/btg/ Battletech General!

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No staring at my robot-face crotch plate, edition

The /btg/ is dead - long live the /btg/!

Old thread: =================================

BattleTech video-game pre-alpha gameplay
youtube.com/watch?v=FjEeDz51pHE

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>BattleTech Introductory Info and PDFs
bg.battletech.com/?page_id=400

>Overview of the major factions?
bg.battletech.com/universe/great-houses/
bg.battletech.com/universe/the-clans/
bg.battletech.com/universe/other-powers/

>How do I find out which BattleMechs a faction has?
masterunitlist.info/

Unit Designing Softwares
>SSW Mech Designer
solarisskunkwerks.com/
>MegaMek Lab
megamek.info/
github.com/MegaMek

>/btg/ does a TRO:
builtforwar.blog(not spam)spot.com/

>How do I do this Against the Bot thing? (old)
pastebin.com/pE2f7TR5

2017-03-03 – UPDATED (Against the Bot)
mediafire.com/file/kffatbm11ffus7l/Against_the_Bot_Instructions_v2-5.pdf

(new)
bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=56065.0
Current 3.21 rule set is included in the mekhq package

>Map of /btg/ players (WIP):
zeemaps.com/map?group=1116217&add=1

>Rookie guides
pastebin.com/HZvGKuGx

>Sarna.net - BattleTech Wiki
sarna.net/wiki/Main_Page

>Megamek - computer version of BattleTech. Play with AI or other players
megamek.info/

>BattleTech IRC
#battletech on irc.rizon.net

>PDF Folders
mediafire.com/folder/sdckg6j645z4j/Battletech
mediafire.com/folder/cj0tjpn9b3n1i/Battletech
mediafire.com/folder/tw2m414o1j9uj/Battletech_Archives

/btg/'s own image board: - (2017-02-13 - Still getting worked on & now has 11079 pics!)
bgb.booru.org/index.php

More goodies! (Rare manuals, hex packs, TROs, discord server, etc.) Last updated 2017-03-17!
pastebin.com/uFwvhVhE

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-26_Falcon
camospecs.com/Faction/Details/43/clan-snow-raven
twitter.com/AnonBabble

haha butte hold

Anyone got TtS: Iron Land or Spotlight: Stone's Trackers to share for us yet?

Taking all bets anons, tell me what YOU think this has on it. The winner will receive... well nothing really. Derision and a "ha ha butte hold" maybe.

More importantly - does anyone actually give a shit?

Er Large
2x ER Med
2x MML 3
Large Shield
Hatchet

Oi...
Two guesses.
One - Hatchet, IS ER LL. 6 x ML (or MPL,) 2 x SL (or SPL). Shield (naturally.) Something to make it GO FAST so it can close the distance, so maybe a charger or a TSM, MASC maybe. It's hard to tell if that over-the-back weapon is in the RT or CT so it's a guess it is a ERLL and not a PPC or something like that.

Two - 2 x MML-3 (I think?) 2 x SPLs, ER LL or PPC-type weapon (Snub nose?) Hatchet and shield as well.

I pretty much figure I'm way off the mark.

Hellbringers got redrawn and look gooood.

Orions got so much better than my old ones too.

Me :3
>A hidden world deep world with a working Screamer LAM
>Fund it

God, if only. And to truely ratchet up the war crimes, Drop the ER PPC for a clan version, and use the extra ton to make all 4 separate bomb bays into one 5 ton bay, to allow the 'mech to carry a single Davy-Crockett tipped Arrow IV.

Heavy mech of kuritan design, ~70 ton range. Large shield and hatchet, torso cockpit and head mounted ER PPC on a turret. In close, 6 ML and 2 SL in each torso. Speed after large shield is 4/6.

Ice Ferrets too

In response to last threads unit design challenge.


Creative Solutions L.L.C.

Born out of the conflict in the Pleiades Cluster in the 3070's, Creative Solutions is a mercenary unit that specializes in counter insurgency operations. Using a combination of human intelligence gathering methods and passive observation to locate targets of interest. After fixing insurgent positions, Creative Solution employs it's favored vertical envelopment tactics to fix, close and destroy enemy forces.

