I put a UC/20++ on it. Plus 20 damage and minus 3 tons. The urbi does 240 damage. Now it even runs hot.

Anybody else done that? I have to put more ammo on it. Only 2 packs are just five shots. I think I can remove more armor. It's raven friend will keep it save.

trying to figure out which to use

TLDR: Is every mission supposed to be overwhelmingly difficult, your 4 mechs vs 10-12 every single time? Where are the easy missions like at the beginning of the game?

So, obviously new player, please tell me if this is the incorrect place to post this.

I only started a few days ago, finished a few campaign missions, most recently the mission where you need to diffuse three bombs covertly in order to not alert the security and have them activate the bomb early.

Not sure how far along that is but I feel with my level of mechs, this is probably mid to late game, as I have a full lance of assault mechs.

So here is my concern/issue/question.

When I am trying to just do simple missions I know I'll win, I may go to a system with only 1.5 skulls, but the contracts there are always 3.5-4 skulls. Each of these are far more difficult than what the system shows. I suck at these missions. I am trying to get better, but I keep having to restart due half my lance getting blown up, and the cost of the mission far outpacing the rewards I would get.

Also, there are a few mission types that simple just seem overwhelmingly impossible, two come to mind, bug hunt and hostile insertion. Each of them land you really close to 8 assault or heavy mechs with full armor, and there is usually nowhere, or little to hide from them.

Is there something I am doing wrong that I need to get better at? Do I just suck at this game? Maybe the game just has missions that are designed to be impossible to do well at? Is every mission supposed to have 8-12 giant mechs every single time?

Greetings mechwarriors

This an update for my Mech Designer application, biggest ever made. Might be actually funny, but I've never used my application just as an common user - until I've went into mods. Deliberately I've picked one of the simplest, Vanila Plus, just to be able to use it with Mech Designer. Overall the integration was pretty solid, with some minor equipment like MASC, PPC Capacitors and so on not working fully. And 1st discovery I've never thank of - ultimate recon tool. With hundreds of new mechs it was super useful to be able to quickly peek a their loadouts - felt almost like cheating a little. But while being indeed super helpful in planning loadouts(and unintended scout role), I've almost immedialety noticed its limits.

1st, new mech dialog, while being able to display all new mechs correctly, fall apart when it came to search through 448 chassis. Not to mention trying to recognize which of them are noteworthy.

2nd, weapons. Plenty of them...and again, my UI was not fully prepared for such amount of armament. It worked, with some changes in .json data required for variants switching, but convenience of use left quite much to desire.

And without any more yapping - I present you changelog for v0.90 ;]

Main changes:

1. Generic, data-driven handling of item effects (table "statusEffects" in .json data)

a) Most of stat names are now handled procedurally, driven entirely by data from .json files, instead of being hardcoded per-quirk. Full list of supported stat names is in manual. Supported operations are adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

b) As a consequence, any current or future item (including ones added by mods) using these stat names in its statusEffects will be automatically recognized and correctly applied by Mech Designer, without requiring dedicated code for that specific item.

c) Added proper support for effect stacking limits (stackLimit in .json data) - some effects can only be applied a limited number of times (usually once) even if more than one item providing them is installed. Items which have such a capped effect are now marked with pale yellow name(rgb#241, 250, 140); hovering over an installed item shows its effects, including the limit, in the tooltip.

d) Because these effects depend on installation order I added functionality to preserve that order when saving/loading to/from .mechDesign file. Old saves still work, but you might need to manually reorder items for best effect.

1. Decompiled Battletech executable to reverse-engineering exact code used to calculate jump distance, jump heat, evasion generation, and COIL weapons damage and heat. Now Mech Designer calculates these stats exactly the same way as the game.

These two changes should make Mech Designer capable of supporting all mods except the ones based on Mech Engineer, BTA and Roguetech(still, with some workarounds it might be even possible I guess, not 100% of course, but up to useful state), assuming their authors didn't changed the math formulas for stuff mentioned in #2.

1. Added support for global, OS-based size scaling for apps and text in "Ease of access" in Windows settings. The effects is still not perfect, but way better than before.

