Just something to consider about making lostech more available..

[Coyotekins]

It would further make the flashpoint rewards less enticing.

They already are not as appealing ever since the black market was introduced, making + weapons more widely available.
And now with lostech becoming easier to obtain outside of the difficult flashpoints i think the payout you will receive from such difficult missions will be a tad underwhelming.

Top it all off with the ability to now search for loot on the galactic map.... I am concerned about the balance of the flashpoint rewards.

Thoughts?

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

Still better than regular missions. Also since the rewards are random taking difficult flashpoints shouldn't be about the rewards as they aren't guaranteed.

 

[Coyotekins]

Still better than regular missions. Also since the rewards are random taking difficult flashpoints shouldn't be about the rewards as they aren't guaranteed.

Huh. to me its all about the rewards. We are merc's afterall.
And my mechwarriors deserve the finest riches for the utter bs i put them through.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Soon HEAVY METAL will bring a wealth of new weaponry... some of it so very much more enticing than what we have come to know of as BATTLETECH’s “take” on SLDF LosTech.

Why search for an ER PPC when I can soon search for a COIL-Large?

 

[rcemezodiac]

It's 3025, Lostech is suppose to be near mythical, this game does break that a bit, but some of it also makes a bit of sense, an annihilator for example was considered lost till Wolf's Dragoons showed up with a few brand new ones. This is tech that could change the tide of battle especially if a great house could reverse engineering some of the tech which we see especially after the helm memory core.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

It's 3025, Lostech is suppose to be near mythical, this game does break that a bit, but some of it also makes a bit of sense, an annihilator for example was considered lost till Wolf's Dragoons showed up with a few brand new ones. This is tech that could change the tide of battle especially if a great house could reverse engineering some of the tech which we see especially after the helm memory core.

Excellent point, Good Sir. :bow:

A major design goal for HBS was that BATTLETECH be a fun game. And finding LosTech is oh so supremely FUN. : )

It is a balancing act for HBS.

I don’t mind the LosTech myself.

For me it is the ability to “Withdraw” from a battlefield and still somehow salivate all your downed Mechs, all the Mech’s your ejected from and even in Defeat, still Salvage Enemy Mech Pieces and Enemy Weapons/Components from the Battlefield I’ve just run away from.

Can you imagine that moment of Parlay?

“TIME OUT! TIME OUT! You win. I’m going to withdraw from the Battlefield now. Just let me gather up all my broken Mechs and some of your Mechs and Weapons too. Okay? Surely you can see that it is only fair that if I have to retreat, I should take all my stuff and some of your stuff with me. Right?”

Evidently it just isn’t fun to both lose a battle and lose your Mechs and Salvage too.

 

[stjobe]

It's 3025, Lostech is suppose to be near mythical

In the original setting (pre-clan, i.e. 1985-1989 or so) yes. Nowadays it's been retconned to some degree so that Lostech is more "rare" than "lost" even in the 3025 era.

And in my experience it's a rare gaming group that has never allowed Lostech for at least the players own 'Mechs.

 

[EmptyPepsiCan]

Excellent point, Good Sir. :bow:

A major design goal for HBS was that BATTLETECH be a fun game. And finding LosTech is oh so supremely FUN. : )

It is a balancing act for HBS.

I don’t mind the LosTech myself.

For me it is the ability to “Withdraw” from a battlefield and still somehow salivate all your downed Mechs, all the Mech’s your ejected from and even in Defeat, still Salvage Enemy Mech Pieces and Enemy Weapons/Components from the Battlefield I’ve just run away from.

Can you imagine that moment of Parlay?

“TIME OUT! TIME OUT! You win. I’m going to withdraw from the Battlefield now. Just let me gather up all my broken Mechs and some of your Mechs and Weapons too. Okay? Surely you can see that it is only fair that if I have to retreat, I should take all my stuff and some of your stuff with me. Right?”

Evidently it just isn’t fun to both lose a battle and lose your Mechs and Salvage too.

Yep, that's ridiculous.

The one that I find especially jarring is that if you can't get to the evac point in time on a timed mission you can just eject. What's that about? The opposition is way too tough for you to stand and fight, but they're cool with your salvage team popping in to collect a mech and a pilot from the battlefield? The enemy really has no interest in keeping a decked out assault mech that's headless but otherwise pristine? And they're content to return it to the guys that just shot them up and dropped an orbital strike on their factory? That's a pretty laid back attitude for a hostile military unit to take.

