Battletech

It IS a DropShip. In Battletech, any ship without FTL ability is called a DropShip. Even if it can't land. As opposed to JumpShip and WarShip. The very mission it's introduce literally calls the Argo a Ancient DropShip so I don't know where you got confused.

And even then, seeing as you no longer use the Leopard to host crew or store mechs in storage, there's no reason the Leopard couldn't be expanded to drop more mechs.

As for gameplay, there's plenty of ways they could've balanced it. A limit based on tonnage would've worked. Would allow for large deployments of light mechs (And make lighter mechs more interesting later in the game).

edited 1st May '18 12:54:17 PM by Ghilz

Interesting! I imagine it only just falls into the tonnage definition though.

Anyway, we should totally get the option to just buy more Leopards or something. Kerensky knows we can afford it...

EDIT: According to the AMA yesterday, they didn't go with tonnage because that's even more arbitrary than the Lance restriction.

edited 1st May '18 12:57:07 PM by disruptorfe404

TBH I fully expect this to be modded. It's just kinda funny you can have over a dozen mechs and pilots but can only ever deploy 4. Even XCOM remembered to at least let you upgrade to 6.

That makes no sense when Tonnage is literally how the mechs are balanced against one another.

Like, how's "Everything between 4 Locust and 4 Atlas" less arbitrary than "300 tons of mechs"

edited 1st May '18 1:08:53 PM by Ghilz

Would you like to be kept from being able to capture an Atlas by "Oh, we're sorry, your ship can't support that much weight."?

The game doesn't count salvage for mech slots, so I see no reason it'd count it against your deployment max tonnage either.

I mean, that is something they did in a few games: in 3 you had strict weight limits for equipment you could haul between missions, and in MW 4 M you paid a premium for combat drop costs based on weight, as well as a maintenance premium for the general upkeep on heavier mechs.

Also lucky, got an extra Centurion (laserboat one) when I managed to incap the pilot by knocking him off his ass without blowing up any of his part...also got 3 guaranteed salvage part so I manage to scoop the whole mech up.

Also at this point I start to have quite a number of mechs in storage...I think it's all light mechs though, but hey, backup!

Going on the 2nd story mission soon (the jailbreak)...also, weird, why do I still have to pay the bank interest when Lady Arano bought up all the financial obligation?

edited 1st May '18 9:12:42 PM by onyhow

Presumably she bought the debt, but she didn't lift your obligations towards it. So now you owe her the debt instead of the bank. Only difference now is she won't be as much of a shark about it and won't block you to 2 sectors.

RE: Not using tonnage as a restriction, I believe he summed it up as, "Why shouldn't you bring the tonnage you want on the mission?"

^^ I thought she said that the debt is now only to help her liberate her nation? Not cash money? Also, why does choosing to pay your mercs more ALSO result in bank interest AND mech maintanence cost to increase?

^ Maybe have the tonnage limit raised over the course of the game?

edited 2nd May '18 2:09:17 AM by onyhow

Maybe we're being company stored into Arano's forces?

Or do like MW 4 often did it - by mission. For a variety of reasons, not all missions would necessarily allow the same tonnage.

Which woudn't be stopped by having a tonnage limit. That argument holds no more water than having an arbitrary limit of 4 (which is in fact more limiting on actual tactics).

Hoo boy, my missile boat Centurion (3 SRM6) + 2ML) just took out a Jaegermech in a single shooting round from the front! Then again I think it might not have the best armor, consider it's the 2nd main mission...

^ Hmm, maybe the later missions where you absolutely want to run all heavy/assault lance?

edited 2nd May '18 8:47:37 AM by onyhow

Jagermech are made of tissue paper, despite being heavies. They are meant for long range sniping. Which they excel at.

Would still be doable by just making the max tonnage Upgradable. Make the final upgrade 400 tons. That's exactly as many assault mechs as doable now, but gives way more freedom to use all the other mech classes.

edited 2nd May '18 9:52:46 AM by Ghilz

I wish we at least had an upgrade that would let us field a reinforced lance.

