So ... two skulls is WHAT?

[ThorkelTheTall]

Encounter at start of career, 2 skulls, I have a Firestarter, Panther, Blackjack and Vindicator, thus 155 tonnes total.

I encounter Two vehicles totally 120 tonnes of vehicles, as well as three locusts, two Jenners, a Humpback totalling 180 tonnes, all at the same time. How is that a two-skull contract?

My mechwarriors have skills of 4 or 5 at best, most are only 4. ... this might be easy with high skills with associated abilities, but at start that's a fail. I can barely find missions less that 2 skulls after two months of in-game time ... I'm no noob but the contract balancing seems out of wack!?

Am I just supposed to abandon the mission and maybe go broke because the contract is way overpowered, or should I just re-run it over and over until I get an acceptable result?

Anyone else?

 

[Prussian Havoc]

There is variance of plus or minus 1-Skull to all contracts. This replicates that Mission Intelligence is fairly precise but it is not necessarily PERFECT Intel.

So your 2-Skull could have been a 2.5 or 3-Skull Mission. You can tell by the amount of Experience your MechWarriors earn afterward.

If you have just started out and still have only your Starting Mechs then there should indeed be 1-Skull Systems. Have you used the NavMap’s pull down menu to find 1-Skull Systems?

 

[Ken-Sw]

Not a great random start selection of mechs for a career
I was lucky in my current career I drew a Centurion and an Enforcer in my starting lineup
You could just grind low level missions for awhile to improve your pilots and pick up a few spare mechs
And yes if you are in a losing position withdraw ( I play ironman and have learned a little reputation loss is better than a crippling loss )

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

What type of contract was it? Did you close with the 1st enemy and then the additional forces spawned? What were the vehicles and what type of map? Your options for that contract are going to depend on quite a few variables but you should have no real problem staying far away from the humpback.

I'm guessing it was a battle mission which tends to have a 2nd lance spawn. Depending on what was where and the vehicle type jumping or sprinting away was probably your best bet. if you move away as fast as you can you can usually separate the enemy a bit (although 3 locusts and 2 jenners makes that pretty tough in this case).

But when doing missions if you want to go nearish the edge of your lance capabilities then you'll sometimes run into this type of situation since the missions do have that built in variance.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

Encounter at start of career, 2 skulls, I have a Firestarter, Panther, Blackjack and Vindicator, thus 155 tonnes total.

I encounter Two vehicles totally 120 tonnes of vehicles, as well as three locusts, two Jenners, a Humpback totalling 180 tonnes, all at the same time. How is that a two-skull contract?

My mechwarriors have skills of 4 or 5 at best, most are only 4. ... this might be easy with high skills with associated abilities, but at start that's a fail. I can barely find missions less that 2 skulls after two months of in-game time ... I'm no noob but the contract balancing seems out of wack!?

Am I just supposed to abandon the mission and maybe go broke because the contract is way overpowered, or should I just re-run it over and over until I get an acceptable result?

Anyone else?

Were they in poor shape? Sometimes the game will throw a little bigger force your way if it has reduced armor.

Also, I have noticed that Pirate contracts seem to be a little overpowered for the skill raiting. If this was a Pirate Contract, that might not help. Pirates aren't trustworthy and don't always report to you the correct opposition you will go up against. (I like to believe that anyway).

What I would do, is if the enemy was in bad health (ramshackle), try to stay mobile, but in cover. Prioritize the Hunchback's hump if it is a laser version, or either side torso if it is the ballistic version. Try to do it at range if possible. Then go after the Jenners, then the vehicles, then lastly the Locusts. You can go after a Locust or vehicle earlier if the present a good opportunity.

Lastly, sometimes you just need to Withdraw and take that loss if things get too hairy. I just did it in a recent play through I had, 1.5 Skull Pirate contract. I had 2 Vindicators, Panther, Commando and was against a full health lance of a Hunchback 4G, Hunchback 4P, Black Jack, and a Vindicator.

Sometimes you have to make the tough call and bug out and cut your losses.

 

[Jade_Rook]

One medium and three lights, plus two heavy vehicles and two lights, sounds about right for a high difficulty 2 skull mission, especially with three of the light mechs being locusts.

At the beginning of a campaign you are expected to be taking 1 skull missions. I think a 155 ton lance is considered 1.5 skull? You are already punching up by taking a 2 skull mission. There is nothing wrong with that and it is a good way to get better salvage, but don't be surprised when it swings back.

If the cost of winning a mission, in repairs, injuries, and lost mechs, is greater than the c-bill and salvage reward, then you should withdraw.

 

[Crackshots]

so 2 skull is level 4 (from 10). sounds pretty optimistic doing these type of contracts regularly when 2 month ingame.
aim for a 1/2 skull planets or 1 skull planetes first, before maximizing your fire starter for example (is a beast)

we all know these low level missions when you are facing 2 full lances of light mechs at once, sometimes they just crack you up. i also belive these higher ton mechs occasionally thrown in shall provide you with better mech parts

anyways, 2 skull missions at start is the exception to do, not regular

im not playing ironman yet (actually fiddling with some mods to make game nicer == combining and edting: galaxy at war, is-tank pack, mission control, bigger drops, better ai, custom equipped default-mechs as default enemies (to make them better enemies) (all in all stricly avoiding things that make things easier, exception is that i added 10 damage to most lostech weapons, to make them *** - Weapons by default, but i anyways never found any so far - also bigger drops is debateable if it makes things easier, surely it does, but its also expensive and a hell of fun - aside being a nessessity when facing 2 additional lances in top tier missions on a regular basis)

having said that, i remember theres a mod that halves the weight of some componants e.g. leg mods, or precision booster, i also use that becasue i think its also a nessessicty balancewise, still i dont use these kind of equipment, since im always on the edge with firepower/heat - but at least i sometimes think about using it. ....

