Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

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Drazzil
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Drazzil »

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2020 2:47 pm Definitely +1 gunnery
+1
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Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

$iljanus wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 7:29 pm Oooh, are those choices for me? After looking up both mechs I’d like to pilot the Stalker.

So I’d be honored to pilot the Vulcan if you can have a role for me in your next operation!
?

Soo many good choices to send in there, but let's send Scrub in. Doesn't she have a somehow upgraded Warhammer now?
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Scrub is driving a regular Warhammer, with half a ton of my ammo converted to armor. the fancy one is in the shop due to resupply difficulties for the fancy armor.

Still a pretty nasty customer at any range.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:44 pm
[X] Refuse the duel. The local mooks can go pound sand, we've got two companies of mechs ready to kick their ass.
[] Accept the duel. One of our mechwarriors can beat this guy into the ground, then we'll be on our way.
I mean, this seems like an obvious call to me. No way is it worth risking two dropships - they could easily wind up getting a lucky crit.

UNLESS one option is to accept the duel and then reneg on the deal if we lose. I'm cool with that.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:51 pm
NickAragua wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:44 pm
[X] Refuse the duel. The local mooks can go pound sand, we've got two companies of mechs ready to kick their ass.
[] Accept the duel. One of our mechwarriors can beat this guy into the ground, then we'll be on our way.
I mean, this seems like an obvious call to me. No way is it worth risking two dropships - they could easily wind up getting a lucky crit.

UNLESS one option is to accept the duel and then reneg on the deal if we lose. I'm cool with that.
Our large firefights often have bad things happen. In this case, that includes something slipping through to hit/lucky crit on our dropships. It's not that I think we'd lose the fight, but wiping them out to the mech/vehicle doesn't do much for us if they take out (or seriously damage) even one of our dropships, and the Jumbo doesn't have a lot of armor/defenses.

It's possible a lucky crit in one on one fight could screw us, but I think the chances of bad luck in that case are much less than the chances of bad luck with our dropships in a large fight.
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Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

If we lose, we come back with everyone and Smash the Planet. But if we win, we take Something. Just escaping has no Profit.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Forgot that Scrub was driving a Marauder for now. So, not a valid option.

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Decline duel - 2
Accept duel - 3
- Scrub [whoops]
- Xwraith
September 8, 3043
Landing Zone
Moore, Skye March

"Commodore, how long until the dropships can lift off?" Gbasden asks our "fleet commander".

"Engines are hot, so, five minutes from when you give the word."

"Ok. Consider the word given. Xwraith, think you can drag this out for a couple of minutes while we load everyone up?"

"Sure." Our mechwarrior responds. "Let's go, Swanson." he calls out over the general frequency, firing up the Thunderbolt and moving it out. "Until someone gives up or croaks."

"Agreed." comes the terse reply, and the other mech roars forward on jump jets.

Doing some quick mental math, it'll take our mechs about 80 seconds to load up into the dropships, so we pull everyone back in, ready to run into the mech bays.

The battlefield is quite expansive, and the rain soaks the soil through, making the going a little tough, so we'll skip the part where the two mechs spend about two minutes closing to weapons range.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Finally, after firing jump jets more times than he can count on his fingers, Xwraith's targeting indicator lights up for the LRMs and the extended-range laser. Our mechwarrior has settled into a pile of woods. The Thunderbolt has a range advantage, so as long as we can keep the battle at ER laser and LRM range, we're good to go.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
Our mechwarrior squeezes the trigger (and pushes the button tied to the LRMs), but both shots go wide.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grasshopper jumps into a lake, taking cover behind a rock.

"Come out, come out..." our mechwarrior mutters absently. The enemy mech does step out, taking a pot shot with its large laser and LRMs. Both go wide, while our Thunderbolt scores armor off the left torso and pings a few LRMs off the right arm.

Round 4-7:
Spoiler:
Image
It appears that Cpt. Swanson wants to close in using the lake shore cliffs as cover. Xwraith gently hops back and forth between several groups of trees, not feeling any particular need to close to medium laser range - the Grasshopper holds a major advantage in that department.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grasshopper finally finishes wading through the lake and comes up, firing its large laser and LRMs. Again, both go wide, as does Xwraith's laser, although the Thunderbolt's LRMs pepper armor off the Grasshopper's arms.

Round 9-10:
Spoiler:
Image
An interesting move, splashing into the water to avoid incoming fire. It takes the Grasshopper a few seconds to find a spot at the bottom of this lake that's not 20+ meters deep and come up. Refreshed, the enemy mechwarrior opens up with the Grasshopper's entire laser array, missing every shot as Xwraith feathers the Thunderbolt's jump jets and unloads the 65-ton mech's laser arsenal. The heat in the cockpit rises considerably, but our mechwarrior is rewarded with the Grasshopper's armor indicators turning yellow across its arms and torso sections. The enemy mech stumbles but remains upright.

Round 11:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith is forced to hold fire with most of the Thunderbolt's weapons to prevent the targeting system from "swimming" and failing at floating point math due to heat, firing just the extended-range laser. As the Grasshopper has come out of the water, the beam carves armor off the left leg.

Round 12:
Spoiler:
Image
Swanson takes his mech "up top", firing... a single LRM/5 for some reason. Xwraith still only fires the ER laser, as the heat from all this evasive jumping is pretty murderous. The Grasshopper is a tough customer, and even after multiple laser hits to each arm, the armor holds up fine.

Round 13:
[getting tired of taking "repeated stalemate move" screenshots]
The Grasshopper and Thunderbolt continue jockeying for position, with the heavier mech taking a couple more LRMs.

Round 14:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grasshopper tries to move in from the south, but Xwraith is having none of it and jumps around to the northeast, keeping the lake between the two mechs. The ER laser exposes structure on the Grasshopper's left arm.

Round 15:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith thinks for a second, then recognizes the other mechwarrior's poor decision: those jump jets are mounted on legs, which are currently under water! Our mechwarrior moves in for the kill, taking a couple of laser blasts to the left torso, but scoring some of his own.

Round 16:
Spoiler:
Image
Another jump brings our Thunderbolt solidly in the Grasshopper's rear arc, with leg-mounted heat sinks well underwater for improved heat-sinking capability. The enemy mech is only able to bring one laser to bear. Xwraith's lasers scour across the rear section and hit the left arm, which sparks and goes limp.

Round 17:
Spoiler:
Image
The enemy mechwarrior gets a couple of lucky hits on our Thunderbolt as he jumps forward, protecting his rear arc. Our mech's armor was more or less pristine up until this point, so it's not really an issue.

Round 18:
Spoiler:
Image
Having regained initiative, the enemy mechwarrior plants his feet, while ours keeps hopping around like a crazed rabbit. This duel is a perfect illustrator of how tough the Grasshopper is - almost a minute of nearly continuous beating by a Thunderbolt's lasers and LRMs and it's still almost 100% combat effective. The two mechs exchange lasers and LRMs, the wireframe indicator for the Grasshopper showing almost entirely red.

Round 19:
Spoiler:
Image
Xwraith hits the jump jets again, jumping forward as the Grasshopper splashes through the mud. The Thunderbolt's ER laser punctures the left torso armor, blowing out a heat sink in a cloud of green mist.

Round 20:
Spoiler:
Image
The Grasshopper's right torso section starts melting under Xwraith's accurate laser fire.

