Harebrained Schemes' BattleTech Catch-All

I am 200 days away from the end of my career mode game using the 3025 Extended Commander Edition mod. Even after 1000 days of campaigning I am still seeing new mechs (what in the world is a "Lancelot"?!) in the field. I've managed to cobble together two assault mechs (Battlemaster and Awesome) and I am finding myself engaging in far more diverse missions than usual. I have been taking a handful of pirate missions here and there to help maintain my Black Market access, but I'm usually limited to pretty low-difficulty missions due to my rep with them. I still find myself keeping a laser-heavy Firestarter and a Phoenix Hawk in my stable just because of their speed. Missions where I need to rush into a facility and extract a VIP are so much easier with those mechs.

I also modded the store prices so I can sell mechs for 65% of standard value. This not only makes the economic game a little more forgiving, it makes it more viable to assemble mechs from parts and sell them off for profit. I've probably spent over half of my days just flying from planet to planet, buying up salvage parts and then building new mechs to sell. That combined with newly salvaged mechs having no weapons/equipment - which forces me to shop/salvage for everything I need - makes the store options and salvage decisions much more interesting. I am continually running out of both heat sinks and medium lasers. The former are easy to find in stores, the latter not so much.

So now I'm wondering if the career mode games have a hard stop at the end of 1200 days, or that's just the score limit? I'll be a little disappointed if I'm forced to stop vs. able to keep playing indefinitely. I couldn't care less about the score but I'd be happy to keep playing with this merc company.

You can keep playing after 1200 days in career mode. 1200 days is just when it gives you your "score."

Sweet. I guess I'm playing this game forever then.

Boudreaux wrote:

Even after 1000 days of campaigning I am still seeing new mechs (what in the world is a "Lancelot"?!)

3025 Extended helped nudge me into buying Technical Readout: Succession Wars (a PDF unit book for the board game). Damage and armor numbers are larger in the computer game, and the weapons are balanced a little differently, but generally board game designs translate directly into the computer version.

There's also a very extensive Battletech wiki at Sarna.net (e.g., their page on the Lancelot is here). The price of free in this case is that the wiki also includes variants from later eras in the setting's future history and finding the 3025-era model can take a little skimming and sifting.

Did... Did MB really just... jump into that hole? It seems awfully deep, but I think I can hear him rummaging around down there...

Call it a return visit, Robear. I wouldn’t have bought the new TR if there weren’t so many mechs that aren’t in my 1986-edition Technical Readout: 3025.

I’ve definitely spent much more time playing Battletech/Mechwarrior computer games than playing the board game, but I’ve been reading and collecting stuff for the board game on and off for quite a while.

misplacedbravado wrote:

my 1986-edition Technical Readout: 3025

bless those weird landscape books.

The 3025 Extended Commander Edition mod is so, so good. Put new life into this game for me. I tried to go back to the vanilla campaign and just couldnt do it.

So I'm playing 3025 ECE and have a fully upgraded ship

a few times now I've gotten a prompt after claiming post-battle salvage where Yang offers to use parts of alternate designs to assemble a new chassis (example with made up version names: you have 2 Archer-AR parts, 1 Archer-AT and 1 Archer-AQ, he offers to make a full Archer-AT)

the problem I'm having is that when prompted for a decision, there's no way to access info about that given model, so I always decline because I don't want to waste good parts on what might turn out to be a bad build.

but.. there doesn't seem to be any way to go back afterwards and ask Yang to go ahead.

or is there?

GrandmaFunk wrote:

So I'm playing 3025 ECE and have a fully upgraded ship

a few times now I've gotten a prompt after claiming post-battle salvage where Yang offers to use parts of alternate designs to assemble a new chassis (example with made up version names: you have 2 Archer-AR parts, 1 Archer-AT and 1 Archer-AQ, he offers to make a full Archer-AT)

the problem I'm having is that when prompted for a decision, there's no way to access info about that given model, so I always decline because I don't want to waste good parts on what might turn out to be a bad build.

but.. there doesn't seem to be any way to go back afterwards and ask Yang to go ahead.

or is there?

You have to right-click the parts in storage while holding Shift or something?

I believe this is the mod Commander Edition incorporates for that function:

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech...

Yeah this exact same thing bit me when I had enough parts to build a Zeus, but I had no info on what the different variants available were. I deferred, then could not figure out how to go back and actually build the $%@# thing. Now I just pull up my phone and Google the different variants to see which one I want. Even that sometimes doesn't help. There is virtually no info outside of this game on what a "WHM-6R-DC" Warhammer variant is, but I have the parts to build it.

