Last month we talked about what's next for BATTLETECH, and outlined some key items we were working on for our first larger free Update to the game. Well - we've just released that Update 1.1.0! This Update is all about giving you more ways to customize your experience, as well as reacting to common pieces of feedback that we've heard from you about the game. It also includes a healthy dose of optimizations and general bugfixes across all areas of BATTLETECH.
We're pleased to report that most of the items we mentioned last month made it into this 1.1.0 release. One thing that didn't is the "Tutorial Skip" feature, but that's still on the roadmap for our next Update. Many more things DID make it in beyond what we mentioned last month, though, like ultrawide monitor support and some additional quality-of-life improvements. The full release notes are below.
The next items on our roadmap are Linux and localized versions of the game. We’re making good progress on Linux and hope to have more specifics to share soon. Unfortunately, we hit some unexpected setbacks on localization, and localized versions of the game (German, French, and Russian) will take longer than we previously thought. We're actively working through it and bringing more people onto the effort, as it’s a top priority for the studio. We’ll update you on Linux and localized version release dates as soon as we have them.
Thank you for your support and please enjoy BATTLETECH 1.1!
-- HBS
IMPORTANT: If you experience any issues after updating, or see a popup like this one when trying to run the game - this is a known issue with Steam, where it can occasionally fail to apply the update as expected. Here's the most reliable way we've seen to get around it:
- Remove an existing game file in your installation directory (e.g. BattleTech.exe)
- Verify Integrity of Game Files (Right-click on BATTLETECH in your Steam Library, select Properties -> Local Files tab)
- The update should now download and apply normally.
IMPORTANT: Additional note for players who mod various game files…Reminder that modding is not officially supported. If you have saved a game with any mod active, that saved game will not work after an update has been applied unless you replace all modded files exactly as they were when the save game file was created. Saved games require the exact same data state in order to function properly.
New Features & Content
MechWarrior customization. Players can now customize the appearance, callsign, name, pronoun, and voice of all non-Ronin MechWarriors in their mercenary company. The starting MechWarriors (Behemoth, Dekker, Glitch, and Medusa) are now considered Ronin.
Granular difficulty settings. Added a wide variety of Granular Difficulty Settings that can be adjusted at any time from the Settings menu.
- Lethality - when enabled, MechWarriors that are disabled in combat will always be killed.
- 'Mech Destruction - when enabled, 'Mechs disabled from Center Torso destruction are permanently lost. This setting is intended for veterans and those seeking a significant challenge.
- No Rare Salvage - when enabled, + and ++ items are no longer generated as salvage results (but remain purchasable in stores).
- MechWarrior Progression - adjust the amount of experience that MechWarriors gain after each mission.
- Advanced MechWarriors - increase or decrease the frequency of more powerful MechWarriors appearing in Hiring Halls in later parts of the game.
- Enemy Force Strength - increase or decrease the baseline strength of the enemy forces you'll face in procedural contracts.
- Contract Payment - increase or decrease the amount of C-Bills paid by procedural contracts across the game.
- Salvage - increase or decrease the amount of salvage you may obtain from negotiation on procedural contracts.
New custom campaign mode. The following added Difficulty Settings can only be adjusted when starting a new campaign (Select "Custom Campaign" when starting a New Game from the Main Menu.)
- Ironman Mode. Your campaign is limited to a single save game slot that automatically updates as you progress. Run out of funds or fail a Priority Mission and it's game over!
- Unequipped 'Mechs - enable this to make 'Mechs completed out of 'Mech parts start empty instead of with a stock loadout.
- Parts for 'Mech Assembly - increase the number of 'Mech parts that must be salvaged to assemble a new 'Mech. This setting is intended for veterans and those seeking a significant challenge.
Accelerate the current action with SPACEBAR. Players can now press SPACEBAR to greatly accelerate the current action. Game speed will return to normal after the action completes.
Speed-Up mode to accelerate all combat actions. Added an option in the Gameplay Settings menu that significantly speeds up combat. Note that this setting is ignored during Multiplayer, and while story dialogue is playing during campaign missions.
