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[Sanctume]

I stopped doing the story mission after Panzyr because I read that the difficulty of the all planets also increases based on story progression. 

So right now, the easiest planet I can find have 2 skulls and up;
which is fine because I updated the Constants...json and
allowed 10 contract missions per planet;
refreshed around 7 days;
it seems to default 1 breadcrumb mission that leads to a planet pathing towards the story line, 
but I also changed this to have 2 breadcrumb missions. 
So I also add mission difficulty variance of 3; where each is 0.5 skulls, which means I get random of 0.5 skulls to 3.5 skulls. 
However, I still get 4 skull missions tied to faction rating, so I can't do those missions yet. 

TLDR; I can get up to 10 contracts per planet. 
At least 1, and up to 2 missions are breadcrumb that requires travel off the planet. 
After playing a bit; I seem to get
1 to 4 local missions that ranges from 0.5 to 3.5 skulls if I go to a 2 skull planet. 
Some planets are higher than 2 skull, so there are missions that are 4 skulls. 
Some missions are also "locked" due to not having enough reputation for whoever is giving out the contract. 

[Mephansteras]

That sounds neat. Is there a guide you found to doing that?

[Sanctume]

Here's my current main 4 Mechs:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quickdraw (QKD-5A) with what I'm pretty sure is the vanilla loadout of 6x M Laser, 1x SRM4, 4x Jump Jet, 7x Heat Sink.
Jagermech (JM6-S) with 5x Heat Sink, 3x M Laser and 1x AC/5, but is also packing an M Laser++ (+1 Acc, +25% Crit) and an AC/5++ (+2Acc, +10 Stb.Dmg.)
Dragon (DRG-1N) with 4x Jump Jet, 2x MG, and another AC/5++ (+2Acc, +10 Stb.Dmg.)
Orion (ON1-V) with 1x SRM6, an AC/10++ (+25% Crit, +10 Stb.Dmg.), an LRM10++ (+25% Crit., +1 Stb.Dmg.), and an LRM15++ (+50% Crit.)

I mess around with some mediums when I want to test a strategy or throw a couple rookies on a milk run, but those four make up my core. They're usually piloted by the starting four, in order of their mechs above:

Glitch is 9 Gunnery/7 Piloting/7 Guts/6 Tactics, with Gunnery as the Primary skill and Tactics as Secondary.
Razgriz (PC) is 9 Gunnery/7 Piloting/6 Guts/6 Tactics, with his Gunnery as Primary and Piloting as Secondary skills.
Behemoth is 6 Gunnery/8 Piloting/9 Guts/6 Tactics, with her Primary skill being Guts and Secondary as Piloting.
Dekker is 7 Gunnery/7 Piloting/5 Guts/9 Tactics, with Tactics as his Primary Skill and Piloting as Secondary.

The skills and mechs seem to mesh nicely together. Behemoth is one of my favorites, since she's built 100% for slappin' fools.

After stopping pursuing the story mission for now, I'm essentially locked to farm contracts that are 1 skull to 2.5 skull at most with ease.  Of the 4 starting crew, I will only keep Glitch, I think. 

I also hire 2 recruits witi 2/2/3/2 skills and never level them up, which they start to gain free xp with Argo upgrades. 
And I setup a power level lance for one unskilled mechwarrior to join. 

My setup was:
1. Sniper/Lancer. Jagermech with AC20+++, basically precision one shot CT killed of annoying lights and some meds. 

2. Sniper/Brawler. The 2nd mech, changes over time.
Vindicator with PPC+ and LRM5++, to 
Dragon for punching and MGs; 
Even played with Grasshopper for punching and more MGs. 
End up with Orion with AC 10++, LRM-15++, and LRM5++. 

3. Sniper/Tactician. This one remained constant for a long time and is the mech for the recruit. 
Centurion with 2x LRM20+++. 

4. Scout/Recon. This one remained strong, can probably be replace with Kintaro or Griffin of the similar setup. 
Shadow Hawk.  2xSRM-6+++, SRM-4++, 1ML. 

Skills:

Sniper/Lancer?.  Gut 5 (Bulkwark), and Gun 5 (Multi-shot) and Gun 8 (Breaching Shot). 
I like this for when I get a decent mech that can field 3 weapons that can dish out +Stability damage.
My main character has this, plus 1 backup (Stag) mechwarrior.

Brawler?.  Gut 5 (Bulkwark), Gut 8 (Juggernaught), Pil 5 (Evasive).
I find juggernaught sucks at the moment for the -1 initiative versus lights and mediums. 
Behemoth has this build, and she is replaced by Brawler-Multi

Brawler-Multi.  Gut 5 (Bulkwark), Gut 8 (Juggernaught), Gun 5 (Multi-shot).
Juggernaught stickk sucks, but the multi shot gives flexibility to shoot multiple targets to help strip evasion from lights.
A recruit (Venom) has this build and replaces Behemoth

Scout/Recon.  Tac 5 (Sensor lock), Pil 5 (Evasive), Pil 8 (Ace).
This is decent for when playing with Reserve and engaging lights and mediums, and some heavies.
But versus a heavy, a medium scout takes a pounding from indirect barrage of missiles (from Catapuls and Orions). 
Dekker and Medusa has the same build, so they are back up each other.
I think this build becomes obsolete when not using medium mech scout. 

