Premature Hatchetmen (some flashpoint spoilers)

[Deaghaidh]

So playing through the first Flashpoint, I believe it is called Joint Venture, I encountered an odd thing.

While defending the convoy which contained the parts for the prototype Hatchetman, my lance was obviously attacked. But one of the mechs attacking me was itself a Hatchetman.

I managed to sweep the legs (not hard, I was continuing my post-storyline campaign so my lance was Lostech laden assaults) and got myself a salvaged Hatchet man. For the next mission, wherein I was required to use what was supposed to be one of the first Hachetmen.

For extra fun the OpFor again included a Hatchet man. Which I again salvaged, though I managed to get the "prototype" destroyed.

After mission success there was some dialogue where Yang admired the cool new Hatchet man, and wished he had a Hatchet man. And the liaison said something to the effect of "Hey who knows, maybe one day Steiner Claus will leave one in your stocking."

At that point I had two Hatchetmen, and he had one smoldering wreck. So... yeah.

Almost posted this as a bug, but it's not really. Maybe a function of me carrying my old save into what was clearly meant to occur much earlier. I suspect so many days had gone by that the game assumed the Hatchetman was generally available.

 

[Critter667]

It may just be a glitch or unplanned random event.

I am still working on a campaign. Flashpoints start after you finish the campaign, yet I faced a random hatchetman on a fairly standard mission. I had just picked low salvage as I needed the money, but I did get 1 salvage. So it is possoble to see them earlier.

 

[D-Day]

I started with a fresh career mode and salvaged a Hatchetman before attempting Joint Venture. It's kind of a bug I suppose because really the OpFor shouldn't include that chassis unless they're Davion and/or you've completed the Flashpoint. Breaks the immersion somewhat, so we'll see if it gets "fixed" I guess.

 

[jj284b]

yes, the whole "prototype" thing kinda doesnt work, when same mech is part of standard AI mech pool...

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I had brought this up in the 'BATTLETECH Suggestions' section.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ure-completion-spoiler.1133216/#post-24931571

I'm not sure if it is possible to lock the mech away before completing 'Joint Venture', but it would be nice (as long as it is always playable regardless of reputation or ally status).

P.S. The only issue is this makes getting the Hatchetman in Campaign Mode awkward because the Hatchetman could be used earlier in the campaign instead of after it is completed (when Flashpoints occur).

 

[Icewraith]

I don’t have the mechs to try joint venture in career mode yet, but I already have a piece of Hatchetman... salvaged from a group of stranded Liao fighters left over from the Third Succession War.

 

[jj284b]

yeah.. nothing speaks louder as fighting group of old mechs from Third Succession War with Hatchemen in their ranks...

 

[Kheiran]

I started a new campaign without career mode and already have 3 parts for a hatchet man from downing 3 enemy hatchet men. I haven't done weldry yet. Maybe the Mech needs to be exempted from OpFor mech table untill you can complete said flashpoint.

 

[TripleStrengthMisnomer]

Maybe the Mech needs to be exempted from OpFor mech table untill you can complete said flashpoint.

but I already have a piece of Hatchetman... salvaged from a group of stranded Liao fighters left over from the Third Succession War.

Maybe so as this is lore breaking and will annoy some folks as the Hatchetman is not even supposed to exist until 3023.
If it's not an easy fix, I won't get bent out of shape because of it though .
Bigger development fish to fry....

 

[Deaghaidh]

Maybe so as this is lore breaking and will annoy some folks as the Hatchetman is not even supposed to exist until 3023.
If it's not an easy fix, I won't get bent out of shape because of it though .
Bigger development fish to fry....

It's a minor issue, but it does take a lot of the satisfaction out of completing the flashpoint.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I had an idea that would help this a bit. Mostly it just involved tweaking the wording in the Flashpoint and/or tweaking the loadout of the Hatchetman a bit so that it is a custom variant you are testing and not the Hatchetman as a whole.

I was thinking that maybe the best solution would be to treat the Hatchetman in the 'Joint Venture' Flashpoint as a custom Hatchetman instead of a regular one. Maybe it has an arm mod attached or some other tweak to it that the Steiner's were moving/wanting you to test for them. This would at least only result in some dialogue tweaks (hopefully) and since it is a special model being tested, we can assume that the standard Hatchetman is already being fielded (hence seeing them before 'Joint Venture').

It doesn't have to go as far as some other custom mechs in the game, but maybe just some tweaks that certain Steiner higher-ups want to test to get accepted by the government as a whole as a production variant or version.

Again, nothing too radically unique, but just modded in a way we could do if we had one.

I think that would help clear up some of the contradiction with the Hatchetman's roll out.

Either that, or Steiner wants additional field trials. Basically treat the Hatchetman as already rolled out, but ask you specifically to do some special escort/testing on a specific Hatchetman that exists for some reason.

Tweaking the Flashpoint's dialogue, or adding an arm mod to that specific Hatchetman is probably easier than trying to decide when a Hatchetman shows up in gameplay.​

 

[yrrot]

I don't know, I just found it funny more than anything to have a Steiner rep tell me all about this super secret mech design and then to run into it as part of the OpFor. Chalk it up to espionage or back door deals at the factory. Might have actually made for a pretty decent dialogue opportunity.

If I were to modify the Flashpoint, I think I would have made it "we stole this fancy mech and need to get it to our factory for reverse-engineering and field tests". Then, when you see it in the OpFor, it's like "OH, they already had a bunch of these and we stole one, got it".

 

[Lykanion]

Basically the same happened to me in Career Mode. "Siegfried" in his "prototype" Hatchetman was smashed by an opposing Hatchetman. And I had already encountered two other Capellan Hatchetman before.

I agree that it's not a very big thing overall, but it really invalidates this particular Flashpoint. The basic idea of introducing the Hatchetman into the game along with an accompanying mini-campaign is really cool, but it seems as if somebody just didn't think further than the inital buzz.

And I get the impression that the probability of Hatchetmans appearing in the Liao Mech pool is way too high, anyway.

 

[IceTitan]

I had two hatchetman at the Escort part at the end and a wolverine.

My jaw dropped at the first section where an Awesom 8Q fully armored triple ppc'd my star league Griffin I had just stolen a month or two earlier......

Career mode.

The part with Sieg... had 2 enforcers and a Trench. Followed by Lrm carrier, Srm carrier, shawk and vind....

But yeah should of been a trigger in game to make the Hatchetman require the flashpoint being completed before spawning in the Opfor...

I had a hatchman fully assembled within 4 months. Was actually my second medium after the shadowhawk 2D