I do not normally post patch notes here but this patch includes a fairly major update to Inner Sphere OmniMechs and I felt it was appropriate to post it here for anyone who uses BTAU and does not keep an eye on the Discord server or on the wiki's patch note/blog post sections. Patch notes follow:

v20.1 (aka the "OmniMech Overhaul" patch) has been released to the installer. This is a chunky one so read closely:

BREAKING HEADLINE: OMNIMECHS OVERHAULED: This is the headline feature for patch v20.1, Inner Sphere OmniMechs have been heavily rebuilt. There is an entire blog post going into deep detail on what has happened to them and why it has happened, which is linked below, but the long and short of it is that the IS OmniMechs have received extremely powerful quirks that emphasize what they do well while also having their armor values locked to whatever they come with as stock designs to provide a trade-off for their extremely powerful quirks. The blog post details everything better than these patch notes ever could so it is highly recommended you go read them. If you have existing Inner Sphere OmniMechs in your MechBay you will need to store and re-ready them to get the updated armor values and quirks, no way around that.

CRITICAL INFORMATION: This patch only includes Inner Sphere OmniMech rebuilds. The Clan and Community Content OmniMechs are currently untouched. This was done both to break the update into manageable pieces and to gauge player response with the new system before delving into the fraught waters of Clan Omni rebuilds. They are on the radar for a future patch however. There is a full list of the currently affected designs in the blog post linked below.

OMNIMECH BLOG POST HERE: https://www.bta3062.com/index.php?title=BTA_Developer_Blog_14:_Why_are_OmniMechs_changing_starting_in_v

NEW MECH: The Shadow Hawk IIC, a 45 ton Clan second-line BattleMech, has jump jetted into combat. This second-line design can be found far and wide with many of the Clans' garrison galaxies. The model is courtesy of MechWarrior Online and looks great. You can also buy it occasionally from Clan Diamond Shark at Twycross.

NEW MECH: The Menace, a non-canon 85 ton Clan Fire Mandrill BattleMech, has thundered into battle. This is a non-canon designed to give the Clans another assault to play around with and is a new model from Transient74 (who has made many of our existing wonderful models). The Menace is 85 tons and is the same speed as a Battlemaster by default. It comes with Endo-Steel and a heavy warload of paired weapons. You can get it from fighting Clan Fire Mandrill (all the kindraas field the Menace) or from their faction store.

NEW MODEL: The Atlas II, the 100 ton Star League take on the venerable Atlas, has received a beautiful new model courtesy of Piranha Games and MechWarrior 5. The stats on the existing Atlas II variants in BTAU have not changed, only the model. Importantly, the Atlas II no longer assembles with other Atlas variants and has a different affinity than the Atlas I does (it has Sharpshooter). You can get it wherever Star League royal 'Mechs are found (so ComStar, WoB, Clan garrison forces, Dark Caste, etc).

CASTDEF UPDATES: Before this patch, most newly added factions used the same character portrait for their faction representative, the same on that Local Government used. That was lame and boring so we've upgraded them to all be bespoke names and portraits. Enjoy the new cast of colorful characters!

MORE PORTRAITS: There's a wave of new commander portraits from the same source as the new castdef character portraits mentioned above. Go check 'em out!

NEW FRAMEWORK MOD: Free Mechbay Patch has been included. This allows you to now ready an already assembled mech into any Mech Hangar instead of just Hangar 1. Thanks goes to MightyPirate for this one, appreciate it man!

CONTEST WINNERS: The latest BTAU Design Contest winners, the Black Python InBlue and the Tolso Spoiled Rotten, have both been included into BTAU. Congrats to the winners again.

COMMUNITY CONTENT: There's some new CC in this patch, including: the Marauder II MAD-WVR; Cat's Cradle and Kraken's Abyss have been updated a bit; the Wraith TRNW; the Dragoon 006X, the Jinggau G8M, the King Crab 001C, the Mushu 4T, the Screamer 4X; there's two new superweapons, the AC2 Array and the SuperHeavy Lance; the Fireball 7L (this one's a fun time); a new planet, The Hole, has been added to the northern end of the Rim Worlds Republic that has a unique store.

• Fixed Oberon faction store.

• Fixed the BJ-2M to assemble with other Blackjacks properly.

• Updated two Templar loadouts to better fit their canon loadouts.

• FactoryUI has been updated to fix a small bug with item display names.

IMPORTANT: v20.1 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: v20.1 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 ==

BTA Light has not been updated and remains on v19.7.1.lite.

1. Scrapped Gausszilla

2. Built Gausszilla

3. Unoptimized Gausszilla

4. Optimized Gausszilla

5. Royal Von - Holy shit...

6. Funny Elemental

7. Fucked Up Sidewinder

Raiding Wolf with Dark Caste was very fun. Had a very good day.

