the TO&E, deploy is one of the options if there is a battle available.It's not too far from that. If you have a damaged Mech and you goto the Repair Bay, just above the list of repairs needed you'll see a tab "Acquisitions" this will list the parts you need for that mech/vee and you can order them from there.
Thanks again for the explanations, I'll go and have a play now :)
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I've just got home and tried to download the 1970 build, but I'm getting a 404 error - are you still hosting it, perchance?
If you still have trouble with it, try this link:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/24455167/MekHQ_0_3_6_DEV_r1970_rar
I'll be taking it down once a new custom version is released.
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I have a contract and I am on sight. How do I go about fighting?
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If you still have trouble with it, try this link:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/24455167/MekHQ_0_3_6_DEV_r1970_rar
I'll be taking it down once a new custom version is released.
Thank you :)
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I've just got home and tried to download the 1970 build, but I'm getting a 404 error - are you still hosting it, perchance?
Seems the file name length was causing a problem. The updated link is http://www.hilton.id.au/mekhq-0.3.6-dev-r1970-dylan-windows.zip
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I have a contract and I am on sight. How do I go about fighting?
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.
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Well, I must be doing something wrong or missing something because I went from June 3067 to March 3068 without combat. And I ran out of cash so I could not even reach my next contract.
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Did you do this part?
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.
You ran out of money? Did you have any units in the TO&E when you accepted the contract? I'm not sure what that would do as far as getting battles goes, but it would mean you accepted a contract that paid nothing.
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I can't even set lances.
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I can't even set lances.
Create your starting company.
Go to TO&E tab
Left-click 'My Campaign' to highlight it, then right-click and select 'Add New Force'
Name the force and click OK
Save your campaign, exit & restart MekHQ, reloading your save.
You should now see the force under My Campaign in TO&E. Adding new forces works without the save & restart, it's only the first one that seems to not display properly. You can now assign units to each force (lance) by first left-clicking to highlight the force, then right-clicking and selecting Add New Unit.
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Thanks to all the help and advice here, I managed to get it running last night, and fought my way through my first battle. My first battle wasn't a huge amount of a fun - chase (attacker) with my Locust, Stinger and two Valkyries versus 6 armoured vehicles, mostly hovercraft, a Wasp and Locust, in Heavy Fog, on a Moonless Night. The jumpers basically slogged up the two mapsheets while the Locust tried to run two hexes a turn with everything in the world shooting at it.
I need to watch more videos on using MegaMek, because oddly while it/MekHQ tracked the damage on the Locust (which, bizarrely, made it off the map missing left and right torsos and arms) and on the two salvaged units, it didn't track the damage on my other units - which was mostly armour damage, and I think one damaged weapon. I dug through the logs and used the GM mode to add the damage back in on the hangar deck, but I think I maybe missed an option.
Next battle is hold the line, with my Fire Lance taking on another half dozen vehicles headed up by a veteran Archer and a veteran Warhammer. This could be messy.
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Create your starting company.
Go to TO&E tab
Left-click 'My Campaign' to highlight it, then right-click and select 'Add New Force'
Name the force and click OK
Save your campaign, exit & restart MekHQ, reloading your save.
You should now see the force under My Campaign in TO&E. Adding new forces works without the save & restart, it's only the first one that seems to not display properly. You can now assign units to each force (lance) by first left-clicking to highlight the force, then right-clicking and selecting Add New Unit.
Thanks.
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Thanks to all the help and advice here, I managed to get it running last night, and fought my way through my first battle. My first battle wasn't a huge amount of a fun - chase (attacker) with my Locust, Stinger and two Valkyries versus 6 armoured vehicles, mostly hovercraft, a Wasp and Locust, in Heavy Fog, on a Moonless Night. The jumpers basically slogged up the two mapsheets while the Locust tried to run two hexes a turn with everything in the world shooting at it.
I would suggest turning off either weather or lighting in the Campaign Options under the Against The Bot tab. Having both enabled seems to cause an abnormally high frequency of adverse conditions. Having just one enabled gives you a fighting chance.
Also The Chase is probably the toughest mission given the bot starts right on top of you.
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................while the Locust tried to run two hexes a turn with everything in the world shooting at it.
This is where the 'Reckless' piloting option is worth using. As long as the pilots 'piloting' is 4 or so it'll get you out of trouble in that sort of situation.
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Got my first battle in, and I won. Now what?
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Click Done on MegaMek until MekHQ begins the after battle process. It should be pretty self-explanatory, but if not, feel free to grill us.
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Got my first battle in, and I won. Now what?
I'm not fully sure what your asking, AtB victory conditions are NOT implemented, so you need to use the /victory or /defeat commands when one side meets their goal (if it's you it's /victory) it's best if you have your MM options set to "skip all phases on forced victory" (or something like that, second tab on the options.) Then as Snimm said just finish the battle (if you initiated inside MHQ) and it should be pretty self-explanatory. Most things show up as far a kills and salvage go, but if you have a unit that got some kills then was destroyed themselves then MHQ will forget they got the kills, so you need to select them manually. Also, it dose not recognize kills that are not technically 'kills' (ie. disabling a mech/vee and forcing the AI to eject or a mech that killed it's self trying to stand when your the reason it was prone in the first place) so you will also want to assign those kills manually. To do that you just click on the "Killed by" box next to the appropriate unit and select you unit that should be credited with the kill. Note here, if you kill off one bot so it exits the game before you win sometimes MHQ will forget about all their unit and wont credit you for the kills (allot of times you'll have you're enemy and they will have reinforcements, if you kill off one side or the other completely before Victory has occurred MHQ will disregard all those units killed and the salvage option for them.)
Other then that you should be all set, you'll need to repair and reload ("repair bay" tab in MHQ and I hope you have mechanics and Mech Techs, and purchased armor and ammo with your starting funds.) Then just wait till the next Monday to see if you have another battle. It's allot more interesting if you have an imagination and can make up sort of a story line for what's happening! (you can 'edit' scenarios and put in descriptions and AAR's, it's a great tool for making it more of a 'campaign' and less a series of random fights, which is actually what it is.)
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If I capture enemy personnel, and they appear in my personnel roster as prisoners (rather than vanishing) does that mean they've defected?
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If you have the option turned on in campaign options AtB tab it's called "Random Enemy Capture" it will tell you in the daily report section if people defect (so-and-so was added to your roster as a Prisoner then the next line would say, you have convinced so-and-so to defect.) Unfortunately, as the name implies, it is random, so some mechwarriors you actually capture during the battle might register as escaped and vise-verse. If you do not have that option selected it dose not tell you who defects and will consider captured anyone who did not actually flee or was piloting a functional mech/vee at the end of the battle.
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Thank you - that puts my mind at rest that people who join my roster as prisoners aren't going to run away with any 'Mechs I assign them ;)
Playing the campaign through MekHQ is starting to feel comfortable now, although some parts have been a little frustrating. A couple of things seem a little arcane - I had a 'Mech where the shoulder took a critical hit, so I needed a replacement arm, but I couldn't replace the arm until I'd salvaged all of the other components out of that arm. Working out how to do that took a certain amount of creative swearing and right-clicking through various fields and options.
I've found that MekHQ is only tracking the battle results some of the time - I'm guessing that's the bug that was flagged up earlier. Some battles it tracks without problems, and it lets me select salvage, tracks damage on my 'Mechs and the like; others it doesn't, and I have to recreate it manually as I go through. I'm a little confused as to why it's not forgetting/remembering consistently - it makes me suspect that it's something I'm doing, but I'm not quite sure what.
I don't know if this is unusual, but I'm finding that most of the battles involve almost no long-range combat at all - even Bot units that are primarily LRM-boats are rushing to close with me, and between startups, maps and enemy movement, I'm hardly using the LRM racks on my own 'Mechs. My poor scout lance consists of a pair of Valkyries, a Locust and a Stinger, and the Valkyries spend most of their time jumping around trying to stay out of kicking range of 'Mechs 10-20 tons heavier while taking shots of opportunity with their medium pulse lasers. It's felt almost hilarious to be facing down four enemy 'Mechs (topping out with a Centurion and a Trebuchet) along with eight tanks of various kinds with just my four scout 'Mechs...
One thing I'm convinced of is that Bot-controlled House allies are like sheep, in that they spend their entire time looking for ways to die. I think I've lost slightly more than half of the ones that've deployed alongside my troops - although there was a FedCom officer piloting an UrbanMech who charged a Hunchback for some unknown reason, and actually survived.
I've picked up a couple of random bonuses from certain missions, and they've been very... random. One let me recruit a new member of staff, and another presented me with a brand-new 'Mech... a primitive WAM-B Firebee. I don't think there were exactly a lot of those made, so I've no idea where the Bot found one to give me, but I'm not sure the reformed prisoner I assigned to pilot it was completely thrilled with that turn of events... Can I get a higher than average sale price for selling it to Snorrd's Irregulars? Or maybe a museum? It seems a shame to let it get shot up...
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Greetings to everyone!
Just started playing AtB campaign and found out about resolving battles problem. The issue is that I have a mac and the MekHQ mac version is only the latest, which is currently bugged. I wonder if anyone can give me a link to 1970 mac version.
Thanks in advance.
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Playing the campaign through MekHQ is starting to feel comfortable now, although some parts have been a little frustrating. A couple of things seem a little arcane - I had a 'Mech where the shoulder took a critical hit, so I needed a replacement arm, but I couldn't replace the arm until I'd salvaged all of the other components out of that arm. Working out how to do that took a certain amount of creative swearing and right-clicking through various fields and options.
Yes, shoulder hit's are very annoying, honestly what I generally do is GM "edit mech damage" (right-click the mech in the Hanger tab) then remove the arm from my warehouse. Hip hits work the same way.
I've found that MekHQ is only tracking the battle results some of the time - I'm guessing that's the bug that was flagged up earlier. Some battles it tracks without problems, and it lets me select salvage, tracks damage on my 'Mechs and the like; others it doesn't, and I have to recreate it manually as I go through. I'm a little confused as to why it's not forgetting/remembering consistently - it makes me suspect that it's something I'm doing, but I'm not quite sure what.
What version are you using? r1978, I tried repeatedly and never had a battle resolve properly at all. r1970 the only problem with resolving I've encountered is the one stated above about eliminating one side completely prior to the end of battle (which can be worked around by using MM to 'join' the game as that player, though it's rather annoying because you have to switch MM tabs to hit done.) If you're using r1970 I believe you are correct that it's something you are doing, but like you I have no idea what, though you may try dedicating more memory to MHQ. (search the forum for how, it's been explained many times)
I don't know if this is unusual, but I'm finding that most of the battles involve almost no long-range combat at all - even Bot units that are primarily LRM-boats are rushing to close with me, and between startups, maps and enemy movement, I'm hardly using the LRM racks on my own 'Mechs.
Unfortunately that is not unusual, it's a limitation of the bot, it cannot adjust behavior on a per-unit basis. If you want, you can separate the 'long-range' units into another bot and adjust the bot setting (lower 'berzerker' and up 'self-preservation' should work.) However, trust me, it's much less annoying to get charged by a catapult who then is only able to use his med lasers then to have a Jenner run around at extreme range taking 12-to-hit pop shots at you and forcing you to take 12-to-hit shots at them, that makes for a LONG and boring battle.
One thing I'm convinced of is that Bot-controlled House allies are like sheep, in that they spend their entire time looking for ways to die. I think I've lost slightly more than half of the ones that've deployed alongside my troops - although there was a FedCom officer piloting an UrbanMech who charged a Hunchback for some unknown reason, and actually survived.
Always, and I mean always, set you're 'allies' to "Cowardly" bot behavior, that may be a form of cheating, but it's about the only way they will survive. I've had an ally so set on getting it's self killed that it swam around in a lake going from depth 1 to depth 2 water for 5 turns before it finally managed to fail a pilot roll and drown...
Just started playing AtB campaign and found out about resolving battles problem. The issue is that I have a mac and the MekHQ mac version is only the latest, which is currently bugged. I wonder if anyone can give me a link to 1970 mac version.
You might try this forum,
http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=51
But I suspect if no-one can provide you a copy here you may be SOL until Ralgith releases a fixed version, which will be an unknown amount of time do to rl.
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Yes, shoulder hit's are very annoying, honestly what I generally do is GM "edit mech damage" (right-click the mech in the Hanger tab) then remove the arm from my warehouse. Hip hits work the same way.
I wish I'd thought of that - I'll try that in future. Although, annoyingly, I can't buy replacement endo steel components during my campaign. I'm kind of thinking that a six-month planetary assault against regular forces may not have been the best place to start.[/quote]
What version are you using? r1978, I tried repeatedly and never had a battle resolve properly at all. r1970 the only problem with resolving I've encountered is the one stated above about eliminating one side completely prior to the end of battle (which can be worked around by using MM to 'join' the game as that player, though it's rather annoying because you have to switch MM tabs to hit done.) If you're using r1970 I believe you are correct that it's something you are doing, but like you I have no idea what, though you may try dedicating more memory to MHQ. (search the forum for how, it's been explained many times)
I'm running 1978 at the moment, as I wasn't sure if the save files from 1978 would be compatible with 1970. 1978 worked perfectly for the first five or six battles, then didn't work for three more, worked in the next battle (in which I had my first unit member killed), then didn't work in the one after.[/quote]
Unfortunately that is not unusual, it's a limitation of the bot, it cannot adjust behavior on a per-unit basis. If you want, you can separate the 'long-range' units into another bot and adjust the bot setting (lower 'berzerker' and up 'self-preservation' should work.) However, trust me, it's much less annoying to get charged by a catapult who then is only able to use his med lasers then to have a Jenner run around at extreme range taking 12-to-hit pop shots at you and forcing you to take 12-to-hit shots at them, that makes for a LONG and boring battle.
Yeah, I can believe that. I limited myself with the units I purchased originally to what seemed thematically appropriate based on Xotl's tables, and because of the Tech upgrades I bought when setting up my unit, I didn't have a lot of choice 'Mech-wise. It's not too bad with 'Mechs like the Griffin, but my Valkryies should maybe have been Firestarters instead. I had my main tech refit my Axman to the -1N variant, because he just wasn't getting to use the LRMs.
Always, and I mean always, set you're 'allies' to "Cowardly" bot behavior, that may be a form of cheating, but it's about the only way they will survive. I've had an ally so set on getting it's self killed that it swam around in a lake going from depth 1 to depth 2 water for 5 turns before it finally managed to fail a pilot roll and drown...
Thanks for the tip, I'll do that tonight. I can completely believe the bot did that - I think the only reason the Urbanmech charged a Hunchback is because there wasn't a Berserker on the battlefield to try and melee with!
I'm due to head off on holiday soon, and I think I'm going to stick MHQ on a memory stick so that I can play it on my netbook while I'm away. It definitely makes playing through the AtB campaign faster, now that I'm over the initial pain of starting up a unit and learning the basics. Although I'm eyeing the upcoming retirement roll nervously - I can't tell from MekHQ if it's still a case of rolling 4 or less on 2d6 results in someone retiring, but I might field-promote everyone just in case. I'm playing an ex-Steiner unit, so it fits to have everyone in the unit promoted to two ranks higher than their actual level of competence...
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I don't know how MHQ dose retirement exactly, you need to have that option selected in campaign options, I think they follow the AtB rules for end of contract rolls only. However, I have no idea how it decides on pay-out amount. I had a vet demand a 13 mil payout, while my entire VALUE was around 15 (I start with a much smaller force then AtB rules call for,) so, um, NO.
I strongly advise saving prior to finishing the contract and keeping the "GM Mode" on so you can edit pay-out amounts (look up the rules and figure it out manually, cause I'm pretty sure the mod dose not calculate properly.)
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I'm on a recon raid mission, but the mission won't end even after I've followed the victory conditions:
I was supposed to go to the eastern map edge and stay there for two turns, then return to western map edge. I did that, but the scenario won't end. did I do something wrong?
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I'm on a recon raid mission, but the mission won't end even after I've followed the victory conditions:
I was supposed to go to the eastern map edge and stay there for two turns, then return to western map edge. I did that, but the scenario won't end. did I do something wrong?
Please read this thread before asking questions, this has been answered twice. It does not automatically end the scenario, you have to use /victory or /defeat.
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Lots of stuff
There is an easy fix for the Suicidal Allies. Only Accept contracts with Liaison. Ding, problem solved :) It might be too early in your campaign to do so. Although taking out a loan to pay Basic Monthly costs would be preferable to Integrated Command in my opinion. This way you can wait it out until the right contract comes along.
Don't freak out about the retirement roll! Paid recruitment will add as many Elite pilots as you want for a reasonable expenditure.
Disclaimer: I'm 12 years into my Campaign (currently 3021). My bankroll is ludicrous and rising. ;D
I'm about to accept a Garrison Contract (18 months) worth a bit more than 1 billion CB after expenses }:)
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Only Accept contracts with Liaison.
There is a reason the Integrated command exists in the rules. If you cannot over come a stupid bot and get a successful contract try harder.
Though I do agree that new players to btech and to AtB avoid integrated commands if playing specifically from a mission/game standpoint.
Actually one addendum to the rules I would not mind seeing is certain contract types should be Integrated. Specifically Planetary Assaults and any Defense contract (other than garrison).
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I'm currently away from home for a few days, so I brought my copy of MekHQ with me by copying the entire installed directory onto a memory stick. I'm running MekHQ from the stick with no problems, but I've hit a problem with MegaMek. Annoyingly, there's no wifi where I'm staying and I'm not getting many chances to get at a wifi connection elsewhere, which has made my main plan - download a copy of the installation files and install it directly - a bit unlikely. I'm conscious I may be thread-jacking, but has anyone hit the problem of MekHQ opening MegaMek, starting to load up the settings for the match, creating the bots for allies/enemies/reinforcements, and hitting problms. Each bot appears with a "Hi, I'm a bot!" Message, then issuing three "I don't recognise that command" messages before the next bot loads. None of the bots get any units allocated to them, which seems to be what the error messages are referring to.
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If you haven't already done it. Change the amount of memory MekHQ and Megamek from 512m to 1024m. The files to edit are megamek.l4j and mekhq.l4j
Good luck!
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has anyone hit the problem of MekHQ opening MegaMek, starting to load up the settings for the match, creating the bots for allies/enemies/reinforcements, and hitting problms. Each bot appears with a "Hi, I'm a bot!" Message, then issuing three "I don't recognise that command" messages before the next bot loads. None of the bots get any units allocated to them, which seems to be what the error messages are referring to.
The bots always give me those messages, but it very rarely has any noticeable issue. The only time I've had the issue you describe with the opfor not appearing is when I deploy a single unit rather then a whole lance. It is a known issue, because MHQ was NOT designed to deploy individual units in this manner, and likely will have a work-around available in the next iteration of the AtB mod, but for now I'd suggest just deleting the scenario (battle) and moving on, if that is indeed the situation.
If that's not the situation, no, I've never encountered that problem :)
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I'm currently away from home for a few days, so I brought my copy of MekHQ with me by copying the entire installed directory onto a memory stick. I'm running MekHQ from the stick with no problems, but I've hit a problem with MegaMek. Annoyingly, there's no wifi where I'm staying and I'm not getting many chances to get at a wifi connection elsewhere, which has made my main plan - download a copy of the installation files and install it directly - a bit unlikely. I'm conscious I may be thread-jacking, but has anyone hit the problem of MekHQ opening MegaMek, starting to load up the settings for the match, creating the bots for allies/enemies/reinforcements, and hitting problms. Each bot appears with a "Hi, I'm a bot!" Message, then issuing three "I don't recognise that command" messages before the next bot loads. None of the bots get any units allocated to them, which seems to be what the error messages are referring to.
This can happen when MHQ tries to send unit data faster than MM can process it. Try increasing the delay timer on the bottom right of the AtB tab in the campaign options.
The bots always give me those messages, but it very rarely has any noticeable issue. The only time I've had the issue you describe with the opfor not appearing is when I deploy a single unit rather then a whole lance. It is a known issue, because MHQ was NOT designed to deploy individual units in this manner, and likely will have a work-around available in the next iteration of the AtB mod, but for now I'd suggest just deleting the scenario (battle) and moving on, if that is indeed the situation.
If that's not the situation, no, I've never encountered that problem :)
This has nothing to do with the way MHQ deploys units, and it can deploy one as easily as a company. There was a bug that resulted from delaying the deployment turn for slower units in scout lances without first checking whether the player's forces are deployed as a lance, but that has been fixed. I'm not aware of any other issues with special missions.
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Yes, you can do it. But things don't work right when you do, so you should not.
(this is in reference to deploying single unit rather then a lance)
I assumed my problem was related to the bug he referenced a couple posts before that with the null return on assigned lance.
No, you can NOT do that. Which I said already. You can not deploy individual units.
https://sourceforge.net/p/mekhq/bugs/559/
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Looks like upping the memory allocation and increasing the delay for data transfer has cracked the problem, thank you :)
I tried taking a contract raiding a Clan world (against Green/F) Clan forces, and after the first battle paired my 100-ton scout lance up against 10 OmniMechs with 5 more in reserve I went back and took a rather less generous contract pirate-hunting on the edge of the Capellan Confederation instead...
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Ive tried everything in this thread, I have tried every iteration of MekHQ in this thread and I still do not get any AtB Tab when starting a new campaign. Im not sure what I am doing wrong here.
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Ive tried everything in this thread, I have tried every iteration of MekHQ in this thread and I still do not get any AtB Tab when starting a new campaign. Im not sure what I am doing wrong here.
Are you using the 1978 build? It's the one found in this file repository: http://bt.dylanspcs.com/ - I used the version bundled up in this file: "mekhq-0.3.6-dev-r1978-dylan-windows.zip" - and it has the AtB tab in MekHQ.
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I've gotten up to the point where I should be able to Start Game, but Start Game is greyed out. I can export .mul files, print and clear sheets - but not play. I feel like I've missed something obvious.
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Advance day until you reach the day of the battle :)
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Advance day until you reach the day of the battle :)
I am literally the dumbest person ever.
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I am literally the dumbest person ever.
Pretty common mistake, I've seen just about everyone ask the same question when they started using it. O0
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Is there a better way to make sure that injuries and salvage are represented after the match? I've played two matches and both times it doesn't track who got kills, if there was salvage, and it wants to claim all of my pilots were MIA.
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That sounds like you're using an old build that was buggy. I don't have the proper links to more updated versions, though. Someone will help you out I suspect, shortly.
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0.3.6 1978. I used all the links at the start of this thread.
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0.3.6 1978. I used all the links at the start of this thread.
There was an issue with auto-resolution in r1978. It has been fixed but a new version has not been released yet. It should be soon(tm).
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There was an issue with auto-resolution in r1978. It has been fixed but a new version has not been released yet. It should be soon(tm).
Thanks. I will use this as a learning experience.
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Manual resolve still works though it dose not record kills. After battle where it asks if you want to save the units say yes, use that for the MUL, for the salvage MUL MM should auto-save it in the "logs" folder (for example salvage_2014-09-03_11-25-52.mul for a battle that ended at 11:25am on Sep 3rd 2014)
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I am literally the dumbest person ever.
Honestly, about average :) given how many times this gets asked :)
rotflmao!
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There was an issue with auto-resolution in r1978. It has been fixed but a new version has not been released yet. It should be soon(tm).
I'd be more interested in seeing the deployment/movement bug fixed in the bundled megamek, rutting thing makes the game unplayable.
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I'd be more interested in seeing the deployment/movement bug fixed in the bundled megamek, rutting thing makes the game unplayable.
Would be good to know what bug you're talking about. AFAIK all such bugs are fixed.
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I am literally the dumbest person ever.
Beat you for that title.
(http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,40948.msg956200.html#msg956200)
;)
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Would be good to know what bug you're talking about. AFAIK all such bugs are fixed.
This (http://sourceforge.net/p/megamek/bugs/4251/) one, although unlike the report I've found it also triggered while using multiple instances as a Player to try and deploy forces before using replacePlayer as a workaround to no effect.
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I've run into a problem where my campaign file refuses to load. I'm using r1970, and not using any custom units.
Can any of the gurus here take a look and let me know what is causing it?
I've got other campaign files that work fine, and with more advanced units that this one. Scratching my head as to the cause.
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I've run into a problem where my campaign file refuses to load. I'm using r1970, and not using any custom units.
Can any of the gurus here take a look and let me know what is causing it?
I've got other campaign files that work fine, and with more advanced units that this one. Scratching my head as to the cause.
The directory name for your commander's portrait is causing an error for the XML parser because it contains a "&". This is only a problem in the records of a completed scenario, which does not account for the possibility of XML metacharacters in the force icon or portrait files. I have attached a copy of your save file with the offending line removed after verifying that it will open on the same version MHQ it was created with and submitted a bug report.
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Thank you neoancient. Now that you've pointed it out, it makes perfect sense.
Obviously this is the first portrait I've had that's been randomly selected from that directory.
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I have a question... is there a way to tone down the difficulty level? Well, I mean sure, you are your own GM so you can just get the most kickass 'Mechs out there. But the thing is, I love the concept of fair play. So I try to do everything by the book. Unfortunately, going up against +10k BV forces in my 4 man Heavy lance and losing my cream of the crop... it gets frustrating after a while.
So I guess what I'm really asking is this - what would be the least intrusive way to lessen the edge Bot has in numbers?
Right now on the losing side of a Hold The Line [Attacker] where I started with 6200BV and Bot has 10500+5200BV.
I'm new to Battletech in general, so if someone could tell me if beating those odds is completely do-able and perfectly normal in a AtB game, then I guess I'll just have to suck it up and roll up more Merc companies to put through the grinder :))
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1 ) Your very first contract should be against Green Opponents.
2 ) You should probably choose only Garrison or Cadre Contracts as the first one.
3 ) Know when to just accept a defeat. Deploy your lance and type /defeat twice.
4 ) Operate your lances as close to the max weight limits as possible. Heavy max is 280 I'm currently using 275.
5 ) Use your reinforcements when they are needed.
After that it is just playing the game.
The first two points are the most important though. With number 1 being the most important. Yes, I can and have defeated odds like that. Everything has to go very nicely though, right map, right weather conditions, etc.
Dusk/Dawn is a nice time to play if one or more members of your force has Blind Fighter >:D
Still it all comes down to your first contract and the force it is deployed against. You should be Veteran/Regular and vs Green enemies with a Reg/Veteran ally evens things up quite a bit.
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Thanks for the tips. I had been ending up with mostly Raids and Planetary Assaults >:D
Now I mashed the GM Contract Generation button until I finally found a Cadre Duty with Green opponents. My allies are Green as well, so we're all N00bs this time O0
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I have a question... is there a way to tone down the difficulty level?
