It's moments like this when I'm blown away about how much I already know about battletech. I can't imagine the information overload a new player would have trying to figure this all out.
I found much of it pretty self-explanatory once I dedidaced about half an hour after my first couple of battles to just review my lance and the mech loadout. I'm not that far into the game so the heaviest mech I've got to fit the assault role is a Dragon which comes stock with an LRM 10 though it has the hardpoints to fit two launchers on the same shoulder. I can't really justify to use two LRM 10 on that because I'd have to strip a metric shit ton of armor to do so but instead of the single LRM 10 it comes with by default I can fit two LRM 5 which frees up one ton I can then dedicate to more armor and also allows me to split fire more effectively when needed for when you really need to finish off another mech but at least want to strip an evasive pip off the next one What I still find a bit obscure is the jump jet mechanic. I know fitting more jump jets allows you to jump further but since HBS didn't provide us with any sort of metric to measure the result without taking it out for a test ride it's generally a lot of fiddling to find the sweet spot for any particular mech.
It wasnt so bad, my first campaign was a disaster, but I guess that was a given for newbies like me. There thing that felt that disssapointing to to me, such as not being able to choose your initial mech, and how steep the learning curve can be: There difficult spikes I havent managed to g et around yet
Generally four jump jets allow you to jump further than you'd be able to move (not necessarily sprint) on everything except light Mechs. Three are useful for getting up and down hilly terrain, and two are only useful if you like DFA'ing for minimum tonnage or REALLY need to get up and down a single ridge. If you put five, like on a stock Griffin, you can hop around for maximum evasion every turn. I really like Griffins.
I would like to add that armor is extremely important, especially for beginners. I think the single most important thing a beginner can do to is drop some weapons and increase armor. In the single player game you are almost always fighting vastly outnumbered so survivabilty is crucial. In addition repairs can get quite expensive. Their are essentially two methods to increase suitability, mobility and armor. For mobility you can use speed to make yourself harder to hit, but you also want to utilize the initiative system and terrain to reduce the enemies ability to harm you. This can be extremely effective but its somewhat more advanced in my opinion and arguably a bit more risky. Increasing armor is fairly cheap (in terms of money and weight) and its pretty simple as far as game play and strategy goes and if you make a mistake (which beginners are going to), heavy armor helps you survive it.
Sweet! The last time I played a MechWarrior PC game was like around 2000...very excited for this "tactical/strategic (everyone fights about the specifics of those words, so, whatever)" title!
One technique that's really helped me is remove one weapon from my mech (for example the AC 2 on Blackjack) and then massively pump up all the armour. The small sacrifice in offensive leads to huge defensive gains as armour is relatively light. Reduces repair bills too.
Universally true in a campaign or career. The mech that reliably comes home with light or no repair costs means more money in the company's budget to upgrade to better mechs and gear. The pilot who comes home uninjured means more missions and more experience in less in-game time, which is both more money and better skilled pilots.
New player here! Just wanted to add in case there are any other newbies; for LOOK AT THE BARS, you can hold the mouse over the bars and an information box will come up with your number stats: How much you can move vs sprint vs jumpjet How much heat your alpha will generate, and how much your heat sinks will reduce How much your melee and DFA will hit for for example (PartyElite says he wishes there were numbers, so a new patch may have added this in) also, great video for learning the game!
When I got my first locust I used it as a hit and run battering ram. Loaded it with support weapons, I'd sprint in Ram the enemy, and retreat. The level of evasion with a high pilot skill meant I'd usually not get hit all that much, meanwhile I'd have my other mechs at range firing heavy artillery and stripping armour. I know locusts aren't great but early on this tactic worked wonders.
I would like to point out about the ammo location is that putting it in the same spot as a hard to acquire weapon, such as my LRM 20++, may not necessarily be a good idea as replacing it would be very hard. I've only come across 1 in my play so far. I would love to get more by the same Manufacturer to +25% stability damage, +25% crit chance.
I'm pretty sure crit padding is still a thing, so here's my two cents on ammo stowage: place some "expendable" components (i.e. heat sinks, jump jets, small/med lasers) in the body part where you store the ammo bins. Even when an attack gets past armor that attack only has a percentage chance of actually causing critical damage to a single component. If you have "sacrificial" components in the same location as ammo there's a chance that those throwaways might be able to absorb some of the incoming crits.
Of course, another fun thing I have had happen with my Stalker that is outfitted as an LRM boat: I go through ammo so fast that I have had ammo bins get hit...and nothing happen. 120 missiles per ton, 50 missiles fired per salvo..
+Party Elite you can pad critical in this game? I always pad critical slot in my Battletech board game. I think that the awesome is the only zombie mech during the succession war - 3 ppc and not ammo to blow up.
community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/4749 According to this link I just found, this actually isn't effective because unlike tabletop empty slot results on a critical roll are not re-rolled. What this means for those not familiar with tabletop rules, is this: The way critical hits work is that when the game decides you've critted, it rolls on the location to see which slot is hit. So if you have an LRM20 and two tons of LRM ammo in a location, then there are seven slots where a critical could possibly land on to either disable your LRM20 or blow up your ammo (five slots for the weapon and two for the ammo). Normally in tabletop, if it's an empty slot, then it is re-rolled, so it's beneficial to fill your locations that have valuable or dangerous components with expendable components so that they aren't hit and the expendable ones are more likely to take the critical. However, in the BattleTech video game, the result is not re-rolled. What this seems to mean is that if you roll an empty slot on a critical, nothing happens and there isn't an actual critical hit. So it might actually be more beneficial to put your ammo in an otherwise-empty location with lots of slots, like a side torso.
Great Vid When placing ammo for weapons @ 3:48 this is great advice for multiplayer (or would be if all the other weapons didn't share that part). In single-player you are best to put ammo on parts that aren't already saturated with gear. Re-paring an empty part takes ~9 days, replacing all that equipment will add another 20-30 days. Place your ammo on a part that you don't mind refitting (empty arms or legs are good). Also, avoid ammo on left & right torso positions in single-player unless you can accept a 19 day trip to the med-bay after the mission.
