/btg/ Battletech General!

What are the official forums like these days? I haven't visited in ages.

GUTBUSTERS. A cesspool of idiot posters, the old guard who are too stubborn to give it up, the normal crowd of Beemers, idiots who want Alpha Strike to replace the base game, and Xotl.

OK then. Thank you.

I don't think I'll especially want to be here, then. Not because of what anybody else said, but because "sometimes their reasoning is just "REEEEEEEEEEEEEE" " is evidently an OK thing. I want somewhere where people aren't going to hate on things for the sake of hating on things or just to be contrary, and I'd really like to be able to talk about Battletech somewhere where the mods also aren't completely irrational.

Do you know anywhere like that? The official forums are clearly out, here is out based on wanting to actually have a rational conversation instead of listening to people hate for hate's sake, Lords of the Battlefield is dead, the MWO forums are both full of assholes AND have shit moderation, the Sarna forums are even worse than the official ones, and there's probably a subredit about Battletech but who gives a damn about that site.

Where can somebody go to have rational conversation with rational people without a mod getting a hair up their ass and permabanning someone who's been there a month with no warnings because they, "asked too many questions about topics we 're tired of talking about."

The sad fact that if you can't take the REEE then you're fucked with just about anything entertainment wise. The saddest fact is that /btg/ really is the best community left for Battletech.

Alright, I'll bite. I've been looking through my PDFs for the tables and rules that AtB uses for the "special events" that happen periodically, and the tables for battle types. I can't seem to find them anywhere.

Someone point me in the right direction.

>Those of you playing Against-The-Bot campaigns in Megamek - how do you handle/customize retirement rolls?
Personally? I handle all that manually, and keep GM Mode on to make it impossible for people to leave. Every 5 years of service, I roll separately for everyone but the command staff. And Atleast Itsnot, who won't retire... ever.

Made up for AtB, as far as I can tell.

No, this place is honestly your best option.

Let me spell it out for you. What we all just said? Yes, it happens. It's true. But it's also overblown and a litmus test to see if you're the sort that can function here at all. You need a thick skin to post here, because since there is little to no moderation, it's a double-edged sword. On one hand, you get free thought and people can have whatever opinions they want, and little to no concern over being censored, because even though everyone else might hate your opinion, you can post all damn day about it and only a mod or not!Moot can ban you over it. And the mods don't care what you do unless you shit real-world politics everywhere or post porn since this is a worksafe board. BUT, it also means that you'll hear things said you may not hear elsewhere. You will hear more ideas, more angles, more AUs, more opinions, and get more freely-shared info than anywhere else. That's the plus side.

So either give it a shot or don't. It's no skin off our dicks. If you think you can get something out of hanging around here and you can contribute somehow, then welcome aboard. If not, then we don't care to have you and you probably don't want to be here. That's /btg/ in a nutshell.

Basically, has the right of it.
Also, this is one of the only BT communities where a significant number of us actually fucking play the game. I know of at least six non-Namefags that have semi-regular games going (including myself), and we have at least two former Demo Agents as regulars. If you need info on weird rules interactions or crazy shit, we will help. If we >can't

Those of you playing Against-The-Bot campaigns in Megamek - how do you handle/customize retirement rolls? The system seems pretty punishing for trying to build up a mercenary company in any way - it feels almost like you have to start from scratch every year with how many personnel leave; and the time taken means that you'll maybe at most get 3 contracts done during an entire year if you're lucky.

While mercenary work is dangerous business in the Battletech world I'd imagine you'd try to hire people that aren't going to call it quits after the first year, especially given lengthy travel times between contracts.

I like the principle behind it - creating some sort of staff turnover and attrition as time goes on, but the default method seems pretty random. The mechwarrior you hired just last month might up and leave just because you've hit the birthday of your merc company.

They're in the AtB rules document, under "Event Rolls".

Your question was already answered up there ^^^

I don't, honestly. GM mode, dudes are pretty much never leaving, because it's a pain in the dick otherwise when you keep your unit size small. Opinions may vary depending on unit size; elite lance member in a company-size element can be a huge liability, anyone who isn't Atleast Itsnot in a regiment is whatever.

remember user

Fuck off medron

Those guys are overblowing it a bit, too. /btg/ is pretty helpful, our namefags are great, and this place moves faster by an order of magnitude than any other BT community.

Also, does the Dragoon rating from Field Manual: Mercenaries Revised take into account mercenary unit size at all?