The only other thing I don't like about the 3025 Expanded mod is that the Flashpoints that appear on the map still appear to all be limited to the vanilla game map area. I have all of this massive Davion, Kurita and Steiner territory to play in, but all of the flashpoints are appearing way down on the bottom 12th of the map.

Middcore wrote:
GrandmaFunk wrote:

So I'm playing 3025 ECE and have a fully upgraded ship

a few times now I've gotten a prompt after claiming post-battle salvage where Yang offers to use parts of alternate designs to assemble a new chassis (example with made up version names: you have 2 Archer-AR parts, 1 Archer-AT and 1 Archer-AQ, he offers to make a full Archer-AT)

the problem I'm having is that when prompted for a decision, there's no way to access info about that given model, so I always decline because I don't want to waste good parts on what might turn out to be a bad build.

but.. there doesn't seem to be any way to go back afterwards and ask Yang to go ahead.

or is there?

You have to right-click the parts in storage while holding Shift or something?

I believe this is the mod Commander Edition incorporates for that function:

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech...

You sir, are my bloody hero.

I'm so digging this game with the mod. So crazy good. I hope it gets an engine upgrade and the Clans at some point.

All this 3025 mod talk is making me want to start another campaign!!

Middcore wrote:

You have to right-click the parts in storage while holding Shift or something?

I believe this is the mod Commander Edition incorporates for that function:

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech...

Thank you so much!! =)

another small question: I found a cockpit mod.. that's takes up 2 slots. I have yet to see any mechs that can support it, is there only a few specific assault mechs that can use it?

GrandmaFunk wrote:
Middcore wrote:

You have to right-click the parts in storage while holding Shift or something?

I believe this is the mod Commander Edition incorporates for that function:

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech...

Thank you so much!! =)

another small question: I found a cockpit mod.. that's takes up 2 slots. I have yet to see any mechs that can support it, is there only a few specific assault mechs that can use it?

Can you list the description?

Is that a command console by any chance?

If so, it’s unusable and kind of a hack by a modder. They’re built into the -DC variants but take up two slots so you can’t put them into a different chassis.

yup that's it.

why make it salvageable if it's not usable?

GrandmaFunk wrote:

yup that's it.

why make it salvageable if it's not usable?

Probably just an oversight or modding limitation.

I assume you can sell it? Might be worth a lot of C-bills.

BattleTech will be in October's monthly Humble Bundle ($12 subscription).

This game has totally dominated my gaming time. I'm now in collect all the mechs mode. I came across some unique COMSTAR mechs yesterday. I wish the maps were a little more random at this point. I also hope that with Paradox backing them they can release a Battletech 2 with an updated engine. These aren't complaints, it's like saying I want my ice cream with sprinkles.

I'm at 319 hours and still going strong. I've tried to get into a few other games recently (Spider-Man, Assassin's Creed Odyssey) but I still keep coming back to Battletech. I'm all the way through my third career game using 3025 Extended Commander's Edition and it still has its hooks in me. Just bouncing from one Flashpoint to the next.

Boudreaux wrote:

I'm at 319 hours and still going strong. I've tried to get into a few other games recently (Spider-Man, Assassin's Creed Odyssey) but I still keep coming back to Battletech. I'm all the way through my third career game using 3025 Extended Commander's Edition and it still has its hooks in me. Just bouncing from one Flashpoint to the next.

I'm still just playing my original ECE game. Just leveling up my mech warriors and trying out new configs. I am a slow methodical player so I don't care about the arbitrary score they give you. I've developed my tactics and mech skills down to a science so I'm pretty happy with just testing my tactics against the various missions. I love that tried and true infantry and armor tactics work like a champ in this game. I was tempted to try to color the map all one faction, like Federated Suns but that would take a lifetime. I'm allied with all the good guys this Play through, might take my next play through and ride the pirate balance since their stores are much better and I haven't seen a whole lot of value from the alliance system.

Yeah I have been making a conscious effort to stay on the pirates' good side this career so I can keep access to the Black Market. I'm up to the highest relationship (Honored?) with Steiner, but I have not allied with them specifically because it would make Pirates an enemy. I also have been underwhelmed by the "faction stores" that it opens up. Every so often I will travel down to Capellan or Taurian space and take a few pirate missions to keep my faction rating up in the neutral range.