I wish that on those missions where you have to escape before enemy reinforcements arrive they'd dispense with the timer and just send in the overwhelming reinforcements from every direction and challenge you to escape.

I'd also like to see a difficulty checkbox that lets you decide whether or not you can reclaim your stuff after a defeat. Increasing the granularity of the difficulty settings is always a good thing.

 

[AncientRaig]

In the original setting (pre-clan, i.e. 1985-1989 or so) yes. Nowadays it's been retconned to some degree so that Lostech is more "rare" than "lost" even in the 3025 era.

And in my experience it's a rare gaming group that has never allowed Lostech for at least the players own 'Mechs.

The problem with Lostech existing has, in my experience, always been a matter of "There's still some of it floating around, but nobody really knows how to maintain it if you break it and ComStar might kill you in your sleep if you're too obvious about it." Things like a Great House (or a lucky/rich merc unit) having some SLDF era machine still more or less in working order isn't impossible, but they tend end up as hanger queens, because nobody can produce the ferro-fibrous armor it uses, there's only a few dozen artemis-equipped warheads left for its LRMs, and the techs aren't entirely certain if the focusing lens for its ERLL is still in the correct position, or as Frankenmechs using what SLDF tech the unit can still maintain and replacing the rest with easier to source technology. In HBSBT we have the advantage of not only having a floating mech factory, but a floating mech factory with mostly intact specifications for SLDF weaponry (plus whatever juicy blueprints we stole from Castle Nautilus), and a mechtech insane enough to try and figure out how to build it all.

For the gaming groups, it's generally a rare resource that has to be used thoughtfully. Sure, deploying that Royal battlemech we salvaged last mission would give us a considerable amount of firepower, but is this fight really worth using our limited supply of parts for it?

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

That would actually make a nice flashpoint imo: Triggered when you have some lostech, ComStar shows up and wants to take it away from you. You give them a bloody nose over the course of some missions, maybe even capture their base of operations and end up with more lostech, because they were dumb enough to bring it to the battle

 

[rcemezodiac]

That would actually make a nice flashpoint imo: Triggered when you have some lostech, ComStar shows up and wants to take it away from you. You give them a bloody nose over the course of some missions, maybe even capture their base of operations and end up with more lostech, because they were dumb enough to bring it to the battle

Great idea! there is no way COMSTAR would turn a blind eye to a merc company somehow finding an SLDF castle, gaining a bunch of lostech, and having a lostech ship cabable of maintaining it (the description of the machine shop does say it has blue prints). They would be coming to destroy the Argo and any lostech we have, not to mention go to the sldf castle remains and make sure it is destroyed.

 

[LongRange]

I have always thought that a return to the SLDF castle was worth a FP.

Sure Yang blew up the access point, but it’s going to take a lot more than a few explosions to really destroy the equipment there. IMO, it would be worth the trouble to excavate and recover. I could see partnering with one of the Houses (maybe an Arano team up?) to go back and displace whoever’s there and defend it during excavations.

 

[AncientRaig]

Great idea! there is no way COMSTAR would turn a blind eye to a merc company somehow finding an SLDF castle, gaining a bunch of lostech, and having a lostech ship cabable of maintaining it (the description of the machine shop does say it has blue prints). They would be coming to destroy the Argo and any lostech we have, not to mention go to the sldf castle remains and make sure it is destroyed.

That would actually make a nice flashpoint imo: Triggered when you have some lostech, ComStar shows up and wants to take it away from you. You give them a bloody nose over the course of some missions, maybe even capture their base of operations and end up with more lostech, because they were dumb enough to bring it to the battle

Great idea! there is no way COMSTAR would turn a blind eye to a merc company somehow finding an SLDF castle, gaining a bunch of lostech, and having a lostech ship cabable of maintaining it (the description of the machine shop does say it has blue prints). They would be coming to destroy the Argo and any lostech we have, not to mention go to the sldf castle remains and make sure it is destroyed.

The only issue with this is that ComStar's response to this kind of thing happening is to deploy a small fleet of naval assets, and the Argo is unarmed. They wouldn't face us in equal combat on the field of battle, they'd drop a bunch of unmarked ASFs and pocket warships on us out of nowhere, blow us out of the black, and then disappear. We'd turn into yet another Tripitz Affair.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

The only issue with this is that ComStar's response to this kind of thing happening is to deploy a small fleet of naval assets, and the Argo is unarmed. They wouldn't face us in equal combat on the field of battle, they'd drop a bunch of unmarked ASFs and pocket warships on us out of nowhere, blow us out of the black, and then disappear.