If you haven't already, disable the option to double the number of enemy vehicles on the AtB tab of the campaign options. You can also try changing the difficulty setting in the campaign options to green or ultra-green, which will cause the enemy to deploy lighter lances on average. Based on user feedback I decided this wasn't quite enough, so in the next release it will also limit the number of lances the enemy will deploy to a maximum of two at green level and one at ultra-green.* Until the next release comes out, you can impose this limit yourself by removing extra enemy units in the MM lobby.
*Note that this only applies to standard battles (those that are assigned to a player lance when created), and only to the base number of lances. Some scenarios dictate that the bot rolls twice, in which case the limits will be 2/4, and any doubling of the number of vehicles also comes after the limit is imposed.
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If you haven't already, disable the option to double the number of enemy vehicles on the AtB tab of the campaign options. You can also try changing the difficulty setting in the campaign options to green or ultra-green, which will cause the enemy to deploy lighter lances on average. Based on user feedback I decided this wasn't quite enough, so in the next release it will also limit the number of lances the enemy will deploy to a maximum of two at green level and one at ultra-green.* Until the next release comes out, you can impose this limit yourself by removing extra enemy units in the MM lobby.
*Note that this only applies to standard battles (those that are assigned to a player lance when created), and only to the base number of lances. Some scenarios dictate that the bot rolls twice, in which case the limits will be 2/4, and any doubling of the number of vehicles also comes after the limit is imposed.
Thanks for the tips. I had been ending up with mostly Raids and Planetary Assaults >:D
Now I mashed the GM Contract Generation button until I finally found a Cadre Duty with Green opponents. My allies are Green as well, so we're all N00bs this time O0
You kind of specified not cheating and playing at normal difficulty so I didn't mention the Difficulty Setting.
My bad... hey Green... Cadre... Turn the level down to Ultra-Green! Once you defeat that regularly, turn it up :)
Not sure you will need it though... Green enemies SUCK!
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If you have to, don't hesitate to take out a loan so you can wait for the right contract or make it to your first contract. If you do just make sure your monthly pay-out is at least double the loan payment + maintenance costs (that should pretty well cover payroll and overhead with some to spare.) As in RL it's always a good idea to pay off the loans early if you have the money to do so.
I'd be more interested in seeing the deployment/movement bug fixed in the bundled megamek, rutting thing makes the game unplayable.
You must still be running r1970 which has got some severe issues with deployment/movement that seem to have been fixed in r1978, or MM 0.39.1. Auto-resolve dose not work in 1978 though, so it can be a pain, but at least you can fight most of the battles.
NOT RECOMENDED, and please don't tell ralgith I said this next part!
If you cannot live without accurate kill logs and can't be bothered to input them manually, you can unzip MM 0.39.1 into your MHQ r1970 folder then take the MegaMek.jar from r1978 (in the 'lib' folder) and it will work quite well. Just DONT post/report any bugs you run into!
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any idea when the update that fixes that auto resolve might roll out?
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You must still be running r1970 which has got some severe issues with deployment/movement that seem to have been fixed in r1978, or MM 0.39.1. Auto-resolve dose not work in 1978 though, so it can be a pain, but at least you can fight most of the battles.
Nope, I'm running the Ralgith's r1978 custom build and running into the deployment/movement issue with that.
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If you have to, don't hesitate to take out a loan so you can wait for the right contract or make it to your first contract. If you do just make sure your monthly pay-out is at least double the loan payment + maintenance costs (that should pretty well cover payroll and overhead with some to spare.) As in RL it's always a good idea to pay off the loans early if you have the money to do so.
You must still be running r1970 which has got some severe issues with deployment/movement that seem to have been fixed in r1978, or MM 0.39.1. Auto-resolve dose not work in 1978 though, so it can be a pain, but at least you can fight most of the battles.
NOT RECOMENDED, and please don't tell ralgith I said this next part!
If you cannot live without accurate kill logs and can't be bothered to input them manually, you can unzip MM 0.39.1 into your MHQ r1970 folder then take the MegaMek.jar from r1978 (in the 'lib' folder) and it will work quite well. Just DONT post/report any bugs you run into!
works like a champ I wont tell anyone
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Nope, I'm running the Ralgith's r1978 custom build and running into the deployment/movement issue with that.
Very strange, I run into it some with r1978, but not nearly often enough to call it 'unplayable' like I do with r1970.
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Very strange, I run into it some with r1978, but not nearly often enough to call it 'unplayable' like I do with r1970.
I run into it every single time sadly.
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Very strange, I run into it some with r1978, but not nearly often enough to call it 'unplayable' like I do with r1970.
what is strange is that I think r1978 is 'unplayable' due to not resolving the battle and r1970 did not have any issues for me.
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I'm on a fairly long garrison contract, and after a couple of months the attacking party was reduced to "rout" for their morale. A month later, and they're still there, although I haven't had any battles in a month. Should I be doing something to clear them out so that a new enemy is generated?
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There really is nothing you can do. It is a mistake in the AtB system, it will stay at rout. In any other contract type it is considered an early completion and you should 'complete' the contract and get the rest of your pay, garrison contracts are supposed to work differently, but in the automated AtB system they don't. neoancient said it's been fixed, but I'm not sure if the fix made it into ralgith's new release or not.
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I'm on a fairly long garrison contract, and after a couple of months the attacking party was reduced to "rout" for their morale. A month later, and they're still there, although I haven't had any battles in a month. Should I be doing something to clear them out so that a new enemy is generated?
It is an AtB bug.
Edit Mission and change the Morale to Normal after 1d6 - 3 months.
All the other workarounds involve some strangeness.
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Willdo, thank you.
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There really is nothing you can do. It is a mistake in the AtB system, it will stay at rout. In any other contract type it is considered an early completion and you should 'complete' the contract and get the rest of your pay, garrison contracts are supposed to work differently, but in the automated AtB system they don't. neoancient said it's been fixed, but I'm not sure if the fix made it into ralgith's new release or not.
Yes, it's in the shiny new release. I'm about to go post a list of changes on Mercenary Command.
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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 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbDnCvS8khy17pg2-iroT80Y4zIRe90W) (Started before AtB was implemented and thus slightly outdated, but he does take time to explain stuff)
Let's MegaMek with the FWLM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrsj36-ZNkA&list=UUG7qYAwV8Pd6Zdtjjb1pxxg) (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. :)
Yay me. :) I need to figure out that bug I was having with Kittysmasher so I can resume that.
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Yay me. :) I need to figure out that bug I was having with Kittysmasher so I can resume that.
yes yes you do been waiting patiently
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It is an AtB bug.
Edit Mission and change the Morale to Normal after 1d6 - 3 months.
In my garrison contract on the new build (r1993), a morale of "Rout" reverted to "Normal" after ~2 months automatically. Seems like the fix is in.
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I have a question: I grabbed the latest ruleset, and it tells me to roll to see whether a given mechwarrior comes with a mech, but actually finding out what mech they come with makes references to tables I can't find in the ruleset. are these buried in the actual BTech rulebooks somewhere, or does the 2.3 ruleset not have those charts?
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The rule set relies on Xtol's tables for 3028-3050. Otherwise you can roll on any RAT you choose for your era of play. Most of the official RATs can be found inside of MM under the "Create Random Army" button.
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I have a question: I grabbed the latest ruleset, and it tells me to roll to see whether a given mechwarrior comes with a mech, but actually finding out what mech they come with makes references to tables I can't find in the ruleset. are these buried in the actual BTech rulebooks somewhere, or does the 2.3 ruleset not have those charts?
Here you go. (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,1219.msg22870.html#msg22870)
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Yay me. :) I need to figure out that bug I was having with Kittysmasher so I can resume that.
Yes, please do! After my first battle, I felt like someone gave me this new "drug", and then POOF!... I couldn't get my fix D:
So I had to download megamek and start my own campaign (Btw your vids helped a bunch for the campaign settings and the initial setup).
- HawkEyes
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So I'm more than likely blind and/or dumb, but is the ability to add skills to pilots no longer available using the AtB rules?
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Click GM MODE
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Click GM MODE
Edit: I found it, apparently have to check the box in the campaign options to allow the SPA's....duh Paddy, duh!
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Edit: I found it, apparently have to check the box in the campaign options to allow the SPA's....duh Paddy, duh!
Ohhh you said skills... I thought you meant like Gunnery, etc.
Yeah that SPA checkbox really switches things up doesn't it ::)
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Hi folks,
I've just started with this, and I have some questions:
1) When I'm on a contract that requires a single lance on Defence, what is the value to the various other things I can do with the other lances? If I assign them to Fight will they just get into more fights? Is there any value to assigning them to Training?
2) I just somehow acquired a random APC vehicle. I have no Vehicle crew for it, and I don't have the option to assign a Tech to it. When I try to Mothball it, it tells me I don't have a Tech available, even though I have one tech that isn't assigned to maintaining any units. Now every day that passes I get an annoying popup that informs me I have unmaintained units. What do I do?
3) Why do Mechs have to be maintained during transport on a Jumpship?
4) Do parts always take a minimum of 31 days to arrive?
5) Why are the Techs so bad at maintenance? How does this situation improve? My Mechs are constantly deteriorating, even with Regular Techs. Is there any reason not to assign all the Mech maintenance to the same good Tech?
6) How do I see how many Astechs I have? I can see Medics in the Infirmary, but not sure where Astechs can be seen.
7) For some reason, even though I've assigned "Original Unit" values to my Mechwarriors, their share numbers don't reflect the weight-class. They're just valued at Base + Founder + Experience level + Officer Rank.
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Hi folks,
I've just started with this, and I have some questions:
1) When I'm on a contract that requires a single lance on Defence, what is the value to the various other things I can do with the other lances? If I assign them to Fight will they just get into more fights? Is there any value to assigning them to Training?
2) I just somehow acquired a random APC vehicle. I have no Vehicle crew for it, and I don't have the option to assign a Tech to it. When I try to Mothball it, it tells me I don't have a Tech available, even though I have one tech that isn't assigned to maintaining any units. Now every day that passes I get an annoying popup that informs me I have unmaintained units. What do I do?
3) Why do Mechs have to be maintained during transport on a Jumpship?
4) Do parts always take a minimum of 31 days to arrive?
5) Why are the Techs so bad at maintenance? How does this situation improve? My Mechs are constantly deteriorating, even with Regular Techs. Is there any reason not to assign all the Mech maintenance to the same good Tech?
6) How do I see how many Astechs I have? I can see Medics in the Infirmary, but not sure where Astechs can be seen.
7) For some reason, even though I've assigned "Original Unit" values to my Mechwarriors, their share numbers don't reflect the weight-class. They're just valued at Base + Founder + Experience level + Officer Rank.
Wow lots of good questions for starting out...
1) Defense/Scout/Fight lances each do different things as described in random places in the excel rulesheets. The primary differences are the chances for different types of fights. A Defense lance has 0% chance for base attack, while a fighting lance has a very small chance. Scout lances will generally provide hit and run type scenarios, or scenarios that involve you getting to the other side of the map, sitting for a turn and returning to your side of the map. So each lance type provides different scenarios.
2) I usually avoid playing with tanks in my merc company, but you can sell it off, hire a Mechanic that can maintain the APC and later hire the crew, or just leave it behind and delete it off your sheet. Mech Techs do not generally work on tanks, for that you need a Mechanic.
3) Because CGL says so. It's in the rules *shrugs*. Many of the players on here avoid the maintenance rules because they are so poorly designed to the type of game Megamek provides. Instead in the options tabs you will find a cost based maintenance option that Jayof9s (one of the support staff for Megamek) has devised and edited that the vast majority of us use.
4) In the campaign options under the tab "Repairs and Acquisitions" you will find a way to change how long it takes to deliver parts. I believe Makinus is working on new rules for these new options but there is no ETA on them. I set the options to whatever I feel the situation warrants. If I have a garrison contract I might set the delivery time to 1d6 days, with a MOS of 1 day, and a minimum delivery time of 1 day. If I feel the garrison contract has really picked up the pace in battles, and I consider the planet to be under attack by a Planetary Assault... I might not allow any supplies to even be order-able, much less deliverable.
5) Same problem as #3... Because CGL says so. Only allow Veteran and Elite techs to maintain units anything else and you will be sitting on salvage by the time you reach a contract destination.
6) On any tab, at the very very bottom... it reads "Dragoon Rating: (letter) Funds C-bills Temp Astechs: # Temp Medics: #". Where it says Temp Astechs is how many you have. After you reach a planet hire a full team of astechs. Fire them when you leave the planet. The CGL rules say these are pretty common and easy to obtain in any situation. Most astechs are simply material moves and go-fors.
7) neoancient created the shares and I am not entirely certain how they are generated... so it is best left for him.
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Thanks for the answers! Some responses.
1) So are there any benefits to setting more than the minimum number of lances except the opportunity to have battles? On a Garrison Duty contract for example, I probably want as few battles as possible. On the other hand, for a Planetary Assault contract, I probably want to fight the requisitte number of battles in the minimum time right?
Is this also the reason for separating your lances by role into Scout Lances vs Combat lances? A Scout lance set to Scout duty is likely to get missions suited to its speediness?
2) The Personnel market is absolutely awful, so I don't see that I have good odds of finding a mechanic in a hurry. I've never seen one up actually. I'll just get rid of it.
3) Well screw that then.
4) Thanks.
5) Well, at least I can assign the same tech to cover all the Mechs. When it says they gain 1 XP per 25 successful actions, do Maintenance rolls count?
6) Oh, I didn't realize you could hire and fire them like that. What are they good for anyway?
Vandervecken
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for number three I only put vet or elite on maintenance and then set it for every thirty days. I enjoy watching my mechs improve in quality of parts every maintenance cycle.
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Hi folks,
I've just started with this, and I have some questions:
...
Arkaris answered most of this, but I have a little bit to add:
1) If you have a lance assigned to fight or scout duty that does not roll a battle for the week, that lance may be available as reinforcements in another battle. This is manual for now, but I have the feature implemented in my working version and it should be available soon. It's connected to a layout change I made to implement infantry support roles from the newest set of the rules and I'll submit it when I finish the infantry part of the update. Training lances will earn 1 XP/week for all green personnel in the lance if they don't have a battle that week and the lance contains an officer that is at least veteran.
2) The APC was probably the result of a bonus roll from a monthly special event roll. As Arkaris said, sell it if you don't need it. When the infantry update comes out, you will be able to use APCs to convert foot/jump/motorized infantry to mechanized.
4) New in the 2.30 rules:
Parts Aquisition /Delivery (MekHQ)
Parts acquisition can be made up to 2 times a day for each admin on the company.
In MekHQ set that the skill for aquisition is ADMINISTRATION and that 2 rolls can
be made per cycle. Waiting period between aquisitions rolls is 1 day.
Clan equipment should have a penalty of 2 for aquisistion
Delivery time is always 2d6 days, with reduction of 1 day for each number beyond
the roll needed – minimum 1 day transit time.
I intend to expand the part of the AtB tab in campaign options that sets the XP and SPA costs to include this and what follows.
5) Also new in the 2.30 rules:
MAINTENANCE CHECKS (optional)
AtB uses two systems of Maintenance Cheks – according to the player preferences.
The first, easier system, is to not use maintenance checks, assuming that, as long
as a Tech is assigned to a mech for maintenance it keeps the mech on the average
quality level (level D). If using the easier system, use era mods for repair rolls.
The second, takes advantage of MekHQ options with the following modifications:
- Do not use era mods for repair rolls.
- Make maintenance checks
- Maintenance cycle is 30 days.
- Maintenance modifier is 0
- Do not use quality modifiers
- Only damage parts that are already “A”.
7) I'll take a look at it. There is a bug that MHQ does not track the original unit even if the option is checked. That's been fixed and will be working in the next release.
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Is there a way to mark all enemy pilots as "escaped" automatically? I'm getting a bit tired of manually dealing with the 50 thousand tank crew prisoners I get every battle.
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Is there a way to mark all enemy pilots as "escaped" automatically? I'm getting a bit tired of manually dealing with the 50 thousand tank crew prisoners I get every battle.
Not at the moment. However, the next release will have the prisoners split off to their own tab so it should be easier to deal with.
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Is there a way to mark all enemy pilots as "escaped" automatically? I'm getting a bit tired of manually dealing with the 50 thousand tank crew prisoners I get every battle.
Then don't bother. It is easier to just go into Personnel > Vehicle Crews > Shift Select all the Vee Prisoners and smack Delete and Space :)
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3) Because CGL says so. It's in the rules *shrugs*. Many of the players on here avoid the maintenance rules because they are so poorly designed to the type of game Megamek provides. Instead in the options tabs you will find a cost based maintenance option that Jayof9s (one of the support staff for Megamek) has devised and edited that the vast majority of us use.
There are also several other unofficial options so that you can still use the less abstract maintenance with a bit less headache:
1st you can change the modifier for maintenance, even improving it just 1-2 can make it a lot easier for regular/green techs to keep units somewhat maintained.
2nd another of my unofficial settings, which simply makes it so that parts *only* have a chance to break after they have reached poor condition.
3rd: not so much a setting/rule but perhaps used along with one or both of above, is allowing yourself access to Maintenance facilities between contracts (or during garrison contracts) - I would charge the campaigns I GM a fee for this but the +2 bonus should allow your techs to improve the quality of most units after a few maintenance cycles, especially if you assign your best techs to the job during downtime (when there aren't many repairs).
2 and 3 are primarily how I have been handling it; jr techs get to maintain units 'in the field' so that the senior techs are available for tricky repairs. After a few weeks/months, Mechs may be lower quality than when you started but shouldn't have reached the stage of being broken down yet. Then the unit takes a few weeks/months of their best techs, and in good facilities, to bring everything back to top-notch condition before repeating.
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I just got into my first fight on the planet Breed. I'm playing on regular difficulty and my Scout Lance is up against a force that has roughly double the Battle Value, and when I get into the fight in megaMek, apparently moving a single hex on clear terrain costs 4 MPs. I can't figure out why either of these things have happened. The balance of the fight seems way off, but the moving through sludge is by far worse.
The fight conditions are Pitch Black, Light Gale, and gravity is 1.3 (atmosphere standard).
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Light Gale shouldn't effect movement at all but Pitch Black and high gravity both will. On the upside, your enemies will have the same issue (and targeting in pitch black isn't great either from what I recall and light gale and high gravity should impact the use of missiles/ballistics as well). Hopefully you have jump jets and lasers, although the high gravity may make jumping around risky.
From my understanding of how AtB works, you will almost always be at a disadvantage, often a large one, in terms of BV and number of enemy units. This is counter-acted (somewhat) by most fights not being 'to the death' and the bot doing dumb things. That said, I have often seen it suggested to just throw in the towel on some fights if there's nothing you can do.
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Ah, so it was the Pitch Black thing.
Another question, how do I manually add one of my lances as Reinforcements to the MegaMek game?
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Ah, so it was the Pitch Black thing.
Another question, how do I manually add one of my lances as Reinforcements to the MegaMek game?
If you'd rather not bother with weather and light conditions, there's an option to disable them in the campaign options. You can also disable gravity/atmosphere conditions (though there's a bug report that says they're not being set, and I'm about to check that out).
You can add any lance to a scenario as reinforcements by deploying from the TO&E tab. (If you're new to MHQ, right-click on the force, choose Deploy, then choose the scenario.) The arrival turn of reinforcements will be determined by speed and the commander's strategy skill.
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Ok, so my first fight went well, now I need to think about repairs. The following issues have come up:
1) Is there a way to make a bulk acquisition of all parts needed to repair a Mech? So if a Mech needs parts A B and C, that I don't have, can I click some button that will order all those parts together, instead of having to go to the Parts market and buy the items one by one?
2) One of my Mechs had Shoulder and Upper Arm actuators destroyed. I've got a couple of repair jobs, one that screams "Upper Arm Actuator not found", but the other doesn't show up specially, it just says (when I clicked on it) "You cannot repair an arm with a damaged shoulder. This arm must be scrapped and replaced instead." This second repair task did not show up in the Acquisitions tab. If I had not noticed it specifically, I would have had a problem.
3) When you replace a limb with a damaged actuator, does a new actuator come with, or will the new limb need repair work? If I just replace the arm in #2, will the UU Actuator job go away on its own?
4) When replacing Jump Jets, MekHQ doesn't tell me which size of jet to order.
5) I don't want my Green Techs touching anything but the simplest tasks to start with. Is there a way to sort tasks by difficulty, so I can assign all the easy tasks, across mechs, to one Tech, and likewise assign the hard tasks to more veteran Techs?
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1. On the repair screen, you will see 2 tabs, one says "repairs" and the other acquisitions". Click the Acquisition tab and it will list all parts needed to repair the mech, you can buy them right there.
2. When you see that, you need to right click the mech on the left side of screen with all the other damaged mechs, open the menu, and click the salvage tab, now go back and salvage everything in that location, once done, right click the location and select scrap. Once salvaged, go to warehouse and you might need to repair those parts salvaged in there before you can use them.
3. You will have to replace everything in that arm. All actuators and such. Think of the limb as a hollow tube.
4. Click the Acquisitions again
5. Use all tech levels for repairs, if the green tech fails, a regular gets a shot at the repair, then a Vet, finally a Elite. If you go with a solo roll using best tech, you might get clobbered by the dice gods. Other than that, far as I know, no way to do what you want per se.
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Thanks.
The era modifier (I'm playing in 3025) is killing me. A Veteran tech needs a 7 just to repair armor. If he fails, only an Elite tech can do it. That seems like a high difficulty number.
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Remove the era modifier, it can be a pain in the back side. Or use the modifier but bump your repair site up one level, as in if using transport location, set for Maint instead, if using Maint, set for factory.
Repairs and such can be plain viscious so bend the rules some.
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Thanks.
The era modifier (I'm playing in 3025) is killing me. A Veteran tech needs a 7 just to repair armor. If he fails, only an Elite tech can do it. That seems like a high difficulty number.
Turn off the Era mod!
In fact do anything you like to make Repair/Maintenance "feel right" to you.
Do not consider this cheating at all! The Canon Repair/Maintenance Rules just plain suck terribly. It took a program like MHQ to clarify this fact well above and beyond anyone's doubt. Although. I regularly get ticked off that the moron who wrote these rules didn't bother fussing around with Excel for an hour. Or even think for a minute about what he was writing.
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Then don't bother. It is easier to just go into Personnel > Vehicle Crews > Shift Select all the Vee Prisoners and smack Delete and Space :)
SICK
That's what I've been missing. Thanks man
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Thanks guys,
Here's a couple more questions :(
I'm playing a Chase scenario, and I had to quit out. When I load the Saved game (from the Autosave), the bots don't connect to control the enemy forces. How do I fix that?
Also, in the Chase game, I reached the end of the map, but the game didn't end. I thought maybe I needed to Flee off the map edge, but that just resulted in me losing the scenario. How do I win a Chase?
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I'm playing a Chase scenario, and I had to quit out. When I load the Saved game (from the Autosave), the bots don't connect to control the enemy forces. How do I fix that?
Also, in the Chase game, I reached the end of the map, but the game didn't end. I thought maybe I needed to Flee off the map edge, but that just resulted in me losing the scenario. How do I win a Chase?
Use the 'replacePlayer' command in the MM console to connect a bot to non-human players. Or use MM's 'connect as Bot' option, though this will slow gameplay some.
AtB victory conditions are not implemented in MM at this point, so you have to do it manually. Put 'victory' in the MM console when you have achieved AtB victory conditions (or 'defeat' if the bot achieved it's victory conditions first.)
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AtB victory conditions are not implemented in MM at this point, so you have to do it manually. Put 'victory' in the MM console when you have achieved AtB victory conditions (or 'defeat' if the bot achieved it's victory conditions first.)
/victory and /defeat but otherwise correct. =)
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/victory and /defeat but otherwise correct. =)
My bad, forgot to mention all console commands start with "/" so it would be /replacePlayer as well.
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So I've played about 4-5 battles so far, and holy crap is this hard.
For example, I have a Recon Raid coming up. My Light lance is going up against 2 enemy light lances and a third lance of reinforcements. And looking at the charts, that's not even that unusual, it's par for the course! These fights are brutal!
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So I've played about 4-5 battles so far, and holy crap is this hard.
For example, I have a Recon Raid coming up. My Light lance is going up against 2 enemy light lances and a third lance of reinforcements. And looking at the charts, that's not even that unusual, it's par for the course! These fights are brutal!
Sadly the AI is not that intelligent. So the artificial way to increase difficulty of the game is to simply increase the number of enemy units... however in cases like btech, increased units also means increased salvage (which can make the game significantly easier). Don't forget that if you have a fight or scout lance you can call in reinforcements as well.
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I'm coming back to the game after a 15 year hiatus, and I guess I just don't see what's so unintelligent about the bot. It seems to give me a run for my money. What kind of dumb things does it do?
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Runs in a straight line toward you :o
Runs for +0 TH ::)
Overheats itself badly :'(
Jumps into level 2 water with no CT Armor [drool]
Doesn't kick when it should 8)
Kicks when it shouldn't O0
More that I can't think of right now.
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Runs in a straight line toward you :o
Runs for +0 TH ::)
Overheats itself badly :'(
Jumps into level 2 water with no CT Armor [drool]
Doesn't kick when it should 8)
Kicks when it shouldn't O0
More that I can't think of right now.
Still remember... you can have reinforcements as well!
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I haven't seen a single one of those things happen in about 8 fights.
And as for reinforcements, a Scout Lance only comes on a 5-6, and a Fight lance on a 6.
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Just go to your main screen where your TOE is listed, find a non deployed lance, right click and select deploy to what ever fight you want them to show up and help out on, they will arrive around turn 7 or so.
I just fought a recon mission against Clan Jade Falcon and they wanted me to send my scout lance of 4 against an entire Trinary............needless to say, I deployed my entire company and ended the fight with 3 mechs still standing. I tried a couple times to achieve the victory conditions but got blasted to dust before even getting close, so I went for all out destruction of the enemy last time. Of course I was so beat to pieces that I called the entire contract a failure and fled off world with my 60% of salvage that netted me around 60 million C bills.
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So you definitely have to circumvent the reinforcement rules I guess.
Another question about prisoners - I have a large amount of them. Probably far more than I need. Most are vehicle crew, and I'm not that interested. many are elite. Does it cost anything to keep them prisoner? Can I get rid of them? Can I maybe have them join? The rules don't say anything about this, and the system apparently assumes that if I free them they're members of my crew and need to be paid to leave.
EDIT: Found the prison rules. They are mis-spelled "Prisioners" so a search failed.
Double Edit: Not sure how to interpret the prisoner defection rules, where it sys:
To see if a prisioner wants to defect, roll a 2d6 and compare to the following table, note that the skills and rating are from the company/side, regardless of individual skill of the prisioner.
So the table where it says "Captured Skill" doesn't refer to the prisoner's skill level? What does it refer to then?
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This is probably a daft question, but is there a way in MekHQ of seeing which special abilities my personnel have earned? I started noting it down when I spend xp, but I haven't found a away of checking those earned in the past, and I'm conscious I may end up losing out on things like weapon specialisations if I put someone in a 'Mech with the wrong weapons...
