Battletech

Is there only one tutorial in the beginning? I feel like I don't know half the shit on the UI or understand damage.

Found some arm actuators to increase melee damage.

From all the vids, and like one time I did it. death from above doesnt seem worth it due to all the self damage?

Also in first mission after the intro mission that's basically still tutorial mode.... first light mech with a medium laser wounds glitch.... ffs.

I'm early enough I dont have ability to refit, but trying to go for salvage seems awful difficult. Run out of morale quick trying to leg them. Likewise even multiple units alpha'ing on one target I havn't knocked anyone down except once when also blowing off a torso and leg in one volley.

Targets so far a 1% chance to hit head and using precise aim or whatever took it to 2..... meanwhile during random fire I'm getting several wounds on pilots, and taking a couple myself.

Also, I see the knockdown bar, but no way to see enemy pilot health?

LIke in table top DFA is really only something you use as a last resort. I had all of the rear and torso armor blown of one of my locusts and they were sperated from the main fight. The single small laser shot wasn't putting the enemy mech down that turn so I DFA'd which did destroy one of my Locust's legs but destroyed the enemy mech. I'll take some repair costs over losing a leveled pilot.

Vimeseh said:

a enemy locust with only machine guns left managed to cockpit shot my pilot on the very last turn from pretty much max range.

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That's X-Co...Battletech baby!

Gavinmad said:

That's X-Co...Battletech baby!

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At least since I rush Guts to four for all pilots I'm really not in danger of one being actually killed unless their mech gets taken out.

Well, I said that I was gonna make a brawler, and holy shit is she powerful.

Sprint up to something gaining evasion, wait 'till next turn... Go up to kick it's ass, and fire off all my small lasers while doing it. Fuck, I'm more than willing to take free damage and have it knocked out of guard and have it knocked out of it's evasion, ANY DAY.

I currently have a Shadow Hawk (55 ton mech) that is less powerful than a Centurion (50 ton), but I think that is only because of the hard points. But yeh. SRM's are no fucking joke. I use to think, "They do so little damage? How can they be a threat." Holy shit, is this game a blast. I don't think I've spent twelve hours playing a video game in years.

Sludig said:

Also, I see the knockdown bar, but no way to see enemy pilot health?

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No way to tell enemy pilot health. If you want to be knocking mechs down, build something with lots of missiles as they do the most stability damage. I stripped the Shadowhawk's base load out and fit it with 2xSRM6++ and an SRM4+ and a medium laser. The SRM6++ do 60 damage per volley and also have increased stability damage, im knocking a ton of things over now.

^^ With SRMs I'm getting (relatively) a lot of pilot incaps while their mech isn't dead yet. Getting a lot "head hit - one wound", "knockdown - one wound" in the same turn, and that's like, half your total wounds right now, gone. I want to say 7 is max wounds you can have fully skilled?

I've also lost my first ++ item, which was sad. Losing those +++ items is going to really hurt ha. I also headshot (one-shot killed) 2 mechs in a game, which got me to thinking something I really hadn't before - if you're piloting a light mech (or even medium probably, once damage starts ramping up) your pilot is living on borrowed time, until that unlucky headshot takes him out. Something to think about for the ragers who don't like permanent loss.

<spoiler alert>

In the storyline, like 4-5 missions in, you get a new bigger and better ship, that can be upgarded for med and tech points, more mech bays, morale boosters, etc etc

I was wondering if I could avoid story mission stuff indefinitely too, just to build up to a good outfitted lance + backup.

After I got the story mission, I did intentionally do all the available missions first, which were local, before heading to the story one. Never got a warning or anything, nothing changed.

Yah, you get a dropship that can be upgraded a little ways into the game. Just play through the story 'till you find it.

This game easy to get into or is it complex as shit? Watching streams I can't tell.

UI explanation is the hardest hurdle, after that it's remembering to do things in the right order. I am already used to the turn based style and already think in terms of initiative and order of action, so it might be a bit easier from that pov. The mechs and pilot abilities do a good job of working together. Not sure how taking a lance of urbanmechs with all ac/20's would work, it would certainly high a high damage output.

I am sure you can face-roll and win missions, just going to get really expensive. I am trying to maximize and do 100% salvage or reputation on my missions with minimal c-bills, so I need to make sure I don't have huge repair bills after action.

Here is a good guide to the UI and combat system:

Steam Community :: Guide :: Eck's BattleTech Tactical Combat Guide