Matrix Games Forums

I have played a couple of random missions, and the deep core campaign.

First This game is terribly addictive, and I have only seemed to scratch the surface. I checked the clock last night, and it was 2:30AM, that's great!

I was a bit annoyed by the Fog of War implementation, but it is growing on me. It was really bad in the deep core scenario. I was frustrated by the tunnel that I just crossed through returning to black squares, seemingly seconds after I turned my back on it. Throughout the mine scenarios I seemed to always have my visibility limited to just the few squares around my titans. I mean all of my attention was focused on a two inch sphere of action surrounded by BLACK. Out door maps don't seem to have the same problem. The system seems to work much better there. I think significantly dimming terrain that I am not actively viewing would be sufficient. I mean I may not know that there is a titan in that clump of trees I have my back to, but I darn well know there is a clump of trees back there. The blacked out terrain seems a bit too much. I don't really like the idea that unexplored sections of the map are blacked out either, I mean this is the future here, I am pretty sure gps and mapping technology have advanced a bit. I mean I don't wanna see the units, but I would like to see the terrain features.

Also possibily related to Fog of War is the "linking" of titans. I am guessing that I am having trouble linking my sensors to that titan in the next hex because my jocks suck at electronic warefare. I am hoping that when they improve their skills, eventhough some are presently maxed at 51 points, the linked connections will improve. Is that the case? If it is, that would strongly mitigate some of the issues I have with blacked out terrain.

I lost my first jock, my leader, yesterday. He had a leg chopped off, while his titan was down, the opponent set fire to the hex he was in. I couldn't get him up, and since his ammo soon started to pop, I tried to eject. His chance of success was 2%. Is that because I failed to invest in survival? Seems like a pretty high learning curve for an ejection seat. Or was the chance so low because I was laying on the ground, in a flaming hex?


I should also report that I was initially unhappy with the save restore mechanism, but hey it is really pretty darned flexible. Well done?


More stuff. Anyone have suggestions for the early titans to purchase? My squad is using an imp, a revolver, a swift death, a stingray(I think -- plasma gun and laser), and a quantum. The quantum really seems to be next to useless, probably just me though.

I invested my combat points mostly in maxing cannon and energy for most of my jocks. Two are maxed in H2H, two are Missle specialists. Is there a tried a true way to succeed when just starting out?

I am also thinking that my next titan will be a long range missle type machine. Maybe for a jock that has good guided and indirect fire skills. Or is that combination only formidable once I am skilled enough to link more reliably?

Lots more ponderings..I'll stop there =)

Did you play all 5 maps of the final Deep core campaign? There is a new version available for download if you haven't.


I really can't give advice on early titans as it really depends upon what skills your jocks recieve. But I usually gear my pilots for skills matching the swift death, quantum and a porcupine. The porcupine usually ends up with the most kills.

Wow. That's the exact same combo I started out with. I switched off the Porcupine early on for one of my own design and then upgraded to a Leopard, and the Quantum for my Rapier (LL,GME), once I could afford more weapon types.

My first team went with a Quantum, a Dragonfly, and a Gremlin.

5 missions in the deep core campaign? I only completed 2. I will have to download the new campaign.

Regarding Jocks begining skills...what makes sense early in the game. I have been picking mainly E and C for weapons skills. Some with specialty in Close Combat or ranged(missle) skills. What of the other skills are worth investing in early? My titans dont' seem advanced enough to max out defense. Scout looks good to have, Survival seems important. Really not sure where to put the dev points.

Linking: you probably need to have you scan and electronics skills to be much better than 50% for linking to be useful.

Your jock ejecting with 2% success: May be due to low survival skill, but the chances of survival are also made lower by ejecting into a dangerous environment, like a burning forest. Incidentally, your jock ejects from a panel in the upper back of the titan, so you can't eject if you're face up (or immersed in water).

Early titans to purchase: This depends entirely on your jocks's combat skills. When you generate your jock, you'll often find that one or more of the combat skills have been boosted above the minimum. It's often worth concentrating on them, but generally you should aim to get one skill to 60% or better. I'd try to cover three different types of weapons with my three jock team: CC (plus cannon or energy as secondary weapon if there's spare skill points); plus two of Cannon, Energy or SRM (with CC as secondary). In rookie teams, I tend to avoid weapons that have a minimum range as combat gets too close too quickly and the weapon becomes ineffective; you want weapons that can be used within the same hex.

