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= BTA Developer Blog #4: Abiding Quirkiness =
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= BTA Developer Blog #9: The Story of the Sanctuary Worlds =
  
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Welcome back to the BTA Developer Blog series, where I take a look and explain various topics for your entertainment and education. Today, we're talking a look at how BTA handles mech quirks.
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With BTA v15.0 comes a brand-new addition to the mod, and to BattleTech as a setting, the Sanctuary Worlds and the nations and peoples that live there. Because the Sanctuary Worlds are non-canon I invented them whole-cloth and I figured some folks might have a small interest in where they came from and why I went to such an effort to make this entirely new faction. Additionally, some folks might want to know more about their background and history in-setting (not much of which appears in BTA v15.0), so I'm taking some time to discuss the factions both in and out of setting. We'll start with the real life aspect to the factions, i.e. why did I make them?
  
  
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So, we should answer the question: what is a [[Mech Quirks|mech quirk]]? Simply put, mech quirks are fixed components on mechs that provide some kind of passive benefit out of the box. An example would be the [[Champion|Champion's]] Easy to Pilot quirk, which is a fixed gyro that gives the Champion extra movement speed. Quirks as a concept feature in most large mods for HBS BT, BattleTech Extended, BTA, and RogueTech all have quirk systems, each with differences. We'll take a brief look at how BEX and RT do it, and then we'll look at how BTA does it and why they're different.
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For many years I've had a desire to make something unique and new about BattleTech. It's the old "OC Do Not Steal" vibe from the earlier days of the internet. Everyone has their own headcanon after all and wants to make stuff that's uniquely theirs. The Sanctuary Worlds started life in like 2014 as the Dane Sacellum, a Clan-like faction that fled the Inner Sphere during the Star League era to make their own space nation with blackjack and hookers. I wrote out a rough fluff document and included some notes about rules for their weapons and that was it. I attempted to figure out how Solaris Skunk Werks (a tabletop BT mech design program) functions so I could make their gear in there and actually print and play with Sacellum mechs and gear on the tabletop, but at the time SSW was rather difficult to mod and I abandoned it in favor of having other stuff to do in my day-to-day life. When 2018 rolled around and HBS BT was released and I fell into modding it, I realized that this custom faction could be resurrected somewhat in HBS BT, which is much easier to mod. In fact, in the very early days of BTA (2019ish) I even took a stab at making the Sacellum into a real faction. However, the demands of running BTA quickly interfered and I set the project down, vowing to return one day to finish it.  
  
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Which brings us to August 2022. I had been slowly burning out from constant updates to BTA and from the daily grind of making content. Don't get me wrong, I love the job and wouldn't trade it, but even a job you love can wear on you after 3+ years of doing it. I realized that something had to change, and quick, or the ultimate result was going to be me quitting BTA and walking away, which I didn't want to do. I love BTA and I love the community and didn't want to ragequit because I was sick of it. I went digging through my storage files to see if I could find something to revitalize my interest and energy and lo and behold, the Sacellum files were just hanging out waiting for me to rediscover them. I decided that I was going to set out to bring this idea to life and I'd do it right this time.
  
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In BEX, quirks are handled programmatically, using a dll system named MechQuirks. Quirks are defined using a merged chassisdef file that says "mech has X quirk" and then the dll handles the effect. Quirks are not gear, they are effects. This is an important distinction, since in BTA/RT, quirks are gear. This approach has advantages: quirks don't take space on the mech, meaning that's more space for guns and heat sinks and ammo. It also has disadvantages: if you want to make a new quirk, you need to rebuild the dll with the code for the new quirk. It's not easily flexible but it can allow for things that gear can't do easily, such as maintenance times for mechs (which gear can't really replicate easily).
+
To that end, I made an announcement on August 19th, 2022. I told the community that I was burning out and needed to shift focus. From then on, I was focused on the new project and normal BTA would get backburnered for awhile until I got it done. The community was immensely supportive and understanding and I felt I had the freedom to go for it so I did. I took the original single faction, the Dane Sacellum, and I spun it out into four factions: the Dane Sacellum, the Mallard Republic, the Jacobson Haven, and their mutually-assembled army the Sanctuary Alliance. I wrote an entire history for the region of space they settled and how they got there. I reworked their entire techtree from the ground up, redid all the weapons, made new ones, adjusted old ones, invented all their new equipment and gear (such as heat sinks and armors and structures and such). I sketched out how many units they'd need to be roughly viable as factions, including tanks and turrets. I figured out where their worlds would be located (trickier than you might expect). I figured out how they'd interact with the Inner Sphere, who would be in their warpath, and how their war would turn out (decently well, as it happens). I even made little characters for the faction representatives that the player gets missions from and who say things to the player at the Mission Complete screen (all factions have this in the upper left-hand corner, that portrait and name and text is all changeable). I sketched out ideas for events that would happen in their space to immerse the player in their lore and personalities, though these were left out of the initial v15.0 release for lack of time due to real-life commitments involving my family (they're coming in later patches, promise!).  
  