Tactician/Missile Boat.  Tac 5 (Sensor lock), Tac 9 (Master Tac), Gun 5 (Multi-shot). 
Early on, this is a missile boat skill build.  But versus full assault, I think it can serve as scout/recon.
Glith has this build.  And no skill recruits can take this mech for the power level missions.

[Sanctume]

That sounds neat. Is there a guide you found to doing that?

Reddit's /r/BattleTechMods
https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleTechMods/comments/8fpxox/removed_forced_difficulty_boosts_planet/

[Majestic7]

It is kind of offputting that after you progress a while, suddenly every pirate gang in the frontier backwaters has full lances of assault mechs. With that kind of equipment they could take over some inner sphere planets... Wish you could still roflstomp Locusts with your assaults.

[Wiles]

A lot of the pirates have pretty poorly maintained mechs though, I ran into a pirate atlas with barely any armour.

[Sensei]

I liked AC20's when I first got one on the dragon, but I feel like every mech after I haven't been able to quite justify an AC20 build. They either lack weapons besides the AC20 or are shy on armor which isn't good for anything except indirect fire units in my opinion.

My Jagermech, though, I managed to kit out with 4 SRM6's plus a bunch of other crap. It's wonderful. I think there's SRM10's in this game somewhere, I'd love to get some of those and kit it out.

[Wiles]

I have dual ac20s on a King Crab (just running it stock for now). Things just blow up on its turn. I love it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Any idea on where to find more Lostech? I have been babying my Highlander because I don't want to lose my gauss rifle or any of the double heatsinks.

[Sanctume]

I read that the "rare" items for sale are set at around 2 at most per inventory refresh, so that includes the +, ++, +++, and supposedly LosTech. 

Each Planets system has it's own settings too.  So rich worlds will have a better chance.  Those with Black market too may have them. 

In the navigation star map, click on planet and it lists what stuff are there.  Rich/Poor, Black market, etc.

As much as I'm tempted to increase it, I don't touch any of the rates until after I'm done with my on-hold story. 

I'm enjoying playing with Mediums with some Heavy for now. 

After I get near all 9s in all my mechwarriors, I will field Light lance and look for 1 skull contracts to play around.

[Cyroth]

Do you ever get to field more then a single lance? Seems a bit weird that the Argo has room for a full company plus reserve, yet all we get to drop is a solitary lance.
Even if we only have a Leo, we should still be able to drop 2 more Mechs, since we obviously carry no ASF with us :/

The weight/number disadvantage is getting silly by now. Just finished an assassination mission where my JM6-S, QKD-4G and 2 BJ-1 were made to go against 2 Wolverines, 2 Griffins, a Kintaro (the target) 4 Jenners and several ground vehicles, including a Manticore and 2 Bulldogs (plus some small fry, Galleons or Scorps, don't remember).
Thats a weight difference of 2:1 before you add in the tanks. With the tanks it is almost 4:1, which is ridiculous.

[umiman]

The weight/number disadvantage is getting silly by now. Just finished an assassination mission where my JM6-S, QKD-4G and 2 BJ-1 were made to go against 2 Wolverines, 2 Griffins, a Kintaro (the target) 4 Jenners and several ground vehicles, including a Manticore and 2 Bulldogs (plus some small fry, Galleons or Scorps, don't remember).
Thats a weight difference of 2:1 before you add in the tanks. With the tanks it is almost 4:1, which is ridiculous.

There are some missions where you just gotta bail out after killing one mech. Even if you win it's not even worth it cost-wise.

I've done it a few times, no real penalty.

[Cyroth]

That disadvantage would actually make sense then, if you're supposed to do a hit'n'run.
Was an assassination so I probably could have just gunned down the Kintaro and then run like hell.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, I've had to do that with assassination missions before.

[Rince Wind]

My Jagermech, though, I managed to kit out with 4 SRM6's plus a bunch of other crap. It's wonderful. I think there's SRM10's in this game somewhere, I'd love to get some of those and kit it out.

I doubt there is an SRM10, as the biggest SRM in classic BT is the SRM6. Clans will develop ATMs at some point soon after the invasion, and those go up to 12 and can use short range ammo that does 3 dmg/missile.

[Wiles]

I think sometimes the random merc missions are supposed to be stacked against you, on occasion Darius will tell you over the comms that it looks like a trap. That's usually when I have to fight 3 lances.

I read that the "rare" items for sale are set at around 2 at most per inventory refresh, so that includes the +, ++, +++, and supposedly LosTech.

I guess I'm just unlucky, I have never seen lostech for sale. I think I'm on the last story mission but I've been putting it off because I want to collect a couple of assaults I haven't managed to get yet (Atlas and Stalker), so I've been going to all the rich worlds to see if I can find any good parts to buy.