On a walk in the park I met Bonecrusher - and fell him (Beg. Titandesign for called shots)

[Gorgut]

This afternoon I was on a walk in the park with a few fellow Titans. Our business maid (my manager) Katharina said before, there is a thunder-storm hoisting behind the mountains.

A thunderstorm?[&:] Has anyone ever experienced a thunder-storm in ToS? So recon was essential!

We started investigations with moving till short before the mountains to get out, what she ment with thunder-storm. We were lingering on a small plain with light wood, when we heard a rumbling noise...

No there are no thunderstorms in ToS! I read the manual, I even searched the forum, the only weather effect should be wind. How wrong can one be!

It started with a Blizzard, throwing flashes of lightning in our way. Shit guys, get your shields up... When I was thinking: Silly Katharina, where is now the Thunder of your Thunderstorm, the next Titan comes insight one hex away (I like hiding behind hills. You never get hit till you are in weapon range). Shields up?

The thunder arrived. Boom! Niobe on Bonescrusher misses with ac20. Whew! that was near. Boom! Shit, I was hit with 20 Points, Pilotcheck ... Mastered ... Boom! Hit again, what the ... Boom ... Eh? 60[X(] Points of damage in one game second? That can't be, I read a thread, that you can't integrate 4 ac20 in an assault, and I faced a heavy.

OK, all still standing. Time to get the new level 6 scanners to a close range field test. Scan time between 16 and 18 seconds. Hopefully our contender misses a few in the next round. Reload time of ac 20? Don't know. We will see.

Boom - Hit. F..k Katharina, why didn't you warn us. We should have send our ai-"partner" (I use the ai mostly as "meatshield" to keep the expenses down, not very sportsmanlike I know, but hey it's an ai without any feelings) Boom, hit once again...

After scanning the horror was over, we all got an green or yellow result (Bonecrusher the name of the quad ac20 had no ECM with him), we three were all in a crouched position and after a succesful BLR hit, called shots to the head felt bonecrusher really quick.

Here is the design that made this possible. The jock is a short range specialist android with just skills in CC, Laser, scanning and defensiv. The design is able to use most of its weapons continuously. My first designs had always to many weapons and made no fun, because shooting is more entertaining than waiting.

Here the design - I call it Pulsar-I (cooler name suggestions?):

Titan Name: Pulsar-I Short Range Heavy Titan
Chassis: Durania H2 Design: Frankieboy
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Weight: 139.9t (140t maximum) Height : 13 [meter]
Bmt : 28 (42 kph) Reduce Heat: -5.31C/sec.
Jmt : 11 (109 kph) for 48 secs Cost : 334505($)


Equipment:
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Component/Type/Location

Engine : Triton T6 [Engine 6] [CT ]
HeatReg.: Mark MH-II [Heat A]
Shield : Sharidan [Shld2] [LT ]
LifeSup.: Livotto [Life 1] [RT ]
Scanner : Mark X-S [Scan. 6] [Head]
Computer: Mark BC-X [Comp. 6] [CBT ]
JumpPort: Triton TJ [Jump 5]


Weapons:
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Location/Weapon/Ammunition/Slots

[RA ] BLACK RAY GUN
[RT ] PLASMA GUN
[LA ] PULSE LASER
[LA ] PULSE LASER


Armor:
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Loc/Internal/Armor/Status/Points/mm

[Head] (13) Dullaroy HMAX 023 [033mm]
[RT ] (25) Millenia 043 [086mm]
[CT ] (23) Titanium 047 [086mm]
[CBT ] (15) Millenia 012 [024mm]
[LT ] (25) Millenia 043 [086mm]
[RA ] (23) Millenia 041 [082mm]
[LA ] (23) Millenia 041 [082mm]
[LowT] (15) Vicenium (S) 045 [075mm]
[RL ] (19) Millenia 042 [084mm]
[LL ] (19) Millenia 042 [084mm]

Armor Index: 4.14 [Total APts/T]
Internal: 200 [APts]
External: 379 [APts] Max:[087mm]
Total Armor: 579 [APts]


JOCK requirements:
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Piloting: Heavy Titan incl. Jump
Weapons : Energy
Warfare : Defense Scanner
Skills : Medic

p.s. Katharina had an excuse in the debriefing, she had no scan on Bonecrusher, because she was trying to get a yellow scan on another opponent. But what has she ment with thunderstorm when not BC...

p.p.s. when I copied the design, I realized the Pulsar-I has no ECM as well. You see, I'm new to this game. I like the way the a.i. is acting, mixing complementing titan designs. The storm was followed by a big missile boat, that was unfortunatly handycaped by the mountain. (no way for it to attack longrange)

[LarkinVB]

Well, you can win most battles by just hiding behind a hill with CC titans. It is not the way I like to play though.

