Difference between revisions of "Patch Notes"

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v16.7 (aka the "Big Ol' Grab Bag" 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!
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v17.0 (aka the "Merry Christmas 2023!" patch) has been released to the installer. This patch is actually quite chunky and is a Save-Breaking Patch, so be sure to read closely!!
  
'''NEW MECH:''' The Volkh, a 45-ton Solaris meme machine, has charged into battle. This very weird melee mech comes in 10 variants, all of which have some flavor of melee weapon equipped (from lances and swords to tridents and lirpas)! Oh, and all the Volkhs have an XXL Engine, Torso Cockpit, and most of them have Hardened Armor to boot. You can face the Volkh in the gameworld arenas and you can buy it at Solaris VII. Enjoy!
+
'''IMPORTANT AS HELL READ THIS AT ALL COSTS:''' This patch is a *SAVE-BREAKING PATCH*. This means your old saves are not compatible and you *will* need to start a new career. This was a good time to cause a save-break as we've been storing up various changes that needed a breaking patch and figured that rounding out 2023 with a clean slate for everyone was a good time to do things. This is our fifth save-break ever and the only one in 2023 so I think we're doing just fine on that front.
  
'''NEW MECH:''' The Galleon, a 85-ton Black Market-exclusive assault mech, has been listed for sale in the BM! The Galleon is the start of several Black Market updates to make the BM a little more appealing and is completely exclusive to the BM. It cannot be found in combat or any other store, just the Black Market (and pirate faction store). Enjoy!
+
'''ALSO HIGHLY IMPORTANT:''' You *do not* need a new installer for v16.8. Your current installer (which is v1.2.0) will work just fine. If you don't have the installer right now, be sure to go download it again from the wiki.
  
'''MECHBAY TAB REWORK:''' The Mechbay sorting tabs for equipment have been reworked. Now, for weapons there is no All category (it was of limited use) and there are two new categories: one for Mortar-type weapons and one for Misc Missiles like the Narc and Thunderbolts (there are appropriate ammo tabs for these categories as well). The argument was made that these weapons don't *really* fit in with their previous categorizations and I agreed so this was made. I've played with it a good bit and you barely even notice the difference after a bit.  
+
'''MERRY CHRISTMAS!!:''' As is tradition, there's a new Christmas event this year! Set to trigger on 12/24/3064, you'll get a shot at some stocking stuffers if you play your cards right. ;) Merry Christmas, one and all!
  
'''EXTRA NOTE:''' The Advanced Tactical Missiles (ATMs) have moved to the SRM tab for the same reason as the new tabs above: they didn't really fit in the LRM tab.
+
'''DROP SLOT ADJUSTMENTS:''' This one is a big one so it gets top billing. BTA has adjusted its drop slot configuration with this patch. Over the years, there's been a semi-regular sentiment among players that they'd like some more flexibility in the deployment slots so that all tank or all mech playthroughs are more supported. After great consideration, I've decided to accomodate this sentiment and make all tank or all mech playthroughs more viable. Starting with this patch, BTA's deployment slots now are the following:
  
'''ICON CHANGES:''' Mortars and Misc Missiles now have distinct unique icons to represent their new tabs (they remain on their current hardpoints as normal, just the icon changed). Also, the following types of ammo boxes have gained a new "inverted" icon to make them a little more distinct visually: Gauss, Mortar, Artillery, Plasma, Misc Missile, LRM-class Missile, Sprayer/Fluid Gun.
+
* Lance 1: 6 mech/tank slots (start with 4, unlock 2 via Argo upgrades)
 +
* Lance 2: 6 mech/tank slots (start with 2, unlock 4 via Argo upgrades)
 +
* Lance 3: 4 BA only slots (start with 2, unlock 2 via Argo Upgrades)
  
'''NEW WEAPON:''' The Improved Narc Launcher, or iNarc, now exists! It's heavier than standard Narc (4 tons) and bulkier (2 crits) and only fires one shot (as opposed to standard Narc's two) but has more ammo types and, more importantly, is a *permanent* effect. If hit by an iNarc, the target will suffer the iNarc's penalties until the mission is over. The iNarc appears on about 6 OpFor mechs, all of which are ComStar/Word of Blake as they developed the tech. In testing, it's both fun to play with and actually pretty good for dedicated scouts while standard Narc retains effectiveness and utility. Give it a try! Note that as part of this change, Narc Improved Beacon ammo now longer exists for standard Narc, that ammo is now an iNarc ammo exclusively. Finally, the ComStar faction store now sells iNarc and its ammos.
+
'''NEW MECH:''' The Slagmaiden, a 55-ton mixtech Wolf-in-Exile arena mech, has come to play. Armed with a huge BattleMech Shield as well as an array of good duelist weapons (including Clantech and unique shield weaponry seen nowhere else), the Slagmaiden (and its hero variant, the Shieldmaiden) appears in the gameworld arenas as well as the mech foundries on Arc-Royal where it can be purchased.
  
