2023/11/24 - Patch v16.7

v16.7 (aka the "Big Ol' Grab Bag" patch) has been released to the installer. This patch is mostly a content-adding and balance adjustment patch but there's some good stuff in here for everyone!

NEW MECH: The Volkh, a 45-ton Solaris meme machine, has charged into battle. This very weird melee mech comes in 10 variants, all of which have some flavor of melee weapon equipped (from lances and swords to tridents and lirpas)! Oh, and all the Volkhs have an XXL Engine, Torso Cockpit, and most of them have Hardened Armor to boot. You can face the Volkh in the gameworld arenas and you can buy it at Solaris VII. Enjoy!

NEW MECH: The Galleon, a 85-ton Black Market-exclusive assault mech, has been listed for sale in the BM! The Galleon is the start of several Black Market updates to make the BM a little more appealing and is completely exclusive to the BM. It cannot be found in combat or any other store, just the Black Market (and pirate faction store). Enjoy!

MECHBAY TAB REWORK: The Mechbay sorting tabs for equipment have been reworked. Now, for weapons there is no All category (it was of limited use) and there are two new categories: one for Mortar-type weapons and one for Misc Missiles like the Narc and Thunderbolts (there are appropriate ammo tabs for these categories as well). The argument was made that these weapons don't *really* fit in with their previous categorizations and I agreed so this was made. I've played with it a good bit and you barely even notice the difference after a bit.

EXTRA NOTE: The Advanced Tactical Missiles (ATMs) have moved to the SRM tab for the same reason as the new tabs above: they didn't really fit in the LRM tab.

ICON CHANGES: Mortars and Misc Missiles now have distinct unique icons to represent their new tabs (they remain on their current hardpoints as normal, just the icon changed). Also, the following types of ammo boxes have gained a new "inverted" icon to make them a little more distinct visually: Gauss, Mortar, Artillery, Plasma, Misc Missile, LRM-class Missile, Sprayer/Fluid Gun.

NEW WEAPON: The Improved Narc Launcher, or iNarc, now exists! It's heavier than standard Narc (4 tons) and bulkier (2 crits) and only fires one shot (as opposed to standard Narc's two) but has more ammo types and, more importantly, is a *permanent* effect. If hit by an iNarc, the target will suffer the iNarc's penalties until the mission is over. The iNarc appears on about 6 OpFor mechs, all of which are ComStar/Word of Blake as they developed the tech. In testing, it's both fun to play with and actually pretty good for dedicated scouts while standard Narc retains effectiveness and utility. Give it a try! Note that as part of this change, Narc Improved Beacon ammo now longer exists for standard Narc, that ammo is now an iNarc ammo exclusively. Finally, the ComStar faction store now sells iNarc and its ammos.

NEW SPECIAL EVENT: You may be contacted by a fellow mercenary commander, Hauptmann Johann von Heidelberg. When he calls, pick up the phone. Give Johann's Jaegers a good showing and the good Hauptmann might just leave you one of his mechs in thanks!

STEALTH ARMOR REWORK: Stealth Armor in BTA has long been incorrect, mostly because it wasn't high priority to correct to TT-standards. However, this has been corrected. Stealth Armor now works as on table: it takes 12 crits, two in each arm/leg/side torso; it is an activated component and must be enabled in-mission otherwise it has no effect; it makes a huge 30 heat while activated but also gives a much better defensive bonus than before; finally, it requires specifically *Inner Sphere* ECM to function, specifically the Guardian or Angel ECMs. Clan and Sanctuary ECM no longer can power Stealth Armor. If you have Stealth Armor installed on your mechs it will need to be removed and re-installed properly to function.

APM REWORK: The Alternative Payload Missiles, or the APM, has seen a rework. Previously, the APM had six varied ammo types and was a little clunky to use. Now, the APM has been edited to only have 1 generic ammo and instead have 6 different firing modes to cycle through mid-fight. The old ammos were not removed from the mod but they are set as Deprecated and should be sold (in a pinch you can mount them and they'll work like the generic ammos do). This should make the APM much more generally effective, which was the goal.