It seems if anything the Dragoon rating penalizes building a bigger unit, as it's much harder to maintain elite status or bonuses for having a high proportion of level 2 tech.

The method may be intended for company size units only, but it still feels rather weird; why would a battalion-size merc unit with one elite company have a lower Dragoon rating than a single elite/high-tech unit that's only company size? Am I missing something in the calculation?

>Also, does the Dragoon rating from Field Manual: Mercenaries Revised take into account mercenary unit size at all?

Nope.

In many ways it's better to have a small unit because that way it's easy to get one piece of advanced tech (eg, Ferro-Fibrous armour) onto each 'Mech and qualify it as an upgraded design for Dragoon points, and with a smaller machine pool your techs can more easily maintain your stuff, which also means more Dragoon points, and it's easier to get a DropShip for a small unit which means, you guessed it, more Dragoon points.

>everywhere sucks and I'm the only person capable of having a rational discourse.
Oh no, this is exactly the place for you, you'll fit right in.
Also, fuck you.

I think the MRBC thinks you will only be taking contracts that fit the size of your unit.

So if you've got one lance of pristine clantech that fell off the back of a dropship, but a battalion sized unit of mixed forestry 'mechs with AC 5's bolted on and Locust, it's going to treat you like a mostly shit Battalion sized unit with one good Lance.

If you only have a lance of good pilots in mint condition SLDF Royal assault 'mechs then you get rated Elite, but people won't expect you to take on Battalion-sized jobs.

Just dont mention capellans.

I always wondered, what sort of loot pirates gets that it warrants maintaining jumpships and dropships on the top of mechs? Where the hell they get the spacedocks and parts for maintainance? Why dont they just go business as legit space traders instead or just sell their jumpship for gorillions and retire?

They just want to wear eyepatches and say "yarr".
And if you're good enough at it you can become a bandit king with all the benefits that has.

>Where the hell they get the spacedocks and parts for maintainance
There used to be a pirate spaceyard back in the 'fixing everything is a mystery' days, and by the time that yard was gone, all that was actually needed to keep anything running was a couple of machine shops
>Why dont they just go business as legit space traders instead
Because that's not an option. Virtually every pirate in battletech has some sort of death-penalty shit hanging over their head, going legit simply isn't an option
>or just sell their jumpship for gorillions and retire?
Who would they sell them to? Plus when all this was imagined, DropShips and JumpShips in the sort of dire condition pirates would be in weren't actually worth all that much
And besides, where exactly would they retire TO?

Not him but depending on the era:
>sell jumpship to marians
>buy land in the hegemony
>become patrician
>fuck hot slave girls for the rest of my life

I'm not sure even the marians would actually want pirates living there, because most pirates end up that way because they're too psychopathic to function in normal human society, and I certainly wouldn't want to bring those fuckers to live in MY kingdom. Privateers, sure, because they're really just specialized mercenaries and therefore much less insane, but not proper pirates, no

>future where everyone is some delicious shade of brown
sign me up, brudda

The marians would probably just kill you and keep the ship, is the thing

>fixing everything is a mystery
>irreplacable jumpshipts are not worth much

Wut?

>Virtually every pirate in battletech has some sort of death-penalty shit hanging over their head, going legit simply isn't an option

Its not like, there are five major and countless minor powers fighting an ongoing war who would welcome a bit of exta logistic capacity. Hell, just make a few jumps and tell the dracs youve been plundering davion ships or vice-versa and you might even get a medal for it.

>Who would they sell them to?

You know, fucking everyone who needs space travel? Minor states, mercs, companies, wealthy individuals?

>fixing everything is a mystery
>irreplacable jumpshipts are not worth much
>Wut?
He's actually telling the truth. Take a look at the old Dropships and Jumpships book sometime.
Although it's not so much that they were actually cheaper, it's just that the arbitrarily 4x multiplier to spacecraft costs hadn't happened yet, and that it included rules for buying ships in worse condition for less

So /btg is OK with slavery as long as its women who are the people being enslaved, then?

If it triggers you, sure.

We're all men here, so yes, obviously.

I'm not even being ironic. If you'd ever actually known a women, they pretty much all have fetishes about being a slave, or being forced into sex, or similar things. If any gender is a "natural" slave, it's women. Which is why the Magistracy is dumb, because it's artificially keeping women out of their proper and natural place just for the sake of being different.

Speaking as a femanon, this is mostly true. I'd happily be a slave to a hot and interesting guy who would also provide for me. It's sexy having a man who wants to take care of you and keep you.