'''NEW SPECIAL EVENT:''' You may be contacted by a fellow mercenary commander, Hauptmann Johann von Heidelberg. When he calls, pick up the phone. Give Johann's Jaegers a good showing and the good Hauptmann might just leave you one of his mechs in thanks!
+
'''NEW MECH:''' The Blackbeard, a heavily quirked pirate Atlas, complete with pegleg, cutlass, and ~~parrot~~Raven on the shoulder, has lumbered into play. This is a Black Market-exclusive design and must be purchased from the BM. It's a lot of fun to use, give it a shot!
  
'''STEALTH ARMOR REWORK:''' Stealth Armor in BTA has long been incorrect, mostly because it wasn't high priority to correct to TT-standards. However, this has been corrected. Stealth Armor now works as on table: it takes 12 crits, two in each arm/leg/side torso; it is an activated component and must be enabled in-mission otherwise it has no effect; it makes a huge 30 heat while activated but also gives a much better defensive bonus than before; finally, it requires specifically *Inner Sphere* ECM to function, specifically the Guardian or Angel ECMs. Clan and Sanctuary ECM no longer can power Stealth Armor. If you have Stealth Armor installed on your mechs it will need to be removed and re-installed properly to function.
+
'''NEW MECH:''' The Shankey and the Groovy, two quirky pirate light mechs based on the Commando and the Panther respectively, have come to party. These are both also Black Market-exclusive designs and have to be purchased from the BM. And yes, Groovy comes with his Boomstick.
  
'''APM REWORK:''' The Alternative Payload Missiles, or the APM, has seen a rework. Previously, the APM had six varied ammo types and was a little clunky to use. Now, the APM has been edited to only have 1 generic ammo and instead have 6 different firing modes to cycle through mid-fight. The old ammos were not removed from the mod but they are set as Deprecated and should be sold (in a pinch you can mount them and they'll work like the generic ammos do). This should make the APM much more generally effective, which was the goal.
+
'''NEW MECH:''' The Yeager, named for famous test pilot Chuck Yeager, has stomped into combat. This experimental test chassis mounts a mammoth Experimental Assault Gauss and brings it to bear with ruthless efficiency. You can buy it at Hesperus II (if you're friends with the Lyrans) or you can sometimes see it fielded by the elite 6th Lyran Guards.
  
'''SUPERCHARGER UPDATE:''' This is minor but the Supercharger (IS, not Sanctuary) now requires being mounted in the same location as the engine is located. What this means is that if there's not an engine part in the torso location, you can't put the Supercharger there (XL/Light Engines count as engine parts). Very minor change but accurate to the source material.
+
'''NEW MECH:''' The Yazata, a 130-ton Word of Blake superheavy OmniMech and master of the Celestials, has hotdropped onto the battlefield. It is fielded rarely by the Word of Blake's Shadow Divisions and can be purchased from their faction store.
  
'''ANOTHER PERIPHERY REBALANCE:''' The Ammo Feeds and Rifle Revolver have been rebalanced again. The Rifle Revolver now jams MUCH more frequently but no longer "perma"jams as it was discovered that code didn't work anymore. The Cannon Ammo Feed now reduces damage further and jams almost every shot but doesn't permajam. The Gyrojet/Rocket Ammo Feeds jam slightly more and destroy the attached weapon on jamming (shouldn't cause ammo explosions) but also reduce dasmage/accuracy less than they used to to make up for the risk. This is still experimental, more attention may happen.
+
'''MAJOR MECH FIX:''' Thanks to a community member's persistence and dedication, we've now properly adjusted Clan Ferro-Fibrous to grant the correct free tonnage. We've also adjusted all mechs that use Clan Ferro to have updated proper loadouts accordingly. This was quite an undertaking and C337Skymaster was very helpful when doing it, so big props to him!
  
'''FACTION STORE EXPANSIONS:''' The Great Houses make a *lot* of mechs and their faction stores should reflect this. All five Great House faction store inventories have been heavily expanded, with every Great House getting at least 16 new variants and some Houses getting more than 25. Additionally, the large Periphery powers also have a little more mech production in their faction stores, with the Magistracy (4), Taurian (5), Outworlds (6), and Rim Collection (4) all getting a few more mechs in their shops.
+
'''NEW VARIANTS:''' There are quite a few new mech variants floating around. The Gladiator and Phoenix chassis received some upgraded versions; there's a new Word of Blake Panther with a wacky af loadout; there's a Star League-era Stalker; a rare introtech Zeus; several new Warhammers; a new (very bad) Hatchetman that took *far* too much effort to get stats for; there's a Centurion/Crusader/Griffin/Longbow/Salamander/Valkyrie/Archer/Javelin set of variants to use some new weapons introduced this patch; there's a bunch of new Maulers.
  
'''SEVERAL PLANET REBALANCES:''' Planets in both the Circinus Federation and the Tortuga Dominions have been rebalanced to have a better spread of skull ratings.  
+
'''NEW FACTION:''' The Deep Periphery has been expanded with the addition of Nueva Castile! This small faction corewards of the Hanseatic League can be worked for but not allied with as they don't track reputation. They serve as an OpFor in the Hanseatic League as well as performing third-party drop-ins. You might be asking "BD, why did you add them, these guys seem a little pointless?" to which I can only say "stay tuned".  
  