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So you definitely have to circumvent the reinforcement rules I guess.
Another question about prisoners - I have a large amount of them. Probably far more than I need. Most are vehicle crew, and I'm not that interested. many are elite. Does it cost anything to keep them prisoner? Can I get rid of them? Can I maybe have them join? The rules don't say anything about this, and the system apparently assumes that if I free them they're members of my crew and need to be paid to leave.
EDIT: Found the prison rules. They are mis-spelled "Prisioners" so a search failed.
Double Edit: Not sure how to interpret the prisoner defection rules, where it sys:
To see if a prisioner wants to defect, roll a 2d6 and compare to the following table, note that the skills and rating are from the company/side, regardless of individual skill of the prisioner.
So the table where it says "Captured Skill" doesn't refer to the prisoner's skill level? What does it refer to then?
I don't think Makinus's 1st language is English, I might be wrong, so misspellings are expected :)
The Captured Skill is rated by the OPFOR's Skill rating. So a Green OPFOR against a B rated unit rolls...
8+ with a +1 on the 2d6 for defection
On the day of the battle, after resolution, you will see who wants to defect and who doesn't in the Daily Log. Out of those who want to defect, if I wish to keep I give a rank of Private.
Right now keeping Vee crews that you don't need can penalize you in the Defection Rolls at the end of a Campaign. Therefore, if you aren't using them, don't keep them.
As for reinforcements and circumventing rules... please understand that only in the last few months has the situation become clear. Previously, I'm sure that nearly everyone used Mech only OPFORs. With AtB implemented in MHQ, we can see the effects of having vehicles.
Personally, I've implemented a House Rule. If the OPFOR is bringing reinforcements I get them on 5+ on a D10 (60% chance). This is definitely something that needs to be reviewed by Makinus.
This is probably a daft question, but is there a way in MekHQ of seeing which special abilities my personnel have earned? I started noting it down when I spend xp, but I haven't found a away of checking those earned in the past, and I'm conscious I may end up losing out on things like weapon specialisations if I put someone in a 'Mech with the wrong weapons...
Yeah the Personnel window shows the pilots SPAs if any, you can GM EDIT a person to see abilities, in MM it displays abilities on the Pilot Tab. I'm not sure why it is unclear to you.
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The against the bot settings have the defection rolled automatically for you. Once you return to the main HQ screen, scroll the message board on right side screen, it will list all prisoners and the ones that will defect, you can then change the defecting (select free) and deploy them as your troops (usually have to give them some kind of rank to make immediate use of them) but will change to regular troops after a save and reload. It is not hard to get from a company to over 2 companies in strength thru defections some times. I do sometimes go in and GM adjust them some, like a 20 year old elite will have age taken to 28+, a 36 year old green will have age taken to 20 or so. If they have a specialty not yet avail, like Gauss in 3015, I change it to say AC10. Or just go with Ballistic to keep it neater. Case by case though.
Costs nothing to keep as prisoners though, you get 50,000 for each one at battle end. I keep the defectors and GM remove all the rest to keep my lists neater. Watch that right side, scroll that puppy, you might get 6 astechs added and such, those I will always GM adjust to youngsters so I can grow them myself for my future needs etc. All get taken to 18 year old. I try to farm raise as many of my folks as I can. Ain't had a kid yet so no clue how that works yet.
You should see your character stats on middle right side of screen, if not, double click the character name and it should appear. It lists everything about the guy right there.
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Well, I use vehicles for IS OPFOR, but for Clan, I have them set to no vehicles for 3050-3055 area. I was not sure where they really started using them year wise except the Horses.
Well, I use the add forces all the time against the Clans, I really hate having my recon Lance having to face 15 Clan mechs. Bad enough that my help hardly ever arrives before turn 7.
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Good stuff
Side note: I keep injured Prisoner's long enough for my Doctors to heal them. Then I ditch them with delete :)
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I am notorious for ditching that battle end. Might need to do that for my doc to get better, but I move heaven and earth to hunt a veteran or above doctor. I use check healing 4 days and 90 days for regular healing to add additional flavor. Watch for a cerebal contusion, that puppy would take like 160 days of normal healing and gave some evil piloting and gunnery penalties. LOL
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I am notorious for ditching that battle end. Might need to do that for my doc to get better, but I move heaven and earth to hunt a veteran or above doctor. I use check healing 4 days and 90 days for regular healing to add additional flavor. Watch for a cerebal contusion, that puppy would take like 160 days of normal healing and gave some evil piloting and gunnery penalties. LOL
Dude! You have to heal the Vee Crews! WTF else are they good for?!!??!? 8)
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Hey if they ain't defecting, any wounds they have they best hope a snoopy band aid cures it because I got no sympathy for them. LOL
But I do usually have a company or more of armor after a few years, they are nice road blocks or force multipliers especially the 3055+ Vee's. Gauss tanks anyone?
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But I do usually have a company or more of armor after a few years, they are nice road blocks or force multipliers especially the 3055+ Vee's. Gauss tanks anyone?
Yeah.... pffft... tanks were an afterthought 20 years ago. Actually, everything was an afterthought. Nothing in the TROs fixes that really. A couple of blind mice could produce better tank designs than anything available in the TROs.
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Hey now, no picking on my armor support. Creating a new unit, got slaughtered by the bot, whole company had no prayer against a heavy average Clan Trinary. Going to have to start slimming those Clan forces down some in MM before I deploy. 2 Stars maybe, but a full Trinary ate my lunch.
So going to back up to 3043 and build from there. Maybe create a little back story that explains things some, going to spend some time building this one but no custom mechs until I learn how to copy those to a new version.
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*STUFF*
OK but nothing in that response changes my primary point...
Yeah.... pffft... tanks were an afterthought 20 years ago. Actually, everything was an afterthought. Nothing in the TROs fixes that really. A couple of blind mice could produce better tank designs than anything available in the TROs.
Still very true :)
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Until Neo gets the new prisoner system up and running you will need to manually ransom them and gm add funs. You can follow the ransom in AtB or call it 100k per mechwarrior and 50k per tanker to simplify things
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I'm coming back to the game after a 15 year hiatus, and I guess I just don't see what's so unintelligent about the bot. It seems to give me a run for my money. What kind of dumb things does it do?
I found MM a little over a year ago after about a 20 year hiatus. I found the bot very difficult at first, but I found the main weakness is predictability. With a little practice I've gotten to where I can often take a lance against two and sometimes three bot lances and come out heavily shot up, but with no losses. On the other hand, I suspect I would have a difficult time against a competent human opponent in an evenly-matched battle.
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Well, I use vehicles for IS OPFOR, but for Clan, I have them set to no vehicles for 3050-3055 area. I was not sure where they really started using them year wise except the Horses.
Here is the background material I worked with, mostly from the Crusader Clans and Warden Clans field manuals:
Vehicles were part of the standard cluster formation set up by Nicholas Kerensky. According to the Blood Spirits, this is the only correct Clan way to organize units, and every Spirit cluster contains three 'Mech trinaries, a vehicle trinary, and an infantry trinary, and aerospace assets are attached to galaxy command. Any unit that cannot meet this standard is disbanded, but they had enough flexibility to replace conventional infantry with battle armor. At some point most of the remaining Clans (all but the Horses) moved away from this and relegated nearly all their armor to Solohma units, with some rarely appearing in garrison clusters. They also see use against honorless opponents, such as pirate/bandit caste hunting. Those vehicles that appear are mostly Star League era, and mostly light and heavy; mediums are rare in all Clans. When this shift occured is not clear, but I would guess that it started early in the Golden Century. Per FM:CC, Jade Falcon uses no vehicles at all other than transports for Solohma infantry, though this is not what is reflected in the RATs in other products.
Here is what I did with that info:
Per AtB rules, 1 in 12 Stars is actually a Nova. This is done with a 2d6 roll. On a roll of 11-12 (which is a 1/12 chance), it is a Nova except if it's Blood Spirits, which consider Novas to be an egregious departure from the Founder's vision, or the Horses, who use a Nova on 10-12. If the roll is low and the Clan vehicles option is enabled, there is a chance of getting a vehicle Star, depending on the equipment quality of the opposing force: 2(C), 2-3(D), 2-4(F). Horses and Spirits get vehicle Stars on 2-4 regardless of quality. If using the "adjust 'Mech weights by faction" option, the Kurita adjustment is applied to Clan vehicles, replacing any two mediums with a light and a heavy (I've also taken the liberty of applying the Steiner adjustment to Coyote and Ghost Bear 'Mechs, and the Marik to Ice Hellion; it doesn't quite reflect the canonical weight distributions, but at least nudges them in the right direction). Clan opfors ignore the "double enemy vehicles" option, since at 2 vees/Point they're effectively doubled automatically.
It occurs to me as I type this that I should probably add a line that restricts the Clan use of vehicles to planetary assault/raid contracts, which is when you would be facing 2nd Line units.
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It occurs to me as I type this that I should probably add a line that restricts the Clan use of vehicles to planetary assault/raid contracts, which is when you would be facing 2nd Line units.
Thanks for the background.
It would probably be easier to state which contracts you wouldn't see Clan Vees.
Cadre
Garrison
Security
Riot
Pirate Hunting (Obviously)
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I found MM a little over a year ago after about a 20 year hiatus. I found the bot very difficult at first, but I found the main weakness is predictability. With a little practice I've gotten to where I can often take a lance against two and sometimes three bot lances and come out heavily shot up, but with no losses. On the other hand, I suspect I would have a difficult time against a competent human opponent in an evenly-matched battle.
Interesting. Any pointers? Any essays out there about improving your skill with the game?
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Interesting. Any pointers? Any essays out there about improving your skill with the game?
Have a look throught this thread.
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/megamek-games/casual-games-for-the-unskilled/
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How do you make Princess do Immediate Withdrawal when replacing a player with it? (Like after loading a saved game where it supposed to be running away.)
Never mind, looks like it is:
/replacePlayer -b:Princess -c:ESCAPE -p:Player Name
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I think I'm starting to get the hang of this. My 4/4 Ostroc was ambushed by a Dervish, a Blackjack and Phoenix Hawk and I won! Quite pleased with myself...
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I just had an update notice through saying that there's a new version of Java waiting for me to install - 1.7.071 I think it said. This is probably another daft question, but is anyone using that version of Java yet, and able to confirm that MekHQ et al will be happy with it?
I'm still trying to work out how to find out which special abilities my MechWarriors have, particularly those who have spoecial abilities when they're hired. MekHQ doesn't seem to reflect that in any of the windows I've found - the personnel window lists their skills, their participation/kill record and any biography details I want to include, but not special abilities. I've been copying and pasting special abilities into their bios when they earn them through levelling up, and for the hirelings, I know that the pilot window in the 'Mech dialog in MegaMek lists their skills, but there are some gaps. For example, I have an elite-rated MechWarrior I hired who came with the Weapon Specialist skill. I can't tell what weapon that applies too - I can say after putting her in a Hatchetman and a Gladiator that it doesn't seem to be LB 10-X ACs, medium lasers or medium pulse lasers, PPCs or SRM 6s. I'm not sure I have the 'Mechs to rotate her through to try and work out from the to-hit dialogue in MM which weapon she actually specialises with.
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That Java is fine
On the Personnel view... above Injury Penalties... if the person has a SPA then it is listed right there. Otherwise blank.
in GM Mode you can right click EDIT you can view their skills on the first tab and the 2nd is SPAs.
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It should list any special skill right below their skills list above their Bio. Mine all do anyway, Jumping Jack, Melee Specialist, Weapon Specialist- LBX10 etc. Says it right there.
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I've just worked out what was going on - there was an unchecked option in the campaign options Personnel tab marked "Allow special abilities". When I turned that on, the abilities appeared in MekHQ - although some have clearly been in play in MegaMek even with the option unchecked.
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How do I go about modding existing mechs? Say I have some Phoenix hawks and I want to strip a few things, add a few things. How do I work with MekHQ to make this happen (including the difficult to maintain quirk)?
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How do I go about modding existing mechs? Say I have some Phoenix hawks and I want to strip a few things, add a few things. How do I work with MekHQ to make this happen (including the difficult to maintain quirk)?
Right Click on Mech
Choose Customize > In Mek Lab
Do many things
Assign a Tech BEST YOU HAVE
Wait N days for Refit Kit to arrive.
Wait N Hours or 2N Hours for the refit to complete... it works out to something like 1 week or 1 month depending on how complicated the refit happens to be.
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Cool. I'm not at my machine, but how does the refit work? Does your customization turn into a discrete set of actions? Remove X, add Y, move Z from A to B, and so on? Are there rolls associated with each action? How do I know which refits are simple enough to handle and which are too much?
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Refits work by determining an amount of minutes of work that must be accomplished in order to replace all of the parts that are being replaced on the unit. This number adds up to the normal speed work time to strip all components not needed, and fit all parts newly needed. At the end of your refit time, 2d6 is rolled. If you beat the refit TN, the refit is completed on the spot. If you fail, the refit takes additional minutes based on your margin of failure, up to twice the original amount.
Honestly I'd assign your worst tech to the task if you're not in desperate need of that 'mech for the next month or so.
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So there's no chance of a failure rendering my Mech unfixable? That's odd. So an Elite Tech can fail to replace a laser and the Mech can't have that laser ever again, but a refit has no chance of failure?
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Kinda. You're not repairing anything, there's no battle damage, no mangled bits of metal to clear out of the way and wiring to clean up before trying to put it back. Refits are inherently less stressful and easier to do than a field repair on a damaged laser housing.
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You could always create your own rules for failure potential on refit. Perhaps a 1 in 12 chance the refit results in either damage or a negative quirk that affects battlefield performance somehow?
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So there's no chance of a failure rendering my Mech unfixable? That's odd. So an Elite Tech can fail to replace a laser and the Mech can't have that laser ever again, but a refit has no chance of failure?
Use Damage/Destroy parts on MoF... Campaign Options... Repair and Acquisition.
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You could always create your own rules for failure potential on refit. Perhaps a 1 in 12 chance the refit results in either damage or a negative quirk that affects battlefield performance somehow?
If it's a custom refit, you already get Difficult to Maintain.
Poor Workmanship (+1 to crit rolls against) makes a lot of sense.
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Another question about the refit. I have two Mechs of the same type and I want to customize them both the same way. I customize one and call it the Dervish-6M Mk II (4 medium lasers, and an SRM 6, + HS and armor for those interested).
Now I want to customize the second Dervish, but I want to use the same unit. If I try to give it the same name it says "already in the database", but I can't find a way to apply the custom refit that I already saved into the database.
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Another question about the refit. I have two Mechs of the same type and I want to customize them both the same way. I customize one and call it the Dervish-6M Mk II (4 medium lasers, and an SRM 6, + HS and armor for those interested).
Now I want to customize the second Dervish, but I want to use the same unit. If I try to give it the same name it says "already in the database", but I can't find a way to apply the custom refit that I already saved into the database.
Bug report it... :) seriously.
I gave up on the Refit code almost a year ago...
The existing refit code is buggy as hell and it is so much easier to just build a Mech in MML... restart MHQ... and move on.
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Thanks. Filed https://sourceforge.net/p/mekhq/bugs/595/
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If I build the Mech in the MML, how do I get it to show up as an option in MekHQ?
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Go to the Campaign options, you need to make sure the tech level is selected correctly. If you created the mech and listed it as experimental in MML, it will only show if that tech level is selected.
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The tech Level is Introductory so that should be fine. Does it need to sit in a specific directory? I have it in data/mechfiles/myname
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Another question about the refit. I have two Mechs of the same type and I want to customize them both the same way. I customize one and call it the Dervish-6M Mk II (4 medium lasers, and an SRM 6, + HS and armor for those interested).
Now I want to customize the second Dervish, but I want to use the same unit. If I try to give it the same name it says "already in the database", but I can't find a way to apply the custom refit that I already saved into the database.
When you right click and go to Customize, select 'Choose Refit Kit' instead of 'Customize in MekLab' and you should be able to pick any other available variants. You probably need to restart MHQ right after creating a variant, since the new one won't be in the mechset yet.
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You have to wait until the first refit is complete before you can use it for other meks.
When creating a new variant the time is doubled I think, after it completes the time returns to a normal refit schedule and you can do as many of those variants as you want. So the first is a solo, experiment I guess, then it is just like any other refit.
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When you right click and go to Customize, select 'Choose Refit Kit' instead of 'Customize in MekLab' and you should be able to pick any other available variants. You probably need to restart MHQ right after creating a variant, since the new one won't be in the mechset yet.
This is what I did, but it wasn't there.
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You have to restart MHQ first and the file should be saved in...
/data/mechfiles/customs/
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It looks like I have to uncheck "only allow canon units for purchase" under Tech Limits, but I worry this will mean the market will be seeded with custom mechs. How does Against The Bot seed the purchase market?
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Far as I can tell, the Bot uses stock canon stuff only. I have yet to spot a custom anything in there.
Ooops, forgot to tell you that one, my bad. But you will see a slew of custom designs, some are quite nice.
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AtB selects units for the market using the selected RATs.
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hmm.. that might explain seeing battle armor in 3001. Shame its all 3050 tech, wouldn't mind seeing the rare Nighthawk show up every now and then. This, at least, for the personnel market. Never spotted BA in the unit market yet, though did see an Ironsides once on the black market. Bought that one up quick.
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I am in 3038 so I removed those RATS and put War of 3039 in there to select from...................seen a couple Partisan AA tanks with LBX and C3.........so not sure what is going on.
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I am in 3038 so I removed those RATS and put War of 3039 in there to select from...................seen a couple Partisan AA tanks with LBX and C3.........so not sure what is going on.
The unit market uses the MechWarrior origin table from the AtB rules to determine which faction's tables to roll on. War of '39 only has tables for the five Successor States, so if determines it should use a periphery or merc table it can't find one and defaults to the Total Warfare tables.
hmm.. that might explain seeing battle armor in 3001. Shame its all 3050 tech, wouldn't mind seeing the rare Nighthawk show up every now and then. This, at least, for the personnel market. Never spotted BA in the unit market yet, though did see an Ironsides once on the black market. Bought that one up quick.
BA isn't supposed to show up in the personnel market until after 3050 unless you're playing a Clan faction. The Ironsides is coming from the War of '39 Kurita medium table. Because there are no other SW-era aerospace tables, I used Wo39 instead of TW for the default for ASF in pre-3050 campaigns.
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I use the Merc handbook setting for personnel and sure do see a ton of BA and Proto-mech pilots every month. And this is in my 3038 campaign.
Okay, that makes sense on the LBX armed vehicles.
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The only effect the AtB code has on the other personnel market methods is to generate units for the personnel as appropriate. The FM:Mercs method does not take date or faction into account and has the same chance of generating BA or ProtoMech pilots as any other personnel type.
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This is a bit of a random question, but is there any way of changing the date format in AtB? In the contracts window, it displays in the US format, which is counterintuitive for me - it's mostly not a problem, but I'd like to be able to change the format it displays in just for convenience, particularly as I tend to play quite late on weekends...
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Hey guys...
I was following the instructions in the second post. Downloaded the latest MekHQ (0.3.5) and the latest AtB rules (2.30), but I'm having issues right from the starting gate.
After creating my unit name and colour scheme, I'm told that I need to click on the Against the Bot tab in the subsequent campaign options window and toggle a few options, but for whatever reason, that tab is not showing up, stopping me short from getting to play this.
Is there something I'm missing here? I couldn't find anyone mentioning anything about it in the thread unless I managed to miss the post.
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You need to download the custom version of MekHQ here: http://bt.dylanspcs.com/mercs/forumdisplay.php?fid=46
The default MekHQ doesn't come with the ATB rules coded into it.
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Hey guys...
.......
It's also should be included in the new official release here:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/megamek-games/new-mekhq-release-0-3-6/
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It's also should be included in the new official release here:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/megamek-games/new-mekhq-release-0-3-6/
Actually, just noticed that recently. Thanks for pointing it out, though. Tinkering with it now...
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Just started downloading. Very excited - and this might be a stupid question but what year does ATB go up to?
Ie: can I play in the current (3145) era? The Jihad? Etc?
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probably not easily
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How do you mean?
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Just started downloading. Very excited - and this might be a stupid question but what year does ATB go up to?
Ie: can I play in the current (3145) era? The Jihad? Etc?
I don't see why not. The contract generator will work in any era for which MHQ has planet and faction data. The only limiting factor I see is whether there are random assignment tables (RATs) for the era in question. It would be difficult to run a campaign before the late succession wars era. The late Star League era is doable but there are not RATs for periphery nations other than the Rim Worlds Republic.
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I don't see why not. The contract generator will work in any era for which MHQ has planet and faction data.
That said, faction data isn't really updated for the 32nd century.
For obvious reasons faction data in MHQ is most accurate from 3000-3090.
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Howdy. First - THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS. So damn awesome.
Im very familiar with MHQ, but just came back from a break, so this is my first use of the AtB integration.
Everything seems pretty clear, got my first contract, assigned lances, had battles the first two weeks. But I have had none for the past 5 weeks. EDIT: Just tested another 5 months and no battles. Enemy is Green/F and their morale just changed to Route. Perif Pirate hunting mission, if it matters. Did I break something, or is it just luck of the dice? Is there an 'OpFor Pool" and the enemy is just out of units now? I'd love some advice. Is there a way to fix it or do I start over?
Thanks in advance!
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Howdy. First - THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS. So damn awesome.
Im very familiar with MHQ, but just came back from a break, so this is my first use of the AtB integration.
Everything seems pretty clear, got my first contract, assigned lances, had battles the first two weeks. But I have had none for the past 5 weeks. EDIT: Just tested another 5 months and no battles. Enemy is Green/F and their morale just changed to Route. Perif Pirate hunting mission, if it matters. Did I break something, or is it just luck of the dice? Is there an 'OpFor Pool" and the enemy is just out of units now? I'd love some advice. Is there a way to fix it or do I start over?
Thanks in advance!
When the enemy morale goes to "rout" the contract ends with early victory (except on defensive contracts: garrison, security, cadre, riot duty). End the contract and collect the payout. On defensive contracts you get to sit there a month or two collecting a paycheck before a new enemy force arrives.
When I coded this I followed the lead of MHQ in automatically completing the contract when the end date is reached. At the time I assumed that the people that would be using it initially would be those already familiar with the rules, but between having additional ways to end a contract early (routing the opponent or winning a base attack scenario) and attracting new players who don't have the rules familiarity, I think it's time to change the behavior and present the player with a contract completion dialog at least in the event of early completion.
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That was fast! Thanks. I should have looked at my ATB rules again. I should have known that. Since we are on messages, would it be possible to do something like this each monday:
There are (no, 1, 3) battles this week.
But fantastic job. Adding AtB takes all of the tedium out MM, and really makes MHQ shine. You and the rest of the Devs have my deepest thanks.
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I'm not real sure were to post this. I just started using the ATB MekHq yesterday and the problem I'm having is insane wait times for the Ai turns. Not sure what I can do. I've tried it with individual initiative or team and it either hangs up when the Ai deploys reinforcements on Individual Imitative after making me skip for every Reinforcement unit for every turn.
Or on team initiative it seems to hang up when they deploy those guys. Some move turn takes forever so I’m also forced to do a lot of skipping. Got a rather good computer so not sure what my problem is or what options I have or if this is typical?
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How much memory are you allocating to MekHQ?
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How much memory are you allocating to MekHQ?
It looks like 250megs after i fire it up. I have 8 gigs of ram and even with megamek and mekhq going and everything else I don't break 4.
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post your files...
Campaign
Any Customs
The Save game giving you trouble.
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It looks like 250megs after i fire it up. I have 8 gigs of ram and even with megamek and mekhq going and everything else I don't break 4.
He asked how much you're allocating, not how much it's using ;)
To find that information you'll need to look in the .l4j files for a line that reads -Xmx<some number> - that number is the amount of RAM you're allocating to the JVM for that program. You can raise it to give them access to more memory.
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He asked how much you're allocating, not how much it's using ;)
To find that information you'll need to look in the .l4j files for a line that reads -Xmx<some number> - that number is the amount of RAM you're allocating to the JVM for that program. You can raise it to give them access to more memory.
Ah sorry. It was at 512. I doubled it and I actually got through the deployment stage for the reinforcements. I guess a city battle with tanks and a bunch of units is alot for the ai? Because it's also not very fast about moving either.Though it is better.
I guess my other question is. Is their any way to avoid all the manual /skips?
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Just to check - I'm currently running the 1993 dev release of Mek HQ. Should I upgrade to the new MekHQ release 0.3.7 that came out a few days ago, or do I need to wait for another dev release?
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Just to check - I'm currently running the 1993 dev release of Mek HQ. Should I upgrade to the new MekHQ release 0.3.7 that came out a few days ago, or do I need to wait for another dev release?
If you're asking if AtB is in 0.3.7, it is and the release seems pretty stable from my time with it. While I don't use the AtB portion, I don't see any game-breaking AtB bug reports open at the moment though.
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I guess this is only partly the right place to ask but I couldn't figure out a better one.
So I started a campaign, followed pretty much everything listed in here (and other places) that apparently make the game manageable for a newbie but there's one thing I struggle with.
I have my Mechwarriors, Mechs, Techs and my starting funds. But there's one thing I sadly lacking. Spare parts. Obviously you wanna get a decent amount of ammunition for the projectile and missile weapons you're using, and I guess some standard armor wouldn't hurt. And then?
Do I even bother with getting replacement gyros, actuators, arms, legs, heads, whatnot?
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I start off with standard armor and extra ammo for my weapons.
I look for contracts like Pirate Hunting, Garrison Duty, Cadre Duty, Security Duty to start off with. If you look at the Capaign_System tab under Repair/Conversions on the AtB excel spread sheet, the missions above have better repair rolls for damaged mechs... either Field Workshop or Transport Bay. Also down below that talk about parts and what level you can buy. In a Pirate Hunting contact its level 3 and the others I mention above are level 4. If you don't have a high enough mech tech and admin logistics this is the way to go to buy extra parts for you mechs.
Also if you have 12 mechs you are only required to have two lances active during the contract (6 to 10 mech). If a mech in a lance gets beat up to much you can sub in another mech into the lance.
Hope that helps...
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I guess this is only partly the right place to ask but I couldn't figure out a better one.
So I started a campaign, followed pretty much everything listed in here (and other places) that apparently make the game manageable for a newbie but there's one thing I struggle with.
I have my Mechwarriors, Mechs, Techs and my starting funds. But there's one thing I sadly lacking. Spare parts. Obviously you wanna get a decent amount of ammunition for the projectile and missile weapons you're using, and I guess some standard armor wouldn't hurt. And then?
Do I even bother with getting replacement gyros, actuators, arms, legs, heads, whatnot?
Everyone has a House Rule for how this happens. To your point though... yeah buy some parts. Look at which mechs you have and see if you have a lot of one or two tonnages. Buy stuff for them. etc etc ad nauseum, annoying.
