2021/1/17 - Patch v8.3

v8.3 (aka the "The One You've Been Waiting For" release) has been released to the installer. This is a biggun, strap in folks.

NEW FACTION: Clan Diamond Shark now has 1 planet on the star map, Twycross (it's a light blue color). Twycross sits in Jade Falcon space but is a Diamond Shark world. The Diamond Sharks do not offer missions, generally cannot be fought against, and cannot be allied with. However, they have an extensive shop, including a wide variety of Clan gear and mechs, specifically one variant of every non-faction specific Clan battlemech (non-omni only, no Vision Quest, no Kodiak). This does include the Mad Cat Mk II, which I know is a favorite of lots of folks. Bring fat stacks of c-bills though, the Sharks charge a lot and clantech is expensive to begin with (seriously, bring like 30mil if you're buying mechs).

NEW FACTION: Clan Nova Cat has been given their space in the Draconis Combine (it's a yellow color). Clan Nova Cat moved to the IS entirely and has "Sphere-ized" a little. What this means for you is... they offer contracts. That's right, you can work for a Clan now. You can also ally with the Nova Cats, who do have a faction store. They also sell some limited clantech in their stores. Their faction store includes every variant of their faction exclusive mechs, the Nova Cat and the Vision Quest. Additionally, the Nova Cat and Vision Quest can only be obtained from Clan Nova Cat, they no longer spawn anywhere else (except 1 VQ, which Kurita fields as a gesture of good-will between Kurita and Nova Cat). You can fight Clan Nova Cat in Davion, Steiner, or Rasalhague space, in case you just want to hit them until prizes pop out.

NEW FUNCTIONALITY: Land-Air Mechs (LAMs) have been totally overhauled. They now transform between BattleMech and AirMech mode. In BattleMech mode they're just a normal mech. In AirMech, they transform models to their "plane" looking models and become extremely fast and ignore terrain entirely, but also are fragile and easily knocked down. Their new Avionics equipment has the full details and permits them to transform on their turn (transformation can only be done before movement, after you move you're stuck in that mode for the turn). You'll need to store and re-ready any LAMs in your mechbay to see the changes, which are extensive.

NEW MECH: The Turkina, a 95 ton Clan Jade Falcon omnimech named for their greatest legend, has flown onto the field of battle. Find it with, who else, Clan Jade Falcon. NEW MECH: The Screamer LAM, a 55 ton Land-Air Mech from the bad old days of House Amaris, has literally flown into play and is ready to bomb some fools. The Rim Collection fields the Screamer after finding a box of them out in the boondocks.

NEW MODEL: The Phoenix Hawk LAM's BattleMech mode has a new model. This is both closer to its true lore model and also permits the Pixie LAM to not be a DLC-only mech (as the Phoenix Hawk model was added by Heavy Metal).

NEW MODEL: The Rakshasa has a unique model and isn't just cribbing the Timber Wolf anymore. You: "I want a Mad Cat!" Me: "We have Mad Cat at home." Mad Cat at Home: Rakshasa

NEW MODEL: The Hollander has a damn sexy new model. No longer just blue, it takes paint and kicks ass, go get one.

NEW MODEL: The Valkyrie II has a new model too and is god damn fantastic.

NEW VARIANTS: A handful of mechs got new variants, including the Cephalus, Osteon, Septicemia, Assassin, Valkyrie II (with a lance and shield!), Rifleman, and Pulverizer (including a few with melee weapons like a hatchet and retractable blade).

• Solaris VII has been given a unique store. They now sell every single chassis in BTA that is an arena design (Mantis, Bombard, Valiant, Juggernaut). You want arena mechs? Go hit up S7.
• The Rotary AC/2 and Rotary AC/5 have been reset to their proper tonnages. They both lost a ton so your mechs will now be underweight, you're welcome for the bonus tonnage.
• Talons (the equipment) no longer can be salvaged.
• You can no longer use the Restart Mission button in the menu. It was the source of some rather troublesome bugs that were causing issues for a lot of users, so we turned it off. You'll have to reload the pre-mission autosave.
• All pilots with unique passive abilities now tell you that they have the abilities in their descriptions.
• The pilot Hellion now has a unique affinity for Bushwackers.
• The BTA Team pilot Aether has a new portrait.
• TisButAScratch has been updated, fixing a plethora of weird bugs.
• The contract Maginot Line has been adjusted and should be better now. No more underground turrets!
• Acid and FASCAM ammos have had their names unified, they're now all Acid and FASCAM.
• Ambush Convoy missions no longer feature random spawns or support lances, which should go a long way towards making them reasonably fun again.
• Fixed a few mechs not having correct affinities. The LAMs all have had their affinities changed as well.

IMPORTANT: v8.3 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: v8.3 is not a save-breaking update, your saves are compatible.

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