Ironman+Career Mode=World of PAIN!

[Marc_Hicks]

A bit of a shameless plug, but the thread below describes a much more successful career that I am currently playing through .

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-man-adventures-of-trojans-cavaliers.1132997/

 

[gh0s7]

I chose Sentry Lance as well, got an Enforcer and 2 Jenners. As little as I took Protect the Convoy missions earlier, a usual occurrence is having the start point of the convoy being attacked, so I played it safe and took my entire lance there. It was unnecessary, great, but I hadn't been expecting the convoy to just take off like that and actually leave me behind.
Just found it weird, that's all (though, now that I think of it, it wasn't the first time it happened to me, namely one of the missions with a Legendary Mechwarrior. Too bad I didn't remember it).

The second mission is worse, next time I'll bring the three heaviest hitters I have. And I'll keep the Hatchetman in the back and send it against the third lance, just in case.

 

[Siven80]

Got my first Heavy from a 1.5 skull mission. 901 days remaining and 2 stars 301 MRB rating.

Shame its only a Quickdraw 5A and i have a Cent, Shadowhawk, Wolverine, Trebuchet and Hunch 4P.

Though i might try the Quickdraw out as a tank, dropped 2 JJ, 1 M laser and 2 HS, and upped the armor to 120 on legs, maxed arms and side torsos, and 165 CT.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Found two Urbie parts for sale, and now I have all the Light mech variants aboard. Gotta catch 'em all!

 

[Siven80]

Just had a really fun 2 and half skull Battle mission.

My Centurian, ShadowHawk, Hunchback 4P and Trebuchet against Wolverine, Shadowhawk 2D, ShadowHawk 2H, Hunchback 4G, Enforcer and Blackjack.

Managed to win but Centurian lost his right arm/torso and AC10 (think i may replace with AC20 +2ML) and pilot out for 18 days, Shadowhawk took dmg to right arm which was fine, Poor Hunchback was cored though and pilot out for 89 days, i should have ejected a turn earlier but always forget about that heh.

Did manage to complete a Hunchback 4G, an Enforcer and another Shadowhawk 2h which i will sell. So not all bad.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Okay, the game just gave me a BattleMaster as a bonus Flashpoint reward (on top of the SPOILERMECH reward). Things just got a lot easier.

 

[AussieGiant]

Second FlashPoint 3 skulls. The Marik one vs the Mercenary target with the moral dilemma beforehand.

First time I've had to withdraw.

I was in 55/55/55/45 and they had 10 mechs...it was just too much. This is the second Flashpoint I've failed in a row now. I clearly need some Heavies for this mission.

I like it!!

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I've finally saved up a good amount of C-Bills (about 4 Mil), and I have a good lance (of Medium mechs), so I feel like I am currently in a good spot. I have my goto lineup of a Kintaro, Hunchback 4G, Centurion A, and a Griffin S. I wouldn't mind bagging an Enforcer, Crab, or Hatchetman, but unfortunately I am not too close to those mechs.

I had just successfully completed the Flashpoint 'Joint Venture' and have found a second one that I am getting ready to play. We will see how it goes, but I have faith I can pull it off *crosses fingers*.

Overall I am going to start trying to obtain some heavy mechs. I have a couple Grasshopper parts and 3 Jagermech A parts, so I might be able to obtain one of those soon (5 parts required). I also have 1 part of a few other heavies as well.

I'm close to allying with the Taurians, but might hold off due to some of the current drawbacks in the Reputation/Allegiance system. I may still do it though, hard to say at this point.

The days are starting to run down, and the 1200 Days score limit won't be too far off. I'll be curious to see where I end up at that time.

As of right now, it's good to be a Mercenary. Hope the good times continue because bad luck, like bad weather, often rolls in quickly and with little warning.

 

[AussieGiant]

@MeiSooHaityu you will need heavies for the 3 skull Marik Flashpoint. The first drop is straghtforward. The second is a slug fest. Take plenty of ammo.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

@MeiSooHaityu you will need heavies for the 3 skull Marik Flashpoint. The first drop is straghtforward. The second is a slug fest. Take plenty of ammo.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind.

I think the one I am looking at now is a Steiner one. I think the OpFor is 'Steel Beasts' or something like that. I'll have to check when I get home. Either way, I don't think it is Marik.

 

[gh0s7]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind.

I think the one I am looking at now is a Steiner one. I think the OpFor is 'Steel Beasts' or something like that. I'll have to check when I get home. Either way, I don't think it is Marik.

Nope, that one's Steiner and a very personal one for the Graf.

 

[Mcwynne]

Just had to withdraw from a Flashpoint (a 3.5 Kurita one). I had just gotten my first real heavy and might have overestimated my lance strength a bit. First mission (base destruction) went reasonably well, killed a mech or two but when the reinforcements arrived I opted to just destroy the buildings and run. Unfortunately my Thunderbolt (only heavy) lost its sides and had to be left in the bay.

Next mission, now a 4 skull, is a battle against two lances, each heavier than mine. It starts off well enough, I quickly core their Thunderbolt and their Quickdraw soon after. Their two assaults take far more. I am eventually able to blow up their Stalker, but at the time their Battlemaster gets its side torso off I am down to one mech and they still have an entire second lance. So I decide to call it, to even a good faith withdrawal (are those even a thing in Flashpoints?)