'''COMMUNITY CONTENT:''' Some good new CC this patch, including: the Armstrong Battle Armor from Periphery Arms Inc, for all your Fat Spaceman BA Needs!; the LBX-RAC5 has been rebalanced and tuned down somewhat due to being ABSOLUTELY CRACKED (still good though); the Supernova II now exists, hurrah!; there's a new Marauder that replicates the Glaug Pod from Macross; the Thunder Hammer LAM exists, yeah do what you will with that one; the Battlehammers had a minor adjustment to their frankly insane sell prices; there's also a new Vindicator and a Lao Hu, both of which wield a new weapon system (the Platinum Thunderbolt-5 and Platinum Thunderbolt-10 respectively)!
+
'''AMMUNITION UPDATES:''' A number of ammos have been updated: all Acid ammos now share an effect and stack correctly so that you don't get weird overlapping acid effects; ER LRM ammo was removed (see below for details on why); AC ammos were widely overhauled (Precision now ignores evasion and has smaller box sizes, Frag was buffed, Caseless now gives bonus range, and HEAP was entirely overhauled); Crude ammos were removed; Bee LRM ammo was mildly nerfed; Deadfire LRM ammo no longer does bonus stab damage; Flare and Suppressant Mortar ammo have a smaller AoE; Inferno Mortar was buffed slightly; half-ton boxes of Suppressant now exist; Inferno SRM was buffed with a heat-over-time debuff.
  
* Fixed the Ostroc Mk II's arm JJs. Now they can't be salvaged or removed, as intended.
+
'''UNNSVIN NERFS:''' Sorry folks but it was warranted. The Unnsvins have been nerfed somewhat. The LAC/5 Unnsvin is now a LAC/2 Unnsvin and the MRM-20 Unnsvin is now a MRM-10 Unnsvin. Laser fans keep winning though, the Laser Unnsvin was untouched.
* Battle Armor no longer can mount mech-scale active probes or mech-scale ECMs.
 
* Arrow IV Inferno ammo does much more heat on a direct hit (15 up from 5).
 
* CASE/CASE II/SHIELD have had their descriptions clarified for the sake of new users and they now cost more to install.
 
* There's a new Kit Fox variant, the KFX-V, which carries an Arrow IV?? Don't know why this exists but it sure does.
 
* Fixed a few units with incorrect loadouts (Turret missing ammo, mech with the wrong armor, etc).
 
* Clan UAC/10s now default to x2 shots.
 
* Ordering of weapons in the Autocannon tab in the mechbay now puts Rifle/Cannon weapons at the bottom instead of the very top.
 
* The Fuel-Air Bomb now works properly, whoops.
 
* The L Laser - and M Laser - are now the L/M Laser Prototype to match other Prototype gear nomenclature
 
* The Heavy and Improved Heavy Gauss Rifles now can cause self-knockdown on firing like the Mass Drivers can. This is a feature of Tabletop BT that was just neglected until now. Whoops!
 
* Mech Tasers are *properly* restricted to two per unit now and Mass Drivers are properly restricted to one per unit now.
 
* The Airships no longer get +2 initiative just for existing. They're good enough without such a buff.
 
* Howitzer Slug ammo now tells you about dealing some extra stab damage per shell (it always did that, now it just tells you it does).
 
* Some minor adjustments were made to the Medium Pulse Laser as well as the Medium and Small Blazers.
 
* Stag designation was corrected to ST-XX instead of STG-XX.
 
  
'''IMPORTANT:''' v16.7 is an "update" update. In this case, clear your Mods folder manually and then run the installer, it'll do the work for you.
+
'''URBAN AMBUSH EXPANSION:''' There's a few new kinds of infantry who can ambush you on urban maps. One can call in enemy Rommel tanks as airdrops, the other can call down airstrikes against you. Ye be warned, the buildings are speaking airstrikes!
  
'''IMPORTANT:''' v16.7 is not a save breaking update, your saves are compatible and will work fine.
+
'''NEW GAMEWORLDS:''' At the community's suggestion, two new gameworlds have been added to the planets Gambier and Sawyer. Sawyer is in corewards Kuritan space and Gambier is hanging out in the midst of Davion space.
 +
 
 +
'''NEW EVENT:''' In 3064 Tortuga will strike back against the Sanctuary Alliance and attempt to take back their worlds! All the major pirate bands have come together to take back the pirate homeworlds, go give the lads a hand, they could use it. Kick the Sanctuary out of the Dominions!
 +
 
 +
'''NEW CLAN WEAPON:''' The Clan AP Gauss has been created and brought into BTA. Right now it's quite rare, only being on a CC mech as well as in rarely in Clan stores, but it might be getting a little more action sooner than later.
 +
 
 +
'''NEW INNER SPHERE WEAPONS:''' The Extended LRM (ELRM) and the Enhanced LRM (NLRM) both now exist. These are canon and available in our timeline so I added them in. The ELRM has the longest non-artillery range in the game (and almost matches the arty anyways) but has its own ammo type, can't take ArtIV, and has some other issues. The NLRM has a much shorter minimum range but can use standard LRM ammos (and ArtIV) and also is AMS immune. They are on a few new variants and are sold in the Davion (ELRM) and Steiner (NLRM) faction stores as well as at Coventry (ELRM) and Hesperus II (NLRM). The ELRM is also why ER LRM *ammo* had to die, I think the reason are self-evident.
 +
 