CS has a great deal of institutional wisdom that helps guide their prosecution of an insurgency. This is due in no small part to the fact that a large portion of current employees are former insurgents from Electra. In addition CS is blessed with retired DMI agent Justin Shaw who runs the corporations intelligence arm.

Currently on contract with the Marian Hegemony helping to control the various Lothian, Illyrian, and Circinian rebel movements.

Creative solutions Consists of an air mobile Jump Infantry Battalion, an armored company, and a light aerospace fighter squadron.

Looks smexy

I know you have most of your stuff released already but I'm waiting on the final product. MM ain't never been so sexy.

I can hear the late 60s rock music now, user.

WELCOME TO THE RICE PADDIES MOTHER FUCKER

TYVM.
Trying to figure out the best way to post this shit on DeviantArt and the OF as I grow ever closer to completion of 3025/3050.

No missiles, sorry.

Not a bad guess for the first one, but no missiles here either.

Also close.

>muffled "It Ain't Me" in the distance

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-26_Falcon

So, /btg/ are nukes effective for air to air?

Is it an experimental Ti Ts'ang with a shield and the LA gun moved to the RT? It kinda feels like it.

Hatchet and shield, obviously. Artwork has never been a good guide between large and medium sheilds, but it's one of those. A heavy energy weapon on the torso, likely in a directional torso mount, and using Plog-style laser lens, so not a PPC. Since you generally hate ISLPLs, I'll guess a cLPL.

Smaller torso weapons are most likely to be pulse lasers given they have laser glass and there's so many of them. My estimate is six cSPLs and 2 micro pulses for heat tuning.

Overall construction is bulky but not really *big*, and without Clan thematic design elements, so likely a low end IS heavy with help from Sea Fox or the Raven Alliance, which is proximate to the Dracs (explaining the kanji). I'm going to guess it's got ferro-lamellor armor, because I don't think we've seen a Mech truly dedicated to melee which uses that yet (the Osteon with the vibroblade wasn't really a purpose built melee design), and I'd guess you'd enjoy fucking with people that way.

I care about Stone's Trackers cause they're a bunch of ex-Nova Kitties

Oh, and I didn't see jump jet ports, but the weapons mix and the distinct vents in the torso make me really hope for a MASC+supercharger combo.

It's totally IS, and it's not Drac. It's a Capellan design and is named Xing Tian. There are indeed a bevy of pulse lasers, and the shield is a Large. It's also not a Heavy. I also didn't make it, so I don't want to post the stats without their approval.

>Putting Japanese kanji on a capellan Mech.

Your TRO is shiiiiit

>He thinks kanji are originally Japanese

We did it solely to troll you user. I will admit that pretty much the only thing I can recall contributing to this was agreeing that it needs the "FIND ME A HOLE OR I WILL MAKE ONE" pose.

Nah it's probably some weak-ass bait. So... nice work.

>named Xing Tian
Torso cockpit, then.

There isn't any way to put an infantry platoon in PAL suits is there?

Posted these as a WIP before, finished up my SLDF lance. Good time of year for the green.

Also piranhas smaller decals are a bitch to get on right.

Looks pretty good, user. I can't paint anything till the weather gets warmer. Itching to though.

Do you do your work in a garage or have to outside cause of spraying?

Lots of PA(L) squads? Only issue is the 6-suit squad cap. I want my 9-man squads, dammit.

What army uses 9 man BA squads?

I just feel like pal would be a great upgrade to a foot rifle platoon. It's everythimg you already where but better. I should probably check the cbill cost though.

no, you can't officially
I had the same idea years ago, before the new infantry rules and the folks I played with let me use just let me use two elemental record sheets taped together for 10-man squads
and besides, under the new rules the end result would probably cost more than most DropShips because of the retarded way current infantry cost calcs work

GF is sensitive to fumes, so I can't prime in the basement sadly. I guess I could do what I've seen other harder core painters do and make a spraybox attached to the dryer vent that uses a fan to suck out the fumes and vent them outside but I just don't have the daylight hours needed to do it.

That sucks, makes me hope when I finally get to moving in with my gf that I dont have to do something similar. Purple bird strong.