>femanon
Fuck off medron

Is Medron really a girl? I've always seen a male drawing that I thought was supposed to be him.

I'm pretty sure you mean MadCap

atb is 2.31, not 3.21

>dem hips and thick thighs
... meh

Like all asians, MadCap's a tranny, and thus a subhuman waste of flesh. He's also a capellan fan, but I repeat myself.

Medron is definitely a guy
MadCap pretends to be a girl on the internet, though, anime ERP and such
Kit also, I think, though I might be wrong
There's also FedCom"Girl", about whom I know little

Is there a comprehensive list of "Warships by Faction" anywhere?

There's a thread (Canon Warships List) on the OF, but all of the attachments to the thread have been stripped.

>ERP
I have a sinking suspicion of what that stands for.

Kit doesn't pretend to be a woman; he's a femdom fetishist, it would defeat the point
And, for once, I'm 99% sure FedCom girl is actually a woman
It does, in fact stand for that

What is ERP?

Google comes up with Enterprise Resource Planning.
Urban dictionary says Erotic Role Play.
...
Hell.

Extended Range Plasma, an ammo type for spaceship-sized plasma weapons.
Or
Extended Range Periphery, used as an acronym to describe Star League Era states in the Deep Periphery and beyond.

Son, you've got a way to fall...

Oh you sweet children.
Do enjoy your descent.
It's a long way down.

Goddamnit, I can't find that F-list screencap soliciting for omegaverse battletech ERP with clanners as actual furries
Too bad

>omegaverse
Do I even want to know what that is?

It, it's like I'm losing my internet mental virginity all over again. Hold me, Natasha Kerensky. Hold me.

MPREG
GONE AWRY WOLF DYNAMICS
GODDAMN GREASY HORRORSHOW
DOGDICKS
TUMBLR EVERYWHERE

...

Uzumaki!

Not even nasty k is nasty enough to save you from this

I like you.

Most of the >successful< pirates in BT aren't really "pirates" in the modern sense so much as "rogue states". They're the military arm of upstart Kingdoms. For example, Helmar Valasek was a raider for about 16 years before he finally conquered Santander's World, then held that post for several decades. He made most of his money in skullduggery - exploiting the OA, Kurita, and FS government for assassination contracts, blackmail, etc.

Bandit Kings will also often take over a world with limited but profitable industries (say, some germanium mines. Lookin' at you, O'Rielly) and shift its entire population to industrial/raw materials production and go raiding for the agricultural products, techs, and some of the weapons they need but can no longer produce. Qwikscell also doesn't give a half a shit about the eventual buyer as long as you slip them a few percent as a bonus.

Basically, they take undefended planets hostage and go anarcho-Capitalist on their asses until someone cares enough to take them out. Or the Smoke Jags show up..

My group has an upcoming game, and as part of their reward if victorious I was thinking of letting them overrun a Lyran supply dump with a lance of mechs in storage.

The idea would be that command will let the player lance keep one of the captured Lyran mechs while the rest get sent back to the theater qmc.

What mechs might you suggest? Anything Lyran made up to 3067, preferably at least 4/6 movement.

>You'll always find someone that hates something here.

Well, out of everything I can find to dislike about Battletech, the Fourth Succession War and how Anti-sue the Confederation was before have to be two of the biggest.

A Nightstar-10FC could be a good one

Four Mackies and an entire dropships worth of SLDF propaganda materiel, hats, t-shirts, fake uniforms and the like.

You don't want to give them units that are too overpowering. I'd suggest a lighter Mech selection than the Lyran standard selection:

-6S Banshee
-8R Falconer
-6FC Dragon Fire
-9FC Nightstar

What would be a classic medium lance setup for each great house and which of these lances would have the most advantage in a lance on lance battle?

Hey, you're back
What's happened to the rangers since you last showed up here? Did any of the NPCs survive?
As for mechs, here are a few ideas, though I'm a bit rusty on my lyrans
>Thunderbolt-9S
>Warhammer-7S
>DragonFire
>Zeus-9T
>Bandersnatch
>Griffin-3M
>Enfield
>Emperor-5S (it's 3/5, but it's fun as hell)

Go Bushwackers or go home.

The Nightstar seems a popular pick. I was thinking of slightly lighter than 100 ton Lyran scouts, since it works better with the unit's role.

lol

NPCs are fine, but that's mostly because we haven't used them much and have kept to smaller games. One of my regulars hasn't been able to participate as much so I've sometimes been filling in to help play the OpFor in our games (so we at least had two players vs two players).
Griffin or Warhammer might make sense since the FWL makes them too and parts would be easier to get.