SUPERCHARGER UPDATE: This is minor but the Supercharger (IS, not Sanctuary) now requires being mounted in the same location as the engine is located. What this means is that if there's not an engine part in the torso location, you can't put the Supercharger there (XL/Light Engines count as engine parts). Very minor change but accurate to the source material.

ANOTHER PERIPHERY REBALANCE: The Ammo Feeds and Rifle Revolver have been rebalanced again. The Rifle Revolver now jams MUCH more frequently but no longer "perma"jams as it was discovered that code didn't work anymore. The Cannon Ammo Feed now reduces damage further and jams almost every shot but doesn't permajam. The Gyrojet/Rocket Ammo Feeds jam slightly more and destroy the attached weapon on jamming (shouldn't cause ammo explosions) but also reduce dasmage/accuracy less than they used to to make up for the risk. This is still experimental, more attention may happen.

FACTION STORE EXPANSIONS: The Great Houses make a *lot* of mechs and their faction stores should reflect this. All five Great House faction store inventories have been heavily expanded, with every Great House getting at least 16 new variants and some Houses getting more than 25. Additionally, the large Periphery powers also have a little more mech production in their faction stores, with the Magistracy (4), Taurian (5), Outworlds (6), and Rim Collection (4) all getting a few more mechs in their shops.

SEVERAL PLANET REBALANCES: Planets in both the Circinus Federation and the Tortuga Dominions have been rebalanced to have a better spread of skull ratings.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: Some good new CC this patch, including: the Armstrong Battle Armor from Periphery Arms Inc, for all your Fat Spaceman BA Needs!; the LBX-RAC5 has been rebalanced and tuned down somewhat due to being ABSOLUTELY CRACKED (still good though); the Supernova II now exists, hurrah!; there's a new Marauder that replicates the Glaug Pod from Macross; the Thunder Hammer LAM exists, yeah do what you will with that one; the Battlehammers had a minor adjustment to their frankly insane sell prices; there's also a new Vindicator and a Lao Hu, both of which wield a new weapon system (the Platinum Thunderbolt-5 and Platinum Thunderbolt-10 respectively)!

• Fixed the Ostroc Mk II's arm JJs. Now they can't be salvaged or removed, as intended.
• Battle Armor no longer can mount mech-scale active probes or mech-scale ECMs.
• Arrow IV Inferno ammo does much more heat on a direct hit (15 up from 5).
• CASE/CASE II/SHIELD have had their descriptions clarified for the sake of new users and they now cost more to install.
• There's a new Kit Fox variant, the KFX-V, which carries an Arrow IV?? Don't know why this exists but it sure does.
• Fixed a few units with incorrect loadouts (Turret missing ammo, mech with the wrong armor, etc).
• Clan UAC/10s now default to x2 shots.
• Ordering of weapons in the Autocannon tab in the mechbay now puts Rifle/Cannon weapons at the bottom instead of the very top.
• The Fuel-Air Bomb now works properly, whoops.
• The L Laser - and M Laser - are now the L/M Laser Prototype to match other Prototype gear nomenclature
• The Heavy and Improved Heavy Gauss Rifles now can cause self-knockdown on firing like the Mass Drivers can. This is a feature of Tabletop BT that was just neglected until now. Whoops!
• Mech Tasers are *properly* restricted to two per unit now and Mass Drivers are properly restricted to one per unit now.
• The Airships no longer get +2 initiative just for existing. They're good enough without such a buff.
• Howitzer Slug ammo now tells you about dealing some extra stab damage per shell (it always did that, now it just tells you it does).
• Some minor adjustments were made to the Medium Pulse Laser as well as the Medium and Small Blazers.
• Stag designation was corrected to ST-XX instead of STG-XX.

IMPORTANT: v16.7 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: v16.7 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 and Ko-Fi 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 on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/bloodydoves) and on Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.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.

BTA Light

v16.4.2.lite has been released for BTA Light. This is mostly a bug-fixing patch but also includes the Volkh (detailed above) with one variant for the arenas. You can purchase the Volkh at Solaris VII.