 +
The project brought me back to life and rekindled my love of BTA and of working on BTA. Playing with the new gear felt *fresh* in a way that BTA hadn't felt in a long time. I know that not everyone will want to play with non-canon content, that's fair, and I made sure to keep it relatively contained to a corner of the map so that you have to go looking for the new factions to encounter them instead of them coming to find you wherever you are (sort of like the Clans). I do hope that folks approach this with an open mind and give it a fair shake. I want people to experience something new and get to see it with new eyes for the first time, there's something magical about seeing something for the first time that you've never seen or know anything about.
  
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In RT, quirks are gear like they are in BTA, but they're handled differently. In RT, mechs have a quirk "slot" that the quirk sits in. This contrasts to BTA where quirks take up specific slots on mechs such as the cockpit or gyro. The advantages and disadvantages of the quirk being gear are the same in both RT and BTA but the slot usage is the defining difference.
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Anyways, that's the deal. That's how we got here and what I was thinking the whole while. Hope you give it a shot and enjoy it, it's fun stuff, I promise! :)
  
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= Previous Developer Blogs =
  
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As I assume most readers know, the quirks in BTA are pieces of gear that take fixed slots on the mech. Unlike BEX, we rely on gear, and unlike RT, we place the quirks in various places on the mech instead of a dedicated slot. Why does BTA do it this way? Several reasons. BTA doesn't use a dll system like BEX because I disliked the inflexibility of it. As we have it now, if I want a new kind of quirk, I can make it in 5 minutes by just defining a new status effect on a piece of gear, bam, done, easy. Using BEX's system of doing it with a dll, I'd have to have a team member code me the new effect, rebuild the dll for me, then I'd have to create a merge for the mech in question that applies the effect. This does mean that BTA is limited from certain effects such as cheaper/faster maintenance times/costs since gear can't replicate that, but I accepted this as a price for the speed and flexibility that a gear-based system allows. Note that this isn't a slur on BEX's system, it's quite powerful after all and permits some unique stuff that gear can't do, I just felt it wasn't what I wanted for BTA.
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[[BTA Developer Blog 1: BTA's Core Philosophy|BTA Developer Blog #1: BTA's Core Philosophy - 2021/5/18]]
  
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[[BTA Developer Blog 2: BTA and the Clans|BTA Developer Blog #2: BTA and the Clans - 2021/5/24]]
  
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The larger question is: why doesn't BTA do it like RT, with a dedicated quirk slot? When I was implementing quirks for BTA the first time, I considered doing a quirk slot somehow (the method at the time was a little trickier than it would be now). However, I decided against it. The purpose of quirks is to differentiate chassis from each other, to make it so that a Champion and a Dragon felt different despite their surface similarities (both fast Inner Sphere 60 tonners). They differentiated by quirk. Under RT's system, all the core components of the Champion and Dragon could be swapped out, gyros and cockpits and engines and whatnot, all changeable. This means that, although the quirks are different, you could make them virtually identical beyond hardpoints. This seemed insufficiently distinguished to me. With BTA's system, because the Champion's quirk takes the gyro and the Dragon's takes a life support slot, you can't make the two mechs the same: you can't change the Champion's gyro but you can change the Dragon's. I like this, it means that chassis are slightly more distinct. One of the downsides of using MechEngineer for a fully customizable mechbay is that ME allows a dedicated player to make similar mechs (say, two 60 tonners) to look extremely similar except for hardpoints and their model. I like mechs being meaningfully distinct and fixed gear is a great way of creating that feeling, so BTA's quirks serve that purpose (same with structure being fixed on all chassis in BTA).
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[[BTA Developer Blog 3: Tanks For All The Fish|BTA Developer Blog #3: Tanks For All The Fish - 2021/5/31]]
  