I have a good full three lances of both Mechs and pilots that I can rotate through missions or Flashpoints. The Flashpoints in particular have been fun because of the occasional plot twists or decisions you have to make. I do wish there were more on the company management/politics side beyond just your rating with each faction, but it's still pretty good. I also really appreciate the missions with tonnage or drop limits, as it's forcing me to keep solid light and medium mechs around specifically for those missions.

I'm finally getting back into this again with the 3025 Commander mod after buying it some time ago. Great fun so far.

One thing that bugs me is that some of my fights tend to devolve into repeated rounds of running round the back of the other guy- an opposing mech runs behind me and shoots mine in the back, then I move mine back a few hexes and shoot him in the back, and this repeats. Is this just part of the game or something I'm screwing up? I suppose I could have a mech back a few hexes but that takes its firepower out of my main line.

Maybe this will work itself out once I have some more specialized mechs that I want to have further back instead of needing a solid skirmish line. As it is, my best initial tactic so far is to occupy a ridgeline and blast away as the enemy approaches. I think my brain is stuck in the mode of games like XCOM or ASL with opportunity fire rather than old-school igo/yougo.

Middcore wrote:

BattleTech will be in October's monthly Humble Bundle ($12 subscription).

I noticed that.

A lot of the Steam reviews say that the battles are unfairly difficult just because of how many enemies they throw at you. Is that accurate, or do the NooBs just need to git gud?

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Middcore wrote:

BattleTech will be in October's monthly Humble Bundle ($12 subscription).

I noticed that.

A lot of the Steam reviews say that the battles are unfairly difficult just because of how many enemies they throw at you. Is that accurate, or do the NooBs just need to git gud?

The game makes up for indifferent AI by ensuring you're outnumbered in most missions. Some mods improve the AI, at least a little, so it can start to become punishing, especially because the 1-5 skulls difficulty rating of contracts doesn't always give you an accurate idea of what to expect.

That said, many missions don't require you to actually kill all enemies to succeed, and in contract missions (as opposed to campaign story missions), withdrawing is always an option if you think you're in an unwinnable situation or one where victory would be too costly. You're a mercenary after all, you're not getting paid to die. Withdrawing ends the mission instantly, you don't even have to run to an evac zone (if it were up to me you would).

Here's a video of a mission from the Commander Edition mod that went completely south where the player was still able to complete the objective and escape through smart, patient gameplay:

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Middcore wrote:

BattleTech will be in October's monthly Humble Bundle ($12 subscription).

I noticed that.

A lot of the Steam reviews say that the battles are unfairly difficult just because of how many enemies they throw at you. Is that accurate, or do the NooBs just need to git gud?

One of my issues with the original vanilla release was the willingness of the game to throw a significantly larger force against you from the start. Even if they came in as ‘reinforcements’ that tended to start after 1-2 turns when you’d just set up to engage the original force and were now badly outflanked. It made judging the skull rating difficult. Although the designers tried to explain it away as ‘you’re a mercenary company, some times your intelligence is bad’ the 5th time it happens In a row it wears a bit thin.

It’s an attritional game Battletech. You need to get your head around the idea that destroying all the enemy mechs or tanks you’re facing isn’t necessarily the best idea. I don’t think the game design supports that idea terribly well, but bugging out is always an option. Well, nearly always.

Some battles are definitely unfairly difficult. There are definitely ways to mitigate that through patient gameplay and good tactics, but sometimes you'll just lose. It might be due to overwhelming odds, it might be due to bad luck, it might be due to bad decisions. I don't know how consciously this is designed into the game, but I enjoyed it much more when I finally accepted that sometimes you're meant to run away.

The amount of your contract can sometimes be a telltale for how difficult the mission is really going to be. If you have two contracts side by side, both 2-skull difficulty, and one is offering 350,000 C-bills and the other is offering 825,000 C-bills, you can guess which one is going to turn out to be harder.

I'm not sure if the main game AI has been tweaked or it's one of the mods I'm using, but I've noticed in my last career that the enemy AI is much better about concentrating fire on one of my Mechs vs. spreading it out. Especially when I'm significantly outnumbered, this can be extremely dangerous. I have seen a heavy Mech go from pristine to half destroyed in a single turn. This forces me to really think about distance, positioning, lines of sight, etc.

Some missions are definitely doable without destroying everything opposing you. I've been very successful on extracting/rescue missions by using light or medium Mechs that are fast, and relying on evasion as defense. Since you can run into a base and grab whoever or whatever you are trying to extract in a single turn, it's possible to get in and out and succeed at the mission without ever firing a shot. Assassination missions can go this way too.