Newbie questions from what should be an experienced gamer.

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I just shopped in the Black Market for the first time, and the only complete mechs they had for sale were in the 140 million range, and those didn't show any SL technology. Despite my bankroll increasing to 93 million, that stuff is just way out of my price range. No DHS for sale, and the only ERML was 13 million. Not a cheap way to stock up!

Those prices sound like you're getting the ten times price increase for having a bad reputation with the pirates. Improve your rep and the prices will go down to something more reasonable.
 
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I just checked in my game, and the +2 TTSs are indeed 2 tons/2 slots, but the +3s are only 1 ton. I have no idea why that would be true, but it is.

…and I just checked again and the answer changed. Instatrack TTS++ (+3 accuracy for energy weapons) weighs 3 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is the way I had remembered it. I don't know why it was different a day ago or on your spreadsheet. AC1500 TTS+ (+2 accuracy for ballistic weapons) weighs 2 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is unchanged from yesterday.
 
Those prices sound like you're getting the ten times price increase for having a bad reputation with the pirates. Improve your rep and the prices will go down to something more reasonable.

Pirates are bad guys; I don't want to improve my rep with them. Right now my reputation is 100 with Davion, Marik and The Princess, and 115 with Canopus. It's 0 with Steiner and the Combine, and -100 with Liao, Taurus and the Pirates. That's exactly what I was aiming for. Now I need to travel to Canopus and Marik space and see what their house stores have to offer.
 
…and I just checked again and the answer changed. Instatrack TTS++ (+3 accuracy for energy weapons) weighs 3 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is the way I had remembered it. I don't know why it was different a day ago or on your spreadsheet. AC1500 TTS+ (+2 accuracy for ballistic weapons) weighs 2 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is unchanged from yesterday.

And then you have the InstaTrack XII, the Kallon Lock-On, and the Hartford S2000, which all give the +3 for the cost of a single ton and two slots.
No mods, though I can't remember if these were added with one of the expansions or are part of the base game.
 
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…and I just checked again and the answer changed. Instatrack TTS++ (+3 accuracy for energy weapons) weighs 3 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is the way I had remembered it. I don't know why it was different a day ago or on your spreadsheet. AC1500 TTS+ (+2 accuracy for ballistic weapons) weighs 2 tons and takes up 2 critical slots, which is unchanged from yesterday.
TTS++ gives +3 acc for 3 tons.
TTS+++ gives +3 acc for 1 ton.
 
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Pirates are bad guys; I don't want to improve my rep with them. Right now my reputation is 100 with Davion, Marik and The Princess, and 115 with Canopus. It's 0 with Steiner and the Combine, and -100 with Liao, Taurus and the Pirates. That's exactly what I was aiming for. Now I need to travel to Canopus and Marik space and see what their house stores have to offer.

OK, but the Pirate Black Markets have THE BEST STUFF, even better than house stores.
Are you in Campaign or Career? In Campaign late game it’s very difficult to recover from hated rep since there aren’t any low skull planets anymore.
 
Given how often this comes up it'd be handy for new players if Darius warns people to make nice with the pirates!

Very much playing on hard mode without the black market
 
I had no problem getting a max score Kerensky career with having a Loathed reputation with the pirates for the vast majority of the game. I was still able to get access to the Black Market and buy things - it just cost a lot of C-Bills. I found that the ability to run missions against the pirates was very helpful since I usually had an enemy to fight in every system.

Lostech equipment is neat and powerful, but it is by no means necessary.
 
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Are you in Campaign or Career? In Campaign late game it’s very difficult to recover from hated rep since there aren’t any low skull planets anymore.

Must be Career, because I'm getting missions offered from 1/2 skull up to 5 skulls. I'm now turning down anything under 2 as I no longer have mechs bad enough to make them interesting. I'm considering bumping my minimum to 2 1/2 as that's the lowest at which I've seen non-standard items.

I'll take this opportunity to thank the posters who pointed out the drop-weight skull rating for your lance. It's made the game much more interesting. I've also discovered (which you guys probably already knew) that you can drop with less than a full lance. I've done a couple of 3 1/2 to 4 skull missions with only three mechs, and it was fun.

I'm advancing in the one without the Princess right now, though I'm also halfway through a Princess campaign (I paused it just as raiding the Star League depot started).
 