The enemy mechwarrior pauses for a second, then sends out a transmission. "That's enough, mechwarrior. I know when I'm beaten."

Xwraith acknowledges the transmission and splashes through the mud back to the Moonraker, where the rest of his lance waits.

"Good job, Corporal." Scrub comments.

Xwraith wipes the sweat off his forehead. That one was more like those old-school mech duels you always read about.

Our Thunderbolt boards the Moonraker, and we lift off post-haste, before the other guys change their mind. We put up with a 1.5G burn to the jump point, eager to catch a jumpship, leave this world behind and get the rest of our payment. Our prisoners, we leave in some temporary structures we'd commandeered. With the exception of a captured "pirate" mechwarrior who expressed a desire to join us and tested pretty well in the simulator.

-----------------

The end of this contract brings us to a total of 2.12 billion C-Bills, up from 1.9 billion before the start of the contract. Not too shabby. Some after-action thoughts:

This was the first time we fielded a mech with ferro-fibrous armor and it was out of action after one battle due to supply difficulties. In fact, as soon as we jump out of the system, the first thing our Scrub does (after recovering from blowing chunks due to transit disorientation) is order a whole bunch of the stuff from any supply source possible. We'll need to make sure to bring sufficient replacement armor of the correct type next time.

The other thing that went wrong (aside from jumping into the middle of a civil war) was this whole "salvage exchange" thing. While the extra money accounted for about half of the money we actually made, the inability to source replacement parts "from the field" was only offset because we brought our Jumbo and massive amounts of supplies of our own. Plus, it really grates on the nerves to have to give up high tech salvage to a bunch of bumpkins who aren't going to use it properly anyway. If... we get said salvage, at any rate. Advanced Phoenix Hawks are pretty hard to catch sometimes.

Our Kurita rep releases the funds, although his commentary indicates that he thinks that we didn't really get all of the pirates. We did "get" a whole bunch of FedCom forces, though. Probably that was Kurita's goal in the first place. Listening to news updates after we leave, FedCom winds up dispatching additional forces to the world. But that's no longer our concern for the time being.

El Guapo is trolling around space craigs list and finds a Chippewa CHP-W7 for sale. This is a 90-ton aerospace fighter, and the standard model is pretty decent. This is an upgrade LosTech model - XL engine, double heat sinks, ferro-aluminum armor and pulse lasers. Even if we don't wind up using the fighter itself, that's a lot of double heat sinks. Maintenance will be a bit of a pain though, but you can buy Ferro-Aluminum armor nowadays if you look hard enough. You can tell it's advanced because it costs 12.5M C-Bills, for which you can buy two standard-tech fighters of the same class. Either that, or those guys at the Sirius jump point are yanking our chain.

[] Pass on the advanced fighter
[] Buy the advanced fighter, strip it for spare double heat sinks and pulse lasers (and a 270-rated XL engine)
[] Buy the advanced fighter, use it as is
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:00 pm
[] Pass on the advanced fighter
[] Buy the advanced fighter, strip it for spare double heat sinks and pulse lasers (and a 270-rated XL engine)
[X] Buy the advanced fighter, use it as is
Definitely buy it - great to have that advanced tech. I'm inclined to use it in its current form - seems useful to have a high-tech fighter - though I wouldn't object if people wanted to strip it for parts as well.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:00 pm [] Pass on the advanced fighter
[] Buy the advanced fighter, strip it for spare double heat sinks and pulse lasers (and a 270-rated XL engine)
[X] Buy the advanced fighter, use it as is
Pew pew.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

El Guapo wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:11 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:00 pm
[] Pass on the advanced fighter
[] Buy the advanced fighter, strip it for spare double heat sinks and pulse lasers (and a 270-rated XL engine)
[X] Buy the advanced fighter, use it as is
Definitely buy it - great to have that advanced tech. I'm inclined to use it in its current form - seems useful to have a high-tech fighter - though I wouldn't object if people wanted to strip it for parts as well.
Leave it on the fighter, but definitely buy it. We could use an advanced fighter or two. Aerospace fights don't seem to be our strong suit, lets get some advantages going here.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Zenn7 wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 7:33 pm
El Guapo wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:11 pm
NickAragua wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 5:00 pm
[] Pass on the advanced fighter
[] Buy the advanced fighter, strip it for spare double heat sinks and pulse lasers (and a 270-rated XL engine)
[X] Buy the advanced fighter, use it as is
Definitely buy it - great to have that advanced tech. I'm inclined to use it in its current form - seems useful to have a high-tech fighter - though I wouldn't object if people wanted to strip it for parts as well.
Leave it on the fighter, but definitely buy it. We could use an advanced fighter or two. Aerospace fights don't seem to be our strong suit, lets get some advantages going here.
I'm torn - we do seem to leave a lot of our fighters as smoking craters on some planetary surface, so stripping it makes some sense. But I can also see the wisdom of keeping it. I'm just going to cry a lot when it inevitably gets annihilated.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Stefan Stirzaker »

Buy but strip
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Drazzil »

I vote with Guapo on this one.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Buy it. Hopefully it will perform well enough that we won't have to strip it or pick up the pieces from a smoking crater.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Buy the Chippewa - 8
Buy and strip the Chippewa - 3
El Guapo hits the "buy" button then goes to get approval from the commander. The aero jocks aren't going to complain about it, and we do have quite a bit of cash. We'll assign the Chippewa to Beta Company's aerospace flight, keeping the replaced fighter as a spare.

Upon returning to Outreach, we've got a queue of messages waiting from our hired survey crews. They're technically not quite finished yet, but have already sent back quite a few survey results. Our command staff spends some time reviewing candidate systems. After looking through tons of survey reports, we come up with four candidate worlds. Seems that hiring dedicated surveyors worked out pretty well.

Gwynedd
The system has the distinction of being a former Rim Worlds Republic world. The Rim Worlds Republic was the nation originally ruled by Stefan Amaris (before he decided to try to take over the Star League), holding quite an extensive chunk of territory. Then the Star League Defense Force came in and stomped them flat with superior tech and numbers (more snarky historians question the use of the term "defense" in this situation). The Lyran Commonwealth claimed many of the systems in the "northwest" periphery in the wake of the collapse of the Rim Worlds Republic, but the continued resource drain of the Succession Wars led to most of those being abandoned.

Gwynedd is the first planet in orbit around a none-too-bright red dwarf. Survey results show an equatorial temperature of 46 degrees celsius (quite a bit hotter than Terra), with 41 percent water coverage. So it's really more a bunch of seas surrounded by land at this point. The standard Terran gravity is pretty comfy, but the atmospheric pressure is pretty high. With no satellites to slow down rotation, it spins around once every 21 hours, and zips around the local star once every four Terran months.

Survey crews documented at least eighty different urban centers visible from orbit (with high zoom-in during daylight), in various stages of decay, but no radio traffic. Landing crews observed no flora or fauna whatsoever, although a few atmospheric and soil samples reveal the presence of lots and lots of microscopic organisms. A brief examination of one or two of the cities showed the expected levels of decay associated with not having anyone living there for a couple of hundred years, although some of the damage was more likely caused by extensive urban combat.

Detailed examination of the sampled microorganisms reveals a biochemistry that's incompatible with that of humans, or most other Terran flora/fauna. Not a big deal, unless we want to try to grow crops in the ground (it's also inadvisable to eat the dirt). The survey crew theorized that the local inhabitants either imported food or grew it in isolated hydroponics facilities.

