Starting lance should be lights

[Ryujin]

A lance of 3 mediums and a light really trivializes the early game content. Starting off with all lights (or 3 lights ,1 medium) make you feel progression better and makes some early fights, such as that Shadowhawk in the Majesty Metals mission feel like a real boss fight.

I'm thinking Commando, Jenner, Locust. Your ancestral mech could be one of heavier lights sich as a Panther or a lighter medium like a Vindicator. Would be nice as well if there were more lights such as Stingers and Wasps available.

Maybe in the content patch they could put this option in as one of those granular difficulty options they were talking about.

[SpiralRazor]

Personally, i use a mod that allows you to choose your starting mech after the tutorial missions...and then another mod to skip the tutorial missions:)

[titanopteryx]

Actually you do start with a locust in storage. I would like to start with a firestarter light mech. Going around burninating the pirates in their thatch roof mechs.

[ImHelping]

titanopteryx lähetti viestin:

Actually you do start with a locust in storage. I would like to start with a firestarter light mech. Going around burninating the pirates in their thatch roof mechs.

But how are you going to get empty bragging rights on the internet if you use a GOOD light, instead of screaming at the top of your lungs you started with all locusts like that means anything?

[GM Pax]

Nine-ball lähetti viestin:

I tend to agree, but it would require a redesign of the game. The starting lance is too powerful for what is supposed to be a raggedy Periphery unit living paycheck to paycheck. Life is cheap, but Battlemechs aren't. Only major houses, companies, and Comstar, which is the corporate space Pope, can afford to maintain such lances easily.

And yet, lances just like the one we start with flourish and thrive all over the IS and the Periphery.

On top of that, we are given a whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Leopard, which in canon has more firepower and armor than many lances, and some light companies.

..... no, no it does not have that much firepower.

Per TRO: 3025 (Revise), a standard Leopard Dropship has:

2x PPC
3x LRM-20
5x Large Laser
7x Medium Laser
6 tons LRM ammunition

... which is about the firepower of A, as in singular, Lance of mixed weights.

[RodHull]

I would tend to agree, as much as I enjoyed (nay loved) playing BT it feels overtuned, its way to easy to amass riches beyond the dreams of avarice in very short order.

I would like to start in smaller mechs, fight more vehicles and such and work up to fighting mechs so when you do those first proper story missions they feel impactful. And mechs should lose parts, when you get bits blown off you should need to rip bits off of existing stored mechs of the same name to replace them, that way you might not be so cavalier with your king crab if you knew losing its arm means its out of action indefinitely till you get some salvage. Also having your mechs cored should reduce them to 1 scrap salvage for yourself (not just a refit), costs should be higher and times longers.

Im hoping the long war elements they spoke about will encompass stuff like this and more.

[kkeeffer]

You know you can edit the notepad like files (JSON) and start with what you want, and adjust the economy how you want, ive never modded before in my life but this was simply changing numbers in notepad!

[GM Pax]

RodHull lähetti viestin:

I would tend to agree, as much as I enjoyed (nay loved) playing BT it feels overtuned, its way to easy to amass riches beyond the dreams of avarice in very short order.

"Properly" modelled, in terms of starting resources, and profit per contract?

You wouldn't restore the Princess to her throne.

Your grandchild might restore the Princess' grandchild to the Arano throne. If you're lucky.

A large number of your contracts - perhaps the majority of them - would also entail in-game months and years walking in completely uneventful circles around the same map, over and over and over. (Yes, Garrison Duty is that boring.)

[Kevin]

I edited the files and restarted with only lights, let me tell you it makes the game really tricky early on. I like it, but the difficulty might be too much for many. So i think the option of picking starting lance options would be good.

[ImHelping]

GM Pax lähetti viestin:

RodHull lähetti viestin:

I would tend to agree, as much as I enjoyed (nay loved) playing BT it feels overtuned, its way to easy to amass riches beyond the dreams of avarice in very short order.

"Properly" modelled, in terms of starting resources, and profit per contract?

You wouldn't restore the Princess to her throne.

Your grandchild might restore the Princess' grandchild to the Arano throne. If you're lucky.

A large number of your contracts - perhaps the majority of them - would also entail in-game months and years walking in completely uneventful circles around the same map, over and over and over. (Yes, Garrison Duty is that boring.)

There are people who unironically want that so they can brag how enjoying that means they are more pure Battletech Fans than people who want viable gameplay.