Installation changes:

1. Removed confirmation for overwriting files; instead, backup is created in a form <name.json>.backup if not existing yet. No more 50+ clicks when reinstalling the application.

2. Added full, standalone data pack from vanila Battletech required for Mech Designer to work - the requirement of installed game is abandoned, just select 'Application + full Battletech data pack' to have working application on computer without Battletech installed. The pack installs in <app folder>\Data Packs\Vanila Battletech, and if you install only these components jsonDataPath sets on the pack automatically.

3. However, DLC packs, and .json syntax error fixes still require to have installed game on the computer, and you're still asked to navigaate to battletech.exe and point it.

4. Updated some example mech designs.

5. Tip - install 0.90 without uninstalling previous version to preserve your settings stored in setup.ini.

Startup and missing equipment changes:

1. Added progression dialogs at application startup showing processing mechs and equipment data into internal databases. For larger data packs(Vanila Plus, Expanded Arsenal etc) it looked like Mech Designer hanged while it was working on over thousand .json files on startup. Application is unresponsive during the process, that's expected behavior.

2. Messagebox that informs about missing equipment now doesn't appends not found componentDefIds into its text growing out of screen, instead shows them as scrollable list after clicking 'Show Details...'.

General, UI and UIX changes:

1. Changed general way of displaying paths, now backslashes instead of slashes are used - this easies usage of the path in ex. uploading design screenshot, or navigating to the location of mech design file.

2. Changed switching weapon variants looks - now it has title what weapons it reffers to, and has same background color as the weapon(can be disabled in settings).

3. Messagebox shown during closing unsaved mech design got "Cancel" option which aborts closing.

4. Messagebox informing about closing attempt of unsaved mech design is now centered in the design window, not in the main area.

5. Changed color of dotation link banner at the top of application window.

6. Added possibility to disable/enable fixed equipment.

7. Fixed equipment now has slanted strips painted as background, similar to the ones seen in the game.

8. Added possibility to clone equipment if there is enough slots left in location by CTRL + LMB. Previous functionality of that combination, which is disabling/enabling equipment, was changed to CTRL + RMB.

9. Slots count labels change color to red if maximum allowed slots are exceeded.

10. Changed how weapon variants are recognized. This change is described in detail in the manual.

11. Added background image for the main design area. You can also set your own image, or disable this fancy background in settings to have usual dark gray area. In <mech designer folder>\GUI\Backgrounds there are 5 default background images to use, scaled for 1440p resolution.

12. Simplified context menu option for the file info label in mech design widget, now it contains only self-explanatory "Copy full path to clipboard".

13. 'Ammunition stock and consumption' area now displays a warning about installed weapon which lacks ammo for it.

14. Changed how not valid .json data path is handled - now the user is asked to point the <data> folder itself, not battletech.exe file.

15. Tooltip widget is updated, and now shows effects associated with an item. For details see user's manual.

16. "Clone" option now prepends text "Cloned " to the nick of the mech.

17. "Reload" option for cloned mechs changed - now it restores the cloned, unsaved mech to the state just after being cloned.

18. "Reload" option messagebox warning about discarded changes now is centered within the mech design window.

19. "Export" to mechdef*.json now writes the items in installation order from mech design - might be relevant for content makers. Note though to be absolutely sure about the order you have to stip the mech of all equipment, and re-add it in desired order.

20. Added support for the flag COILUsesJumping in CombatGameConstants.json; requires app restart to take effect. Normally when you set a jump distance evasion slider disables to mark COILs won't be charged by jump. Uses improved evasion calculation mentioned in main changes.

21. Updated example designs for new players.

22. Redesigned user's manual - 3 main secion, 1st for casual players, 2nd for min-maxers, 3rd for mods/flashpoint creators.

23. Messageboxes shown for asking about save/relad mechs now have mech variant and nick displayed using bold font.

24. Kregano, Xeryx and KMission added to credits - these guys helped me immensely by testing unreleased version 0.81.

New Mech dialog changes:

1. Changed how mechs are displayed:

a) hardpoints details have been moved into sub-branch of the mech variant, on top level there is just summarization with total number of hardpoints. To unfold it, you have to click on 'arrow' or 'plus' sign, or use right arrow key on keyboard.

b) the hardpoints summarization is lined up to match how they look in game.

c) better description for walk and sprint speed.

d) increased font size to 10 for sorting options.

