I agree that modding would work, I am just a bit uncomfortable with it in this game in particular...
I love career mode..99.9% great! But...
- Thread starter Torm51
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Of course I am! I don’t F4 what happens happens in my play through, the pain of a tactical error that’s costs me a master pilot and my fire starter is part of the thrill for me!
The thing about modding the starting lance, though, is that you can completely revert back to the vanilla game after you've started your career and it will still work perfectly. The only thing it does is inject different data into your initial save file... saves already need to be able to track whatever inventory of mechs you may have, so it's a direct substitution.
The only mildly tricky bit is that the same JSON file has the starting lances for both campaign and career modes, so you have to pay attention to which one you're changing.
I've modded my game and playing with a 4 locust start, with 8 part Mech assembly also, lowest salvage and lowest mission payout, but normal mission difficulty (hard just seems to bump all the missions and payouts half a skull which annoyingly means there are no effective half skull planets). I've also set the critical chance against me up to 100% from 20% so I am playing the same rules as the AI. Just to add to the fun I start with no fellow Mechwarriors (I hire them on my first planet). I am however using the Adjusted Mech Assembly mod though so I can combine different variants into one mech, which should reduce the grind somewhat.
It's not that terrible. Half skull missions are quite comfortable, especially after you find some small lasers and build up 1ML 3SL Locust-1V variants. Four Locusts doing 85 rear damage for two turns (which you can get in a row with their high initiative and precision shot) is enough to splatter light and most medium mechs.
The 1M variant is even better, dump the LRMs, and run 2ML+2SL, all in the centre torso also so it's quite resilient.
The 1S variant is the trickiest one, as it only has one energy and one support hardpoint. Options here are 1ML+1SL+Max Armour, but that means you only have half the firepower of your fellow locusts. You can keep the default with the two SRM-2s + ML and perhaps add a SL, but your firepower isn't that great and your armour is now really weak. The approach I prefer is setting it up as a faux 1M, with 2 LRM5s but no medium laser (this one is going to keep it's distance due to it's poor armour). It now comes in handy for picking off turrets in any base attack missions you perform.
I start with a LST-1M, 2xLST-1V and a LST-1S.
The only time you'll get in trouble is when you roll half skull missions against Panthers (which seem to be in the light mech pool). Jenners can be a bit nasty too if you're not careful but if you stay out of their range and strike quickly they're manageable. The Panther's PPC is scary though. Once you get your locusts fully geared up (maybe with some ++ weapons also) you can consider one-skull missions. I haven't lost one but I've got pretty beaten up, and I've lost mechs and pilots on them. I haven't been playing with centre-torso coring = lost mech on but it still results in a big repair bill and a dead pilot.
The fun part about this start is it's the only start where you're excited to complete your first Commando! You really get to enjoy and appreciate the small mechs with this start.
Ya having same crit chance as the AI would be cool, I’d want that I’m not sure why we only have 20%
Your locust builds sound fun !
So how would I go about missing the JSON files to change the starting career mode lance? I have a dice I can roll to see what I get!
Your locust builds sound fun !
So how would I go about missing the JSON files to change the starting career mode lance? I have a dice I can roll to see what I get!
They did this because the player Lance is outnumbered and some players regularly take a lot of internal damage. They probably found that players who regularly suffer open locations were getting ammo exploded and weapons disabled. Which only made a bad situation worse. I've been playing with AI crit = 1 for a while and it certainly adds an extra layer of "things went south fast" to the game. In my career, I had my PNT lose its LT to an ammo explosion in one of the early days as I neglected to spend mechbay time moving it to the legs. I also have lost a good number more HS and JJ in this career due to that modification.
What do you guys think about starting a career game with just one big mech? A heavy or Assault. I reckon it could be interesting against all those high evasive lights and with mech parts at 5 it will be a long time before you get a wing man or back up mech.
I'm inclined to think a solid medium would be more interesting.
"Thanks" to a bug, I attempted the Majesty Metals mission with just a Blackjack, and it was actually fun. I never did win it, but came close enough to prove it's possible (only lost because of a stupid mistake near the end). And that was when I only had a moderate amount of experience from the beta, too.
If the intention was to only ever run one mech it might be interesting, if your going to collect other mechs I don't think it would take long at all to blow up enough tiny mechs to get a couple of your own at which point things would be pretty easy.
1. Get notepad++ if you don't already have it, although any text editor (default notepad even) will work.
2. Open your install folder, should look something like Steam/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/Battletech_Data/StreamingAssets/data/simGameConstats.json
simGameConstants.json is the file you want.
3. Open file with editor of choice
4. Ctrl-f (or whatever the search function is) for "Story" You'll know you're in the right spot because the first line under "Story" (yes it has the " around it) will be
"PrologueStartingSystem" : "UrCruinne"
5. In this section you will see "StartingLance" and "StartingPlayerMech" again you will know you're in the right spot because this will be your Blackjack and the campaign starting lance information listed.
