Coming Soon to MegaMek

[Dr. Banzai]

OMG, it's a friggin' game and I'm just using it to get the ranks I want displayed on the Nurses and Doctors. I understand that it's not the "true" military system of how doctors are ranked, but for the couple of dozen medical characters, it works.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Since WO is still the officer and it seems that your force is a mercenary company rather than an armed force, so give WO to some medical staffs may works. They are respected, but they are not expected to command your men.

[Scotty]

I think what Dr. Banzai is saying is that it literally does not matter a single iota what rank your Doctors are and trying to correct it by 'educating' them on how the real world does it is neither helpful nor wanted.

[krazzyharry]

I would love to see Admin personnel and Medical staff get their own rank system.  Bring back the old Specialist system of the US Army.

On another note, will we see Infantry Support Operations ("off-screen") implemented in the future? Or the expanded version that included air support and artillery that Mukai posted a long time ago?

[Simon Landmine]

I think what Dr. Banzai is saying is that it literally does not matter a single iota what rank your Doctors are and trying to correct it by 'educating' them on how the real world does it is neither helpful nor wanted.

And he's entirely right about that! (I was more amused by it than trying to tell him he was playing Stompy Robot Battle wrong!)

Since WO is still the officer and it seems that your force is a mercenary company rather than an armed force, so give WO to some medical staffs may works. They are respected, but they are not expected to command your men.

As a tangent, that depends on the setting - in the UK, Warrant Officers are senior NCOs, not an 'officer' rank. You salute a Company Sergeant Major at your own risk. (I've seen it happen at a cadet camp. It was entertaining, although we managed to swallow our grins in the interest of self-preservation. "Do I look like a bloody officer to you, Corporal?")

[Windchild]

I concur with Scotty and Simon on the above.

Further, I'm not reworking individual rank tiers, just handling systems and a bunch of bugs. Redoing the rest would take too much time away from my other projects.

[Kentares]

As a tangent, that depends on the setting - in the UK, Warrant Officers are senior NCOs, not an 'officer' rank. You salute a Company Sergeant Major at your own risk. (I've seen it happen at a cadet camp. It was entertaining, although we managed to swallow our grins in the interest of self-preservation. "Do I look like a bloody officer to you, Corporal?")

Didnt knew there are different "salutes" according to NCO/CO. Here everyone salutes everyone else the same only stating rank aloud at the same time (not mandatory).

[BATTLEMASTER]

Note: this does not include a rework of the individual rank levels. I have created a project on GitHub to expand and improve these and professions, although I personally will not be handling it for the foreseeable future as I will be working on Personnel, Force Icons, and a secret project that I am slowly providing spoilers for on our Discord channel.

I want to know more about this.

[Thom293]

Edit:  Nevermind - I found the awesome discord and got the answer.

[Hammer]

Coming in 49.0

STRATCON! (Alpha Release)



Ever been frustrated with the lack of any kind of wider context in AtB? Getting bored with the same 12 scenarios? Tired of having your one mech lance come up against clan trinaries every fight?

Strategic Context (StratCon) is the next generation scenario and campaign management system for AtB. When you select the 'use StratCon' option at the bottom of the AtB tab in Campaign Options, then travel to your contract location, you may notice a new AtB Campaign State tab in MekHQ. This is where you will manage force deployments for your current AtB-style mission - seek out your objectives, repel enemy attacks, reinforce your units, all that good stuff. Initially, this comes with 34 different scenario types, with BV-balanced opposition (not very strictly BV-balanced - the difficulty level and your current unit rating affect plus a healthy dose of RNG affect the opposition strength, but you're not going to consistently see horribly unbalanced fights). Wanted to play aerotech? Fire up those thrusters, because StratCon comes with six types of atmosphere and space scenarios as well. Think you're going to get bored? Don't worry, there are also ~60 scenario modifiers to mix things up (things such as an extra enemy mech lance where you don't want it, or maybe some allied aerospace fighters to come help you out). Ever wanted the freedom to bring your own reinforcements because the fight just isn't fair? Well, you can. Just be prepared to use up resources or risk more hostiles showing up to the fight. And if you get bored with that, you can always define your own scenario templates and modifiers.