Great video, as always. A comment on roles...I don't use scouts anymore, they're simply not needed. Now that all of my mechs are > 70 tons, I just bring the pain. What happens if I face a scout? Well, if it can see me, I can see it. And if I can see it, then 1 mech sensor locks it and 1 mech utterly obliterates it. A shot from 2 LRM 20 to a scout mech with 0 evasion wipes it off the map. And, because it's a scout, it's often alone and the only thing I can shoot anyway. I've not had a firestarter get in melee range in a very long time, it's worth 1 mech taking the sensor lock action and 1 mech blowing it to pieces to get it off the map. The ability for sensor lock to shut down evasion may be too powerful because it seems to completely cancel out the scout role.
Well done video. Unlike a lot of other RUclipsrs/players, I didn't feel talked down to and your information was on point and even applicable to the table top version.
Being very unfamiliar to games like Battle Tech, your videos have been great to watch alongside playing the game and have been very helpful in pointing out the subtleties in the game that would have just left me frustrated otherwise. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Glad to hear these help! There are so many little things that make the game great - but they're tucked away and unclear unless you're familiar with Tabletop, or like digging!
Some notes of my own I'd like to add after finishing my first campaign: Campaign and skirmish are very different. A skirmish mech doesn't have to worry about repair bills or being outnumbered 2 to 1. A campaign mech does. As for ammo placement, I tend to favor the CT simply because it has more armor, but I get why it can be a bad idea.
Really good stuff, thanks! Lance building, yes pleases! And that includes lance terminology, like 'Cavalry'. All games have their terminology, which can be one of the most danunting hurdles for the beginner like me.
Excelent video, but you missed that if you lose a side torso you also lose the use of the arm on the same side, so it may be wise to increase armor in those locations.
If you got ammo, it is best to put them with jumpjets or heatsinks. Because when a shot goes internal, the game will roll a chance to crit. Having things in that location as "padding" reduces your chances of ammo explosions because there is more stuff to roll for, rather than straight ammo.
Not sure if they changed this since a year ago, but I found a forum topic on the official board that seems to contradict this: community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/4749
The other thing it uses the ammo in same location first. So if you have weapons in your arms and out ammo with it and some in your legs. It will use the arms ammo first.
Another tip that you sort of mentioned is the amount of jump jets you can add on a mech. The amount directly correlates to its move speed. Not its sprint speed but its move speed. Terrain also impact move since it may require more movement to cross a forest or a hill. Which is why you will find jumping to be a better alternative to moving in many situations. BUT... one key aspect to having so many jump jets on a mech, it also tells you how big the engine is for the mech. So a mech that can equip 5 jump jets on a 60 ton mech means the engine is massive and takes up a lot of tonnage which means less tonnage for armor and weapons. So look for mechs with high jump jets and debate on whether to use them in your lance. Assaults is a big concern in this regard since Victor's, Zeus even when they are 80 tons, you will find an Orion which is 75 tons able to equip more weapons and armor then the 2 assaults because the engine on the Victor and Zeus eats so many tonnage. Going up, the Battlemaster is also an inefficient design as well since it can equip 4 jump jets, same with the Banshee. Avoid using the Battlemaster and Banshee unless you can fine a alternative way to use them. Good mechs are the Highlander, Atlas, King Crab and Stalker which are 3 move mechs. So sometimes its actually better to run with mechs with lower move speeds since you can equip with more armor and weapons. Its really up to your preference.
Excellent. I had a lot of fun watching through the things you should know - and they made the game play very smoothly for me. Really enjoying it :) Thanks Party!
I definitely would like to see a video on lance building on how the different roles play with each other. Also, how mechs can fill those roles to which they aren't traditionally assigned through modification...
I think its a bit remiss to advise people to take the armor off their arms without mentioning that the armor on the torso doens't protect them from that side if the arm is blown off. If the arm goes, the torso armor can be bypassed all the way to the center torso and the destruction of the mech if you aren't able to turn out the damged side.
I haven't played a mechwarrior game in 10 years, and the table top almost as long, I'm basically jumping in fresh, so this is helpful, and a lance build series would be amazing.
Scotch can be 40% right up to 90%+ Most of the scotch or for that matter any whisky or even whiskey you guys drink has water added to it for you... you are not drinking it neat unless it is cask strength (around 70% usually) With this in mind A true mechwarrior drinks their scotch straight from the cask!
A real mechwarrior doesn't care what others think of him what he drinks. You can still be an hardcore killer and drink white russian or cosmopolitans. Ive met those types irl
I learned something about myself today, I'm a assault tramp that goes max on armour on every single mech. Light scout is a blasphemy and Highlander was made in heaven. On a serious note, awesome coverage of Battletech essentials for ppl who never touched the tabletop. Thanks for the info.
Video topic discussing the applications of weapons. Please and Thank You. For example, their min/max range, effectiveness within these ranges, how to determine the optimal range, scenarios where one weapon would be advantageous over another and so on. A video on Lance building would also be greatly appreciated. I feel as though I'm not utilizing all the available assets at my disposal. While this game is slightly linear, I feel like it's either missing something or I'm missing something. Either way, I'm enjoying this has much as I enjoy Total War Warhammer. Both are games over 25 years old that have finally made their way from tabletop to modern computer game. Good times. Keep up the good work my friend.
I second both those motions. Weapon role is a huge determiner in how a mech fights and Lance building is a big deal. It might be worth noting the differing considerations of single player and skirmish through, that has to have a pretty drastic effect on Lance building.