It's also way the hell out in the northwestern boonies, so it's more useful as a place for R&R than a base of operations. But, on the plus side, settling there means we probably won't have to declare any particular allegiance, and our families are unlikely to be harassed by raiders or pirates. The standard jump points are a little over two days out, so we'll want to invest in early warning systems.

The rest of the system is an asteroid belt and seven gas giants, each with a crap-ton of moons. Nothing close to the size of the primary planet, but plenty of places to explore for raw materials, which, other than what we can pick from the many urban ruins, don't appear to be in abundance on the primary.

Summary:
+ normal gravity
+ lots of ruins to pick over for raw materials or tech loot (maybe)
- a little hot
- high atmo pressure
- minimal biosphere, local micro-organisms biochemically incompatible with people
- low on-planet mineral resources
+/- way out in the northwestern boonies

Illium
Another former Rim Worlds Republic world, Illium is within one jump from both Lyran Commonwealth space and something called the "Greater Valkyrate", which is basically a glorified pirate kingdom. In fourth position from a very brighy yellow/white star, Illium enjoys near-terran-standard gravity, atmospheric pressure and temperature. While it takes four years to orbit the star, that's less relevant for any local colonists.

Survey crews report a robust biosphere, with large amounts of flora and fauna (the most notable being some kind of frog-analogue), despite having only 42% surface water coverage. Only eight urban centers were detectable from orbit, significantly overrun with local plant growth

Samples of the local fauna reveal that it's highly inadvisable for humans to consume it. Breathing is fine, mostly. Although re-breathers and filtration units are recommended as "mild irritation of exposed mucous membranes may occur over prolonged exposure". Terran flora and fauna are almost non-present. Like Illium, this means that feeding any reasonably sized population will require some effort.

The system has three other rocky worlds, although they are either extremely hot (281 degrees celsius average on the first one) or are incredibly dense with a crushing atmosphere (#2). The third one is mild by comparison, withonly 96 degrees celsius of temperature. The atmosphere would be a lot more dense, but it's gravity is only 20% terran standard. There are also four gas giants in the outer system with plenty of satellites to explore.

+ normal gravity
+ normal atmo pressure
+ pleasant temperature
- extensive biosphere, but bio-chemically incompatible with people
+ mineral scans show plentiful raw material deposits
- not much previous civilization to jump start development or pick over
+ within one jump of Lyran Commonwealth
- within one jump of Greater Valkyrate

Dowles
Our second hired survey team focused on former/abandoned colonies in the west-central section of the Federated Suns, which is a region that experienced significant de-population during the Succession Wars. Possibly due to the constant back-and-forth blasting between the Capellans and the Feds.

One of the candidate worlds is Dowles. A beautiful, half-blue (53%) world with just about standard (.9g) gravity, atmosphere and day length, it's the first planet in orbit around a light orange star. Survey crews report a healthy biosphere, with no major chemical or biological incompatibilities, and around fifty not-entirely intact urban centers overrun with native plant and animal life. There is very little evidence of combat in the abandoned cities, although plenty of bleached skeletons. Mineral resources appear to be present in pretty good quantities as well.

The zenith jump point appears to have an abandoned recharge station that is currently in no way functional, but could possibly be brought back to life with enough investment of resources. Not only will a recharge station allow our jumpship(s?) to give their jump sails a break, but it's also great for providing early warning of any new arrivals and helping conduct jumpship repairs.

The rest of the system is a pair of asteroid belts and four gas giants.

The main issues with Dowles are that it's directly on the St. Ives Compact / Federated Commonwealth border (with one jump of St. Ives, in fact), and only one or two jumps away from Capellan space. While the St. Ives Compact and FedCom enjoy warm trade relations, it is unlikely that either power will be willing to tolerate an independent mercenary enclave without some kind of concessions on our part to either or both powers.

+ normal gravity/atmo/temperature
+ extensive biosphere
+ plentiful raw materials for long term extraction
+ lots of urban areas to pick over
+ abandoned recharge station
- positioning will require some concessions on our part to FedCom and/or St. Ives Compact
- no plausible theories as to why everyone croaked or disappeared

Caria
Another world in the middle of Federated Suns territory, Caria must have been, at one point, a sprawling colony - judging by the whopping ninety-plus overgrown urban areas. This is further backed up by the presence of an abandoned recharge station at the nadir jump point.

A very nice place, with fertile volcanic soil all across the planet, an extensive biosphere and "good enough" characteristics otherwise - temperature, pressure and gravity all fall within reasonable range of Terran standard. Caria is the first planet around an orange star, and even has a medium-sized moon in orbit. Despite this, it spins around like a dreidel that just got started, with a whopping 19 hour day.

The rest of the system is mostly gas giants and asteroids, with a second rocky world a little further out - smaller and with a vacuum atmosphere, along with three small moons. One of the gas giants has a "giant" moon that happened to be directly observable by our hired survey crew at the time they carried out their survey.

The fertile volcanic soil part is great for farming, but is also a problem as volcanos regularly spew out lava and ash, and new ones emerge with disturbing regularity along what is presumed to be tectonic plate edges - the survey crew, over a period of a week, observed one coming up and spilling a bunch of lava into an unfortunately-placed ruined metroplex.

This place being smack dab in the middle of the Capellan March of the Federated Commonwealth means that we'll need to make some kind of concession to FedCom in order to settle there.

+ normal gravity/atmo/temperature
+ extensive biosphere
+ plentiful raw materials
+ plentiful urban areas
+ abandoned recharge station
- requires concession to FedCom
- volcanos make life a fairly unpredictable

So, let's pick one. Or not, our survey crews still have a few months on the clock. Although the likelyhood of finding anything dramatically better is not that great (but you never know).

[] Gwynedd
[] Illium
[] Dowles
[] Caria
[] Pass on these

[author's note: going to leave this one out for a couple of days. Also, currently updating the contract generation mechanism, so it may be a few days before the next "military" updates start]
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

NickAragua wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:36 pm

So, let's pick one. Or not, our survey crews still have a few months on the clock. Although the likelyhood of finding anything dramatically better is not that great (but you never know).

[] Gwynedd
[] Illium
[X] Dowles
[] Caria
[] Pass on these

[author's note: going to leave this one out for a couple of days. Also, currently updating the contract generation mechanism, so it may be a few days before the next "military" updates start]
Having a mysterious something that could wipe us out at any moment will keep us on our toes.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

gbasden wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:06 pm
NickAragua wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:36 pm

So, let's pick one. Or not, our survey crews still have a few months on the clock. Although the likelyhood of finding anything dramatically better is not that great (but you never know).

[] Gwynedd
[] Illium
[X] Dowles
[] Caria
[] Pass on these

[author's note: going to leave this one out for a couple of days. Also, currently updating the contract generation mechanism, so it may be a few days before the next "military" updates start]
Having a mysterious something that could wipe us out at any moment will keep us on our toes.
That would be my first choice, as well. The deaths could have been from chemical or biological weapons, but seeing as the rest of the planet seems to be flourishing, and the air quality was still good, I think it's probably safe by now. If it was gassed/chem'ed there will most likely be more loot, as no one would have been willing to go rummaging around in a hot zone. (At least, that's my hopeful assumption...)
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

gbasden wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:06 pm
NickAragua wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:36 pm

So, let's pick one. Or not, our survey crews still have a few months on the clock. Although the likelyhood of finding anything dramatically better is not that great (but you never know).

