Getting Started with Against the Bot

[Gigastrike]

Does the deployment type actually determine how long it takes them to reinforce other lances?

[Southernskies]

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.

[Fokker]

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?

[BairdEC]

No, it's just a bug.  You could try reloading the campaign save and starting the scenario again if you really want the fight.

[Fokker]

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.

[Stormforge]

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?

[ThePW]

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

[Fokker]

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

[Reglor]

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.

[Fokker]

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.

[Fokker]

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

[ThePW]

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)

[ThePW]

*bump*

[MoleMan]

Might be worth asking in the slack channel? I think there will be a link in the download posts

[dgorsman]

*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.

[Scotty]

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?

[NickAragua]

You need to assign crew to it.

[Scotty]

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.

[Windchild]

Bug report to change that is open.

[ThePW]

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)

[dgorsman]

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.

[Hammer]

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

[ThePW]

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....