Or do as I always do because figuring it all out is tedious. During your first Contract... Buy whatever ammo you need, 300 to 1000 tons of armor. Then anytime you need a new part for ONE OF YOUR MECHS buy 5 of whatever. Heading into Contract 2 it will be much clearer what you need and how much of it. This is my House Rule and it assumes that my Quartermaster was bright enough to buy useful parts. Without the hassle associated with the fact that I am my Quartermaster and doing it any other way would involve tedium! :)
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300 to 1000 tons of armor, for a starting company?? :o :o
I do keep 200 tons of armor, and I has never ran into not enough armor issue. Though if your tactics is not the best/constantly putting yourself into raids you might need more armor :P
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300 to 1000 tons of armor, for a starting company?? :o :o
I do keep 200 tons of armor, and I has never ran into not enough armor issue. Though if your tactics is not the best/constantly putting yourself into raids you might need more armor :P
Depends on the Mission I guess... but I have run through 1000 tons in a Contract with 4 Mech Lances. Although, come to think of it. I had 100% Salvage and 100% Mechs as OPFOR. This was before AtB was added to MHQ.
OK 200 to 500 tons of armor!
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Just realized I had a horrible bunch of omissions in my getting started post. Edited it for the Against the Bot tab options.
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During your first Contract... Buy whatever ammo you need, 300 to 1000 tons of armor.
That would cost WAY more than my entire starting force! At around 40,000 per ton, 1KT would run you 40M C-Bills.
I started my first "playable" campaign with 1 Medium and 3 Light Mechs, and with only 10T of spare armor and 2T of replacement ammo. (The first 3 campaign tries failed to generate a contract that had any possibility of breaking even, and only one of those even generated contracts at all before running out of money due to well over a year of payrolls and no income.) Once I had a contract, ordering and getting parts through the Repair Tab (select a Mech, then click the Acquisition tab above the individual repair tasks) wasn't a problem. After a few fights and some salvage, you should be able to build up a stockpile of spares. My problem is that I tend to disable enemy units to force bails as a habit, and then end up with no "parts" Mechs, only a heap of "repairable" ones that I have to maintain.
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You might want to Mothball some of those "repairable mechs". I certainly do. Cuts down on the crazy significantly. Then in between contracts I go through and clean things up.
Side Note: You must bring at least 87953 spare parts for 35 ton and 60 ton mechs if you are facing Kurita. >:D ;D
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Be willing to sell off some of those repairable but perhaps less optimal Mechs. You can use the cash from the sale of even currently inoperable units. Plus, that gives you the opportunity to pare down your force into a more quality unit, even if you have to have a smaller overall unit for a while until you can repair what you do decide to keep. And, like scJazz said, mothball some stuff so you don't have to maintain it (and yeah, I don't know how many people are aware you can do this; I found it just by flipping through the pop-up menus in MHQ).
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I like to pull (salvage) equipment ammo and guns off the mechs first then sell them sometimes if all I have is salvage units I will pull the arms legs heads and torso so I can use them as spare parts
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One trick that I use is to try limit the different tonnages of my company. For example, try 8x55tons and 4x45tons. Streamlines the logistics for arms, legs, etc. I also try to make it a point to salvage units in those tonnages, some to repair and some to salvage. Other weight classes, I just sell off unless I really like the design.
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How many of you actually only buy what your dropships and jumpships have cargo space for? If you track cargo tonnage and only have combat dropships you are really screwed. No chance to salvage and keep whole mechs. At least on raid and assault contracts. Garrison and defensive contracts it wont matter until contract ends and by then you should be able to hire a transport to haul off your salvage till you can do some proper work on it.
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How many of you actually only buy what your dropships and jumpships have cargo space for? If you track cargo tonnage and only have combat dropships you are really screwed. No chance to salvage and keep whole mechs. At least on raid and assault contracts. Garrison and defensive contracts it wont matter until contract ends and by then you should be able to hire a transport to haul off your salvage till you can do some proper work on it.
Not possible for my campaign. 20M C-Bills won't buy a dropship, and that's all the unit had for startup capital, even BEFORE any combat equipment or spare parts were purchased. Maybe after a few years and a few lucrative contracts.
I try to "tap out" any remaining salvaged Mechs and vehicles in the hanger to strip off anything useful before selling the remainder for scrap, sell off "redundant" spare parts, and unload weak units that I don't anticipate using, at the end of a contract and before the unit boards dropships back to whatever passes for home. No point in hauling anything that can't easily be replaced, and no point in paying to drag a mangled 60T vehicle chassis around just for the remaining 10K C-Bills worth of salvageable parts. Get whatever you can for it, and go.
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How many of you actually only buy what your dropships and jumpships have cargo space for? If you track cargo tonnage and only have combat dropships you are really screwed. No chance to salvage and keep whole mechs. At least on raid and assault contracts. Garrison and defensive contracts it wont matter until contract ends and by then you should be able to hire a transport to haul off your salvage till you can do some proper work on it.
During my 6th or 7th Contract I was able to buy a Buccaneer. For late Campaign I recommend it.
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Just realized I had a horrible bunch of omissions in my getting started post. Edited it for the Against the Bot tab options.
There's also some of the Special Abilities that need to be set manually as Neoancient didn't code them in for some reason and Makinus didn't include an official one for whatever reason.
Natural Aptitude, Piloting - I'd rather set it to -1 but we can't do that on the user end but given it's the only official ability Makinus left out so I like to include it. I set it to 100, tick all the Piloting skills as OR Pre-reqs and set Natural Aptitude, Gunnery as incompatible (and vice versa).
As for the Unofficials ATB uses that were omitted, I run them as follows:
Iron Man should be set to 20 as per the ATB table and all the Pilot abilities tagged as OR Pre-Reqs so it fits it's ability description.
Gunnery/Ballistic/Missile/Laser - Given these are upgrade abilities I follow the rule for Hopping Jack's upgrade. I set these to 40 same as Gunnery Specialisation and mark that as the pre-req/ability to remove. I then set the other two variants as invalid abilities and tag the Gunnery skills at Regular due to the fact it's an upgraded ability. You could also set Weapon Specialisation as Incompatible but given the lack of a negative modifier to other weapon types I don't, to finish up I then tag them on the Pre-req as Incompatible to avoid exploiting.
Also have a house rule but one I like to include as a Clan Invasion player.
Clan Pilot Training should be to set to 20, Mech Piloting/Green and Small Arms/Green should be set as OR Pre-reqs and Melee Specialist, Melee Master and Multi-Tasker set as Incompatible (and vice versa).
Finally for Fluff purposes (pretty sure it doesn't do anything yet) I set EI Implant to 40, tag Clan Pilot Training and Mech Piloting/Veteran and Small Arms/Veteran as the Pre-Reqs (again as OR Pre-Reqs for the last two).
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Natural Aptitude, Piloting - I'd rather set it to -1 but we can't do that on the user end but given it's the only official ability Makinus left out so I like to include it. I set it to 100, tick all the Piloting skills as OR Pre-reqs and set Natural Aptitude, Gunnery as incompatible (and vice versa).
Don't understand why you'd set them as incompatible... people can have a natural aptitude for multiple things in life.
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Don't understand why you'd set them as incompatible... people can have a natural aptitude for multiple things in life.
Primarily for flavour reasons and to limit the desire to diversify the personnel choices, nothing wrong with a little tree branching.
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Primarily for flavour reasons and to limit the desire to diversify the personnel choices, nothing wrong with a little tree branching.
Yeah but Ralgith is right... if you Gen an Elite starting pilot... NAP Gunnery and Pilot are viable results.
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Just looking for a little feedback here: Do the getting started guidelines still work for most people? Has anyone found some seriously large holes in my setup that I should address so future new players won't get confused?
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I found it very useful when I was starting, and I know I came back to ask various questions. I started out by generating a small unit using the rules in Mercenaries: Supplemental I, rather than the AtB rules, but that's because I wanted a slightly larger unit. I fumbled around with some daft things like working out how to scrap limbs that had damaged hips/shoulders or working out how to get special abilities to show up visibly on the personnel screen, but I think in general you covered everything I could've hoped for.
I'd still like to be able to change the date format from the US format to European, though - I have to keep checking that my contracts are ending at the right time in the middle of the year because I keep getting the month and day the wrong way round, but that's not your fault ;)
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I'd still like to be able to change the date format from the US format to European, though.
I'll second that. :)
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I'd still like to be able to change the date format from the US format to European, though - I have to keep checking that my contracts are ending at the right time in the middle of the year because I keep getting the month and day the wrong way round, but that's not your fault ;)
Personally I prefer the ISO8601 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) format {YYYY-MM-DD}.
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Personally I prefer the ISO8601 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) format {YYYY-MM-DD}.
Meh... Linux user :)
Actually, having used Linux/Unix on an off for the last 25 years... So do I :) Can we please have date formats?!? Plz! O0
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I'd prefer that, too. It makes it much, much easier to organize save files so that I can actually find them again.
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I'd prefer that, too. It makes it much, much easier to organize save files so that I can actually find them again.
That's already how MHQ saves campaigns. And MM at least has the option for it, because that's how my paranoid auto-saves are formatted (been a while since I set that up to remember if I had to change anything or not.)
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That's already how MHQ saves campaigns. And MM at least has the option for it, because that's how my paranoid auto-saves are formatted (been a while since I set that up to remember if I had to change anything or not.)
Yeah, cause I made MHQ save them that way. It wasn't that way originally, but I got sick of different years, same months, being mixed together.
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I'm well aware of the confusion between US and European date formats, since I work with video equipment which gets sold in both the US and Europe, including stopclocks and time and date generators. Having it cofigurable would be convenient for a lot of people.
The one thing that bit me in my first couple of tries with AtB and MekHQ was that I had a lot of Administrators who were just that: paper pushers. They weren't combat personnel, so they weren't part of the OOB, and their administrative abilities weren't being taken into account by the program. Now, all my Administrators are assigned to 'Mechs or vehicles. I'm still not clear about how Leadership, Negotiation, and other administrative functions are handled, because the only ones which seem to contribute toward the unit's rating are those possessed by the overall Commander.
I'd also be a lot happier if ASFs were handled properly in MegaMek and MekHQ. As it stands, it doesn't appear that an Aerospace assignment counts for AtB administrative bonuses, and the only way I can run an aero battle is by using Testbot, setting up a flat and almost featureless mapsheet (a few rubble hexes serve as space debris or asteroids), and setting the starting altitudes to 0. It then runs the ASFs as ground vehicles, kind of, with 1/2 movement (and no thrust points spent), plus a nasty +2 shooting penalty for grounded ASFs. Princess wouldn't move or fire them at all, last time I checked. Being able to use a space map with full movement and unpenalized firing would be a huge improvement.
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Princess has (for more than a year) been able to handle air-to-ground attacks with aerospace fighters.
Otherwise, this gets discussed a lot and unfortunately it just isn't a high priority primarily due to the complexity involved in creating a bot that can handle ASFs, especially in space.
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The one thing that bit me in my first couple of tries with AtB and MekHQ was that I had a lot of Administrators who were just that: paper pushers. They weren't combat personnel, so they weren't part of the OOB, and their administrative abilities weren't being taken into account by the program. Now, all my Administrators are assigned to 'Mechs or vehicles. I'm still not clear about how Leadership, Negotiation, and other administrative functions are handled, because the only ones which seem to contribute toward the unit's rating are those possessed by the overall Commander.
I will say this again: bonuses and penalties for the administration skill are based on the highest rank of any active administrator in the particular role (logistics, command, transport, hr). Whether or not they are in the TO&E is irrelevant. Leadership determines how large your unit can be before suffering a penalty to retirement/defection rolls. Negotiation skills allow you to renegotiate certain contract clauses.
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Cool thing about administrators is that their XP just rolls in. Doesn't take all that long to max out both administration AND negotiation for them.
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Just looking for a little feedback here: Do the getting started guidelines still work for most people? Has anyone found some seriously large holes in my setup that I should address so future new players won't get confused?
Great Job, Snimm! Seeing how many of the new players are refering to your post, it was worthwhile your effort.
As you have asked for it
- rules 2.30 stated to do a maintanance at a 30-day intervall, you might want to change that in your post (you set the cycle to 7 days)
- a hint, that you could assign your 'Mech Techs could maintain more that one 'Mech would be helpful. It took me a while to find that out. Generally you get the best maintainance results if you assign your 'mechs to be maintained by the most skilled 'Mech Techs
- Travelling to your contract location could take a while, if you don't have a good 'Mech Tech (Veteran or above) in your starting force, consider moothballing them (Hangar tab - right click on unit - "moothball unit") and use that paid recruitment (Marketplace Tab - Personal Market - Paid recruitment roll - drop-down menu - select 'Mech Tech) rolls to get a good 'Mech Tech asap
- to avoid to travel across the galaxy for a long time, you can customize the distance for for locations of your contract offers ( I think it's under campaign options - Against the bot I'll check this). Set it to 250 Light years or even lower. It will greatly reduce transportation cost and the number of times you have to hit "Advance Day" to get to your contract location and your first MegaMek battles in your campaign
One important thing:
The program is designed by the devs in a way that it gives the players an insane amount of flexibility to tailor their campaign to their own needs (and fun).
Use it and don't fell like a cheater for it! I 'm quite sure that not two single campaign from the all those MHQ players use the same rules.
For example: Most contracts generated will be Raid Type contracts (see the table in rules 2.30). Those contracts are not excactly well suited for starting companies if you want to use the maintance rules. If you get two contract offers for Raid type missions at the beginning of a month, keep generating offers until you get two easier contract offers (like cadre duty or another garrison). There is still enough randomness in each contract offer, which might let you hesitate to accept an offer.
Do what ever is necessary to make your campaign as much fun for you as possible. The program is flexible enough for doing just that. Use it! [/list]
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Schugger, keep in mind that the AtB implementation we have ATM is 2.29 rules.
In fact everyone should keep that in mind :)
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Giving this thread a bump as I added information to my post based on Schugger's walkthrough of it. Thanks, Schugger!
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Giving this thread a bump as I added information to my post based on Schugger's walkthrough of it. Thanks, Schugger!
I think you should link your epic post in your signature.
That way I won't feel bad about putting it in mine :)
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Linking Snimms post in a signature sounds like a good idea.
Are you ok with that, Snimm?
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Yeah. I don't have an outstanding international copyright patent on it anywhere, so it's fair game. ;)
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It took a while, but I put a link to your reply in my sig :)
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Lurk O:-)
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bump and you lurked the Thread... read it! :)
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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.
Having recently discovered this site, I wanted to thank you for the instructions. there is no way I would have been able to get an ATB campaign up and running without them.
That being said I was doomed from the start with bad mech rolls (almost half my team were dispossessed.), plus I made the mistake of turning on maintenance, so I had some additional crippling issues before I arrived.
GRF-1N
SHD-2H
FS9-H
UM-R60
UM-R60
WSP-1A
STG-3R
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Check this out... it makes Maintenance bearable and interesting without it being abusive.
From the AtB 2.30 rules...
MAINTENANCE CHECKS (optional)
AtB uses two systems of Maintenance Cheks – according to the player preferences.
The first, easier system, is to not use maintenance checks, assuming that, as long
as a Tech is assigned to a mech for maintenance it keeps the mech on the average
quality level (level D). If using the easier system, use era mods for repair rolls.
The second, takes advantage of MekHQ options with the following modifications:
- Do not use era mods for repair rolls.
- Make maintenance checks
- Maintenance cycle is 30 days.
- Maintenance modifier is 0
- Do not use quality modifiers
- Only damage parts that are already “A”.
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The Chase (Attacker):
The Disinherited: 0 BV remaining (from 11001 initially) 10959 BV fled
Federated Commonwealth: 8582 BV remaining (from 9254 initially) 0 BV fled
My loss of BV consisted of some ammunition and 4 points of armor lost from the rear of my Saladin.
The enemy lost some more armor and skidded into a wreck that killed it's crew.
My slowest unit was 6/9/6 and that was an attached unit. Mine were all 7/11 or more.
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Don't know if this has been asked yet, but how do I choose which lance goes into which scenario? I'm doing a Garrison Duty contract and on every single scenario it seems like the lance I deploy with is picked randomly. It's really annoying because it always deploys the crappy scout lance which is full of injured pilots and half-destroyed mechs instead of the battle lance which is full of heavies and pilots that haven't seen a single battle yet.
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The rules for AtB determine whether a particular lance has a battle for the week or not, so yeah, you don't get to choose which lance participates.
Your predicament is the nature of scout lances, unfortunately. They tend to see a lot of combat, especially in raid scenarios. It pays to keep some units and pilots in reserve just for this reason, so you can have fresh units ready to go while Mechs and pilots get fixed.
Also, are you restricting yourself to just winning scenarios, or are you pushing hard and wrecking everything in sight? While that can be a good way to level up your pilots quickly, you also tend to take far more damage than is necessary. Be content with just winning a scenario, and in the case of one that really stacks against you, surviving it. I think a lot of players get overconfident against the bot and forget about the long view.
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Since you are probably just getting started you might also want to just run 2 lances in active duty at a time. Set the 3rd to unassigned and fill it with your beaten up pilots/mechs.
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If you're in a garrison contract, you don't need to assign any lances to scout missions, which have a 60% chance each week of getting a battle. Fight have 40% chance, defend 20% and training 10%. The number of units you have at the start of the contract determines how many need to be assigned to a mission role each week (# of units/6, which amounts to 2/3 of your lances if you're using a standard 4/lance structure). At least half of these need to be assigned to a particular role based on the contract type (defend for garrison duty), but you can select which roles to assign the others, and as scJazz said you don't need to assign them all.
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I'm going to do an update to my getting started post. I think this tip to not necessarily assign all your units initially to the TO&E needs to be there.
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I'm going to do an update to my getting started post. I think this tip to not necessarily assign all your units initially to the TO&E needs to be there.
Yeah, seems like a good idea. It is an easily overlooked but incredibly useful way of maintaining a Reserve for extra mechs and banged up pilots.
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Just a quick question which I asked before, is there a way to adjust the availability rolls? I am finding it difficult to get things like Ferro Fibrous and Endo Steel regardless of era.
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You can go to the campaign options and disable "restrict parts by mission" to get around the AtB restriction on whether parts are available or not. Based on a discussion in the main AtB thread, I'm planning on adding a third option which is a less strict version of the AtB rules.
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What is the difference in using:
Marketplace > "Personal Market" vs.
Marketplace > "Hire" > whatever you want.
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The personnel market represents qualified applicants. Just because you want to hire a new MechWarrior (or doctor, or whatever) doesn't mean that there's one available who's willing to join your unit.
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The personnel market represents qualified applicants. Just because you want to hire a new MechWarrior (or doctor, or whatever) doesn't mean that there's one available who's willing to join your unit.
But you can just click on the "Hire" button and get anyone instantly.
What I am trying to say, is should I not be using the Hire feature, and instead use Personal Market? (assuming that I want to adhere as close as possible to the ATB experience). I am fine with that, it is just that the "Hire" button is available without using "GM Mode", so I wasn't sure if it was kosher.
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If you want to follow the AtB rules as closely as possible, use the personnel market and make sure the method in the campaign options is set to AtB.
But more generally the answer to any question about how you should be playing using the AtB system is that it's your game and you can do whatever you want. There is a strong tradition of customization, which is part of what makes it hard to make it easy for new players. The more MHQ enforces the rules, the more options I need to include for people to change the behavior.
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I'm not sure if its a bug or not.
My Personnel Market only ever has one person on it (and it often changes every day). Is this expected behaviour? According to the AtB notes I read, it should be weekly and have more than one person.
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Did you set the personnel market to AtB in the Campaign Options - Personnel Market tab?
Sillier question, but did you also check the Use AtB Campaign Rules box n on the Against the Bot tab?
Also, what MHQ version are you using?
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No and Yes.
That fixed the problem. Hadn't noticed that the Personnel Market had to be changed separately. It still had "Dylan's Method" highlighted.
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Hello, all! I'm a (relatively) newcomer to MekHQ, and I use AtB rules as well. I've been able to surmount every obstacle I've encountered over 2 months of OOC play, save for only a couple...
Question 1)
Item acquisition... what dictates whether I can find a medium laser or not? Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, regardless of the planet I'm on (Socio-industrial levels considered). It kind of pisses me off when I can get an ac20, but not a small laser. Is this working properly?
I realize I can change the campaign settings to allow no rolling, but that feels like cheating!
Question 2)
Special missions (Against the bot)... I can never properly drop my lance into them. Is there a special configuration needed for it?
Question 3)
Contract payments. They're either not enough to pay for a large laser, or negative. Is this a display error or what? I end up having I roll my own dice for a cbill payout-- again, feels cheaty!
Thank you in advance for reading! :^)
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1). What you can acquire is determined by contract type and item availability ratings. Guerrilla warfare allows no purchases at all, and raid contracts tend to be very restrictive as well. The reason you can get an AC but not a laser is because ACs have a lower availability rating - about the one advantage they have in this campaign setting over other weapons. Check the AtB rule set to find the parts availability ratings and the contract availabilities.
2) is it possible that particular special mission only allows a single pilot or select pilots? Again, check your rule set. Mechanically, you should be able to go to the TO&E tab, right click on an individual unit, and deploy them. IF that isn't working then I'm at a loss to explain.
3) darnit I forget offhand which tab it is...find the one which allows you to modify how contracts are paid out - you should have it set to 5% of unit value under...stratops payouts? I'm writing this from my phone. But make sure you have that radio button selected and at the default 5%.
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1). What you can acquire is determined by contract type and item availability ratings. Guerrilla warfare allows no purchases at all, and raid contracts tend to be very restrictive as well. The reason you can get an AC but not a laser is because ACs have a lower availability rating - about the one advantage they have in this campaign setting over other weapons. Check the AtB rule set to find the parts availability ratings and the contract availabilities.
Aah, okay! Useful to know, thanks a lot! guess Ill have to stock up on medlas, mech parts, and armor before deploying on a raid again! For curiousity's sake, is this, in anyway, modifiable in game code? Say, changing acquisition from impossible to rolling an 11?
2) is it possible that particular special mission only allows a single pilot or select pilots? Again, check your rule set. Mechanically, you should be able to go to the TO&E tab, right click on an individual unit, and deploy them. IF that isn't working then I'm at a loss to explain.
Hmmm, I never tried deploying only one-- will try it next time.
3) darnit I forget offhand which tab it is...find the one which allows you to modify how contracts are paid out - you should have it set to 5% of unit value under...stratops payouts? I'm writing this from my phone. But make sure you have that radio button selected and at the default 5%.
This tab?
(http://i.imgur.com/YH3PHlQ.png)
If so, I'll try it out.
Thank you so much-- really clarifies a lot of what I've been dealing with! :)
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You can just turn off Limit Parts by Mission option in ATB Tab. I find it useful to leave it off for the first contract. Gives you a sense of what parts you are likely to need and allows you to stockpile them.
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You can just turn off Limit Parts by Mission option in ATB Tab. I find it useful to leave it off for the first contract. Gives you a sense of what parts you are likely to need and allows you to stockpile them.
:o :D ;D
Bless you!
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The difficulty in purchasing energy weapons is AtB's approach to balancing the disproportionate effectiveness of energy and ballistic weapons, ton for ton. There was a discussion recently in the main AtB thread about providing a middle-of-the-road option that modifies the acquisition roll rather than restricting availability entirely. Since there haven't been any new comments for a while, I'm going to go ahead and code it based on the input we've gotten.
Special missions always require deploying exactly one 'Mech (actually you could deploy a vehicle, but that would make it harder and special missions aren't designed to be easy). Usually any one will do, but some are restricted to either an officer or a non-officer. The scenario description will give the details. There are also "big battles" generated by special events which require you to throw together an ad-hoc unit of 4-8 elements. Again, there may be some restrictions based on speed, weight class, or type of weaponry so read the scenario description. If a unit is ineligible, you will not have the option to deploy it to the scenario.
As of v2.30, the IOps method is the official AtB recommendation. Personally I find 5% to be too high, but you can adjust as you see fit. Even using the FMMercs method with a projected loss, many players make enough additional money from salvage to pull in a nice profit overall.
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I run my contract as FMMr method; consider it 'dark and gritty' mode. Never sure if the contract will be enough to cover payroll; never sure the salvage will be enough to replace losses...
But, I also only accept contracts with a decent salvage payout. 0% salvage contracts should be considered plague carriers. You will never earn enough off payroll to replace your losses.
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Eh... wish I was good enough for that.
Too much of a scrub for that level of play...
For now, that is.
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I just want to say thank-you for this thread. I was trying to use MekHQ as a single player experience, but had no clue how to get started. Having recommended settings all in one post is a god send.
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Err, can anyone help me out here? I started a new campaign (2 of them, to double check), but I get no base payment for my new contracts, even with a 5% unit value option ticked. Help?
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IIRC the payment is based on the units currently in TO&E, so make sure you've got as many forces in there as possible before accepting a contract. The units can be freely swapped in and out of TO&E even in the middle of a contract, so you can always take them back out again after accepting the contract if you wish.
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Be careful when doing the above. The number of lances you are required to deploy each week is based on what you state you have available when you take the contract.
I did this once, claimed two companies operational when it was much closer to two and a half lances due to injuries and repairs. I mean, according to the TO&E, I really did have two companies worth of stuff, but we'd just come off a low-salvage Relief contract, so everything was in terrible shape. I honestly thought I would have time en route to do repairs and heal up my MechWarriors. Nope! The entire sickbay came down with a horrific case of Denebian measles or some such and none of the parts I needed to get any of my 'mechs fixed could be found anywhere, for any price. When we arrive, the first mission on the first day of this 18 month garrison contract requiring three sorties per week is my Command lance on a Chase (Defender).
(sigh)
One battle later, my CO and XO are dead, my available tonnage is reduced by half, my available funds are almost completely gone and the enemy's morale just went to High. So... Yeah. Unless you want your campaign to be about the horrors of war as experienced by wet behind the ears jg's and children that have no business being in the cockpit, forced into battle by the death of everyone above them in the chain of command, their own stubborn sense of honor and the burning desire for revenge compelling them onward to... Well, you get the picture. Don't do what I did unless you want that sort of thing.
...God I love this game.
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Be careful when doing the above. The number of lances you are required to deploy each week is based on what you state you have available when you take the contract.
I did this once, claimed two companies operational when it was much closer to two and a half lances due to injuries and repairs. I mean, according to the TO&E, I really did have two companies worth of stuff, but we'd just come off a low-salvage Relief contract, so everything was in terrible shape. I honestly thought I would have time en route to do repairs and heal up my MechWarriors. Nope! The entire sickbay came down with a horrific case of Denebian measles or some such and none of the parts I needed to get any of my 'mechs fixed could be found anywhere, for any price. When we arrive, the first mission on the first day of this 18 month garrison contract requiring three sorties per week is my Command lance on a Chase (Defender).
