Canon Manufacturer 'Mech Loadouts (Quirking)

[Sigil]

For me, certain weapon systems have always been associated with specific 'Mechs. Whether it's the Archer's infamous Doombud LRMs, the Vindicator's Smasher PPC, or the Victor's Pontiac 100 AC/20, I have a thing for details like this. For that matter, the same is true of T&T and Communications Systems. The TharHes Star Shark (found on the Commando), Tek BattleCom (Black Knight) and Wasat Aggressor Type 5 (Orion) being among some of my favorites.

These details breathe just a bit more life into a chassis and can serve as fodder for the "quirking" of a 'Mech. Point is, seeing a "Hellion" medium laser (the "stock" version) on a Jenner sets off my OCD. The Jenner carries 4 x Argra 3Ls medium lasers, not Hellion-Vs!

Anyway, the "stock" loadouts all use generic components and this, imho, is a lost opportunity.

By lore, the Aberdovey Mk. III is one of the best medium lasers manufactured during this time period. Best known for its accuracy, it's found on the SDR-5V Spider. As a side note, the O/P 500A Communications System isn't exactly a "stock" piece of gear either.

I'm going to "revise" the stock configurations of each of the 'Mechs to reflect the actual manufacturer of the equipment from published lore. In some cases, this will mean that "stock" 'Mechs effectively carry "+" equipment. This also means that the OpFor will get to use "upgraded" weaponry as well.

Now, when facing a Spider, you will have a reason to fear dual Medium Lasers to your rear. Not only will they hurt more, the accuracy means the AI will likely actually land the shot! These pieces of gear also appear in the post-battle salvage list. Instead of having to shop around the Periphery for a + equipment, it can instead be re-purposed from your defeated enemies. In truth, I'd be just a happy to pull all "+" equipment from the vast majority of the stores and instead have "+" equipment come almost exclusively from battlefield salvage instead.

This is not an attempt to "balance" weapons or make the game more challenging per se. Rather, it's a one-man quest to see the stock 'Mechs accurate represented and "quirked".

 

[Justin Kase]

Good to see you back bro

You may want to look at @GenTask 's mod : https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...t_weapon-diversity-mod.1099053/#post-24255221

He's already started the groundwork on that, making the weapons and then applying them to the Stock configurations.

I've done a little bit with the Variants mod I made as well - with the Tronel LL (Panther PNT-8Z) and Agra ML (Jenner JR7-A), along with the cooling jacket on the Binary Laser for the Zeus ZEU-6Y.

@GenTask also started to apply them to the Variants mod.

 

[Sigil]

Good to see you back bro

You may want to look at @GenTask 's mod : https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...t_weapon-diversity-mod.1099053/#post-24255221

He's already started the groundwork on that, making the weapons and then applying them to the Stock configurations.

I've done a little bit with the Variants mod I made as well - with the Tronel LL (Panther PNT-8Z) and Agra ML (Jenner JR7-A), along with the cooling jacket on the Binary Laser for the Zeus ZEU-6Y.

@GenTask also started to apply them to the Variants mod.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll look over what @GenTask has done. It appears that great minds think alike. He's even gone a further than I had thought of going. Clearly, I'm not the only one who came up with this idea!

 

[Justin Kase]

There are others as well, but his is the one that I have been using (with some minor changes). It certainly adds a bit more flavor to things

Check your e*mail too - I could use your talents on some of the variant descriptions and to let me know if I missed any. (and to let me know if the latest images I sent you for 3028 are acceptable)

Similarly , if you identify all the weapons that should be on the variants mod (including vehicles), I'll start working that into an optional d/l pack using @GenTask 's modded weapons.

 

[Sigil]

There are others as well, but his is the one that I have been using (with some minor changes). It certainly adds a bit more flavor to things

Check your e*mail too - I could use your talents on some of the variant descriptions and to let me know if I missed any. (and to let me know if the latest images I sent you for 3028 are acceptable)

Similarly , if you identify all the weapons that should be on the variants mod (including vehicles), I'll start working that into an optional d/l pack using @GenTask 's modded weapons.

I am one of, what I guess is, a relatively few people that run BT on a Mac. This means that ModTek and BTML are not an option for me. I looked @GenTask Mod and I can see all of the new weapon, shop, mech, etc .json files. What I don't see, if I understand correctly, are the additions that needs to be made to the versionmanifest.csv file in order to make it all work. How is that information loaded and do you know if there is way I can obtain the updated .csv file or just the entries that need to be added to it?

