Author Topic: Let's Play... BattleTech! Rise of the Hard Light Brigade  (Read 62573 times)

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Do we have to actually do things to join in
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline Dragon

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Sign me in as a MechWarrior. Callsign: Rapier. In MW4: Mercs, I prefered high-end assault mechs, especially DireWolf/Daishi (dunno which names you're using), usually toting an array of Clan ER PPCs. I don't know if this suits your campaign or not, though, not to mention this config works for the MW4: Mercs version (specifically, the free version), not sure about BattleTech.

 

Offline The E

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Most builds that are possible in MW4: Mercs are either straight-up impossible in the tabletop, or hilariously bad ideas (Mostly because going into heat shutdown is pretty much an instant death sentence in the tabletop, with a lot of very harsh penalties creeping up quickly, something MW4 does not simulate).
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline esarai

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
I'd like to volunteer as a MechWarrior, callsign Esarai.  Probably a bit late but eh, if someone dies horribly I can be the new recruit.
<Nuclear>   truth: the good samaritan actually checked for proof of citizenship and health insurance
<Axem>   did anyone catch jesus' birth certificate?
<Nuclear>   and jesus didnt actually give the 5000 their fish...he gave it to the romans and let it trickle down
<Axem>and he was totally pro tax breaks
<Axem>he threw out all those tax collectors at the temple
<Nuclear>   he drove a V8 camel too
<Nuclear>   with a sword rack for his fully-automatic daggers

Esarai: hey gaiz, what's a good improvised, final attack for a ship fighting to buy others time to escape to use?
RangerKarl|AtWork: stick your penis in the warp core
DarthGeek: no don't do that
amki: don't EVER do that

  

Offline Aesaar

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
I'll have a go.  Mechwarrior (or vehicle commander if you'd rather that), callsign Toothless.

 
Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
the old people in #bp told me to sign up, plz. make me some kind of cannon fodder so i can die senselessly and you can all mourn the senseless waste of youth in the meatgrinder of the wars of the old (also make my callsign Phantom Hoover)
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 
Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
the old people in #bp told me to sign up, plz. make me some kind of cannon fodder so i can die senselessly and you can all mourn the senseless waste of youth in the meatgrinder of the wars of the old (also make my callsign Phantom Hoover)

Ah, so that's how you die. "Phantom Hoover, dodge lef- oh you're dead."

 

Offline Mongoose

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
I knew next to nothing about the whole BattleTech universe until your excellent summary, so I don't feel right going after an actual mech, but you can throw me in as part of the tech crew.

 

Offline redsniper

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Put me in. I want to drive the MFB.
"Think about nice things not unhappy things.
The future makes happy, if you make it yourself.
No war; think about happy things."   -WouterSmitssm

Hard Light Productions:
"...this conversation is pointlessly confrontational."

 

Offline Dragon

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Most builds that are possible in MW4: Mercs are either straight-up impossible in the tabletop, or hilariously bad ideas (Mostly because going into heat shutdown is pretty much an instant death sentence in the tabletop, with a lot of very harsh penalties creeping up quickly, something MW4 does not simulate).
Well, I once made a quick-firing mech with enough heatsinks for a continuous barrage with all it's energy cannons. It doesn't have heating problems (doesn't even heat up that much), but probably ended up weak-ish on the armor side. Also, it's the MekTek version of MW4 (the free one, supposed to no longer be available, but you know the internet :) ), which seems to somewhat closer to the tabletop (well, at least from what I know from reading the wiki and a stock walkthrough, I don't really play tabletop games, mostly because of lack of partners).

 

Offline IronBeer

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
If you need another 'mech pilot, I want in. If you just need some schmuck to drive a tank or a support vehicle, I want in anyways.

Callsign: Iron
"I have approximate knowledge of many things."

Ridiculous, the Director's Cut

Starlancer Head Animations - Converted

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
If a slot eventually opens for a 50 tonner jock, I would gladly hop in.  MBTs are also welcome.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Scotty

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Wow, this is a lot more than I expected to show up.  The new roster is as follows, and will be added to the first post:

CO: The_E "Easy"
XO/Lance Leader: Polpolion "Polly"
Lance Leader: Andrew "Duck" Gibbs
Officer (Vehicle Commander): StarSlayer (you'll see why)

MechWarrior: headdie "Headdie"
MechWarrior: Patriot "Patriot"
MechWarrior: Phantom Hoover "Phantom"
MechWarrior: Esarai "Esarai"
MechWarrior: Dragon "Rapier"

Vehicle Commander: IronBeer "Iron"
Vehicle Commander: Aesaar "Toothless"
Vehicle Commander: Direwolf "Dire"

Admin: Me "Strobe"
Doctor:
Mech Techs and Mechanics: redsniper, Mongoose.