(sigh)
One battle later, my CO and XO are dead, my available tonnage is reduced by half, my available funds are almost completely gone and the enemy's morale just went to High. So... Yeah. Unless you want your campaign to be about the horrors of war as experienced by wet behind the ears jg's and children that have no business being in the cockpit, forced into battle by the death of everyone above them in the chain of command, their own stubborn sense of honor and the burning desire for revenge compelling them onward to... Well, you get the picture. Don't do what I did unless you want that sort of thing.
...God I love this game.
There's nothing quite like having your charished 40,000+ hour refits being wiped out by a MG ammo explosion...
Good times. :)
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There's nothing quite like having your charished 40,000+ hour refits being wiped out by a MG ammo explosion...
Good times. :)
Those would be minutes not hours, I think.
You can't deploy a unit under refit... at least I hope not because that would be a bug report.
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Those would be minutes not hours, I think.
You can't deploy a unit under refit... at least I hope not because that would be a bug report.
Yeah, minutes, my bad.
But I meant, "Oh boy, 40,000 minutes of refitting into this one Rifleman, let's test him out."
*Gets stripped of literally everything.*
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Don't forget, too, that if you make a custom Mech through refitting, you're supposed to add the Difficult to Maintain quirk to it (if you're playing with quirks, that is)...
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Don't forget, too, that if you make a custom Mech through refitting, you're supposed to add the Difficult to Maintain quirk to it (if you're playing with quirks, that is)...
How does one add quirks to mechs?
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GM Mode > Right Click Mech in Hangar > Edit Quirk
You kind of don't need to do so since so many mechs already have them.
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GM Mode > Right Click Mech in Hangar > Edit Quirk
You kind of don't need to do so since so many mechs already have them.
Aaahhh, sweet. Thanks.
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Bump to the top for new folks
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Dude! You have to heal the Vee Crews! WTF else are they good for?!!??!? 8)
ummm....cannon fodder?
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No, that's infantry.
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Went through my post and added a LOT more detail, because I created a new unit following my own instructions and realized that I wasn't really specific enough for the AtB ruleset. The idea was to let a player get set up properly into a basic AtB campaign, after all.
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I followed your instructions, upto
That takes care of the Campaign Options.
Now, go set your MegaMek options, to whatever you like to use for MM.
then I saved it as a blank campaign.
This saves me 5-10 mins each time I start a new campaign.
Snimm, feel free to attach it to your post
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Good job at keeping your list updated O0
It will keep the newcomers and returners up to date.
Otherwise my post is just a shameless bump :)
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Newbie with a newbie question: Getting started and I've hired techs for my mechs yet the unit rating is low with no techs listed or asigned? Huh? I've tried assigning techs to a specific mech but no change. Is this important or not?
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make sure you go up to marketplace menu which is at the top by the file menu. Scroll down to Astech, then to bring astech teams to full.
Techs are like the team leaders for a maintence crew. While the Astechs are like the unskilled labor that assist the tech. Maybe not unskilled, maybe uncertified is a better example.
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Ideally, you need 6 Astechs per Tech. Depending on the rating method, you may or may not need Astechs for every Tech, possibly only enough for routine maintenance, but you'll still need to have enough man-hours left to deal with combat damage. Either hire Astechs individually from the regular hiring menu, or else add them as "generic" temp help. By hiring a few of them as individuals, they'll gain XP, and eventually you can turn them into full Techs or even combat personnel.
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Just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I was introduced to the BT universe through the Mechwarrior series of PC games, but have no experience with the tabletop or any other classic battletech (besides Crescent Hawks Inception, that was great).
I found Megamek a few months ago, had a play around with it, but the basic deathmatch scenarios didn't do much for me. Then a few days ago I saw a "let's play" that featured MekHQ and instantly knew that was what I wanted.
It took me a solid chunk of time to figure out how to set everything up (I had a hard time finding out how to edit my mechwarrior stats and figure out what mechs they had), but it was really satisfying to complete it all, as now I have my own mercenary company. Very cool.
Now that I know my way around the menus, I'm ready to start the campaign proper. A few quick questions though;
Is there a recommended point of the timeline to start with? It was set to 3000, but I couldn't find the chart listing what mechs a MW could come with. I ended up rolling for weight class then rolling in the megamek "random army" to determine the mech. Didn't feel like the best way to do it and I would like to use the faction-based chances too.
Should I go straight to the latest build each time? I'm at 3.16 and I noticed 3.18 has just been released.
What does the skill chart next to the mech selection part of the company creations ruletab mean? My Mechwarriors already have a skill level.
How do I determine ranks? I set my first mechwarrior to company commander, then him to sergeant, the next 3 to corporal and everyone else to private. Is that right / does it matter?
And finally, when editing the skill points, why does adding a loint reduce the number? Example is if my company commander is a +4 gunnery, I give him an extra point and it goes to +3. Am I doing something wrong here?
Having a blast already and I haven't even hit the battlefield yet. Thanks again to everyone for helping out total newcomers like myself!
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Lower piloting scores are good in this game. It determines the initial target number for your piloting and gunnery rolls, and then various modifers are added and subtracted from that to determine your target number on the 2d6.
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Just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I was introduced to the BT universe through the Mechwarrior series of PC games, but have no experience with the tabletop or any other classic battletech (besides Crescent Hawks Inception, that was great).
I found Megamek a few months ago, had a play around with it, but the basic deathmatch scenarios didn't do much for me. Then a few days ago I saw a "let's play" that featured MekHQ and instantly knew that was what I wanted.
It took me a solid chunk of time to figure out how to set everything up (I had a hard time finding out how to edit my mechwarrior stats and figure out what mechs they had), but it was really satisfying to complete it all, as now I have my own mercenary company. Very cool.
Now that I know my way around the menus, I'm ready to start the campaign proper. A few quick questions though;
1. Is there a recommended point of the timeline to start with? It was set to 3000, but I couldn't find the chart listing what mechs a MW could come with. I ended up rolling for weight class then rolling in the megamek "random army" to determine the mech. Didn't feel like the best way to do it and I would like to use the faction-based chances too.
2. Should I go straight to the latest build each time? I'm at 3.16 and I noticed 3.18 has just been released.
3. What does the skill chart next to the mech selection part of the company creations ruletab mean? My Mechwarriors already have a skill level.
4. How do I determine ranks? I set my first mechwarrior to company commander, then him to sergeant, the next 3 to corporal and everyone else to private. Is that right / does it matter?
5. And finally, when editing the skill points, why does adding a loint reduce the number? Example is if my company commander is a +4 gunnery, I give him an extra point and it goes to +3. Am I doing something wrong here?
Having a blast already and I haven't even hit the battlefield yet. Thanks again to everyone for helping out total newcomers like myself!
1. 3025 is the basic timeline that most people start with as it introduces battletech and is on par with the time of the Crescent Hawks Inception.
2. You could, or you could watch the forums for the release a little while to see what people are noticing as far as features or possible bugs are concerned.
3. If you are generating a random force in the MegaMek as opposed to using the personnel market and the unit market, It is generating a pilot with the mech.
4. For the most part, ranks don't matter. However, when you set up your TO&E, You do want the person you want in charge of each level of organization to be higher than those below her/him.
5. I assume you meant "point" as opposed to "loint"; Adding a point to a skill is the skill level. What it shows by your warriors, except for leadership and tactics (which just add to the die roll) is the Target Number (TN) needed on a two die six (2D6) roll, before modifiers, to be successful at a given task.
I hope this helps, and there are lots of people on these forums that are more than willing to help answer any questions you have. Good Hunting. :)
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Thanks for the replies, very helpful indeed! The skill numbers (+4, etc) make a lot of sense when explained that way, although as someone with literally no experience in this sort of thing, I never would have figured that out myself. I had an ultra-green Mechwarrior with all +7 and higher and I thought I must have scored a naturally talented and highly skilled pilot who just didn't have any experience yet. Ooops ;D
I've had 5 battles, with four wins and one defeat and I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of things. Having a bit of fun with my techs who have just failed to replace the left arm on a Locust for the 4th time in a row lol. I've seen them roll 12's for replacing armor and now they can break a 9 hah.
On that, do the techs gain XP at a much slower rate than the Mechwarriors? I only have 1 mech who has gained XP (1 point), with all others on 0, but I've had them working hard after each battle to keep my mechs in top shape and to stay on top of our salvage. Is that correct?
Another question regarding mission debriefings. When I have allied units, at the debriefing screen, it has them selected as "lost", which then removes then from my hangar. I've figured that is because they were never my forces and after that I'm able to marked those killed as killed and the survivors as pulling through, but it still lists all allied units as "missing" on the final results screen. Does that matter at all?
Final question: in the briefing room, the "deployment requirements" lists the "maximum deployed units" as 3. What makes up a "unit"? I've been taking it to mean 3 mechs, but now that I've salvaged some vehicles and crew, I'm wondering how I would deploy them, because I'm not going to give up a mech just to deploy an SRM carrier or two.
But overall thoughts - immensely satisfying and very enjoyable. It's the battletech experience I've been dreaming of since losing hours in the Archives of Mechwarrior 2....
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Your Techs are gaining XP at the correct speed. They gain XP at the rate of 1 per 25 repairs and 1 for every 12 they roll.
Uncheck the Allied unit as Lost in both screens. It won't land in your hangar and you won't be penalized for losing an Ally
A Unit in that window means (3 to 6 things). Normally, 4 so just stick with 4 for now.
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An allied unit is treated differently depending on whether it's directly attached to your command or if it's on the same side but part of a different force. If you control it, setting the first combat resolution screen to "lost" means that you don't get unearned "freebie" units simply handed to you. Checking the second screen as "lost" means that it was destroyed under your command, and you take a -1 hit to your contract score. If it's AI controlled, the first screen is handled the same way, and it doesn't matter what the second screen says.
In the TO&E window, 3-6 is the number of units you can put in a lance and deploy it (if that campaign option is set). In the Contract window, I believe it's the maximum number of lances that you can deploy in a scenario (I could very easily be wrong), and is tied directly to your Leadership rating.
The XP for techs can be changed in the Campaign Options selection under the File menu, so it can be 25 successful repairs or more or less, and they can gain a point of XP for a roll of 12, or not, depending on settings. The flexibility is a major plus, but it doesn't have a detailed manual to explain how a lot of it works. Some of us here try to answer questions, when we're not busy asking our own.
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In the TO&E window, 3-6 is the number of units you can put in a lance and deploy it (if that campaign option is set). In the Contract window, I believe it's the maximum number of lances that you can deploy in a scenario (I could very easily be wrong), and is tied directly to your Leadership rating.
Strategy Limits the number of Lances... Leadership the number of people. Together they form the limits of the Force ToE.
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for now a bump
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Im reading the AtB and to make a field test of MHQ together I started a campaign which didnt end well in the first mission (lost a couple of mechs). Although I never started with 12 units (didnt want such a big unit to test) I ended for my second mission with 2 mechs, 1 vee and 1 jump Platoon.
The problem is that the first time I "start game" I get those units duplicated and from there on those units get the "#2" after the name although I only have one of each.
The mission is Extraction (Attacker). Could this be a problem caused by AtB that requires more than 4 units? Could be something I did wrong?
Edit = Strange but it fixed for itself. Loaded the campaign from the last save a couple of times after trying some stuff. I suspect its something to do with a MUL file I had in the same directory with the same name of my campaign unit...
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AtB in HQ is designed for company level units and will always generate a company of opposing units. If you want to start off playing with a lance like I do you can just delete the scenario that pops up and make your own AtB tables and all that to make it lance level.
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AtB in HQ is designed for company level units and will always generate a company of opposing units. If you want to start off playing with a lance like I do you can just delete the scenario that pops up and make your own AtB tables and all that to make it lance level.
It's one of the more annoying aspects, it's rather annoying seeing a week with multiple battles that pitch a company against each lance... (Or in my case 25-30 a Binary-Supernova of Clanners versus a standard IS lance D:)
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AtB in HQ is designed for company level units and will always generate a company of opposing units. If you want to start off playing with a lance like I do you can just delete the scenario that pops up and make your own AtB tables and all that to make it lance level.
In the field test I mentioned above I find it that its not a big problem using AtB with just one lance (its fairly easy to get more stuff in the beggining). My BIG problem is with my luck and the RNG gods... having fresh new mech (Archer is this case which is a walking bomb) and being crit in the LRM ammo in the first shot doesnt help.
Anyway just got a strange thing happen. Got that mechwarrior KIA and when advancing the day he asked for retirement compensation...!?!?!?
Its a bug or its supposed to be like that? (I hate families asking payment for the funeral :D)
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That is supposed to happen.
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Thats why I leave retirement rolls off. I loathe the way it works. Your elite unit commander wants to retire after a 3 month raid??? Huh??
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Thats why I leave retirement rolls off. I loathe the way it works. Your elite unit commander wants to retire after a 3 month raid??? Huh??
So just bonus him until his roll is 2?
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In the MegaMek game options you can also shut off that through-armor critical rule, I hate it.
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In the MegaMek game options you can also shut off that through-armor critical rule, I hate it.
Huh!? Is that a rule in the table top game? (dont play it for sometime so I dont remember if its there... or as optional rule...)
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Yes in the TT game a 2D6 roll of 2 would net torso through-armor criticals and now in MM under i think the advanced combat tab you can turn on an unofficial rule to disable through-armor critical hits.
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So just bonus him until his roll is 2?
Too much of a hassle on large units.
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Yes in the TT game a 2D6 roll of 2 would net torso through-armor criticals and now in MM under i think the advanced combat tab you can turn on an unofficial rule to disable through-armor critical hits.
Oh that rule. Nevermind then. Was misunderstanding your statement.
Thats why I leave retirement rolls off...
How do you do that in MHQ? I was looking around in the options and cant find anything to turn off that.
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I think it is mid way down on the left side of the AtB stuff
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I kinda hate the retirement rules as implemented.
For one thing, they don't model the fiction at all. We're used to merc units having relatively stable leaderships and member lists, baring catastrophic events. "Free" 'MechWarriors are usually either relative newbies who just inherited a 'Mech, or like that because the unit as a whole failed or was disbanded and they survived the ordeal.
And then there's my doubts that it balances the game in any meaningful and fun way. The fights are already deadly enough that you have a steady turnover. If the goal was to limit the overall skill levels, increasing skill costs, reducing potential Edge gain and limiting who can be recruited would work better, in my opinion. Also: Involve the tech/admin/medic personnel in actual fighting now and then, to cull their numbers. Adding work-related accidents (in AtB, nobody dies in peacetime during maintenance of military equipment, somehow ... not even when they roll a critical failure) would be a bonus too.
But then, that's for whoever is developing AtB to balance first, I guess.
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All of my commanders have a Leadership skill of around 3.
Last retirement roll I lost 3 people from 2 Battalions and their attendant staff.
So I would say turn Leadership on and if you have to give them some extra Leadership to get things stabilized.
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All of my commanders have a Leadership skill of around 3.
Last retirement roll I lost 3 people from 2 Battalions and their attendant staff.
So I would say turn Leadership on and if you have to give them some extra Leadership to get things stabilized.
Leadership at most modifies the target number by 2, and that's only if you have way too many people (more than 24 each of combat and support personnel, not counting Astechs, at Leadership 0), and only the skill for the actual company commander matters.
If you're running with 12 'Mech pilots and 12 support personnel, you only need Leadership 0, which every company commander starts with. Anything more doesn't matter for retirement rolls.
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Does the 5% increase in personal and allied units needed to be destroyed make its way into HQ?
Leadership: Effects (on company leader) the max number of combat/support personnel that the company can have before
receiving a -1 in the retirement/defection roll. Starts at 12 for each category with 0 Leadership and adds +6 for
each point. If personnel number is twice or higher the allowed for the commander leadership the modifier is -2.
Each point of Leadership on the battle commander (highest ranked officer) increases in 5% the need number
of Merc+Allied forces that need to be destroyed for the OpFor do win the scenario.
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Too much of a hassle on large units.
It is a couple of clicks to just bonus your elite Commander. I do it every retirement. It really isn't that much of a hassle to just bonus one or 2 guys.
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Does the 5% increase in personal and allied units needed to be destroyed make its way into HQ?
Leadership: Effects (on company leader) the max number of combat/support personnel that the company can have before
receiving a -1 in the retirement/defection roll. Starts at 12 for each category with 0 Leadership and adds +6 for
each point. If personnel number is twice or higher the allowed for the commander leadership the modifier is -2.
Each point of Leadership on the battle commander (highest ranked officer) increases in 5% the need number
of Merc+Allied forces that need to be destroyed for the OpFor do win the scenario.
No because Victory conditions don't make it to MM because MM isn't flexible enough to allow Player 1 to have 50% kills vs Player 2 needing 70% for example.
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No because Victory conditions don't make it to MM because MM isn't flexible enough to allow Player 1 to have 50% kills vs Player 2 needing 70% for example.
Wouldnt be possible to add some feature in MM to ask in the setup if victory conditions would be in a BV % for each team? Just asking... dont know how it would work.
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yes you can check the box for victory on destroy "x" % of BV but, it applies to both teams.
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yes you can check the box for victory on destroy "x" % of BV but, it applies to both teams.
I know that but I wasn't clear. I meant to input the "x" % of BV for each team independently... so that would solve that issue... I think.
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It is a couple of clicks to just bonus your elite Commander. I do it every retirement. It really isn't that much of a hassle to just bonus one or 2 guys.
Plus at the top of the retirement screen there is a "add modifier to all personnel" button. That's what I usually use until the unit commander is at 2. Still allows for some retirements/defections, but doesn't gut the force.
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Yeah but a full combined arms regiment where at least 40 or more are family??
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Are you running shares?
Turns out that it's the 50% shares that are keeping everybody happy in my games.
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nope, no shares.
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At the start of each round it lists the bv of units left of the field, and what the starting bv was. The start bv uses all. Of the participating units. I turn all the victory options off, and use the bv, some quick math, and my own morale system to determine victory.
Dav
I know that but I wasn't clear. I meant to input the "x" % of BV for each team independently... so that would solve that issue... I think.
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At the start of each round it lists the bv of units left of the field, and what the starting bv was. The start bv uses all. Of the participating units. I turn all the victory options off, and use the bv, some quick math, and my own morale system to determine victory.
Thats what I do but I talked about if that could be automated like in the game setup...
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Hey just started my first campaign and i'm loving it, Done a lot of reading on these forums to figure out the AtB aspects. One snag I hit recently (of my own devising i'm sure) is launching a scenario it shows my units but when it tries to load the AI units many of them fail to load giving this error message... Attempted to add an illegal unit design (insert unit here), the unit was rejected. Which has lead to on scenario where all enemy units were rejected. I'm playing 4th succession war era currently 3027. These were my RATs I picked: (2820-2887) Golden Century, (3025-3050) Deric Page, and (3014) Historical-Brush Wars-Antons Revolt. I mean right away I see the issue but im unsure how to resolve it.
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Tick allow invalid units in the megamek options menu, it's a known bug.
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Thank you for the quick response. Is the know issue that it is pulling from the Deric RAT outside the year and then not rerolling, or is it something else?
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Thank you for the quick response. Is the know issue that it is pulling from the Deric RAT outside the year and then not rerolling, or is it something else?
Right now the Equipment Database is being updated to IO rules for availability. Which is causing some minor issues. Allow Illegal Designs is the easy work around.
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I actually poked around MM once you told me that. I allowed the designs but then selected two replacement mechs of similar weight from the appropriate RAT, transferred pilots and deleted the illegal mechs. Worked great. Thanks for the tip!
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I actually poked around MM once you told me that. I allowed the designs but then selected two replacement mechs of similar weight from the appropriate RAT, transferred pilots and deleted the illegal mechs. Worked great. Thanks for the tip!
OK but the mechs aren't actually illegal. The code is screwed up right now and marking legal units as illegal. So just turn that allow illegal designs thing on and your all set.
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Okay, so this seems like a good resource for newbie AtB'ers, but I gotta ask - will it work if I combines MM40.1 with MHQ3.31? And is the starting advice on the first page still good?
I'm wanting to start a merc campaign in the early 3000's, and see how it pans out, Total War style (so to speak).
Most of the other MM players seem to be pretty much in the US timezones, so trying to combine MHQ with the usual opponents just isn't going to end well when crossing that 5+ hour timezone gap.
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Just install and use MHQ 3.32. It includes MM and MML.
Much of the advice on the first page still applies.
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Awesome, thanks for that! O0
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If I wanted to build a combined arms RAT with a mix of infantry and vees, then have AtB able to reference it like the pre-included RATs, how would I go about doing that?
Ah, also, would it break megamek if I built a RAT that was arranged sort of like
2-4 tanks 5-8 infantry 9-12 mech
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MegaMek does not care what type of units are in the RAT. Neither does AtB, really...it just has to know which one to look in for each unit type and if you stick tanks or infantry in the ones that you told it are for 'Mechs, it will quite dutifully give you a combined arms unit when the rules tell it to generate 'Mechs (or whatever unit types you use).
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I really tried to read as many of the various ATB threads as I could and somehow I'm still stuck on practically the very first step in creating an ATB campaign. I'm following the AtB.documentation.02_10.txt included with 0.41.26 (edit: found 02_10 in another thread, an older one comes with 0.41.26).
I created the campaign with the default ATB settings, other than picking 3025 as the starting date. It says to, in GM Mode, hire 12 mechwarriors (and some other staff) via Marketplace->Hire Personnel in Bulk. But I can't hire anything because I have no money. I get the money error regardless of whether GM Mode is enabled or not.
I had all the original BT stuff probably close to 30+ years ago, but it's long gone and waaaay out of date even if I had it, so I don't have any manuals to go by (I'm ordering Total Warfare, which I guess would cover company creation?). Am I supposed to jumpstart my company with some default amount of money? How much?
Edit: oh, maybe I found it. I stayed with the default options thinking "don't screw this up, take the simplest path possible". But, in the text about "if you can't select the preset, here is a quick way to get started"...it mentions deselecting all the items in "Finances" for company creation. Since I'd picked the preset, I'd skipped over that bit inside the choose your own options section.
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I usually add 50,000,000 CBills via rich uncle in the finance tab. Hire your whole unit, then delete the entry and add the "correct" amount of starting money after that. Im sure there is a better way, but that is the way I do it.
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On a related note, it says the first rolled Mechwarrior is your commander followed by 3 lance leaders. Do you reflect that in their rank? What's the rank for those positions? Rank seems to affect shares, so it seems like it'd matter to have that right.
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Yeah, I dont have the rules in front of me, but I think those guys get bonuses to their abilities. But you have to set their ranks manually. I think an AtB company should have a Captain equivalent as the Commander, 3 Lts, and the rest to suit (what they are called depends on the rankset you choose). The rule is no more than 1/3 of your force can be officers (maybe its a quarter).
I think MHQ handles the vast majority of the stuff automatically now, but the initial company creation is not one of them, so you need to do some of that manually withe the ATB spreadsheet open next to it. If you dont know, he has "rolls" built into the sheet, so you can go to the formulas tab and hit "calcuate" and it will roll the number for you, you can compare it to the table, then manually enter. Its really pretty awesome.
Personally - it would be cool to have under the GM tools a "Generate Standard ATB Starting Unit" or something similar. But its really far along now and what they have managed to do so far is great. We used to have to roll the battles and opfors manually and enter them manually in MM. :)
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Personally - it would be cool to have under the GM tools a "Generate Standard ATB Starting Unit" or something similar. But its really far along now and what they have managed to do so far is great. We used to have to roll the battles and opfors manually and enter them manually in MM. :)
Not built into MHQ yet, but someone did write a standalone utility that will do the rolls for you and generate a list: Bonepart's Against the Bot Tools (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=23352.0)
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I think MHQ handles the vast majority of the stuff automatically now, but the initial company creation is not one of them, so you need to do some of that manually withe the ATB spreadsheet open next to it. If you dont know, he has "rolls" built into the sheet, so you can go to the formulas tab and hit "calcuate" and it will roll the number for you, you can compare it to the table, then manually enter. Its really pretty awesome.
Yea, I can see a bunch of numbers that roll randomly on the sheet, but I can't figure out what some of them are for. Some I can tell, they're the mech size/quality for example, but there are a bunch of numbers out there that I haven't been able to figure out what they're for...like J69. The whole Q column with random 1-1000 column is a mystery :).
I've been using the GM dialog tool to randomly determine my mech, but I think something in the ATB spreadsheet gives me some numbers to do that as well.
Edit: I feel like I must be a problem child, I'm really struggling to get to an initial battle. I've got my mechs assigned and created two forces to hold them (10 mech, assigned 4 to each, held 2 in reserve). I picked a recon contract and it's 129 days to get there. So I'm advancing the days. Every single day it tells me:
"You don't have enough astechs to provide full maintenance".
I just say ok since I don't need astechs as near as I can tell, but I'll have to click advance day 129 times until I get there? I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
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1. Go to marketplace, and hit "hire full astech pool" or whatever it is called. Your Techs are team leaders. Each needs 4 astechs to work for him. EDIT: Same for Medical teams.
2. I think under GM tools there is a "mass advance days" where you can do it in whatever increments you want. I would suggest 29, so you can see the monthly unit market.
There is a lot to learn, but its not bad. Go to the "docs" folder in the game, and see the instructions there for AtB and MHQ.
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Thanks, I'm getting there. The amount of detail isn't particularly intimidating, I used to read BT manuals (and other games) sort of for fun when I was younger :). It's just not knowing how things go together.
Lacking the rule books doesn't help. I'd love to be able to look things up, but I'm in the "Must not buy anything until Xmas is over or my wife will kill me" part of the year :)
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1. Go to marketplace, and hit "hire full astech pool" or whatever it is called. Your Techs are team leaders. Each needs 4 astechs to work for him. EDIT: Same for Medical teams.
2. I think under GM tools there is a "mass advance days" where you can do it in whatever increments you want. I would suggest 29, so you can see the monthly unit market.
There is a lot to learn, but its not bad. Go to the "docs" folder in the game, and see the instructions there for AtB and MHQ.
Those numbers are actually 6 astechs per tech and 4 medics per doctor. Not trying to nitpick, just trying to make sure that information is correct for anyone else reading this who might not know.
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The getting started guide says to buy a bunch of armor, actuators and such, but there was very little available to buy. Most all of the items were "impossible". Is there a setting I was supposed to check/uncheck to make items available during this company creation period?
I did the first mission anyway figuring I'd learn some more and lost, badly...a Spider ran around or jumped like crazy and kicked me to death! It has something like a 3/2 skill set and it'd be able to kick me on a 6+, but it'd take me like an 11+ to kick it back. I basically ended up with a bunch of 1-legged mechs :)
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I need to review my guide and update it, it apparently needs it badly.