 +
'''"NEW" ANIMATIONS:''' KMiSSioN, the dark sorcerer AI, has dropped a brand-new feature on us: the ability to hijack animations from one assetbundle to another via gear settings. That's a technical way to say that now, any modded mech in BTA with a right-hand melee weapon (such as a sword or hatchet) now uses the HBS Hatchetman's right handed swinging animation. It will snap its arm out and then swipe downward with its weapon to smash its enemy. Note that this only applies to *right-handed* weaponry because that's what the Hatchetman uses.
 +
 
 +
'''NEW WEAPON ATTACHMENT:''' A community suggestion was to reproduce the proper TT Machine Gun Array system using the weapon attachment system BTA uses. This was a good idea so I did it. The old MG Array *weapon* has been deprecated and in its place is the MG Array attachment. This attachment connects to all Machine Guns (Light, Standard, Heavy, and even the Sanctuary Gatling Gun) in the attachment's location and increases their damage output as well as their individual damage clustering (so each MG's shots tend to group together now instead of all being scattershot). All MG Array using mechs and stores have been updated accordingly and several mechs gained hardpoints to account for their need of new Machine Guns.
 +
 
 +
'''AMMO FEED REBALANCE:''' Here's another crack at the ammo feeds. This time the jamming *should* work properly and destroy the common and easy to acquire weapons and not the expensive and fairly rare ammo feeds themselves. We'll see if this works properly.
 +
 
 +
'''APM REBALANCE:''' The APM change from last patch has been wildly successful but also made the weapon too good. It's received minor nerfs to several modes to bring it back in line with its intended use-case.
 +
 
 +
'''DUELS ADJUSTED:''' The duel missions that have drop slots with maximum tonnage now also have minimum tonnage on those slots, which forces the player into using those slots. The exploit of "use a different slot to ignore the tonnage limit" has been closed. Sorry folks, it hurt me to do it because I cheated too but there it is.
 +
 
 +
'''NEW FACTORY WORLDS:''' There are new factory worlds to be found, on Helbrent, Horatius, Marantha, and Tyrlon. These are scattered throughout the Periphery and offer a variety of Periphery toys for sale.
 +
 
 +
'''COMMUNITY CONTENT:''' Lots of good new Community Content this patch, including: an update to the Battlehammers to equalize their prices; a few CC mechs had their loadouts updated at commissioner request; there is a new Battlehammer and two new Hunchback IICs that use the new Clan AP Gauss as well as a new Stormbreaker variant and a new armor type, Ferro Reinforced Heavy Plating; there's a King Crab Omnimech (it's what it sounds like); Mack's Dustball has seen a lot of inventory improvements; the Battle Armor Bus UrbanMech was added.
 +
 
 +
'''NOTE FOR SUB-MODDERS:''' I know you're out there and have your own sub-mods and such. As a heads up, BTA has changed some of its internal naming on some gear to standardize item names. This includes engines, armors, and structures that you may be using on your custom units. You'll want to check and update your mods for those items. I'll provide a list in #modding-technical for you to check.
 +
 
 +
* The Scattershot Railgun now uses an artillery hardpoint and benefits from artillery FCS and artillery skils.
 +
* Chainsaws got a minor combat buff.
 +
* Thanks to a community member, we've updated many of our pilot portraits for our ronins. These now use much less disk space and look just as good as ever, so congrats, we saved you some tonnage on your hard drive!
 +
* There have been a lot of very minor mech adjustments, usually via minor gear changes or armor adjustments, across more mechs than I can possibly name here. If a mech looks a little different than before, it's because it probably is.
 +
* The Experimental Assault Gauss has received an overhaul and is a much more interesting (and usable) weapon now.
 +
* ATM ammo now shows up in the proper place.
 +
* The Clan Nova Cat and Clan Snow Raven stores have gotten a bit of a boost, now having an additional few weapons added from a random list as well as random Clan-specific ammos available as well. It's not a huge boost, but it's notable as a way to possibly get some rarer Clan weapons.
 +
* The Sanctuary Alliance has changed their icon in order to free up their icon for Nueva Castile (who it originally belonged to).
 +
* Possible fix for the underground spawning ambush units on urban maps! Hurrah!
 +
* The "All" category for the ammo page in the mechbay was removed.
 +
* Ridgeline properly works with all LAMs and even says so in combat when flying a LAM.
 +
* Fixed SearchAndRecovery missions for Johann's Jaegers.
 +
* Christmas events now fire at Christmas (3062-64 each have a different event)
 +
* Agamemnon's missions might be fixed??
 +
* Several core mods were updated for better performance and features.
 +
 
 +
'''IMPORTANT:''' v17.0 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:''' v17.0 is a save breaking update, your old saves do not work anymore and are not compatible. They cannot be used in with this patch, don't waste your time with them.
  
 
'''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:''' 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)
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== BTA Light ==
 
== BTA Light ==
v16.4.2.lite has been released for BTA Light. This is mostly a bug-fixing patch but also includes the Volkh (detailed above) with one variant for the arenas. You can purchase the Volkh at Solaris VII.
+
v16.5.0.lite has been released for BTA Light. This is a very minor patch. It adds the ELRM/NRLM (information above in BTA Classic's notes) to the factory worlds at Coventry and Hesperus II. It also includes BTA Classic's ammunition changes as well as a settings change to compress floaties akin to what BTA Classic has done in order to fight floatie spam.
  
