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[Anvilfolk]

Haha, nice! Did he get his Dire Wolf back, or was it lost as spoils of war? You seem to have the worst luck with headshots though. They rarely happen when I play! Also, you seem to find the crappiest opponents (in that they field absurd lances, and generally behave like a-holes)...

I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of basic level 1 tech... I've come to know most weapons, and even some of the ammo you can load into those weapons, have the basics for movement, shooting, movement, start recognising a fair amount of mechs (names and weapons they carry) from the 3025 era, have started getting different sensor types (learnt the hard way...), and so forth. Pretty happy with the progress!

[Erkki]

Haha, nice! Did he get his Dire Wolf back, or was it lost as spoils of war? You seem to have the worst luck with headshots though. They rarely happen when I play! Also, you seem to find the crappiest opponents (in that they field absurd lances, and generally behave like a-holes)...

I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of basic level 1 tech... I've come to know most weapons, and even some of the ammo you can load into those weapons, have the basics for movement, shooting, movement, start recognising a fair amount of mechs (names and weapons they carry) from the 3025 era, have started getting different sensor types (learnt the hard way...), and so forth. Pretty happy with the progress!

Lances? Companies! I dont think I'd have wanted to face that Dire Wolf in a city... He probably made that army for the heck of it. 

Unfortunately I have no info on what happened to the Dire Wolf. One of my faction mates said he lost a battle to it, so I presume the tactic of screening it with expendable units while it does its killing job can work.

Posted some more on the Steam group too - I'll have time to play on Thursday and onwards evenings from about 1600 GMT. If someone is interested... I dont have competitive game in mind at all, no worries. 

[Anvilfolk]

I'm EST/GMT-5, so those times don't work except for weekends. Unfortunately, this particular weekend I've got things happening already

Join the Dwarf Fortress Community group, though - there's usually quite a few people on the chat, and you might be able to convince a few of them to play. That's how I badgered a few people into playing BT again, haha

[Anvilfolk]

So I've had the chance to play quite a few more games lately, since it's supposed to be the holidays and all that.

Several things happened!
- Turns out levelling units is, in general, bad. So if you have a 4 gunnery, 2 pilot skill unit, it will insanely increase the BV of that unit, and if you have lances made of this stuff, the mechs you field will be hopelessly outclassed by what the enemy fields at the usual 4/5 gunnery/pilot skills.
- I had been buying mechs one at a time, to make up for replacements. So basically I was fielding three armies. One low BV vehicle army, one low BV mech army, and a higher BV (3500-4500BV) mech army. I generally did not own mechs other than those in the lances. That meant that I was building lances haphazardly, with whatever I got as salvage (since I wasn't winning, very little salvage), and using my RP, flu and money sparringly.
- That also meant I had a crapton of leftover CBills and reward points (RP). So I went ballistic, leased a ton of bays with my CBills, and then filled them up with my RPs. All of a sudden, there was this entire amazing world of lance-building that I hadn't really experienced before.  Unfortunately, I didn't know how to build lances, so I lost a few matches.
- I finally started figuring out lance-building, but then had absolutely terrible luck in the dice rolls, terrain I fought over, and in what I was facing. I try to have a couple of long-range components now, so I had this army with 1xPPC, 2xLL/2xLRM15, 2xLRM10. And then had to fight from within a fairly urban map to a guy outside the urban area. I had little mobility, AND he had like 3xPPCs, which are better at longe range than LRMs.
- So then, through all that bad luck (and my lack of skill, of course), I ended up losing all my decent mechs in an absurdly frustrating string of defeats. I had lots of empty bays, not enough influence, bad lances, no RPs, and things were looking grim.


Now though? Through a combination of above-average luck, much better lance building abilities, and a nice, filled up hangar, I've just got a streak of 3 victories under my belt. Admittedly, the last one was because of getting some really good luck after I created a nice opportunity (like getting in position for a leg kick, but then the weapons shooting that same leg so that there was enough damage for it to come off, and a gyro hit from positioning myself at an enemy's rear).