Plus everyone crying that HBS Btech is "Overtuned" are as usual, being willfully hypocritical about the series.

People love to bring up MW4 mercs only when it's for say, hammering the buy ammo button. But everyone just sticks their head in the sand when it's time to remind them that you quickly escalate to selling dozens of Argus mechs and buying any weapon or assault mech you want on a whim.

Meanwhile in HBS btech land? a tiny 10% price increase from poor red means selling you a Wolverine medium mech for 6.5 million C-bills. not counting the 800k-1.X million per month it costs to run the argo at even +0 Moral in the endgame.

Hmm, yes, a medium mech costs the same as 5-6 missions taken at max pay/no salvage where I'm fighting pirates fielding stalkers. So casual compared to oldschool-wait, no.

[Ryujin]

Tying your starting lance to a configurable difficulty option is a way to ensure its not too punishing for beginners. And maybe as others mentioned here, maybe you should still have your ancestral mech as a strong medium, while the others start with lights. It would give some logical reason as to why they made you commander, since you leaving would cripple their company.

Anyway I'm not proposing this so just to add to the grind or pad content. It's really more to give a better sense of progression and accomplishment as you slowly build up your lance. Otherwise, if that entire effort of upgrading hour lance is just content padding or a grind might as well all start with assaults.

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

ImHelping lähetti viestin:

titanopteryx lähetti viestin:

Actually you do start with a locust in storage. I would like to start with a firestarter light mech. Going around burninating the pirates in their thatch roof mechs.

But how are you going to get empty bragging rights on the internet if you use a GOOD light, instead of screaming at the top of your lungs you started with all locusts like that means anything?

When I as a mechwarrior, we had to walk on our hands because we couldn't afford foot actuators. Uphill, both ways, in a Lunar biome. And our LRM boat was a Locust! :P

[GM Pax]

Rob'sEvilTwin lähetti viestin:

And our LRM boat was a Locust! :P

... pffff, you had BATTLEMECHS?

I had cars. And one light truck. Civilian models. Every time one of them fired it's Small Laser (the only gun I could afford, and I had only THREE of them to share among my five vehicles), anyway, every time I fired one, the vehicle carrying it caught fire!

[Sentient_Toaster]

One could implement slower progression, but... I would not recommend doing so unless also substantially increasing mission variety so it's still *fun*, even if it's not adding wholesale new mission types but just finding ways to alter them (e.g. a lot more biomes, more map variety, weird modifiers like the battle being in a former minefield, maybe occasionally the enemy has artillery support, maybe it's in a terrible electrical storm and everybody gets badly impaired accuracy, w/e) so it's not simply dragging things out through more-of-the-same.

[Atma]

Nine-ball lähetti viestin:

IOnly major houses, companies, and Comstar, which is the corporate space Pope, can afford to maintain such lances easily.

Perhaps in lore, but not in this game.

In this game, a few backwater pirates can field 2 full lances of Assault mechs along w/ tanks, no problem.

[ImHelping]

GM Pax lähetti viestin:

Rob'sEvilTwin lähetti viestin:

And our LRM boat was a Locust! :P

... pffff, you had BATTLEMECHS?

I had cars. And one light truck. Civilian models. Every time one of them fired it's Small Laser (the only gun I could afford, and I had only THREE of them to share among my five vehicles), anyway, every time I fired one, the vehicle carrying it caught fire!

Tangent but X-Com Appoc no joke you were often better off swarming with hover bikes rather than actual military craft.

Like, not even gimmick "LOL watch me turn a hovercraft into a suicide machine!" just straight up good choice.

Atma lähetti viestin:

Nine-ball lähetti viestin:

IOnly major houses, companies, and Comstar, which is the corporate space Pope, can afford to maintain such lances easily.

Perhaps in lore, but not in this game.

In this game, a few backwater pirates can field 2 full lances of Assault mechs along w/ tanks, no problem.

Sadly that's basically gonna be every Btech game in the end.

People talk a big game about "Lore" but they don't want to give up being able to throw whatever they want at the player, even in table top the leading cause of players getting "More assault mechs than they 'deserve'" is GM's not considering them of any rarity so long as it's in the enemy hands, or putting it in a shop.

Or putting less security on it than Fort Knox because meh a great house army has dozens more where that came from. Let the players steal one assault mech then throw three steiner lances at them as "punishment" don't they know these are super rare?