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[LarkinVB]

And we were responsible for over 60% of his unique visitors.

>.>

Right. The website has very few hits, therefore it did catch my eye.

[Majestic7]

I logged on instead of just lurking to say thanks for the game to Larkin. It is one of those games I play on and off all the time. A little like Dwarf Fortress.

[sluissa]

I actually have my disc laying around somewhere. I used to love this game. Might give it another try.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

My only problem with this is the higher the level of the pilot and the more the number of battles he participates in, the higher his salary becomes. There is no upper limit so the salary can go as high as possible to the point you cannot afford to have the pilot anymore. Is there anyway to cap this?

Hi. I'm the coder and designer of the game. You can increase business skill of the pilots. This will reduce their salary drastically.

Have fun playing TOS.

Oh my, didn't know about that! I am going to install the game again. Back then I got attached to my pilots and was not willing to fire them. And thanks for the great game, by the way!

[Keita]

I've downloaded the game and started going throug menus, made an in-game pilot for my self, gave him one of the mechs then headed over to the factory...which I promply went back out again telling myself I'll mess with that later >>

Currently playing the tutorial and the games really fun, wish I can get my battletech minis out and give someone a game now XD.

Again thanks for sharing!

[Muz]

Lol, getting attached to your pilots is even worse than getting attached to your guys in X-Com. The game's much more fun if you're willing to let go and lose a lot.


Heh, anyway, I started this game up again. The version on the web quite different from the version I bought.

Here's a few tricks I learned:

• Close combat titans are king of recon class, when the titans are too fast to shoot. They'll be much more useless later on when someone can blast the legs out of a recon at 4 hexes away, but early on, they're devastating.
• Buy a random guy to use as a leader at first. You can just leave him there as some HR office guy to get better troops. Or hire a second guy as a permanent leader and use that first to boost his starting skills and as a disposable close combat jock.
• If you're willing to neglect the other skills, a leader also makes a good businessman, because both use charisma/intelligence, and you can just keep them off the battlefield.
• Missiles, esp guided really suck on a recon titan. Guided only as much damage as two machine guns and are harmless at close range, unguided has trouble hitting the fast recons before they close in. But from light titan onwards, they become increasingly useful.
• Have a few disposable jocks specializing in close combat, with some long/med range titans supporting them. Androids and cyborgs are great because they can survive better, D replicants are great too because of that early dexterity boost.
• Energy weapons also kinda suck early, because of weak heat/engine performance and very little armor to protect those. Exception is the flamethrower. But do be wary that the Fireball tends to catch fire (and explosions) too
• If you're going to design a close combat titan, don't neglect L, R, and LO torso armor.. apparently, in this new version, disabling the L torso also disables the L arm, which makes them double vulnerable.
• Charging is playing dice with the game. Don't do it if you're winning, do it if you're losing.

Oh, and this game is fricking brutal. You have like a 60% chance of surviving a one-on-one battle with an equally skilled titan (10% extra only because the AI isn't that good). Most of the time you don't. And there's the chance that you'll knock your opponent down, rip off both his legs, and he'll get a lucky shot to your head and kill your jock. The new L torso armor disabling the whole left arm thing makes it even more difficult as you have three times as many weak spots.

[sluissa]

Anyone else having trouble with this in Windows 7?

EDIT: Scratch that, compatibility mode works fine. I really should have at least enough faith in it to try it.

[LarkinVB]

Come on, the game isn't that hard and the AI that bad.

Here are some tips if you start from scratch :