 
= Older Patch Notes =
 
= Older Patch Notes =
 +
[[2023/12/22 - Patch v17.0]] - The Christmas 2023 patch.<br>
 
[[2023/11/24 - Patch v16.7]] - The Grab Bag patch.<br>
 
[[2023/11/24 - Patch v16.7]] - The Grab Bag patch.<br>
 
[[2023/10/20 - Patch v16.6]] - The Fancy Gear patch.<br>
 
[[2023/10/20 - Patch v16.6]] - The Fancy Gear patch.<br>

Revision as of 18:31, 22 December 2023

v17.0 (aka the "Merry Christmas 2023!" patch) has been released to the installer. This patch is actually quite chunky and is a Save-Breaking Patch, so be sure to read closely!!

IMPORTANT AS HELL READ THIS AT ALL COSTS: This patch is a *SAVE-BREAKING PATCH*. This means your old saves are not compatible and you *will* need to start a new career. This was a good time to cause a save-break as we've been storing up various changes that needed a breaking patch and figured that rounding out 2023 with a clean slate for everyone was a good time to do things. This is our fifth save-break ever and the only one in 2023 so I think we're doing just fine on that front.

ALSO HIGHLY IMPORTANT: You *do not* need a new installer for v16.8. Your current installer (which is v1.2.0) will work just fine. If you don't have the installer right now, be sure to go download it again from the wiki.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!: As is tradition, there's a new Christmas event this year! Set to trigger on 12/24/3064, you'll get a shot at some stocking stuffers if you play your cards right. ;) Merry Christmas, one and all!

DROP SLOT ADJUSTMENTS: This one is a big one so it gets top billing. BTA has adjusted its drop slot configuration with this patch. Over the years, there's been a semi-regular sentiment among players that they'd like some more flexibility in the deployment slots so that all tank or all mech playthroughs are more supported. After great consideration, I've decided to accomodate this sentiment and make all tank or all mech playthroughs more viable. Starting with this patch, BTA's deployment slots now are the following:

  • Lance 1: 6 mech/tank slots (start with 4, unlock 2 via Argo upgrades)
  • Lance 2: 6 mech/tank slots (start with 2, unlock 4 via Argo upgrades)
  • Lance 3: 4 BA only slots (start with 2, unlock 2 via Argo Upgrades)

NEW MECH: The Slagmaiden, a 55-ton mixtech Wolf-in-Exile arena mech, has come to play. Armed with a huge BattleMech Shield as well as an array of good duelist weapons (including Clantech and unique shield weaponry seen nowhere else), the Slagmaiden (and its hero variant, the Shieldmaiden) appears in the gameworld arenas as well as the mech foundries on Arc-Royal where it can be purchased.

NEW MECH: The Blackbeard, a heavily quirked pirate Atlas, complete with pegleg, cutlass, and ~~parrot~~Raven on the shoulder, has lumbered into play. This is a Black Market-exclusive design and must be purchased from the BM. It's a lot of fun to use, give it a shot!

NEW MECH: The Shankey and the Groovy, two quirky pirate light mechs based on the Commando and the Panther respectively, have come to party. These are both also Black Market-exclusive designs and have to be purchased from the BM. And yes, Groovy comes with his Boomstick.

NEW MECH: The Yeager, named for famous test pilot Chuck Yeager, has stomped into combat. This experimental test chassis mounts a mammoth Experimental Assault Gauss and brings it to bear with ruthless efficiency. You can buy it at Hesperus II (if you're friends with the Lyrans) or you can sometimes see it fielded by the elite 6th Lyran Guards.

NEW MECH: The Yazata, a 130-ton Word of Blake superheavy OmniMech and master of the Celestials, has hotdropped onto the battlefield. It is fielded rarely by the Word of Blake's Shadow Divisions and can be purchased from their faction store.

MAJOR MECH FIX: Thanks to a community member's persistence and dedication, we've now properly adjusted Clan Ferro-Fibrous to grant the correct free tonnage. We've also adjusted all mechs that use Clan Ferro to have updated proper loadouts accordingly. This was quite an undertaking and C337Skymaster was very helpful when doing it, so big props to him!

NEW VARIANTS: There are quite a few new mech variants floating around. The Gladiator and Phoenix chassis received some upgraded versions; there's a new Word of Blake Panther with a wacky af loadout; there's a Star League-era Stalker; a rare introtech Zeus; several new Warhammers; a new (very bad) Hatchetman that took *far* too much effort to get stats for; there's a Centurion/Crusader/Griffin/Longbow/Salamander/Valkyrie/Archer/Javelin set of variants to use some new weapons introduced this patch; there's a bunch of new Maulers.

NEW FACTION: The Deep Periphery has been expanded with the addition of Nueva Castile! This small faction corewards of the Hanseatic League can be worked for but not allied with as they don't track reputation. They serve as an OpFor in the Hanseatic League as well as performing third-party drop-ins. You might be asking "BD, why did you add them, these guys seem a little pointless?" to which I can only say "stay tuned".