but if i do (ironman is planned) i would do [Mod edit: language] to do 2 skull missions in early game in first place. i toned down the chance for an additional lance (on top of scripted reinforcements) for lowest skull missions (while having lot higher chance on top tier missions) , so early game is almost not affected.

but 2 skull missions on very early game is too high risk anyways.
(on my settings theres a 20% chance of 1 additional lance on 2 skull contracts (except you already enemy with one side then chance is 40% higher) so imagine when these kick in and add another 120+ tons or whatever actually is, already mediums thrown in partially on level 4, to the table)

cant wait until my testing is done and i start a nice ironman career.

ofc doing mission outside your secure winning zone is needed to get the better mech parts you need to step up, but before doing that ensure you are equipped best already, and then .. the game has a retreat button for a reason if things go all wrong.

 

[ThorkelTheTall]

To answer a few of the replies, some of the mechs were under armoured, but the biggest vehicle had 660 pts of armour!

I have been playing this game a while, this is the 3rd time I've run the career ... I just find the encounter generator is just a little two random, I was kicking butt with any .5 to 1.5 skull missions and thought it was workable. To get this weight of vehicles, including the hunchback this early in the career was surprising. It's hard to have a few vehicles with indirect fire just after the career starts and a hunchback could Nova-Kill any of my mechs ...

Dunno ... too often you have 4 mechs against vastly superior numbers ... and in those cases it's impossible to manage your heat properly without being wiped out. This was an encounter on a Mars environment so heat was an issue.

I dunno ... just thinking this was ... a glitch, not a feature.

 

[CSX]

It's most definitely not a glitch, being outnumbered is the norm rather than the exception and that is especially true if it was an escort mission.

You can get fairly heavy vehicles in full condition on lower skull escort missions while the mechs have a low-armor status, and then a full armored reinforcement mech lance being triggered when you kill one of the vehicles is absolutely normal. An escort mission that doesn't have reinforcements would be more unusual.

 

[stjobe]

a full armored reinforcement mech lance being triggered when you kill one of the vehicles

Usually the reinforcements trigger on the second (convoy) vehicle kill. Which is why it's a good idea to take out the escorts first, if you have the opportunity.

 

[Rumrunner711]

Also, I have noticed that Pirate contracts seem to be a little overpowered for the skill raiting. If this was a Pirate Contract, that might not help. Pirates aren't Darius isn't trustworthy and don't always report to you the correct opposition you will go up against. (I like to believe that anyway).

FTFY

Yeah, sometimes it's in your company's best interest to withdrawal if the intel is complete trash.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

FTFY

Yeah, sometimes it's in your company's best interest to withdrawal if the intel is complete trash.

Yeah, Darius isn't the best with Intel for sure. I have made quite a few jokes pertaining to his behavior .

Still though, in my experiences, Pirate contracts are a bit more risky than other contracts. Maybe it is all coincidence, IDK.

Still, playing as a Pirate right now in my current Career Run, I can say that I have seen some challenging Pirate missions for the skill level. One which resulted in a bad faith withdraw .

 

[Rumrunner711]

Yeah, Darius isn't the best with Intel for sure. I have made quite a few jokes pertaining to his behavior .

Darius: "Reinforcements incoming, Commander!"
Me: "Yeah, no crap, Darius."

Kind of makes me wish we could hire Argo personnel like we can hire Mechwarriors so I could dump his behind on some backwater planet. (but there goes all his voiceovers! heh)

I plan on trying your Pirate challenge once 1.8/HM drop, it sounds fun. I'll take any pirate mission intel with a grain of salt.

 

[stjobe]

Darius: "Reinforcements incoming, Commander!"
Me: "Yeah, no crap, Darius."

Turns out this is actually a long-standing bug they can't seem to fix. He's supposed to say it way earlier - and then it makes perfect sense with the tone and inflection used.

Same for the "Turrets, boss" quip as the first turret goes up in flames. He was supposed to deliver that line much earlier.

 

[Kereminde]

To answer a few of the replies, some of the mechs were under armoured, but the biggest vehicle had 660 pts of armour!

Note well, that is total armor and each segment of the unit has a portion of that armor put in place. Some vehicles have really balanced armor, some do not - the rear and sides are where you want to hit.

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

As to pirate contracts I did one the other day where the mission load screen dariusxsaid something about the mission info being off or something like that. Do you still read those?

 

[Ken-Sw]

It was late one night
Just ONE more mission then too bed
My C team pilots (4/5's) needed some experience so loaded them up in my mixed med/hvy lance and dropped them on a 2 Skull should be easy
Just as I hit the button to drop on the mission I realized it was a Pirate Attack and Defend 2 skull - thats what I get for being half asleep
With these pilots it was a Very close battle with a nailbiting finish to stop the enemy reinforcements from taking down my buildings I was one turn to slow taking out enemy base( my withdrawl location was on the other side of the reinforcement)
Very Fun mission

 

[ntw]

Turns out this is actually a long-standing bug they can't seem to fix. He's supposed to say it way earlier - and then it makes perfect sense with the tone and inflection used.

Same for the "Turrets, boss" quip as the first turret goes up in flames. He was supposed to deliver that line much earlier.

I know it doesn't really affect the game experience, but it is SOOO annoying I wish they could spare the time to resolve it