[] Gwynedd
[] Illium
[X] Dowles
[X] Caria
[] Pass on these

[author's note: going to leave this one out for a couple of days. Also, currently updating the contract generation mechanism, so it may be a few days before the next "military" updates start]
Having a mysterious something that could wipe us out at any moment will keep us on our toes.
I'm good with Dowles or Caria. Have similar upsides, both require some concessions to FedCom. Depends somewhat on what those "concessions" are, but we're already on pretty good terms with them anyway, so I'm fine with cozying up to them a bit more.
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Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zarathud »

Dowles at least gives us a FedCom alternative. I like to eat, so non-edible lifeforms are puppies.
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Zenn7
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Do we need to decide now or lose these?

If we wait for the surveys to finish and nothing better comes up, can't we always comes back and get Dowles then?

If not, get Dowles now. But I have the impression there's not much risk of someone claiming it on us.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

[author's note: after attempting to both a) finalize an updated contract negotiation mechanism and b) overcome some kind of respiratory virus, I've succeeded at neither, but I'm still jonesing for some battletech, so...]

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Pass - 4
Dowles - 5
Kind of a close one. There's a lot of argument among the command (and non-command) staff. Zenn7 has to restrain himself from cold-cocking a lieutenant that suggests we move to Lone Star (a post-nuclear iceball of a world we surveyed ourselves a few years back). The former Rim Worlds Republic doesn't get much enthusiasm, either. The contracts for the survey teams will be up in about three months, so that will give them a chance to do some more surveys in case they're able to come up with something much more hospitable (although, most agree that we're unlikely to find anything substantially more livable than Dowles).

Meanwhile, time is money. The more money we build up the more stuff we'll be able to build on-planet. The mercenary contract market is a little bit dry, though. Just look at all this peaceful crap:

"A Federated Commonwealth spokesperson today reported the relatively peaceful conclusion of hostilities on the planet Moore. After the arrival of elements of the 12th Donegal Guards, backing up a negotiation team, Skye Separatist and Skye March Militia forces quickly ceased hostilities. The residents of the planet can now breathe a little more easily (although not too easily, due to local atmospheric conditions), as battlemech and heavy armor forces no longer prowl their world."

"Positive news for the investors of the Kathil Shipyards today, as the first batch of JumpShips has been retro-fitted with Lithium-Fusion batteries. This technology allows a JumpShip to carry out two jumps in rapid succession without having to stop to recharge, as JumpShips normally have to do. The lengthy recharge time after a double jump and the expense of installing the technology (as it is heavily integrated into the JumpShip's main drive core) makes it impractical for private owners, but deep space explorers and military users alike will greatly appreciate it."

"Irian Battlemechs announced today the long-awaited release of the HER-3S Hermes battlemech, a variant of the venerable reconaissance design. It is packed with advanced technology, including Myomer Accelerated Signal Circuitry and a Beagle active probe. It is also more than 33% faster than the standard HER-2S. However, it does trade away armor and firepower, relying on its incredible speed for protection. When asked for comment, J. Peretti, our resident mech analyst and former Ostscout pilot replied 'no jump jets, no sale'."

"Unzmarkt Resources Ltd. today announced plans to expand its mining operations on the planet of the same name. To date, their efforts have been stymied both by local environmental regulations and competitors - both from the nearby Tamar March in the former Lyran Commonwealth, and local mining concerns. 'We must preserve our pristine environment for future generations, and will closely regulate any heavy extraction and industrial activity.' a local government spokesperson was quoted as having said. When asked for a response, a URL spokesperson replied that 'I'm not sure what pristine environmet they're talking about. You can't go outside without a rebreather anyway.'"

Actually, we do get a line on one contract (or set of contracts depending on how you look at it). The Unzmarkt Resources Ltd. corporation (URL) would like to contract more or less our entire company for an extended 24-month stint on Unzmarkt. Our duties would include:
- training corporate security forces to a point where they can hold their own
- garrison duty at URL facilities against attacks and sabotage attempts by "competitors and eco-terrorists"
- offensive operations, where appropriate, to remove the sources of attacks against URL facilities

The URL rep all but stalks our negotiator, and she's able to extract quite a significant amount of concessions for the contract offer. Nitty gritty details:

Independent command (we'll still recieve instructions and timetables but how we implement them is entirely up to us)
Full salvage
Full support coverage
60% transport coverage
Regular/F allied forces
Unknown opposition
700M estimated profit

The planet itself is kind of a low-gravity bug-ball in "northern" Raslhague territory. The air is unbreathable without a filter (not that you'd want to, there are bugs everywhere), and there's not much water. There's also not much actual industry or tech. URL will happily provide us with any spare parts they can, but, for the most part, we're on the hook for bringing our own. Worse, it's got a "C-Rated HPG service". That's a fancy way of saying that it only gets data dumps when a jumpship drops in.

When asked about opposition, the rep is pretty cagey, either because of reluctance to share or because he doesn't know. He's all smiles, money, fancy suit and full head of hair, but not much for actual info. He does mention that their facilities occasionally come under attack by "various anti-competitive elements". So we can probably expect a wide range of pirates, mercenaries and whatever else. They're apparently surveying and carrying out extraction/refining of substantial amounts of metals on the heavy end of the periodic table (without going into the ones that decay in microseconds).

Anyway, the money's good and it keeps the team together, but it's going to get all corporate intrigue up in there.

[] Take the Unzmarkt contract
[] Hang out for another month and see if we can rustle up something a little less Shadowrun
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Freyland »

Ooh, Shadowrun? Dibs on the retractable Wolverine claw implants!
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Yeah, this seems like a pretty good deal - hanging out and dealing with the occasional hippies seems like a low-risk way to make money. Plus I bet that company's employees have access to some pretty good Space Cocaine.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:36 pm

[X] Take the Unzmarkt contract
[] Hang out for another month and see if we can rustle up something a little less Shadowrun
I like the salvage, the money, and keeping the unit together (strictly for reading purposes).

By the way, could we get a status of the company sheet again? I've...um...forgotten which lance I'm in seeing as I'm "new" to the company.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by AWS260 »

NickAragua wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:36 pm [X] Take the Unzmarkt contract
[] Hang out for another month and see if we can rustle up something a little less Shadowrun
Just make sure we pack a shit-ton of supplies for the long stay.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Hang out for another month.

Not that this sounds like a bad contract overall, but if we are out for 24 months, and out survey crews are done in 3 months, does that mean we have no one to go stake our claim on whatever world we are claiming? Don't we want some free mechs/troops for this purpose?

If I'm missing something, then yeah, let's take this contract (and load WAY WAY UP on supplies).
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

AWS260 wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:24 pm
NickAragua wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:36 pm [X] Take the Unzmarkt contract
[] Hang out for another month and see if we can rustle up something a little less Shadowrun
Just make sure we pack a shit-ton of supplies for the long stay.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

Zenn7 wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:17 pm Hang out for another month.

Not that this sounds like a bad contract overall, but if we are out for 24 months, and out survey crews are done in 3 months, does that mean we have no one to go stake our claim on whatever world we are claiming? Don't we want some free mechs/troops for this purpose?

