2021/9/5 - Patch v11.1

v11.1 (aka the "This Took Awhil-, Oh An Entire New Skill Tree, I Get It Now" release) has been released to the installer. This patch is largely a feature and bug-fixing patch so let's hop to it. We firmly recommend a new start for this patch, though it is not required, because you can end up fielding more units with this patch on an older save than you should be able to.

NEW MECH: The Fox, a 50 ton Diamond Shark Golden Century design, has come to BTA. This one's odd, you can only get it from the Diamond Sharks, either if they drop in in a 3-way battle and happen to spawn a Fox *or* more likely you'll have to buy one from them at Twycross. It's expensive, bring c-bills.

NEW MECH: The Legacy, an 80 ton Word of Blake assault mech, has arrived. The Word of Blake fields it as well as sells it in their faction store. The Legacy's earlier progenitor, the Rising Star, also is here and is fielded by ComStar exclusively.

NEW MECH (kinda): The Red Corsair, a semi-unique 85 ton assault mech, has arrived. This is a heavily modified Battlemaster used by a Clan "pirate" who modified her ride for maximum effect. Pirates stole the design for realz and put it into limited production. Get it by shooting pirates until they cough it up.

NEW MODEL: The Ion has changed model to something a little better looking. Still pretty similar but you'll notice the prefab swap if you have an Ion in your mechbay.

NEW BATTLE ARMOR: The Ravager Battle Armor has been released. This Marian BA comes with light weaponry but is pretty tanky for a BA. Get it, as well as a permanent contract for its airdrop, from the Marian Hegemony's faction store.

NEW MECHANIC (kinda): Tank pilots have their own skill list now. Tank pilots and mech pilots have different skill lists, with some crossover skills (such as Multi-Target or Sensor Lock). When you level up a pilot and select a rank 5/8/10 skill, you will see all possible options but only are offered the ones that your pilot qualifies for based on what they can drive. Accordingly, (MV) pilots are more valuable because they get the full selection of skills while (M) and (V) pilots have the restricted ability trees (the only remaining (MV) ronin is the Commander and Shade, all others are either (M) or (V) strictly now). The tank skills have been only lightly tested but should all work alright. If one does not work, please file a ticket so we can see and fix it.

UPDATED MECHANIC: Starting lance sizes have been contracted somewhat. The point was raised, correctly, that the start of BTA is a little too easy. So to counteract this, we've changed things so that now you start with 4 mechs and 1 tank instead of 5 mechs and 2 tanks as well as dropping starting tonnage back to 400. We've added two new drop slot upgrades for players though so you can get back to 8/4 as desired. This does mean old saves can possibly field 9/5 units if they fully upgrade, which isn't really intended but it's an accidental possibility. Because of this, we recommend a new save.

NEW (and edited) DEFAULT SKILLS:

• First Aid, the default pilot skill, has been clarified and improved.
• There is another default pilot skill, Emergency Vent. Emergency Vent consumes your entire turn but dumps 100 heat, for those "I got annihilated by inferno SRMs and have standard heat sinks" moments.
• Finally, there's a third default pilot skill, though this one is basically only for tanks right now: Careful Maneuvering. This gives you a 1-turn ability to move one hex and ignore terrain and pathing, letting you get unstuck from walls and holes and such.

NEW START: There's a non-Clan Lights Only start now. It's a decent spread of possible light mechs. Enjoy.

UPDATED START: The Battle Armor start now includes a single light OmniMech, just for laughs. Enjoy getting a Strider with your BA. :D

COMMUNITY CONTENT: There's a bunch of new CC with this patch: the Rapid LRM and Improved Rapid LRM (mounted on two Catapults) and the Clan Ultra LB-5X and Clan Ultra LB-2X (mounted on a Supernova).

OTHER UPDATES/CHANGES:

• Winning a flareup on the star map, either an invasion or a raid, now provides a lootcrate of goodies! Using generic ones right now but more detailed ones will come in time.
• Gunnery sometimes provides a 15% chance for bonus damage/heat damage/stability damage on attacks, and has for a year+, but now there's floaties over your mech when the effect triggers! Enjoy the bonus damage.
• There's three new vehicle-only ronin to find and play with: Giant, Magestrix, and Hestur. Go find 'em!
• The Ontos tank has been made playable, find it in stores in the Inner Sphere.
• The end-of-mission screen now has anything that involved a C-bill cost to the player displaying as a neutral yellow color instead of a red failed color.
• Tank Panic has been dialed down (all the way to off).
• Null Sig and ECM have had their interaction (such as it was) clarified.
• Some starts now also include a single light tank, so you can tank it up earlier if you're into that.
• In the starting parts crate, you no longer get 1 of each airdrop beacon, instead getting one at random.
• Now destroying one specific BA suit will no longer insta-kill the entire squad. Hurrah!
• TSM/pTSM were nerfed, only doing 30% bonus kick/physical weapon damage instead of 50%. Punches are still at +50% though.
• Smoke ammo is clarified as to what the smoke actually *does*.
• Darius's pilot, XO, and his sibling (you know who he is) now use the DarthDarius voicepack from HBFT. Expect dark tidings.
• Burning forests and burned forests both have updated popup descriptions as to what happens in them. Also, burning forests now deal 25 heat instead of 10.

IMPORTANT: v11.1 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: v11.1 is not a save breaking update, your saves are compatible and will work fine.

IMPORTANT: You can see v11.1'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.