Can anyone tell me whether there's a way to affect the randomization of when flashpoints appear?

[Curtis Cook]

I'm about to wrap up my fourth career and have an idea for how I want to approach the fifth one, but last time (aside from the storyline about the Black Widow, which so far has always been the one that fired first) all the flashpoints that showed up initially were 4, 4 1/2 or 5 skull missions, and it was hundreds of days in before the first 2 or 2 1/2 skull flashpoints showed up. That's fine if you're entering career mode as a continuation of the starting campaign, but if you're starting a career from scratch I'd like a different option.

Is there a way to un-randomize which flashpoints appear when? Ideally I'd like to start with the 'easiest' ones and not have more difficult ones appear until after either the easier ones expire or they're completed. Say, instead of generating at random, have it sort for lowest hazard rating; if tied sort for fewest scenarios; if tied sort for smallest reward. Or anything similar, really.

 

[Hobbes__]

I've done this for my Hyades Rim mod, you start with the easiest FP for each faction, then progress to the higher difficulty ones. The non-aligned FPs will still spawn randomly.

Here's the code extracted to a separate mod - haven't tested it other than making sure that the mod loads.

 

[Curtis Cook]

Thank you, Hobbes. I was planning to 'open a conversation' with you tomorrow if this post had no replies by then. Yesterday I read a precis of your Hyades Rim Campaign and noted that it used graduated Flashpoints, though intermingled with the Priority Missions from the original campaign (and maybe some original content?).

Very impressed you responded on Christmas. Are you being hit by the bomb cyclone? My family is postponing Christmas until Wednesday, so I've been putting in overtime on BattleTech the past few days, finishing my third Campaign and second Career.

Which brings me to a question: I just started a third Career (I wanted to play as a pirate this time). I'm 23 days in and no Flashpoints have fired yet, though I have gotten the notification from Darius that Flashpoints are possible and he'll be keeping an eye out for them. Is it too late to incorporate your Sequential Flashpoints mod? Does it need to be done before the Career is generated (starting conditions set, etc.)?

 

[Hobbes__]

Thank you, Hobbes. I was planning to 'open a conversation' with you tomorrow if this post had no replies by then. Yesterday I read a precis of your Hyades Rim Campaign and noted that it used graduated Flashpoints, though intermingled with the Priority Missions from the original campaign (and maybe some original content?).

Hyades Rim has 40 new and original Flashpoints that I've written for it - it doesn't need to use the DLC Flashpoints but adds them as optional in the middle of its new story, in case you want to take a break from the new campaign and use them to farm for experience/'Mechs.

It doesn't also use the Priority Missions from the original campaign, but instead reuses all its contracts as part of the mod's new flashpoints, which are the new campaign/story.

So if you play Hyades Rim, you'll get 40 entirely new flashpoints - you won't play any of the Priority Contracts or even have to play the DLC Flashpoints.

Very impressed you responded on Christmas. Are you being hit by the bomb cyclone? My family is postponing Christmas until Wednesday, so I've been putting in overtime on BattleTech the past few days, finishing my third Campaign and second Career.

I live in Portugal, not the US, and it was already past midnight on the 25th when I answered you. Good luck with the storm and be safe.

Which brings me to a question: I just started a third Career (I wanted to play as a pirate this time). I'm 23 days in and no Flashpoints have fired yet, though I have gotten the notification from Darius that Flashpoints are possible and he'll be keeping an eye out for them. Is it too late to incorporate your Sequential Flashpoints mod? Does it need to be done before the Career is generated (starting conditions set, etc.)?

IIRC, there's a cooldown period between the notification and the FPs starting to spawn.

You can use this mod with your new career, just remember to delete the .modtek folder on /Mods when you install it to clear your mod cache and make sure the changes are being implemented.

 

[Curtis Cook]

You've been very helpful.