Lance roles are probably one of the most important points for new players (unless your a lyran commonwealth commander :D then ... a scout lance = 4 atlas ... and an assault lance = MORE ATLAS xD)
One thing that seems a bit off at the moment is the overall effectiveness of AC's and even PPC's. They feel extremely underwhelming, with the AC 20 being the least consistent in its effectiveness. Also due to the lack of CASE and the fact that multi-shot weapons crit individually per projectile, ammo is best placed in the legs. At the moment my favorite setup is currently a lance of Grasshoppers with 5 Flamer+ (+5 heat damage) and a swath of M Lasers. In single player there are very few enemies who can handle being hit twice with that kind of heat, let alone survive a called shot salvo to the CT or ST. Alternatively having an LRM boat like a Stalker is extremely useful for knocking down enemy assault mechs.
Another point with ammunition and critical hits: More ammo means the gun fires longer, but too much means that the bins may outlast the armor protecting it. There's a balance that needs to be made between making it shoot for a while and having the bin run out before there's a serious chance of it being critted. Like the board game, 10-15ish discharges for an ammo weapon is about right.
Juggernaut, melee stability damage arm mods, flamer +'s (bonus heat generated on enemy) are great for stacking debuffs. -1 initiative, stability damage and heat. Evasive movement and bulwark to make getting close easier. As to pilots, the sooner you get at least the basic training module the better. I always get it first. The kickstart backer pilots also tend to be better, as they can avoid death more often even if it says they are dead during the mission.
IDK at the time of the video, but now, you can mouse hover the stat bar to get numbers. Mobility shows walk, sprint and jump distance for example and firepower shows the alpha strike damage.
You forgot to mention; dont forget about reading what the mechs description roll and internals are so you get an general roll what the Mech are good at. Sure you can custom whatever you like but that text is a good indicator on what its good for
1. Use missles. Seriously, missles are extremely powerful. A large salvo not only does tons of damage, but also lots of stability pips, often enough to instantly knock a mech straight on it´s ass.
What is also helpful to know is that attacks with ballistic and missile weapons cause instability in the mech they hit, as well as melee atacks. 4 medium mechs with autocannons and missiles can knock down a much larger mech, then get called shots on it while it is down and easily kill it. I killed a king crab with 4 medium mechs and only took 1 volley of fire from it before I took it's legs off.
If you have to keep inventory, having a generic inventory is the best. That way a mech will not go out of spares. I use medium lasers, PPC, LRM5, AMS, jump jets and heat sinks. These have a great balance of firepower, fire rate, cost, tonnage and crits.
Excellent video!!! I learned a lot, even as a long time Battletech/Mechwarrior fan. And yes, please do make a lance building guide. I was just thinking that.
One thing I have to disagree with is the assigning sensor lock using 'Mechwarriors to an LRM boat. Because the Master Tactician ability, that reduces stability damamge when they reserve, AND moves them to act in an earlier phase can be invaluable for a support 'mech, but to get that requires Sensor Lock.
Just watched 2 of your Battletech videos, and both were very helpful. A few things you mentioned caused me to wish you'd been involved in making the dang games tutorial lol. I second/third/whatever the request for the lance build video.
Remove jump jets, reduce armor a bit, best weapons are medium lasers, AC20 and SRM6. Invest in tactics, targeted shot mastery gives you one or two-shot on everything. Try to loot higher weight mech parts.
I'm new to Battletech so maybe I am missing something, but wouldn't the safest place to stow your ammo be the center torso section? My reasoning is twofold, One, the center torso is probably the safest place on your mech, considering I have yet to see the center torso go first without needing to aimed shot the center torso. This is only helped out by the fact that it seems that the normal attack randomizes what spots you will hit including whether or not you will hit. meaning the highest chance any enemy mech has to hit your CT is from the back. but from the front, there are 8 possible hit possibilities and from the sides 4. That's not mentioning the most armored point on a mech looks like the center torso, and that's if we ignore that you need to burn through the LT or RT to start doing direct damage to the CT just using normal attacks. Again, two of the most heavily armored points on a mech. my second point being, well, if your CT armor is stripped the most likely situation is a focus fire on that mechs CT until it blows up in a ball of fire, which doesn't take long regardless of whats in that section, or any other section. Might as well slap anything essential to the mech there since, without it, there is no mech.
No, because there is a big difference between almost dead and really dead in BattleTech, and putting your ammo in the CT narrows that gap *greatly*. And on the tabletop you have to worry about through-armor criticals so putting your ammo in the CT means a chance of enemy ballistics making your entire mech explode in one shot. And keep in mind BT the video game basically gives free CASE to all mechs, and on the tabletop, these primitive 3025 mechs are likely to just straight-up go boom from an ammo crit even if the ammo is in LT or RT, as the damage spreads.
I'm new to the Battletech world and have been doing a lot of experimenting with loadouts (at the cost of time and C-bills lol). I seem to frequently change my loadout anytime the mech goes in for repair, as I want to see if tweaking "this " or "that" will work better next time. Hopefully as I play more I won't have to do this as often, but for now it's the only way I'll be able to get a feel for the different loadouts. Since I only have light and medium mechs right now, I tend to do a VERY tight balancing act between firepower and survivability. As a veteran XCOM player, I like to play a bit on the riskier side rather than the safe side. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense -- maybe not so much in Battletech than it is in XCOM, but it still holds true in some cases. Since my early mechs are lacking in tonnage, I find myself constantly stripping away armor to add more firepower. I've noticed most of my mechs run hot and I seem to alpha strike a lot. I should prob be less aggressive as I get deeper into the campaign though.
This is great! Starts with the stupidly basic basics (but even an expert needs to review the fundamentals sometimes) and builds into the more advanced stuff. I was expecting more about specialization and lance design, but who cares! I learned stuff!
Might have been part of a patch since this video, but the orange bars for 'Durability', 'Melee', etc. do have numbers now. You can hover your mouse over them and a tooltip will come up showing a breakdown.
I haven't finished the game yet, but I feel like there is a definite case for early game (sub 2 skull, first several months) and later game (when you start seeing LRM/SRM carriers and heavier LRM turrets) builds. Early game you can afford to field brawlers, lots of melee, short range, less armor, etc. As you progress, you need to field more long-medium range weaponry with more armor, as you take advantage of bulwark so missile spam doesn't knock you down and lead to a quick death.