If I'm missing something, then yeah, let's take this contract (and load WAY WAY UP on supplies).
Yeah, I suppose I'm assuming that the opportunity cost of this mission isn't too high. And actually for that matter, what is the estimated profit per month for this contract? As long as it's at least average or better then I think the contract makes sense.

Also I'm assuming that we can reasonably do both this contract and secure the new world. For one, I assume it's going to be a little while before we're ready to move in anyway - at least three months to finish the surveys, then (assuming that we take one of the FedCom worlds) a negotiation process with FedCom (and/or other relevant powers). Then preparations (going to Space IKEA for our furniture, renting a Space UHaul, working with a Space Architecture firm, etc.).

I do agree that we should be sure that we can send some sort of skeleton force of some type to the world when we're ready, though.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Updated TO&E:
Spoiler:
Alpha Company
Command company

Command Lance
Elite
Major Rayhan "Gbasden" Ashimov - Awesome AWS-8Q
SMj An "Isgrimnur" Taalib - Hatchetman HCT-3F (modified)
MSg Patrick "El Guapo" Allain - Marauder MAD-3R (modified)
Cpl Manny "Stefan" Campos - Catapult CPLT-C1

Battle Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Ragnhild bin Najm al Din - Merlin MLN-1A
PFC Ben Kalkman - Trebuchet TBT-5J
PVT Maureen McKiernan - Dervish DV-6M
PVT Yuki Sato - Ostsol OTL-4D (modified)

Urban Combat Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Kazuyuki Sato - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)
CPL Kieran Michailovic - Blackjack BJ-1
PFC Nicolas Reichel - Trebuchet TBT-5J
PVT Ok-Hwa Park - Whitworth WTH-1

Strike Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Arnwlle Schumann - Shilone SL-17 (modified)
Sp Brit Egglestone - Lucifer LCF-R20 (modified)
AbSp Matthias Baune - Corsair CSR-V12 (modified)

Beta Company
The heavy metal

Assault Lance
Elite
Cpt Yu-Bao "Zenn7" Ting - Awesome AWS-8Q
SMj Song "Zarathud" Jiang - Awesome AWS-8Q
Cpl Hoshi "Moley" Higashi - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE
Pvt Ratan "LordMortis" Suryanarayama - Victor VTR-9B (modified)

Hunter Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Demesu Jafar - Guillotine GLT-4L
Cpl. Zea-Chin "Hyena" Cao - Archer ARC-2R (modified)
Pvt Karla "Wolf" Mellum - Orion ON1-K
Pvt Tyra "Siljanus" Drusse - Stalker STK-3F
Zephyr Hovertank (Royal)

Fire Lance
Regular
Lt. JG Elizabeth Bolam - Marauder MAD-4X (Marik Prototype)
Pvt Dermott Snow - Vindicator VND-1R
Pvt Allen Nattore - Trebuchet TBT-5N
Pvt Tessa Eng - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)

Strike Squadron
Regular
Ensign Lurdes Tarquini - Lucifer LCF-R20 (modified)
Ab. Sp. Leslie Segura - Chippewa CHP-W7
Sp Gillaume Jaouen - Lightning LTN-G15 (modified)

Gamma Company
General Purpose
Battle Lance
Elite
Cpt Zanthe "Scrub" Pappathanassiou - Warhammer WHM-6Rb
Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaeve - Grand Dragon DRG-1G (modified)
Cpl Varada "Cylus" Sunondo - Grasshopper GHR-5H
Cpl Iiro "Xwraith" Rintala - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (modified)

Striker Lance
Regular
Lt. JG Ramon Vazquez - Griffin GRF-1N
Cpl. Loren Burgess - Champion CHP-2N (modified)
Pfc. Bhadrasrenya Jannavi - Hunchback HBK-4G
Pvt. Catriona Dellas - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)

Probe Lance
Regular
Lt JG Zofia "Cujo" Kubo - Wolverine WVR-6M
PFC Clinton "Drazzil" Mavroudis - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D
Pvt Nara "AWS" Cutillar - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified)
Pvt Nicolas Dvorak - Vulcan VL-5T (modified)

Strike Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Leslie Leshtchenko - Lightning LTN-G15 (modified)
Sp Aneko Kiyomizu - Stingray F-90 (modified)
AbSp Loc Do - Lightning LTN-G15 (modified)

Delta Company
Recon

Ranger Lance
Elite
Captain Shi-Wen "Madmarcus" Xu - Wolverine WVR-6M
SMj Mab "Paingod" Orme - Griffin GRF-1N
Sgt Kesia "Freyland" Hauli - Quickdraw QKD-4H (modified)
PFC Nori "Archinerd" Goto - Dervish DV-6M (modified)

Sweep Lance
Veteran
Lt. Bettina Bosse - Ostroc OSR-2M
PFC Sixten Wisth - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified)
PFC Tom Chagares - Griffin GRF-1S
PFC Gregory Molnes - Cronus CNS-3M

Recon Lance
Regular
Lt JG Sebastian Jackman - Firestarter FS9-H (modified)
Pvt Martha Kanaris - Assassin ASN-21
Pvt Isabelle Framnes - Ostscout OTT-7J
Pvt Chris Mitchelle - Firestarter FS9-K (modified)

Interceptor Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Dave Malavika - Sparrowhawk SPR-H5
Spc Lenka Modry - Seydlitz SYD-Z2-A
Spc Trevor Turner - Sholagar SL-21

Epsilon Company
Expansion Group
Deployed on garrison duty/survey duty

First Lance
Warhammer WHM-6K (Olesko)
Wyvern WVE-6N (modified)
Catapult CPLT-C1
Thunderbolt TDR-5SE

Second Lance
Sentinel STN-3L
Griffin GRF-1S
Hunchback HBK-4G
Rifleman RLF-3C

Assault Lance
Stalker STK-3H
Longbow LBG-7Q
Warhammer WHM-6D (modified)
Atlas AS7-WGS (Samsonov)

Air Lance
Icarus II ICR-1S
Hatchetman HCT-3F
Centuron CN9-A (modified)
Clint CLNT-2-3T
Samurai SL-25
Seydlitz SYD-7Z

Space Assets
Invader-class Jumpship (currently in drydock)
"Moonraker" - Union-class Dropship
"Sparrow" - Union-class Dropship
Jumbo-class Dropship
3x Lucifer LCF-R20 escorts
1x Shilone SL-17 escort

Additional Ground Assets
4x Long Tom Artillery
Gyroslug Rifle / Support Laser infantry platoon, with Maxim (SRM4) hover transport
LRM jump infantry platoon, with Maxim (SRM4) hover transport
SRM jump infantry squad, with Ferret Scout VTOL and Warrior H-7C
Current funds: ~2.1B C-Bills

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Unzmarkt - vast majority
The amount of money changing hands for this contract is pretty ridiculous. Scrub just shakes her head, and chuckles remembering when the contracts we were signing barely had any profit margin at all, and the numbers only had seven digits. Of course, our company was only a single company of mechs back then, and since then, only three of the original founders have both survived and not retired.

The profit per month is actually fairly average - we're there for two years, so we'll be seeing about 30M per month, after all expenses are counted.

Our jumpship is still stranded in Asuncion, with repairs "approximately 33% finished" according to the last HPG transmission from the captain. If he bungles it up again, his career with us is going to be a little more than 33% finished. Meanwhile, we have to rent a jumpship to carry our two Unions and Jumbo.