Now then, onto why the roster is set up this way!

Starting off, I have to roll up a total of 12 combat units and 12 support personnel.  Everything is rolled up with 2d6, so I don't get to cheat and fudge numbers here and there for better stuff.  With that in mind, there are a series of tables in the AtB rules that govern how to generate the company.  In a nutshell, these tables determine skill level and weight class of vehicle, as well as something called Tech Level that I'm going to leave behind the scenes.  It only really influences how likely it is for you to get a "better" (as determined by battlevalue, the balancing mechanism for the board game) ride when you start, and nothing else.  I'll post the meat and potatoes of the tables here:

Skill level
2-6 = Green
7-9 = Regular
10-11 = Veteran
12 = Elite

Weight class
2-3 = Dispossessed (i.e. the "**** you" result)
4-6 = Light
7-9 = Medium
10-11 = Heavy
12 = Assault

As you can see, the game is heavily stacked against starting with large numbers of Heavy and Assault 'Mechs, and probably for good reason.  Most struggling, starting up merc companies aren't likely to have a huge reserve of big bruisers.

With those tables, and a pair of trusty six sided dice, I can start rolling up the company.

The company commander comes first (Hi, The_E!).  The important thing about the company commander is that he has to be designated before rolling, because he gets bonuses to his rolls.  A +2 bonus to every roll is added, and while that might not sound like much, the 2d6 bell curve makes it a powerful tool.  Rolling the dice, the first result to come up is an 8, modified to 10.  A Veteran.  Excellent, it's always good to have an experienced commander.  Another roll finds the weight class of his 'Mech.  12.  Well, ****.  I just wasted that +2, since nothing above 12 gives you anything better than a 12, and I just rolled a 14.  Still, I can't cry about having an Assault 'Mech handed to me for the very first 'Mech of the company, no siree.  A couple more rolls on the individual skill level tables that I'm not going to post here because they'd take up huge amounts of space reveals that The_E's skills are Gunnery 3, Piloting 5.

The "average" skill for a Regular pilot in the Inner Sphere is Gunnery 4/Piloting 5, so The_E is a bit above average.  How Gunnery works is by taking the base skill score, in this case 3, and using it as the "must beat" number for a given check.  This is the base number for the most ideal shot, meaning the target hasn't moved, the shooter hasn't moved, the target is at short range, and there's nothing in the way.  If all those conditions are met, the attacker will hit the target on a result of 3 or greater, henceforth abbreviated as 3+.  Any result 3 or higher on 2d6 will inflict damage on the target.  Considering there's only 1/36 chance of getting lower than a 3, that's pretty damn good.  That also means that the lower the Gunnery skill, the better the gunner, and the higher the Gunnery skill, the less likely he is to hit the broad side of a barn at 10 paces.  Skills cap out at 0 on the god-level side and 8 on the danger-to-yourself-and-others side.  Piloting works the same way, except it governs whether a pilot can maintain course and balance after taking damage, running on pavement, or navigating tough terrain.  A bad pilot will frequently find him or herself landing hard on their ass, while a good pilot can probably dance through a landslide without falling.

A 3/5 Assault 'Mech is not bad at all to start with, but I still have 11 units to go.  I have the feeling karma is going to bite me here pretty soon for that one.

The next three pilots confirm my fears.  5/5 Light, 5/6 Light, 6/5 Medium.  ****.  Well, at least they're not as bad as it is actually possible to be, though both the guys with 6s take the cake as "worst in the unit" in their own special ways.  Note that is is technically possible to start as high as 7 in Piloting, so it could, in fact, be worse.

The company so far:

*** 3/5 Assault
5/5 Light
5/6 Light
6/5 Medium

As a 'Mech lance, that thing would be pretty godawful.  An Assault, two Lights, and a Medium, most of whom are barely graduates from the academy?  I need some better pilots, stat.  The answer to that is another 'Mech lance.  This one goes a bit better to start with.  The first pilot I roll is a Regular (4/6).  Okay, sweet.  His ride?  Another Assault 'Mech.  The karmic whiplash is making my neck ache.

The next pilot is even better, for the most part.  He drives a Medium, which I actually need more of, and is a Veteran.  Woo!  His exact skills?  2/5!  Yeah, that's right, Gunnery 2.  That's absurd for an IS pilot right there.  That's actually getting close to being as good of a shot as a whole bunch of Clan Veterans, though he's not nearly the sheer pilot.  This guy is going to be the XO, I can almost feel it.  I'd have to get really lucky on the last lance to make that not happen.