General combat speed optimizations. To decrease turn times even when not using new speed-up options. In addition, the settings for combat result pauses and camera transition times have been exposed in CombatGameConstants.json for easier modding.
Cancel combat actions and selections with right-click. Right-clicking in combat (without holding the button down) now acts like the ESC key, backing out of the current action or selection.
MechLab quality-of-life improvements. Including the below additions. See UI section for further UI improvements.
- A shortcut button is now available to bring up the Store directly from the MechLab, allowing players to buy weapons, equipment, and ammo without leaving the MechLab. (Must still be in-orbit to purchase items.)
- The running total C-Bill cost of a work order is now displayed while the player is working in the MechLab.
- Added tooltips for all 'Mech Rating bars in the Mech Bay and MechLab that show and explain more of the specific numbers behind that rating.
- Improved warning communication and tooltips in MechLab.
- Added Scrap button to the Mech Bay Storage screen, to allow scrapping complete 'Mech chassis directly from Storage.
- Gear components now display their stat benefit directly on their component UI (instead of only in their tooltip.)
Current inventory count in Store and Salvage. Item tooltips in the Store and Salvage screens now display how many of that item the player currently has in inventory.
Several new events and improvements to event generation. Including fixing a bug that could cause valid events to appear invalid and not be considered during event generation.
Ultrawide monitor support. BATTLETECH now supports displays with 21:9, 64:27 and 43:18 aspect ratios. Known Issue: a few cosmetic-only bugs still exist in this experience, but given the high-demand for ultrawide support we felt that these minor issues did not need to hold up its release.
[WINDOWS] The BATTLETECH Launcher has exited Beta. This launcher can be used to configure the following options before launching the game: Borderless Windowed Mode, Exclusive Fullscreen Mode, Video Rendering API. We recommend using these options for troubleshooting if you are experiencing hardware or software compatibility issues. The launcher also includes a new automatic crash reporting tab. To use this launcher, run BattleTechLauncher.exe from your game installation folder.
Performance & Compatibility
- Improvements to the game start flow. (Splash screens can now be skipped.)
- The previous "High" visual quality setting has been renamed to "Ultra". The new "High" quality setting disables screen space reflections and clamps volumetric rendering at higher resolutions.
- Significantly improved performance and stability of front-end list interfaces.
- [STEAM] Significantly improved the speed at which save games are refreshed.
- Improved stability when alt-tabbing and otherwise losing focus of the title.
- Improved protection against spam-clicking.
- Combat UI rendering optimizations. These should reduce instances of small hitches during combat.
- Optimizations to building destruction system and related fire and smoke VFX sequences.
- Audio performance optimizations.
- Terrain rendering and tree rendering optimizations.
- VFX and water rendering optimizations.
Balance
- Many existing contracts had their difficulty rating adjusted to more accurately reflect the actual difficulty of the contract and provide a more consistent player experience.
- The difficulty range of contracts in a given system has been expanded to two skulls rather than one skull. Easier and harder contracts will now be available in every system.
- Moving and re-balancing the reinforcement units in some procedural missions.
- The Called Shot bonus for multiple-hit weapons (SRMs, MGs) now diminishes by half with each successive shot.
- Medium 'Mech stability increased to 130 (was 100). Stability recovery increased to 1.2 (was 1.0).
- Heavy 'Mech stability increased to 160 (was 100). Stability recovery increased to 1.4 (was 1.0).
- Assault 'Mech stability increased to 200 (was 100). Stability recovery increased to 1.6 (was 1.0).
- Difficulty modifier for attacks against Light 'Mechs increased to 3 (was 2).
- PPC heat generation reduced to 35 (was 40).
- ER Large Laser heat generation reduced to 25 (was 40).
- Large Laser heat generation reduced to 18 (was 30).
- Pulse Medium Laser heat generation reduced to 16 (was 25).
- Medium Laser heat generation increased to 12 (was 10).
- Small Laser heat generation increased to 6 (was 5).
- AC/2 heat generation reduced to 4 (was 5).
- AC/5 heat generation reduced to 8 (was 10).
- AC/10 heat generation reduced to 12 (was 15).
- AC/20 heat generation reduced to 24 (was 25).