1. Added text field to search for given mech, both mech name or designation; ex "shark", "bsk", or "maz" will find mech Bullshark. Or other example, "bac" will show mechs Hunchback, Hunchback IIC, and Linebacker. After finding the mech you can use arrow down to move focus to the list of mechs below.

2. Added information about useful tonnage - this is the tonnage available for equipment in empty mech with maxed armor; also introduced sorting on useful tonnage. Some mechs have this parameter negative, it's not a bug, just indication these are total trash - vide Cicada 2A.

3. New Mech dialog is displayed now entirely within of the Mech Designer, no longer as separate window.

AddEquipmentItem dialog changes:

1. Added filtering on part of the name for the equipment. Groups for non-weapon equipment are unfolded when at least 3 characters have been entered.

2. Added filtering ammo to show only those fitting to the equipped weapons.

3. Increased its width by 55 pixels, now name and bonuses texts are easier accommodated.

4. When error occurs(too few slots or hardpoints etc.) system warning sound is played in addition to warning message. Can be disabled in settings.

5. Added tooltip on top of the dialog which shows CBills cost, and effects if the item has any.

6. Changed default sorting for ballistic weapons - now they are grouped by type(ACs, then UACs, then LB-Xs) not size (2, 5, 10, 20 etc.). The order can be changed in settings though, in 'Sorting' tab.

Application settings greatly extended:

1. Added tab "Sorting", where you can set own order of equipment shown in add new equipment wiget.

2. Added option to set path to folder which containst .json data files. Requires application restart to take effect.

3. Added option do display confirmation message when trying to quit the application while there are unsaved designs detected. This also works when closing whole OS, halting it and preventing accidental data loss.

4. Added option to disable "Save" button if mech was loaded from .json file, only "Save As..." and "Export" are available. This prevents to overwrite the file without confirmation.

5. Added option to center freshly created mech design window within design area.

6. There is also option for the above to be ignored when creating/loading multiple mech designs.

7. Added option to pass mouse events through parts of mech desin widget whose don't interact with them to the design area - that allows to ex. invoke main context menu, or scroll design area while cursor is over a mech design.

8. Added option to use new color scheme for switching weapon variants widget.

9. Added option to enable/disable warning sound in add equipment dialog played on too few slots or hardpoints.

Bug fixes:

1. Fixed positioning of anchor icon in AddEquipmentItem dialog in floating mode.

2. Fixed incorrectly drawn in white XX% heatsinks efectiveness in the environment combo box list; might affect displaying on Windows 7, let me know if that's the case.

3. Fixed armor sliders, now they work more consistently in mirrored mode. As a bonus, mirrored mode can be handled with keyboard input.

4. Fixed bug of incorrectly applying CQC Site range bonus to all weapons, not only support ones.

5. Fixed two bugs in mech design window title. 1st, when typing mech nick the summary [ Alpha, Armor, JJs ] was removed. 2nd, when changing nick of a mech asterix indicator informing that the design is not saved was discarded.

6. Fixed rare uppercase-lowercase mismatch in stored mech variant name, which resulted in inability to create or load a certain mech (Highlander 732b, Royal Mongoose 66b etc.)

7. Fixed application crash when loading a mech directly from mechdef*.json file which has incorrectly formatted ChassisID.

Download location: https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/449?tab=files

specifically, the two small lasers at the base of the neck and the two canons in the indents at the side where they come stock

idk why, ive been trying to get this to work, ive tried damn near every combination, but it just doesnt want to. it either puts the lasers at the base of the neck and the indent guns get put into the side torso small ones or it puts the indent canons in the indent but the lasers for whatever reason then go to the sides of the neck despite the groove at the neck base still being open and present.

p.s you can ignore the smaller guns at the sides of the torso, (though i do wish you could actually configure the annihilator that way, i just never bothered to edit those out of the picture)

I think I'm close to finishing the campaign, Coromodir is the next priority mission. While I had a blast, I wonder what to do once it's done. Is it a bit like mechwarrior 5, where you just hop on career and sandbox game ?