With regard to survey results, elements of Epsilon company are expected to return to Outreach within the month, and, assuming that damn jumpship stops falling apart, we'll have it and its fighter escorts available. Some "back of the envelope" estimates and discreet conversations with construction crews reveal that construction of initial habitats and hangar/repair facilities for our equipment will take about a year and a half at least (apparently, it takes a lot of time and effort to haul heavy construction equipment across interstellar distances then build structures that won't fall apart from a stiff breeze). So, we'll be able to manage the initial construction remotely and will be able to have a token garrison force present as well.

We pack up our mechs, aerospace fighters and ground vehicles onto our dropships and burn for the jump point. Sharing a jumpship with a couple of unaffiliated dropships traveling "our way", the Moonraker's captain crosses paths on the grav deck with a couple of officers from a Seeker-class dropship. They get into a discussion of the relative merits and drawbacks of the Union vs the Seeker ("My dropship carries more mechs", "yeah, well, my dropship carries enough tanks and infantry to overrun your mech company", "yeah, well, at least my dropship doesn't fall apart from mild atmospheric turbulence", "hey, what smells like sweaty feet, is that a Union crew member?"). After jumpship security personnel break up the resulting brawl, we find out that the Seeker's crew is looking for more permanent employment.

The Seeker is not exactly the pinnacle of high technology, and it's neither very durable nor does it have much firepower. However, it's got a substantial amount of space devoted to crew and passenger quarters, which would be great to house all of our infantry and support personnel, who are currently having to "make do" with converted living quarters in the Jumbo (either that or we have to rent space on passenger dropships for longer trips, then stuff everyone into our craft for the last legs). The other thing it has is a substantial amount of hangar space for light vehicles up to 50 tons. Not so useful for our Long Tom artillery battery, but it can hold our VTOLs and infantry hover transports.

The acquisition cost is ~222M C-Bills (we'd be buying out their current contract and paying for some "incidental repairs", which doesn't sound expensive, but actually is. The Seeker's crew also informs us that they can re-purpose a couple of the tank bays for carrying mechs, thus reducing the amount of packing and unpacking we have to do in general. It may be worth thinking about.

[] Get the Seeker
[] Pass on the Seeker
Spoiler:
Image
As we make our way coreward (starting from Outreach at the bottom of the map), we also consider a couple of other issues. First is how we want to handle the low gravity. Previously, we just sucked it up and accepted the risk of blown out actuators and joints if any particular mechwarrior pushed their mech too hard. However, one of our techs suggests the idea of putting a software governor on our mechs to prevent them from going too fast. We'd also instruct our corporate trainees to do the same, since it'll make it easier to avoid having them scrap their mechs by walking a little too fast.

[] Install software governors on our mechs and tanks to avoid detrimental low-g effects
[] Let 'er rip and come what may (hopefully the things ripping won't be our leg actuators)

Finally, en route, a representative from the Unzmarkt planetary militia reaches out to us (having somehow got word of our impending arrival ~4 months out) via HPG message (which the jumpship picks up as it jumps into Lyons and gets its regular data upload) and inquires if we'd be willing to second them a lance of mechs to "increase planetary security during an anticipated tense period". Effectively, we'd be carrying out garrison duty at an extra set of facilities that are close enough to each other to be covered by a single mech lance.

According to our force estimates, we've got the lance to spare, so we probably could do it. The salvage clause is pretty good, at 90%, and we'd have a liaison working alongside us. They're even willing to pitch in for an additional share of the transport costs, entirely covering the rest of our travel to Unzmarkt. Estimated profit is about 70M over the 15 month duration of the sub-contract, so not that great, but it's a pretty small increase in responsibility. Unless our employer gets in a tiff with said militia, in which case it'll become a liability. Although, not much of one, from reading the reports, that militia is not much to look at (although if we *really* piss the locals off, Rasalhague itself is only two jumps away). It's also a bit unnusual, as the residents of the Free Raslhague Republic aren't known for their positive sentiments towards mercenaries, having had a less-than-pleasant experience with them during the Ronin Wars about ten years back. We did ok by them for the most part, putting down our share of Ronin, but a lot of other mercs took their money and ran. Of course, the Ronin never really had a chance, lacking any kind of support. Anyway, the point of that is that it's unusual for an official Rasalhague government agency to hire mercenaries. Maybe it's a pilot program.

[] Take the militia subcontract, earn a little extra "pocket change"
[] Pass, more trouble than it's worth
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:00 pm

[X] Get the Seeker
[] Pass on the Seeker
Seems like we have the money, and seems like a useful thing to have (especially with our regular Jumpship regularly falling apart).
NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:00 pm [] Install software governors on our mechs and tanks to avoid detrimental low-g effects
[X] Let 'er rip and come what may (hopefully the things ripping won't be our leg actuators)
So, do I understand this right that all the software would do would be essentially keep mechs from going so fast that they risk structural damage? Basically a mandatory cap on our top speed?

If so, that seems dumb, as we might need to risk top speed periodically to escape a greater danger of blowing up. Seems like the best approach is to hammer home to everyone to stay below X speed *unless* it's an emergency.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

El Guapo wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:33 pm
NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:00 pm

[X] Get the Seeker
[] Pass on the Seeker
Seems like we have the money, and seems like a useful thing to have (especially with our regular Jumpship regularly falling apart).
NickAragua wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:00 pm [] Install software governors on our mechs and tanks to avoid detrimental low-g effects
[X] Let 'er rip and come what may (hopefully the things ripping won't be our leg actuators)
So, do I understand this right that all the software would do would be essentially keep mechs from going so fast that they risk structural damage? Basically a mandatory cap on our top speed?

If so, that seems dumb, as we might need to risk top speed periodically to escape a greater danger of blowing up. Seems like the best approach is to hammer home to everyone to stay below X speed *unless* it's an emergency.
Agreed with both.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Get the Seeker - Unanimous

Install Software Governors - 3
Let 'er rip - 2

Take Militia Subcontract - 2
Skip Militia Subcontract -1
We put up the money to buy out the Seeker's current contract. Watching the bank account dip all the way back down to 1.8B C-Bills is painful, but hey, dropships aren't cheap. With our Jumbo packed to the gills with ammo, armor and spare parts, we're in good shape for a multi-year garrison contract.

Since the transit to Unzmarkt is several months, a few things happen along the way.

-------------

"Hey, come check this out!" El Guapo calls out to Stefan as the two lounge around on the rented jumpship's grav deck. "You ever see one of these things before?"

Stefan looks at the data pad. It's a listing for an honest-to-god Phoenix Hawk Land-Air Mech. Basically a Phoenix Hawk, but capable of turning into a flyer. The equipment to enable it to transform takes up a lot of space, so it actually performs more poorly on the ground than its namesake standard mech. In the air it has the performance of a Lucifer, but the armor and flight endurance of a light fighter. The main draw of these things is that they're excellent at carrying out surprise raids, but that comes at the cost of difficult maintenance. Not to mention the operator has to be both a mechwarrior and an aero jock.

"Nope. Saw a couple of Wasp and Stinger ones once, though. Remember back in '39, when we caught up to those Kurita dropship?"

El Guapo chuckles. "We thought they were mech carriers."

