2021/3/31 - Patch v9.4

v9.4 (aka the "Kamea Has Had Enough Of Your Shit" update) has been released to the installer. This patch is surprisingly dense so let's hop to it.

NEW... SOMETHING: Kamea Arano has had it up to here with the Inner Sphere's bullshit and is out for blood. Keep an eye out, rumor is she's on the warpath. To where is a good question, no one's really sure. Keep an eye open.

NEW INSTALLER FUNCTIONALITY: The first batch of BTA Community Content has been rolled into BTA and is available in the Installer as an option in the Clan module. Community content is funded by the community via commissioning me to make things. Community content is not guaranteed to be balanced or lore-friendly in any way at all, installer beware. It's a lot of cool stuff though, so maybe give it a shot!

NEW FUNCTIONALITY: WarTech IIC has been updated. Now, there are two kinds of flareups: attacks and raids. Attacks are the ones you're familiar with where control changes hands. Raids are new and are resource-gathering raids that do *not* change territory, but if the raider wins they gain future strength for future territory changing attacks. This way, you can support and build up a favored faction over time.

NEW FUNCTIONALITY: Gunnery as a skill has been somewhat overhauled. The skill was a little bland and weak, so we've buffed it up a bit. The Guts 5 and Guts 7 -1/-2 recoil reductions abilities been moved to Gunnery 5 and 7. At Gunnery 4 and 9, all pilots will now gain a minor jam chance reduction. Additionally, at Gunnery 4, all pilots will receive a 15% chance to deal 15% more stability damage. At Gunnery 6, pilots will receive a 15% chance to deal 15% more heat damage. And at Gunnery 9, pilots will receive a 15% chance to deal 15% more standard damage. These chances apply to any weapon attack that deals one of those damage types (it will not add heat damage to attacks that don't generate it already nor will it add stability damage to attacks that don't generate it already). NOTE: You will need to retrain your pilots in order to get the benefits of these changes if they are already at Gunnery 4 or higher.

• Weapon Icons now match their mechbay filter icons (so all weapons on the Gauss tab have the Gauss icon, etc). This is purely visual and doesn't change their hardpoint or anything, it's just a nice visual refresh.
• The Tortugans will now raid the Davion border near them as well as a couple of Taurian worlds. The Hansa will now raid the Chainelane Isles. These are our new WarTech IIC raids, not territory control.
• The Timeline fluff events now generate map flareups as per fluff. Importantly, this can introduce a brand-new faction right near the start of a career as St. Ives rebels against their Capellan masters, which can lead to St. Ives existing on the map where it did not before. Go make friends (or not, you do you)!
• The Clint and the Conjurer have updated portraits.
• The Shadow Hawk in the first story campaign mission has been swapped out for an Osprey, after player dissatisfaction with the Shadow Hawk's performance. The Kintaro/Centurion CN10-B remain unchanged.
• Piercing AC ammo should proc crits now.
• The Piercing Lasers do reduced crits.
• Mortar Suppressant ammo has had its rather absurd radius heavily reduced.
• FASCAM ammos now have clearer descriptive text.
• The LAC/2 now behaves like the AC/2 and fires a burst of three shots.
• Reinforcement and other "newly" spawned units are forced into the last initiative phase. They retain their drop protection evasion but they no longer immediately act and ruin your day. If you reserve down to 1 with them though, that's on you (don't do that).
• Spawn protection for both the player and the AI is increased to 8 pips. 6 was insufficient to heavily curb player damage on spawn, so it was increased to further protect the player from unfortunate spawns.
• A new Locust, with Hardened Armor and an XXL engine, has been added.
• Acid and Tandem SRM ammo descriptions have been clarified and also both nerfed slightly.
• Wulfbanes will now arrive with a custom Commando, tuned to his detailed specifications. The COM-WB is unique to the event and might be a little more impressive and worth keeping around.
• The Excavator Mech's backhoe and digger claw have both been nerfed strongly.
• The Ambient Targeter has been buffed up somewhat.
• The Stealth Field has been buffed up somewhat.
• Mech Grenade Launchers no longer shoot in melee.
• LAMs now have proper DFA self-damage reduction as they always should have had. This also applies to their falling damage.
• Lots of RepMe fixes have been implemented, including fixes for that persistent "Charger Turret" issue.
• Lots of WIIC/PMP/TBAS bug fixes.

IMPORTANT: v9.4 is an "update" update. Run the installer again to let it just update your files and you're set to go. The installer auto-updates the CAB and injects Modtek for you.

IMPORTANT: v9.4 is not a save-breaking update, your saves are compatible.

IMPORTANT: You can see v9.4'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

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.