2022/5/12 Patch v13.4
v13.4 (aka the "Mech-pocalypse!" release) has been released to the installer. This is a fairly sensible-sized patch this time.
CRITICAL INFORMATION READ THIS OR SUFFER: This patch *is* a save-breaking patch. This patch removes some Argo upgrades that are extremely broken and needed to be removed, which means that saves that included those upgrades (see: any save before this patch) is now broken and may not load/may crash the game. You must restart with this patch. The BTA Team apologizes for this but these upgrades were causing critical issues and it had to happen eventually.
NEW BOSS BATTLE: The Union DropShip has landed! Much like the Overlord before it, you can now mechfight a custom-made Union DropShip in a special contract. Good luck Commander! UPDATED BOSS BATTLES: Notably, the Union and Overlord fights have also been buffed so that they have a significant number of additionaly enemies now. The Overlord should have a total of 5 lances, the Union has a total of 4. Good luck!
NEW MECHANIC: ScalingAIDifficulty has arrived! This is a new submod by our very own BlueWinds that provides scaling AI difficulty in-game. Essentially, for each mission you win, the AI gets harder and for each mission you lose a mech or lose in general, the AI gets weaker. The more you win, the harder the AI gets until you start running into trouble, at which point it starts to correct the other way. People have asked for something like this for awhile so here you go. Right now, the AI is set to gain damage reduction, AoE damage reduction, and bonus hit chance for each mission you win. There's a cap, they can't gain in strength forever, but keep this in mind as you start winning. Additionally, there's new starting difficulty options you'll want to pay attention to. Note that you can see the current AI difficulty by mousing over the mission's skull rating on the mission selection screen.
NEW STARTING OPTIONS: There's two new options, both related to ScalingAIDifficulty above. The first is Initial Enemy Scaling, which is set at career start and defines how hard they are out of the gate. The default here is Normal, which is no bonuses or penalties. Easy is they have a penalty, Hard is they have a bonus. The second new option is Enemy Scaling, which can be adjusted at any time. The default is Normal, which is normal reasonable growth. There's also Slow and Fast growth options which are self-explanatory. There's also an option to disable it entirely if you don't like the system. Make sure you select what you'd like for this system when you start your new career!
NEW MECH: The Hephaestus, a 55 ton Periphery OmniMech with a Fuel Cell engine (you read all of that correctly), has arrived. Find it with the various large Periphery factions as well as Mercenaries and Locals.
NEW MECH: The Xerxes, a 130 ton missileboat SuperHeavy BattleMech, has lumbered into play. It brings with it a CT Gauss Rifle and 80 LRM tubes. The Cappies made it, go beat on them until they cough it up.
NEW MECH: The Schwerer Gustav, a one-off 100 ton FrankenMech made by a mercenary madman as a bar-room bet, has arrived. Armed with a grab-bag of weaponry including a unique fixed Thumper Artillery Cannon, the Gustav is one-of-a-kind. Get it from a special event as long as you have a pilot with the Technician tag, The Comforting Thunder of the Big Guns!
NEW MECH: The Woden, a "production" FrankenMech produced by pirates and pirate-adjacent powers (Circinus, Tortuga), has arrived. It's 60 tons, it's a weird mech, go nuts folks.
NEW MECH: The "Rifleman", made by Samuel "Shorty" Sneede of Snord's Irregulars, is the original FrankenMech, the oldest one I know of. Made out of a Rifleman, Archer, Warhammer, and Phoenix Hawk, it's a real party to look at and play with. Get it from a unique event, Blue Suede Shoes.
NEW MECH: The Crabrauder, a FrankenMech made out of a Marauder, a King Crab, and a Rakshasa (probably), has stumbled into play. You can get it from a unique event in Circinus space (if you're friendly with Circinus) called The Iron Price.
NEW FEATURE: The Anti-Air FCS's and the Rifleman/JagerMech AA quirks now have a chance to shoot down strafing runs. At present, this only applies to player-called strafing runs against units with those quirks/FCS. The chance for a strafe to be shot down and fail is displayed when the strafe is issued.
NEW EVENTS: Thanks to a community member, we have a small collection of new timeline events that detail the events of an older MechWarrior game, MechCommander 2 specifically. Thanks, community member! You know who you are. :heart:
UPDATED UI: With last patch we introduced the DR and Pips text to each unit. This was welcomed but also noted to be clunky alongside the pips themselves. So, we've done as we intended all along and disabled the pips themselves and just stuck with the clearer text. The visual clutter should be a little better now.
COMMUNITY CONTENT: Bunch of new CC this patch: there's a 15-ton Locust with a new Snubgun PPC; there's a Binary PPC Vanquisher, Omega, and Manticore (all for sale at Astral Australis); there's an Icarus II with a LAC/20 and a Shadow Hawk with a LAC/10; there is a Blood Asp from MechAssault with Clan-spec Hardened Armor and a pair of Plasma PPCs. The Railgun also has been modified to have a brief cooldown between shots instead of having absurd recoil.
- A number of campaign-specific pilots, such as Kamea and Raju and Victoria, no longer are capable of suffering bleedouts.
- Narc Launchers got a large buff: they now fire 2 shots instead of 1, their ammo amounts have been doubled, and they gained an additional explosive ammunition that can be found in shops.
- Raising The Dead, the campaign mission about attacking Castle Nautilus, has been nerfed slightly. Might be slightly easier, if still hard.
- There's a new Ultra-Light Flea, the FLE-18. Enjoy!
- The Small Cockpit has been nerfed slightly, it was sort of ridiculously good.
- Clan Gauss Rifle has received a minor damage reduction.
- The Clan Start lists have been expanded slightly.
- A few TTS's had their descriptions clarified.
- The Hiring Hall works again! Sorry.
- Nerfed the Shilone ASF (the default ASF for strafing runs).
- Lots of dll updates!
IMPORTANT: v13.4 is an "update" update. In this case, clear your Mods folder manually and then run the installer, it'll do the work for you.
IMPORTANT: v13.4 *IS* a save-breaking update, it will not be compatible with your old saves.
IMPORTANT: You can see v13.4's patch notes, as well as any BTA patch notes, on our wiki on this page: https://www.bta3062.com/index.php/Patch_Notes
REMINDER: This update, and others like it, are made possible by my Patreon supporters. Without their support, updates would come slower and be less impactful. If you feel like being a part of the support for BTA, you can find me here: https://www.patreon.com/bloodydoves