AMMUNITION UPDATES: A number of ammos have been updated: all Acid ammos now share an effect and stack correctly so that you don't get weird overlapping acid effects; ER LRM ammo was removed (see below for details on why); AC ammos were widely overhauled (Precision now ignores evasion and has smaller box sizes, Frag was buffed, Caseless now gives bonus range, and HEAP was entirely overhauled); Crude ammos were removed; Bee LRM ammo was mildly nerfed; Deadfire LRM ammo no longer does bonus stab damage; Flare and Suppressant Mortar ammo have a smaller AoE; Inferno Mortar was buffed slightly; half-ton boxes of Suppressant now exist; Inferno SRM was buffed with a heat-over-time debuff.

UNNSVIN NERFS: Sorry folks but it was warranted. The Unnsvins have been nerfed somewhat. The LAC/5 Unnsvin is now a LAC/2 Unnsvin and the MRM-20 Unnsvin is now a MRM-10 Unnsvin. Laser fans keep winning though, the Laser Unnsvin was untouched.

URBAN AMBUSH EXPANSION: There's a few new kinds of infantry who can ambush you on urban maps. One can call in enemy Rommel tanks as airdrops, the other can call down airstrikes against you. Ye be warned, the buildings are speaking airstrikes!

NEW GAMEWORLDS: At the community's suggestion, two new gameworlds have been added to the planets Gambier and Sawyer. Sawyer is in corewards Kuritan space and Gambier is hanging out in the midst of Davion space.

NEW EVENT: In 3064 Tortuga will strike back against the Sanctuary Alliance and attempt to take back their worlds! All the major pirate bands have come together to take back the pirate homeworlds, go give the lads a hand, they could use it. Kick the Sanctuary out of the Dominions!

NEW CLAN WEAPON: The Clan AP Gauss has been created and brought into BTA. Right now it's quite rare, only being on a CC mech as well as in rarely in Clan stores, but it might be getting a little more action sooner than later.

NEW INNER SPHERE WEAPONS: The Extended LRM (ELRM) and the Enhanced LRM (NLRM) both now exist. These are canon and available in our timeline so I added them in. The ELRM has the longest non-artillery range in the game (and almost matches the arty anyways) but has its own ammo type, can't take ArtIV, and has some other issues. The NLRM has a much shorter minimum range but can use standard LRM ammos (and ArtIV) and also is AMS immune. They are on a few new variants and are sold in the Davion (ELRM) and Steiner (NLRM) faction stores as well as at Coventry (ELRM) and Hesperus II (NLRM). The ELRM is also why ER LRM *ammo* had to die, I think the reason are self-evident.

"NEW" ANIMATIONS: KMiSSioN, the dark sorcerer AI, has dropped a brand-new feature on us: the ability to hijack animations from one assetbundle to another via gear settings. That's a technical way to say that now, any modded mech in BTA with a right-hand melee weapon (such as a sword or hatchet) now uses the HBS Hatchetman's right handed swinging animation. It will snap its arm out and then swipe downward with its weapon to smash its enemy. Note that this only applies to *right-handed* weaponry because that's what the Hatchetman uses.

NEW WEAPON ATTACHMENT: A community suggestion was to reproduce the proper TT Machine Gun Array system using the weapon attachment system BTA uses. This was a good idea so I did it. The old MG Array *weapon* has been deprecated and in its place is the MG Array attachment. This attachment connects to all Machine Guns (Light, Standard, Heavy, and even the Sanctuary Gatling Gun) in the attachment's location and increases their damage output as well as their individual damage clustering (so each MG's shots tend to group together now instead of all being scattershot). All MG Array using mechs and stores have been updated accordingly and several mechs gained hardpoints to account for their need of new Machine Guns.

AMMO FEED REBALANCE: Here's another crack at the ammo feeds. This time the jamming *should* work properly and destroy the common and easy to acquire weapons and not the expensive and fairly rare ammo feeds themselves. We'll see if this works properly.

APM REBALANCE: The APM change from last patch has been wildly successful but also made the weapon too good. It's received minor nerfs to several modes to bring it back in line with its intended use-case.

DUELS ADJUSTED: The duel missions that have drop slots with maximum tonnage now also have minimum tonnage on those slots, which forces the player into using those slots. The exploit of "use a different slot to ignore the tonnage limit" has been closed. Sorry folks, it hurt me to do it because I cheated too but there it is.

NEW FACTORY WORLDS: There are new factory worlds to be found, on Helbrent, Horatius, Marantha, and Tyrlon. These are scattered throughout the Periphery and offer a variety of Periphery toys for sale.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: Lots of good new Community Content this patch, including: an update to the Battlehammers to equalize their prices; a few CC mechs had their loadouts updated at commissioner request; there is a new Battlehammer and two new Hunchback IICs that use the new Clan AP Gauss as well as a new Stormbreaker variant and a new armor type, Ferro Reinforced Heavy Plating; there's a King Crab Omnimech (it's what it sounds like); Mack's Dustball has seen a lot of inventory improvements; the Battle Armor Bus UrbanMech was added.

NOTE FOR SUB-MODDERS: I know you're out there and have your own sub-mods and such. As a heads up, BTA has changed some of its internal naming on some gear to standardize item names. This includes engines, armors, and structures that you may be using on your custom units. You'll want to check and update your mods for those items. I'll provide a list in #modding-technical for you to check.