Attempting to draw my first Battlemech in years and dear god I suck at drawing, especially technical stuff. This is painful but progress is being made. Respect your drawfags guys, seriously.

So I just started going through the extra rules in Tactical Operations and... boy, there's a lot, and I'm not entirely confident in my ability to assess how much of an impact they'd have on the base game.

Are there any that you or your game groups enjoy using? Any that drastically change the balance of the game for better or worse? Any that don't seem worth the effort? Any rules in particular that you feel should be a part of the base game?

They picked the simplest TO stuff that also has some chance of being used in a standard game for the Battlemech Manual. There's a checklist for what they included in the back of the book, so you can see them all at once. It's a good start.

Summoners got the thick thighs now to match up with the Heckbringers

Gonna pick up the 25th Anniversary starter tomorrow. Are there any loose Mechs I should grab due to utility/ubiquity? Already gonna grab a Mad Cat or a Puma/Cougar if they've got it.

battlebump

Sprite action

Pistol for charger, or no?

Also where are the striker guns located?

What was the change in rules that allowed battlearmor weapons on Mechs? And why didn't that same rules change bring back 1/4 ton increments?

I'm wrestling with the pistol/no pistol atm too. Using your Hatamo for reference as well.

Striker is side torsos and left arm. Since it's a Star League mech I tend to go for integrated weapon mounts and more curvesssss.

...

No rules changes, there's just a mech and BA version of the APGR. The former being over twice as heavy as the latter. The IS got a mech version of the Magshot too, but since it has no AP effects it's pretty lame.

Quarter ton rounding was an oddity of TRO 3050 it seems, having quickly vanished by 3055's publishing. I still wish they'd at least have thrown the IS a quarter ton equipment bone and let their LMG actually be lighter.

Fractional accounting is an advanced rules construction option though, the gist being you don't round anything, except IIRC gyros because gyro rounding was always retarded and must always be so apparently. But otherwise you can take ammo bins in any number of shots and even armor is weight is per point rather than in lots which means no wasted armor, so at least getting rid of one retarded thing.

>Using your hatamoto for reference as well

For a hatamoto sprite, sure go right ahead.

I'm working on the charger right now though.

The pistol looks kinda boring, as if it was straight out of Combat Evolved (Halo).

Maybe try and do something more fun with it? A revolver motif, or some mini-multibarrel like the stuff in Getter Robo,... It my be just a small laser in the end but there's no reason it can't look good, imo.

It's the Chinese character for joy, you moron.

Floating crits in my tabletop group.
Expanded crits in megamek

Anyone have that "spiders are a menace" pic?

I'll take it. Battlefist dildos and pop guns for erryone.

Slapping it together crudely myself, I can't see how the thing would work without an XXL Engine; at least, not if it's supposed to move fast enough to GET to melee. Of course, maybe it DOES use an XXL Engine, it's the Dark Age.

Also, having just looked up the name, uh, wow, mythology is weird.

Since sprite-bro is on the loose with some Orions, post home made Orions!

Hey, does anyone know why AtB comes up with completely ludicrous values for the "estimated total profit/loss" statement when generating contracts?

I'm about to start a new campaign and am looking at my first set of contracts, and I'm completely unable to reconcile my monthly expenses (about 214,000 cbills) with recieving 1 million cbills/month in pay...and ending up with a 6.4 million cbill loss on the contract. See pic related.

help?

Transport costs?

I own full transport (I forgot how forgiving building a unit with FM:Mercs is), and I'm actually gaining 10.2 million CB for the life of the contract for transport costs. Look a few lines up to "transportation amount".

I'm not sure why it's kicking that one out. Technically it's saying you're going to make around a million C-Bills a month, but the total profit of the contract (which may have included straight support costs), is negative. Do you have contract payments based on payroll or the TO&E? If the former, prepared to get anally devastated on money. That's just how FM:Mr rolled.

I like it it still feels like an Orion to me.

That was it, though I have no idea how I turned that on.

Followup question, CA. Now I'm seeing payment amounts in the 20-30 million CBs per contract. Probably because it's counting the DropShip/JumpShip in the TO&E value. Do you have a good workaround for that, or is there a checkbox somewhere I can select that removes DropShip/JumpShips from contract TO&E value calculations?