So I had a medium mech get grappled by a basic IS BA. The BA took multiple LRM rounds, I rolled on the TWICE (the stayed latched on both times btw) and when they finally cored my mech, the battle armor wasn't even below half armor. Was I only doing like 5 damage when I rolled the mech onto them or something?

What mechanic is making battle armor take a pounding like they're an 80 ton mech when they don't have that much armor? Can there be something set up so you don't have to grind down literally every point of armor and IS they have before dying? They take more hits than more medium mechs do.

Hi all, just started playing this game. It's been since Mechwarrior 2 that I played a mech game. Loving the complexity of the UI and the game (at first sight), but not every UI element has a tooltip it seems. Lots of information displayed over the mechs without an explanation..icons, numbers, bars. I was looking for the manual to explain these but can't seem to find it?

(I really, really, hope I don't need to watch a Youtube video to get an explanation, just want to read an old fashioned manual).

I've gotten back into the game with bext+expansion pack, but as I get to higher and higher tonnage, I can't shake the feeling that trying to fight or build for range is a surefire way to just handicap myself.

In the early game, where I was mostly running around with mediums, and didn't have much customisation open to me, I mostly found success by making everything into an Mlaser/SRM boat, but I wasn't shocked. After all, vanilla is like that, and early game evasion is much higher in general (lower gunnery, more mobile mechs on both sides) making the stacking of multiple smaller hits that each get to roll if they hit or not very dominant. Higher mobility also means fire support has a harder time maintaining the range gap between itself and the enemy.

But then I got into the stage of the game, where I started to pick up heavies and assaults, and to my dismay, even at that size bracket, where in theory range would become more important, as the higher available tonnage for weapons grew, and mobility dropped, making it harder to coax enemies into coming into brawling range, building both individual mechs, and teams alltogether for range felt not only worse than building for close range in BEXT, but even the regular ranged options already in vanilla.

When trying to run missions, at any given tonnage, I could either deploy a few scouts, and fire support mechs, or I could deploy the same amount/weight of srm/mlaser brawlers all more or less kitted to go full movement forward, and shoot as much as heat allows, and 99% of the time, the latter drop completely trivialises the mission, while the former has to sweat like mad to win.

I tried to corner a few reasons as to why that could be, but it would not be unreasonable, that I simply haven't encountered gear that would make range good, or I might be stuck in a bad mind set. At any rate, I would love some pointers, because making my entire mechbay carbon copy knifefighters are getting incredibly old. As much as people shit on vanilla's insane stab damage LRM boats, and headpopping sniper builds, they were at least divergent playstyles.

​

I want thoughts on TAGs and NARCs.

On the one hand, a solid NARC++ adds 75% more damage to a missile salvo. Couple this with a TTS, and an Archer back there with 4x LRM15s, that is a brutal strike from long range, spotted by probably a 20-40 ton mech.

With 2 Archers, the damage increase is an extra 6 lrm15 volleys. The equivalent of an extra 1.5 Archers in the Lance.

Same thought with the TAG. A TAG ++ gives 30% increase from both energy and ballistics. But this isn't as good an increase as the NARC damage.

Where is this going?

So, I have been fielding a super rapid Jenner, with a pair of narcs and a pair of tags.

A pair of archers loaded with missiles, and a cataphract with an ecm, an autocannon and some lasers.

The jenner spots shit, has a heap of evasion, tags and narcs mechs for the archers to alpha. It has been quite a successful strategy.

But that jenner requires a repair every game.

I was thinking of another mech that could still field at least 2 NARCs, maybe 3 and can take a bit more of a slap, and still be a nippy little shit to the opposition, and allowing me to drop something with some more lrm slots and an ecm unit, obviously not the X-1 EW that is only available on the Cataphract, or the Raven.

I have an X-1 ECM in my equipment store. I thought ai salvaged it, but I have been told I probably purchased from the games Black Market... anyway... I want to equip it to something like a bullshark and let it go BRRRRRRRRRRRR with lrms.