  • The Scattershot Railgun now uses an artillery hardpoint and benefits from artillery FCS and artillery skils.
  • Chainsaws got a minor combat buff.
  • Thanks to a community member, we've updated many of our pilot portraits for our ronins. These now use much less disk space and look just as good as ever, so congrats, we saved you some tonnage on your hard drive!
  • There have been a lot of very minor mech adjustments, usually via minor gear changes or armor adjustments, across more mechs than I can possibly name here. If a mech looks a little different than before, it's because it probably is.
  • The Experimental Assault Gauss has received an overhaul and is a much more interesting (and usable) weapon now.
  • ATM ammo now shows up in the proper place.
  • The Clan Nova Cat and Clan Snow Raven stores have gotten a bit of a boost, now having an additional few weapons added from a random list as well as random Clan-specific ammos available as well. It's not a huge boost, but it's notable as a way to possibly get some rarer Clan weapons.
  • The Sanctuary Alliance has changed their icon in order to free up their icon for Nueva Castile (who it originally belonged to).
  • Possible fix for the underground spawning ambush units on urban maps! Hurrah!
  • The "All" category for the ammo page in the mechbay was removed.
  • Ridgeline properly works with all LAMs and even says so in combat when flying a LAM.
  • Fixed SearchAndRecovery missions for Johann's Jaegers.
  • Christmas events now fire at Christmas (3062-64 each have a different event)
  • Agamemnon's missions might be fixed??
  • Several core mods were updated for better performance and features.

IMPORTANT: v17.0 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: v17.0 is a save breaking update, your old saves do not work anymore and are not compatible. They cannot be used in with this patch, don't waste your time with them.

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

v16.5.0.lite has been released for BTA Light. This is a very minor patch. It adds the ELRM/NRLM (information above in BTA Classic's notes) to the factory worlds at Coventry and Hesperus II. It also includes BTA Classic's ammunition changes as well as a settings change to compress floaties akin to what BTA Classic has done in order to fight floatie spam.

