Random missions, woohoo!

[wesnef]

So. Random missions. Sometimes that throws multiple lances of death at you, and sometimes. . .

Early career, half my people are suffering from headshots, so I go to a low-end planet to train new pilots. Half-skull Polar Battle. But, hey! It must be a good one because it's got 5/22 possible salvage & 200k credits! Let's not be greedy, and stay at the middle with 3/14 salvage.


Uh.


The target lance is a single Commando.


Oh, good! Reinforcements!

. . . a single Locust M.

That dies in one shot from a Firestarter, because it crits the CT LRM ammo.

Luckily, there were three total pieces of salvage for me to pick priority on. /facepalm



So, what amusing, exasperating, or strange things has RNG done for you lately? :)

[Hastur]

Random mission: This is a ONE skull!

"Pirate forces want you to take down a damage lance of Capellan light mechs" Storyline was the Capellans got shot up attacking Magestry of Canopus forces, and the survivors are in a partially repaired lance of light mechs. Local pirates want them gone.

So, I roll in with a Centurion (starter mech), Vindicator (starter mech), and two Commandos, one starter stock mech, and one salvage mech with a large laser.

First Capellan mech is a Spider, no biggie, 2nd Mech jumps in from behind a hill, and its a damaged Wolverine! Ok, a surprise, but not a huge deal. 3rd Capellan contact is lobbing LRM's over a hill. No biggie, must be a light LRM mech since the volleys are small.

Blast the Wolverine with the whole lance, knock off his AC arm and tear huge holes in his armor. Then the last Capellan mech shows up, jumping over the hill he has been lobbing LRMs over.

A QUICKDRAW, with his paint barely scratched!

Mission goes to full on Brown Alert!

Take all the Capellans down, but took a hell of a beating from the Quickdraw. Took him down with a concentrated barrage from the Centurion, so he blew up with a CT hit, but it beats losing mechs.

Now its time to go have a candid conversation with that Pirate rep.....

[Werecat101]

3 star assassination mission main target in a Shadowhawk his defence team were 2 LRM carriers yes just 2 carriers, Boy did I regret going for all salvage I walked away with 2 heat sinks in the 6 picked salvage. I was a little surprised when no other reinforcements came to play. mission over was not a good thing.

I think they may have messed with the skull balance so its inaccurate both ways, some 3 stars have a real rating of 1 and some 1 skulls are really 3 skull levels of enemy.

[terrycpa1972]

For me was a 4.5 star mission protecting a lance of capallens and kuritans against 1 lance of davions. I shot out there legs and watched the enemy slowly get picked apart. Even with enemy reinforcements my side still outnumbered them 3 Lance's to 1. Felt a bit silly bringing my 2 star league Highlanders.

[SPart]

that's why salvage SHOULD BE a percentage rather than a fixed number, if you kill'n'loot a lot, you get away with more !! heck that's in EVERY battletech novel.
but noooo not here in battletech.

[Arkhne]

Originally posted by SPart:

that's why salvage SHOULD BE a percentage rather than a fixed number, if you kill'n'loot a lot, you get away with more !! heck that's in EVERY battletech novel.
but noooo not here in battletech.

Actually, I like the sound of that. Adds more appeal to eliminating the OpFor when extraction is available, too.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by Warchild:

Originally posted by SPart:

that's why salvage SHOULD BE a percentage rather than a fixed number, if you kill'n'loot a lot, you get away with more !! heck that's in EVERY battletech novel.
but noooo not here in battletech.

Actually, I like the sound of that. Adds more appeal to eliminating the OpFor when extraction is available, too.

Till you realize that you just wrecked a ton of mechs.. and the total salvage is 28 parts.. under the current system you could get to pick 4 and get 22 more.. but under a percentage system you get 10 percent so only 3 items. and there are times that will happen in missions. Especially when mechs and vehicles get hit hard..

[Arkhne]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Originally posted by Warchild:

Actually, I like the sound of that. Adds more appeal to eliminating the OpFor when extraction is available, too.

Till you realize that you just wrecked a ton of mechs.. and the total salvage is 28 parts.. under the current system you could get to pick 4 and get 22 more.. but under a percentage system you get 10 percent so only 3 items. and there are times that will happen in missions. Especially when mechs and vehicles get hit hard..

Did anybody suggest removing the Salvage Negotiation? No. Why assume it would always/only be 10%?

[MortVent]

Originally posted by Warchild:

Originally posted by MortVent:

Till you realize that you just wrecked a ton of mechs.. and the total salvage is 28 parts.. under the current system you could get to pick 4 and get 22 more.. but under a percentage system you get 10 percent so only 3 items. and there are times that will happen in missions. Especially when mechs and vehicles get hit hard..

Did anybody suggest removing the Salvage Negotiation? No. Why assume it would always/only be 10%?

Woosh!

[Rad Dad Redemption]

Decided to uninstall mods and play a campaign since Urban Warfare is out. Running assassination missions to farm better mechs in between story missions. Haven't even liberated Smithon yet, and decide to do a 2.5 skull assassination mission. The 8 support mechs are all in the 30-60 ton range, but with barely any armor. I had a grasshopper and a bunch of mediums. Clean up the support lances with minimal damage, I think I lost like one arm or something on the Hopper and everything else was intact. Target finally gets in range of sensors: 100T Mech. ♥♥♥♥. Sensor lock and LRM spam is doing nothing cuz I don't have any racks bigger than a 5 in my lance. Use the LOS from the hill to get close and surround it. Try to call shot headshot it for scrap, run out of resolve. Have Glitch melee attack. Headshot. Free King Crab like 3 story missions deep in the campaign.

[Arkhne]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Originally posted by Warchild:

Did anybody suggest removing the Salvage Negotiation? No. Why assume it would always/only be 10%?

Woosh!

If you have a point to make, make it.

[Lack of Stuff]

Arano Restoration dropping on my head with 2 Atlases, 1 Cyclops, and 1 Banshee in Marik space of all places. GO AWAY KAMEA!

[Axeface]

I got a full grasshopper on my second mission on a new career :p 1/2 skull mission.

[Befitzero]

Had a low skull one called "Clash of Titans" that had two assault mechs from opp sides. They start off fighting each other than both decided to take pot shots at my light mech. That attack dam near stripped all the armor off my light.

I had to make my light haul butt out of there and kept the rest of my lance out of range. They end up beating the crap out of each other and then I had to go in and clean up.

End up getting a part of Stalker and two parts of a Vector (Victor?) out of that mission. That was a fun run like hell mission.

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Lack of Stuff:

Arano Restoration dropping on my head with 2 Atlases, 1 Cyclops, and 1 Banshee in Marik space of all places. GO AWAY KAMEA!

What?! I've never seen this happen and have hundreds of hours in the game, including career mode

[MortVent]

Originally posted by Warchild:

Originally posted by MortVent:

Woosh!

If you have a point to make, make it.

The point was made.

at best you get 50 percent

So 4/22 is still better than 14 out of the 28 in the example (and there are many missions where 20-30 salvage items is the norm)

Besides it's a simple don't fix what isn't broken issue.

Percentages sound nice, but would hurt quite more as in many cases you'd get less salvage rather than more.