I love career mode..99.9% great! But...

[Torm51]

The only thing I think they missed is not giving us a random light/medium lance assignment. Randomly getting 4 locust would suck but it would be fun!

 

[Ken-Sw]

Would be fun - But a lot of people would reload over and over until they got something they liked

 

[Torm51]

I hear you but so? Let those people do that! They have Ironman (which I love) but it doesn’t stop people from F4ing if they want. I don’t! Haha

 

[Jonathan8883]

Random starting Urbie is great.

A random starting lance of nothing but Urbies would be OP.

 

[LemurFromTheId]

Random starting Urbie is great.

A random starting lance of nothing but Urbies would be OP.

The reason I generally prefer the term "procedurally generated" instead of "randomized" is because the latter gives too many people the impression that the devs somehow lose all control over the possible outcome. Which isn't the case at all.

There are countless ways to limit and control lance composition despite it being "random". Strict tonnage limits and only-one-of-each-model limits are only the most obvious ones. But things like combat roles, movement types and distances and optimal weapon engagement ranges can also be taken into account, guaranteeing a varied and well-balanced lance.

 

[Revan Katarn]

I think Kiva mentioned during a stream that they considered/were thinking of totally random initial lance, but that was unlikely due to unbalanced between different starts, or high chances of having a starting lance with which you can't complete almost any contract... that's if I recall correctly.

Either way, a totally random lance I don't think it's a good idea, random can be very chaotic. I'll be happy with a randomness within some options (Mech1: one random from a pool of X candidates; Mech2: random from a different pool of candidates; and so on), so as @LemurFromTheId said, your lance has Mechs with different roles for a well-balanced lance. Or, this could be an option of the granular settings: full random starting lance / semi-random starting lance / standard starting lance.

 

[Packrat]

Something that could be doable is a pool of premade starting lances that the game selects from randomly. That way, the devs can be sure the player doesn't wind up screwed over by the RNG of bad starting mechs and unusually tough early missions, but the player still won't know exactly what they'll have when they start a game.

 

[LemurFromTheId]

To be fair, one of the problems with a randomized starting lance is the fact that there are rather few light mechs in the game, so the pool is limited. Furthermore, Locust wasn't included because it's too bad, Firestarter wasn't included because it's too good, and UrbanMech wasn't included because it's too weird.

Personally I don't see a problem with giving the players a Locust if it's just one of five mechs. If you don't want to use it, keep your four other mechs intact.

So, a very simple randomized setup could be something like this:

Mech 1: a random Locust variant
Mech 2: a random Commando variant
Mech 3: a Spider
Mech 4: either a Panther or a Jenner
Mech 5: either a BlackJack, a Vindicator or a Trebuchet

Granted, it's not a huge amount of variation, but it's still more than there is currently, and it may well lead to very different early career games.

 

[stjobe]

Randomly getting 4 locust would suck

No, it wouldn't.

 

[Torm51]

You guys are on point, I can see how some starting lances would not let you win at all, so random was the wrong word, but maybe a "random" from a variation of set lances that could work, like we said things could end up very different at the start!

 

[EmptyPepsiCan]

If you want a different starting lance (and you don't already know how to do this) here you go:

First find the correct .json file. For me it's here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\simGameConstants

Open SimGameConstants.json with Notepad++ (free to download)

Scroll down to:

"StartingPlayerMech" : "mechdef_vindicator_VND-1R",
"StartingLance" : [
"mechdef_jenner_JR7-D",
"mechdef_commando_COM-1B",
"mechdef_spider_SDR-5V",
"mechdef_panther_PNT-9R"

Make the changes you want, following the format in the file. The names of all of the original mechs are here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\chassis

I'm not sure where the new mechs are - maybe somewhere in the Flashpoints files? - but they're easy enough to figure out. For example, the Hatchetman is "mechdef_hatchetman_HCT-3F".