Older Patch Notes

2023/12/22 - Patch v17.0 - The Christmas 2023 patch.
2023/11/24 - Patch v16.7 - The Grab Bag patch.
2023/10/20 - Patch v16.6 - The Fancy Gear patch.
2023/09/15 - Patch v16.5 - The Sanctuary Expansion patch.
2023/08/05 - Patch v16.4 - The Quirk-ttachment patch.
2023/07/07 - Patch v16.3 - The Aurigan Directorate patch.
2023/05/29 - Patch v16.2 - The 331st Division patch.
2023/04/24 - Patch v16.1 - The stand-in patch.
2023/04/14 - Patch v16.0 - The MechLab overhaul patch.
2023/04/01 - Patch v15.3.1 - The 2023 April Fool's patch.
2023/03/10 - Patch v15.3 - The SPAM expansion patch.
2022/02/07 - Patch v15.2 - The SPAM introduction patch. (this patch took place in 2023, the link is just wrong)
2022/01/05 - Patch v15.1.2 - The Fixes and a Spider patch. (this patch took place in 2023, the link is just wrong)
2022/12/27 - Patch v15.1.1 - The BD Forgot To Put Stuff in 15.1 patch.
2022/12/26 - Patch v15.1 - The Minor New Mechs patch.
2022/12/12 Patch v15.0 - The Sanctuary Worlds patch.
2022/10/5 Patch v14.4 - The Station Keeping patch.
2022/8/31 Patch v14.3.1 - Hotfix
2022/8/30 Patch v14.3 - The Electronic Warfare patch.
2022/8/18 Patch v14.2 - The C3 patch.
2022/8/1 Patch v14.1.1 - The Albatross/Koschei/Mercury II hotfix/patch.
2022/7/22 Patch v14.1 - The X-Quads Are REALLY Cool patch.
2022/6/24 Patch v14.0 - The 3-Year Anniversary patch.
2022/5/19 Patch v13.4.1 - The Quads Are Still Cool patch.
2022/5/12 Patch v13.4 - The Mech-Pocalypse and SAD patch.
2022/4/14 Patch v13.3 - The weather, airlifting, resupplying, and damage reduction patch.
2022/3/13 Patch v13.2.1 - The fistful of c-bills patch
2022/3/10 Patch v13.2 - The salvage rebalance patch
2022/2/11 Patch v13.1 - Bug fixins
2022/2/7 Patch v13.0 - Lots of BA, lots of other stuff. Save breaking patch
2022/1/1 Patch v12.1.2 - Hotfix
2021/12/31 Patch v12.1.1 - Hotfix
2021/12/30 Patch v12.1 - The drone and tank update
2021/12/25 Patch v.12.0.1 - Hotfix
2021/12/14 Patch v12.0 - The Christmas event update
2021/11/16 - Patch v11.4.3 - Hotfix
2021/11/16 - Patch v11.4.2 - Hotfix
2021/11/16 - Patch v11.4.1 - The Solaris update update
2021/11/3 - Patch v11.4 - The Solaris/BA update
2021/10/8 - Patch v11.3 - The artillery update
2021/9/26 - Patch v11.2 - Strafing runs and heat balances
2021/9/5 - Patch v11.1.1 - Hotfix
2021/9/5 - Patch v11.1 - The vehicle crew skill tree update
2021/8/9 - Patch v11.0.3 - Hotfix
2021/8/9 - Patch v11.0.2 - Hotfix
2021/8/9 - Patch v11.0.1 - Hotfix
2021/8/8 - Patch v11.0 - The Airdrop Beacon patch
2021/7/10 - Patch v10.5.1 - Hotfix
2021/7/10 - Patch v10.5 - The Resolve rework patch
2021/6/24 - Patch v10.4 - The Hoplite/Dig King/Ostscout/Toyama + new installer patch
2021/6/2 - Patch v10.3 - The WoB patch
2021/5/18 - Patch v10.2 - The Minsk patch
2021/5/3 - Patch v10.1 - The Von Rohrs patch
2021/4/24 - Patch v10 - The playable tanks + save breaking patch
2021/4/2 - Patch v9.4.1 - Hotfix
2021/3/31 - Patch v9.4 - The House Arano invades Terra/Community Content patch
2021/3/13 - Patch v9.3 - The WarTech IIC patch
2021/3/7 - Patch v9.2 - The bug fix patch
2021/2/27 - Patch v9.1 - Hotfix
2021/2/27 - Patch v9.0 - The Quad 'Mech patch
2021/2/13 - Patch v8.5.2 - Hotfix
2021/2/13 - Patch v8.5.1 - Hotfix
2021/2/13 - Patch v8.5 - The Zeppelin patch
2021/1/30 - Patch v8.4 - The Pilot Specializations patch
2021/1/17 - Patch v8.3 - The Clan Nova Cat/Diamond Shark + LAM AirMech mode patch
2021/1/2 - Patch v8.2 - The shop fix + ExcavatorMech patch
2020/12/21 - Patch v8.1 - Hotfix
2020/12/21 - Patch v8.0 - The Battle Armor patch
2020/11/25 - Patch v7.7.1 - Hotfix
2020/11/25 - Patch v7.7 - The Brigand/Mantis/Sha Yu/Enfield/Bombardier patch
2020/11/8 - Patch v7.6 - The new variants for lots of mechs patch
2020/11/2 - Patch v7.5.1 - Hotfix
2020/10/30 - Patch v7.5 - The TisButAScratch patch
2020/10/18 - Patch v7.4.1
2020/10/17 - Patch v7.4
2020/10/6 - Patch v7.3.3
2020/10/4 - Patch v7.3.2
2020/10/3 - Patch v7.3
2020/9/23 - Patch v7.2.1
2020/9/21 - Patch v7.2
2020/9/6 - Patch v7.1
2020/8/21 - Patch v7.0
2020/8/11 - Patch v6.4.1
2020/8/9 - Patch v6.4
2020/7/26 - Patch v6.3
2020/7/19 - Patch v6.2
2020/7/6 - Patch v6.1
2020/6/25 - Patch v6.0.1
2020/6/24 - Patch v6.0
2020/6/6 - Patch v5.5.2
2020/6/2 - Patch v5.5.1
2020/6/2 - Patch v5.5
2020/5/19 - Patch v5.4
2020/5/4 - Patch v5.3
2020/4/23 - Patch v5.2
2020/4/19 - Patch v5.1
2020/4/15 - Patch v5.0
2020/4/8 - Patch v4.6
2020/4/2 - Patch v4.5.1
2020/4/3 - Patch v4.5
2020/3/11 - Patch v4.4
2020/2/20 - Patch v4.3
2020/2/9 - Patch v4.2.2
2020/2/9 - Patch v4.2.1
2020/2/9 - Patch v4.2
2020/1/25 - Patch v4.1
2020/1/18 - Patch v4.0
2020/1/8 - Patch v3.9.5
2020/1/2 - Patch v3.9.4
2020/1/1 - Patch v3.9.3
2020/1/1 - Patch v3.9
2019/12/22 - Patch v3.8
2019/12/14 - Patch v3.7.4
2019/11/17 - Patch v3.6.1
2019/11/17 - Patch v3.6
2019/11/9 - Patch v3.5.1
2019/11/9 - Patch v3.5
2019/11/1 - Patch v3.4
2019/10/27 - Patch v3.3
2019/10/23 - Patch v3.2.1
2019/10/20 - Patch v3.2
2019/10/11 - Patch v3.1.2
2019/10/6 - Patch v3.1.1
2019/10/6 - Patch v3.1
2019/9/29 - Patch v3.0.2
2019/9/20 - Patch v3.0
2019/9/9 - Patch v2.9.2
2019/8/28 - Patch v2.9
2019/8/12 - Patch v2.8
2019/8/4 - Patch v2.7
2019/8/4 - Patch v2.6.2
2019/7/29 - Patch v2.6
2019/7/20 - Patch v2.5
2019/7/14 - Patch v2.4
2019/7/10 - Patch v2.3
2019/7/3 - Patch v2.2
2019/7/3 - Patch v2.1
2019/6/29 - Patch v2.0
2019/6/29 - Patch v1.4
2019/6/26 - Patch v1.3
2019/6/25 - Patch v1.2