Ammo on the head is one of the best places(if you dont have a mod to put there). If your head armor is breached, youre pretty much dead already as there's only 16 structure hitpoints. if anything hits it'll kill the mech crit or not
I have a question related to size and tonnage, taking light mechs as an example. The Spider has a tonnage of 30t, and the locust has a 20t tonnage. Is the spider 50% better than the locust, becuase it can fit that much more on? The locust model looks smaller, does that factor into e.g. making it harder to hit?
This is an excelent how to video.... I'd like to see him do a How to on making Custom mechs in RogueTech...which is the big mod for this game....its an entirely different ballgame with that mod.
Does Sensor Lock pull more aggro than a regular attack? It seems like Dekker is constantly getting focused enemy fire. Even if I pull him back and retreat, the AI seems to go after him.
Would love to see more examples of good builds for different roles. I'm up to heavies ATM and although I'm doing mostly fine (my Dekker is still alive anyways), mech building is the one area I'm still not confident in, constantly doubting whether I should slap another laser on or if I even want that LRM rack. How about a showcase of your own party composition and weapon combos that work/worked for you at different stages of the campaign?
Does the location of the heat sinks have any effect? For instance, in the classic tabletop game, heat sinks in the feet would work more efficiently when the mech was in shallow water. Or does water just have an overall heat reduction effect regardless of the location of the sinks?
Did your lance comp video ever happen? Just digging into the playlist after snagging the game and all DLC on sale. Long time tabletop player who was wary with the weird interpretation of excellent tabletop rules to videogame format but have had fun with my first few hours anyway
Great video and som new tips! But would really love to see a little more specific good starter mech builds. Or an intermediate guide :p Lance build guide sounds great too :)
In the last segment of the guide regarding which pilot to use on which mech, when you mentioned that the LRM boat needs high Tactics but not Sensor Lock, that struck me as a bit contradictory
Id rather sensor lock at long distance with a spotter mech and use the lurms on another when people still cant tell what the blip on the radar is. Unless all four pilots have sensor...
3:48 if the ct goes your dead or injured anyway ... ammo in the ct is irelevent ... imagine your mech is fine but your ammo loaded legs go boom .. limping about with no ammo ..(i see you mentioned this , smilety face ) there is a reasonable point for puting it in arms if your weapon is there ,if you lose your weapon you dont have any use for the ammo .. its one of those quandrys
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It's moments like this when I'm blown away about how much I already know about battletech. I can't imagine the information overload a new player would have trying to figure this all out.
As a new player, It's not so bad. My first couple of mechs were a disaster, but then I watched some streams, and now everything is going well.
I found much of it pretty self-explanatory once I dedidaced about half an hour after my first couple of battles to just review my lance and the mech loadout. I'm not that far into the game so the heaviest mech I've got to fit the assault role is a Dragon which comes stock with an LRM 10 though it has the hardpoints to fit two launchers on the same shoulder. I can't really justify to use two LRM 10 on that because I'd have to strip a metric shit ton of armor to do so but instead of the single LRM 10 it comes with by default I can fit two LRM 5 which frees up one ton I can then dedicate to more armor and also allows me to split fire more effectively when needed for when you really need to finish off another mech but at least want to strip an evasive pip off the next one
What I still find a bit obscure is the jump jet mechanic. I know fitting more jump jets allows you to jump further but since HBS didn't provide us with any sort of metric to measure the result without taking it out for a test ride it's generally a lot of fiddling to find the sweet spot for any particular mech.
Thank god for the internet for ppl who are new to BT. 20 years of knowledge made the learning curve to this game super easy.
It wasnt so bad, my first campaign was a disaster, but I guess that was a given for newbies like me. There thing that felt that disssapointing to to me, such as not being able to choose your initial mech, and how steep the learning curve can be: There difficult spikes I havent managed to g et around yet
Generally four jump jets allow you to jump further than you'd be able to move (not necessarily sprint) on everything except light Mechs. Three are useful for getting up and down hilly terrain, and two are only useful if you like DFA'ing for minimum tonnage or REALLY need to get up and down a single ridge. If you put five, like on a stock Griffin, you can hop around for maximum evasion every turn.
I really like Griffins.
I would like to add that armor is extremely important, especially for beginners. I think the single most important thing a beginner can do to is drop some weapons and increase armor.
In the single player game you are almost always fighting vastly outnumbered so survivabilty is crucial. In addition repairs can get quite expensive. Their are essentially two methods to increase suitability, mobility and armor. For mobility you can use speed to make yourself harder to hit, but you also want to utilize the initiative system and terrain to reduce the enemies ability to harm you. This can be extremely effective but its somewhat more advanced in my opinion and arguably a bit more risky. Increasing armor is fairly cheap (in terms of money and weight) and its pretty simple as far as game play and strategy goes and if you make a mistake (which beginners are going to), heavy armor helps you survive it.
Extremely helpful! A lance build video would be dope!
Duly noted! =)
Sweet! You're doing a great job with these videos buddy, helping me enjoy the game alot more!
Seconded that'd be great to see how other people play.
And thirded. More info the better :D
Fourth'd happily! I'd love more info on how to outfit a good lance!
Good stuff. I didn't know about the arms accuracy bonus.
Glad I could help! =D
"Stripping pays".
Yes. Yes it does. Those girls make a ton of money.
"Look at the bars"
Sometimes you find strippers at the bars.
I was seconds away from highlighting this when I noticed that you'd beaten me to it.
Sweet! The last time I played a MechWarrior PC game was like around 2000...very excited for this "tactical/strategic (everyone fights about the specifics of those words, so, whatever)" title!
One technique that's really helped me is remove one weapon from my mech (for example the AC 2 on Blackjack) and then massively pump up all the armour. The small sacrifice in offensive leads to huge defensive gains as armour is relatively light. Reduces repair bills too.
