Congratulations on the game completion. The knuckles are melee weapons, brass knuckles for mechs - adds to the physical damage your mech can do with that fist. Good video!
I've played dozens of career play through, my advice: Skip the salvage, only take when forced, this is not battletech. It's called mercenaries for a reason. Why spend salvage points at 2:1 for actual value to pick stuff you don't want? (at best you get half the value it shows). Take the cash which is worth 100% of the value and buy what you actually want/need. That is true in the early game, and stays true all the way to end game. Weapons and equipment are much better in career mode and DLC's in general. That reinforces my comment above. In career mode you have far more choice on which faction to work with, use that to get more negotiation points. I typically run missions at the start until level 5 then go shopping because any mech you can buy prior to that is pointless. At 5 you also get the Kobold (Hero mech PHX-KB, an excellent medium). Doing that also gets your AI up to speed rapidly. You can greatly advance your AI pilots by using them in the commanders slot. High reward missions are very good, slightly harder than normal difficulty - but worth it. Some give Hero Mech's as rewards. Seriously, 1 ton of ac10 is not enough - would you restrict your large laser to ONLY 40 shots? That's an 11 ton commitment for 40 shots. All loot pickups also give a little ammo, but you can't count on it. Granted in early goings you can get by on it.
Yeah in the next episode I started taking the money a lot more than salvage. I have noticed that the equipment is a lot better in the career mode. When you say commander slot, is that slot one? I never thought to move it because I thought it was fixed. I guess that would only be true for campaign. I do try to take more high reward missions when I see them if it doesn't require a lot of travel. Thanks for all the advice and for watching!
Now that you're doing another run, here might be a handy tip. Did you know the colums for tons/dmg/range are sortable? Click Dmg twice to get your strongest one up top. When you get loads of gear, it'll hopefully make choosing gear easier. Also, please not that bottom left, you have icons stating anything off for the current loadout. The yellow bullet icon means you're missing ammo for something you equiped. You can sort it out that way before hitting "start work"... Also, airstrikes makes demolition quests bearable. 1 aistrike usually kills 50% of a base.
Ah thanks for that. I noticed those icons, but never really paid that much attention to them. Sorting will definitely help, I started doing that at the end of the campaign. Oh yes, definitely going to take airstrikes when doing demolitions in the future!
A Firestarter loaded with nothing but Flamers & MGs will also very quickly wipe out a base on Demolition missions, and it's also often fast enough to reach evac before the enemy reinforcements can overwhelm you. I believe there's even an achievement for completing a Raid mission without killing anything. I tend to always keep a "Demo-starter" fully equipped and ready to go at all times. Plus, an all-Flamer Firestarter can kill 'Mechs far above it's weight class by just trapping it into Overheat shutdown and literally cooking it alive. It's hilarious to watch a Firestarter just running circles around an Atlas that can't even move due to Heat Shutdown while cooking it until it eventually dies. The only weakness to those sorts of Firestarters is that they lack any sort of long range options, which means they need to get in really close to do their thing, which can potentially backfire against the wrong kind of 'Mech, so they will need backup on missions where you can't just run in, quickly lay waste to the area, and then get out before reinforcements arrive.
@@gamester512 Yes, all true what you said. There's an achievement for not killing anything. Someone finished the very last mission with just a firestarter. Flamers are really the most OP weapon in the game, at a cost of range.
I forgot the name of the mod, but there was one that showed not just the mission types on a planet but also who the mission was for and against as well as the difficulty number.
I do not understand, I just started the scripted campaign. I'm after the tutorial, about 4-5 missions in, they are Difficulty 10-11 and I still can not hire new pilot, I only have one wingman, which makes the missions very hard. Do I do something wrong ?
I have a playthrough of the campaign here th-cam.com/play/PL_atRpndXocrZ7Ux66zQVlpxEJKij007q.html that you can reference, keep in mind that is was one of my first series on the channel so its old. In order to hire new pilots, you usually have to be in a hub area (you will see these as dots that are connected by lines) These areas are outside of combat zones and are also where you can repair for cheaper and buy parts. Its been a long time since I have played the campaign, but at the start, the best bet is to increase your mech's armor to as much as you can and save money for either buying new parts or new mechs. Due to the AI pilots not being great, they are not super helpful at the beginning and mostly are just something for the enemy to shoot at instead of you. Hopefully this helps.
If you spec your mech right, you'll do about 75% of the TOTAL damages yourself, like I do, while my 3 AI do the remaining combine 25%. Find a mech with lots of missile hard points, like kintaro, stalker, cyclop, quickdraw. Use only med lasers & SRM 4/6. Skip all the fancy toys, like pulse/chem laser, streak, jump jets, PPC, AC 2/5/10/20, etc. These toys adds more tonnage, which takes away your armor. You need tons of armor & cooling. Name of the game is DPS (damage per second). Your 3 AI are pretty much useless, so you'll have to do most of the missions yourself. Always keep moving, which makes you harder to hit. NEVER come to a stand still. I never have ECM, so not sure if enemies are triggered by them sensing you, or if you cross a map point, & it triggers the enemies. Either way, draw out a few at a time, don't advance too far. I rarely cheese them, as I like to wade in & brawl. Take out the tanks, turrets, & helicopters first. Have your 3 AI attack the mechs. If you fight in the cities, purposely destroy the buildings so you have room to maneuver. Some buildings will damage you if you walk thru them. Mech spec -- full frontal armor, rear armor 12-15. Always present your front to the enemy & twist to spread your damage around.
Congratulations on the game completion.
The knuckles are melee weapons, brass knuckles for mechs - adds to the physical damage your mech can do with that fist.