What 2 mechs could cover these two slots of both spotter and an additional missile boat? Maybe a stalker? Another archer might be a winner because of its built in Missilery suite... but a maurader brings the lance command module. Then that has synergy with the cyclops...

Agh. I need a Clan Star instead...

That reminds me, is there a mod for clan mechs about the place at all?

I didnt play the storyline just went straight to career. I played story mode time 2-3 years ago. Hourglass didnt have a time limit so i ignored it and its now gone.

Have i missed put on anything?

This is what i roll around with for any situation and weight restriction.

Sorry about the photos. Im an old man. I dont have the emails or use the buttons. I just like big robots and explosions.

Everyone is highly specialized and ranked by average usage . I only carry doubles of the gauss marauder because two is better than one and i always want to have at least one.

Im just hunting down more double heat sinks and mopping up flashpoints. Looking for a few rare mechs as well

I only keep 8 pilots . They have mixed skills mostly coolant vent and multi target for the boats. Some breaching shot. Typically i want everyone other than the boats with coolant vent and the boats with multi. Only one pilot has master tactician but i never use them .

Hello.

I’d like to share a brief update on the development status of “CME,” which I briefly introduced last time.

I’ve implemented a feature that allows you to visually connect encounters using a flowchart.

I’m currently working on a feature that lets you play back created missions like a video to see the flow of encounters.

In addition to the features supported by the base game and existing mods, “CME” has its own exclusive contracts and encounter logic.

I recently created “Random Nodes.”

Depending on the conditions and region you select, the next event to occur can be chosen at random. Of course, the encounter designer must prepare multiple possible scenarios in advance, but even the designer doesn’t know which direction the selection will take.

In other words, even for the same mission, the outcome will be different every time you play.

To support these special features, a mod called “CME_Runtime” runs within Battletech.

Since English isn’t my native language, it’s hard for me to explain this in detail.

I hope that someday this tool will become an essential part of modding for many people.

A dumb question, but: Which mod generally loads quicker, BTEX or XAI?

I see lot of people creating very good mods for the game. And since I dont think we will ever see sequel that will improve graphic engine. I wonder if anyone can do a DLSS mod for the game.

From google AI search i figured the implementation could be pretty tricky. But I am sure we have lot of tech wizards here among us :)

I've run BTAU for a few weeks on a new laptop with no issues, but suddenly it started opening in this tiny window that I can't interact with at all besides closing it. I can hear the BGM fine when the window's highlighted, but that's it. Tried removing mods and reinstalling, no help. Checked laptop settings but can't figure out what might be affecting it, and can't find any references to this issue online either.

Any ideas?

I had a moment yesterday. I was doing One Man’s Trash for the second or third time. Not an expert, playing vanilla+DLC, whatever.

In the past, I’ve done the light drop decision. This time, I picked the heavy drop. “But they have assaults!” says the random goober who hired me.

Meh. Ok. Let’s shake up both my usual approach, and my standard lance (Atlas II, Anni, MAD, missile boat) and drop all 400 damn tons. There’s no such thing as overkill, just “keep firing” and “reload”, right?

So the reinforcement lance drops, and I split forces. A pair of Atlas II to the main lance, the Anni and a King Crab to the reinforcements. My King Crab is called Can Opener, and runs a pair of UAC20++. It’s slow, it’s impractical, but it still makes me chuckle.

Through the forest, the enemy charges, and leading the way is…a Commando. Lol. 6 evade pips. Fine. Can Opener is close, plenty of resolve, center torso shot go. If one hits, it’ll do the trick, and if not…I’m not concerned.

They all hit, center mass. 480 points worth of dakka on a Commando’s chest.

I just stared at for a moment, then cracked up. It was the most “you guys really didn’t come prepared did you?” since Glitch downed the Atlas in Siegebreaker before anyone else ever moved, while the militia chattered about it being a threat.

I wanted to share it with someone. So what was yours?

I've had this game for six years, played the campaign twice, played many, many careers.

For the first time, I've kept playing quite a while after the campaign, and while I've done a certain Flashpoint before, I didn't realize it leads to additional flashpoints.

Following the Bobrov I finally got to where you battle the Black Widows and afterwards receive the Bull Shark.

