It can take a while to build up to a full lance of mediums in career mode (playing on 5-part salvage rules) so you end up facing the same light mechs over and over. It would be nice if there were more different lights to fight and collect.
More light mechs needed for career mode
- Thread starter King of Zoot
- Start date
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There is a decent chance we'll see the Javelin or Flea with the Urban Warfare expac. And maybe more variants of what we have already.
More mechs would mean even longer though with 5 piece count.
5 piece is what I am playing as well, with this and stingy salvage and payouts it took something like 120 days to get a Shadowhawk as my second medium so I deifnitely feel your pain! there is only so many times you can one shot a Locust with a Firestarter before it starts to get a little stale.
Those would be awesome.
There's also the possibility of the Raven if HBS figures out a fun, reasonable-to-implement solution to electronic warfare.
I am desperately hoping the Raven comes soon and that it brings something unique enough to make it a viable lance member well into later game play, I have the fondest memories of pretty much always having one as the scout in the Mech Commander games.
The Cyclops battle computer and the hatchet as unique equipment are good partial precedents for the Ravens suite at least.
A more sophisticated 'Mech salvage system might be necessary, where a headshot would give you 5 parts, legging would give you 3, and coring would give you somewhere between 1 and 3, depending on how many torsos you blow off (a clean core would give 3, whereas blowing off a single torso before coring would give 2, and blowing off both torsos would give 1).
I actually don't like the idea of being able to get a whole mech from one encounter, I like the other idea being floated around of making the mech chassis more generic so 5 mech parts of any variant of a chassis can become a mech, maybe with the last chassis piece determining the variant to avoid having to store any data about the parts themselves, also make the assembly optional each time a new piece is collected.
I mean, you can always adjust the parts awarded. 4 parts for a headshot, 3 for a legging, 3-1 for a coring. The point is to give you more salvage if you're clinical about how you destroy a 'Mech, while also making it slightly easier to build a complete chassis when you're playing 5-piece with lots of different 'Mechs.
It's just about finding a middle ground, yeah? 3-piece is easy mode, but 5-piece might be too hard if you've got twenty different lights you're trying to build, and you can only get a max of 3 salvage from anything you encounter. You suggest that salvage be "variant free", so that any X'Mech salvage can be used to build any X'Mech variant. I suggest that more salvage be awarded on a 'Mech by 'Mech basis, if you're careful about how you destroy it. Both suggestions would increase the amount of usable salvage available.
I like this as well with the modification that pieces retain their chassis variant and the mech you build is based on whichever variant you use 50% of the parts from.
So, if you need 3 pieces to build a mech, 2 must be from the same variant, but the 3rd could be any other variant. 4 or 5 pieces? 3 must be from the same variant. And so on. As this could lead to situations where you could build multiple mechs from the same set of parts, you would need to have an interface (probably similar to the Mech Bay) where you can pick the parts to use for new mech.
The change I want to see is to have the salvaged parts based on the chassisdef and not the mechdef.
Currently, if you make two variants based off the same chassis (because they have compatible hardpoints), they end up being salvaged as entirely different mechs that you need to collect independent pieces of. I'd like mechs using the same chassis to be salvaged into a common bin. If the setting for equipped mechs is set, you'd need to have one of the variants marked as the default... but for unequipped mechs, you could easily build it out either way.
Whether or not two mechs salvaged together would then be a decision that could be made on a case-by-case basis. It also would have the advantage of making it easy to create a variety of customized variants without unbalancing the gameplay.
The mod "Adjusted Mech Assembly" does exactly that:
https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/93
The variant selected is selected at random weighted by the number of parts of each variants. You can add mechs to the config file that ignore this mod, I've added the Cyclops.
I'm doing a 8 mech parts per mech career mode run starting with just Locusts (looking forward to a new Commando soon!), so this mod should help with getting some of the light and medium mechs with multiple variants. Interestingly by default under this mod constructed mechs come completely destroyed, i.e. all locations with no internal structure, so they need some time and money in the mechbay to get operational even after you do get the parts. But the cost of repairing a mech completely is still far less than buying it outright.
Nope.
I've looked at it. It does something very similar to that.
Edit: To be more clear, when I say that I want mechs using the same chassis to be salvaged together, I'm NOT talking about "Oh, these are all Locusts". Each variant currently has its own mech definition file AND chassis definition file. The varying hardpoints happen in the chassis definition file.
I want it to be possible to still have the 1M, 1S, and 1V be entirely different mechs for salvage purposes, but to be able to add - for example - a 1M++ that has the exact same hardpoints as the 1M but improved versions of all weapons... and still have it salvage to the same bin as the other 1Ms. That is not currently possible.