You just pick whatever mechs you want - you can take up to 6 total - and plug them into the list, being careful not to screw up the formatting. Make a backup copy of the SimGameConstants.json file before you start, and the process will be totally, 100% foolproof.

 

[BobaFatt]

To be fair, one of the problems with a randomized starting lance is the fact that there are rather few light mechs in the game, so the pool is limited. Furthermore, Locust wasn't included because it's too bad, Firestarter wasn't included because it's too good, and UrbanMech wasn't included because it's too weird.

Personally I don't see a problem with giving the players a Locust if it's just one of five mechs. If you don't want to use it, keep your four other mechs intact.

So, a very simple randomized setup could be something like this:

Mech 1: a random Locust variant
Mech 2: a random Commando variant
Mech 3: a Spider
Mech 4: either a Panther or a Jenner
Mech 5: either a BlackJack, a Vindicator or a Trebuchet

Granted, it's not a huge amount of variation, but it's still more than there is currently, and it may well lead to very different early career games.

Something that’s been suggested in another thread is to allow 15m build value with a cap that no single mech can exceed somewhere around 4 and change million. That way if you do roll a bigger mech it is compensated for by the rest being smaller/lower BV. Also using predefined lists like the one you posted would work and you can even expand the lists for more variety by putting a total tonnage on the lance, something like:

Mech 1:45-50 tons
Mech 2:35-45 tons
Mech 3: 25-35 tons
Mech 4: 20-30 tons
Mech 5: 20-25 tons

The starting tonnage of the current career mode is 170 which would allow for several dozen permutations without truly being random.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Why not just give the player a starting tonnage budget with which to select (stock) light and medium mechs up to a budget of 150T?

If someone wants to take six Locusts and one Spider, cool.
Vindicator, Blackjack, Jenner, Locust? Cool.
Shadow Hawk, Enforcer, Vindicator? Very cool.
Four Firestarters? Go nuts.

Or just go wild and let them take any mechs with no weight limitations. Atlas and a Crab? You do you.

 

[scJazz]

To all of these Random Lance ideas...

If the starting lance was random it...

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

If you want to change up your starting lance... just mod it.

 

[BobaFatt]

To all of these Random Lance ideas...

If the starting lance was random it...

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

If you want to change up your starting lance... just mod it.

If every starting lance was based on 170 tons or 15m value it wouldn’t.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

Which is why giving the player choice is the actual best solution. Let people work out for themselves what the "optimal" approach is to an early-game rollout.

 

[EmptyPepsiCan]

To all of these Random Lance ideas...

If the starting lance was random it...

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

That could be addressed by giving the player the choice between the standard lance, a procedurally generated lance, picking their own lance with constraints, and picking their own lance with no constraints. The choice could be reflected in the name of the play through - Standard Career, Random Career, 170/15 Career, and Unlimited Career. That way everyone could get what they want and people who care - of whom I am definitely not one - would still be able to compare apples to apples.

If you want to change up your starting lance... just mod it.

I agree that this is the best solution.

Incidentally, if you mod it will that be reflected in your Career Score? If not then Career Scores are officially meaningless, since anybody could have started the campaign with anything. I don't care how good you are - your puny scout lance is never going to keep pace with my 400-ton wrecking crew.

 

[LemurFromTheId]

There's no comparing career runs anyway because the difficulty settings don't affect the score and the starting locations can vary wildly, so what does it matter if people were to start with different lances?

 

[jj284b]

To all of these Random Lance ideas...

If the starting lance was random it...

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

If you want to change up your starting lance... just mod it.

Starting lance has minimal impact on final score.. My experience was that i made 75% of my points in the last 400 days...

 

[Donvale]

To all of these Random Lance ideas...

If the starting lance was random it...

Your Career Mode score would have less relationship to anyone else's score or your own score in later runs. And we'd sit there pressing restart a billion times.

If you want to change up your starting lance... just mod it.

I am absolutely certain the RNG result of the first time someone fires an AC20 at you will have more impact on your final score than having some random aspects to the starting lance...