Here's where it gets important. To change the mechs, you have to replace the "mechdef_blackjack_BJ-1" or the other mechs to the mechs of your choice. THEY MUST BE LEGAL/ELIGIBLE mechdefs. If you're not sure, simply open up ../StreamingAssets/data/mech.. folder and look at all the mechdefs listed there. any one of them will work, just don't put the .json on the end, all you need is (eg to change it to a grasshopper) "mechdef_grasshopper_GHR-5H"
advanced modding, for example if you've made your own mechdef jsons, have to be imported into the game thru other means before this will work to switch to those, but if you use any of the prebundled mechdefs, you'll be fine.
I have not messed with the specials like Morgan Kell's enforcer etc, i just played with stock.
6. replace the mechdefs with the ones you would rather start with, and voila, start a new campaign and your starting lance will be the ones listed (I did this to swap the shadowhawk variant to the one i like better)
Same steps can be followed to change your starting career mode lance, instead of ctrl-f searching for "Story" instead search for "CareerMode" and modify the mechdefs using the steps above.
Congrats, you are now a modder
I'll just add that if you type it in by hand, you have to pay attention to every single detail... including the difference between underscores and dashes. Copy and paste from the filename if you aren't confident you can do that easily.
Oh, and conversely you don't need to look at the files if you are confident that you know the correct spelling of the mech name and variant. They all follow the same pattern. The expansion mechs don't show up in the file structure, so that's what you'll need to do if you want to start with one of them.
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If I start another Career Mode, I think I am going to do some json file shenanigans to change my starting lance. I think I'd like to have a Hatchetman instead of a Vindicator. Although it would be a bit too easy early game, I think I'd also like to swap out the Spider for a Crab. I'd just want to spend more time with the new mechs.
If I do decide to do that, it is going to be a while. I have a long way to go before I accomplish everything I want to in this current Career playthrough.
If I do decide to do that, it is going to be a while. I have a long way to go before I accomplish everything I want to in this current Career playthrough.
To put some visuals on @Confector Tyrannis otherwise excellent post, I did this for my Plague of Locusts campaign:
I did that, and I'm kind of sort of regretting it - the Vindicator is a much more useful 'Mech than the Hatchetman. Cool as that hatchet is, the rest of the 'Mech is made of paper and a single AC/10 doesn't compare to the PPC+LRM-10 I usually mod on to my Vindicators.
To put some visuals on @Confector Tyrannis otherwise excellent post, I did this for my Plague of Locusts campaign:
I did that, and I'm kind of sort of regretting it - the Vindicator is a much more useful 'Mech than the Hatchetman. Cool as that hatchet is, the rest of the 'Mech is made of paper and a single AC/10 doesn't compare to the PPC+LRM-10 I usually mod on to my Vindicators.
I was also going to add a Crab as well too
. I wanted at least 2 of the 3 new mechs at start (Cyclops is a bit too OP early game). Despite the Hatchetman's failings, I could always count on the Crab to pick up the slack. Again, it might be too easy early game, but I'll survive .
FWIW, on the campaign that I started after owning Flashpoint, the Crab was the very first medium mech I ever encountered and the Hatchetman was somewhere around the fourth medium mech that I got a piece of.
So while that may just be the vagaries of RNG, I'm inclined to think that putting them in your starting lance isn't really needed.
So while that may just be the vagaries of RNG, I'm inclined to think that putting them in your starting lance isn't really needed.
In my current play I have seen the Crab and Hatchetman both about 3 times each. Unfortunately I haven't always been able to salvage a part form a missions, and playing with 5 pieces of salvage, I haven't really gotten that close to salvaging either mech :/ . I think I might have 3 Hatchetman pieces and maybe 2 Crab pieces. I would have to check to make sure.
I am close to getting a couple Heavy mechs at this point, so unfortunately I am getting ready to move on to heavier units. At least in this playthrough, I seem to have missed out on both those mechs.
Flashpoint Spoilers...
At least I was able to try out the Hatchetman in 'Joint Venture' and was able to recover the Crab in "Steel Beast' (or something like that).
I would like to get some solid seat time with both mechs, so I may edit the starting lance to do so the next time I play a new Career Mode run.
I got really lucky and ran into a ton of hatchetmen early and it was the first medium I put together, ive gotten a ton of play time in it and I ended up dropping the AC10 and MLs for a 60 damage PPC and a 50 damage LL and more armor, and i like it very much. I play it as a mid range sniper mostly, I keep it near the front but the second I got a shadowhawk it was no longer my tank. I wait for the enemy to close the gap, blowing big holes in them as they come in and then seal the deal with the hatchet once they get close enough. Almost finished with steel beast right now, about to get a crab, I am super happy that I’m going to be able to get in a lot of time in the 2 new mechs.
@stjobe hey thanks for doing that! makes it a lot easier to 'see' and understand, very much appreciated!