I'm happy to see you have fun with the game. do you play 1.2.2 patch ?

[Gorgut]

Half of my Squad (6 Titans) consists of sr-Titans (1 HH/CC and 2 sr/blr) and the other three are lr (1 lrm, 1 PG/GME, 1 GC/ac4). With just CC I would not like to hide/do nothing till the opponent is in range. Most fun for me is to hit them longrange, when one enemy can't counter my lr-firepower of three and then rush him with my sr-squad (all good jp) together with the ai. Problem: the lr-guys get low piloting skill, the sr-guys dont know where to put the points. Therefore I gave the PG-guy 4 GME with his new heavy to increase sr-firepower and that he can move a little bit more for getting the xp. And can hit even a shielded Titan.

Problem stays with the lrm-missile boat. In battle it's most effective when standing still and going in continous fire mode. With the new scanner 6 the scanning time is exactly the reload time of it's 4 lrm6.

Yeah, I realy have fun with this game, just regret a little bit the great amount of time I'm investing. But hey, when I'm dead, I get enough time to sleep. I await eagerly, that my friend comes for a gaming session to introduce him to this game. I like playing hot-seat with a good friend till the new day dawns. What a pity, that there are so few games making this option possible.

Yes I play the last 1.2.2. patch. Mostly it's good, (the ai-improvement and different map sizes I like most) but in the last game my ai-"partner" lighted the wood-hex I was hiding. If I were a better player, I would have declared war on him, too.

One thing I noticed (may be bad luck) since 1.2.2. I never got a special titan after battle. And the amount of Titans allowed with similar skill is much bigger than the amount of jocks you can recruit. For me 6 different Titans is enought (skill 70). But now that my jocks are all veteran and allowed to get the big titans, it would be cool for perhaps two spotters/runners/inthebackfallers. Skill 76 is easy to reach for one, but skill 91 in leadership[&:] with corresponding skills ch/int?

Thank you for your support of this classic game. I hope you have also fun playing even if you must know every little trick of the a.i.
A few years ago I played Space Empires IV (turnbased, 4x in space). There the mod-able ai led to a competion between different a.i.'s. Very challenging. Like ToS no cheating of the a.i.

Strange, that the big studios are not able to deliver such games. Style over substance makes hyped blockbusters boring after a short time.[>:] Perhaps the business model. "I'm through with this game, so I have to by another."

[LarkinVB]

Yes I play the last 1.2.2. patch. Mostly it's good, (the ai-improvement and different map sizes I like most) but in the last game my ai-"partner" lighted the wood-hex I was hiding. If I were a better player, I would have declared war on him, too.

[:)] I will teach them to stop shooting at your cover immediatly !

One thing I noticed (may be bad luck) since 1.2.2. I never got a special titan after battle. And the amount of Titans allowed with similar skill is much bigger than the amount of jocks you can recruit. For me 6 different Titans is enought (skill 70). But now that my jocks are all veteran and allowed to get the big titans, it would be cool for perhaps two spotters/runners/inthebackfallers. Skill 76 is easy to reach for one, but skill 91 in leadership with corresponding skills ch/int?

I noticed the lack of titan rewards too. Just checked the code and made a test and it worked. Must be a stroke of bad luck.
The number of titans in a squad is bigger because I wanted to open the option for two titans for each jock. I agree that the current restictions for maximun number of jocks is too strict and will change it.

[LarkinVB]

Uploaded 1.2.2b40, just for you. [8D]

Fixed AI lighting your cover. Minimum number of possible jocks in squad is leaders rank + 1. So you can get 8 jocks at rank 7, regardless of leadership skill. Added a message when mechanic fails to salvage a titan after battle due to failed skillcheck. If there is no such message and no titan salvaged, the opposition was anihilated with no enemy titan worth more than 10.000.

Added option to set mapsize up to 99x99. I was too lazy to code an interface. You have to set it in tcc.cfg config file located in the data\configs folder.

Locate the [TOS_WS_BATTLE] section and add two new settings :

maxmap_x = x
maxmap_y = y

Valid numbers for x and y are from 22 to 99.

This willl replace the 34x34 map size option in 'SET MAP' of battle module.

Have fun !

[LarkinVB]

About titan rewards : you won't be able to get one if you have an allied random squad, only if you have a single squad or the allied team was also loaded from file.