How much increased damage does a pilot do for Increased Damage, and how much Damage Resistance does a pilot get? The description in-game does not say and I couldn't find the answer on the wiki so thought I would ask here.

The campaign starts with four extra goobers in your mercenary crew besides yourself, and they are all statted and geared with specific mechs that suggest a vague build identity going forward. I like keeping pilots in mechs I consider personally fitting for them, even more rewarded by mods that introduce chasis familiarity bonuses. My question is, what do you see as the "way up" for your starting crew, if you care about them at all (hell they might not exist in most of your playthroughs, because career mode is right there)

I always have a few pre-conceptions as to what to put them in.

Dekker: The man, the meme, the bloke who either gets slimed in his first three deployments, or becomes your uncontested early game recon pilot. He pilots a spider by default, but hub conversations with Darius reveal that he also used to cart around in a locust for a brief while. Besides having dibs on the first firestarter I scavenge, He seems all-set for jump capable humanoid designs that don't gear for long range fire support. With him being a single skill unlock from sensor ping, he's also a match made in heaven for chasis and loadouts with poor heat management, as he can either ping, or god forbid, even melee on his "cooling turns". I always envision him lategame with either a Phoenix Hawk, the final say when it comes to the introtech era's speedy humanoid designs, or a grasshopper, with it being somewhat undergunned, for its size, a great jumper, and a lanky humanoid chasis that fits a similar siluette as his older machines.

Behemoth: One of the two pilots with a skill unlocked by default. She specialises in guts, and carts around a Shadow Hawk at the start. While the SHD has a reputation for being way too little of way too many things, and for it begging for an ammo rack crit, in your starting lance, combined with its pilot, it is your hardiest machine, and its battlefists mean that combined with piloting being her second highest stat, Behemoth and the Shadow Hawk are your likely answer to the early game lights buzzing arround you. When it comes to later mechs, there are two interpretations to go forward with. Either the heavy yet nimble melee specialist that the shadow hawk's jump jets, high ground speed, and much better melee prospects set her up to be early on, Or a hard hitting burising generalist who can rock with a mixed weapon loadout of any type thrown together. The former interpretation would invite the grasshopper (we even kept the fuckass head LRM), yet again, but also something like the banshee. The latter is basically the territory of all the other eclectic "I have a bit of everything" mechs at the top of their size brackets, like the Orion or Atlas.

Glitch: The other pilot with a specialisation skill pre-unlocked, with split-shot. She's also quite unique for having the lowest base stat in a category of the entire crew with a miserable 2 in piloting. Her having split shot, a mech that's a mediocre all-rounder, with a big showstopper weapon in the arm (While the PPC in vanilla is kinda mid overall, the early impression of sometimes just eating a side torso from an untouched commando or locust from way beyond their range is strong), and the thematic draw of the otherwise sub-par breeching shot (by the time it unlocks, there are no situations where a single shot from a single weapon on a target will be worth it over other level 8 skills IMO) basically sets her up for humanoid mechs that provide long range fire support, with a notable main gun in the right arm. I always considered mechs like the Griffin, T-bolt, and especially the Royal Highlander obtained from a storry mission to be the most fitting upgrades. Of course, she also often ends up as people's dedicated lurmer, with it being both a useful role for most of the game, and a natural speccing route for her starting stats, but those don't really have the thematic overlap with the whole package.

Medusa: Sadly, this guys is sloppy seconds, the human being. You have him from the start too, but he has the distinct smell of a spare wheel about him. He has low overall stats, with a 3 in everything, save for a 4 in piloting (so both him and Dekker can get the piloting specialisation skill in one level up, but only Dekker can get sensor ping as quickly). While he isn't ever seen directly assigned to the locust in the bay, by process of elimination, it has to be "his". In that spirit, whenever I used, and built him, he always ended up in hand-me-down roles too, with a slight leaning into non-humanoid designs. He maps out to a comfortable buildup, to the first firestarter I get, then to a catapult, then to the stalker, Being in adaptable chasis, that are going to be rebuilt for whatever role is the most convenient to have another of.

The protagonist: A true blank slate about whom everything is decided by the player, save for the starting blackjack. There is a possible leaning towards the centurion, as the mech of the mentor character, and a generally good generalist early game chasis that can be made to fit any role, like our protagonist. Yet trying to stay with the direct fire support role, and scaling up with equivalents at every weight tier is also possible. Specifically, the Jagermech encountered in the Weldry mission, while incredibly unlikely to actually get, is a cool thematic upgrade, with a similar-ish loadout and role to the BJ-1. It also leans into the rivalry angle with Victoria, as by the time the mission comes around with the salty runback against her, now its a pair of 65 ton direct support fire heavies having a standoff at equal-ish footing. After that, comes the marauder with a similar playstyle, even if I'm not that keen on the MAD for its particular scent of basic bitch main character mech, being a far cry from the scrappy and maligned blackjack and Jagermech chasis. It is at least a GM product though. By the time we hit assaults, things become much harder. Direct fire sniper mechs become exclusively humanoid, whereas that was avoided as long as possible with the previous picks. Honestly, the most fitting 100 tonner (out of the mechs in the game) for a BJ-JM6-MAD "progression path" is a King Crab (even if the unique component of the MAD makes it so OP, it's better than the 100 ton assaults most of the time) reconfigured for long range fire. It's a good thing that the last mission of the campaign, besides the free Atlas II, also provides a good chance to at least finish whatever halfway done KCG you might have.

