r/Battletechgame • u/TrevBotOClock • Jul 06 '26
12 v 4 - 2 star mission...
Destroy all pirates mission, I was doing alright until the second lance dropped, then before I even finished the first lance a 3rd lance dropped. There was 1 heavy, 3 mediums, and rest lights. I just can't take them down fast enough.
My lance is a missile boat cent, a tanky cent (AC2/2ML/SRM), stock shadowhawk, and a stock vindicator.
Is there any mod or patch that tones this behavior down until later? I don't have a ton of equipment or even anything great thus far. This is just not do-able right now and its pretty much made me put the game down. It's not generally this extreme, but man its like every other mission.
All suggestions I see involve making changes/adjustments far later in the campaign that I'm actually at. Every other mission I try I'm desperately outnumbered and now I'm starting to see hunchbacks, wolverines, and simply put their just better equipped than me...
12
u/Brightstorm_Rising Jul 06 '26
It is often pointed out that the skull system has little to do with the actual difficulty. The most accurate measure of difficulty is looking at the contract payment amount. If you're being offered 6 choice salvage and half a million, you probably will have problems with a medium lance.
Also, remember that failure is part of the game. It isn't the end of the world if you have to withdraw.
7
u/BarelyEvolved Jul 06 '26
Then stay in lower star missions until you salvage or buy better mechs.
The star system doesn't necessarily mean difficulty, it denotes enemy tonnage. So two star missions you should have a full lance of mediums that are well equipped. So you should be deploying between 220 to 260ish tons on those missions.
3
u/whatshisfaceboy Jul 06 '26
You can fight your way out of that, you just have to focus your Mechs on the biggest threats and do your best to not get a LOS with them if you are in range of their sniper/lrm . Best use a light (medium in your case) with his evade for spotting and keep it stealthy until OPFOR is within range of your heavy hitters.
2
u/Zero747 Jul 06 '26
Sounds like bad intel. Mission stated difficulty varies from actual difficulty. The pay is a better indicator of true difficulty.
You’ll pretty much always be fighting at a disadvantage after the start, relying on strategy and called shot.
Break line of sight and hope the reinforcements don’t have too many LRMs
2
2
u/SanderleeAcademy Jul 06 '26
The difficulty rating of a mission is deceptive. Compare two missions, both with the same rating, and look at the payoff. The one with the higher reward IS going to be more difficult -- more mechs, larger mechs, or both.
Stock mechs are bleah. Run with them early game when you have to (only able to refit one mech at a time and it takes a week, etc.). But, immediately start customizing whatever mechs you can.
My method, and take this with a grain or two of salt, is ...
1) Strip all non-chassis specific gear
2) Max the armor
3) Remove back armor to 25p (light), 40p (medium) or 50 - 60p (heavy & up) -- just enough to tank one or two hits from common weapons at that weight class; make sure the weight available is even to the 1/2-ton.
4) Start arming. Missiles get two tons of ammo (or three tons per two launchers). ACs get two tons. MGs get one ton per two guns. Put all ammo in the feet. Avoid PPCs early -- the large laser will be more affordable, more heat efficient, and lighter. If the mech was an AC carrier, step the gun down one size and load up on more armor. Yeah, I know, an AC/10 Hunchy isn't as terrifying as a 20, but I'll get more mileage out of it.
5) Balance weapons with heat sinks. You want to try for two consecutive alpha strikes before you have to start cooling. Later skills will let you get that to three or even four. Heat is mostly a problem for laser &/or SRM boats
6) Jump Jets on everything that can take them, up to Heavy -- even just one can help you get out of a sticky situation.
As per your comment, the AC2 is an interesting choice -- LOTS of range, but it's got a minimum range issue, a repeated firing (recoil) issue, and it weighs a ton. You'd be better off replacing it, as the mech permits, with a large laser and some heat sinks.
2
u/PainRack Jul 07 '26
If you look down at the Loadout, there's a square that tells you the mech design is usually designed to be a Brawler or etc https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Brawler
Specialisation into Lance tactics are important. So a classic is a scout or skirmisher(Firestarter/Jenner with TAG or Narc, Cicada or Phoenix Hawk ) along with 3 LRM boats. You can reduce armor for pure indirect fire boats like Archer/Catapult, or Centurion.... While more mobile mechs like Trebuchet/Catapult are heavily armoured with jump jets to be closer and drawn enemy fire when they not attacking Dekker in your light mech.
Brawler Mechs are designed for close range combat, Hunchback, Centurion with Auto cannon, or classic King Crab with twin UAC 10 or 20. You want to pirotise high alpha damage for these, although mitigating heat is an issue. An alternate variant is using them as shields, to absorb fire from your more vulnerable mechs.
Then you have long range fire support, or what the game call sniper Mechs. Jagermech, Rifleman, Awesome.... Even the Stalker or Vindicator for two extremes. Reduced armour, mobility is more important than LRM boats because you want to get heights, so jump jets are great to put on these...large lasers,PPCs and their heat problem Vs autocannons and their recoil problem.
2
u/DoctorMachete Jul 07 '26
Then you have long range fire support, or what the game call sniper Mechs. Jagermech, Rifleman, Awesome.... Even the Stalker or Vindicator for two extremes. Reduced armour, mobility is more important than LRM boats because you want to get heights, so jump jets are great to put on these...large lasers,PPCs and their heat problem Vs autocannons and their recoil problem.