Thanks, btw.

>This is painful but progress is being made. Respect your drawfags guys, seriously.
Oh believe me, I do. Good on you for getting back on the stick though.

>Are there any that you or your game groups enjoy using?
Floating TACs, which drastically improves 'Mech survivability and feels more thematically appropriate.
Sprinting/evading, hull-down, and "Standing Still" all encourage a more mobile battlefield and punish gausswallers.
The expanded Active Probe rules keep them from being dead weight without much additional bookkeeping.
Mines, arty, and the advanced munitions are basically required. They dramatically affect the balance of the game, but add immense tactical depth. There are also a number of Advanced/Experimental weapons that have no business being in TacO, like the Blazer and PPC caps.

I like the Expanded Heat Scale, mostly because it punishes people who actually make crazy shit that overheats by enough to slag the 'Mech and then restarts a turn later. Like me.

Advanced terrain is useful for scenarios but unnecessary for general play; it's still a good thing to keep in mind when designing a map/game.

>Maybe not worth the effort?
ECCM is fun but complicated. I >really< like EWAR but I'm kind of alone in my group in that regard.
FIRE FIRE FIRE EHEEEHEEHEEEEEE. But seriously, there's a lot of tracking and paperwork. If you're prepared for it and have a referee for the game, fire is a lot of fun. Otherwise it's a pain in the ASS to deal with.

> Any rules in particular that you feel should be a part of the base game?
Floating TACs and the experimental munitions. Fire and basic Arty used to be, and a simplified version of them absolutely should be. But tracking wind and ToT barrages is a little painful.

>Do you have a good workaround for that, or is there a checkbox somewhere I can select that removes DropShip/JumpShips from contract TO&E value calculations?
Unfortunately, no there isn't an easy workaround. You'll have to tinker with the percentage option in pic related. 5% is probably too high for any unit that has dropships and their own Jumpship, but since ship costs can vary pretty heavily, I can't give a one size fits all. Try somewhere between 2 and 3% and see how that generates.

Gotcha. Thanks again.

>Gonna pick up the 25th Anniversary starter tomorrow. Are there any loose Mechs I should grab due to utility/ubiquity?
I'd snag a couple of the Lance Packs. Better quality minis, and most of them have some fairly generic stuff that's useful to most players. The Assault Lance and Support Lance are both good.

>Pistol for charger, or no?
[Brian Blessed voice] ARE YOU RETARDED?
[/BBV]
Ahem. Yes, it should pistol.

sure

One more question, since you're more versed in this than I am.

Compare these two contracts. Identical base pay, the straight support pay is close enough not to matter about. The only major difference I can see is the fact that one is much further away than the other. (The other differences don't matter in terms of contract pay)

Now look at the profit/loss statement. As far as I can tell, it's GOT to be miscalculating a unit salary somewhere, because the length of transit is the only really major difference here, and in theory having my own Dropship/Jumpship should cover that anyway (they each pay me 50% the amount it'll cost to make the trip).

This is confusing as all fuck.

If you have "Pay for Transport" on when you own a DropShip, let alone a Jumpship, AtB lumps those units into the Transport costs. I noticed this when I bought my Monolith that transit jumped an entire digit higher. Once you get your own Dropship, you should immediately turn that option off, because it's only going to get more expensive. Check pic related. Same contract, literally just turning off "Pay for Transport" changes my profit by 46 million.

Shiiiiiit.

That did it. I'm seeing stuff in the 1.5-4 million cb profit profit range now, and at least nothing worse than losing a million or so.

Thank you. I'll go back a few threads and download your user guide, I clearly remember less about this that I thought.

First pass, too many tangents and some wonky shading but its going

I like it too. I'll sprite it and and the variant and .mtf to the var. folder.

I needed a jumping Orion because I was stubborn and kept the night movement penalties on.

pic related

You want the asymmetrical OG cockpit or the IIC symmetrical one?

It's an OC that got stupidly upgraded, so probably the original would be best.

heyyyy, das preddy gud!

