2021/11/3 - Patch v11.4

v11.4 (aka the "Are You Not Entertained?!" release) has been released to the installer. This patch is a heavy release, lots going on here, so let's hop to it.

NEW MECHANIC: The Game Worlds have arrived! Well, they've been here, but now they do something special. Since the earliest days of BTA people have asked for special duel content on Solaris VII. Today, you get that content. Now when you visit one of the 8 gameworlds in the Inner Sphere (and beyond!) you will have the option to purchase entry into a special duel contract against dedicated gladiator opponents driving customized "hero mech" rides. There's 8 kinds of duels: light/medium/heavy/assault mech categories for both solo and duo duels. If you win 6 of a specific category (say, light solo duels), you win a special prize, a hero mech of that weight class. Go forth and duel! Duel forever! But be warned, the gladiators aren't pushovers and the mechs are usually pretty good. Buyer beware. For further information, please see the FAQ.

IMPORTANT: The gameworlds are searchable by the starmap's Ctrl-F search bar HOWEVER to search them properly with the right tag requires a new career. Can't do anything about this, sorry.

NEW MECHANIC: Battle Armor! Who doesn't love a little squad of dorks running around? Well, your enemies won't after this patch, now that you can carry them around on omnimechs or APCs and now that they can swarm attack mechs. But mechs aren't without defensive options, they can swat off BA squads or they can stop-drop-and-roll to get them off. For more details about the new BA mechanics, please see the FAQ or the wiki!

NEW MECHANIC: Weapons fire now makes you (and the OpFor) easier to detect. Firing a weapon increases the sensor signature of a 'mech by 25% so you'll show up as a blip from further away and so will the enemy.

UPDATED MECHANIC: Strafing runs are a little different now. They call in two waves of aerospace fighters, one fighter after another with a delay between the strafes. Double the effectiveness for the cost! The cost has been rebalanced to account for calling multiple fighters at once.

UPDATED MECHANIC: The AI is starting to receive overhauls in BTA. This is an extended, ongoing, process but expect the AI to get a little sharper as we go forward. You can see the smarter AI at work in the gameworld duels, if you do those.

UPDATED START: The Battle Armor start now comes with an OmniMech and an APC to carry your boys around.

UPDATED PLANET: Arc-Royal is now properly owned by Clan Wolf-in-Exile. They'll sell you things, shiny shiny things. Wolfhounds, Clan mechs, it's all on the table! Go give them some money.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: The Support PPC Array was added, though it's not on a unit yet. The Rapid MRM and Improved Rapid MRM were added, along with two UrbanMechs (UM-R68R and UM-R69R) to field them. The Monster LAM Omni was added.

• Fixed more Omnimech heat sink kits. We'll get 'em all eventually!
• Fixed a lot of typos.
• Target Prediction now costs more resolve to use: 30 (up from 20).
• Sensor Sweep and Target Painting were swapped in the tank skill tree (Target Painting is now at rank 5, Sensor Sweep at rank 8).
• Some decent store work was done this patch, you should see better ammos more reliably now.
• There are now several APCs in stores as well as the Chevalier to ComStar's stores.
• Command and Control is a different skill now. Same name, different effect, read it closely.
• Mission Control was updated. This is a seamless update to fix bugs.
• Most installable gyros saw various changes. Now they take some amount of weight between 0.5 to 1.5 tons and they were largely rebalanced.
  • Gyro Defense:
    • Gyro Defense: 1t weight, +1 defense against being hit effect removed, +1 evasion pips gained from movement added
    • Gyro Defense +: 1.5t weight, +1 evasion pips gained from movement effect removed
    • Gyro Defense ++: 2t weight, +1 defense against being hit effect removed, max evasion pips gained from movement increased to 2 (up from 1)
  • Gyro Melee:
    • Gyro Melee: 0.5t weight
    • Gyro Melee +: 1t weight
    • Gyro Melee ++: 1.5t weight
  • Gyro Stability:
    • Gyro Stabilization: 0.5t weight, added -1 recoil effect, entrenched effect removed, stability damage reduction removed
    • Gyro Stabilization +: 1t weight, added -1 recoil effect, stability damage reduction removed
    • Gyro Stabilization ++: 1.5t weight, added -1 recoil effect, stability damage reduction reduced to 10% (down from 15%)
• The Stable Weapon quirk now just works for all weapons in every instance of the quirk.
• The Sturmfeur Missile Tank is now purchasable from the [[Lyran_Commonwealth|Lyrans].
• The BTA Loot Caches are much, much, MUCH better now. They're actually rewards!
• Battle Armor locations are now properly named after troopers instead of mech locations. Whoops!
• Clan Arrow IV stats reduced in line with last patch's nerf of the rest of artillery:
  • Direct damage reduced to 35 (down from 75)
  • Variable Damage reduced to 15 (down from 35)
  • Scatter range reduced to 49m/92m (down from 60/120)
• cTAG and cLight TAG got a minor buff: their accuracy bonus now stacks twice, so you can light the same target up twice if you've got more than one TAG.
• Clan ER Micro Lasers got a small buff: heat per shot reduced to 5 (down from 6)

IMPORTANT: v11.4 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: v11.4 is not a save breaking update, your saves are compatible and will work fine. IMPORTANT: You can see v11.4'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.