I'd recommend taking close combat and one other weapon, whichever is best. I'd want each jock to specialize in a different weapon. Scanner is great for beginners since you can gain Other xp with it rather easily. Elect warfare and defense are good as well. I wouldn't pick damage control unless it's the mechanic or you plan on having a dcs in your recon(!) Scouting is great, I think this also gives you movement XP's when you fight from cover. Jump... well it can be horrendous to fail a jump check, especially over lava. I'd say either get this above 50% if you plan on jumping, or ignore it and stay on the ground. Once you get over 50% in both CC and the other weapon, you'll probably have enough experience to pick a second main weapon type. Survival and Medical are great if you plan on taking the brunt of the damage, ie, the guy that gets stuck with the Swift Death - it's generally the one that gets swarmed by every single enemy at once. The name on that titan can cut both ways, be warned.

IN the first 2 levels of deep core the enemies all have shields. That should give you a hint as to why the quantum doesn't do so well.

Coyote27 wrote:Wow. That's the exact same combo I started out with. I switched off the Porcupine early on for one of my own design and then upgraded to a Leopard, and the Quantum for my Rapier (LL,GME), once I could afford more weapon types.

Great minds think alike and Fools seldom differ.

Fog of war: the higher the jock's intelligence, the better his brain retains info.

Eject: the jock exits from the back of the head *if* the titan is prone. Otherwise he ejects. If immersed and facing up, he cannot leave the cockpit.

Skills: damage control also helps in avoiding ammo explosions. Scouting gives both a hiding and a defensive bonus when in cover.

Hey thanks for all the tips. Now one more thing...I am often finding my jocks with a 2% chance to hit. At first I thought OK that guy is in cover, or OK well he is pretty far away. Then I started noting situations where I would go from having a 2% chance to a 40% chance and then back to 2%. Am I missing something, I mean besides those enemy Titans?

That can happen with GMEs. If the opponent scans you or turns his shield and/or ECM on, or even goes from shutdown to active, your to hit will increase. The range of your GMEs will also increase, which also increases your to hit.

Seems to me that I have seen the 2% -> 40% thing but it was associated with my energy weapons. The cannons would keep a consistant "to hit". I was thinking that it was shielding. And that after I brought down the shield with weapons fire that then the energy weapon "to hit" numbers increased.

But I'm a newb ie too, so what do I know :p

I am pretty sure I have noted it(2%/40% to hit) with energy weapons as well.

I had to look up what a GME was. hehe

Make sure your jocks skills match their allocated titans weapons and systems. you'll find your percentages go up.

Thorgrim: thanks for the correction about ejecting; I remembered a couple of hours after typing the note that I could eject from face up or down on the ground.

smc: percentage-to-hit variations. Another thing that can cause big changes in your apparent skill (though not down to 2%, I think) is when you're targeting when your opponent is moving. If you notice a sudden drop in skill, click on your opponent, to see if he's started running (if he is, set your Attack to Wait on Move of Locked enemy, and fire as soon as he's stopped). ... and don't fire when you yourself are moving, too. Hope this helps.

OK will take note of whether or not they are moving. I was also considering that it may be related to not enough scanning. I attempt to scan at the beginning of the battle with at least one of my titans. But my linking is pretty suspect, so not all titans have a scan of the target.

Last night I had a GMH/GME titan that was stuck at 2% to hit a prone titan, turn after turn. I crouched, I moved forward, I lit the opponent with Flame Throwers and Napalm. The to hit was plastered at 2%. I moved my titan out of cover, still 2% to hit. I scanned(green), and no improvement. I dunno what was up. I nearly destroyed the entire prone mech with the flame throwers, only the head(red) was not destroyed. The enemy jock may have ejected and I missed it, would the fact that it was disabled do it? I may have missed that too.

Also I had a Neutron Blaster titan, the recon one, and after a few rounds I was told I had no weapons to use on the target, they showed up in RED in the attack menu. Was I out of power? THought of that after I went to bed. The enemy was an android, but the NB fired early in the battle.

Linking scanners doesn't share the scanner database.

Disabled titans do not have a special to hit mod.

Red weapons means they're out of range.

Sorry about the short answers, but it seems that everytime I take some more time to reply, I get timed out. I'm getting tired of logging in 20 times a day... cr@ppy forum.

I havn't read the PDF yet, but is there somewhere where the linked scanners are explained in more detail (I did read about them in the manual, but was wanting more info)?

I tried doing it once with my LRM titan, but I believe that it caused by "to hit" to go down. I justified this because the titan that I linked to was wihtin the min range of the LRM eventhough the LRM titan was not within min range.

It also could have just been that the jock was either green or novice and didn't have those skills maxed out yet.