I'm still not playing my heavy mechs, because I've been using them in tutorial games and they've become too overlevelled, but I will be creating a trash lance soon to free them up for real mechs. I figure I can now afford a new heavy mech now and then. Here's my stuff!

Spoiler: My armies & Hangar (click to show/hide)

I'm afraid to play anymore games because I'm afraid of getting another losing streak! Though I think I am more zen these days...

[Erkki]

Good to hear that you've done well! 


But yeah, that is one of the disadvantages of the 3025 server - you cant switch pilots from unit to another nor can you dispose of them without releasing the units themselves too. The leveled-up pilots ARE good, but who'd voluntarily pay the BV for useless properties in units such as a 4/3 walking artillery piece of 3/5 pulse laser TSM brawler? Now, on the contrary, leveled-up piloting pilots in commanding units, fast short ranged lights or dedicated brawlers can be great(preventing falls, letting kicks and other physical attacks connect much more often) and gunnery in snipers(the higher the required to-hit roll number, the more a single step up or down in gunnery skill effects).

What kind of an army did you have in that city battle? Remember that spotting for indirect fire has no range limit(or actually it does, sensor/visibility range of 60 hex I think), and infantry & BA pay no movement modifier for indirect fire spotting, so one can just keep one visible, spotting for fire from your hidden LRM units, but out of range or at least hard to hit, and only pay +1 in to-hit modifiers. Meks and vehicles modify IDF to-hit chance by the same +2 plus their movement. IDF may not do a whole lot of damage, but each hit is still some armor away from the enemy and a potential through-armor-critical. Plus, the enemy has to decide if he keeps his units under fire or if he does something about it; messing up with his OODA loop and potentially giving you the tactical iniative, perhaps making him do a bad move or several.

That Grasshopper GHR-5H that you have is a very nice unit!  If I was asked, I'd rank it as one of the highest practical usability or power- o BVprice meks of the Introtech/3025. The only ones, to me, better are some of the all-energy weapons units like AWS-8Q and HBK-4P.

[Anvilfolk]

Yeah, I just recently figured out how to switch weapon modes, which would allow me to do the indirect fire thing. I'll definitely be keeping those in mind!

I can't remember the lance I was using, since it was one of those that got wiped several times over. I know there was a Phoenix Hawk (which spent the match jumping from cover to cover, and finally DFA's one of the enemy's mechs out of nowhere, potentially crippling him. Then he got headshotted, critted, and pilot death. Because that's how I roll There was also a Stalker, and something else with 2xLRMs10 or 15. Indirect fire would've made a LOT of sense. I kept most of my units hidden most of the time - I could have, say, the Stalker out, 'cause he was the heaviest, or have the Phoenix hawk at a safe distance, just jumping from buildingtop to buildingtop to keep eyes on the enemies, and spotting.

Live and learn!

[EuchreJack]

I'm afraid to play anymore games because I'm afraid of getting another losing streak! Though I think I am more zen these days...

That's why I stopped playing.  Still fun to read what you all are doing.

[Anvilfolk]

Getting all of those units really helped me, since it allowed me to become a much stronger player because of factors OUTSIDE the battles (namely, building up good lances). As a newbie player, I definitely feel that luck is playing less and less of a role, even though it will always be a non-trivial factor.

It's funny... the people who stay the longest are those that have been "broken" by the RNG. The people I've played recently, like I said, were less lucky than me... and yet they took it as "just another battle", said good game and looked forward to the next game. You can't go play BT if you're feeling down already, or annoyed. Because the RNG WILL screw you, and then you'll feel like *everything* is screwing with you, and just spiral down from there You can't go there to win, just go there to play

It's really a feature of games that have lots of dice rolling. I remember being furious at Settlers of Catan, when my number just wouldn't be rolled and I'd spend literally half a dozen turns not doing anything

[Erkki]

Getting all of those units really helped me, since it allowed me to become a much stronger player because of factors OUTSIDE the battles (namely, building up good lances). As a newbie player, I definitely feel that luck is playing less and less of a role, even though it will always be a non-trivial factor.

