How do you pick who to hire? And do their backgrounds matter?

[unclecid]

I only rarely hire KS pilots and then only very specific ones... because: one can't customize their voices like with 'normal' random hires.

Did I mention you can customize them? A lot? (Except sex & face, that is.)
So, whenever you receive that annoying "aha" "ohyeah" women.. change her voice to the nice russian "we are doomed" and all is fine.

Oh and training a pilot from the lowest stats up will keep their salary lower overall. The most basix 3x2 and 1x3 stat one will start with an 18000C-Bill salary, raising +1000 per each skill point to a max of 49000 C-Bills.
Hiring any highly skilled Mechwarrior usually any raised stat point costs you +2000 in the base salary already. The only reason for me, to get rid of my starting crew btw.. though never Glitch. I just love Glitch! <3

always felt that HBS over pays the pilots ALOT.
meat is supposed to be cheap.
at the rate HBS pays out pilots only need work a few months to a year to be able to retire.
i mean they dont pay room or board....dont have to worry about utilities...etc.

so i found me a mod that pays them what they are worth.....and more in line with what we used to pay em in TT

 

[Burnsidhe]

The pilots are *massively* overpaid. Even if you were to consider that it includes feeding them, medical care, mech maintenance, and whatnot (most of which are already factored in as hidden variables such as MechTech per month and MedTech per month), they're still being massively overpaid. You can buy a Locust for 1.8 million.

Default pay for a Mechwarrior Regular is about 180 thousand per year. At 49k c-bills a month, a Legendary mechwarrior gets paid 588 million per year.

At the same time, routine maintenance on mechs is going to cost 144 thousand per year each. And each MechTech costs 36k c-bills a year. MechTechs are *precious* because of the general loss of technical knowledge in the Inner Sphere. Mechwarriors with Technician also cost a little extra every month because of that.

The pay scales for Mechwarriors are clearly way off. The default is something like Base_Cost = 2000 per skill point, Skill_Up_Cost = 1000 per skill point, Hiring_Bonus = 3000 per skill point.

What I feel they should be is something closer to Base_Cost = 150, Skill_Up = 150, Hiring Bonus = 1800. The mod on the Nexus is Base_Cost = 75, Skill_Up 50, Hiring Bonus = 900.

Even if you assume what the Mechwarriors are taking home is about one third of what they're actually costing you as an employer given you have to feed them and maintain their quarters and other misc expenses, well... 150 * 3 = 450, still way less than 2k on base cost or 1k per skill up.

 

[theCarthaginian]

CAMPAIGN: I only hire Arugian Reach citizens... without annoying voices. I never hire KS backers; they are too expensive.

CAREER: I haven't hired anyone yet, because my 6th 'Mech isn't ready... when it is available, I'll try to hire someone who has tags that my current employees do not have - in order to maximize events
EDIT: yeah... without annoying voices.

 

[Masoz]

a Legendary mechwarrior gets paid 588 million per year.

I think you mean 588k. For 588 mil you better have hired Dr. Manhattan or some other godly being.

Anyway, the pilots are likely overpaid due to the morale economy. It has to take a hefty chunk of change to raise morale, or the player is just going to go with the "Extravagant" option every month and render the system pointless.

 

[Kjelstad WA]

THE KS Pilots don't have the generic skills that come in useful. Someone comes to you with info about a fight, you remind them they have officer training and they go take care of it. With no training you pick another route and hope it isn't a total disaster.

I guess I am just wondering why you would take them

 

[Rørik Þrumsålr]

I agree, I think many of the expenses are really extreme in the game. Whenever there is a patch the first thing I do is go straight to the JSON and adjust them to more practical levels.

Pilots in particular are paid a metric crapton of c-bills, with the actual annual rate being about 588k. But the big kicker is that C-bills are extremely strong currency, with the sarna article calculating that 1 c-bill is worth 12-15 2018 USD. That would put the 49k/mo pilot at about today's equivalent of $7,056,000 a year. 1/10th of that pay would be relatively extravagant.

According to Campaign Operations, a MechWarrior or Aerospace pilot starts at a base of 1500 c-bills/mo. it is further adjusted based on experience and rank (green: x06, veteran x1.6, elite x3.2, officer x1.2)

By these numbers Grandma Natasha would be pulling in about 60k C-bills a year! (about 720k USD equivalent) There's a more detailed rank multiplier based on skills, but I'm not gonna crunch the numbers.

