Using ready made squad

[Thorgrim]

That wouldn't make much sense, would it?
In the end screen after a battle, even in defeats, you get a description of money balance for that battle.

Bounty, you receive [ 10.000$ + rank * 2.000$ ] for each jock killed.
Payment is the money you get for just doing the mission, and depends only on the rank balance between teams. It's a fixed amount, 125k for same rank, +- 25k for each step difference in ranks.
Salvage takes care of the size balance, and depends on how efficiently you disable the opposition.
Special is when you salvage an enemy titan from the battlefield.

Your team's jock with highest business skill (not necessarily the squad's manager) and jock with highest damage control skill (not necessarily the squad's mechanic) will modify salvage money.
The mechanic's damage control skill is used to calculate the chance to get a non-destroyed titan as salvage. This titan can be sold for money in the hq.
Missions and campaigns may change or add to this.

Page 8 of the manual states "...(which is automatically deducted from payment after each battle)...".
Money can also be obtained through jock transfers, as explained in page 10.

[widowmaker]

Your team's jock with highest business skill (not necessarily the squad's manager) and jock with highest damage control skill (not necessarily the squad's mechanic) will modify salvage money.

Page 11 of the manual states:

"Your Squad Manager is also chosen automatically; he is the one with the highest business skill."

Page 12:

"The Squad's Mechanic, again, is chosen automatically and will be the Jock with the highest damage control skill."

How can the jocks with the highest of those two skills not be the Manager and Mechanic?

widowmaker

[Thorgrim]

There's a difference between *squad* and *team*
Your manager and/or mechanic may not go into battle.

[widowmaker]

Well, yeah, that makes sense. Duh.

widowmaker

[tritone]

Thor, thanks for the fill-in on the post-mission financials. That's exactly what I was missing. This game has everything!

[Thorgrim]

And it has a lot more if you dig deep enough. For more info on the workings of the game, check the guide that is attached in a sticky thread called 'unofficial guide...'. A new version will be available as soon as the patch is out, with a little more info and the patch updates.

[rosary]

And it has a lot more if you dig deep enough. For more info on the workings of the game, check the guide that is attached in a sticky thread called 'unofficial guide...'. A new version will be available as soon as the patch is out, with a little more info and the patch updates.

Did that guide need to be converted to pdf? Send me a copy and I'll do that.

[Peter Why]

I really would suggest that beginners play a game over the internet; not against another human player, which would be disheartening, but allied with a more experienced player, against a weak AI. If the humans bring their teams within sight of each other before combat starts, you can ask all your questions during action.

[Thorgrim]

Did that guide need to be converted to pdf? Send me a copy and I'll do that.

Don't worry, I plan to do that. I'll just have to finish it first. Only a couple of things left to do.

[Xcorps]

If you come around a corner and there is an e titan, I wouldnt recommend trying to scan. Just lock and fire. Use scan when you dont meet face to face, and only scan til you get a green result. The reason that the E is charging is because that's all he knows how to do at the experiance your playing. Boost it up and they will use different tactics. One thing that really helped me with learning the game was to eliminate terrain as a factor. Use 0 percent on the hill tree and river options before you select a map size. This will really make life easier. Also, pay close attention attention to range. The range penalties on the weapons are pretty hefty.
The learning curve on this game is extremely steep, even after you get used to the time base system, so try to be patient while you get creamed game after game.

[Peter Why]

I think that business of the AI firing before you do may be due to the AI jocks having high Electronic skill. Where you and I, as the human controllers of the squads, tend to think of the Scan skill itself as important ("it must be most important to be successful at the scan"), with an Electronics success, you lock on more quickly. So the AI is going for an earlier shot at you and I, while we're effectively delaying our attacks to give us a better chance at a scan success, and, in the long term, with a successful scan, a better chance of hitting our enemies.
The AI seems to have the right of it.

[Peter Why]

.... also, although in a way it goes against the spirit of the game, you can save a team before they actually go into battle, so if it's a total disaster, you can decide not to put them into that particular battle ... think of it as a form of precognition!

As soon as you've created and saved your team, go to Explorer, create a backup folder and copy your SquadA.dat (assuming you've been working on the first squad) from the MatrixGames\TitansOfSteel-WarringSuns\data\squads folder into the backup. Then, if you want to restart from your saved team, just copy it back from the backup folder into the squads folder, overwriting the existing file.

[Gukal]

There are many factors to this game as in real battles.

I will tell you that the single most important consideration is bringing maximum force/damage to bear while minimizing the attacks of the enemy.

You do NOT want to be the one whose lead 140ton mech rounds a corner to face four mechs crouching and ready to fire.

If you can isolate one or two mechs even for 30 seconds and bring your full force to bear - those isolated mechs will be destroyed or severely damaged before their allies can come and redeem them. However your mechs will take very little damage in such an exchange. Do not overlook the value of autocannon smoke screens and laser fog screens to create such an unbalanced battle.

Also when I have better long range capability than the other team - I prefer to assume the high ground and destroy a couple light mechs before they can close to fire their weapons. For example, the Hunchback is a small mech with a deadly Autocannon 20 but the typical light armor of a smaller mech. Its well worth taking a few long range pot shots from the enemy to disable this mech before it hits AC20 range.

But once I reach the high ground with my long range support mechs, I may spot several long range missile mechs. Once I start taking heavy long range fire, I abort my efforts and hit my jump jets to quickly get down from that vulnerable spot (FYI a mech "jumping forward" is much more difficult to hit than one slowly climbing down a mountain).

If four mechs are targeting one of yours - that mech should be using its evasive skills.

Best advice - read the guides available in this forum and understand all the factors used in calculating a successful to hit chance.

[rosary]

Time Tip for new players: TOS:WS is a timed-play style game. If you don't know the seconds to completion for your actions you will be fighting blindly. Watch your action times. If it says a scan will take 35 seconds to complete, you may not want to scan while the enemy starts blasting away with mg's once every 6 seconds. These values are bottom right of the screen.

Don't just think squad positions but Time on those positions. Then time it so everyone shows up at their locations at the right time. Its o.k. to have your recons wait for your slower Assaults.