BATTLETECH - Enemy Reinforcements begin in play

[Contemplative Sparrow]

One line summary of your issue
Enemy Reinforcements begin in play

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
The enemy forces in random missions will, if they have reinforcements, deploy them immediately upon the start of the mission, meaning that the battle is against the entire enemy force from the beginning of the mission, making battles extremely difficult to carry out without substantial repairs and medical leave being necessary.

Steps to reproduce the issue
Play random missions between story missions until you encounter one in which the enemy has reinforcements

Upload attachment

 

[Shaak Gi]

I get this bug all the time. Basically every mission that has reinforcements. If I manage to win, the NPC tells me that enemy reinforcements have appeared then immediately that the mission was successful. This bug makes mission difficulty incredibly hard as even most difficulty 2 or 2.5 missions have reinforcements. This means 8+ enemies on your 4 from the very start.

Please please please fix this soon!

 

[Rugroll]

I've only lost mechwarriors in these bugged missions, please fix this asap. This makes the early game very difficult if you get unlucky with these spawns.

 

[iyaerP]

I've been running into this one a lot. It's been making missions that should be easy and profitable nightmarishly hard. The most offensively bullshit one was when I was facing off against a
Firestarter, two Shawks, a Vindicator, a Striker, two Manticores, a motherfucking DEMOLISHER. I was fielding my Blackjack, a Panther, a Shadowhawk and a Centurion. Oh, and for added fun, unlike most of the early game tanks that have the ramshackle modifier, these were Canopian house units and so had their full armour slab.

That mission was rated at 2 skulls. Not even 2.5 skulls, just flat two.

The mission that I just finished had a Locust, a Jenner, 2 SHawks, 2 Wolverines, a Vindicator, and Griffin.

It isn't that I dislike a challange, but I'd rather it not be every other mission, totally at random and then have to deal with repair screens like this all the time.

Like seriously, I ran out of ammo for every single gun except the AC2 on my centurion, and that was only because he was chasing around the last two enemy mechs punching them while all my other mechs were running and hiding to try and not lose their horribly vulnerable internals.


And honestly, that kind of challenge in a fight is cool if it is rare, but I've had three battles like this so far and the game has only been out for a single day.

 

[SpectralShade]

I've run into this too on different missions.

 

[Abydos_1]

Aye encountering this as well from time to time. Often I will even meet the reinforcements before the objective force. Having 2+ lances from the get-go is a tad to much when they focus down on one mech. The numeric superiority from such occasions is almost an auto-lose, and I've resorted to have to save-scumming before missions because of this.

Cheers

 

[Shaak Gi]

I ran a couple of missions this morning and the reinforcements seemed to come in at logical times. Missions where there are 8-12 enemies would come in waves instead of all bum-rushing me from all directions at the start. Hope that means that the bug is fixed, rather than just dumb luck of a couple of good missions without it.

 

[ChromeDrake]

I've just suffered with this same issue. As soon as I made sensor contact with the main lance the reinforcements (a lance of 4 light mechs) ran forward on the first enemy activation. Turned it into a hellish mission that wasn't worth the play through.

I save scummed several times and this behaviour repeated without fail. The mission in question was 'Settling a Grudge' for the Capellan Confederation on a tundra map, 2 skull difficulty.

 

[Sadbot]

This happens to me as well. I'm not sure if it happens 100% of the time or if certain conditions trigger it. It makes the likelihood of completing some missions rather dubious.

3 Skull mission, and I ran into a dragon, 2 quickdraws, 2 hunchbacks, 1 thunderbolt, 1 cataphract, 2 griffins, a panther, and a demolisher tank (dual ac/20s) all moving as a single pack.

 

[Dsann]

Huh that would explain all the horrifically challenging missions i've been having, i thought i was just in over my head but i mean every time i do a mission thats a battle, i end up facing 2 lances at the same time, something which is less than pleasant.

 

[Eleihun]

Had one of these last night, had to reset 3 times just to make it through without catastrophic casualties and damage. I also reckon that it short changed me on the mission. I reckon taking out the reinforcements would have been a cash bonus modifier, but as they were eliminated first - I jumped them before dealing with the primary lance, as it was the only way to survive - and then with the final 'reinforcements arriving' right at the end before the mission ends, there was no bonus modifier.

 

[Larac]

I thought they were just really bad missions, but I had 3 in a row, wiped me out.
Had 7 Mechs at one time including a Catapult .

 

[GermanPartisan]

Oh thats a bug XD Did not know that ... I thought the game is just enjoyably challenging that way - take note Paradox/Harebrained - if you "fix" this leave an option at the beginning of the camapign for people that want to keep it like this. I like the overall difficulty level this "bug" is providing.

P.S. That would also explain the mission where I got my teeth kicked in by 9 mechs showing up simultaneously XD

 

[Contemplative Sparrow]

I don't mind difficult, but when I have 12 mechs attacking at the same time, it's really hard to keep a base from getting destroyed since they can just target down the buildings.

 

[UndefinedT]

I'm seeing this very frequently, it really skews the difficulty levels of contracts. I'm all for facing 8+ full quality experienced mechs... Later. But when doing a 2.5 skull mission in my 4 mediums and being swarmed on turn 2 it's definitely an issue.

 

[Gladi099]

Oh its not a feature but a bug...
Since I try to get high grounds and circle the enemy i run into the reinforcements before the main force....

 

[iyaerP]

Here's another example. 7 enemy mechs on screen at the start of Turn 6. I've actually been fighting more than the initial lance since turn 4, but wanted to wait till I had almost the full enemy force on sensors to showcase the bug.

State of the game as of this mission:

In my campaign, I have recently finished the contract to destroy the Newgrange, but this issue has been occurring since I got the Argo as my own ship at least.

This mission is "Retribution" and is hunting down a pirate lance, I am currently in the system of Mechdur.

This is the mission screen for this mission:

I set out on this mission with this force, I have the negotiation slider set to max salvage. The SHawk is stock, everything else is modded.

A link to the save file is here

 

[ChromeDrake]

I would just like to hop back here in response to iyearP's post above. I believe that Tundra map is the very same I encountered the issue on with a similar mission type, however I've also encountered said issue in other maps besides though I'm afraid I don't have any further details.

edit: Looking at it further, the map above seems extremely similar but not the same. Difficult to tell with the screenshot angle.

 

[Chaotic-Entropy]

Is this a bug? Or this it just annoying mission design? :S

 

[upsettingshorts]

This happens to me all the time, too, and I'd be less inclined to feel cheated if it's working as designed, meant to reflect bad intelligence, or is actually a bug.