Certainly a good way to approach it! I'm a risk-taker and aggressive player - I pay for it though!
I found those ac’s on splitfire really help reduce peoples evasions without sacraficing fire for sensor locks.
Good for a front line brawler, maybe not for high mobility scout or LRM boat.
Universally true in a campaign or career. The mech that reliably comes home with light or no repair costs means more money in the company's budget to upgrade to better mechs and gear. The pilot who comes home uninjured means more missions and more experience in less in-game time, which is both more money and better skilled pilots.
New player here! Just wanted to add in case there are any other newbies;
for LOOK AT THE BARS, you can hold the mouse over the bars and an information box will come up with your number stats:
How much you can move vs sprint vs jumpjet
How much heat your alpha will generate, and how much your heat sinks will reduce
How much your melee and DFA will hit for
for example
(PartyElite says he wishes there were numbers, so a new patch may have added this in)
also, great video for learning the game!
When I got my first locust I used it as a hit and run battering ram. Loaded it with support weapons, I'd sprint in Ram the enemy, and retreat. The level of evasion with a high pilot skill meant I'd usually not get hit all that much, meanwhile I'd have my other mechs at range firing heavy artillery and stripping armour.
I know locusts aren't great but early on this tactic worked wonders.
Yes! More guides please. These are really helpful
You bet! Already writing my next one =)!
Thank you so much for these videos. ❤
I would like to point out about the ammo location is that putting it in the same spot as a hard to acquire weapon, such as my LRM 20++, may not necessarily be a good idea as replacing it would be very hard. I've only come across 1 in my play so far. I would love to get more by the same Manufacturer to +25% stability damage, +25% crit chance.
I'm pretty sure crit padding is still a thing, so here's my two cents on ammo stowage: place some "expendable" components (i.e. heat sinks, jump jets, small/med lasers) in the body part where you store the ammo bins. Even when an attack gets past armor that attack only has a percentage chance of actually causing critical damage to a single component. If you have "sacrificial" components in the same location as ammo there's a chance that those throwaways might be able to absorb some of the incoming crits.
That's good to know, thanks.
Ah I wasn't 100% certain on crit-padding yet, so I didn't want to state it as fact. Great to know!
Of course, another fun thing I have had happen with my Stalker that is outfitted as an LRM boat: I go through ammo so fast that I have had ammo bins get hit...and nothing happen. 120 missiles per ton, 50 missiles fired per salvo..
+Party Elite you can pad critical in this game?
I always pad critical slot in my Battletech board game. I think that the awesome is the only zombie mech during the succession war - 3 ppc and not ammo to blow up.
community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/4749
According to this link I just found, this actually isn't effective because unlike tabletop empty slot results on a critical roll are not re-rolled.
What this means for those not familiar with tabletop rules, is this: The way critical hits work is that when the game decides you've critted, it rolls on the location to see which slot is hit. So if you have an LRM20 and two tons of LRM ammo in a location, then there are seven slots where a critical could possibly land on to either disable your LRM20 or blow up your ammo (five slots for the weapon and two for the ammo). Normally in tabletop, if it's an empty slot, then it is re-rolled, so it's beneficial to fill your locations that have valuable or dangerous components with expendable components so that they aren't hit and the expendable ones are more likely to take the critical. However, in the BattleTech video game, the result is not re-rolled. What this seems to mean is that if you roll an empty slot on a critical, nothing happens and there isn't an actual critical hit. So it might actually be more beneficial to put your ammo in an otherwise-empty location with lots of slots, like a side torso.
Great Vid
When placing ammo for weapons @ 3:48 this is great advice for multiplayer (or would be if all the other weapons didn't share that part). In single-player you are best to put ammo on parts that aren't already saturated with gear. Re-paring an empty part takes ~9 days, replacing all that equipment will add another 20-30 days. Place your ammo on a part that you don't mind refitting (empty arms or legs are good).
Also, avoid ammo on left & right torso positions in single-player unless you can accept a 19 day trip to the med-bay after the mission.
This is probably my all time favorite Battletech title. I've been playing it non-stop all week.
It's such fun!
Ye it’s the first game I took to the time to write the studio and thank them!
Great video, as always. A comment on roles...I don't use scouts anymore, they're simply not needed. Now that all of my mechs are > 70 tons, I just bring the pain. What happens if I face a scout? Well, if it can see me, I can see it. And if I can see it, then 1 mech sensor locks it and 1 mech utterly obliterates it. A shot from 2 LRM 20 to a scout mech with 0 evasion wipes it off the map. And, because it's a scout, it's often alone and the only thing I can shoot anyway. I've not had a firestarter get in melee range in a very long time, it's worth 1 mech taking the sensor lock action and 1 mech blowing it to pieces to get it off the map.
The ability for sensor lock to shut down evasion may be too powerful because it seems to completely cancel out the scout role.
Man I played 60 hours of this game and an avid player of mech warrior online. Yet I didn't know weapons fired on the arms are more accurate. Thanks!
One of the holdover rules from TT.
You bet! I try to dig as much as I can.
Well done video. Unlike a lot of other RUclipsrs/players, I didn't feel talked down to and your information was on point and even applicable to the table top version.
Awesome, very glad to hear it! Going to be doing more too!
As someone who is completely new to turn based combat games. This was supert helpful! Thanks!
Your videos have been absolutely excellent help in playing this game. There's so much depth, it's awesome.
Glad to hear they help! Still writing more, I hope they help too! =)
Being very unfamiliar to games like Battle Tech, your videos have been great to watch alongside playing the game and have been very helpful in pointing out the subtleties in the game that would have just left me frustrated otherwise. Thank you and keep up the great work!
Glad to hear these help! There are so many little things that make the game great - but they're tucked away and unclear unless you're familiar with Tabletop, or like digging!