I was looking through the data>events folder and found the intro_Archangel, intro_Test9 and friendOfAFriend events to introduce new pilots. In my 7 previous Campaigns and Careers (1 of each abandoned due to setting wrong starting conditions) Archangel has appeared early in every one; Test9 has only appeared once, sort of toward the beginning; and Squire twice, both times near the end.

I'm looking at the line that says 'weight', and thinking that if weight was increased the events would tend to fire sooner, and if it was decreased they'd tend to fire later. Is that correct? Therefore, if I want the characters to appear fairly early and in that order, what's needed is to set Archangel's intro to weight 1000 (100 now) while dropping the other two to weight 1 (currently weights 100 and 10). After Archangel appears reset Test9 to weight 1000 (shouldn't need to change Archangel again), then after Test9 appears reset friendOfAFriend to 1000. Would this work?

Finally, there are a couple of beta pilots (Apex and Mockingbird) I'm fond of. In the startup conditions I set elite pilots to appear rarely. Is there any way to either ensure or make it more likely that when elite pilots do show up, those two will appear first? And if a beta appears before I have the MSRB score that allows hiring them, will they then disappear forever?

 

[Hobbes__]

I'm looking at the line that says 'weight', and thinking that if weight was increased the events would tend to fire sooner, and if it was decreased they'd tend to fire later. Is that correct? Therefore, if I want the characters to appear fairly early and in that order, what's needed is to set Archangel's intro to weight 1000 (100 now) while dropping the other two to weight 1 (currently weights 100 and 10). After Archangel appears reset Test9 to weight 1000 (shouldn't need to change Archangel again), then after Test9 appears reset friendOfAFriend to 1000. Would this work?

That is correct and it should work, although the game's Random Number Generator might throw a surprise there and pick a much lower weighted entry.

Weight determines the odds of an entry (aka event, pilot, flashpoint, etc.) being selected. The game loads all the entries into a deck, then uses their weights to randomly select one of them.

Finally, there are a couple of beta pilots (Apex and Mockingbird) I'm fond of. In the startup conditions I set elite pilots to appear rarely. Is there any way to either ensure or make it more likely that when elite pilots do show up, those two will appear first? And if a beta appears before I have the MSRB score that allows hiring them, will they then disappear forever?

The pilots named "pilot_kbeta_XXX" will never spawn for hire and were only used for testing. But those two pilots also have "pilot_ronin_XXX" versions which can appear for hire. From the .json files it doesn't seem possible to get them to spawn first, so if you really want them you'd have to create events that would add them to your roster, or edit the SimGameConstants.json file to change the starting pilots.

 

[Curtis Cook]

The pilots named "pilot_kbeta_XXX" will never spawn for hire and were only used for testing. But those two pilots also have "pilot_ronin_XXX" versions which can appear for hire. From the .json files it doesn't seem possible to get them to spawn first, so if you really want them you'd have to create events that would add them to your roster, or edit the SimGameConstants.json file to change the starting pilots.

"Change the starting pilots." So there's a limit of four starting pilots? They couldn't just be added? (I'm going away from keyboard for several days, so it'll be a while before I see any response to this.)

 

[Hobbes__]

"Change the starting pilots." So there's a limit of four starting pilots? They couldn't just be added? (I'm going away from keyboard for several days, so it'll be a while before I see any response to this.)

Correction of my previous statement: you can change the 4 starting pilots in Campaign, not Career. On Career you can only change the number of starting pilots.

 

[Amechwarrior]

I made the mod you're asking for called Flashpoint Spawn Adjustments, I think it's still on NexusMods and still up at github. I increased the spawn weights of the easy FPs so they have a higher chance of appearing over the higher level ones. The Black Widow FP chain is special and is not part of the normal spawn pool. The old thread for my mod below, and the github page breakdown the changes I made.

Flashpoint Spawn Adjustments

Flashpoint Spawn Adjustments Download at github under BattletechModders/Flashpoint-Spawn-Adjustments/releases MOD DOES NOT CONTAIN FULL PLAYABLE FLASHPOINTS! This ModTek mod changes spawn weights to let low difficulty Flashpoints to appear...

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