View source for 2022/12/26 - Patch v15.1

v15.1 (aka the "It Has New Content So It Gets Its Own Patch Number" patch) has been released to the installer. This is a pretty small patch but worth some attention so let's hop to it:

'''NEW MECH:''' The Gulon, a 25 ton industrial mech with a sick-ass drill (the drill spins!!), has dug its way out of the earth and into combat. Get it from the Industrial Mech start, from the Outworlds Alliance, *or* buy one of its many variants from Aliance Motors on Sevon, in the Outworlds Alliance.

'''NEW MECH:''' The Thunder Hammer, an experimental fork of the Warhammer, has arrived on the battlefield. The Thunder Hammer is a Sanctuary Worlds mech and you can get it from any of the Sanctuary Powers in combat and also buy it from the Mallard Republic's faction store. Also, FYI, the Thunder Hammer does have a unique model.

'''NEW ASF STRAFING CONTRACT:''' The Slayer ASF has been added. This ASF has 6 Medium Lasers for its strafing runs, letting it do big damage. The Slayer ASF contract is out in the wilds, same as the other ASF strafing contracts.

'''UPDATED MECH:''' I was looking at Industrial Mechs to make the Gulon recently and made a shocking discovery: the Dig King is 35 tons, not 30. BTA had it at 30 tons, because I'm bad at reading I guess, so I went ahead and fixed that. The Dig King's loadouts are now updated and the mech is 35 tons, with proper max armor and structure of a 35 tonner. Enjoy...?

'''UPDATED INDUSTRIALS:''' Industrial Armor has been created and added to the appropriate units. Industrial Armor resembles Primitive Armor in that it gives you less armor points per ton. However, Industrial Armor does come with an upside: it provides a small amount of Damage Reduction against ballistic weapons (it's meant to deflect rocks while mining or trees while clear-cutting, which seems to fit as a big ballistic hit). Is it worth using? Probably not but you got it anyways.

'''NEW WEAPONS:''' The Sprayer and the Fluid Gun have been added to BTA. This was necessary for the Gulon above. Both weapons are available on several Gulon models and from the planet Sevon in the Outworlds Alliance. Neither is particularly good, but hey, if you want them they exist. Also, the Paint ammo for these weapons has a fun bonus effect of changing the target's actual displayed paint scheme on hit. Enjoy, I guess...?

'''FIXED VTOLS:''' The Sanctuary Powers are supposed to field several VTOLs in their forces against the player. However, due to some bad tagging, this was not happening properly. Should be fixed. Right now, neither can be salvaged, but you wanted to fight VTOLs so here you go, enjoy the Cobra and Rabbit Combat VTOLs.

'''FIXED BATTLE ARMOR... FOR NOW:''' Swarming BA have had their special Swarm Attack removed. This was causing lockups during combat and needed to be removed for the time being. It may return in the future.

'''BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS:''' The Double-Barrel ACs have seen a minor damage nerf. The DRMs have had their crit chance reduced another 30% (they now have a -70% penalty to crits, though crits are still possible with them).

* Bunch of RepMe's have been fixed, including several for Sanctuary powers such as APCs and some assaults.
* Standard Inner Sphere convoy trucks no longer appear in Clan convoy missions.
* The Shadow Hawk SHD-7M now assembles with other Shadow Hawks properly.
* Several models were resized appropriately (Crosscut, Dig King, Gulon).
* Sanctuary cargo crates are not available for salvaging. 
* The Locust II's model has been repaired. It had some broken arms and has been fixed.
* The Mechbuster ASF has regained its AC/20 for strafing runs, for now. We'll see how long it lasts.
* Some framework dll updates to fix some corner-case bugs.

'''IMPORTANT:''' v15.1 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:''' v15.1 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 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

'''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.