A brief bullet-point list:
- 34 BV-balanced scenario types, with the ability to create your own
- ~60 scenario modifiers, with the ability to create your own
- Freedom to reinforce fights, but beware
- Allied and hostile facilities populate the strategic map, affecting nearby battles
- Command clauses matter more - stick to the job on independent or coast on integrated
- Leadership and Tactics let you bring auxiliary units to the fight, or deploy minefields

This feature has received a good amount of testing (thanks to everyone who took the time to playtest and supply bug reports), but is still firmly in the alpha stage, so expect bugs and weird behavior, especially with regards to automatic objective tracking.

Future expansion plans (no ETA, obviously):
- A few more scenario types (e.g. "Drop Zone Defense", "Strategic Space Asset Assault/Defense")
- Strategic map biomes (not entirely random weather/terrain types)
- Persistent tactical maps in some situations
- Persistent facility garrisons
- More contract types from CamOps


Image from Sp0oky777

[Bedwyr]

Wow. And that's all I have to say right now: Wow.

[monbvol]

Oh my.

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Oh. Gods.... Is it the reality? Not a fancy dream?

[necromancer579]

Coming in 49.0

This sounds great.

Is there an option to balance by number of units instead of BV?  Or maybe ignore the crew modifiers?  I'm not keen on the idea of the opfor changing dramatically if I have to swap in a couple of rookies to replace two injured elites.  That sort of thing.  I don't mind the enemy deploying more/fewer units when I do, since I can pretend they have scouts and distant forces to draw from or reinforce.  It seems weird, though, that they'd know not only who's piloting a given vehicle on any particular day, but that pilot's precise skills.

That aside, dat update.  Mmm.

[MoleMan]

YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!

[Kerfuffin(925)]

Does this mean 49.0 is close?

[Hammer]

Does this mean 49.0 is close?

ummm......yeah.....its in the home stretch.

[Hammer]

Coming soon. Updated Camo Pack. The SeaVea pack has been the default but the artist no longer supports it. We will be making the switch to DeadBorder's camo pack.  Small sample of the 1220 Camo's it has.

Marik


Merc


Wolf Clan

[Simon Landmine]

Will this replace all of the current camos, or just the unit ones? (i.e. what about the "Standard Camouflage" folder, which I'm rather fond of)

[Wrangler]

Can we just keep both? I use current faction camo stuff units as normal or alternative paint schemes.

[Hammer]

Will this replace all of the current camos, or just the unit ones? (i.e. what about the "Standard Camouflage" folder, which I'm rather fond of)

Can we just keep both? I use current faction camo stuff units as normal or alternative paint schemes.

The plan is to keep both. Deadborders pack will be the main one going forward. With his camo's renamed to match SeaVeas. Any extra camo's will be available as seperate download.

[Simon Landmine]

Excellent news. Thanks for the confirmation!

"Hey, astechs, you don't need to repaint the saved MULs, you can put those sprayguns down. And could someone hose Henrik down after that spraygun misfire?"

[Daryk]

I hate to say it, but that only makes me think of Zoolander...  ::)

[MoleMan]

Is there anything that shows how to use stratcon? Couldn't see anything in the docs folder

[Windchild]

Is there anything that shows how to use stratcon? Couldn't see anything in the docs folder

There is the FAQ in the docs folder, but otherwise not at this time, partially due to the alpha state.

[Hammer]

My eye doctor always asks me better on the left or the right? These feature Deadborders new camo's that was replaced SeaVee's old pack.

But we've been experimental with an additional effect, and not it's not the color on the cockpits.

[Bedwyr]

Weapon highlighting?

[Daryk]

Unit highlighting, I think...

[dgorsman]

Oh.  Oh, wow... subtle shading makes a lot of difference.  How does it look on the physically smaller units?

[Juliez]

It isn't scaled with unit size (at least, not currently), so on smaller units the effect is less visible. The highlighting isn't used for infantry at all.