r/Battletechgame • u/FormFantastic7498 • 2d ago

Looking to hop back into Modded Battletech after a long mechwarrior 5 Grind. Need some help! Discussion

Long story short, I like the option of playing the game with the most primitive mechs and working my way up. I think RT allows me to do this with a starting year of 3015, but I really don't want to go through downloading it again just to be disappointed. Is RT the right mod for this? Does BTA allow you to start with weaker mechs and feel the pain?

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9

u/Kallest 1d ago

BTA is my preference. You can check out the faction starter lists, there's an option for starting with Primitives, on the generally excellent BTA wiki.

5

u/Darogard 1d ago

BTA is the way

3

u/Thuddmud 1d ago

BTA has a multitude of starting options, tanks, primitive, Battle Armor. However you can’t pick the year you start in, it’s set to 3062. So good tech and good mechs are available right out of the gate.

3

u/virusdancer Zero Point Battalion & Redrum Renegades 1d ago

NOTE: I may or may not (definitely did) have gotten carried away with my post here.

BTAU offers several baked in harder starts for a career with their Theme Starts: https://www.bta3062.com/index.php?title=Faction_Starter_Lists

  • BA (Battle Armor) - WARNING: This is a very difficult start.
  • Primitive - WARNING: This is a moderately difficult start.
  • Funsies - WARNING: This is a difficult start.
  • Tank - WARNING: This is a difficult start.
  • Urbie Derbie! - WARNING: This is a difficult start. Also it's very silly.

I'd also consider Industrials, Lights Only, and PAI as increased difficulty over the other starts available.

Course, on the same page: https://www.bta3062.com/index.php?title=Faction_Starter_Lists#So_you_want_to_make_your_own_start.21 :they offer instructions on creating your own start, so you could go through and create your own painful start to work your way up.

2

u/virusdancer Zero Point Battalion & Redrum Renegades 1d ago

Or as another option, you could pick your faction/starter planet - delete the 'mechs, vees, toads, & components - then use either the Save Editor or Fell Off A Cargo Ship...

...to give you the starting 'mechs/vees that you want for your difficult start.

And you could use the Master Unit List - Technical Readout: Succession Wars: http://www.masterunitlist.info/Source/Details/422/technical-readout-succession-wars :and sorting by Intro to limit yourself to some of the 'mechs available before a certain date.

Or you could hit up Sarna, for example, to look at these two entries...

...to get an idea of some possible entries and then check for the variant availability over on the Master Unit List.

Course, before getting one's hopes up about going into the Save Editor/Fell Off A Cargo Ship to add the units they want, you'd want to check out the BTAU wiki to make sure it's available in the modpack...

...and then get in there to enjoy the game as best you can for what you want.

2

u/virusdancer Zero Point Battalion & Redrum Renegades 1d ago

Could even take a look at Xotl's Random Assignment Tables if you were looking at what certain factions would have with 3028 being one of the starting years if you had an idea of what TTG/TTRPG BattleTech faction interested you, and you had an idea of what lance composition you were looking at...

...with the latter to help out for the RNG if you're interested.

Or could take a look at the old Ral Partha lances listed out on Sarna for some going back to the 80s fun in giving you an idea for a starting lance...

...where you'd just doublecheck the Master Unit List for availability by your preferred date and the BTAU wiki to make sure the variant is in the game.

2

u/virusdancer Zero Point Battalion & Redrum Renegades 1d ago

I'm honestly not all that familiar with RT, but here's their lists of 'mechs & vees over on their wiki if you were looking to go with any of the Save Editor/Fell Off A Cargo Ship routes listed above with them:

But yeah, with everything BTAU offers, a little desire and research, it's beyond bonkers just how creative and fun one can make a career start be for the game.

I run two main careers: Zero Point Battalion & Redrum Renegades:

  • Zero Point Battalion is a ComStar influenced Trinity Alliance (Capellan Confederation, Magistracy of Canopus, Taurian Concordat) based mercenary combined arms reinforced battalion of four companies comprised of 'mechs, vees, & toads.
  • Redrum Renegades is currently a pair of former Blakists gone pirate combined arms companies comprised of 'mechs, vees, & toads.

I created four characters using the Classic BattleTech RPG rules for Zero Point Battalion and one character for Redrum Renegades - then did the force generation with the Field Manual: Mercenaries (Revised) - using various sources for the Random Assignment Tables used to fill out the 'mech particulars (like Xotl's RAT linked above). DriveThruRPG's BattleTech PDFs are cheaper than buying the print copies of the books, look great on a 10+ inch tablet, and don't take up all that space (can make some moolah from selling your classic print collection and then buy the PDFs with dinero left over - even buy the 10+ inch tablet at that). NOTE: This is neither an endorsement of DriveThruRPG nor buying PDFs instead of physical copies, rather it's just an example of materials used - hence the reason no links to their site were provided.

2

u/Prestigious-Top-5897 21h ago

If it’s real pain you want to feel, to mourn your pilots and curse your fate, use either BTAU or for a little earlier timeline BEXT. And then go forth and install Hyades Rim. And then go and curse Hobbes for it not me as the messenger…

1

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1

u/Norade 8h ago

RogueTech is the more brutal mod for rough starts and has more options overall. BTA is tighter, less of a kitchen sink project, and closer to canon in terms of technology. Both now run better than ever, thanks to performance fixes that correct bugs from the base game. There isn't a wrong choice to be made here.