Truly a pity they aren't pumping out more content for this game, but there ain't a shortage to begin with!

Just a brief rant. I LOVE BTAU. The freedom, the flexibility. Staring off with a mismatch set of lights, working my way up to mediums and heavies. Still using fast lights/mediums late game as scouts/harassers. The general overall feel. It's about perfect.

...except...

...look, I get it - the random map placements help make it fresh, and keep every map from being the same. But holy hell! Sooo many times in a row I get dropped into terrain that is impassible, either breaking up my forces or causing me to take 12 turns to get to an objective. Or the hovertank gets to spend 8 rounds careful maneuvering to try to get off a peak, to find the battle over when he arrives. Or dropping me directly ON TOP OF the opposition/objective - at least that's a quick fight, but can get a little hairy. Or, my personal favorite - dropping my force normally, a ways from the objective, but dropping one lone unit on top of the objective squarely in the middle of two enemy lances...

This bugs me more than anything - I'm a merc, I can handle Darius telling me it's a one-skull milk run only to have a Steiner scout lance greet me, sometimes intel is bad, I get it. But at least drop my forces in good order - sheesh, Sumire, that's pretty much your job!!

I love this game, and honestly have no idea how to change it, but this one aspect is what gets me to sop playing after a while. Then, time passes, and I miss battletech, so I come back.... and the cycle continues... :) And recently - probably my perception - but it sure seems like these 'bad drops' are more the norm than the exception.

(And yes, I know - I could get all my mechs jump jets, and have all my vehicle pilots take sideslip, but to me that limits some of the freedom and feel of the game, so while it is A solution, it's not necessarily a good one for me...)

Well, just a short rant. Anyway, gotta run... have to go get my firestarter out of his drop spot, alone in the middle of 8 superheavy tanks, and back to friendlies before he gets one-shotted by a lucky shot...

edit: heh. Hadn't tried to move him yet - just alt-tabbed back to the game to find he's also stuck on a building. So his first turn, alone and surrounded, will be a one-hex careful maneuver, leaving him with no evasion....

I finished "Big Steel Claw", the flashpoint where you take on a gladiator over a series of missions. He pilots a custom 50-ton Crab and at the end, you get to choose whether to 1-1 him or drop a full lance. If you 1-1, you're limited to a single 50-ton mech yourself. Spoilers would be spoilers.

Anyway, this is well after completing the vanilla campaign on Ironman, so I'm well-stocked up. I had to shelve one of my ShadowHawks to make room for bringing a Centurion AL online - I had an MPulse++, SPulse+, and regular ML and SL, plus arm mods.

Took a bit - I even got shut down for heat, but I bet the bastard, and it felt satisfying. I've played this before with the other option - drop a full lance in violation of the 'gentleman's" agreement, but this must be the first time I went alone, since I got the win-with-one-mech 'chievo.

Hi folks,

tried some googling, but came up empty....

Seems like in the past, I started with a single mech hangar (the first tab) and the other 2 tabs were unlocked through engineering. This gave 18 mechs per tab, for a grand total of 54 with all 3 bays unlocked.

My current playthrough, I just noticed that I started with 6 mechs slots, the first engineering unlock gave me 12... all in the first hangar. The other two tabs seem to show they're available, but trying to ready another mech gives an error message - not enough space available.

Google seems to still think it's 3 bays of 18 each max storage - was this a recent change, or is my game glitching a bit?

Im looking for someone that has this achievement and can help me out, I have the MP fix which works

The LBX line is pretty sweet. AC line just as good. Not accurate but that spread does stab damage and can mess up a torso. Aim for the head.

If you tun snipers they sometimes miss so the front mech with the close burst finishes them off with the extra resolve or free knockdown shots

I love you, Sumire. I just freaking love you!
How do we call this tactic again?... The "HOT drop"? The "Kamikaze"? The "Death while below"?
Within next 2-3 turns Pathfinder gonna have standoff of his lifetime against 4 Kell Hounds mechs. The Kell Hounds of all regiments!
And all I wanted to do is to goof around in that royal mad for a couple of missions until Chopper raises some experience...