A 1M++ with the same hardpoints as the 1M would use the same chassisdef file, but the mechdef file would use the ++ weapon variant IDs instead. So it's just an upgraded version of the 1M, not a true 'variant' on its own. Programmatically, this can happen with rare salvage enabled. If it salvages the same as a 1M, when you build the mech from salvage, it will likely build as a stock 1M. If you want to be able to salvage a 1M++ and get the ++weapons, you would need to have those parts salvaged as different parts.
With unequipped mechs enabled, there would be no difference between a 1M and 1M++ because the mech would completely empty, leaving you to stock the mech with the components you want.
With unequipped mechs disabled, you would only get stock parts if the 1M and 1M++ share component IDs.
The only way to make a 1M++ salvage with the ++ weapons is to have unequipped mechs disabled and use different component / mech part IDs...which would mean the 1M++ is really "different" parts. And the reason for this is that there is no way for the salvage system to know "this builds a 1M++ not a 1M" if the component parts have the same ID.
Hopefully the Raven makes an appearance soon. The Raven is one of my favorite Light Mechs as it is (PGI's rendition looks so cool).
I mean, the Raven can even take on and defeat a Timberwolf!
Ok, admittedly with a lot of help 
I mean, the Raven can even take on and defeat a Timberwolf!
I'm a little torn on how to manage salvage as well. On the one hand I totally agree, three mech parts to salvage a mech is way too easy, but when I started my first career mode campaign I did it with five parts needed to salvage it felt like I was falling behind really fast. Now that could be because of that stupid 1200 days timer you get in career mode and wanting to get to all the flashpoints ASAP. I might go back and start a new career with five mech parts for salvage and see how it goes. I like the idea of a longer campaign, but I'm not a huge fan of the career mode starting mechs and really want to change them out ASAP. I'm also finding in my current career RNG REALLY doesn't like me. I've had a a lot of instances of getting all the parts needed to salvage a full mech only to be stiffed on getting the last part and then not seeing that mech again for a long time, and that's with three mech parts for salvage.
I also thinking salvaging a full mech during a mission should be a very rare thing and should only happen if you take the head off a mech without destroying any other section on it. It just feels weird to get all the parts needed to salvage a full mech by incapacitating the pilot when you've blown off the left and right torsos, one of the legs and gotten a lucky head hit or two.
I also thinking salvaging a full mech during a mission should be a very rare thing and should only happen if you take the head off a mech without destroying any other section on it. It just feels weird to get all the parts needed to salvage a full mech by incapacitating the pilot when you've blown off the left and right torsos, one of the legs and gotten a lucky head hit or two.
Maybe I'm not explaining it well, but I have personally tested how it works and that's not it.
ANY unique mech definition is salvaged as a distinct item for the purposes of stacking parts. The mech definition references a specific chassis definition, but mechs that use the exact same chassis definition do NOT salvage together. I want my hypothetical 1M and 1M++ to salvage together, but there is absolutely no way with the existing code for mechs that have even one heat sink changed to be treated the same for salvage purposes.
I also don't care that salvaging multiple variants together using equipped mechs would then require that one of the variants be the default... I consider that a feature, not a bug. If weapons are going to magically appear on that stripped chassis you salvaged, I don't care which set of weapons they are.
Ahh. That's interesting. I just took a look and indeed, Vicki's KGC is a mechdef referencing the same chassis as the stock KGC, which explains why people that salvage Vicki's KGC parts end up with unstacked / unusable KGC parts. That sounds like a bug actually. If the same chassisdef is used, the parts should definitely stack, though I'm guessing that the reason HBS didn't stack them is that there is no 'default'... you build the mech that the parts came from and if multiple mechdefs use the same chassisdef, there's no way to know which mechdef to use to populate the mech.
Sounds like a bug report (if you have the case with Vicki's KGC) needs to be put in and / or a suggestion (with your 1M++ as an example). If you do that, @ronhatch, please post links in here so folks can add their +1s to them and hopefully HBS can get a fix in. Thanks for being patient and explaining it in detail
I definitely like the idea of single-stacking parts from the same chassisdef...with "Unequipped mechs" it doesn't matter, but with equipped mechs, there would need to be a mechanism for a default loadout. And I think it's a step in right direction for a more flexible and robust salvage system overall.
Sounds like a bug report (if you have the case with Vicki's KGC) needs to be put in and / or a suggestion (with your 1M++ as an example). If you do that, @ronhatch, please post links in here so folks can add their +1s to them and hopefully HBS can get a fix in. Thanks for being patient and explaining it in detail
I definitely like the idea of single-stacking parts from the same chassisdef...with "Unequipped mechs" it doesn't matter, but with equipped mechs, there would need to be a mechanism for a default loadout. And I think it's a step in right direction for a more flexible and robust salvage system overall.