TL;DR
Steam Workshop support added for custom mechs
New Dept. of Engineering tab for variant weapons and mods
Weapon Groups + backend now supports up to 12 weapon slots
New TacRadar HUD element
Enemy alert & spawn tuning, AoE damage changes, weapon tweaks, bug fixes
Steam Workshop Support
AKA: the Dept. of Independent Innovations
Official Steam Workshop support has been added!
Get started: Download the example mech Badger-ex from the Workshop (great as a template).
Modding guide coming to Community Guides.
You can now make, upload and download modded mechs via the Steam Workshop. For now, only custom mechs can be made, with plans to expand this to other vehicle types in the future.
Each mod is essentially a collection of PNGs with a .json file to tie it together, which should make it reasonably approachable. While also being customizable enough to go wild with new mech ideas.
To start off, 2 example mechs have been added to the Workshop:
Badger-ex: A recreation of the vanilla Badger, using the modding tools.
Badger 6-Shooter: A badger with 6 weapon slots.
The modded Badger 6-Shooter in action. As the name suggests, it carries 6 weapons: 3 gauss rifles & 3 MRL4s.
UI Updates
Dept. of Engineering
Introducing: the Dept. of Engineering.
A new place dedicated to unlocking modified variants of equipment, and other items that don't really have a place in the Tech Tree.
To start, "variant" weapons have been moved from the main Tech Tree to the Engineering tab. This should also help with making the Tech Tree easier to read. These weapons include: AC-20-Canister, AC-20HB, GL40-AB, QL-Missile and the PL-L Scatter. 2 new variant mechs have also been added: the Badger-M and Uhlan-BL.
Equipment becomes available to unlock in the Dept. of Engineering, once you have unlocked their related item in the main Tech Tree. E.g. unlocking the AC-20 will make the AC-20-HB and AC-20-Canister available in Engineering.
In addition, modded items will also appear here.
Tech Tree Refresh
Nodes
Changes have been made to the research nodes. Which should make them quicker to read, and easier on the eye.
Equipment names are only shown on hover.
Lines between unlocked nodes are now green, as opposed to white.
Weapon nodes have their weapon size icon shown.
If unlocking an item also makes something available in Engineering, the node shows a gear icon.
Connected Engineering nodes are also shown in the unlock information pop-up.
Loadout screen
Weapon Groups
People were already changing their key bindings to group multiple weapons together. Now, it is an actual feature! There are 4 weapon groups that act similar to how the 4 weapons used to act. If you opt not to customize these weapon groups, you should not experience any difference in controls.
Changes to these weapon groups are saved per-vehicle, and can be customized in the loadout screen.
In addition, this also opens the possibility for more than 4 weapons per vehicle (while still retaining 4 weapon groups). Together with this update, I have also made some changes to the back-end to make sure it will also support this. Putting the new (theoretical) limit at 12 weapon slots. Currently, no in-game vehicle makes use of this. But with the addition of mod support...
Auto generated stats
Stats are now calculated in-game instead of manually entered. Numbers may differ, but behavior shouldn’t.
HUD
Radar
The nifty new TacRadar has been added to the HUD. Using this radar, you can see stuff like:
Main objectives
Extraction
Enemy units within a 100m radius
Secondary objectives within a 100m radius
Weapon groups
The weapons list has been updated to now show the weapon groups.
Weapon aim lines are now also colored based on their weapon group (blue for group 1, orange for group 2). Settings to customize these aim lines further are planned for a future update.
Other
Enemy changes
Enemy behavior changes.
Enemy units will now only alert nearby units of your location if they were the one to spot you. Previously, they would also alert nearby units if they were alerted themselves. In some missions, this could cause nearly the entire map to be alerted of your position.
Enemy spawn changes.
Increased time between sector spawn attempts.
Made it less likely for enemy units to spawn at a sector you came from.
Enemy unit cap setting
A setting to modify the enemy unit cap has been added. You can lower it to 50%, or double it if you like a challenge. This setting is applied at the start of a mission. Note: putting this setting too high might cause some performance issues. But I figured it's better to at least give the option.
Weapon changes
AoE damage changes
Previously, AoE damage falloff was calculated from the center of a unit. Now the closest point is used, making direct hits more reliable.
Damage falloff starts at 25% of the explosion radius. At the outer edge, damage is reduced to 25% of base.
If anything is between the explosion source and a target (e.g. a wall, shield or another unit), the damage is further reduced.
Damage type tweaks
Plasma: Damage to Health: x0.75 > x0.85
Energy: Damage to Armor: x0.75 > x0.8
Damage type properties are now shown in the loadout selection screen when pressing the "help" button
Weapon spread changes.
Changes have been made to how weapon spread is calculated. Because of this, the first shot of all weapons should be more accurate.
Proximity fuses
Changed projectiles with proximity fuses to not detonate the moment they detect a nearby target. Instead, they measure the distance to nearby targets, detonating once this distance increases (i.e., after the projectile passes the closest point to the target). This should make them more reliable.
Applies to: Cluster Launcher, Cluster Pod, FL4K, AB-Rocket, GL40-AB
Weapon size icons
Updated weapon size icons to be more readable.
Added "Pierce"
Some weapons now have a "Pierce" function, allowing them to shoot through certain objects/ components/units. This is most noticeable with the "Pilum", which can now shoot through the Barriers' shield, and some small units. Note: This system is being slowly rolled out, and currently mainly affects the Pilum. A more detailed explanation will follow.
Increased Artillery explosion radius
Howitzer: 10 > 13
Mortar: 6 > 7
MRL4
Now fires all 4 rockets in a salvo, similar to other MRL weapons.
Reduced max spread.
Hooligan 20mm & 25mm: Increased time it takes to reach max spread
AGL Thumper: Reload time: 6 > 5
Cluster Pod: Reload time: 8 > 7
Bug fixes
Fixed Slagger rear component not being attached to rest of the unit.
Displayed language on the dropdown language selector now properly updating when a different language was selected.