I'm sure there will be mods to do eventually let you have multiple lances.

With mods that up the difficulty, it'll be fine.

I bought this about a week before it released, but got super busy when it actually hit and didn't get a chance to play until the last couple days. I've got about 12 hours in it and just finished the second story mission (the Weldry one).

This mission is the first time I really felt like I knew what I was doing rather than just clicking things and watching what happens. Not that the interface is hard to figure out, just that there's a lot going on — heat, ammo, weapon range, terrain bonuses, Subsystem Damage, equipping your mechs, etc etc. This is the first time I went into a fight with an entire lance of customized mechs and felt like I had control of the battle. It was fun.

I also managed to headshot the Jagermech in the mission, so there's my first heavy mech. Yay! The game says it's intended as a long-range autocannon platform, but it's got all those nice support weapon slots, I'm tempted to turn it into a melee brawler.

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my pilot skills at first, but I think I've settled on a plan. A sniper with Bulwark and Breaching Shot, a high-mobility generalist with Multi-Target and Ace Pilot, a midrange brawler with Bulwark and Master Tactician, and a close-range specialist with Evasive Maneuvering and Juggernaut. That this gives me all four of the specialties in one lance appeals to my sense of symmetry (though I do end up with Bulwark in three out of four of them, because Bulwark is great).

I've taken to going max armor (or nearly so, I round down to the nearest ton to avoid wasted space) and then fitting weapons around that. It means lower DPS but better survivability, which I'm pretty okay with. Armor damage is essentially free, so I'd rather take 20 turns to complete a mission without going into structure damage than finish it in 10 but get beat up in the process. We'll see how this works going forward.

Armour tanking is definitely how I'm playing at the moment! At least until my Grasshopper (the 'Wayward Sun') gets in jump range and some poor, hapless 'mech gets hollowed out like a canoe by a 7 ML and 6 SL lightshow.

I have a Kintaro customized to unload 20 SRM warheads at once in a single volley. Heat is a real pain, but it sandblasts nearly as well as those armored SRM carriers.

Hmm, how should I set my Firestarter up? Full flamer, or full MG? Or cut those numbers down a bit for more armor?

edited 4th May '18 1:33:37 AM by onyhow

Depends on what you want to do. If you want a crit monster go all machine guns and take 2 tons of ammo, otherwise go full flamthrower and overheat enemies in space.

I feel like not putting all the flamethrowers on the Firestarter is a missed opportunity.

True, true. But definitely go maxed Leg armor so you can DFA more and still set them alight.

The creepy, creepy, CREEPY that the plot of this story is heavily influenced by Comstar is spooky as anything and uncannily canon-compliant. Points:

• Kamea may have actually really been KIA and the princess we've been dealing with ever since we recovered the Argo is a Comstar doppleganger. This is tied into the CANON, as one of the novels taking place in the same timeframe revolves around a Comstar-influenced Liao plot to replace Hanse Davion with a doppleganger and is a trigger to set him on the path to preparing for the 4th Succession War with his big Wedding Present to his wife. Her minister guy who she assigns to your brigade as a liason is her/your handler.
• Yang and Murad are impossibly good miracle workers when it comes to restoring technology/mechs. Almost too good at it, in fact...
• Why does Argo have a SLDF memory drive with the encrypted coordinates for a Castle Brian and a cache of Royal-grade mechs? Heck, why GIVE us the Argo and the Royal Grade mechs AND the Atlas II?

edited 4th May '18 9:58:01 AM by AceOfScarabs

Is it just me or the 3rd main mission difficulty jumps quite a lot? 2 star yet facing 8 mechs at the same time...turrets doesn't seem to help much either (they tend to get blown up first...although they help loads IF they get to fire), then add time limit into the mix...2 star my ass. I played a 3 star mission earlier and that's easier than this.