Some notes of my own I'd like to add after finishing my first campaign:
Campaign and skirmish are very different. A skirmish mech doesn't have to worry about repair bills or being outnumbered 2 to 1. A campaign mech does.
As for ammo placement, I tend to favor the CT simply because it has more armor, but I get why it can be a bad idea.
"The hell with information... AMMUNITION is ammunition!" - Patch McGuire, 1st Somerset Strikers.
Really good stuff, thanks! Lance building, yes pleases! And that includes lance terminology, like 'Cavalry'. All games have their terminology, which can be one of the most danunting hurdles for the beginner like me.
Thanks! And you bet - scripting my next one right now =)!
Yes, for the love of God, please do more guides.
Will do!
Thank you. You have no idea how much you are helping me.
Excelent video, but you missed that if you lose a side torso you also lose the use of the arm on the same side, so it may be wise to increase armor in those locations.
2:20 so thats why my annihilator hits headshot easily with 3 gauss rifle and my 733 rarely hit head with missiles. Thanks dude
If you got ammo, it is best to put them with jumpjets or heatsinks. Because when a shot goes internal, the game will roll a chance to crit. Having things in that location as "padding" reduces your chances of ammo explosions because there is more stuff to roll for, rather than straight ammo.
Yeah I wasn't 100% sure if crit padding was an option yet, so I wanted to be 100% sure first!
Not sure if they changed this since a year ago, but I found a forum topic on the official board that seems to contradict this: community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/4749
Apparently they roll for empty slots as well so crit padding isn't really a thing in this game.
The other thing it uses the ammo in same location first. So if you have weapons in your arms and out ammo with it and some in your legs. It will use the arms ammo first.
Another tip that you sort of mentioned is the amount of jump jets you can add on a mech. The amount directly correlates to its move speed. Not its sprint speed but its move speed. Terrain also impact move since it may require more movement to cross a forest or a hill. Which is why you will find jumping to be a better alternative to moving in many situations.
BUT... one key aspect to having so many jump jets on a mech, it also tells you how big the engine is for the mech. So a mech that can equip 5 jump jets on a 60 ton mech means the engine is massive and takes up a lot of tonnage which means less tonnage for armor and weapons. So look for mechs with high jump jets and debate on whether to use them in your lance. Assaults is a big concern in this regard since Victor's, Zeus even when they are 80 tons, you will find an Orion which is 75 tons able to equip more weapons and armor then the 2 assaults because the engine on the Victor and Zeus eats so many tonnage. Going up, the Battlemaster is also an inefficient design as well since it can equip 4 jump jets, same with the Banshee. Avoid using the Battlemaster and Banshee unless you can fine a alternative way to use them. Good mechs are the Highlander, Atlas, King Crab and Stalker which are 3 move mechs.
So sometimes its actually better to run with mechs with lower move speeds since you can equip with more armor and weapons. Its really up to your preference.
Yes please. I love mech Lance design and would love to hear your advice. You are very fun to listen to and want to get better at Lance builds.
Excellent. I had a lot of fun watching through the things you should know - and they made the game play very smoothly for me. Really enjoying it :)
Thanks Party!
Awesome, glad to hear it helped! More to come =)!
Cheers!
INFORMATION IS AMMUNITION!!!
I definitely would like to see a video on lance building on how the different roles play with each other. Also, how mechs can fill those roles to which they aren't traditionally assigned through modification...
I think its a bit remiss to advise people to take the armor off their arms without mentioning that the armor on the torso doens't protect them from that side if the arm is blown off. If the arm goes, the torso armor can be bypassed all the way to the center torso and the destruction of the mech if you aren't able to turn out the damged side.
I haven't played a mechwarrior game in 10 years, and the table top almost as long, I'm basically jumping in fresh, so this is helpful, and a lance build series would be amazing.
Glad to hear this helped! And you bet, am scripting some more and lance building will be one I cover!
The only issue I have with this video is @ 7:12
A true MechWarrior drinks their scotch neat
That's your issue!. A TRUE Mechwarrior doesn't bother with scotch and drinks his whiskey straight from the bottle. :)
I think it's *very* important for me to clarify - I drink my scotch neat. And out the bottle counts as neat too, I guess =P
Fair enough. lol
Scotch can be 40% right up to 90%+ Most of the scotch or for that matter any whisky or even whiskey you guys drink has water added to it for you... you are not drinking it neat unless it is cask strength (around 70% usually) With this in mind A true mechwarrior drinks their scotch straight from the cask!
A real mechwarrior doesn't care what others think of him what he drinks. You can still be an hardcore killer and drink white russian or cosmopolitans. Ive met those types irl
Ohhhh...so *that's* why my CN9-A with an AC20 was able to hit close range targets so much more easily than my Hunchie...
I learned something about myself today, I'm a assault tramp that goes max on armour on every single mech. Light scout is a blasphemy and Highlander was made in heaven. On a serious note, awesome coverage of Battletech essentials for ppl who never touched the tabletop. Thanks for the info.
Video topic discussing the applications of weapons. Please and Thank You.
For example, their min/max range, effectiveness within these ranges, how to determine the optimal range, scenarios where one weapon would be advantageous over another and so on.
A video on Lance building would also be greatly appreciated.
I feel as though I'm not utilizing all the available assets at my disposal. While this game is slightly linear, I feel like it's either missing something or I'm missing something. Either way, I'm enjoying this has much as I enjoy Total War Warhammer. Both are games over 25 years old that have finally made their way from tabletop to modern computer game. Good times.
Keep up the good work my friend.
Oh that's a great suggestion. Will try and hit all those notes! And thank you for your kind words =). This game is such fun.
I second both those motions. Weapon role is a huge determiner in how a mech fights and Lance building is a big deal. It might be worth noting the differing considerations of single player and skirmish through, that has to have a pretty drastic effect on Lance building.
Lance video please! You have been amazingly helpful to my campaign!
After the story drop ship mission I started to struggle with 2 star missions. this video gave me ideas of what i should do. thanks!