Stefan nods. "Yeah, too bad those LAMs aren't any good as aerospace fighters." he pauses. "Or mechs."

Ensign Arnwelle Schumman, an aerospace pilot sitting nearby agrees. "Especially in a vacuum. I remember dinging one with a laser, and the thing started spewing air and spinning around. I'm surprised the guy inside survived. Never would have happened to a real aerospace fighter."

El Guapo shrugs. "Speaking of real aerospace fighters, looks like the Lyrans have a surplus of those W7 Chippewas, with the pulse lasers, including one for sale in the next system over. Let's grab it."

Nobody argues against that one.

-----------------------

Our hired survey crews dribble in the last of their results, and there's not much more in the way of interesting stuff there. One of the survey target systems in FedSuns space actually turns out to still be inhabited, which would have been a little awkward, to say the least. We *could* make an attempt to settle in a pre-existing colony, but that would mean appeasing the local (and not-so-local, given the size of our company) nobility and getting land grants. Plus we'd have to obey local laws. Well, not really, but we'd need to be good neighbors if we want to avoid having the regional armed forces drop in on us.

We've got some construction proposals lined up for if and when we figure it out. There's a fairly sizeable contingent of our company advocating for setting up on Lone Star (of the previous round of options, there wasn't much enthusiasm for a blistering/freezing desert (Oyevaina) or a water world with oil rigs (Gorki)), and a substantial amount of support for moving our home base to Dowles.

To review:

Lone Star was a pretty major Star League colony at one point, but fighting damaged or destroyed a significant amount of infrastructure, including the atmospheric processors keeping things warm. The nuclear bombardment didn't help. Boasting half a billion people and the pinnacle of Star League tech in its heyday, it's now a frozen-over iceball. That being said, it's very centrally located and there's a decent possibility that there's remaining Star League infrastructure, civilian and military, which can be put to our use. However, our expansion options will be limited, as will on-planet raw materials extraction, while any new construction will be considerably more expensive due to the harsh environmental conditions.

+ Substantial amount of existing structures
+ Possible military infrastructure
+ Possible industrial infrastructure
+ Great hostile environment training
+ Nobody wants it
- increased construction costs due to low temperatures
- low gravity
- occasional radiation pocket
- Most people don't actually want to live there

Dowles was surveyed more recently. To sum up, it's a shirt-sleeves world with plenty of water and a bunch of abandoned cities (though not nearly as many as Lone Star). We uh, just don't know what caused the de-population. Thinking about it further, it wouldn't be too difficult to convince people to move there and make it a self-sustaining colony with a complete resource extraction/manufacturing cycle. We'd have to build most of it from the ground up, but it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive to do so.

+ normal gravity/atmo/temperature
+ extensive biosphere
+ plentiful raw materials for long term extraction
+ lots of urban areas to pick over
+ abandoned recharge station
- positioning will require some concessions on our part to FedCom and/or St. Ives Compact
- no plausible theories as to why everyone croaked or disappeared

Let's make the final call where, and then we can initiate the process.

[] Lone Star
[] Dowles

-----------------------

The LAM is still for sale as we jump into Tamar, two jumps away from Unzmarkt and its lack of HPG. Guess they didn't find a buyer. It's... not really our bag, honestly. But if there's an overwhelming desire to see one in action, we'll grab it. Granted, the seller doesn't really have the best reviews, so we might just wind up having wasted a bunch of money.

Our mechs are re-programmed with governors (although, as a concession to the more experienced mechwarriors, they can be turned off in an emergency).

When we land, we're unpacked and ready to go guard a bunch of industrial facilities within a day.
Last edited by NickAragua on Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Isgrimnur
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Hyena »

Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:32 pm Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
+1
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Hyena wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:20 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:32 pm Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
+1
Not sure what "Drazzil can be our canary means exactly? If it means buy him the LAM - no thanks.

But yes on Dowles.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Isgrimnur »

Zenn7 wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:38 pm
Hyena wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:20 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:32 pm Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
+1
Not sure what "Drazzil can be our canary means exactly? If it means buy him the LAM - no thanks.

But yes on Dowles.
- no plausible theories as to why everyone croaked or disappeared
Canary in the coal mine
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by gbasden »

Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:52 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:38 pm
Hyena wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:20 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:32 pm Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
+1
Not sure what "Drazzil can be our canary means exactly? If it means buy him the LAM - no thanks.

But yes on Dowles.
- no plausible theories as to why everyone croaked or disappeared
Canary in the coal mine
Agreed on all counts.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by Zenn7 »

Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:52 pm
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:38 pm
Hyena wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 6:20 pm
Isgrimnur wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:32 pm Dowles.

Drazzil can be our canary.
+1
Not sure what "Drazzil can be our canary means exactly? If it means buy him the LAM - no thanks.

But yes on Dowles.
- no plausible theories as to why everyone croaked or disappeared
Canary in the coal mine
I knew canaries in coal mines, wasn't sure if Dowles or the LAM was our coal mine.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by El Guapo »

On the other hand, Lone Star would let us make a lot of Spaceballs jokes.
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Re: Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Post by NickAragua »

Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Lone Star - 3
Dowles - 8
February 15, 3044
Scherer Plains
400km north of landing zone
Unzmarkt, Free Raslhague Republic

"Glad you fellas are here." the URL rep, one Larry Huchet says, welcoming our command staff to his office (a trailer outside one of their mining operations). Handshakes are exchanged all around, then he hangs up his cowboy hat and plops down on a creaky fold-out chair, cracking open a beer. "So, here's the deal. I've sent over a list of facilities we need protected. We've also got our own security force going, but they're a little..." he shifts around "... well, they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, even if someone was aiming for them. And they'd tip their mechs over and crash their tanks on flat terrain faster than you could blink."

Scrub raises an eyebrow, exchanging glances with the other officers.

"Anyway, that's part of your contract, get these morons up to speed so they can take over when you leave." He takes a long gulp.

"Now, the last part of the contract, this 'retaliatory operations' clause." he points at something on a data pad on his desk. "I know you guys ain't really 'stealth experts' or whatever." he makes scare quotes with one hand. "But, it'd be great if we could put out a PR stating our condolences to the workers at any of our competitors facilities you retaliate against because their employer had 'lapses in safety practices', rather than because 'twelve mechs stomped through their barracks'." another pull from the beer can. "You get what I'm saying?"

"We don't really, uh, have..." Scrub begins.

"No, no, I seen your tee-oh-eee. Just, when we tell you to go stomp something, I need you to do it quickly, and preferably at night or in heavy rain or something, so they can't identify your guys or trace them back to us." he finishes the beer and chucks it at a bin near the opposite wall, missing. It joins several of its comrades on the floor. Larry reaches for the nearby fridge. "You guys want any?"

-------------------

So that's how Beta-Assault winds up running a diversionary operation to draw off the defenders of a competitor's ore processing plant while Gamma-Probe runs around the back and kicks a couple of walls in - Larry doesn't want the facility destroyed, just damaged. "Make it expensive for them to stay here." he says. It's night time, and they've got about twenty tanks that have put themselves in between Beta-Assault and the facility. Most are crappy mediums, but there's a lance of heavy tanks in the back.

There's also a minor sensor station that we've located that sits square in the middle of our battlefield. We're going to rip the servers out (for later examination to see what they've logged, it'll give us an indication of the sensor capabilities of at least that competitor), and then flatten the station.