Pilot 3 in Lance 2 is mundane, even terrible.  A 6/5 Light 'Mech pilot.  Yawn.  File him away in the bin with the others.

The fourth pilot makes everything even better, again.  A Regular pilot who somehow manages to pull out a 3/4 skill!  It's possible, but it doesn't happen very often.  That also means that this particular pilot is all around better than our company commander (Sorry, E).  That happens sometimes, and isn't even really a bad thing.  Having pilots better than your commander means there's not really any question that somebody is going to be able to step up if the commander goes down.

The company again, with another officer marked:

*** 3/5 Assault
5/5 Light
5/6 Light
6/5 Medium

4/6 Assault
** 2/5 Medium
6/5 Light
3/4 Heavy

Looking okay for now, but it needs a bit of rearrangement, methinks.  Let's try matching up the weight classes and seeing what we can smash together.  Immediately I see the opportunity for another officer, and I can see what these lances are going to morph into.  This is, of course, barring any anomalies, like getting a Dragon for the Heavy, or a Panther or Urbanmech or even Valkyrie for Lights.

Assault/HQ
*** 3/5 Assault
4/6 Assault
* 3/4 Heavy
6/5 Medium

Scout
** 2/5 Medium
5/5 Light
5/6 Light
6/5 Light

That's still not all of it, though.  After two 'Mech lances, I want to mix it up with some vehicles.  If the rolling doesn't go well, and I don't get some of the vehicles that are just flat out better than 'Mechs at things like scouting, I can just mix the vehicles in with my 'Mech lances to smooth out the rough edges.

The first vehicle surprises me a little bit.  A Regular crew turns out 3/6 and a Heavy vehicle.  Alright, not gonna ***** about that one too much.  That'll fit into my Assault/HQ lance to replace that ****ty 6/5 Medium easily enough.  The other three are less surprising, and also more disappointing.  4/6, 4/5, and 4/6, all Medium vehicles.  Welp, looks like I won't be getting those scouts I wanted.  At least they should be cheap to replace and maintain when I lose them (and I probably will).

With the additions to the company, and the need to elect a fourth officer, I rearrange the lances a bit.  Immediately I run into problems when I find all four of my officers in two lances.  Well damn.  Guess I won't get to have the lances I want, either.  Every lance has to have an officer, or they're effectively useless and can't deploy to anything.  Oh well.  Moving them around a little bit finds me with this rather workable set up.  I'll even add names, since this is everybody:

Assault/HQ
*** 3/5 Assault (m) The_E "Easy"
4/6 Assault (m) Dragon "Rapier"
4/6 Medium (v) IronBeer "Iron"
* 3/6 Heavy (v) StarSlayer "StarSlayer"

Scout
** 2/5 Medium (m) Polpolion "Polly"
5/5 Light (m) NGTM-1R "Night"
5/6 Light (m) Patriot "Patriot"
6/5 Light (m) Esarai "Esarai"

Combat
* 3/4 Heavy (m) Andrew "Duck" Gibbs
6/5 Medium (m) Phantom Hoover "Phantom"
4/5 Medium (v) Aesaar "Toothless"
4/6 Medium (v) DireWolf "Dire"

Unfortunately, Dragon, a custom Dire Wolf/Daishi is probably the single least possible option I have for your Assault 'Mech right now.  You're far more likely to be stuck with something like a Victor, Zeus, or Awesome.  I've got a brawler mixed Assault/HQ lance, a (hopefully) fast Scout lance that will one day birth the greatest pilots the Sphere has ever known (seriously, Scout lances improve so fast), and one general purpose combat lance with everything I can't fit somewhere else.  Pretty standard for a starting company, I suppose.

Next up, the support personnel.  All I need to roll for these guys is skill level, so it goes really fast.  I decide to split my Techs 70/30, with seven 'Mech Tech teams and three Mechanic teams.  'Mechs can take more punishment, but then also need significantly more repairs after a fight than a comparably sized vehicle.  That, and I have double the number of 'Mechs I have vehicles.  In a pinch, I can use either tech team to fix either unit, but they're less effective, and sometimes can't perform the necessary repairs.  A 'Mech Tech team can't replace the stabilizer on a hovertank, while a Mechanic team can't replace actuators, and so on.

The rolling is quick, and I end up with five teams of Regular 'Mech Techs, two teams of Green 'Mech Techs, one Veteran Mechanic team, and two Regular Mechanic teams.  For right now, I'm going to have redsniper be the Veteran Mechanic, while Mongoose gets to be one of the regular 'Mech Techs.