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Awesome tips, very helpful, yes Lance guide/tips please
You got it!
You have such a great style when producing these videos, really well done. Subbed!
Thank you very much! =)
Very useful, thanks again. I didn't know about the arm bonuses.
Nice guides Party Elite help me a lot with the game
Lance roles are probably one of the most important points for new players (unless your a lyran commonwealth commander :D then ... a scout lance = 4 atlas ... and an assault lance = MORE ATLAS xD)
One thing that seems a bit off at the moment is the overall effectiveness of AC's and even PPC's. They feel extremely underwhelming, with the AC 20 being the least consistent in its effectiveness.
Also due to the lack of CASE and the fact that multi-shot weapons crit individually per projectile, ammo is best placed in the legs.
At the moment my favorite setup is currently a lance of Grasshoppers with 5 Flamer+ (+5 heat damage) and a swath of M Lasers. In single player there are very few enemies who can handle being hit twice with that kind of heat, let alone survive a called shot salvo to the CT or ST. Alternatively having an LRM boat like a Stalker is extremely useful for knocking down enemy assault mechs.
Dude. That Battletech Animated Series reference tho
Another point with ammunition and critical hits: More ammo means the gun fires longer, but too much means that the bins may outlast the armor protecting it. There's a balance that needs to be made between making it shoot for a while and having the bin run out before there's a serious chance of it being critted. Like the board game, 10-15ish discharges for an ammo weapon is about right.
Juggernaut, melee stability damage arm mods, flamer +'s (bonus heat generated on enemy) are great for stacking debuffs. -1 initiative, stability damage and heat. Evasive movement and bulwark to make getting close easier.
As to pilots, the sooner you get at least the basic training module the better. I always get it first. The kickstart backer pilots also tend to be better, as they can avoid death more often even if it says they are dead during the mission.
Both me KS backer poilots died. You must have got lucky, they all have a small chance of surviving.
Yep. That doesn't happen with regular pilots.
I havnt done my backerkit yet. To bad for me.
IDK at the time of the video, but now, you can mouse hover the stat bar to get numbers. Mobility shows walk, sprint and jump distance for example and firepower shows the alpha strike damage.
You forgot to mention; dont forget about reading what the mechs description roll and internals are so you get an general roll what the Mech are good at. Sure you can custom whatever you like but that text is a good indicator on what its good for
YES! Lance Building. Thanks!
Nice job.
Love to see building and playing a good brawler/tank tips.
Excellent party. Many thanks and cheers!
1. Use missles. Seriously, missles are extremely powerful. A large salvo not only does tons of damage, but also lots of stability pips, often enough to instantly knock a mech straight on it´s ass.
Especially in SP with the extra stability damage you can get from some missiles!
Not to mention the ridiculous bonuses from rare weapons. I'll take some more of those 12dmg srm6's please.
What do you call a Lance of 4 Atlases, a Lyran Scout Lance, good times, good times
That's actually called a Steiner Scout Lance officially.
Indeed, Steiner not Lyran.
A Krogan's Quad
simhq.com/forum/files/usergals/2013/04/full-8822-57010-atlasscout.jpg
Relevant image :D
The classic Lyran Scout Lance. "Enemy picket was spotted, but now they're dead. Nevermind."
You didn't talk about heat sink padding? Pad weapons and ammo with heatsinks to absorb crits.
Im 36 yrs old and played this genre for sometime and while Im not beginner; I still found this video incredibly helpful. Thanks and Cheers.
What is also helpful to know is that attacks with ballistic and missile weapons cause instability in the mech they hit, as well as melee atacks. 4 medium mechs with autocannons and missiles can knock down a much larger mech, then get called shots on it while it is down and easily kill it. I killed a king crab with 4 medium mechs and only took 1 volley of fire from it before I took it's legs off.
Cool video, and you have a great voice for documentaries ^^
Thank you! =)
If you have to keep inventory, having a generic inventory is the best. That way a mech will not go out of spares. I use medium lasers, PPC, LRM5, AMS, jump jets and heat sinks. These have a great balance of firepower, fire rate, cost, tonnage and crits.
Excellent video!!! I learned a lot, even as a long time Battletech/Mechwarrior fan.
And yes, please do make a lance building guide. I was just thinking that.
Awesome, glad to hear it! And yeah working towards that as we speak =)!
8:37 Crazy, My last playthrough, I had the exact same setup with roles and skill trees as that.
Keep them coming! Can you go through what Crits and destroying parts does? :)
Thanks I’ll make sure the knowledge is put to good use
One thing I have to disagree with is the assigning sensor lock using 'Mechwarriors to an LRM boat. Because the Master Tactician ability, that reduces stability damamge when they reserve, AND moves them to act in an earlier phase can be invaluable for a support 'mech, but to get that requires Sensor Lock.
Ive been waiting for this video!
Plenty more to come!
My fav lance is two grasshoppers as close brawler/scouts backed up by two highlanders geared for LR support.
Just watched 2 of your Battletech videos, and both were very helpful. A few things you mentioned caused me to wish you'd been involved in making the dang games tutorial lol. I second/third/whatever the request for the lance build video.
Remove jump jets, reduce armor a bit, best weapons are medium lasers, AC20 and SRM6. Invest in tactics, targeted shot mastery gives you one or two-shot on everything. Try to loot higher weight mech parts.
I'm new to Battletech so maybe I am missing something, but wouldn't the safest place to stow your ammo be the center torso section?
My reasoning is twofold, One, the center torso is probably the safest place on your mech, considering I have yet to see the center torso go first without needing to aimed shot the center torso. This is only helped out by the fact that it seems that the normal attack randomizes what spots you will hit including whether or not you will hit. meaning the highest chance any enemy mech has to hit your CT is from the back. but from the front, there are 8 possible hit possibilities and from the sides 4. That's not mentioning the most armored point on a mech looks like the center torso, and that's if we ignore that you need to burn through the LT or RT to start doing direct damage to the CT just using normal attacks. Again, two of the most heavily armored points on a mech.
my second point being, well, if your CT armor is stripped the most likely situation is a focus fire on that mechs CT until it blows up in a ball of fire, which doesn't take long regardless of whats in that section, or any other section. Might as well slap anything essential to the mech there since, without it, there is no mech.