- LRM-10 heat generation reduced to 10 (was 12).
- LRM-15 heat generation reduced to 14 (was 15).
- SRM-2 heat generation reduced to 4 (was 6).
- SRM-6 heat generation reduced to 12 (was 14).
- Flamer starting ammo reduced to 4 (was 6).
UI
- The 'Mech status display on the After Action Report no longer displays structure damage above armor, which was confusing to a number of players (particularly when heat damage was incurred underneath armor.) Warning icons now appear if structure damage was incurred, but intact armor now takes precedence on the 'Mech status display.
- Added a selection state during keybinding to indicate which action is currently listening for a keypress to bind to the action.
- Improved communication in the Engineering room when an Argo Upgrade is in-progress.
- Standardized custom 'Mech name field to 16 characters.
- Disallowing bad characters (e.g. tabs, newlines) in input fields.
- New loading screen game tips, and revisions to some existing loading screen game tips.
- Floatie text for Breaching Shot now appears over the target instead of the attacker.
- Improved visibility for Sensor Locked floatie text.
- Color selectors on the heraldry customization screen now wrap.
- Added a Tooltip explaining the behavior of the "Travel to System" button.
- Added a confirmation prompt when using the "restore defaults" button in an options menu.
- Improvements to Store loading times.
AI
- AI improvements to Liberation: Panzyr to address AI threat assessments.
- AI improvements to Defense: Smithon to the AI's ability to advance towards priority targets. Also encounter re-balancing to accommodate the improved behavior.
- Fixed an AI issue where enemy units could sometimes sprint even while unsteady.
- Fixed AI behavior in Defend Base missions to focus slightly less on destroying targeted buildings and to be more responsive to the player damaging them.
- Improved AI multi-targeting logic, and fixed a bug where AI units could sometimes unfairly use multitarget.
- Improved AI patrol-path behavior.
- AI now prioritizes the selection of Unsteady units.
- AI performance optimizations.
- AI units are now more cautious about using jumpjets when overheated.
- Fixed AI units incorrectly bracing when they can no longer sprint (e.g. when a leg is removed).
Multiplayer & Accounts
- Fixed an issue where attempting to log in to Paradox Account without an active internet connection resulted in an infinite loading screen.
- Fixed an issue in Multiplayer that could cause turns to extend past the turn-timer limit when players used single-move or jump actions during non-interleaved movement.
- Improved content filtering for lobby names and chat.
- Various improvements to Multiplayer Lobby UI behavior.
- Player can now use the Eject button in Skirmish Multiplayer and Skirmish vs. AI.
- Significantly improved performance of server browser when many games are shown.
Bugfixes
- Dozens of procedural mission fixes & tweaks, including fixing instances of misplaced spawners causing units to become stuck.
- Fixing cases of procedural missions that would either auto-complete early, or not at all.
- Fixing the behavior of some escort / convoy lances in procedural missions. (Cases of units failing to reach their destinations, convoy guards not activating when expected, friendly escort units getting stuck, etc.)
- Fixed issues with loading process where specific Contracts could fail to load.
- Fixing various VO and dialogue issues in procedural missions (specifically Assassinate & Battle contracts.)
- General map polishing and collision clean-up on many maps.
- Fixed an issue where certain instances of Destroy or Defend Base contracts could auto-fail.
- Fixed a UI bug where objectives appeared in the incorrect order of priority on some missions (secondaries above primaries).
- Fixed an issue where in some few cases, reinforcements would not spawn as expected.
- Fixed an issue where an enemy Enforcer would spawn stuck in the Escape mission on Artru.
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to back out of the Liberation: Itrom lance configuration screen.
- Various cosmetic map geometry fixes across the game (floating assets, clipping assets, etc.)
- Various fixes and improvements to the building destruction system (more natural collapse behavior, better debris coverage, improved physics behavior.)
- Various combat VFX fixes & improvements.
- Various 'Mech animation fixes & improvements.
- Various cosmetic dialogue edits to clarify story points and fix continuity errors.
- Various typo fixes across the game.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock after ejecting a MechWarrior with the Ace Pilot ability.
