2021/12/30 Patch v12.1

v12.1 (aka the "Merry New Year and Happy Mechmas!" release) has been released to the installer. This patch is a mixed bag of fixes and updates and new content.

NEW TANK: The Main Gauche, a 30 ton light tank with a Light Gauss Rifle, is now available. It is fielded by House Marik who can also sell you one if you're into that sort of thing.

NEW TANK: The Augustus and Moltke tanks have been added, they're heavy tanks with long-range ballistics. They're fielded by House Marik who can also sell you several of the variants. They also have a sweet looking Y shaped turret, it's dope, go check it out.

NEW MECHANIC (kind of): The Drone Deployment Beacon has been added to BTA. This works the same way that the other unit deployment beacons do, but this one creates a VTOL, specifically a drone helicopter. The drone has no weapons beyond a TAG and a Narc. It also has Sensor Lock and an active probe and is quite fast. The idea is to deploy it and let it support your units with TAG/Narc/sensor lock/BAP. It's a little experimental but it's kinda fun to play with and it's a nice little support unit. The Drone Deployment Beacon has been added to stores and the beacon-specific background option at character creation (Sharp Negotiating). Additionally, beacons have been made somewhat more common (they're now guaranteed in the black market and on Electronics worlds).

NEW ITEM: The B-Pod has arrived. Properly called the Anti-Battle Armor Explosive Pod, the B-Pod attaches to a mech's legs and can be detonated to blast swarming battle armor for a ton of damage (divided among the squad's members). Ever got swarmed and wanted to just delete them? Now you can. Oh, the B-Pod does literally nothing to anything else, FYI. Also the A-Pod got a minor overhaul. Both pods now show up in stores, have fun with them.

NEW ITEM: There are now Quad-specific Heavy Front Arm Jump Jets in stores. These go in the front arms on quads only. They do not work for non-quad mechs. If you want to be symmetrical with your quad JJs, this is your moment!

NEW AMMUNITION: SRMs now have MagPulse ammunition. MagPulse ammo applies a stacking 1 turn accuracy debuff, up to -4 for 1 turn. Find it in stores like other ammo.

NEW ICONS: Fire tiles now have a neat fire icon. Radiation/Fallout tiles now have a little radiation icon. Smoke's effect is now the smoke icon. Acid effects (SRM/Mortar Acid, Disintegrating pulse lasers) now have a little acid icon. Mortar suppressant ammo has a fire extinguisher icon.

NEW PILOT SKILL (kind of): At Piloting 6, there's now a bonus for tank pilots that increases their flank speed (basically, tank sprint movement) by 15%. This works the same way that the mech sprint bonus at Piloting 7 works: it's just a minor passive buff for all pilots.

NEW TANK: The Mobile HQ has become playable. The playable Mobile HQ also has +resolve equipment and has the Strafing Run, BA Airdrop Beacon, and Turret Airdrop Beacon for maximum tactical flexibility on the field. It's purchasable in Inner Sphere stores randomly alongside general heavy tanks.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: A bunch of new CC happened for this patch, including the Binary Heavy Laser, the Paladin Superheavy Artillery Tank (found in the Davion faction store), the Omega SHP-X1 and its Silver-Bullet Hyper-Assault/10 Gauss Rifle, and the Super MML. Mack's Dustball now has its store correctly and has all the new weapons from this release.

• Quad Mech Gyro got a little buff, now increases kick damage and accuracy for quads.
• Multi-Target no longer has a 1 turn cooldown and is exempted from existing cooldown timers (so you can do something like use Phantom and Multi-Target in the same turn now).
• Battle Armor mounting/dismounting no longer has a cooldown.
• The Acid SRM was not applying its damage penalty properly, now it has the -4 damage penalty to the actual acid SRM itself properly. The acid effect is unchanged.
• Pretas did not have the Omni Gyro, that's been corrected.
• SizeMatters tonnage cap was fixed, it now caps correctly at 100 tons. Turns out it just didn't work before, whoops!
• The Ontos Mk II has been reduced in size a little.
• The Hauptmann Prime parts in the Steiner faction store now costs a reasonable amount.
• The Falcon had the incorrect max head armor amounts, which has now been corrected.
• Piercing AC ammos have had their descriptions updated.
• The hero quirk no longer duplicates, but it instead takes the lower Life Support slot. Existing mechs with the hero quirk will need stored and re-readied to get it to update properly.
• Battle Armor weapons now are listed in faction stores. Basically, if a faction sells a BA suit, it also sells that suits guns in their faction store so you can easily get more weapons. Enjoy the BA.
• Jam chance skills should be applying correctly now (you will need to reskill if you already have them, they will not apply retroactively).
• Fixed Sparrow Gyro description.
• Added the Alsvin and Vargr APCs to the APC starting list and to shops. More APC options!
• Added the Corsair COR-4R, fielded by the Pirates like the other Corsairs. Also, it's on the Pirate starting list, very rarely.
• Added some warning text to the BTA Showdown and to Kringle's Krushers to not take tanks with.
• Gear with areas of effect now have bonusd escriptions clarifying their radius (covers active probes, AMS, Ambient Targeter, and C3 systems).
• Lots of typo fixes and dll updates.

IMPORTANT: v12.1 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: v12.1 is not a save breaking update, your saves are compatible and will work fine.

IMPORTANT: You can see v12.1'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.