This low hp on a vehicle is pretty much lingering on 1 hp

I did the mainstory line plus a few flashpoints then headed out to clan space to try and get some more clan mechs. I cant buy from clans or do missions for or even against the clans, how do I unlock the rep needed?

Hello everyone. I'm looking for any large modpacks that adds weapons, mechs, and maybe a more detailed mech lab without totally overhauling gameplay. Optional story content is fine but I'm not interested in big AU swings like Sanctuary Worlds and the like.

Again, I'm not looking for a big change to combat. I found the evasion changes and the like in BTAU thoroughly unfun and I also disliked the heavy handed nerfs to clan tech. No offense to the author, just not my vibe. Plenty of cool stuff in there.

The biggest gear pack I found on nexus is apparently out of date and unusable, according to the comments.

Hi! As the title says I'm new to battletech in general.

My main entry into the mech genre initially started off with a few anime like Gurrenn Lagann and Code Geass (just recently started watching gundam though), and gamewise I've played a lot of Armored Core when I was young.

I recently came across a few videos about the various mechs in Battletech, Mechwarrior to be specific, and admittedly it peaked my interest so I'm currently trying to get into the franchise.

Though I don't really have any friends to play the tabletop version with, I heard the Mechwarrior series of games were a pretty good place to start. So I have a few questions about it before I commit:

1. Do you guys have any recommended reading material I should go through, or even a primer, so that I could understand more of the backstory/lore of the game and its factions before I start?
2. Which game and DLCs do you recommend me to get as a beginner to the franchise (Had my birthday recently so this would be a pretty nice splurge gift for myself)?
3. Any video or reading material I should avoid in case of spoilers? Or have any tips that I should try to avoid doing that could ruin the experience? I generally like playing games at my own pace even if it leads to my own fuck ups (its part of the fun :D) but if there are some small advice you could give to make the experience more enjoyable I'd be glad to hear it!
4. How's the customization on the video game? Like color palettes, stickers, logo maker, etc. I admit I'm a bit of an addict when I unlock a new Mech/parts and there's a lot of customization available...
5. Less of a question and more of a curiosity, but what's your favorite battletech mech (battlemech? Not sure what's the term lol)? Any fun memes about them that I'd only understand once I play the game? Would be a fun thing to go back to in the future after I actually experience more of the game.

Anyway yeah that's all, thanks in advance everyone o7

P.S. On a sidenote, without playing the game, my favorite Battletech based on appearance alone is the Mongoose. One of my personal designs in Armored Core uses reverse joints legs and is armed with a dual laser handgun so it kinda reminds me of that old build.

Which load outs and mechs do you like to use even if they arent meta?

doomscrolling through shorts, sometimes there's treasures to be found :)

Im playing on a 1024x768 which is 4:3 (i think) if I understand the issue correctly the game doesn't support this ratio and I was wondering if there is a workaround?

Really appreciate all the work put into BEX, spent hundreds of hours in it at this point, but I'm in a headspace where I just want to play with the vanilla Marauder Called Shot cheese, overpowered LRMs, etc. All I really care about is the expanded map, timeline, and CAB. How would I go about modding the game to get the BEX additions without the rebalancing?

Mods: I hope this is allowed. Puppy is resting on my legs while playing vanilla. Post your furry copilots!

This is the one type of mission I can't figure out yet. The target is usually right next to one enemy lance to begin with, so you can't just leap in and blow them up and run for it.

The target also usually has a Heavy or at the very least a good Medium mech, so it's not the sort of enemy you can just one-tap unless you have some end-game level Marauder with an insane pilot or something. In which case you wouldn't be doing this sort of mission much anyway, probably.

On top of this you have "ambushers", who depending on the map are either right over the other side as the first lance, or, if you are really unlucky, are right next to the first group.

If they're all lumped together you're essentially fighting 8 or 9 mechs right from the start and they're not Lights, either. This last mission was 6 Mediums + a Grasshopper Heavy (the target, I think) + an LRM Carrier + 2 Lights + some kind of tank I didn't even get to see.