- Various fixes to the animation flow for the eject action.
- Fixed a bug where Rear Torso armor on 'Mechs in combat could remain even after the associated Torso section had been destroyed.
- Fixing the tooltip for the "Done" action for MechWarriors with the Ace Pilot ability.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue where MechWarrior portraits could become greyed out after using the Vigilance morale ability in certain conditions, despite not having acted yet.
- Fixed an issue that could cause a newly-completed 'Mech to disappear after loading a save game created at the same time as the 'Mech construction completed.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Kamea or Alexander to be incorrectly present on the Argo after backing out of Lance Configuration for certain Priority Missions.
- Fixed an input exploit that could allow players to hire MechWarriors that they didn't meet the MRB Rating requirements for.
- Fixed an issue where players could cancel a Travel Contract without incurring the advertised Reputation penalty with the client faction.
- Fixed an input exploit that could allow players to create overweight 'Mechs.
- Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Travel Contracts to change difficulty upon arrival in the destination system.
- Fixed an issue that could cause certain 'Mech repair tasks queued from the MechLab to fail to appear in the Timeline.
- Fixed a bug where the 'Mech performance rating bars in the Mech Bay could be displayed incorrectly for 'Mechs with destroyed components on them.
- Fixed an issue where the Max Injuries value displayed for MechWarriors in the hiring hall was not taking into account bonuses from their Guts skill.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue where item quantity values in the Store UI were not being refreshed after selling items.
- Fixed an issue where the tooltip for Priority Missions was failing to display on the Contracts screen.
- Fixing cinematics audio to respect the "Play Audio When Alt-Tabbed" setting.
- Fixed some positional audio issues and incorrect audio assignments on destructible buildings.
- Fixed an issue where certain cosmetic (non-gameplay) decorative objects would no longer be present on maps after loading a combat save game.
- Fixed a bug where the UI indicating dangerous locations in combat (e.g. artillery regions) would fail to deactivate after the dangerous conditions were over.
- Fixed an issue where the "Zoom to New Contact" setting wasn't being respected during first contact with enemies.
- Fixed an issue where the Sensor Lock effect would no longer be present on a sensor locked unit after loading a combat save.
- Fixed an issue where 'Mechs that lost a leg due to ammo explosion did not experience Knockdown as expected.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue where the Restart and Stand Up buttons could overlap with the Eject action confirmation button in the combat UI.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue where small weapon attacks could impact empty air above a target after a melee knockdown had occurred.
- Fixing Stalker arm missile pod visibility.
- Improved Radiation Field fog VFX.
- Jump Jet VFX now scale based on 'Mech weight class.
- The King Crab has opened its claws.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue that could sometime cause weather effects to temporarily disappear in the Windy Day mood.
- Fixed some cosmetic issues with hair rendering in MacOS.
- Fixed an issue with the Skirmish MechBay incorrectly displaying the weight range of Assault Mechs as 85-100 tons. (Now displays as 80-100 tons.)
- Various fixes to tooltips, including an issue that could cause tooltips to become cut-off at the bottom.
- Fixed an issue where MechWarriors would sometimes play their injury VO even if game effect (e.g. a cockpit mod) had prevented the injury from occurring.
- Fixed an issue where achievements regarding lance composition could be unlocked by using lances of less than 4 'Mechs.
- Fixed an issue where the background UI was interactable during login or account creation.
- Fixed an issue where the selection field in dropdowns would display multiple selections.
- Fixed an issue where the selected lobby may become unavailable when server browser refreshes.
Known Issues
- There is currently a small chance of the starter MechWarriors (Glitch, Behemoth, Dekker, Medusa) incorrectly appearing as hireable Ronin MechWarriors in hiring halls later in the game.
- Skirmish lances created prior to updating to 1.1.0 may contain 'Mechs with old weapon & stability values.
- We have had occasional reports of save game lists failing to initialize from Steam. Restarting the game should generally resolve this issue.
- Some tooltips may appear visually truncated at the bottom.
- A few cosmetic-only UI bugs exist when playing on an ultrawide monitor, but given the high-demand for ultrawide support we felt that these minor issues did not need to hold up its release.