Ways to go hardcore on our own...

[GenTask]

Without configurable game difficulty options, I'll try to impose these rules on myself:

1. No customizing (only stock variants that exist in canon, record sheets, etc. at the correct time)

• If something gets damaged, the Mech has to be repaired back to variant configuration including its base factory weapons/equipment where possible (all equipment must placed where it should be, BJ-1's 1 ton of AC/2 ammo always Center Torso)
• If I do not have enough equipment to repair a Mech back to its variant configuration, then I may use it only partially built
  • Examples: A Spider receives critical damage to 2 jumpjets in previous battle, and if I don't have 2 jumpjets to replace those then I will simply utilizes the Spider undertonned with only 6 serviceable jumpjets; or a JR7-D loses both Argra 3L Medium Lasers on the right arm, can only replace with two Argra 3L if available or another factory type such as Aberdovey Mk III Medium Lasers from a Spider since I'm assuming all stock factory variants are the most 'basic' and not ++ or +++ weapons)

2. No reloading if things go pear-shaped (Iron Man)

For subsequent playthroughs, I will impose strict customization:

1. Only Commander receives 'customized' 'Mech
- Hardpoints will be considered by size per variant (Can't give an AS7-D Large Lasers in arm, can mount 'large energy' on AS7-RS instead), or creation of Mechs that are duplicates of canon custom variants
2. All other Lance Mechs can use a 'better' ++ or +++ version of a weapon it already uses as a side-grade. So a Medium Laser+ can be replaced with a Medium Laser++ if I choose to.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

A couple of quick JSON mods:

• Increase visual range of turrets
• Increase durability of turret generators (perhaps dramatically)
• Increase durability of vehicles

Alll of those can be made to suffer from 75% or 50% Armor Reduction.
If "Armor Reduction" states were adjustable in the JSONs this would be yet another lever for our Modders to reach to.

Alternately, BATTLETECH is set in the Rimward Periphery. Armor Reduction is a great way to approximate I'll-maintained and ramshackle nature of both Priates and Periphery Militia.

 

[olin011]

Streams like Cohhs are a quick and easy way to introduce them to the universe of BT, and it's fast enough that they'll pick up the general gist of it really easily. Hopefully they'll learn from mistakes Cohh makes early on, and not copy him verbatim, and maybe it'll be enough of a spark that they'll be interested in looking into the history of the universe which MWO severely lacks.
I hate to say it, but with the attention span of people today, they need a little hand holding to get into the meat of things, and Cohhs videos are a good way to do it.
They might see a little bit of themselves in him as he's learning on the fly, and can relate to his learning curve.
Those of us who are veteran TT players, who played the beta, and a host of other video games have a bit of a leg up on them, so we felt frustration at watching others play a game where what *should* be common knowledge (to us anyways) is something they have to learn the hard way.

Well, be it as it may the veterans (of TT or strategy games in general) will still need their hard mode in order to be challenged. Hopefully we will be able to tweak many things to our liking and "mods will fix it". Also, we might get HBS hard mode - hopefully at the release. I need my Dark Souls experience dammit! (YOU DIED) If the game is super moddable that's of course a big plus. At the same time the "advanced players" should not be made to tweak the game themselves in order to have some fun. There should be varying difficulty levels out of the box.

 

[Mojo Amok]

Alll of those can be made to suffer from 75% or 50% Armor Reduction.
If "Armor Reduction" states were adjustable in the JSONs this would be yet another lever for our Modders to reach to.

Alternately, BATTLETECH is set in the Rimward Periphery. Armor Reduction is a great way to approximate I'll-maintained and ramshackle nature of both Priates and Periphery Militia.

Yeah, on the last page I was nothing that Armor Reduction was likely the prime culprit. A lot of the streams/Youtube vids I watched on my tablet where those details weren't so obvious, so I picked up more of that from my Desktop monitor later. I was surprised how late into the campaign the armor reduction was taking place.

I like it in theory from a flavor standpoint, but on balance, I'd rather just have the OPFOR well maintained to up the difficulty in the early game (it shouldn't affect the late game).

I'd actually like to find those lines in JSON files for my first playthrough, but I don't see myself having the discipline to not....you know, 'PLAY NOW!!!' when I get the game.

 

[Gorski123]

I am still going to play the game vanilla and hope players come up with the perfect set of mods later.