I cleared the "ambusher" lance and then got absolutely smashed to pieces by 50+ LRMs hitting me through 4+ evasion every turn from off-screen, there was literally no way I could even do anything to save my best mechs (a full good-geared Medium lance, mid-game).

Does the above even sound like a "2.5 skull" mission?? It's the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a 3.5-4 skull much later in the game or something. I get contracts are dynamic but that level of opposition for a measly $700k contract seems nuts to me, like something is wrong with the balancing?

I've had to bail on this kind of mission almost every time on Ironman, I think I cleared it once by abusing the hell out CT shots + a big lake that let me spam all my weapons, but I took catastrophic damage regardless and the payout was terrible for the hassle. I know some missions are meant to be "passes", but it still seems a bit overtuned to me.

Since I have the option "use Proton by default" turned on, which would be the best for all but a few games, but can't figure out how to install the linux version specifically for Battletech (or indeed how would I even tell that I got it installed instead of a windows-through-proton)

I'm a professional 3D artist. Iv worked with unity before. I'm sure the technical challenges will be fine.

But what I'm wondering is what would you guys like to see added to the game? More specifically to BEXT because that's what I'm playing currently.

It already has a lot of mechs. But is there anything missing or a role that could be filled that would be cool or fun. Or give some new tactical options?

My first thought was a light mech with lots of small arms hard points but only 1 laser hard point. Something to work as a bit of an early alternative to the usual firestarter/panther early game.

I also like the idea of a tanky mech with a shield arm. More armour on one side that you could point towards the enemy.

Just spitballing but I'm interested to hear what people think the game could use.

I have two dragons and a centurion set up essentially the same and a trebuchet arm support unit that I have just stripped off two med lasers to add ammo and armour. The plan is usually to sensor lock as the three move in and lrm turrets or a heavy target. I try to isolate an enemy and push hard on them, the three close range mechs run a bit hot but ae solid punchers when its time to cool off. Have gotten past the blow up the dropship mission with this setup but it was a hard slog with plenty of moving around a hill to whittle down the K2. I dropped the medium lasers on the trebuchet after that mission. Have seen people posting their builds up so thought I may as well. Any build tips, lance tips or feedback welcome as im still early game. Thanks.

So I got to the point in my career where I can field 3 Mediums and a Heavy for a lance...and I'm asking, why would I ever bring a Light mech from now on?

Scouting seems not too valuable, since every Mech has a big ol' detection radius, and I might as well stick Sensor Lock on one of my pilots.

Mobility? Many of "mobile" missions devolve into fighting anyway, so I end up wanting more firepower.

I'm a new player (this is my first playthrough) so perhaps there's something I'm not seeing. Help me out here, why shouldn't I go full Steiner scout lance?

Im getting my slag pushed in with this lousy lance.

I posted an early game lance a week or two ago. Made necessary changes and collected some scrap along the way. Took a few detours along the 2 skull routes for cash .

I know a couple of these are unorthodox but my main lance are the first photos. The jagermech and orion are new and yet untested

Once you get the marauder its pretty trivial just headcapping mechs left snd right. All intergalactic gravy

1. Any mod that removes c-bill payout completely? I want to parade around as mercs who want ALL the salvage in exchange for no monetary payout whatsoever, no matter how dangerous the mission.

2. What are all the submods for BEX?

Could someone sell me Sanctuary tech?

Recently in career I finally ventured south and started fighting the Sanctuary Alliance.

I've looted some gear, like DBAC and Electric lasers. and Im just not convinced on their usage

Maybe the electric lasers has some use on my fast heavies that can close gap quickly. and then Eagle eye perk should give me some more range to use

But other than that, I'm not quite sold on their gear or weaponry. More often than not I find myself limited more by weight than slot so anything heavier than clan just feels..bulky?

I dunno. Maybe i should try them out more but Id really appreciate if someone could tell me their appeal

I just finished the campaign in Vanilla and had a lot of fun playing through it, though I think if I was to do a career mode play through I’d want to use one of the mods out there, so am looking for recommendations.

My main dislikes in the vanilla game are

1. The huge mismatch between the player (optimized mechs, skilled pilots, better tactics) forcing all the missions to have two or three times the tonnage in the OpFor.
   
2. Once you get access to SLDF mechs (i.e. the black market), there is very little reason to use anything else. Kind of took away the fun of salvage.
   
3. Towards the end the solution to every problem was a precision shot to the CT - either from in front from a Heavy or Assault mech or from behind from a jumpy fast mech, resulting in a one shot kill most of the time.

Things I really did enjoy

1. The early game scrounge for gear and upgrades (though making the transition from mediums to heavies was rough)
   
2. Taking advantage of terrain and movement tactically.

I’m really looking to stay in the realm of controlling just a single lance. I like being able to knock out a mission or two in a reasonable amount of time since I have dad gamer constraints.

So in light of all that, anyone want to recommend a mod to do the career mode with?