I'm not sure ComStar would do this in the 3025 timeline. It's not nearly common knowledge that they are armed to the teeth, so a more "conventional" (arrogant ) approach might be the way to go. Risking to reveal your true capabilities to deal with a minor merc outfit that never deployed more than a single lance of mechs at any given time and is hardly at company strength at best?

And why destroy the Argo, if you can just defeat us and take it intact? It's still a pristine SLDF-era ship. Maybe there is still valuable data on board. Or equipment. Too rare to blow it to pieces.

 

[AncientRaig]

I'm not sure ComStar would do this in the 3025 timeline. It's not nearly common knowledge that they are armed to the teeth, so a more "conventional" (arrogant ) approach might be the way to go. Risking to reveal your true capabilities to deal with a minor merc outfit that never deployed more than a single lance of mechs at any given time and is hardly at company strength at best?

And why destroy the Argo, if you can just defeat us and take it intact? It's still a pristine SLDF-era ship. Maybe there is still valuable data on board. Or equipment. Too rare to blow it to pieces.

The Tripitz Affair happened in 2979. ComStar painted all of their vessels pure white, removed all markings, and absolutely removed a Taurian fleet. They then nuked the warship they were attempting to recover. ComStar would much rather see it destroyed than risk someone using it to dislodge them from their spot as the most technologically advanced faction in the 'Sphere. https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tripitz_Affair

 

[Hobbes__]

And why destroy the Argo, if you can just defeat us and take it intact? It's still a pristine SLDF-era ship. Maybe there is still valuable data on board. Or equipment. Too rare to blow it to pieces.

In 3025 ComStar philosophy is that mankind needs to go through a technological apocalypse, so that the Blessed Order can then guide all of the Inner Sphere into a new Star League. In other words, they don't care about keeping the technology for themselves, only to prevent it from reaching the Successor Lords' hands. So yeah, ComStar would rather blow the Argo and kill all its passengers than to risk any knowledge of it from falling into the wrong hands.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

Ah ok, maybe I need to polish my lore knowledge. Still, I think it'll make an intriguing story for a FP. ComStar NOT dealing with us for possessing lostech is kinda hard to believe

 

[AncientRaig]

Ah ok, maybe I need to polish my lore knowledge. Still, I think it'll make an intriguing story for a FP. ComStar NOT dealing with us for possessing lostech is kinda hard to believe

Yeah. HBS would have to bend the lore of the setting a little in order for it to work, but it's far more lore breaking for ComStar to just be ignoring us. Plus, more LosTech is just fun.

 

[Unruly Marmite]

I've always thought that ComStar ignore us simply because we don't really matter. As far as they're concerned it doesn't make a difference if a small merc unit has some LosTech- it doesn't affect the balance of power in the Inner Sphere. Heck, they more or less ignored the Wolf Dragoons and they're a lot more suspicious than we are. If we decided to join a Great House though then yeah, nukes and strangely white painted military forces it would be.

Either that or my personal headcanon that we're actually a deep cover Comstar cell, which conveniently explains how Dr Murad can work the Argo, how Yang can do all the things he can and why they 'accidentally' released the Locura and felt the best option was to blow up the SLDF Castle.

 

[AncientRaig]

I've always thought that ComStar ignore us simply because we don't really matter. As far as they're concerned it doesn't make a difference if a small merc unit has some LosTech- it doesn't affect the balance of power in the Inner Sphere. Heck, they more or less ignored the Wolf Dragoons and they're a lot more suspicious than we are. If we decided to join a Great House though then yeah, nukes and strangely white painted military forces it would be.

Either that or my personal headcanon that we're actually a deep cover Comstar cell, which conveniently explains how Dr Murad can work the Argo, how Yang can do all the things he can and why they 'accidentally' released the Locura and felt the best option was to blow up the SLDF Castle.

The Wolf's Dragoons didn't really bring any obvious LosTech with them though. They also had enough firepower to fight off anything short of ComStar's warship fleet, which would've been far too much of an overt step for them to take, and they got on the good side of Hanse Davion very quickly, and Hanse Davion was one of the few people ROM was cautious in acting against. We're a fairly small unit, destroying us doesn't put ComStar at much risk and it destroys what basically amounts to a floating Helm Memory Core before anyone can use it to disrupt their plans.