The other two support personnel in a starting company are the Administrator and the Doctor.  The Doctor is a normal Regular.  Once Herra finds his way to this thread, this'll probably be him.  The Admin for this game will be played by me, and in light of that, I choose to make him a Command Admin.  Totally coincidentally, that roll makes him Elite.  No bull****, got a 12.

There are four different kinds of Administrators in the AtB rules, Command, Logistics, Transport, and Human Resources.  Each admin gives a bonus to a different field of contract negotiation or recruitment.  Command admins help negotiate command clauses, logistics admins negotiate overhead and support, transport admins negotiate transport rights, and human resources admins attract higher quality recruits.  Normally, I have my first admin be a HR admin to bulk up my pool of proficient personnel quickly, but if I want to be telling the story, I need a command admin.  That's not bad early game, anyway, since command rights determine how much control you have over your own forces, and how many attached allies you have per mission.

Attached allies are possibly the most horrible things ever.  In the Integrated and House command contract types, you get two and one allies respectively.  They are controlled by the bot, and if you lose them, you lose contract points (more on those later).  Since contract points directly affect how much you're getting paid, that's a Very Bad Thingtm.  Liaison command contract types have one ally, but he's under your control.  You still lose points if he dies, but you can make him run away, concentrate fire, and do other, similarly not-retarded-bot things.  Independent is widely regarded as the best command type, and comes with no allies whatsoever.  You live and die by your own merits.

I still have no idea what exact 'Mechs and vehicles I'm getting yet, since I'm away from my assignment tables at the moment.  Once I figure that out, I can boot up MekHQ, input all the stuff I've got so far, hire pilots and buy the 'Mechs to start, find my starting treasury, and then find a contract to pursue.

I'll try to start adding some pictures once the game gets started up for proper like, I swear.  Hell, I'm tempted to go back and add some to that wall o' text exposition block, too.

That should be it for tonight.  Tomorrow night will proooobably be contract generation.  I'm going to hold off on actually picking the contracts just yet, but it's nice to know what my options are.

 
Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
those look like some proper cannon fodder stats, i for one am pumped
The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
I look forward to being assigned something sufficiently useless, like a Wasp, in the hopes of one day upgrading to something insufficiently useless, like a Phoenix Hawk.

(Will accept upgrades to Super Stinger.)

Then, in the far future, I can be dead. Or have a TR-1 Wraith, either way.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2013, 08:48:23 pm by NGTM-1R »
"Load sabot. Target Zaku, direct front!"

A Feddie Story

 

Offline CommanderDJ

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Since I was skipped over, any chance I could snag a support spot somewhere? "DJ" will do for a callsign, if applicable.
[16:57] <CommanderDJ> What prompted the decision to split WiH into acts?
[16:58] <battuta> it was long, we wanted to release something
[16:58] <battuta> it felt good to have a target to hit
[17:00] <RangerKarl> not sure if talking about strike mission, or jerking off
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> WUT
[17:00] <CommanderDJ> hahahahaha
[17:00] <battuta> hahahaha
[17:00] <RangerKarl> same thing really, if you think about it

 
Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
I'd still like to pilot a mech, if a spot is available (now or later), or a vehicle if not. Otherwise, I'd like to be support or something.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!


"Ladies like Grinding Treads"
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline niffiwan

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Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Battletech! :D

It seems I missed the fighting roster, but I'd like to be included as a mechtech, or a Mechwarrior replacement (fast light or medium FTW, no Urbies/Panthers/Whitworths/Vindicators/etc!)
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 
Re: Let's Play... BattleTech!
Since I was skipped over, any chance I could snag a support spot somewhere? "DJ" will do for a callsign, if applicable.
You got skipped over?  I asked for a lance leader slot and callsign in the very first reply! :P
17:37:02   Quanto: I want to have sexual intercourse with every space elf in existence
17:37:11   SpardaSon21: even the males?
17:37:22   Quanto: its not gay if its an elf

[21:51] <@Droid803> I now realize
[21:51] <@Droid803> this will be SLIIIIIGHTLY awkward
[21:51] <@Droid803> as this rich psychic girl will now be tsundere for a loli.
[21:51] <@Droid803> OH WELLL.

See what you're missing in #WoD and #Fsquest?

[07:57:32] <Caiaphas> inspired by HerraTohtori i built a supermaneuverable plane in ksp
[07:57:43] <Caiaphas> i just killed my pilots with a high-g maneuver
[07:58:19] <Caiaphas> apparently people can't take 20 gees for 5 continuous seconds
[08:00:11] <Caiaphas> the plane however performed admirably, and only crashed because it no longer had any guidance systems