Lets dooo the Timewarp agaaaaain (wait, again?... its the first time!)

ONE ability may be purchased after and only after the previously mentioned steps have been taken. Keep in mind that we are limiting players to FOUR abilities. If you want to "unlearn" something you will have to pay the cost of the ability to first unlearn it (particularly useful for weapon spec abilities).

In other news:

The campaign has advanced to 3047 now. This was done to give us a bit more breathing room in terms of refits for our mechs.

Rules for refits:

Each lance will be limited to a maximum of 80,000 minutes of maintenance & refit work time (subject to change... may extend to as much as 160,000). Maintenance workers will spend 33% of the day doing refits. This means that 80,000 minutes of work time takes roughly 6 months to complete (or up to one year, depending). If a mech refit fails to finish in the allotted time, we may be forced to leave your mech behind so make sure you put that into account. The difficulty of the refit depends on how extensive you make it. Upgrading weapons, armor, and heatsinks are far easier than upgrading to an XL Engine and Endo Steel Structure. For example, due to its complex refitting requirements, upgrading to Endo Steel structure takes four times as long as replacing standard armor with Ferro-Fibrous. Failure to make necessary refit skill check rolls can double (or possibly triple) the time required to make the refit! Make sure you check your mechanic's skill check roll before implementing changes. Sometimes buying and then modifying pre-built factory models is easier than upgrading old ones. It is also recommended to do upgrades incrementally.

For now, assume that each lance only has 80k minutes to complete refit orders. It is strongly recommended that you limit refits to weapons, armor, ammo, heatsinks, and other simpler components.

LANCE LEADERS: Feel free to begin refits, but please do not advance the day until all lances have been able to place their orders. If you need help or guidance, ASK FIRST before starting a refit.

 

Magnus, does this mean we can refit double sinks and Lostech weapons?

What about our Lance Financials? How much mulla we got to muck about with?

I'll spend some time this evening getting my "descendant" put in and officially retiring Nahsty Balldangles Jr.

 

Lostech is now "unlocked". When you refit, it should give you a total cost and time required to complete the upgrade. Subtract the cost from your lance's balance and subtract the time from your lance's 80,000 minute work time. Don't go nuts or else you will max out your time really easily. Stick with basic stuff like double heat sinks, armor, weapons, etc.

Alpha Lance's financial report is up to date. There were some new contract bonuses added so be sure to update your lances financials. You can use Alpha's to cross-check yours:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yv4ytak50irlyrc/AlphaReport03 (NEW FORMAT).xls

Sorry Aspius, I said we would look into making infantry an option, but it just hasn't been a priority. Also, the more I work with them, the more I just don't see them as a very cost effective unit. Even the LRM equipped platoons have garbage range. Also, keeping track of ~28 men per platoon is just nuts. At best, I could give you some NPC infantry to play with when the situation gives it merit, but it won't be a regular thing.

 

Magnus may just be being too nice here.

Infantry is a pain in the ass to manage, super expensive for how effective it is, and this campaign isn't going to have player run infantry.

That's my take-away from what Magnus just said Aspius. Pick something else.

 

Also, update, Delta lance is finished with what it needed doing on this first day, we're ready to advance.

What other lances still need to update their shiz?

 

I would like some Double heat sinks on my Fire Javelin. Please.

 

Who is your lance leader?

 

LOL.. Well, you were asking, I was answering

 

Aerospace and vehicles are a stickier situation. Since MekHQ does not allow them to be refit/customized, you guys will have to just buy new rides. The good news is that all of your units cost at least 50% less of our Mech forces. Cash should not be too much trouble for you.

Also, because of this, I will allow pre-customized Aerospace & Vehicles to be added to the market for purchase, BUT they need to meet my quality assurance specifications first.

-EDIT-

Apparently you CAN upgrade all conventional vehicles now... so there is that. Disregard what was said earlier. Aerospace still cannot be upgraded though.

 

CURRENT STATUS OF CAMPAIGN: Delayed, but moving forward dammit!

I need as many of us as possible to meet Sat OR Sun, 11am EST OR 7pm EST. I am picking these four times so that hopefully everyone can make something. We will NOT be doing any missions, but we will be doing important things that will help us prepare. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.

The big hold up is the mech upgrades. Currently, I need Beta to give me something to work with so I can push up the timeline. However, we still have the rest of each lance that needs work done. To help speed things up, I would really like to finish all upgrades this weekend, BUT that requires people to show up this weekend. I really don't want to leave people out, but I will if I have to.

Also, a few of you still have characters that need changing updating. If your character is not already in the campaign save (have you checked yet?), we need to do that too. (Aspius... you need a tanker character)

 

We made good progress yesterday and refits are on schedule and almost done with NO delays! Thanks to everyone for showing up! We sure did fill up the Megamek channel

However, there are still a few that have lingering issues; all members please check your individual lance threads for details. I've mentioned elsewhere, but in light of refits being so time consuming I am extending refits to new members as well (best to get it out of the way now). You still have to buy 3025 tech mechs to start with, but you will be allowed to immediately upgrade them. I know a few of you are holding off until 3048 for a few mechs to be released (3048 was a big year for new designs). In your cases, we will assume you got a 3048 model early thanks to "various connections" that the Shieldwall has.

To all non-mech lances; you will get some love too. Please contact me on TS or through the forums here and let me know if you have any questions.