You probably were in contract before you bought your parts and that's my fault. I wanted you to have your money before you took the contract forgetting that you are then bound by the contract's parts restrictions.
As for the elite spider, try getting a contract where the opposition is green or at best regular.
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Yea, I can see a bunch of numbers that roll randomly on the sheet, but I can't figure out what some of them are for. Some I can tell, they're the mech size/quality for example, but there are a bunch of numbers out there that I haven't been able to figure out what they're for...like J69. The whole Q column with random 1-1000 column is a mystery :).
I've been using the GM dialog tool to randomly determine my mech, but I think something in the ATB spreadsheet gives me some numbers to do that as well.
Edit: I feel like I must be a problem child, I'm really struggling to get to an initial battle. I've got my mechs assigned and created two forces to hold them (10 mech, assigned 4 to each, held 2 in reserve). I picked a recon contract and it's 129 days to get there. So I'm advancing the days. Every single day it tells me:
"You don't have enough astechs to provide full maintenance".
I just say ok since I don't need astechs as near as I can tell, but I'll have to click advance day 129 times until I get there? I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
I'm pretty sure everyone feels like the problem child when they start using this program :D I still do!
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Not built into MHQ yet, but someone did write a standalone utility that will do the rolls for you and generate a list: Bonepart's Against the Bot Tools (http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=23352.0)
Didn't know this existed :o looks amazing!
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I need to review my guide and update it, it apparently needs it badly.
You probably were in contract before you bought your parts and that's my fault. I wanted you to have your money before you took the contract forgetting that you are then bound by the contract's parts restrictions.
As for the elite spider, try getting a contract where the opposition is green or at best regular.
I honestly don't recall if I did the contract or tried for the parts first, I could have very well screwed it up.
I'll GM in more contracts and try to find a better one. At that point, it was getting late and I figured I'd just run the first mission because I'd probably make a mistake where I'd be rolling up a new company anyway.
It was actually laugh out loud funny, me cursing at the screen. I had 2 PHX, a Shadow Hawk, and a Trebuchet. Their mechs were all quite light, plus vehicles. The terrain was heavily wooded and mud. The spider bounced on it's 8/12/8 jump jets and most of the time he got the last move, would land behind one of my mech, kick me in the ass, then repeat.
I apparently was in a near literal ass-kicking contest with an ass-kicking professional :)
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I've been reading through everything in the ATB excel document and I think what would help is understanding what things I need to manually do versus what the MekHQ system does for me. A daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly checklist of things that need action and whether that action is automated (generate contracts), MekHQ assisted (recruiting), or manual (roll dice, GM edit).
Some examples:
- Market/Contract generation: This looks to be completely automated?
- Retirement/defection: It says "if you take a mech from a non-officer and assign a worse one you must do a retirement/defection roll". Is that up to me to resolve? Do folks tend to roleplay that mechwarriors pilot the mech they came with? If so, if you do a reassignment because they've got crap skills, does that cause a manual retirement/defection roll?
Those are just 2 examples, the question about if it's me or MekHQ that executes a step is sort of a generic one about all the steps.
The entire MekHQ and AtB is utterly astounding. Please don't take my questions as negativity, I'm really excited! But also ignorant. It's killing me to not run out and buy the rulebooks today.
Edit:
When hiring your initial mechwarriors, do you need to GM->Edit each of them to indicate the class of mech they started with?
And do I need to do anything to indicate a mechwarrior is the commander and/or lance leader? Commanders at least have some rules related to them (I broke down and bought the Campaign Operations PDF...yikes, the finance section would be crazy to do manually) and I think each Lance is supposed to have an officer leading them, but is that just up to me on assignment or is there an MekHQ setting for that beyond giving them a rank?
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As far as I know, 99% of stuff, including contract generation, is automated. Defection is too. I dont think it follows the sheet actually, but it does a good job. The only big non-automated thing is rolling your unit up and assigning them mechs via GM mode.
Once you figure out who your commander is, right click on him in personnel tab, go to special flags, and check Commander. That will sort it. :)
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Don't worry about needing the latest rulebooks.
I'm still using my Master Rules book for reference. The only 'modern' thing you need to look up is some of the special abilities; and those are described in the Campaign Settings tab (where the costs are modified in GM mode).
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Once you figure out who your commander is, right click on him in personnel tab, go to special flags, and check Commander. That will sort it. :)
Ah, thanks. I kept digging around in the Edit.. screen, then in the TO&E screen thinking it'd be one of those. Somehow my eyes glossed over Special Flags. I never was able to get buying initial supplies to work without using GM mode since supplies are limited in quantity and/or not available, but I GM'd the right amount and adjusted my starting cash accordingly.
I think I'm good to go!
Edit:
For victory conditions, do you count your AI allies? I've got a "keep more than 3/4 of your guys alive", but I have 2 ally mechs that seem determined to thwart that goal :(
Also, when does the AtB skill level come into play? I've reloaded my save and changed my campaign options from regular to green to ultra-green and restarted this same battle a few times, but the tonnage and BV value of the enemy is the same every time.
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This is all explained on the sheet, but here is how I remember it: You do count your AI Allies. You dont count them for tonnage purposes, but you do count them for victory conditions. You dont count friendly or enemy reinforcements for victory conditions though. Yes, Ally mechs sometimes behave crazily, but I think it mimics the real world where people have to protect their cohorts in battle that might not always behave rationally. You just have to learn to live with them and protect them. You can also right click on them in the scenario screen before you start and "configure bot." You should always do that with Civilians and set them to cowardly, actually.
The skill level wont matter for a battle that is already generated. You can remove it via GM mode then advance to the next week and it should work.
And regardless - I suggest buying the new Rulebooks and TROs. First, they are well done and worth picking up. Second, they are how we support this franchise. The fact that they allow for this on their official forums is amazing in itself, and they should be financially supported, IMHO.
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This is all explained on the sheet, but here is how I remember it: You do count your AI Allies. You dont count them for tonnage purposes, but you do count them for victory conditions. You dont count friendly or enemy reinforcements for victory conditions though.
The skill level wont matter for a battle that is already generated. You can remove it via GM mode then advance to the next week and it should work.
And regardless - I suggest buying the new Rulebooks and TROs. First, they are well done and worth picking up. Second, they are how we support this franchise. The fact that they allow for this on their official forums is amazing in itself, and they should be financially supported, IMHO.
Thanks. I read through the "Battle" tab on the AtB rules XLS, but I didn't see anything specifying whether the % was me or the whole allied team. Make sense it's the allied team, though I definitely didn't see anything saying reinforcements weren't considered, so I'm glad you mentioned that.
As for buying rulebooks, I got one yesterday, others are on my Xmas list. On the other hand, I won't feel horribly guilty since I bought a metric ton of BT stuff back in the day so I've certainly funneled funds towards it over time (though who got those funds and who owns things now obviously has gone through changes). Maybe MegaMek should have a Patreon or donate button or something since I'd certainly donate $20 to the folks that have made those programs. I'm a Java developer and poked my nose into the code a little bit and there's a tremendous number of hours poured into those programs!
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Re. the starting mechs for pilots, once you've rolled them up, added pilots and added mechs, you can GM edit the pilots, and there is a dropdown box, not sure what it's called, but above the Bio bit, you can choose any mech that the company currently owns. When that pilot then retires or dies, the game will try and remove that mech from your roster, or you can pay them off whatever it was worth.
As an aside, I go back and put stuff in the bio boxes whenever the pilot does something memorable, like, my Highlander pilot has a running tally of DFA kills, the very first shot my hunchback pilot took decapitated his opponent (I gave her AC20 master and +5exp after that fight!).
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Is there a reason to use the Personnel market rather than hiring? Other than with the few folks in the personnel market you're getting a known skill set?
And I must be doing something wrong on mission completion. I finished the 3 month Recon Raid contract. It brought up the retirement screen, I hit "roll" and it says I have 10 million in payouts to handle. I only had maybe 1.5 million in cash. Heck, my entire starting company creation was only worth like 20 million.
That can't possibly be right, I can't see how you'd ever make enough money if you've got to pay out 50+% of your entire net worth at the end of each contract. I've been reading through the Campaign Operations book, but I'm not finding how retirement rolls work.
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You must have the shares system turned on to rack up that big a bill.
I always turn off the retirement rolls. Because i have never had my commander stay longer than one contract. And a lot of times i'll lose half the unit.
So i keep track of people on my own. the starting crew and any dependents i gain i'll roll for every 5 years. and new hires/defectors i'll roll for every two years. But i also keep my unit very small cause maybe i'll hire 2 people a year and get a prisoner or two to defect. Eventually the unit gets big it just takes some time.
Just make a quick excel doc for your personal mods to any of the problems you see, and you are golden. Battletech is called the spreadsheet game for a reason. Managing a Merc unit is why i learned excel in middle school lol
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Battletech is called the spreadsheet game for a reason. Managing a Merc unit is why i learn excel in middle school lol
It's pretty crazy. I bought all the first run of BT way back when and it wasn't remotely like it is now. Even the Mechwarrior book seemed pretty straight forward. I stopped playing about when the Clan came out.
To be honest, the campaign rules are really off putting. I did one back in the day with Mechwarrior and it wasn't that bad. Campaign Ops is insane. Hiring Astechs has literally no meaning, they're just a 6:1 requirement for a mech tech. You could abstract all that into "1 mech tech unit". Dependents could be abstracted away into a roll for a free tech once a year. And doctors are 4:1 instead of 6:1 because screw any consistency and it could also be abstracted. All the Planet creation stuff in Campaign Ops is cool, but there's no reason to calculate density and planet surface gravity from it, that's crazy, just set up a table to roll some reasonable values. Some astrophysics graduate went wild (and I'm an astrophysics geek) :)
The detail levels are impressive, but far too low level. Just need a basic economy behind running a campaign is needed to give the metagame some interesting decisions. Maybe the intent was to support someone literally writing a program to do it all.
I'm glad MekHQ is handling all of that! I'd never do it manually. If I ever run a campaign for someone, I'll hide all that detail.
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The thing is, if you're running something 'manually', you can pretty easily include just as much detail as you want. The rules are designed, to some extent, to allow for that. And if you're using the software, well, knock yourself out computer! But without it I sure as the devil never tracked, say, maintenance rolls.
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Very true, if a computer is running it, I'm happy to know there's a lot of detail acting as a good foundation. Ah well, any criticism I might have of the rules themselves belongs in another area :), I'm just happy MekHQ handles most of it for me or I don't think I would have felt there were enough interesting decisions to balance the minutia.
In my retirement roll mentioned above, I lost 3 of my 4 officers including my commander. I have only 2 of my 10 mechs, two Locusts, left after handling payouts. I think my merc company will have to disband :(. Maybe I'll try running without shares next time and see if that works out better.
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I noticed that when I started a new "Solaris VII" campaign using the new AtB defaults. "Shares" are turned on by default and really mess with the retirement costs.
BTW, for anyone interested I manually created a Garrison contract vs Pirates (Employer was Corporation); 50% on all the pay settings. Still have to manually roll for match offers.
For a "riot" that popped up, I had to purchase 4 MG APCs and make a 'riot squad' as none of my four starting units had eligible weapons.
(2 of them died in their first duels, but I also had two Star League Cache missions in the first month; Thug and WTH-1S)
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How does MekHQ decide which lance gets allocated to a mission? It seems to somewhat randomly allocate a lance to a mission even if that lance isn't executing the required role.
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It is very random.
The tables weight the lances "role" for certain types of battles. However, there is still a wide degree of overlap.
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How does MekHQ decide which lance gets allocated to a mission? It seems to somewhat randomly allocate a lance to a mission even if that lance isn't executing the required role.
Its explained in the excel, both for friendly and enemy lances. I tried to find a place in the files to modify the percentage chance for each, but couldn't.
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Its explained in the excel, both for friendly and enemy lances. I tried to find a place in the files to modify the percentage chance for each, but couldn't.
When the mission pops up, it usually has no designated lance that has to participate, but it does indicate a lance order type that's required (e.g. "Scout"). When I advance to the day of battle, it seems to pick a lance then to do the fight, even if that lance isn't of the right order type. So I'll change the order and then I can start the battle.
The spreadsheet description says it goes lance by lance to figure out the battle/mission, but since no specific lance is indicated when the mission is created by MekHQ I'm not sure which lance caused it or is going to be assigned to it.
Also, are the missions generated affected by the contract ? I'm on a Cadre contract, but I don't see anything in the spreadsheet battle generator that skews the type of battle based on the contract. Well, for "Big Battles", there it has a contract-aware table, but it looks like normal missions aren't affected by the contract type?
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You are more likely to get certain normal missions on certain contract types.
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If I'm reading the excel file right, then for each lance assigned to one of the roles, MekHQ rolls a d100 and then looks up a table. Each number number corresponds to one of the missions or 'no mission this week'. Most missions can occur for multiple roles.
The contract type has little to do with the missions generated. What the contract determines is which type of deployment is required, which means those are the mission types you'll encounter for lances deployed that way.
ckessel: Until the day of the battle, the assigned lance isn't listed in the 'forces assigned' tree of the battle window, but it will be listed in the text below that. On the day of the mission, the lance will then be deployed and appear in the tree. This should not be random, but always be the assigned lance.
The lance is not picked random for the mission, the mission is picked at random for the lance. You shouldn't need to change the role of the lance assigned, I'm not sure what you mean there. Not all missions that can occur for a given role are stereotypical for the role. For example, a lance assigned to training might have to be the 'attacker' in a chase scenario, ie it ran into a superior foe and must high tail it out of there.
An important note, all battles are generated on a monday. You should not change your Force's unit table until after you're done with all the week's battles, to prevent issues with assigned forces being removed/made ineligible for deployment and causing strange behaviour in the program.
At least that's how MekHQ behaves for me. I have never seen it assign a mission to a lance that doesn't fit its deployment.
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An important note, all battles are generated on a monday. You should not change your Force's unit table until after you're done with all the week's battles, to prevent issues with assigned forces being removed/made ineligible for deployment and causing strange behaviour in the program.
Hmm, maybe that's the issue. After the mission was generated, I'd much around with the forces to get the the mechwarriors and mechs I wanted to send. It sounds like that's not the way it's supposed to work though, that I should send whatever the lance was at the time the mission was generated?
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Yrs, set lances on Sunday. Then dont mess with them. Sometimes maintenance will break an important part on a mech before the battle and that lance may not deploy. Just fix the part and go back and manually deploy that lance from the TO&E the day the battle hits. That is the same way you handle reinforcements by the way, too.
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That is the same way you handle reinforcements by the way, too.
How do you handle them exactly? I've read the rules but never actually used the reinforcement rule. Should you roll for them manually? And then deploy manually from TO&E as you do for the Special Battles?
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Yes, reinforcement rolls are, as far as I know, not implemented into MekHQ yet. You'll have to do them manually.
Note that reinforcement lances (or rather, any force other than the one the mission was rolled for) will automatically have their arrival time adjusted (I believe it is turn (12 - walk speed of slowest unit (jump jets make it count as 1 faster) - strategy of lance's officer).
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Note that reinforcement lances (or rather, any force other than the one the mission was rolled for) will automatically have their arrival time adjusted (I believe it is turn (12 - walk speed of slowest unit (jump jets make it count as 1 faster) - strategy of lance's officer).
Oh, that's nice. So, I just have to do a roll and on 6 or 5-6 manually deploy an unoccupied lance from TO&E? Easier than I thought, thanks!
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Oh, that's nice. So, I just have to do a roll and on 6 or 5-6 manually deploy an unoccupied lance from TO&E? Easier than I thought, thanks!
Yes exactly. I was pleasantly surprised that it automatically calculated the reinforcement time.
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Okay, that just happened again. I'm on the raid contract, variable length turned off. Parts are unavailable mostly, except ammo and engines. Well, okay. The contract ends. Parts are available for buying, got a transport bay facility. Great! I'm waiting for replacement parts, repairing and sorting out things. A few days pass, the repair site changes to "In the Field" and I can't buy parts anymore - it just tells "Impossible" on the roll. What is happening? The only thing that happened - my unit rating dropped by one.
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I dont have it handy, but I am 99% sure unit rating will change availability - and out of contract repair levels. Im certain it is discussed in the excel. In contract, there is a special event that can reduce parts availability too.
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It seems like the obvious thing happened... your unit rating dropped below ABCDF ratings.
Or
The Contract ended on the last day of the month and you were buying stuff arriving after the first.
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Do you have another contract waiting to start?
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No, that's weird again. My rating was 2(38) when on contract, turned to 1(18) after it, I'm not yet on another contract, but planning to get one. There's one in the market. I believe the rating is C right now. The parts available are: engines, infantry weapons and ballistic weapons (MG's, AC2,5 and 10).
I've fast forwarded a few months like 3 or 4 - no changes. The first time that happened - also after a raid contract, the situation resolved itself after I've visited the contract market, without taking a contract. The only solution is to take a non-restricting contract, I've took pirate hunting and the parts immediately were found and started arriving. I just want to know what's wrong with an out-of-contract stuff.
I'll check the excel again, though I can't remember anything like that.
Upd: You were right, I've hired a veteran admin and basic parts became available - it's a rating issue.
Man, 1(18) is D rated! That means the base part availability with my regular admin is 0! Not even armour for me, great. Nice to know it though, I thought it was a bug or something.
Is that true that you shouldn't delete finished contracts to keep your combat record?
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After several battles, the attached AI units are killing my reputation. They die so damn easily and each time that results in a minor contract breach (according to the AtB XLS file).
Is the answer just to set them to completely cowardly hide-in-the-corner in the configure bot? I'm doing ok on the missions except for that.
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After several battles, the attached AI units are killing my reputation. They die so damn easily and each time that results in a minor contract breach (according to the AtB XLS file).
Is the answer just to set them to completely cowardly hide-in-the-corner in the configure bot? I'm doing ok on the missions except for that.
My answer was to turn herding all the way up, and then set a strategic target on one of my mechs so she'll always try and stay near it. That way I can sort of control the bot's movement by moving my unit that she's tied to.
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My answer was to turn herding all the way up, and then set a strategic target on one of my mechs so she'll always try and stay near it. That way I can sort of control the bot's movement by moving my unit that she's tied to.
Ah, I like that, thanks!
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Assign Allied Units to yourself and delete the allied bot.
Works wonders O0
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I've looked through the rules/docs, but I can't seem to find the answer.
There's the personnel market and the hire dialog? Are both legal to use? I mean, the obvious difference is knowing what you're getting in the market where with hire you can get anyone you want, but in terms of "I need a body" are they both allowable ways to recruit someone?
Also, how often do people muck with the forces that are generated? I got a defender in a chase role, but even on Green difficulty it was my 1 light lance versus a medium mech lance and a medium tank lance, plus another medium tank lance in reserve. They didn't need to run while I chased, they just kicked my ass. There just wasn't much I could do against that amount of superior numbers.
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One thing I do when I am supposed to be chasing the bot is I set it so my force comes in on turn 2. This way the enemy has started to retreat and never really turns and engages my force. Also it makes more sense for the enemy to be running ahead of me as if I am chasing them rather than have everyone in a clump as if we were in a fight and just now they decided to retreat.
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One thing I do when I am supposed to be chasing the bot is I set it so my force comes in on turn 2.
Thanks, that really helped! It made the scenario play out with a much better theme and balance.
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How do you know if you're in a hiring hall or where the hiring halls are? I found a list of the main ones in the atb config xml file, but aren't there lots of smaller ones?
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How do you know if you're in a hiring hall or where the hiring halls are? I found a list of the main ones in the atb config xml file, but aren't there lots of smaller ones?
I asked about something like this about a month or two ago and was told someone was working on a list somewhere.
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After several battles, the attached AI units are killing my reputation. They die so damn easily and each time that results in a minor contract breach (according to the AtB XLS file).
Is the answer just to set them to completely cowardly hide-in-the-corner in the configure bot? I'm doing ok on the missions except for that.
That's meant to be a drawback of certain contracts. It's based on the command rights clause. You'll want independent (no allies) or liason (you control the 1 ally you get) contracts. Cadre duty contracts are also good (they give you three controlled allies no matter what command right clause it uses).
Integrated and House clauses give you 1 or 2 AI controlled allies (I forget which does which), and yes, they will act idiotic. You can adjust the AI to improve things, but you can't give Princessbot an actual brain.
What I try to do is get my Command admin a few negotiation levels so I can reroll that clause in contracts.
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That's meant to be a drawback of certain contracts. It's based on the command rights clause.
It's only a drawback due to the AI. Just make the bot a coward or change ownership to you and remove the team AI completly. House officers are (by the rules) there to watch over you, or at the very least put you in situations to get killed, not go gung ho and bum rush the enemy. In a TT contract an idiot commander wouldn't hurt you the way it does in AtB. If the bot were smarter it wouldn't be an issue.
Actually, for anything other than independent or liason you should let the bot take over for you. More often than not it would be the same result as Integrated and House command has some no name officer taking control.
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It's only a drawback due to the AI. Just make the bot a coward or change ownership to you and remove the team AI completly. House officers are (by the rules) there to watch over you, or at the very least put you in situations to get killed, not go gung ho and bum rush the enemy. In a TT contract an idiot commander wouldn't hurt you the way it does in AtB. If the bot were smarter it wouldn't be an issue.
It's always meant to be some kind of drawback, forcing the player to tackle the mission differently then they would if they were in full control.
The AI is a approximation given that it's the 'Against the Bot' rules and the fair-ish/more interesting GM the TT rules assume for mercenary play doesn't exist. On the one hand, AI allies are dumb. On the other hand, they don't order you to be dumb yourself, and they're facing off against an enemy just as dumb. And the worst thing they do is make you fail a contract through the score, meaning you get less rating boost. You still get paid, get your XP and your salvage.
Actually, for anything other than independent or liason you should let the bot take over for you. More often than not it would be the same result as Integrated and House command has some no name officer taking control.
But where is the fun in that? The point is still to play battletech, isn't it?
If you don't like the implementation of the command rights into AtB, I can totally understand that. But given the tools at hand, I believe it is a reasonable approximation of the idea behind the TT rules. The only other way I see that would still be some fun is adding more detailed text instructions in the briefings.
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Repairs confuse me. I keep trying to repair a left leg, but it fails and then the part greys out. I think that means it's destroyed? I've ended up GM fixing it. After going through 3 left legs and failing each, I ran out and got frustrated.
I'm guessing this is part of the TW or other rulesets? I can't find it in campaign ops and I'm waiting for the other rule books to arrive...
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I believe it's in Strategic Ops.
One thing to do is to make sure your units are in the type of repair facility afforded your units through campaign; e.g. field, field repair site, dropship bay, repair facility, or factory. Do this by selecting units in the hanger and then right clicking to bring up menu. then choose site location. The lower the list, the worse modifiers given to repairs and maintenance.
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And the repair shop type available to you is based on unit rating and, I think, contract type.
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And the repair shop type available to you is based on unit rating and, I think, contract type.
If not then they should be.
I have found that I have to go and make sure units are in the type of facility they should be in after each engagement they are involved in. Unless, of course, they are supposed to be "in the field".
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Yea, I'm on a recon raid, so it's "In the Field" and even my veteran mech tech has trouble at that point with quality A or B parts and ends up breaking them in maintenance.
Maintenance is really screwed, a part tends to get stuck at either end of the quality curve due to bonuses. It's not so terrible when a Heat Sink goes bad since you can replace it, but when your CT goes bad your mech is toast.
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And really, that's how it's supposed to work; at some point, you may simply find it cheaper and easier to sell/scrap that mech for its components and find that pilot a new ride. Things ARE supposed to wear out after such heavy, violent use.
This is wht I always tell people to try to keep units in reserve right from the start of their unit. You can start with 3-mech lances and have 2-3 Mechs in the wings to replace hipped units, for example.
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Mindless post deleted.
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Yea, I understand the principle, it's just frustrating. The mech has mostly top quality parts, just a couple that weren't by luck of the dice. And it's mostly not participating in combat. It's just getting killed by the maintenance phase while "in the field"....that additional +2 on the target roll is a killer.
During my first contract, I didn't have an issue. I had an elite tech and it was a cadre duty, so I wasn't in the field. The elite tech left and now it's a raid mission.
Having your mechs rot to an unrecoverable failure while unused just seems like the wrong mechanic to represent maintenance. It's how the rules work, I just don't find them very much fun in practice. I can think of doing maintenance in ways that'd prompt more interesting decisions/tradeoffs, but that's a core rule thing not an AtB thing. I suppose I'll just turn off maintenance :(.
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You could also fiddle with the maintenance general modifier to make the rolls more reasonable.
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I set the general maintenance modifiers to +2 instead of the recommended +1.
Also, If you have, in your unit, mobile repair platforms, that should be one better than in the field. Field repair site I think is the next one up. That's how I play it anyway. Or, if you have your own Dropships and can carry your entire force, then, as I play it, you should set your location to dropship bays.
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Also, I believe you can now "Refurbish" units which is intended to increase quality. Obviously I wouldn't do that out in the field but it's an option, which I believe you can reach in the menu when you right-click.
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in most situations, I consider it a contract clause to have at least one or two repair slots available to the unit. That means "sending" the unit to a proper repair facility or manufacturing site, and taking it out of the OOB during the transit times and duration of its stay. Since MekHQ doesn't track that, I have to keep notes.
For example: a Merc unit may get access to 1 slot in a proper maintenance facility, and 1 slot in the hirer's Union DS, which has repair facilities including a proper hoist/lift. I can send one (and ONLY one) unit at a time to the DS (taking one day to transfer, plus the time spent there, and then one day to return), and send another to the maintenance facility (a week each way, plus the time there). If I have my own Union DS, then I've got 4 repair bays available, provided I'm willing to risk the DS on the ground, in case of a base attack. If the hirer doesn't have a Union-class DS or maintenance facility, and I don't own a DS, then I may have to negotiate for an open transport bay or two, which is still better than nothing.
If a unit is assigned to the OOB and is given a task (Defense, Scouting, etc.) for the week, then it is "in the field", and suffers the modifiers for that, otherwise it is in a field repair facility, the next step up from "in the field". Any time I have a free transport bay open, I transfer critical units there for better maintenance. That's "barely adequate", even with a +2 on maintenance checks, because my units rarely have an Elite tech on the roster. Normally, I hire all new personnel as Green, and have to train them up to higher skill levels, so when I end up with a Veteran or Elite tech, it means things are going unusually well, rather than normal.
Most importantly, I uncheck "Maintenance rolls affected by Quality" or whatever it's called, because once a part leaves the D-F range, it's not coming back. If it's a CT, then the 'Mech is a write-off. I've had an entire company of 'Mechs turn to scrap in a matter of a couple of months when my only Veteran and one of my two Regular 'Mech techs retired, leaving me with one Regular and a handful of Green techs to hold everything together in the field (or rather completely fail to do so) until I could train them up to a higher skill level.
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{stuff}
This. Pretty much exactly what Kovax said.