 +
[[BTA Developer Blog 4: Abiding Quirkiness|BTA Developer Blog #4: Abiding Quirkiness - 2021/6/11]]
  
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Is BTA's model a perfect system? No, not really. Having quirks take up highly desirable slots such as the gyro or cockpit has led to some complaints historically. However, I believe it is the best option for the end goal I want BTA's mechs to have: distinction between each other. Next time that you get a mech with a quirk in an awkward place, maybe remember this conversation and consider the upsides: that mech is unique, even if it's not perfectly optimized, and uniqueness brings replayability. That's the goal all along: making the game more playable time and again.
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[[BTA Developer Blog 5: Artillery and You, A Primer|BTA Developer Blog #5: Artillery and You, A Primer - 2021/10/8]]
  
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= Previous Developer Blogs =
+
[[BTA Developer Blog 6: The Salvage Question|BTA Developer Blog #6: The Salvage Question - 2022/3/13]]
  
−
[[BTA Developer Blog 1: BTA's Core Philosophy|BTA Developer Blog #1: BTA's Core Philosophy - 2021/5/18]]
+
[[BTA Developer Blog 7: Damage Reduction And You|BTA Developer Blog #7: Damage Reduction And You - 2022/4/14]]
  
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[[BTA Developer Blog 2: BTA and the Clans|BTA Developer Blog #2: BTA and the Clans - 2021/5/24]]
+
[[BTA Developer Blog 8: BD's Favorites!|BTA Developer Blog #8: BD's Favorites! - 2022/4/15]]
  
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[[BTA Developer Blog 3: Tanks For All The Fish|BTA Developer Blog #3: Tanks For All The Fish - 2021/5/31]]
+
[[BTA Developer Blog 9: The Story of the Sanctuary Worlds|BTA Developer Blog #9: The Story of the Sanctuary Worlds - 2022/12/12]]
  
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[[BTA Developers Blog 4: Abiding Quirkiness|BTA Developers Blog #4: Abiding Quirkiness - 2021/6/11]]
+
[[BTA Developer Blog 9.5: The Actual Story of the Sanctuary Worlds|BTA Developer Blog #9.5: The Actual Story of the Sanctuary Worlds - 2022/12/12]]
  
 
[[Category:Dev Blogs]]
 
[[Category:Dev Blogs]]

Latest revision as of 20:09, 12 December 2022

BTA Developer Blog #9: The Story of the Sanctuary Worlds

With BTA v15.0 comes a brand-new addition to the mod, and to BattleTech as a setting, the Sanctuary Worlds and the nations and peoples that live there. Because the Sanctuary Worlds are non-canon I invented them whole-cloth and I figured some folks might have a small interest in where they came from and why I went to such an effort to make this entirely new faction. Additionally, some folks might want to know more about their background and history in-setting (not much of which appears in BTA v15.0), so I'm taking some time to discuss the factions both in and out of setting. We'll start with the real life aspect to the factions, i.e. why did I make them?