It's funny... the people who stay the longest are those that have been "broken" by the RNG. The people I've played recently, like I said, were less lucky than me... and yet they took it as "just another battle", said good game and looked forward to the next game. You can't go play BT if you're feeling down already, or annoyed. Because the RNG WILL screw you, and then you'll feel like *everything* is screwing with you, and just spiral down from there You can't go there to win, just go there to play

It's really a feature of games that have lots of dice rolling. I remember being furious at Settlers of Catan, when my number just wouldn't be rolled and I'd spend literally half a dozen turns not doing anything

Aye, losing "because of RNG" (an observer might agree or disagree) has two sides: one can feel that its the RNG that just doesnt let one win, or that the battle would have been a victory had RNG been more even(or without a through armor critical less, or without something else very unlikely that had happened). Accepting that victory or loss is not 100% about the players helps a lot with losses and keeps the tension and excitement up even when the battle is "decided" - many battles can still turn in the favor of the player who may be seeming to lose at first.

The semi-random nature of the game is also why I hate the clantech. Higher damage weapons, more guns but without any more armor --> the number of weapons that can one-shot a mek with a HD hit is larger than in Inner Sphere games and the combinations of weapons and their hit sizes that destroy HD in 2 hits is maybe 4 or 5 or so times greater. Theres also a higher chance to 1 or 2 -shot destroy an armor section and roll for a crit on the internals. Which increases randomness and thus emphasizes pure "dice luck" and makes the armor less reliable, less ablative, than speed or firepower. The latter is not bad thing itself, its the same phenomenon that happens when you using lighter units, but the former really sucks. Sometimes the Clan vs. Clan games are just about who gets the first lucky HD hit. That the Clanners have a pulse laser that shoots out to 20 hex and better pilots that connect their shots much more often than the average IS 4/5, does not help any.

You dont play to win, you play to have fun with the board game. For an individual game, RNG(even if average rolls are, one side is bound to do damage sooner or more grouped than the other and so forth), the used forces and the terrain is never even. Why then worry? Unless if in a large sample of games of 50+ or so you still lose a lot more than you win... Because only then is it definitely in you and not just the bad luck.  Just have fun playing. Ultimately, your hangar is dead already. 

[Erkki]

Some background music for playing BT: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3E409CD81FFF6F55

[EuchreJack]

Just have fun playing. Ultimately, your hangar is dead already. 

I love this quote.

[Anvilfolk]

Hahahah, yeah, excellent way to put it. Agreed though - you're supposed to go through your hangar and just keep rebuilding lances as losses pile up. To me that was extremely counter-intuitive, but now makes sense Also, having a full hangar makes coping with the losses that much easier

Also, hells yeah, music for Battletech! Had been wondering about that for a while

And finally - I've taken to running the log analyser after battles. It really does give you perspective on whether the rolls were as bad as you thought they were... I had a game where all of my PPC shots missed. It was absolutely infuriating... then it turns out I'd rolled hits on 4 more 8+ shots than I should've! Unfortunately, those were small lasers or crap like that that doesn't often make a difference

[bagele]

Has anyone ever tried running a semi-pnpish rpg campaign? Not sure how many people can be in one session but itd be kind of neat to run it like that, IE 5 players as pilots with personalized mechs versus the GM running opponents.

[ndkid]

Has anyone ever tried running a semi-pnpish rpg campaign? Not sure how many people can be in one session but itd be kind of neat to run it like that, IE 5 players as pilots with personalized mechs versus the GM running opponents.

About a decade ago, I did this using the newest Mercs sourcebook of the time with two friends playing as the joint operations of what began as a mercenary lance and eventually became a mercenary company.

I've since dabbled on and off with a codebase that will handle most of the grunt math for me in an easily moddable design, but I find my interest always wanes.

[Erkki]

Has anyone ever tried running a semi-pnpish rpg campaign? Not sure how many people can be in one session but itd be kind of neat to run it like that, IE 5 players as pilots with personalized mechs versus the GM running opponents.

I think the MM supports at least up to 24 players/observers that can be put into teams... So yeah. Theres a map editor as well...