1. Install the v1.2.2 patch availlable here http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=28
This will increase the starting dev points of your rookies and will reduce salary. Lots of other fixes/improvements. A must have !
Also install the v1.2.2 database, available in the same thread.
2. The first jock created will be your leader. Just increase his leadership to 50+ before hiring another jock
3. Hire the second jock. He will be the manager of the squad. Just increase his business skill to 50+
4. Hire a third jock. He will be the mechanic.  Just increase his damage control skill to 50+
5. Increase recon/light piloting skill of all jocks to 50+. Now look at the starting weapons skills of the three jocks and increase a SINGLE weapon skill to at least 55+ for each of them. Just specialize, don't spread your points at the start. The only other weapon skill needed is close combat. It is good to have since you are fighting fast recons and your skills are weak at gamestart.
6. Now buy 3 recon titans which do match the weapon skills and allocate them accordingly.
7. If one of these titans has jump capabilities try to raise the jump skill of the pilot accordingly.
8. Important 'other' skills for rookies are scanner and a bit of electronic warefare and survival.
Try to raise scanner to 50 if possible.
9. Try to take all jocks to battles. Those at home still cost you money. Balance the first battle to your favor by reducing the weight of you opposition in battle setup. Get a feeling for the battle mechanics.  Don't feel ashamed to fight against lower ranked AI later on by a level or two.
10. Read the manual. If you are interested in more details read the guide, also availlable at the forum link under 1.
11. Guided missiles are very good versus fast recon as long as you can keep the distance. Lots of weapons have a minimal range.
12. You will lose a jock here and there but it is possible to raise a squad to high experience levels. You can clone jocks with v1.2.2
13. You can take an AI controlled allied squad to battle, using them as a shield and fighting in support.


Have fun !

[LarkinVB]

My only problem with this is the higher the level of the pilot and the more the number of battles he participates in, the higher his salary becomes. There is no upper limit so the salary can go as high as possible to the point you cannot afford to have the pilot anymore. Is there anyway to cap this?

Hi. I'm the coder and designer of the game. You can increase business skill of the pilots. This will reduce their salary drastically.

Have fun playing TOS.

Oh my, didn't know about that! I am going to install the game again. Back then I got attached to my pilots and was not willing to fire them. And thanks for the great game, by the way!

Another tip is to install patch v1.2.2. http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=28
It has lots of adjustmets to make life a tad easier for those poor fighting jocks. Less salary, more income from random battles, the chance to be cloned after death, the choice to get a bank credit if you are nearly broke ...

[DarkAnt]

I don't suppose you'd release the game as open source. I was just thinking about this game recently and I was wondering how you implemented the game mechanics. I assume you put the actions through some sort of priority queue, but I don't know how you calculated line of sight, movement (such as the probability of falling), damage models, ect. It'd be nice to be able to poke through the code and see how you did that. Also, I had great fun designing titans, thanks for the fun times

[Muz]

Ah, I assumed that the version for download would be the latest version. Looks like all the new tweaks make it a lot easier and realistic. I heard that there was a cloning jocks option in the new release, but didn't notice that it wasn't the freeware one.

I probably butchered like 2 squads by now. At least I got further in the first few days than I got in a month when I first got this game. Time to start another, maybe even make it a LP this time

The game is still brutal, IMO. Lol, in most games, the starter campaign builds up difficulty slowly, starting off with a simple fight. ToS hit me hard on that first campaign map.. I've been playing it since I was around 12, and I lost two titans and jocks on that first map from a chained explosion, dooming my team into bankruptcy right from the first game. Good fun, though XD

Lost at map 5 of the campaign, where my close combat titans were knocked down by cold light beams and AC12 cannons, and my GM specialist died one-to-one with a Mirage GM light titan. I didn't even know GMs could rip off heads. I still think they're no good for recon vs recon fighting, but might be useful pitting a recon GM titan against a much heavier close range one for some hit and run damage.

[Keita]

I think it would be great for you to make an LP of this , as it means I can see how it's done instead of flailing arond all the time XD

[LarkinVB]

What's an LP ?

For starters there is the Deep Core campaign, you can't loose that. I agree that the game can be brutal at times and you will loose jocks but more experienced players can survive up to rank 10. The AI is artificially crippled at lower levels but will live up to its full potential from rank 4 on.

Those really interested should take a look at the guide document which gives some insight on the finer details of the game.



 

[Keita]

An LP stands for Let's Play. A Let's Play of a game is were someone plays the game with them talking about the game as it unfolds, like a walkthrough but just playing.

[DarkAnt]

What are you working on now LarkinVB? Is Vicious Byte still active?