I try to do something similar, though when more experienced Mech Techs show up in the weekly personnel hire, I grab them up. But I try to pay attention to how many repair bays I have in my DSs, or what kind of contract I have. I don't fiddle with the modifiers and such - what breaks because I've got a moron for a wrench monkey, breaks.
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Okay, maybe a silly question, but what's the difference between Regular-F and Regular-A opponents? I'm trying to choose between 3 contracts, enemies are regular, but the letter varies. Are the A ones supposed to have better equipment/mechs?
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Okay, maybe a silly question, but what's the difference between Regular-F and Regular-A opponents? I'm trying to choose between 3 contracts, enemies are regular, but the letter varies. Are the A ones supposed to have better equipment/mechs?
The word indicates the rough average skill level of the opponent: green, regular, veteran, elite. Note that individual pilots in a green opponent's force might still reach veteran skill levels, but the less their average level, the less likely that is.
The letter indicates the equipment quality level. I think A is best and F is worst, but I'm not sure. For big IS houses I've noted that in later years the better levels even include some clan units.
Ideally (from an in character point of view) you want green opponents with moderate to good gear (for better salvage). Bad pilots in old units are an easier pushover, but the money usually comes from salvage.
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Yeah, A opponents have better tech/mechs and F have worse. While F parts are the best and A parts are the worse because.......battletech.
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Thankfully, there is an option in the repair and maintenance tab of the campaign rules to flip the parts quality ratings around to match the rest of the universe.
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Does the tech level (A-F) have any actual game impact beyond repair difficulty?
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Tech level is Intro-Unofficial. If you mean the quality level of parts like F-A as far as I know the only effect the quality level has on anything is how many c-bills you receive from selling them.
#EDIT: My bad (never pays attention to the maint rolls that HQ does in the background) Unit Quality Rating: The overall quality of the unit likewise affects ease of maintenance. An AS7-D Atlas fresh off the production lines of Hesperus II presents a Technical Team with far less of a challenge than a centuries-old CLNT-2-3T Clint reduced to little more than a shambling pile of jury-rigged components salvaged from the battlefields of the Succession Wars.
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Yea, that's what I meant, that the only thing it really impacts is maintenance rolls. Whether your mech is shiny new F or ancient A, apparently it works the same on the field.
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I refit a ShadowHawk to the 2Hb variant. I'm playing 3025, but it was an option in the refit drop down and Sarna.net indicates it's a very old Star League model, so I figured it must be legal.
However, when I went to deploy my mechs in the next battle it said it wasn't a legal mech. What defines a legal mech, what's it looking to validate?
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I refit a ShadowHawk to the 2Hb variant. I'm playing 3025, but it was an option in the refit drop down and Sarna.net indicates it's a very old Star League model, so I figured it must be legal.
However, when I went to deploy my mechs in the next battle it said it wasn't a legal mech. What defines a legal mech, what's it looking to validate?
MegaMek validates the tech level set for the mech...ie Level 2, versus what the equipment it carries would be at that date. Currently the logic is flawed both coming out of the refit system and then how MM validates the unit. At this point make sure you have the option allow illegal units on and they will work.
Once IO is coded into MM, and tech progression is calculated AND refits are recoded in MHQ these issues should then go away. But that is a quite a project and 99.9% chance it will not make the next stable.
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Are the Star League Royal refits a bad idea, because they often use lost tech that you can't replace if it gets damaged?
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They can be a very bad idea when you suffer that hip critical on an Endo-Steel assault... #P
However, keep an eye out for the 'bonus part' reward missions. Its the only way to replace some Star League items.
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In Campaign Ops, your Admin gets to adjust rolls for contract elements (command, transport, etc). How does that work in ATB? Is it automatically done behind the scenes in the contracts I see or do I need to roll it manually and edit the contract?
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In AtB you will have to have your admins invest in the Negotiation skill to unlock the rerolls. Each advance in the skill gives you one reroll (which will appear as a button with the number remaining next to the relevant clause in the contract).
I believe Logistics can reroll the OHC/BLC clause, Command can reroll the command right clause and Transport admins the transportation cost. I don't think HR admins get to reroll anything, and there is no way to reroll the Salvage clause.
(Please correct me if any of the above is wrong, I'm going off memory here.)
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In Campaign Ops, your Admin gets to adjust rolls for contract elements (command, transport, etc). How does that work in ATB? Is it automatically done behind the scenes in the contracts I see or do I need to roll it manually and edit the contract?
MekHQ handles the adjustments for admin skill, using the most skilled admin in the designated role. The HR admin affects the skills of available hires in the personnel market.
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MekHQ handles the adjustments for admin skill, using the most skilled admin in the designated role. The HR admin affects the skills of available hires in the personnel market.
This is nice to know.
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I've recruited 4 tanks to supplement my Mech lance. How do I make them co-deploy?
Edit: Never mind, I answered my own question with some trial and error.
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Ok, I'm wrong, I didn't figure out how to co-deploy my tanks and mechs. I had a mission for the Mech force, which had the tank sub-force and that worked. The next week though my tank force was the one that got the mission and the mechs weren't part of the deploy.
So...I want the tanks to always deploy with the mechs, never on their own. Is that possible?
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You can set the tanks role to none if they are in a force of their own so, that they do not get assigned scenarios. Then just manually go into the TO&E, right click, and deploy them with your mechs (I dont remember if that then makes them deploy as reinforcements on x turns or not) check the tanks deployment tab and see before you start a scenario.
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If you have the tanks as a sub-lance inside the 'mech lance that will deploy the tanks any time the 'mechs do. You can then go to the briefing room and the lance the tanks are in assign their mission type to none and they will then not get chosen for a mission, except as a part of the 'mech lance.
Alternatively, you can go to atb options and turn off "merc company size limits", "limit lance deployment by weight", and "limit lance deployment by size". Then put your tanks in the same lance as the 'mechs are in.
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Ah, no mission for the tanks! That makes sense. I had them assigned to the same mission type as the mech's thinking that seemed appropriate if they were to deploy together.
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Stupid question, but is there ever a reason not to take as much salvage as possible, if for no reason other than to sell it?
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only if you think you might get some very badly wanted units later on. I think the salvage that is over your limit is deducted from your pay.
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only if you think you might get some very badly wanted units later on. I think the salvage that is over your limit is deducted from your pay.
No, it isn't but it should be and vice versa.
I usually stay a percent or two below the limits. That way if I get some spectacular fight where I head cap an Atlas and a Stalker I can pick them up no worries :) Which I just did [drool]
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Not only do I think that there should be, I think there should be some kind of penalties as well. Something like salvage pay out for the amount over would be double what you would have gotten or double what the market value is.
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Not only do I think that there should be, I think there should be some kind of penalties as well. Something like salvage pay out for the amount over would be double what you would have gotten or double what the market value is.
Why would there be a penalty? It is a simple balancing of accounts.
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Why would there be a penalty? It is a simple balancing of accounts.
For those who like to take advantage.
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Got a few questions.
1) What is the canon way of awarding admin experience? The rules state that it's +2 XP at the beginning of the contract and +1 at the end for the 4 most skilled ones and some extra for Command, Transport and Logistics if the contract clauses allow. Is this experience automatically tracked?
And it still seems too low as a single contract usually lasts for more than half a year. Right now I award 1 XP point per month, but then their advancement is too fast, should trim that a little in future campaigns.
2) Any tips for fighting the Clans? I started in 3045 as to relive my MW2: Mercs experience from a slightly different angle. It's 3053 now, I've got Veteran/Elite company and enough IS mechs to field a lance of any weight, but it's IS1 mainly and no Clan equipment yet. A little bit scared cause I've made a huge mistake in the last campaign, trying to fight Veteran Clan force with my IS lance, they've just vaporised me. Right now, as a kind of gamble, I took a contract against green Clanners. Unfortunately, I have no experience whatsoever in fighting the Clans at all.
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3 to 4:1 odds. Use smoke or terrain to try and isolate one clan mech at a time so his buddies cant help him, Clans are big mean aggressive herd animals and your a pack of wolves, fight dirty (Arty, Aero, anything).
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I manually roll up clan opponents in mm. Start the mission, and when the bots have been assigned in mm, even up the number of mechs on the clan team, deletions decided by real life dice rolls. I usually go for equal numbers of mechs because their enhanced tech still makes it v difficult.
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If you've got good officers with tactics skills, you can use their rerolls to maybe get some tough light conditions or denser terrain. If everyone has to brawl at short range, clan mechs loose a significant amount of their advantage.
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Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try to outplay them in less than ideal lighting conditions/fog. That didn't come into my mind before. Smoke and broken terrain seem helpful too. Just a matter of practice.
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Fog is actually not ideal to fight clans with succession war tech in. By the rules it's penalties on ranged attacks are more than counterbalanced by the fact that everyone moves at 1/2 or 1/3 pace, unless jumping. It means you're going to be taking extra time to close the range advantage gap and get hurt more on the way.
If do you have all jumpers, or good enough pilots to use Reckless moving, it might be worth it, especially if the bot doesn't have many jumping forces. But otherwise fog is more likely to hurt you than the enemy (in particular since it actually improves the Princess AI performance somewhat: fewer options in moving means it does fewer dumb things).
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I always find it funny how jumping is easier than running in BT
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In the case of fog it sort of makes sense. Not being able to see where you're going (even with headlights on) is supposed to mean you're stumbling more slowly to not trip over hidden rocks. But jumping doesn't have a speed setting; your rockets propel you at the speed they're designed to propel you at and you have to hope to find a good landing spot at the end.
(It is a bit strange that jumping in fog doesn't produce a piloting test as far as I can tell.)
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By the way, does the lance weight class matter? I'm planning to send the max weighted assault one, but I've read here that medium or heavy could be more viable.
As for the fog - I plan reckless moving. Well, hopefully my tanking assaults won't stumble too much. I just need to get close enough, maybe even in melee range. Not much space for jumpers in my lance unfortunately, they tend to be too lightly armoured. I could include a Guillotine, though.
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Lance weight does matter. According to the weight class you fall into, the bot rolls on a different table for determining force size. The heavier your force , the heavier the enemy force and the more numerous on average as well.
The cut-offs are 130 max for light, 200 for medium, 280 for heavy and above that assault. You are best off getting as close to these points as you can without going over, with medium (200t) probably being the sweet spot between firepower for you and squishyness of the enemy.
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Gotta think it over then. I know that lance weight affects opposition, I just wonder what's best - 200t medium or 390t assault for example (numbers close to the max, but different classes). I've used medium weight IS vs IS at the start, then switched progressively to heavy and assault. I think Clans may be another matter, but I do want those iconic heavies like the Vulture and the Mad Cat. Need playtesting anyway. Still standing at the threshold, didn't have the spare time to play further yet.
UPD: Okay, fighting with the assaults was a very bad idea. That was just a freakish massacre. Had to manually admit defeat and the Clans morale went to invincible.
Okay, got a base defence, staged out a medium lance - Guillotine, Jenner, Wolverine and Assassin plus an employer liaison mech (Phoenix Hawk). Elite pilots, best in the company. That went almost smoothly, but I've got lucky. 2 stars of enemy mechs, some got blocked out by buildings in the heavy urban terrain, so I've beaten a star, while hiding behind the backs of my allies and the liaison mech. No salvage though, I have a 20% rights, not much. But I've faced Omnimechs and I'm really fascinated with that firepower. If I manage to hold up 1 or 2 such base defences and salvage that *medium* Omnimachine.. Ryoken D - untouched, the price is 27 kk C-bills? Seriously? Succession wars assaults cost much-much less. Just a pair of such mechs for me and I'm even ready for an early contract defeat.
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The steep price of a Clan 'Mech is generally due to the XL engine, at something like 4x the cost of a normal fusion plant, combined with a price modifier for Clan equipment. In essence, if you can take it down and salvage it, you're rich, otherwise you're probably dead.
Since the AtB force generation system seems to hate Lights and Assaults (I often end up slightly outnumbered by substantially heavier units than my lights, or else heavily outnumbered by heavies and assaults if running an Assault lance), I generally try to field a force that's just shy of either 200T or 280T. You're still at the mercy of the RNG, because you could end up against nothing worse than a lance of vehicles in your own weight class or a weight class lower, or else get slammed by a lance of 'Mechs one weight class higher, with a supporting lance of 'Mechs and vehicles to make sure you're dead enough. At least the odds of running into "normal" opposition seem a bit better if you're fielding a medium or heavy unit.
Note that for the player, a lance of Medium 'Mechs with two 55 tonners, a 50 tonner, and a 45 tonner would be considered "Heavy" (despite not containing a single "Heavy") because it exceeds 200 tons, yet a "Medium" lance of the opposition force (OpFor) could theoretically consist of a 55 tonner and three 75 tonners. Worse, there's a small chance of a Medium unit facing a "Heavy" OpFor, which could consist of a Heavy and three Assaults in an absolute "worst case" situation. Then there's the chance of enemy reinforcements to worry about.
Personally, I'd like to see a rewrite of the rules using BV, where the RNG decides on some enemy ratio either somewhat higher, roughly even, or somewhat lower than what the player is fielding. The BV ratio would be adjusted according to the mission type, so tougher victory conditions would compensate by reducing the force you'd face, and easier tasks to accomplish would mean more enemies in the way. It would then add enemy units until it exceeded the allowed BV, and no more. That would allow for odd matchups like a single AI Assault 'Mech facing a lance of light player units, or a lance of heavy player units facing anything from mass waves of light opposition to just a few Heavies or Assaults. Odds could be favorable or unfavorable within reason, but you wouldn't be sent up against 3x your own BV and expected to destroy over 50% of them within 10 turns.
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Keep in mind that PrincessBot is dumb and doesn't know or care about the mission objectives. It will always just try to kill enemies best it can.
In BV even matches, most players would walk all over PrincessBot.
The random force tables for the bot are also meant to least tokenly represent that in-universe no one builds their forces by BV. Sometimes you stomp nothing but medium vehicle forces for months, sometimes you run into the enemy's command mech company.
Both BV and more randomly generated forces have their pros and cons, but I personally enjoy AtB more as a semi-simulation of merc life rather than a balanced scenario dispenser. (In truth of course, both parts are necessary for it to work so well, point is different players like it for different things.)
Oh, and a note: you can change the AtB mode's overall difficulty in the campaign options tab. What that does is affect the odds of enemy forces significantly outnumbering you and by how much.
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Okay, I'm developing the tactics against the Clans. Sticking with the 200t medium right now, the morale is invincible and I'm facing base defence missions, facing mech-only trinaries or even worse.
I've beaten two attacks fair and square, in heavy urban environment and in night time. The conditions helped. The next was 30k BV against 10k of mine. That seemed unfair and I cheated - swapped the lance for an assault one at the day of the battle. The fourth one was in light urban and daytime. Barely made it and probably lost by the victory conditions, didn't count if half of the ally's units were lost, but at least learnt a few practical lessons about Clan combat.
Essentially, stood behind the buildings and waited for the jumpers to come into the block, surrounded by buildings and chock full of my + allied units. Fire concentration is the key. I'll still admit contract defeat probably, sooner or later, but those IS2/Clan salvaged mediums would be of great use later, they have just way more firepower.
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Is your AtB difficulty on ultra green or green?
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Is your AtB difficulty on ultra green or green?
Playing on Green now, Ultra-Green seems to put a bare minimum of enemies against me, it's just not fair.
Fended off two more base attacks, fairly and without cheap tricks. Both heavy urban and nighttime, and "only" a binary of clan mechs each. Barely, with heavy damage to my mediums, but without casualties and with at least some of the salvage. Thanks Kerensky, some are inevitably walled off by buildings, some are just too far to get into the fray. It was 20k BV against my 10k each time, but it's doable at night, definitely doable.
Offtop: Happy New Year to everyone! It should already come to US, right? :)
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Is there a way to attach my elementals to my mechs?
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Is there a way to attach my elementals to my mechs?
If you're talking about in HQ; you just stick them in the Lance/Star. I use a sub-unit, but I'm a TOE freak.
If you're talking about in MM; Right Click the elemental, click Mount, then choose your mech. Remember, unless you checked the option, only Omnis can carry Battle Armor. About the stupidest rule in BTech. Nothing a Green tech armed with welder, some steel bars, and a bender for the tube.
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Does anyone know what the AtB tables are for Ultra-Light Units and Super Heavy Units are? And what the modifiers for Player Skill level?
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Noticed a few things:
1) You can't modify AtB Contract dates and other info.
2) Using AtB when generating your own contract you can't remove all pay (playing pirate).
3) The new RAT generator doesn't have Comstar Battle Armor
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If you're talking about in HQ; you just stick them in the Lance/Star. I use a sub-unit, but I'm a TOE freak.
If you're talking about in MM; Right Click the elemental, click Mount, then choose your mech. Remember, unless you checked the option, only Omnis can carry Battle Armor. About the stupidest rule in BTech. Nothing a Green tech armed with welder, some steel bars, and a bender for the tube.
Brilliant, thanks!
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is there a way to change your unit organisation to Level II while still playing as mercenary?
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is there a way to change your unit organisation to Level II while still playing as mercenary?
Call it a Level II and use the symbology. AtB recognizes 6 units in a formation.
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Noticed a few things:
1) You can't modify AtB Contract dates and other info.
2) Using AtB when generating your own contract you can't remove all pay (playing pirate).
3) The new RAT generator doesn't have Comstar Battle Armor
1. MHQ doesn't let you modify contract terms regardless of whether or not you're using AtB. AtB will delay the start of the contract until you're onsite, though.
2. AtB is designed for mercenary units. While there are pirate rules, these are not currently implemented. It works reasonably well for government militaries, but poorly for pirates or ComStar or spec-ops campaigns.
3. Yes it does. What settings are you using?
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Call it a Level II and use the symbology. AtB recognizes 6 units in a formation.
That what i've been doing and it works well enough i suppose. I noticed though when i changed to word of blake for a moment, the lance weight calculations changed. The current limit for heavy lance is 280 tons which when divided by 6 rather than 4 doesn't leave much spare hence all my lances show up as assaults. The documentation seems to indicate it used to be possible to change Unit organisation in the ATB settings tab.
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1. MHQ doesn't let you modify contract terms regardless of whether or not you're using AtB. AtB will delay the start of the contract until you're onsite, though.
Damn, would be nice to have as a GM tool. <Subtle Hint> ;)
2. AtB is designed for mercenary units. While there are pirate rules, these are not currently implemented. It works reasonably well for government militaries, but poorly for pirates or ComStar or spec-ops campaigns.
Yeah, I'm still trying though.
3. Yes it does. What settings are you using?
The GM tools RAT roller. Have Experiment Units, etc.
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Erm, are we sure about this? Doesn't seem to work for me?
Brilliant, thanks!
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How is it not working?
My way of putting them in a sub-formation occasionally has them deploy as reinforcements and never pre-loaded. Pre-loaded would put you well over the unit limit (unless AtB ignores BA units for battle generation). Either way is an easy fix:
Deployment and Loading are both easy fixes in MM.
Deployment by right clicking and then selecting Configure. Look for the Deployment tab once you do.
Loading is right -clicking and then selecting Mount.
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The GM tools RAT roller. Have Experiment Units, etc.
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It's not working for me. Savegame link (file is too large): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-lrFhBOeHPeUWIwZ1BZdGJ0Rmc?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-lrFhBOeHPeUWIwZ1BZdGJ0Rmc?usp=sharing)
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You're not using the RAT Generator. Your campaign options are set to traditional RATs, and the selected RATs either don't have a table for ComStar BattleArmor or are dated later than your campaign.
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Cool, thanks bud.
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I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have put my infantry into the TO&E.
My Mechanized Infantry Star (BV:405):
Star Commander Tuluhan (4/6), Clan Jump Point (SRM)
Point Commander Victor (4/8), Clan Mechanized Hover Point (MG)
Point Commander Maziba (4/8), Clan Mechanized Hover Point (Laser)
Point Commander Kunjalata (4/8), Clan Mechanized Hover Point (Rifle)
Point Commander Mo-ruo (4/8), Clan Mechanized Infantry Mimir/Watch Counter Insurgency Point
My Comstar Regular/F enemy that was rolled by AtB (BV: 6547):
Kayli Penrose (3/6), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
Laura Gogos (5/7), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
William Lasi (3/4), Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (Standard)
Vicenta Tuilagi (4/4), Condor Heavy Hover Tank (Standard)
Nuruddin Lamaalem (6/7), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
Claral Auger (4/4), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
Ileanna García (4/5), Scorpion Light Tank (Standard)
Sheng Xing (5/6), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
The Reinforcements:
Sheng Xing (5/6), Vedette Medium Tank (Standard)
Sri-Harmeni Subagja (4/7), Harasser Missile Platform (Standard)
Ryan Graham (4/6), Harasser Missile Platform (LRM)
Kathy Martínez (6/6), Scorpion Light Tank (Standard)
Clarisse Motte (4/4), Scimitar Medium Hover Tank (Standard)
Chew-Yee Huang (4/6), Vedette Medium Tank (AC2)
So, not only am I outnumbered almost 3 to one; they have 16 TIMES my BV.
Oh, I forgot to mention that my HOVER Mech Infantry is doing this on a Heavy Wooded map.
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How is it not working?
My way of putting them in a sub-formation occasionally has them deploy as reinforcements and never pre-loaded. Pre-loaded would put you well over the unit limit (unless AtB ignores BA units for battle generation). Either way is an easy fix:
Deployment and Loading are both easy fixes in MM.
Deployment by right clicking and then selecting Configure. Look for the Deployment tab once you do.
Loading is right -clicking and then selecting Mount.
Sorry, I can get them into a battle, but I can't load them onto a battlemech, on the movement or deploy turn of the BA, I right click but there's no mount option?
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Sorry, I can get them into a battle, but I can't load them onto a battlemech, on the movement or deploy turn of the BA, I right click but there's no mount option?
You have Omni-Mechs or Mag-Clamp BA? If not, you can't mount them. Unless you turn on the optional rule to allow any mech to carry BA.
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I believe that during deployment, it is the mech that can mount compatible BA to carry them, not the other way around (ie look for the mount button while the mech is selected, not the BA).
As for mounting during movement, I forget the details, but double check again that you're looking for the button with the correct unit and that you've met the movement requirements (eg I think the BA cannot move that turn and the mounting must be either the first or last thing of the mounting unit's turn (but I can't remember which)). Basically, mounting a unit during the game is quite fiddly until you memorise the procedure.
And finally, as said not all BA can mount all mechs. Only BA with mag-clamps can mount non-omni mechs. Assault class BA cannot mount any mechs. Quad BA cannot mount any mech. Most (but not all) lighter bipedal suits can mount omni mechs (it depends on their claw/hand configurations).
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WOW, just wow. I'm sitting here playing AtB. So, I roll up a Chase Mission. Thankfully I have Heavy Fog in my favor as My single Medium Star has a whole Comstar Level III (36 mechs and vees Light to Medium) against it. I crank on the RECKLESS and beat feet. 2nd turn, my Shadow Hawk IIC fails his roll and falls. Is still surrounded, I'm thinking this is it. This is what fires (with about half hitting):
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hermes II HER-2S (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Javelin JVN-10N (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (MG) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Locust LCT-1V (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Pegasus Scout Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scimitar Medium Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scorpion Light Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3G (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3R (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Striker Light Tank (LRM) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #4 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #5 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #6 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #7 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T #2 (Comstar)
Serious damage, the pilot blacks out from three head hits, it's over right? At this point they are already on top of him. NOPE the bot goes after the rest of my mechs at long/extreme range. The pilot WAKES UP the next turn, and is able to escape!
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WOW, just wow. I'm sitting here playing AtB. So, I roll up a Chase Mission. Thankfully I have Heavy Fog in my favor as My single Medium Star has a whole Comstar Level III (36 mechs and vees Light to Medium) against it. I crank on the RECKLESS and beat feet. 2nd turn, my Shadow Hawk IIC fails his roll and falls. Is still surrounded, I'm thinking this is it. This is what fires (with about half hitting):
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Harasser Missile Platform (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Hermes II HER-2S (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Javelin JVN-10N (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (MG) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for J. Edgar Light Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Locust LCT-1V (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Pegasus Scout Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scimitar Medium Hover Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Scorpion Light Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Shadow Hawk SHD-2H (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3G (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Stinger STG-3R (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Striker Light Tank (LRM) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #4 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #5 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #6 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Wasp WSP-1A #7 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #2 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vedette Medium Tank (Standard) #3 (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T (Comstar)
Weapons fire for Vulcan VL-2T #2 (Comstar)
Serious damage, the pilot blacks out from three head hits, it's over right? At this point they are already on top of him. NOPE the bot goes after the rest of my mechs at long/extreme range. The pilot WAKES UP the next turn, and is able to escape!
I think princess was being nice. You might be careful, she may have a crush on you. :D
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Princess sometimes considers KOed pilots past a certain trauma point to be unlikely to wake up, especially if the mech in question is crippled (as it is programmed to expect an ejection attempt, I think). At that point it will decide it can always finish the KOed unit later and goes for the next highest priority target.
Shutdown units from heat or low # pilot hits who are likely to reactivate soon and will then pose a serious threat, Princess will crush with no Mercy.
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I think princess was being nice. You might be careful, she may have a crush on you. :D
I think she's more along the lines of my 2nd ex-wife. Sweetness and roses until the blades come out.
Princess sometimes considers KOed pilots past a certain trauma point to be unlikely to wake up, especially if the mech in question is crippled (as it is programmed to expect an ejection attempt, I think). At that point it will decide it can always finish the KOed unit later and goes for the next highest priority target.
Shutdown units from heat or low # pilot hits who are likely to reactivate soon and will then pose a serious threat, Princess will crush with no Mercy.
Now that makes some sense. Princess must have been updated since the last time I played with her (yes it's been awhile). The last time I remember her alpha striking with multiple units at an ejected mechwarrior.
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I believe Princess still does that. Each bot unit fires on its own, not caring what allies are already firing at what and thus easily overcommitting to killing weak targets. Ejected pilots have amongst the best odds of being destroyed by any given shot, and are considered full strength units (as they have not taken any damage or debilitating effect compared to a 1 man infantry platoon, which is what they really are in program terms). On top of that, their TMM mods will be bad. Princess therefore sees: "If I shoot that, I can easily take out a full strength enemy unit. SCORE!"
Even if BV value factors into that, the other factors seem to more than weigh against that.
(Which is why I play AtB with 'Ejected pilots autoflee' turned on.)
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I'm trying out AtB for the first time, and its pretty impressively complex.
I've managed to muddle through:
Generating an initial force
Acquiring and assigning pilots
Building a TO&E
Acquiring a contract/mission
One thing I'm having trouble figuring out/finding an answer to: How do you actually get your force from the starting planet to the contract planet? I see how to plot a jumpship route there, but every time I try to "Begin Transit" I end up leaving all my mechs behind. Even though I have verified they're assigned to the "transport bay".