I've also discovered (which you guys probably already knew) that you can drop with less than a full lance. I've done a couple of 3 1/2 to 4 skull missions with only three mechs, and it was fun.
If you complete a mission successfully with just one 'Mech you get an achievement:

1601621934637.png
 
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I'll take this opportunity to thank the posters who pointed out the drop-weight skull rating for your lance. It's made the game much more interesting. I've also discovered (which you guys probably already knew) that you can drop with less than a full lance. I've done a couple of 3 1/2 to 4 skull missions with only three mechs, and it was fun.
Yep
Vain3hV.png
 
Ambush convoy is the one I usually run into trouble with. A vehicle lance plus maybe two escort lances is a lot of concentrated firepower, and sometimes you have to take risks to stop the convoy getting away. Assassinations can also be tricky if they have two bodyguard lances and they're positioned close enough to support each other.

I said earlier that I hadn't seen two escorting lances; I still haven't, but I've recently had three ambushes where reinforcements showed up as soon as three units were destroyed in the convoy — in each case an escort went down on one turn and two convoy vehicles on the next. The instant the second convoy vehicle went up the XO announced reinforcements had arrived, and they were able to move and fire that turn.
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The real reason I came back here was ask if anyone knew the purpose of the "Friend of a Friend" interlude/decision point. An MLRB contact asks you on behalf of a friend to take on a mechwarrior. The friend turns out to be Justin Allard. I've had this one twice, in my first campaign and in the current career. The first time I hired the guy, who turned out to be nothing special. He died quickly and accomplished little. This time I would've hired him (to stay on Justin's good side), but couldn't because the hiring hall he appeared at was in an enemy system and you can't visit an enemy's hiring hall. (This is an error in the system, as I shouldn't be asked to do something impossible. If an impossible item comes up it should be held in abeyance until it can be acted upon.)

So again I ask, what's the purpose of this interlude? Each time it's come up has been when I didn't need any more mechwarriors, and the guy has no special skills, so what gives?
 
Most likely it was one of the many little forks in the road that HBS put into FP and events, etc., to use in furthering the story down the road.

Of course, there is no down the road since they hit the eject button.
 
reinforcements showed up as soon as three units were destroyed in the convoy — in each case an escort went down on one turn and two convoy vehicles on the next.
The reinforcements trigger on the destruction of half the convoy, you can kill all the escort if you want without triggering the reinforcements, but as soon as the second convoy vehicle dies, reinforcements spawn.
the purpose of the "Friend of a Friend" interlude/decision point.
The purpose is flavor. The "can't actually hire the person because we're in enemy territory" thing is a bug.
 
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Thank you to those who responded.

I noticed something in the Flashpoint "Siegebreaker" tonight that seems like a text bug. I sided with the woman who spent time in prison because she slept with the Lieutenant's husband and later knifed her. The Lieutenant threatened to interrupt our operation and try to kill the Steiner general herself, and the ex-con threatened to kill her if she tried. Well, I kept my eyes open for her, but she never showed up. Then, when we were doing the after-operation briefing, the ex-con (whose group did essentially nothing the whole mission) spoke up and apologized for killing the Lieutenant and her entire lance when she showed up.

But, she never showed, and the ex-con's group never left to fight her off-screen. This seems like a text bug to me.
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I'm nearly done with the last of the Flashpoints, almost 300 game days after the official end of the career. I finally found a place that sells ER lasers, and at a reasonable price. I never did find any double heat sinks for sale, and only one mech for sale that had a few, but it was well over 400 million C-bills, and I never had even 100 million.

The Canopian house store is as good as Davion's (different merchandise), but Marik's was mostly lame, aside from the +120 meter sensors. and +4 communications systems. The weapons were all missiles I already had a zillion copies of. Canopus carries +3 hit defense gyros (I bought a dozen, for the mechs that didn't have them yet) and a beautiful selection of snub PPCs — some -10 heat, some +10 damage (so really +50) and some +10 stability damage (so also +50).
 
I noticed something in the Flashpoint "Siegebreaker" tonight that seems like a text bug. I sided with the woman who spent time in prison because she slept with the Lieutenant's husband and later knifed her. The Lieutenant threatened to interrupt our operation and try to kill the Steiner general herself, and the ex-con threatened to kill her if she tried. Well, I kept my eyes open for her, but she never showed up. Then, when we were doing the after-operation briefing, the ex-con (whose group did essentially nothing the whole mission) spoke up and apologized for killing the Lieutenant and her entire lance when she showed up.

But, she never showed, and the ex-con's group never left to fight her off-screen. This seems like a text bug to me.

Weird. That would be more than a text bug. She's supposed to show up as an OpFor, and I know she has for me.