Round 1:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley and LordMortis move in on the sensor station. It's actually got a pretty beefy turret up top - dual laser barrels, five MG barrels and unguided rockets mounted on the sides for good measure.

Moley jumps in and reaches inside, easily avoiding the turret's ineffective fire. LordMortis helpfully shoots a hole in one of the walls, exposing the data storage servers, which Moley grabs with the Thunderbolt's non-laser hand. Our Awesomes lumber towards a pond, where they'll take up position and tape down the triggers on their PPCs and take out the crowd of tanks gathering in the north.

Round 2:
Spoiler:
Image
With the data storage unit grabbed, LordMortis and Zarathud open up on the building, although it proves pretty tough, absorbing two PPC shots and a gauss slug. A few more shots ought to bring it down. Return fire zaps in around LordMortis, setting on fire the woods where he lands.

Round 3:
Spoiler:
Image
A missile-equipped Hetzer off in the distance that's been slinging LRMs our way moves out of Zenn7's line of fire just as he's about to line up the seventh PPC shot at it. Surprisingly squirrely little thing for a wheeled assault gun.

Zarathud collapses the turret with a couple of PPC shots, while LordMortis and Moley move forward. LordMortis puts a gauss slug onto a Saladin that's zipping around, but the hovertank's front armor just barely holds.

Round 4:
Spoiler:
Image
We work on the enemy armor - night time greatly impedes their accuracy. Also ours, but our mechwarriors are pretty good shots. No critical damage, but a Partisan tank eats a gauss slug and a PPC shot which fuses one of its treads.

Round 5:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley jumps forward, taking an AC/5 round from a Condor, but plowing lasers into the Hetzer that got away from Zenn7. The 40-ton tank explodes, momentarily lighting up the darkened battlefield as its fuel tank goes up. Zenn7, meanwhile, blows away the Saladin that LordMortis started, even as our Victor starts working on a Sturmfeur. Moley gets herself a two-fer, crunching through the armor on the adjacent damaged Partisan. The vehicle is still technically intact, but begins rolling away.

The Sturmfeur is an 85-ton machine, originally commissioned by the Lyran Commonwealth to provide long-range fire support with dual LRM/20 racks. This one is the SRM variant, which, instead has sixteen SRM tubes, so it's pretty nasty at short range. If they could see what they were shooting at, anyway. The crew is rattled by the impact of a gauss slug, so they won't be firing their SRM battery for a little while.

Round 6:
Spoiler:
Image
Moley continues the Thunderbolt's disruptive movement through the enemy formation, firing up the jump jets again to land in a patch of woods behind a Pegasus, which gets its hover skirt cut up by lasers. The crackle of return fire from autocannons whizzes by, but only one hits, an AC/5 from that same Condor on LordMortis. Zenn7 blasts the front armor off a Vedette next to our Victor, while the other one avoids the 80-ton mech's stomp.

Round 7:
Spoiler:
Image
The bulk of the facility defenders are composed of crappy Vedettes, so it's no surprise that Zenn7 mistakes another one for the one he just nearly blew away. The tank falls apart anyway, though, after three PPC hits.

Our jump-capable mechs are mostly unable to score hits with weapons fire, but LordMortis kicks through the back of an LRM Carrier, causing it to start belching black smoke.

Round 8:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 continues hosing down the enemy tank cluster with PPC fire, blasting through the right side armor of another Vedette. LordMortis manages to continue avoiding the Sturmfeur's rapid SRM fire, although the effort leaves him unable to land any weapon hits of his own, and he has to eat a couple of SRMs from a nearby Vedette.

Round 9:
Spoiler:
Image
Zenn7 displaces, as all of his targets are crippled or destroyed. But the Awesome lurches as a loose rock underwater unexpectedly pops out of place and falls over - the computer triggers wailing alarms as the 80-tonner splashes into the lake and the left leg freezes up. Zenn7 manages to drag himself out of the water, but the myomers are already on safety shut down - the leg will have to be drained and the muscles reactivated.

Moley, meanwhile has troubles of her own - an autocannon impact jars the mech so that her foot slips off the jump jet pedal - the Thunderbolt basically farts instead of jumping. Still, the adjacent Rhino fire support tank winds up disabled by our 65-ton mech's lasers.

The damage could have been a lot worse if it was competent opponents shooting at us, but, as it is, Moley only gets away with a couple of SRM hits and a large laser to the leg, and the Thunderbolt's armor holds up.

"Gamma-Probe here, objective completed." comes the terse report from Cujo. That means they've run their mechs through the ore processing plant and made a bit of a mess. The timing works out well, as, having lost most of their heavier units, the enemy tankers look like they want to retreat.

We jump away, Moley sending a Goblin tank on with a parting kick. Zenn7 struggles the Awesome to its feet.

"I've seen better piloting, boss." Zarathud comments. Zenn7 just shakes his head and sighs.

We get our salvage crews out there once the garrison units retreat and pick up the tank wrecks. We'll warehouse them for now, stuffing them into the Jumbo or the Seeker, then sell them after it's no longer necessary to keep our attack on that processing plant deniable. We took no damage of note, although it takes the techs a while to drain and dry out Zenn7's leg actuators. But we don't see any more action for the next two weeks, which gives us plenty of opportunity to run patrols with the corporate security guys and try to teach them how to shoot at stationary targets. We also take the opportunity to read up on the local situation and gather some intel from the locals.

------------------------

The other thing that happens is that a jumpship arrives in-system, giving us the opportunity to send out a data dump with our decision on where to stake our claim. While we're at it, we should also figure out how we're going to handle the construction of initial housing for our people and equipment.

We'll need to construct places to live for ~700 people - we've budgeted for four cubic meters per person, plus some overhead for cafeterias, gymnasiums, libraries, that sort of thing. Additionally, we'll want to build some landing pads for our dropships, hangars for our mechs, vehicles and aerospace fighters, and perhaps even a runway so that our fighters don't have to VTOL it all the time (which places a strain on the engines apparently). Each lance will get a 60x60x20 meter hangar, with smaller ones (30x10x10 meter and 20x20x10 meter respectively) for our aerospace elements and tanks. Since we're talking about building housing for our families and mechs, we're not skimping on sturdiness, which drives the cost up quite a bit but it's worth it - the demo hangar we saw on Outreach was able to take seven PPC shots before completely losing structural integrity. We'll also need to install power generation for all of this - since local resource extraction is impractical, we'll be setting up fusion generators as well. This bare bones facility is projected to run us around 250M C-bills. and take ~1400 days. When our guys working on this project first saw the estimates from a couple of construction teams, they went bug-eyed. Four freaking years.

We do have the option of throwing more money at the problem and making the construction go faster. Bringing the cost up to 400M C-Bills to hire a bunch more professional construction crews (who come with their own industrial mechs, heavy lifters and all that stuff) will reduce the construction time to ~500 days. Still a year and a half, but it'll be done before we get there. Normally you can't get that kind of improvement just by throwing more people at an engineering problem, but we're basically just building 60 mech hangars and a couple of apartment blocks, so most of the construction can run in parallel. Epsilon Company will be on hand to supervise construction and provide local security, not that there's any expectation that it'll be necessary.

[] Go with the cheap, but longer option: 250M C-Bills, 1400 days
[] Go with the more expensive, quicker option: 400M C-Bills, 500 days.
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