Thanks, it will get better, I promise. Posting them in a browser turns out to be a good way to see what MM's anti-aliasing will fuck up and what has to be fixed.

it's completely fine, I'm still working on fleshing out the charger concept.

Working on your concepts makes doing some of the more boring mechs a lot more fun, I've put off doing the Charger for like 2 years.

So in your opinion are the whole Kell Hound "Phantom" mech stories good writing or bad? I feel like the first occurance was interesting but the other two seem to push it.

Real time initiative is fun, and makes the bookkeeping significantly less of a headache when you get up to company vs company size fights and above. None of the 'was this gun shot off this turn or last turn, I don't remember" issues.

First I get my Urbie LAM done, now this. I wasn't expecting this. Awesome!

The first occurrence was just flashbacks and stuff. And it was cool because it was something unexplained and part of the big gamechanging event where the First Prince of the Federated Suns dies.

The subsequent ones like most cool mysterious stuff lost a lot of the mystique.

In general, it was interesting as one of the old "pulling latent potential out of ancient machines by sheer will" that largely got abandoned in later fluff. Though it is nice when a writer remembers on occasion that mechs are more than just walking turrets.

I wanna beat the people who canonized Snow Raven units at camo specs, they are all so ugly.

It's what those faggot clanners deserve after what they did to Antallos, the Outworlds, and Harry.

Truly, spriteanon is the hero we don't deserve.

Guess you're stuck with me and my mech shitposts then.

Nah you are cool af art user I hope your bday went well even with being ditched and all.

>camospecs.com/Faction/Details/43/clan-snow-raven
Zeta galaxy is the only bad scheme they have

You are just a huge pleb with shit taste

Hey, would you be at all willing to draw a homebrew machine that's basically a factory frankenmech, like the periphery answer to the cataphract?

Here's the Xing Tian, anons.

Vessels like the Tigress gunship, how are they used? Like superheavy aerospace fighters?

Alpha is only good one and one that makes sense.
Beta is god ugly with that color combo which might be the worst in all of BT. Gamma looks like medical scheme, it could have worked with almost any other color than red. Delta is a Goliath Scorp reject with blue added. Epsilon belongs in Star Adder and doesnt fit with snowraven at all. Zeta is ugly but at least makes sense in why it is what it is. There is no coherence at all with all the snowraven units. Just look at other clans.

For the most part, you and me both, buddy.

What is this homebrew bot?

Funnily enough, there is a variant with an XXL.

It's only 4/6 (after TSM), though there's a version with an XXL and Small Shield that gets to 5/8 with the TSM

Admittedly, you didn't know I made it and probably aren't aware of my hatred of mixtech (since only Night and CA get my rants about their overuse of it), yeah. All IS-tech CC assault.

Based off the Battlemaster Chassis, actually.

Got the speed right, and close on the torso lasers, but the weight, PPC, and faction are off.

Right on the ERLL, wrong on the missiles and small lasers.

Your first guess is pretty much right on target, so here's your prize:
>ha ha butte hold

This design was actually made the opposite of my normal method, in that I read the Xing Tian legend and then set out to make a mech based on it, rather than making a mech and finding a name for it later. It's supposed to play like a lighter but slower and more durable Capellan Berserker. Initially I had it with a SPL in the head, but the heat tuning turned out to be a nightmare, especially with the head being blocked when the shield was in Active Defense mode. This required a swap from FF to LFF, which then led to the LA having less armor than the right. The shield makes up for it, and it allows the right side to stay active longer despite being outside of the shield's coverage.

When a mech is a pod lay out like a bandersnatch or mad, is it wrong I get cranky about not matching arms?

Yes

It's called the 'Ranger', taurian machine
Archer arms on a Warhammer torso, two MLs on each side torso, Shad-styled LBX-10 where the SRMs were, Thud LL on the right arm, four SRMs flat across the back of the hand on the left. When I find the TRO sheet I'll post it

New to BT, have questions

1. Why do people hate on ultra ACs? From what little I've used them they seem pretty solid as long as you don't spam double fire at long ranges.

2. I really like the look of the dragon, but I can't seem to get good results with it. How am I supposed to play it?