2023/10/20 - Patch v16.6

v16.6 (aka the "Fancy Gear is Fancy" patch) has been released to the installer. This patch is mostly a content-adding and balance adjustment patch but there's some good stuff in here for everyone!

NEW MECH: The Gurkha, a spicy little Word of Blake 30-ton light mech, has performed a combat slide into battle. The Gurkha is armed with an ER Small Laser battery as well as one larger weapon (usually a PPC) but most importantly carries a Sword in the right arm for the slicing and the dicing. It is fielded exclusively by the Word of Blake.

NEW MECH: The Munin LAM, fresh from its rediscovery by the Free Rasalhague Republic, has soared into flight over the battlefield. This 45 ton LAM, a rumored precursor to the Phoenix Hawk LAM, is fielded by the creme de la creme of the FRR's military, the 1st Tyr. It is also sold by the FRR in their faction store, along with plenty of bombs for the Munin's 4 bomb bays.

NEW BATTLE ARMOR: The Dragoon Battle Armor has been introduced. This BA is a Wolf's Dragoons special, developed by them for their exclusive use. Armed with a Flamer and a Light Mortar as well as jump jets and a battle claw, the suit is pretty fun to play with and is deployed in a five-man squad, Clan-style. However, uniquely, the Dragoons actually *field* this suit of Battle Armor. It's rare but should the Dragoons deploy units against you capable of carrying BA, there's a chance they'll send the Dragoon BA into combat against you! You can also buy it at Outreach, if you're feeling pedestrian like that.

NEW NETWORKING TECH: LeagueNet has been introduced. LeagueNet is a Free Worlds League invention that is an effective response to the Kuritan development of C3 and the Word of Blake innovation of C3i. Like those systems, LeagueNet is composed of a diffuse network of equipment across your entire force. Unlike those systems though, LeagueNet's goal is to funnel benefits from most of your units back to a single central unit carrying the Focal Node and massively benefiting that unit while minorly inconviencing your other units carrying Support Nodes. LeagueNet is only available from the FWL faction store at present and was designed to encourage a very different playstyle centered around a single core unit with all other units supporting and empowering that core unit. Be sure to give it a try and let us know what you think about the system.

NEW COCKPIT: The Virtual Reality Piloting Pod has been introduced. This piece of Solaris VII technology was created as a precursor to several other pieces of technology, including the DNI Cockpit and the Small Cockpit. The VRPP is more powerful than those and doubles as a torso cockpit but also comes with a crippling vulnerability to ECM fields and even certain weathers. You can buy it, rarely, on Solaris VII.

NEW DEFENSIVE TECH: The Blue Shield Particle Field Dampener has been introduced. The BSPFD (say that ten times fast) is an activated component that reduces incoming energy weapon damage by 25%. Those of you who really know your obscure BT tech may be saying "but BD, Blue Shield only reduces PPC damage, what gives?". The answer is that, for some reason, making it PPC-only meant it didn't work so it had to be adjusted to all energy weapon damage. As it was developed by NAIS, it can be purchased from the Davion faction store.

NEW MECHBAY VISUAL AID: A new framework mod has been incorporated, called CustomUnitDecorator. This allows BTA to now include icons on your *mech portrait* in the mechbay and deployment screen that tell you about specific mounted gear on that mech. This has been used for C3, C3i, and LeagueNet, so that you now know what unit has a C3 Master or C3 Slave, what unit has C3i, and what unit has what kind of node for LeagueNet. Exciting!

REVOLVER RIFLE ADJUSTED: For some time there's been discussion of the Revolver Rifle attachment with general sentiment being that the attachment makes Rifles into the best thing you can do with a ballistic hardpoint. This is not optimal behavior for Rifles, which are explicitly intended to be middling side-grade technology that the Periphery uses because it's what they can afford. To bring the Revolvers back in line with their intended design, they've been adjusted to have a higher jam chance (30% before pilot adjustments), a small damage decrease, and have been changed such that any jam permanently locks up the attachment for that mission.

AMMO FEED ATTACHMENTS ADJUSTED: The ammo feeds for Cannons/Rockets/Gyrojets have also been called out as being similarly powerful to the Revolver Rifle, though slightly less so. They've been adjusted in a similar fashion: they gained a jam chance and jams are permanent during that mission when they happen. These attachments have not had their damage values adjusted from what they were in previous patches.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: Oh boy is there a buncha new CC in today's patch, check it out: there is a new turret calldown contract on sale at Mack's Dustball for a 2k armor TAG Turret; there is a new Sanctuary-tech Fafnir running around, the FNR-MKD with triple DBAC/15s; there's a 200-ton superheavy quad mech named the Colossal Turtle running around in the arenas (it has railguns, be worried); and finally there's a new planet named Kraken's Abyss which is owned by ComStar and has a unique shop including every quad mech currently available in BTA (including that Colossal Turtle mentioned earlier).

• Added a handful of new variants including: two new canon Shadow Hawks (3H and 3H2), several new mech variants using the VRPP (detailed above) including a Bombard, Mantis, Great Turtle, Juggernaut, Prometheus and Valiant, all of which are arena fighters; there's a new Phoenix Hawk, the PXH-99, which can barely move under is own power but is very hard to kill (and is an arena only design); and finally there's five variants using the Blue Shield system, including an arena-only Hunchback and four Davion-only variants (Flea, Enforcer III, JagerMech III, Devastator).
• Solaris VII gained a bit more complexity to its shop lists and now has several special upgrade lists that it can call on, including a list for special cockpits such as the DNI Cockpit and the VRPP.
• Stealth armor is no longer compatible with C3, Null Signature System, or Chameleon Light Polarization Shield.
• Speaking of, NSS/CLPS can't be put on Battle Armor anymore. Don't think anyone was doing that since no one checked but now you definitely can't.
• Acid Mortars are no longer AoE capable and require direct hits to deal their effect. They also now require multiple hits to generate their best effect (they stack together up to four times for maximum effect).
• Several shop lists have been adjusted with the intent of making Periphery ammo more available, specifically Rifle ammunition.
• The Bombast Laser has seen a significant description update which should make it much clearer what the weapon is for and how it works. Give it a try, you may be surprised by how effective the Bombast is. It also received a small heat reduction, making it more competitive with other energy weapons at its weight class.
• The Improved Large Binary Laser has seen a small damage decrease.
• There's been a small rebalancing of item costs among the heavier energy weapons (Snub-Nose PPC, ER PPC, cERPPC, Enhanced ER PPC, Improved PPC, Large Binaries, Bombast Laser) to make them a little more competitive with each other.
• There's a new playable tank, the Fury Command Tank (original). Enjoy?
• The Hermes Equilibrium gyro now costs a lot less.
• The EMP-5F has lost its unnecessary SHIELD and gained a heat sink.

IMPORTANT: v16.6 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: v16.6 is not a save breaking update, your saves are compatible and will work fine.

REMINDER: This update, and others like it, are made possible by my Patreon and Ko-Fi 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 on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/bloodydoves) and on Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/bloodydoves)

REMINDER: Custom mod commissions are still available if you're interested. If you'd like to get your own community content added to BTA DM me, bloodydoves, and we can work something out.

BTA LIGHT: No changes, no new patch.