As punishment for my defeat I had to stay on the planet and grind half skulls with my B team to pay for my repairs and allow me to leave.

 

[Beric]

I am still on 3 lights and a medium. 5 part salvage, mech destruction, unequipped ironman. I should have probably enabled slow progression in retrospect - in a future run I'll remember to do that.

I fairly quickly found a second Jenner (despite 5 parts required) which is an extremely dominant mech when you strip the JJ's and SRM and add armor and heatsinks. I eventually got a 2-skull on a snow planet where I took out 5 mediums and well as a few vehicles - unfortunately they were all different mechs and I only got one part each. I then lost a Jenner (I had previously lost a Panther as well) so now I'm running 1 Vindicator, 2 Panthers, and a Jenner. Miraculously both my my pilots survived - I could have done lethality I guess but I like rolling the dice.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Nope, that one's Steiner and a very personal one for the Graf.

I just completed that. I think I am going to make a thread related to that one . It was pretty amazing.

I did take that one on with a Medium Lance though. I had a Hunchback 4G, Centurion A, Kintaro, and Griffin S. It went pretty well for me...but that last mission...holy crap!

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-omg-thats-battletech-moment.1133617/

 

[Vitruvian Zeke]

I have to say, so far my "restricted" career mode has been pretty brutal. I'm doing my usual RPG restrictions; slow progression, stock mechs only (with the occasional jury-rig), Po5, unequipped mechs and mech destruction, otherwise everything normal.

I'm nearly 1/4 of the way through and I still don't even have a second MEDIUM mech, and only a few scraps of heavies. Two Panthers and two Jenners are helping, but I still can't field more than one-and-a-half skulls, even if everything is available. Stock mechs and slow progression mean that called shots are too imprecise and weapon loadouts are extremely difficult to focus down damage. Combine that with Po5 and there's no telling when I'll get my first heavy.

Two casualties so far and one Commando and a Locust sent to the graveyard. Mostly I've been focusing on making sure there's enough money in the bank and I just managed to get the second Mechbay on the Argo, so I should be able to keep a wider roster of Mechs. Balancing cash and salvage has been brutally rough. I'm also getting really annoyed that half the planets I travel to have ZERO available missions. It's feast or famine on the periphery, apparently.

The only Flashpoint I've seen was a 2.5 skull which I had to pass on because I could barely field a skull's worth of mechs.

I'm enjoying the heck out of it ... but my score (which I don't really care about) is going to be completely tanked.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

it seems like the tipping point is getting that second or third Medium Mech. Things are normally pretty brutal and mostly I was getting by. Once that second or third Medium Mech is obtained, then I was able to take higher difficulty missions and more mediums were being recovered, more cash was coming in with decent salvage (so I didn't have to choose one or the other as often), and overall it just felt like I was making progress.

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

My experience has been farming the same couple of systems tends to lead to a shortage of contracts, so the contract algorithm looks like it may take into account your activity in the system in career mode.

Uninhabited systems have also proven singularly unlucky for contracts making me curious as to whether the contract system considers tags when rolling up the number of contracts. By the same measure, do we get more contracts in systems with more contesting factions? If so, there might in fact be quite a bit of strategy, over and above who gives contracts, when deciding where you head.

Anyone out there with some insight? @Jade_Rook, this feels like something you may have fiddled with.

 

[Jade_Rook]

My experience has been farming the same couple of systems tends to lead to a shortage of contracts, so the contract algorithm looks like it may take into account your activity in the system in career mode.

Uninhabited systems have also proven singularly unlucky for contracts making me curious as to whether the contract system considers tags when rolling up the number of contracts. By the same measure, do we get more contracts in systems with more contesting factions? If so, there might in fact be quite a bit of strategy, over and above who gives contracts, when deciding where you head.

Anyone out there with some insight? @Jade_Rook, this feels like something you may have fiddled with.

I've seen some discussions about it and have an idea of where to look for it in the SimGameConstants JSON, but I haven't done anything specifically with the contract refresh rates. My understanding is that there is a set time that has to elapse before new contacts spawn at a location. I think it is one month, but not sure. It may also be that one new contact spawns for every period that elapses, such as 1/week. Again, I don't have specifics.

I know that I have run across this in my campaign. There was one instance I remember where I traveled one system over and then directly back and there weren't new contacts. Some systems have longer travel times and Argo upgrades also reduce travel time so there are some instances where it will be easier to run across this.

I know it has been mentioned relatively recently (after Flashpoint), but I am having trouble finding the thread again.

 

[Siven80]

Well my AC20 Centurion has done well, but i now have a Thunderbolt 5SE and a 5S.

So Centurion is now going to be LRM boat, Shadowhawk staying as SRM jumper, nowi just need to decide on builds for the Thunderbolts.

 

[AussieGiant]

Well I'm struggling to take the next step in Career Mode. I have 2 lances of mediums, I completed the first 2.5 skull Flashpoint on the second try, then failed the 3 skull Flashpoint on the first try. Since then I've pissed off Liao and the Pirates no end and have been cruising around trying to get my first heavy with no success. I'm on 5 piece salvage, leathality on, pilot progression slow and everything else normal. I simply can not get enough salvage to build a heavy.

On top of that, I have around 750 days to go and the only Flashpoints are 4 skull plus. There are 4 of them and there is no way I can complete them.

The grind of a competent periphery merc unit is real!!