Mod questions for the community.

[Cheeks]

Two part question; Is it possible and then advice for a complete modding novice to make it happen.

I greatly enjoy the tabletop game, along with all of the Catalyst handbooks (StratOps, Tactical and Campaign Ops, etc).

I would like to have this game as a tool to fight battles and then outside of the program track my advancement, damage, spare parts, etc., per the handbooks.

To do this, I would need to modify starting damage, ammo on hand (etc.) each time before I start a battle.

I do use MegaMek, but the graphics and play of HBS Battletech are outstanding and I would much rather use this as a battle simulator.

Any comments or criticisms are welcomed.

 

[Amechwarrior]

Two part question; Is it possible and then advice for a complete modding novice to make it happen.

I greatly enjoy the tabletop game, along with all of the Catalyst handbooks (StratOps, Tactical and Campaign Ops, etc).

I would like to have this game as a tool to fight battles and then outside of the program track my advancement, damage, spare parts, etc., per the handbooks.

To do this, I would need to modify starting damage, ammo on hand (etc.) each time before I start a battle.

I do use MegaMek, but the graphics and play of HBS Battletech are outstanding and I would much rather use this as a battle simulator.

Any comments or criticisms are welcomed.

This is very paperwork intensive and requires a lot of editing of game files but it can be done. There was a user Phros on the somethingawful forums that ran a LP using MM campaign tracking and beta skirmish mode to do exactly this before the game was launched. Now that there is a save game editor, this kind of adjusting pilot skills or adding/removing items from an inventory should be easy.

 

[Cheeks]

Thanks for chiming in.

The paperwork as you say is not an issue, I agree that it would be intensive. But if you enjoy something, it’s hardly work.

Is the saved game editor that you mentioned a specific mod? If the file I’m modding is a “saved game”, does that mean it is associated with the campaign? If that is the case then I would think that the program would determine the OpFor, which I would prefer to dictate.

 

[Amechwarrior]

Thanks for chiming in.

The paperwork as you say is not an issue, I agree that it would be intensive. But if you enjoy something, it’s hardly work.

Is the scenario editor that you mentioned a specific mod?

Look up BATTLETECH save editor on nexus mods. That should get you the ability to edit an existing save.

If you are planning on making custom scenarios/missions - that would kind of fall under the FP Authors Guide I made:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/flashpoint-authors-guide.1153590/

 

[Cheeks]

Understood.

I’ll start there and do some investigating.

Thanks very much.

 

[unclecid]

there is a resource on Nexus called Game Day that may be of use to you.

from the Game Day description:

This Is the Template I use for running Table top games using battletech / roguetech.

It provides 4 missions in a row / currently set as 4 simple battles. with no conversation pieces.


Replace the mechdef_locust_LCT-1M with the mechdef_* of the mech of your choosing in each of the contract files found in the contract folder.

In each of the contract files found in the contract folder you can set the difficulty of the fight to (2,5,or 8) these are the only numbers that work

I will answer questions as I can, Remember this is not a mod but a resource.

For more detailed guide to making Flashpoints please use Amechwarriors guide on the paradox forums.

 

[Cheeks]

Thanks uncledcid, heading over to Nexus now to find it.

 

[ronhatch]

One thing I suspect you'll run into is that the game repairs all armor damage and refills all ammo bins for free... so there won't be anything you can look at in the save files that will tell you what those numbers were. It ought to be possible to extract the data from the logs of the battle, but as far as I know nobody has made any kind of log analysis tool yet. Keeping track during fights on a sheet of paper is probably about as easy as going through the logs manually (or maybe even easier).

Edit: Oh, and if you want to start a match with reduced ammo or armor, the game simply doesn't support that. To emulate it, you essentially need to make a variant that only has the reduced amount of ammo and armor. The ammo is made more tricky by the fact that you need an ammo bin of the correct size, and that requires additional mods.

 

[Cheeks]

@ ronhatch, big thanks for letting me know about the reduced armor and ammo. You probably saved me a ton of time concerning trial and error.

@ everyone who answered my post..., I have no words to express my gratitude. You're a great bunch of guys (or girls)!

 

[unclecid]

Edit: Oh, and if you want to start a match with reduced ammo or armor, the game simply doesn't support that. To emulate it, you essentially need to make a variant that only has the reduced amount of ammo and armor. The ammo is made more tricky by the fact that you need an ammo bin of the correct size, and that requires additional mods.

there has to be a way....the opfor has situations where they start with reduced armor...probably not ammo though.
i just cannot recall where i saw the files.

 

[Amechwarrior]

You could just customize your units after every battle by removing armor from the max. You'd need to track every location for all of your units every mission, but it could be done. That's a 0 day mechbay job too, so you won't lose time to that.

 

[ronhatch]

there has to be a way....the opfor has situations where they start with reduced armor...probably not ammo though.
i just cannot recall where i saw the files.

It's done by adding a condition to the mechs, though... and they only have 50% and 25% of normal as options. Pretty sure that's the case, anyway.

In any case, as Amechwarrior says... you can just remove the armor from your mechs in the mechlab. (Adding in a mod to allow armor to be changed in single units instead of in fives might be a good idea.) It's the ammo that really has the potential to be tricky. Even if you mod in ammo bins sized for the amount you have left, the game only gives ammo explosions for bins that are at least half full... so changing the bin size isn't going to work quite the same as if you could start with a bin that was not full.

I'm not aware of any mods that allow you to enter combat without full ammo bins.

Come to think of it, though... one way to deal with it is to simply require that reloads always be bought immediately after combat. Edit the save and deduct the appropriate number of c-bills.

 

[Justin Kase]

@Cheeks - Interested to hear how it goes - keep us posted

The only real downside to me for using this as a TT emulator, is the lance limitation - though you can add in Allies using some of the new missions - you could even pre-define those ally forces (including Vees and Turrest). HOWEVER - those allies are AI controlled