Good video!
Hey thanks for watching! I appreciate all the comments.
I've played dozens of career play through, my advice:
Skip the salvage, only take when forced, this is not battletech. It's called mercenaries for a reason. Why spend salvage points at 2:1 for actual value to pick stuff you don't want? (at best you get half the value it shows). Take the cash which is worth 100% of the value and buy what you actually want/need. That is true in the early game, and stays true all the way to end game.
Weapons and equipment are much better in career mode and DLC's in general. That reinforces my comment above.
In career mode you have far more choice on which faction to work with, use that to get more negotiation points. I typically run missions at the start until level 5 then go shopping because any mech you can buy prior to that is pointless. At 5 you also get the Kobold (Hero mech PHX-KB, an excellent medium). Doing that also gets your AI up to speed rapidly.
You can greatly advance your AI pilots by using them in the commanders slot.
High reward missions are very good, slightly harder than normal difficulty - but worth it. Some give Hero Mech's as rewards.
Seriously, 1 ton of ac10 is not enough - would you restrict your large laser to ONLY 40 shots? That's an 11 ton commitment for 40 shots. All loot pickups also give a little ammo, but you can't count on it. Granted in early goings you can get by on it.
Yeah in the next episode I started taking the money a lot more than salvage. I have noticed that the equipment is a lot better in the career mode. When you say commander slot, is that slot one? I never thought to move it because I thought it was fixed. I guess that would only be true for campaign. I do try to take more high reward missions when I see them if it doesn't require a lot of travel. Thanks for all the advice and for watching!
@@MechaDrew Yes, slot one. you can put the commander (mason) in any slot, it is NEVER fixed.
Now that you're doing another run, here might be a handy tip. Did you know the colums for tons/dmg/range are sortable? Click Dmg twice to get your strongest one up top. When you get loads of gear, it'll hopefully make choosing gear easier. Also, please not that bottom left, you have icons stating anything off for the current loadout. The yellow bullet icon means you're missing ammo for something you equiped. You can sort it out that way before hitting "start work"... Also, airstrikes makes demolition quests bearable. 1 aistrike usually kills 50% of a base.
Ah thanks for that. I noticed those icons, but never really paid that much attention to them. Sorting will definitely help, I started doing that at the end of the campaign. Oh yes, definitely going to take airstrikes when doing demolitions in the future!
A Firestarter loaded with nothing but Flamers & MGs will also very quickly wipe out a base on Demolition missions, and it's also often fast enough to reach evac before the enemy reinforcements can overwhelm you. I believe there's even an achievement for completing a Raid mission without killing anything. I tend to always keep a "Demo-starter" fully equipped and ready to go at all times. Plus, an all-Flamer Firestarter can kill 'Mechs far above it's weight class by just trapping it into Overheat shutdown and literally cooking it alive. It's hilarious to watch a Firestarter just running circles around an Atlas that can't even move due to Heat Shutdown while cooking it until it eventually dies. The only weakness to those sorts of Firestarters is that they lack any sort of long range options, which means they need to get in really close to do their thing, which can potentially backfire against the wrong kind of 'Mech, so they will need backup on missions where you can't just run in, quickly lay waste to the area, and then get out before reinforcements arrive.
@@gamester512 Yes, all true what you said. There's an achievement for not killing anything. Someone finished the very last mission with just a firestarter. Flamers are really the most OP weapon in the game, at a cost of range.
I forgot the name of the mod, but there was one that showed not just the mission types on a planet but also who the mission was for and against as well as the difficulty number.
Yes, I am definitely going to be looking for that one!
I do not understand, I just started the scripted campaign. I'm after the tutorial, about 4-5 missions in, they are Difficulty 10-11 and I still can not hire new pilot, I only have one wingman, which makes the missions very hard. Do I do something wrong ?
I have a playthrough of the campaign here th-cam.com/play/PL_atRpndXocrZ7Ux66zQVlpxEJKij007q.html that you can reference, keep in mind that is was one of my first series on the channel so its old. In order to hire new pilots, you usually have to be in a hub area (you will see these as dots that are connected by lines) These areas are outside of combat zones and are also where you can repair for cheaper and buy parts. Its been a long time since I have played the campaign, but at the start, the best bet is to increase your mech's armor to as much as you can and save money for either buying new parts or new mechs. Due to the AI pilots not being great, they are not super helpful at the beginning and mostly are just something for the enemy to shoot at instead of you. Hopefully this helps.
If you spec your mech right, you'll do about 75% of the TOTAL damages yourself, like I do, while my 3 AI do the remaining combine 25%. Find a mech with lots of missile hard points, like kintaro, stalker, cyclop, quickdraw. Use only med lasers & SRM 4/6. Skip all the fancy toys, like pulse/chem laser, streak, jump jets, PPC, AC 2/5/10/20, etc. These toys adds more tonnage, which takes away your armor. You need tons of armor & cooling. Name of the game is DPS (damage per second). Your 3 AI are pretty much useless, so you'll have to do most of the missions yourself. Always keep moving, which makes you harder to hit. NEVER come to a stand still. I never have ECM, so not sure if enemies are triggered by them sensing you, or if you cross a map point, & it triggers the enemies. Either way, draw out a few at a time, don't advance too far. I rarely cheese them, as I like to wade in & brawl. Take out the tanks, turrets, & helicopters first. Have your 3 AI attack the mechs. If you fight in the cities, purposely destroy the buildings so you have room to maneuver. Some buildings will damage you if you walk thru them.
Mech spec -- full frontal armor, rear armor 12-15. Always present your front to the enemy & twist to spread your damage around.
Hope you consider doing YAML it does more for the game.