After playing MW3 I have a soft spot for Bushies so I'll probably include one.

In AtB, is it "cheating" to stick my damaged units in a maintenance facility for repairs? Can I assume that my employer provides a garage to work on my 'mechs, or should I be limiting myself to the field workshop only?

Do you have a DropShip?

>at least it's not clan ERPPPCs

You're limited based on mission type and Dragoon rating. Check the excel rules for more, under "Repairs/Conversions".

Raid and Guerrilla contracts are done completely within hostile territory and you have nothing but flat ground, the dropships you arrived in and MAYBE some daylight to work with. That's why you are considered in the field and maintenance is more difficult. If you are in a Planetary Assault, Relief Duty or Pirate hunting contract you are considered to be in a field workshop which is part of an organized forward operating base, but still innawoods somewhere. If you are in a Garrison, Cadre or Security Duty contract you are housed in the same military facilities as the other defenders, so you count as being in a transport bay where tools and spare parts are in good supply.

It IS cheating to exceed the rating of your current contract assuming you are already deployed on the planet. MekHQ should automatically assign the correct facility level. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to work but in my campaign only the active duty units on the TO&E have the proper "deployment" maintenance level, everything that's capable of fighting in other words. MekHQ automatically places inactive units without pilots and units taken as salvage in a transport bay instead.

So TLDR you should play by the rules and just stick with what MekHQ gives you. Things get a bit more complicated if you have access to a mobile field base, a dropship or your mercenary rating is B or higher. If you open up the ATB rules spreadsheet in the docs folder of MekHQ you can find the rules for repair and refit on the Campaign System tab at row 221. That should explain everything.

To add, as the Andurien Ranger user, my group is really loving the flexibility of the Free Worlds Navy in providing support.

It's mostly RP and fluff where the navy is involved, but it's always welcome to hear "yeah your landing is clear because they ran when they saw 3-4 warships" or "you know that battalion that was heading your way? The warship supporting you bombarded them."
The Zec II FWLS Syracuse has been our constant companion.

Sometimes they do
If Quickcell is "legitimate" I guess they are too

So im new to this but why does power armor have two listed bv? Its usually xxx/xx.

Mechs are terrible in space, but what would a mech design that focused on space movement/combat look like? Anyone have any ideas on a loadout? I know the Snow Ravens has some space variants for their mechs.

>what would a mech design that focused on space movement/combat look like?

Like an LAM. They might die like bitches to ASF's, but they're still a grade above a plain mech in open space..

For a regular mech, you would want lots of IJJ's, Mech Harjel and long range accurate weapons.

I guess they would need a mess of verniers, I think that's what they're called.

For the squad VS for one individual suit

BV by total squad and single squad

Pretty sure 'Mechs can only attack things in their hex because reasons and can't shoot out of it when in space.

Otherwise yes, JJs/iJJs with tonnage set aside for reaction mass.

>single squad
Single battle armor

>Pretty sure 'Mechs can only attack things in their hex because reasons and can't shoot out of it when in space.

Aero map scale vs mech ground map scale. I'd hope anyone playing a mech space match would use mech map scale instead.

The Nightstar bit are people memeing at you.

Mechanical Jump Boosters and the maximum possible load of MG ammo

Hey guys, quick question.

Do anyone know a good way to have multiple people in a mmhq against the bot campaign?

Figured it might be cool to run a merc with some friends, but i'm not sure how to deal with more then 1 player involved so if anyone has experience please tell.
Thanks.

why does the squad cost more than its components? Sylph is listed at 377/54. 5 sylph is 270, not 377. same with elementals which are listed at 480/69, 5 elementals at 69 would be 345

Different multipliers for 4, 5, and 6 troopers.

I'm not the one who suggested it but I can see why the -9FC model was suggested. It's basically a fat Marauder, goes 4/6 with a pair of LB-10Xs and an ER PPC. It can keep up with Heavies if it needs to.

None of them divide into whole numbers. its always like 6.9 or 6.8. Why would you list the bv for anything but the stated troop amount?

I just wasn't sure if MekHQ was automatically assigning the correct facilities. There's a lot of other stuff that it doesn't do automatically, and I was wondering if this was one of them.

If that's the case that it DOES set the correct facilities automatically, I'll stop messing with them. Thanks.

Any the master unit list has a completely different bv also

The MUL is a mess. I can't believe some of the people they let edit it. May as well be goddamn Sarna.