No, because there is a big difference between almost dead and really dead in BattleTech, and putting your ammo in the CT narrows that gap *greatly*. And on the tabletop you have to worry about through-armor criticals so putting your ammo in the CT means a chance of enemy ballistics making your entire mech explode in one shot. And keep in mind BT the video game basically gives free CASE to all mechs, and on the tabletop, these primitive 3025 mechs are likely to just straight-up go boom from an ammo crit even if the ammo is in LT or RT, as the damage spreads.
I'm new to the Battletech world and have been doing a lot of experimenting with loadouts (at the cost of time and C-bills lol). I seem to frequently change my loadout anytime the mech goes in for repair, as I want to see if tweaking "this " or "that" will work better next time. Hopefully as I play more I won't have to do this as often, but for now it's the only way I'll be able to get a feel for the different loadouts.
Since I only have light and medium mechs right now, I tend to do a VERY tight balancing act between firepower and survivability. As a veteran XCOM player, I like to play a bit on the riskier side rather than the safe side. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense -- maybe not so much in Battletech than it is in XCOM, but it still holds true in some cases. Since my early mechs are lacking in tonnage, I find myself constantly stripping away armor to add more firepower. I've noticed most of my mechs run hot and I seem to alpha strike a lot. I should prob be less aggressive as I get deeper into the campaign though.
+1 for lance composition tutorial
You bet!
I"m late to the game, but this is solid content. Thanks!
This is great! Starts with the stupidly basic basics (but even an expert needs to review the fundamentals sometimes) and builds into the more advanced stuff. I was expecting more about specialization and lance design, but who cares! I learned stuff!
Glad to hear it! And fear not, specialization and lance design vids are being scripted right now =)!
Sensor lock can be good on a round you need to cool off on.
Awesome video thanks for sharing. I would like to see a Lance video
Thank you for a really informative video. Yes please to one on lance building.
Might have been part of a patch since this video, but the orange bars for 'Durability', 'Melee', etc. do have numbers now. You can hover your mouse over them and a tooltip will come up showing a breakdown.
I haven't finished the game yet, but I feel like there is a definite case for early game (sub 2 skull, first several months) and later game (when you start seeing LRM/SRM carriers and heavier LRM turrets) builds. Early game you can afford to field brawlers, lots of melee, short range, less armor, etc. As you progress, you need to field more long-medium range weaponry with more armor, as you take advantage of bulwark so missile spam doesn't knock you down and lead to a quick death.
Ammo on the head is one of the best places(if you dont have a mod to put there). If your head armor is breached, youre pretty much dead already as there's only 16 structure hitpoints. if anything hits it'll kill the mech crit or not
Great video. What are the squiggles next to the evasion chevrons when you move mean?
I have a question related to size and tonnage, taking light mechs as an example. The Spider has a tonnage of 30t, and the locust has a 20t tonnage. Is the spider 50% better than the locust, becuase it can fit that much more on? The locust model looks smaller, does that factor into e.g. making it harder to hit?
I really enjoyed your video. I would love to see a lance building video!
This is an excelent how to video.... I'd like to see him do a How to on making Custom mechs in RogueTech...which is the big mod for this game....its an entirely different ballgame with that mod.
Does Sensor Lock pull more aggro than a regular attack? It seems like Dekker is constantly getting focused enemy fire. Even if I pull him back and retreat, the AI seems to go after him.
Would love to see more examples of good builds for different roles. I'm up to heavies ATM and although I'm doing mostly fine (my Dekker is still alive anyways), mech building is the one area I'm still not confident in, constantly doubting whether I should slap another laser on or if I even want that LRM rack. How about a showcase of your own party composition and weapon combos that work/worked for you at different stages of the campaign?
Good job on keeping Dekker breathing! I'm currently scripting some more guides in the realm of mech building!
Does the location of the heat sinks have any effect? For instance, in the classic tabletop game, heat sinks in the feet would work more efficiently when the mech was in shallow water. Or does water just have an overall heat reduction effect regardless of the location of the sinks?
Did your lance comp video ever happen? Just digging into the playlist after snagging the game and all DLC on sale. Long time tabletop player who was wary with the weird interpretation of excellent tabletop rules to videogame format but have had fun with my first few hours anyway
A lance building video would be greatly apprecaited!
You betcha! Scripting it right now!
You got a "like" and subscribe just for the hard point info.
Thanks!!
Hey man great video, maybe do a guide bout all the pilot classes like flanker, sentinel, striker etc.
More or less what I'm scripting at the moment! =)
fantastic!
Not far in game yet are double heatsinks a thing?
@PartyElite thanks for the video. I am missing a tip for Jump Jets... how many are needed ? How do they stack ?
Great video and som new tips!
But would really love to see a little more specific good starter mech builds.
Or an intermediate guide :p
Lance build guide sounds great too :)
Nice video very helpful but I would like to see the lance making video.
You got it!
In the last segment of the guide regarding which pilot to use on which mech, when you mentioned that the LRM boat needs high Tactics but not Sensor Lock, that struck me as a bit contradictory
Id rather sensor lock at long distance with a spotter mech and use the lurms on another when people still cant tell what the blip on the radar is.
Unless all four pilots have sensor...
Lance Build Video, yes please!
You bet!
3:48 if the ct goes your dead or injured anyway ... ammo in the ct is irelevent ... imagine your mech is fine but your ammo loaded legs go boom .. limping about with no ammo ..(i see you mentioned this , smilety face ) there is a reasonable point for puting it in arms if your weapon is there ,if you lose your weapon you dont have any use for the ammo .. its one of those quandrys