For many years I've had a desire to make something unique and new about BattleTech. It's the old "OC Do Not Steal" vibe from the earlier days of the internet. Everyone has their own headcanon after all and wants to make stuff that's uniquely theirs. The Sanctuary Worlds started life in like 2014 as the Dane Sacellum, a Clan-like faction that fled the Inner Sphere during the Star League era to make their own space nation with blackjack and hookers. I wrote out a rough fluff document and included some notes about rules for their weapons and that was it. I attempted to figure out how Solaris Skunk Werks (a tabletop BT mech design program) functions so I could make their gear in there and actually print and play with Sacellum mechs and gear on the tabletop, but at the time SSW was rather difficult to mod and I abandoned it in favor of having other stuff to do in my day-to-day life. When 2018 rolled around and HBS BT was released and I fell into modding it, I realized that this custom faction could be resurrected somewhat in HBS BT, which is much easier to mod. In fact, in the very early days of BTA (2019ish) I even took a stab at making the Sacellum into a real faction. However, the demands of running BTA quickly interfered and I set the project down, vowing to return one day to finish it.

Which brings us to August 2022. I had been slowly burning out from constant updates to BTA and from the daily grind of making content. Don't get me wrong, I love the job and wouldn't trade it, but even a job you love can wear on you after 3+ years of doing it. I realized that something had to change, and quick, or the ultimate result was going to be me quitting BTA and walking away, which I didn't want to do. I love BTA and I love the community and didn't want to ragequit because I was sick of it. I went digging through my storage files to see if I could find something to revitalize my interest and energy and lo and behold, the Sacellum files were just hanging out waiting for me to rediscover them. I decided that I was going to set out to bring this idea to life and I'd do it right this time.

To that end, I made an announcement on August 19th, 2022. I told the community that I was burning out and needed to shift focus. From then on, I was focused on the new project and normal BTA would get backburnered for awhile until I got it done. The community was immensely supportive and understanding and I felt I had the freedom to go for it so I did. I took the original single faction, the Dane Sacellum, and I spun it out into four factions: the Dane Sacellum, the Mallard Republic, the Jacobson Haven, and their mutually-assembled army the Sanctuary Alliance. I wrote an entire history for the region of space they settled and how they got there. I reworked their entire techtree from the ground up, redid all the weapons, made new ones, adjusted old ones, invented all their new equipment and gear (such as heat sinks and armors and structures and such). I sketched out how many units they'd need to be roughly viable as factions, including tanks and turrets. I figured out where their worlds would be located (trickier than you might expect). I figured out how they'd interact with the Inner Sphere, who would be in their warpath, and how their war would turn out (decently well, as it happens). I even made little characters for the faction representatives that the player gets missions from and who say things to the player at the Mission Complete screen (all factions have this in the upper left-hand corner, that portrait and name and text is all changeable). I sketched out ideas for events that would happen in their space to immerse the player in their lore and personalities, though these were left out of the initial v15.0 release for lack of time due to real-life commitments involving my family (they're coming in later patches, promise!).

The project brought me back to life and rekindled my love of BTA and of working on BTA. Playing with the new gear felt *fresh* in a way that BTA hadn't felt in a long time. I know that not everyone will want to play with non-canon content, that's fair, and I made sure to keep it relatively contained to a corner of the map so that you have to go looking for the new factions to encounter them instead of them coming to find you wherever you are (sort of like the Clans). I do hope that folks approach this with an open mind and give it a fair shake. I want people to experience something new and get to see it with new eyes for the first time, there's something magical about seeing something for the first time that you've never seen or know anything about.

Anyways, that's the deal. That's how we got here and what I was thinking the whole while. Hope you give it a shot and enjoy it, it's fun stuff, I promise! :)

Previous Developer Blogs

BTA Developer Blog #1: BTA's Core Philosophy - 2021/5/18

BTA Developer Blog #2: BTA and the Clans - 2021/5/24

BTA Developer Blog #3: Tanks For All The Fish - 2021/5/31

BTA Developer Blog #4: Abiding Quirkiness - 2021/6/11

BTA Developer Blog #5: Artillery and You, A Primer - 2021/10/8

BTA Developer Blog #6: The Salvage Question - 2022/3/13

BTA Developer Blog #7: Damage Reduction And You - 2022/4/14

BTA Developer Blog #8: BD's Favorites! - 2022/4/15

BTA Developer Blog #9: The Story of the Sanctuary Worlds - 2022/12/12

BTA Developer Blog #9.5: The Actual Story of the Sanctuary Worlds - 2022/12/12

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