 

[Justin Kase]

I am one of, what I guess is, a relatively few people that run BT on a Mac. This means that ModTek and BTML are not an option for me. I looked @GenTask Mod and I can see all of the new weapon, shop, mech, etc .json files. What I don't see, if I understand correctly, are the additions that needs to be made to the versionmanifest.csv file in order to make it all work. How is that information loaded and do you know if there is way I can obtain the updated .csv file or just the entries that need to be added to it?

The weapons would need to be manually added to the VersionManifest.csv and the MetadataDatabase.db. I could likely do that for you one night this week. Though you could hit up @GenTask and see if he has it already done from pre-BTML/ModTek.

One of the issues with that direction though, is that you run in danger of running out of space in the VersionManifest.csv - as there apparently is a hard ceiling of 8600 lines that the game will read/refer to.

 

[DutchRits]

For me, certain weapon systems have always been associated with specific 'Mechs. Whether it's the Archer's infamous Doombud LRMs, the Vindicator's Smasher PPC, or the Victor's Pontiac 100 AC/20, I have a thing for details like this. For that matter, the same is true of T&T and Communications Systems. The TharHes Star Shark (found on the Commando), Tek BattleCom (Black Knight) and Wasat Aggressor Type 5 (Orion) being among some of my favorites.

These details breathe just a bit more life into a chassis and can serve as fodder for the "quirking" of a 'Mech. Point is, seeing a "Hellion" medium laser (the "stock" version) on a Jenner sets off my OCD. The Jenner carries 4 x Argra 3Ls medium lasers, not Hellion-Vs!

Anyway, the "stock" loadouts all use generic components and this, imho, is a lost opportunity.

View attachment 378562
By lore, the Aberdovey Mk. III is one of the best medium lasers manufactured during this time period. Best known for its accuracy, it's found on the SDR-5V Spider. As a side note, the O/P 500A Communications System isn't exactly a "stock" piece of gear either.

I'm going to "revise" the stock configurations of each of the 'Mechs to reflect the actual manufacturer of the equipment from published lore. In some cases, this will mean that "stock" 'Mechs effectively carry "+" equipment. This also means that the OpFor will get to use "upgraded" weaponry as well.

Now, when facing a Spider, you will have a reason to fear dual Medium Lasers to your rear. Not only will they hurt more, the accuracy means the AI will likely actually land the shot! These pieces of gear also appear in the post-battle salvage list. Instead of having to shop around the Periphery for a + equipment, it can instead be re-purposed from your defeated enemies. In truth, I'd be just a happy to pull all "+" equipment from the vast majority of the stores and instead have "+" equipment come almost exclusively from battlefield salvage instead.

This is not an attempt to "balance" weapons or make the game more challenging per se. Rather, it's a one-man quest to see the stock 'Mechs accurate represented and "quirked".

This. Especially with the TTRs. The Sloane 220 Lockover on the Clint is (arguably) the best TTR available in canon 3025 BT, but there are SO many more that add to the “flavor” of each mech. There’s an article in Battletechnology: the Lost issues (and discussed here) that really fleshes them out. Also...they don’t add any additional weight; they just take up the “sensors” slot in the head (a missed opportunity for this game, IMHO, along with all the actuators and gyro).

I’d love to see the sensors fleshed out in the game, and add modules for customization of additional features.

 

[Yeach]

this is the thread i'm been look for all along.

I have already complile a few items and trying to use the upgrade versions as different manufactures
so I don't need to add weapons and play with the versionmanifest.

Most of the Autocannons are there albeit upgrade versions; so its simple as switching the stock version into the missing manufacture that is not found ie Luxor-D for AC10, Pontiac-100 for AC20.

I'm going to switch the cockpit mods (communication) so they can be torso mounted because of the single slot in the head.

However medium lasers pose a problem; there are way too many manufacturers of them (for the mechs we have)
Already changed the stock medium laser to Martell; since it would be the most well known.

Anyone know how to have mechlab display all weapons including the +++ weapons?

Next part is finding quirks for each weapon.

 

[Max_Killjoy]

Don't we have 2 or 3 threads about this concurrent now?

 

[Sigil]

Don't we have 2 or 3 threads about this concurrent now?

Yep, just goes to show what a good idea it is. I’m throwing my efforts into working with Justin Kase and GenTask in their GT_WeaponDiversityPlus and JK_Variants mods. No need to reinvent the wheel!