 

[Hopit]

I only hire mechwarriors who are "unique" or kickstarters

 

[DutchRits]

I only hire Ronin or Backers, with the following caveats:
Pluses:
1) military appearance and/or background (e.g., Kingwolf, Dragon 66, Corsair, McWraith, Mummy Bear, Weaselcakes, Skyros, Rook)
2) Background with FedSuns, Lyran Commonwealth, or Mercenary

Negatives:
1) Background with ComStar, Capellan Confederation, Draconis Combine, or Solaris
2) background that would logically prevent service in a BattleMech (no explanation of MechWarrior training, criminal background, mental disorders, etc.)
3) appearance/background that suggests failure to adhere to military standards (don’t need that drama, and hints at incompetence and/or security risk)
4) background that hints at a “Mary Sue” type of character

That all said, I have soft-spots for Ariamaki, Varangian, Exodus, Whisper, Bear Claw, Big Sly, and Arbiter (‘Cause he’s wearing Dave Clarks, or a Bose headset). I just edit their JSONs (Bear claw’s voice, Dragon 66’s callsign, etc.). Others I flat-out replace with my own custom MechWarriors.

I edited the simgameconstants to more accurately reflect the demographics of modern military service for the random MechWarriors (80/19/1)...and then never hire any of them. I use the RandomCampaignStart mod to start with custom MechWarriors rather than Glitch, Behemoth, Dekker, or Medusa. And I also bump up the chance of finding Ronin/Backer MechWarriors to 0.6 (60%). The random MWs just feel TOO random, especially when compared to the Backer descriptions.

I hired Ronin MechWarriors my first two games, until I realized how OP and relatively uncustomizable they are (skill-wise), not to mention they’re all from the Periphery. I edited one or two of their JSONs, too. I try to make space for Showboat and Sumo, though.

I also used the Mod that added the MC2 MechWarriors, for nostalgia’s sake. Then I saw that the creator didn’t add any of the ability tags, and when I added them myself it generated errors. So unfortunately I removed it. It was nice to have Hacksaw, Twitch, and Palerider again, though.

I also manually edited the simgameconstants to fix the MechWarrior pay and put it more in-line with tabletop.

THE KS Pilots don't have the generic skills that come in useful. Someone comes to you with info about a fight, you remind them they have officer training and they go take care of it. With no training you pick another route and hope it isn't a total disaster.

I actually like this. When I had the event you referenced it was Kingwolf, and I told him to be an officer and deal with it, which is what I’d do as an officer in real life. My issue is when I have a MW with the appropriate skill but it’s greyed out.

 

[Masoz]

One thing to consider is that while you are paying an obscene amount of money to your pilots by canon standards, you are also taking an obscene amount of contracts. The potential scarcity of contracts is one of the main reasons why pilots are paid like crap in the canon. Sometimes Merc Commands will be lucky to secure one contract a year. Meanwhile my "just barely scraping by" team of misfits is averaging 3-5 deployments every 2 weeks.

 

[Fallenkezef]

I used to just collect KS and Ronin MW's because they where unique.

Now you can customise the crew I go for standard MW's and create my own background for them. Planning to add a post for my career merc unit with the bios and add it to my sig at some point.

 

[DutchRits]

I used to just collect KS and Ronin MW's because they where unique.

Now you can customise the crew I go for standard MW's and create my own background for them. Planning to add a post for my career merc unit with the bios and add it to my sig at some point.

I have to admit, I haven’t looked into this nearly enough. Can you edit more than just the voice & appearance? I’d check myself, but I’m at work. I’d be concerned about the tags and background. If I could customize it ALL, then I’d be on board...maybe.

 

[Ole122]

Is he Kickstarter oder Unique? Yes? Hire. Else: Pass. Mostly. Had one KS pilot which I didn't like the look of, so out he goes.

 

[BobaFatt]

Stats or skill combos I like trump all else. I do try to hire KS/ronin as much as possible because I like the painted portrait art vs procgen portraits. I also avoid any price gen characters with emo haircuts and backers with overly eye roll inducing backstories...

When playing with slow MechWarrior progression I look out for those pilots that have one crazy high stat and 3 low ones because it’s easier to bring the rest of the stats to mid level then it is to take a mid level across the board pilot and get 1 stat to 7 or 8

 

[Murphy1up]

Greetings,

Just wondering what is the general idea behind hiring new mech pilots. Purely on stats/skills, does their background traits come into count, their voice lines, and/or their portraits?

Also does having a stable of mech pilots with varying backgrounds help you with those random ship events?

I sit my back up pilots on 4/4/4/4 and then spec as required. Generally I recruit based on interesting back stories.

I just hired a female character who was a commons, then convict, then hired killer. Rolled for new callsign a few times and "Meathook" is perfect. Not long after that I get a random event with another crew saying she's untrustworthy. Had the option to do nothing, speak to her about it or fire her.

I took the option to speak to her about it. As far as I'm concerned she's going to be my tank/brawler pilot. Everyone has a history that can't be changed. I only care about her future actions

I edit each character usually also so the face more fits the voice (or the voice fits the face).

 

[Fallenkezef]

I have to admit, I haven’t looked into this nearly enough. Can you edit more than just the voice & appearance? I’d check myself, but I’m at work. I’d be concerned about the tags and background. If I could customize it ALL, then I’d be on board...maybe.

Sadly it's just picture, voice, callsign and name

 

[Murphy1up]

Sadly it's just picture, voice, callsign and name

Yeah, this is why I spend a little time checking the recruitment hall for interesting back stories.