 

[KhazadDhum]

Well, be it as it may the veterans (of TT or strategy games in general) will still need their hard mode in order to be challenged. Hopefully we will be able to tweak many things to our liking and "mods will fix it". Also, we might get HBS hard mode - hopefully at the release. I need my Dark Souls experience dammit! (YOU DIED) If the game is super moddable that's of course a big plus. At the same time the "advanced players" should not be made to tweak the game themselves in order to have some fun. There should be varying difficulty levels out of the box.

I'd say play the game first, and see if you really need a hard mode. In the early game it looks like you're being given a lot of leeway, but as time progresses, it's looking like you're going to be spending a LOT more in repairs, and upkeep. You're going to have to do more missions, and consequently spend more on repairs. It might just be enough of a challenge to be fun as is. We don't know yet. We've also only seen missions to 2.5 "difficulty". After that? Who knows.
But knowing that you can heavily mod the Jsons to your liking on most global settings....heat, damage, even upkeep, opfor "readiness", should give anyone a fairly easy way to make things super difficult if they so desire.
I was just playing around in the beta files to create a 3025 era version of a mech my buddy and I had for TT, and let me tell you.....it ROCKS. It probably has the least amount of firepower of any mech in the game, the least amount of armor of any mech in the game, but it moves like lightning, and only really lucky pilots can even hit it. I was generating 6-8 evasion pips just by moving with an evasive pilot. Sprinting was ridiculous. It was a fun skirmish, and the enemy mechs only went after the stock firestarter because that was the only thing they could actually hit, except when I ended a turn for one of my Harrassers too close and got into melee range of the atlas, one whomp and took half my mech away.
So anything you don't like about a mech, you can edit in the Jsons (as long as you keep it within TT rules).

p.s. edit.... you don't even have to keep it within the rules, but then that's outright cheating.

 

[Gorski123]

How about free uber XL engines for everyone. Just to make mechs faster, not gain spare tonnage. Half the point here is that all of the AI mechs will have it too.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

There appear to be a great number of levers that we can reach to in order to heighten our enjoyment of BATTLETECH, especially when considering the JSON files.

With so many levers "in-play", much like a buffet-of-gaming-goodness we can pick and choose this one but not that one, until we achieve the tailor-made manner of difficulty we are looking for.

For me, I am very much interested in triggering as much access to the map as I can, while not taking the ARGO.

Yes, that means the "Yojimbo" Leopard will be my sole Dropship and I'll probably be paying off those initial loans for a long, long time. : )

 

[Gorski123]

I figured the map opened up after the Argo mission. It happens before?

 

[Gwachitallemalla]

I figured the map opened up after the Argo mission. It happens before?

There is a campaign mission between getting the Argo and using the Argo.. I'm not sure if the map is more open at that point, I'd need to check Cohh's streams again to see if that was the case.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

I figured the map opened up after the Argo mission. It happens before?

If I recall correctly there are...

Spoiler

...two "bumps" from the initial four Star System limit.

The first seems to occur when the ARGO is a gained for the Magistracy / Lady Ana Maria Centrella. About half of the Star Systems (75'ish?) are triggered then.

The remaining Star Systems are triggered in the first "Liberation" Mission, immediately after which is when the ARGO is given to the player by Lady Kamea.

At least this is how I understand it.

 

[Schutt]

Eaven though HBS refuses to a simple setting for rookie/warrior/elite would solve the problem, i like the 3 parts mech and would hate to have to collect 5 parts, then i rarely get the mech i want. Also thinking of playing through with fewer save/reload cycles and if its not possible to like loose a mech or a lance to a bad mission that becomes an issue. These are not the hard missions yet, most people probably will play through campain with occasional random mission instead of heavy farming. Being forced to farm through tons of random missions would dictate the pace for evryone, now you have the choice to play as you like.

 

[Lyconnus]

Use nothing but stock equipment. No mods. No special weapons. Just Stock Mechs

 

[Jaidenhaze]

Would it be possible to mod turrets, so that they go in phase 5?

Probably yes. See here: http://btmodding.warriorsblood.com/index.php?title=CombatGameConstants.json#Phase

This is based on beta files, we dont know how it changed in the most recent version or the release version but it looks like it.

 

[Gorski123]

If I recall correctly there are...

Spoiler

...two "bumps" from the initial four Star System limit.

The first seems to occur when the ARGO is a gained for the Magistracy / Lady Ana Maria Centrella. About half of the Star Systems (75'ish?) are triggered then.

The remaining Star Systems are triggered in the first "Liberation" Mission, immediately after which is when the ARGO is given to the player by Lady Kamea.

At least this is how I understand it.

Good to know.