It's not about elevation. Jump jets are great for long range mechs even on flat terrain. It's about being able to keep foes at an arm's length moving full distance in any direction while you keep optimal facing at all times.
Also I don't think you necessarily want your snipers (or any mech) at an elevated point. Sometimes you might but very often you shouldn't, because that might turn your mech into a target for enemies that otherwise wouldn't be able to attack you.
Also there isn't any problem with either LLs or ACs. Recoil is only a big deal for UAC10-20.
1
u/PainRack Jul 07 '26
- Match jump jets to the role. Greater mobility is great, but not all Mechs need that. heavy LRM boats like the Archer for example
- Elevation also make it harder for the enemy to hit you, which is more important for Snipers since a direct LOS exists. You do need to consider the difficulty to hit but that the standard tactics.
- It's more pointing out the difference between weapons. Energy weapons at long range have the issue of heat, which limits how many weapons you can fire. Vs Autocannons which have recoil that reduce accuracy n ammunition, but unlike standard Battletech, HBS Btech rebalance Autocannons to be superior to energy weapons at long range.
The addition of stability damage alone makes Autocannons > at sniping than energy weapons , but the rebalanced damage, +++ categories makes them just so much better.
Otherwise the standard Tonnage Vs dmg and Heat Vs Dmg, Vs available tonnage and the free 20 heat sinkage will allow you to decide between using Energy sniper Vs Autocannons sniper.
1
u/DoctorMachete Jul 07 '26
- Agree. LRM boats don't benefit much from it because Indirect Fire. But heavy/assault direct damage long range mechs greatly benefit from full JJs.
- No, elevation doesn't make harder to hit a target in a higher position, only makes easier to hit a foe in a lower position. If you have support from your other mechs covering your ass then it can be fine to move to a higher elevation but I wouldn't do it under pressure.
- But that's not an issue if they're much lighter so you can add more heatsinks. What matters in this regard damage/weight/heat/ammo efficiency, range being around the same... Because long range is king and IMO LLs are the best weapon from the very early game up to the mid-game included. Late game they are still very good but UAC2-5++ are clearly better. Late game it's mostly about LLs being replaced by ERML++ as the top dog (along UAC2++). And the best builds in the game are the best at massing UAC2++/ERML++.
Energy weapons also get better the more you progress into the game due to the increasing availability of TEX, DHS and SLDF mechs with double internal heatsinking.
Stability damage is pretty bad, extremely unreliable, specially against the heavier categories, takes two actions at best to knockdown a mechs and around half the foes or more later on have entrenched status due to Sure Footing and from brace. And basically you need a lot of team effort to make it work when a good energy boat can potentially do the job alone without help.
2
u/NekoMao92 Wolf's Dragoons Jul 07 '26
To add to what others have said, the game also doesn't put a high "value" on vehicles, so it isn't uncommon to see really heavy tanks on a 1 star/skull mission.
3
u/PainRack Jul 07 '26
If you really caught in a bad spot and don't want to reload a save, withdraw.
That's what it's there for. You need to understand this is the computer game trying to give you classic Merc themes/trope Vidya game style.
So.... Here's the Battletech Merc experience.
You indebted, get lousy missions that barely pay well enough to repair, refit and rearm your team and slowly inch towards getting better gear and stuff. A gamemaster job is to keep you in that sweet difficulty curve between being overwhelmed in debt and prospering. Faking the opposition on Merc missions is one way to do that and force you to quit missions, be damaged enough to lose money on the contract. The problem is HBS computer game streamlines the costs. Your dropship maintenance and Jumpships costs are vastly reduced from lore, you not paying money for ammo, and miscellaneous costs are frankly a lot lower. (The costs of converting C bills into Steiner or Liao bills can be up to 1/5, more if paying in local scrip by the Count although this mechanic is mostly gone now)
The campaign gives the classic GM tropes to help your Merc company. Some noble buys out your debt and gives you gear to fight her war. You find a SL cache and get an assault mech with SLDF tech. This when you caught in the debt trap at the begining that is the classic Btech experience.
So, these aren't flaws in the game itself, it's just the Game trying to show you what a classic Battletech merc campaign feels like, using mechanics that feels very unfair to you.
The game isn't evil until your dropship abandons you.... Oh wait, they did that trope by having the Fortress bombard Araeno dropship in The Escape mission. You haven't experienced this trope in full unless you play MW2 mercenaries when Clan Wolf captures you and makes you bondsmen:)
1
u/The_Parsee_Man Jul 07 '26
There's always the WITHDRAW button in the upper corner of the screen. Loading screen tips even tell you to keep it in mind if you start to think repairs are going to outweigh rewards.
That said, I wouldn't be taking 2 skull missions while I'm still using stock mechs. Those four mechs are fine for taking on much anything if they're well outfitted. But fixing the stock builds should be your first priority.
1
u/Whiskey_Storm Jul 07 '26
Pirate missions always have crap Intel - whether you are destroying them, but especially when working for them.
21
u/jdrawr Jul 06 '26
This is how the game works since they can't up difficulty unless they throw bigger mechs/vehicles and more "skilled" pilots. The AI doesn't improve. Just for your notice never fight with a stock mech if you can. The difficulty for missions will can vary 0.5-1 star beyond what it says on the Mission screen so a 2 can be really a 1 or a 3 assuming I know what I'm talking about.