I even tried just giving my force enough dropships in case AtB doesn't use abstracted dropships (like it apparently does for jumpships...), but I still just leave my dropships behind when I begin transit. I feel like I'm missing something easy/basic, but I can't figure out what it could be.
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The unit locations don't get reassigned until you reach the target planet.
You can't leave units behind; its not an available function (even though larger unit players would like to do multiple planet contracts at once).
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What Southernskies said. Just keep going forward in time until you arrive on planet then check the briefing room to make sure you have the required assigned forces assigned to the correct mission types.
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Thanks guys. I was overly hung up on the report tab that showed "no mechs in transit" during the voyage.
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'In transit' in the hangar means 'being delivered to you' and refers to units that you purchased but haven't made their way to you from the previous owner/factory yet.
'Transport bay' as a location isn't a precise location, but describes the maintenance gear quality available to that unit. It ranges from 'In the field', which means you're lucky if you have enough tarp to cover the mech+workspace if it rains, to 'factory', which means you've literally got spare parts on tap.
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Is this considered considered to be a continuation of this thread "Campaign Rules: Against the Bot Thread #4"
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=2ks9meu2t70bv04f5rr6v3vtt7&topic=45803.0 ?
For some reason it doesn't have a post for quite some time.
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resurrecting an ancient post O0
After a long time I downloaded the last stable version of MekHQ and this interesting thing happened - I got to play exactly one battle in AtB campaign, and after that, no opponents load, ever, in any of the battles. I went through all of this thread (and some others) and no answers were detected to this specific problem. Does anyone have an idea wtf, and how can I fix it? (I used MekHQ few years back so I am not a total novice)....
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I've occasionally had enemy units load, but fail to deploy on the map. Normally that happens if you play out a battle, do your repairs, and then have another battle without reloading MekHQ between fights. I save, reload, and the problem goes away. Not sure if that's the issue you're seeing, or not.
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I have a question about the AtB campaign, and I haven't been able to find the answer here.
Sometimes I come across a mission that won't let me start. At all. I've tried manually assigning individual mechs - going through every single one I have, yet it still won't let me start.
In order to move on, I've used GM mode to remove the battle, but this seems to result in me never getting another battle from that contract.
I have two questions:
1: How do I tell which unit/mech I'm supposed to assign to the battle?
2: Does removing the battle with GM mode actually cancel all further battles? Is it a bug or feature, or is the RNG deciding I don't get any more battles?
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Allowed mechs are usually in the description, if there are restrictions.
From where did you try to assign the mechs, the TO&E?
It would help if you said what kind of battle that was, because I never had that.
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It was a 'star league cache' mission. The description talked about one mech (chosen at random) has to hold off 3 other mechs, helped by the star league mech powering up.
I tried to deploy the units from the TO&E - opening the groups, right clicking on each unit, and choosing deploy to battle.
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It was a 'star league cache' mission. The description talked about one mech (chosen at random) has to hold off 3 other mechs, helped by the star league mech powering up.
I tried to deploy the units from the TO&E - opening the groups, right clicking on each unit, and choosing deploy to battle.
That's the right way to go about it, but just to be sure, did you double-check that the current date was the date the mission is scheduled to happen?
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The date might have been the problem, I don't recall what it was.
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Hey,
I'm trying to give one of my mechs a TAG in MekHQ, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that. I figured that right-clicking on my mech (in this case a Stinger, if that has anything to do with it) and selecting the option to customize it in the mek lab would allow me to do so, but when I go to the Equipment tab I don't see any TAGs anywhere, even though I bought two (though the equipment tab DOES have a few items that I haven't bought, like flamers and hatchets, for some reason)
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
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Hey,
I'm trying to give one of my mechs a TAG in MekHQ, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that. I figured that right-clicking on my mech (in this case a Stinger, if that has anything to do with it) and selecting the option to customize it in the mek lab would allow me to do so, but when I go to the Equipment tab I don't see any TAGs anywhere, even though I bought two (though the equipment tab DOES have a few items that I haven't bought, like flamers and hatchets, for some reason)
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
What version of MML are you using? What year are you building the Mech? What Tech Level is the mech set for?
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What version of MML are you using? What year are you building the Mech? What Tech Level is the mech set for?
I'm using MekHQ 0.43.5 which comes with MML. The year in my campaign is currently 3046 and the tech level is 'Introductory'
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3046 I am pretty sure you need to be at advanced or even experimental rules to be able to equip TAG
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I'm using MekHQ 0.43.5 which comes with MML. The year in my campaign is currently 3046 and the tech level is 'Introductory'
3046 I am pretty sure you need to be at advanced or even experimental rules to be able to equip TAG
This. TAG isn't Intro rules.
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Yeah, when you mentioned the tech level I figured that had something to do with it. I set the tech to Standard and it's working now. Thanks!
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Another option for running a profitable Merc Company.
(http://i.imgur.com/My4TY2Hl.png) (https://imgur.com/My4TY2H)
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A lot safer as well!
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A lot safer as well!
Where's the fun in that?
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Is anyone having issues with the AtB always sending more than 4 times your forces, regardless of the mission type?
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AtB opposition units will very frequently outnumber your force. Mostly because the assumption is that the player is much better than the bot. Additionally, very often, the opfor uses fairly crappy units (Vedettes, Scorpion tanks, etc) that just aren't as good as the hand-picked units a player will field.
That being said, there are several ways (in-game and settings) to manage the opfor size:
1) Set difficulty level to easiest or second easiest. This will greatly limit the number of enemy units deployed.
2) Uncheck the "double opfor vehicles" checkbox in the AtB tab, this will reduce the number of tanks the opfor fields.
3) Uncheck the 'allow enemy infantry' and 'allow enemy aeros' checkboxes in the AtB tab.
4) Make sure you're running at or close to the lance weight brackets. 130/200/280/380. If your lance weighs 135 tons, you'll be fighting opponents rolled from the opfor table for a 200-ton lance.
5) If you're still getting your clock cleaned, feel free to send extra guys in as reinforcements anyway or manually remove units once you get to Megamek, the bot won't mind.
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Thanks. Ill try some of those later today.
DM
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Is anyone having issues with the AtB always sending more than 4 times your forces, regardless of the mission type?
There's the inevitable "perfect storm" situation where the RNG rolls high and hits you with an OPFOR one bracket above yours (Heavy against your Medium). The OPFOR is not limited by weight (your "Medium" lance can't field four 55 tonners, because it's over the 200 ton limit for a "Medium" lance, but the AI can field three 75 tonners and a 55 and call it "Medium), so its idea of a "Heavy" lance is 2 Assaults and 2 upper-end Heavies, or possibly even 3 Assaults and a Heavy. It also rolls high and adds a second lance in support of the first (possibly two more if it's allowed to double any vehicles), and then it makes its roll for additional "Reinforcements" that can arrive around turn 6, just in case you were bored with the first group. On the other hand, if you have a lance on Scout orders, you're allowed to roll for them to come in as your own reinforcements. If that WAS your scout lance facing those bad odds, then tough luck.
I've seen 1:3 BV odds in a couple of missions (as bad as 1:4 in terms of weight), even without vehicles doubled, but it's rare except in "chase" missions, where either you're expected to run away (that doesn't work well if you've got an Urbanmech in the force, such as your Liason officer), or you're expected to engage in a "turkey shoot" at the fleeing enemy, who are more concerned with escape whatever's behind them than trying to fight you (but they'll still shoot). Depending on what spawns and what you've got available, you can either end up with a heap of salvage after such a mission, or end up as salvage.
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Fight Lances can reinforce on 6 if they are not otherwise busy that week.
Scout Lances on 5 or 6.
One of the things that is repeatedly overlooked is that AtB is designed for Winning at the Contract Level not the Battle Level. There are Battles that can be generated that are deliberately lopsided in both directions. Your job is to win the Contract, keep your unit together and make money. Winning, or hell, even fighting every single battle is not your job.
To quote the great sage Kenny Rogers... "Know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away" :) >:D
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There's a difference between "good roll" and "balance is for chumps." BV 4k to 12k (plus 3.5k in reinforcements)?
Me: Wolverine, Shadowhawk, Whitworth
DC Back-up: urbanmech
Opponent mechs: Firestarter, commando, wasp, firestarter, commando, wasp, spider, Warhammer, firestarter, Shadowhawk
Opposing tanks: pegasus, scorpion, maxim, condor, scorpion, scimitar, scorpion, pegasus, pegasus, galleon, scimitar, scorpion
Opposing reinforcements: hunter, scorpion, pegasus, hunter, scorpion, J edgar, LTV, vedette
There is no winning on the contract level here. That is losing a full lance, on a fairly easy contract (trying to make 1.5 million c-bills over 3 months).
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There's a difference between "good roll" and "balance is for chumps." BV 4k to 12k (plus 3.5k in reinforcements)?
Me: Wolverine, Shadowhawk, Whitworth
DC Back-up: urbanmech
Opponent mechs: Firestarter, commando, wasp, firestarter, commando, wasp, spider, Warhammer, firestarter, Shadowhawk
Opposing tanks: pegasus, scorpion, maxim, condor, scorpion, scimitar, scorpion, pegasus, pegasus, galleon, scimitar, scorpion
Opposing reinforcements: hunter, scorpion, pegasus, hunter, scorpion, J edgar, LTV, vedette
There is no winning on the contract level here. That is losing a full lance, on a fairly easy contract (trying to make 1.5 million c-bills over 3 months).
Thats kinda how I see it too. So I made my own opfor generator spreadsheet and roll my own opfor with no reinforcements. You can delete the scenario it creates and just create your own or once you get in the megamek lobby start deleting the opfor's units to make it fair. Just need to come up with your own system until we get a coder who decides to revamp or do their own non-atb opfor feature.
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Bloodwolf would you be willing to share that spreadsheet? I have com across the same situations iduno has mentioned and I’ve modified it here and there, but it would be interesting to see how someone else modified the system.
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Wait until you fight the Clans and you see your lance against a full Trinary every fight. But it was one reason why I stopped fighting most of the rolled battles and just started deleting the mass of lance fights and just created and fought Company and above battles.
Company sized battles take a bit longer than lance sized, Battalion and above, well they can take a long while. Especially if you give princess fast moving units or really jumpy one.
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You can also just delete the units in the Megamek lounge till the BV is balanced or you feel it's balanced. Personally I find if you have double vehicles, and the vehicle effectiveness rules on you have fights that can be horribly out of balance.
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I added some salvaged vehicles to my recon lance (a Saladin and a Saracen), but when I start a mission, the application says I do not have three crew members assigned to each vehicle. I assigned a driver and two gunners to each one; one of the crew was designated as the vehicle commander by MHQ. What am I missing?
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Also, how much fighting is expected before my company is highly regarded enough to buy medium lasers? They are currently not available.
I don't think that was a problem last time I tried AtB, but it gets significantly worse each time I try it.
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Parts availability is dictated by the type of contract. Guerilla contracts, for example, don't let you buy anything, if memory serves.
This is the one field where autocannons actually have an advantage - they're the most available tech after machine guns and the like.
BairdEC, you might try deleting and using GM Mode to re-add those vehicles onto your roster, then see if that clear up the problem.
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If you're off-contract, you'll need a C rating before you can get any real parts. However, if you happen to have a veteran+ admin/logistics person, that ups your parts availability a little so you can get away with a D rating in that case.
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https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=51864.0
Is where I explain all my crap.
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Does skills automatically increase with experience points or do you have to add manually?
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Manually - you wouldn't want MekHQ automatically spending your hard-earned XP anyway.
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Today's question: How do you UNHIDDEN a unit went it seems the only way you can is when its discovered. The bot doesn't even move towards the location so what can I do besides spot the building across the street every round?
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Question, is it possible to hire Clan personnel and have them not generate with a surname?
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Question, is it possible to hire Clan personnel and have them not generate with a surname?
I think it depends on the manner of how you determine the random names. You would think, when you are editing a toon's name, faction, etc. (usually while on GM mode), when you select the toon as a clanner, that his name changes. It doesn't because you would first have to know what faction the toon will be. Because the game works very basically to formula, it would have be set up to several triggers first. Maybe on a excel sheet, you can do it, just too cumbersome on Megemek… IMHO.
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Question, is it possible to hire Clan personnel and have them not generate with a surname?
It's in the coming soon category. We have code ready to be deployed but still needs review. So within the next couple of dev releases.
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It's in the coming soon category. We have code ready to be deployed but still needs review. So within the next couple of dev releases.
Or prove me pleasantly wrong. ::)
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An example from MegaMek, just need to start your player name with Clan and it will generate a clanner name (this might work as it is, but I'm not certain).
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/259129121119010818/705248141053788232/unknown.png)
For MekHQ, there's an option to generate names based on origin faction that replaces generating based on the campaign's faction (as said option replicated the select from drop down), so any clanners will have clan names and any spheroids will have IS-style names.
As for the functionality on the edit person dialog, that is on purpose @ThePW. It will not longer display the surname for pretty much everything, but it does still save it just in case.
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I'm currently trying my bit at insanity by running a Total Chaos "Campaign" using the Gannon's Cannons as my proxy.
Lesson one: When doing the Running from the Devils (TC Pg. 56-58) when choosing terrain maps, make sure that certain structures can hold the weight of the objects your trying to protect. I choose 3 maps. One & Two of the (German) Countryside and the Coastal (with that 3. piece. bridge.). I don't own the mapset that has the Coastals 1 & 2 so I made a clear critical error when I cam to the fork in the road hugging the edge. I had the Kaimyo 67-K and 2 Pegasis tanks. Peg-HQ-Peg. I didn't look too closely at the bridge but apparently megamek thought that was one too many units on anyone piece of that bridge. I proudly had moved all my units to advance to meet the tanks, HIT DONE and saw three entries for Watery Graves... What. The. [Censored].
Totally my fault, too because I added the Kuritan units as my unit so I could make sure they kept moving north away from the WoB units...
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What contract types are considered garrison-types in regards to which contracts finish early by routing the enemy. Right now I consider garrison (duh), cadre, security, and riot duty missions to be garrison types but are these correct?
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I think those are it. Anything where the "required" lance role is "Defend".
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Honestly I don't understand why there is the options to defend/attack/train/etc, for you are only need to choose one of either types almost all the times. Is it have any meaning other than its name and the contract's 'type'?
Also is there any difference in types of contracts? It seems that all the noticeable difference is choose attack/defend/etc.
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The contracts mostly differ in intensity level (how often fights happen), pay, maintenance level and what happens when the opfor routs.
Unrelated, is it just me or do the RangeMaster SPAs blow chunks for aerospace pilots? The reason I say that is that, let's take an aero jock with the RangeMaster - Medium SPA, so he treats shots in medium range as short range. In ASF combat, medium lasers have no medium range.
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The contracts mostly differ in intensity level (how often fights happen), pay, maintenance level and what happens when the opfor routs.
That makes sense.... Well, what happens when the opfor routs? What do you mean? Such as if I defeat them badly then they will unlikely to go against me for a while?
Anyway, I like to see the difference in choosing either types of activity, and also choose what to do rather than only have a single 'option' without any alternative. For now most contracts are only requires me to have only one type of activity, but in the reality you have to choose either scout, attack, defend or train, else you can split your force to do it all at once(with risk of course). Sure some kind of missions don't require us to do broader jobs at once, but most fight requires more than one at least.
Unrelated, is it just me or do the RangeMaster SPAs blow chunks for aerospace pilots? The reason I say that is that, let's take an aero jock with the RangeMaster - Medium SPA, so he treats shots in medium range as short range. In ASF combat, medium lasers have no medium range.
Ahem. I understand why there is GM option.
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You also get different scenarios. Some seem exclusive to recon (at least the attacker version).
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Honestly I don't understand why there is the options to defend/attack/train/etc, for you are only need to choose one of either types almost all the times. Is it have any meaning other than its name and the contract's 'type'?
Also is there any difference in types of contracts? It seems that all the noticeable difference is choose attack/defend/etc.
The required Lance Type is pertaining to the Contract. What are you doing. Lance specific deployments, consider them like rings around your Base/HQ/Dropship/Depot/Rear Area.
Training - This Lance will literally be right around your base. Probably no more than a few hours at most.
Defense - This Lance will be close, really close to your base.
Attack - Likely to be on extended Patrol or en route to known enemy locations.
Scout - These are the guys out looking for the enemy, thus usually furthest from base.
The type of battle each different Lance gets into depends on the type of Lance.
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And don't reinforce your Scout mission with a Defend unit. It goes really bad... :(
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Does the deployment type actually determine how long it takes them to reinforce other lances?
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No, its based upon the movement speed of the reinforcing units.
In the Lobby, it tells you what turn each unit will arrive at the battle.
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Hi, I started AtB campaign, did everyting according to the instructions. Accepted first mission, went there, and after a while got a Scenario/Game to play. I have attached screenshot below - the game started, it was an extraction mission, MegaMek after loading properly showed my forces (my lance) as well as Capellan/civilian units I was addigned to protect. However, both Capellan forces as well as their reinforcements rosters were empty. I assumed they might join at some later stage/turn, since mission sounded fairly long for a relative extraction - civilian forces were supposed to live to turn 12. Therefore, I assumed that I have a few "free turns" to setup until they arrive.
So, I proceeded to deploy my lance, move it (along with bot moving civilian units), and immediately after Turn 1 game ended (with me victorious) since there was no enemy forces present. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am happy with small/easy victories, but my question is - did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to somehow generate enemy forces roster as well from MegaMek? Since civilians were generated, I assumed that I simply do not see enemy on turn 1, and that they will show up a bit later.
Is this just a lucky break on my part, or did I inadvertly cheat the system?(https://ibb.co/wKPVnhW)
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No, it's just a bug. You could try reloading the campaign save and starting the scenario again if you really want the fight.
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Thanks for the reply. A bit more reading on forums and manuals pointed out that the problem still might be on my side, since I have started campaign on 3022 (before 3025).
I started another mission, and despite the fact that I have manually adjusted the date to be 3025 now, got almost the same results (no OpFor) so I used the details from the Official AtB TT Rules 2.31 excel sheet and generated appropriate lance for Oberron Confederation in the MegaMek client lobby.
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Thanks for the reply. A bit more reading on forums and manuals pointed out that the problem still might be on my side, since I have started campaign on 3022 (before 3025).
I started another mission, and despite the fact that I have manually adjusted the date to be 3025 now, got almost the same results (no OpFor) so I used the details from the Official AtB TT Rules 2.31 excel sheet and generated appropriate lance for Oberron Confederation in the MegaMek client lobby.
Looking at the force generator .xmls there isn't really anything listed for the Oberon Confederation until the 3028.xml. There is an entry in the 3000.xml but it is not filled in. My thought is to use the Edit Mission button in the Briefing Room tab to change the faction to Pirate, while leaving the Enemy Bot Name as the Oberon Confederation. The 3028.xml shows Lyran salvage so you could also change the enemy to Lyran F rating units instead of Pirate.
Also what version of MekHQ are you using?
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Thanks for the reply. A bit more reading on forums and manuals pointed out that the problem still might be on my side, since I have started campaign on 3022 (before 3025).
I started another mission, and despite the fact that I have manually adjusted the date to be 3025 now, got almost the same results (no OpFor) so I used the details from the Official AtB TT Rules 2.31 excel sheet and generated appropriate lance for Oberron Confederation in the MegaMek client lobby.
check your victory conditions while in the lobby. Sometimes you can autowin just by having the wrong settings
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Looking at the force generator .xmls there isn't really anything listed for the Oberon Confederation until the 3028.xml. There is an entry in the 3000.xml but it is not filled in. My thought is to use the Edit Mission button in the Briefing Room tab to change the faction to Pirate, while leaving the Enemy Bot Name as the Oberon Confederation. The 3028.xml shows Lyran salvage so you could also change the enemy to Lyran F rating units instead of Pirate.
Also what version of MekHQ are you using?
I use MekHQ 0.46.1.
I have a bit of a different problem now - I played first 2 missions with assigning manual enemy forces, but then after advancing few days, two new missions have appeared, both on the same date 13/09/3025, and somehow I do not have "available forces" to start the missions. Although it is only Sunday 11/09/3025 in game-time, when I try to advance 1 more day I get the message that I will automatically loose/forfeit scenarios.
I have attached the screenshots, might help to determine if I am doing something wrong.
Thanks a lot for all your support
https://ibb.co/XD1LY1Y
https://ibb.co/ScB9c85
Edit/Update: After using GM mode to delete one of the missions, I was able to move ahead (advance time) and now I have a lance auto-assigned to the other mission.
Btw - in which way do lances get assigned? This was my "Training" lance, with mostly green mechwarriors, but I do not see option to change that?
https://ibb.co/MNS95V0
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I think that if one of the mechs in the lance is being refitted or crippled the lance won't be auto deployed. You have to go to the TO&E and manually deploy the lance.
And what do you mean about how each lance gets assigned? The computer will roll each week to see if each lance with a roll gets a mission. The each rolls for lance type and mission assignments are found in the battle tab of the AtB rules.
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Strange, none of my lances were crippled/being refitted. I do have a lucky PPC-ed RFL-3N in the Repair bay, waiting for a new head which I will never seem to procure, but that is battle salvage, not part of any lance.
As for the second part, I did look in the AtB rules and found that - so every deployed lance gets a roll, and if (un)lucky they end up with a battle? Ok, thanks for clearing that up - I was thinking as to why do I not deploy all 3 lances, since I might get 1/2 in a 6 chance of being reinforced, but now I see why the advice "deploy only the lances stipulated by the contract, not more". But I could use TO&E to manually deploy/undeploy lance, so that is OK.
As for automatic OpFor generation in MegaMek - I changed Enemy to Pirate (from Oberon Confederation) using Briefing Room/Edit Mission, however, that did not help. Also it seems that Victory conditions are not properly received/set from MekHQ. Here's how it looks in Briefing room https://ibb.co/DMtkCB0 while here's MegaMek https://ibb.co/vJhh8rh
Am I doing something wrong? I think I will simply start a new campaign, lets say in 3030 this time, just to be sure and see what happens.
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Another update - I started a new campaign in 3030 and everything seems to be working just fine. Scenario parameters load succesfully, OpFor (Pirates) are generated as it should be, so all is OK now.
Probably something is not properly assigned for the period of 3rd Succession war or earlier (since I started previous campaign in 3022, fast-fwd to 3025 and I had issues theree). Just FYI guys
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Question (aplies to version 0.46.something ie the current official version in public use). Some maps have fuel tanks (like the version of Loading Docks map) and on that map (both the basement and NON-Basement version), you typically get a nice 5 hex range blast... but one of the Industrial maps (i forget which one and i cannot check as i'm playing MHQ-> MM) which has two fuel tanks next to a multi hex building DID NOT cause blast damage as i had hoped... what's the deal with that?
And another: When playing an ongoing campaign in Megamech HQ, i keep noticing my quality of select units keep going down (for the most part) even if i spend the time & effort to refurbish units (when i could, based on where i was at, at the time) or i manage to improve or acquire better technicians. In the long run, does it really matter if all my equipment is E or F as long as i can still make the repair rolls using extra time x4 (other than aerospace, I just buy new planes if they are on the market and mothball anything i don't have transport space for)
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*bump*
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Might be worth asking in the slack channel? I think there will be a link in the download posts
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*bump*
About the second part. That's kind of by design, matching the aesthetic of the Third Succession War from the original setting. Even outside of that it helps prevent the player from keeping a pristine unit on the line of battle for a century with no ill effects - even if it is just more difficult to repair components or replace destroyed armor. As for 'extra time' modifiers... that may not always be an option with a high tempo of operations and/or highly damaging battles. Refurbishing only increases the unit (or components?) by one letter grade.
If it bugs you, there may be some campaign options to dial back the effects (I increase the time between maintenence cycles, for example). Or turn off quality values entirely if you're not into playing MaintenanceTech.
One thing I wouldn't mind is a GM tool to adjust component quality values individually or en masse, as well as a hard modifier to the maintenance check targets. As far as I can tell there isn't one, and I'm not sure if the 'Set unit quality...' GM function affects components.
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Every vehicle I salvage or add to my roster shows up in my hangar as a 0/0 MP immobile "Crippled" unit, even if I buy it brand new or I fully repair it. GM Mode and editing damage to remove motive hits does nothing. Is this an ATB bug, a MekHQ bug, or something else entirely?
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You need to assign crew to it.
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You need to assign crew to it.
That's... incredibly unintuitive, since displaying as 0/0 MP also means its BV is displayed as ridiculously low.
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Bug report to change that is open.
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What can cause the COST of skills raised by using XP to be lowered?
Example for Infantry to lower their Gunnery to 4 (and the Rank of Corporal), normally costs 10xp
all the sudden, at the change of the month, skills have been lowered to 4 thru 6xp (and several SPA's, including some normally not available after employment without GM mode are avaialble ad either 4 or 6xp), regardless of RANK. What could I have done wrong?
Details:
048.0
Campaign is Guerilla Ops (a SHDL campaign on Solaris)
Intensity is 0.3 (which was raised from 0.2)
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What can cause the COST of skills raised by using XP to be lowered?
Example for Infantry to lower their Gunnery to 4 (and the Rank of Corporal), normally costs 10xp
all the sudden, at the change of the month, skills have been lowered to 4 thru 6xp (and several SPA's, including some normally not available after employment without GM mode are avaialble ad either 4 or 6xp), regardless of RANK. What could I have done wrong?
Details:
048.0
Campaign is Guerilla Ops (a SHDL campaign on Solaris)
Intensity is 0.3 (which was raised from 0.2)
Go through the campaign options and review. I suspect that you've accidentally tried to start a new campaign while a current campaign is loaded. This COMPLETELY borks a lot of the numbers in the campaign settings, from XP progressions to skill targets to SPA costs. It's a very easy thing to do since the New... menu item is right next to the more commonly used Save... item.
The solution is not an easy one - you can either go back to an old save (provided you have one far enough back) and play from that point again, or manually copy the values forward. I've taken to keeping such information in a spreadsheet just in case, since I occasionally slip a few pixels when clicking and grab the wrong item.
Pretty sure there is more than one bug report on this filed.
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As mentioned known issue with .48 that is fixed in the Dev versions (which we are recommending). But still a long way from a .5 Stable
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Go through the campaign options and review. I suspect that you've accidentally tried to start a new campaign while a current campaign is loaded. This COMPLETELY borks a lot of the numbers in the campaign settings, from XP progressions to skill targets to SPA costs. It's a very easy thing to do since the New... menu item is right next to the more commonly used Save... item.
The solution is not an easy one - you can either go back to an old save (provided you have one far enough back) and play from that point again, or manually copy the values forward. I've taken to keeping such information in a spreadsheet just in case, since I occasionally slip a few pixels when clicking and grab the wrong item.
Pretty sure there is more than one bug report on this filed.
That's exactly what happened. I only had to go back 6 days so no major loss. TU for that INFO....