Funny thing, first time I loaded it into my company. I hit continue, instead of load, and it loaded up my save game from right after I finished last campaign mission,
[Mod] JK_Variants 1.8.0.0 - 175+ 'Mechs and 125+ Vees, Rarity Tables, and more
- Thread starter Justin Kase
- Start date
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That is what it should do. If installed correctly, it should allow all save games to continue forward and inject the new material in - either just in Skirmish (modding just the VersionManifest.csv) or in both Skirmish & Campaign (modding the MetadataDatabase.db file as well).
The only thing I don't know is how it will interact with other mods - especially if they have similar logic or naming of things to this one.
I was just surprised it loaded me 6 months or so back from my current saves.
As this is my third play through, I have installed
https://www.reddit.com/r/BattleTechMods/comments/8frbbn/mod_releaselostech_in_shops/
and it is working fine with your setup.
Oh - didn't realize what you meant! Sorry, that was unintended 
Glad to hear the game is playing nice with other mods.
NOTE to all : a Star League model (Griffin GRF-2N) accidentally slipped loose of my BETA folder and became part of the mod. Unfortunately, when I ran the automated functions to add the mechdefs to the MDD, it also added that 'Mech. Working to get a new mod out (1.02a) that will move those files into a JK_StarLeague folder in the mods folder. If everything works the way I hope, it should not invalidate any saves for people that were lucky enough to acquire one already. BUT, it should prevent them from appearing on the OpFor side going forward.
The intention of that portion of the mod was to have Star League era versions of the available chassis we have - which could then be used in Events/Story mods as needed.
EDIT : Mod 1.02a is now posted which should fix this issue
Apologies to all!
Glad to hear the game is playing nice with other mods.
NOTE to all : a Star League model (Griffin GRF-2N) accidentally slipped loose of my BETA folder and became part of the mod. Unfortunately, when I ran the automated functions to add the mechdefs to the MDD, it also added that 'Mech. Working to get a new mod out (1.02a) that will move those files into a JK_StarLeague folder in the mods folder. If everything works the way I hope, it should not invalidate any saves for people that were lucky enough to acquire one already. BUT, it should prevent them from appearing on the OpFor side going forward.
The intention of that portion of the mod was to have Star League era versions of the available chassis we have - which could then be used in Events/Story mods as needed.
EDIT : Mod 1.02a is now posted which should fix this issue
Apologies to all!
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OOhh, does that mean you are making a mod to put the SLDF mechs into the OPFOR (on purpose)?Oh - didn't realize what you meant! Sorry, that was unintended
Glad to hear the game is playing nice with other mods.
NOTE to all : a Star League model (Griffin GRF-2N) accidentally slipped loose of my BETA folder and became part of the mod. Unfortunately, when I ran the automated functions to add the mechdefs to the MDD, it also added that 'Mech. Working to get a new mod out (1.02a) that will move those files into a JK_StarLeague folder in the mods folder. If everything works the way I hope, it should not invalidate any saves for people that were lucky enough to acquire one already. BUT, it should prevent them from appearing on the OpFor side going forward.
The intention of that portion of the mod was to have Star League era versions of the available chassis we have - which could then be used in Events/Story mods as needed.
Apologies to all!
THAT would shake things up
I am of the opinion that salvage numbers should remain vanilla (with an optional SimGameConstants for those interested). An increase in "salvage difficulty" is going to be a significant draw of this mod (and others like it).
How would you feel about adding the BNC-3MC? While its availability is limited until 3039, the variant uses all IntroTech. Everything else is covered (barring SLDF variants and new chassis). It has been playing wonderfully so far.
New Mod was posted up to Google Drive and Nexus Mods 1.02a is the latest version.
The SLDF stuff could be added in if someone wanted to But, I am hoping to use it in a multiple stage mission mod to add a little more content. We'll see
I've been playing it vanilla and it has been going pretty well so far.
OOhh, does that mean you are making a mod to put the SLDF mechs into the OPFOR (on purpose)?
THAT would shake things up
The SLDF stuff could be added in if someone wanted to
But, I am hoping to use it in a multiple stage mission mod to add a little more content. We'll see I've been playing it vanilla and it has been going pretty well so far.
The 3MC is available in @Lynx7725 's mod. I intend to it add as well.
@Justin Kase Sorry I didn't get back to posting yesterday. So one of the ones that would fit your mod would be the HBK-4SP (3025). I'll PM you later my Zeus-6Y files.
Hopefully I can get around to releasing what I have tonight, we'll see.
Other things I've noticed while adding variants:
* The Urban has default rarity of "0" - I've never seen an Urban at all in my vanilla BT campaign. I was under the initial impression "0" meant common and "1" as uncommon, but 0 might be the Off switch altogether so it doesn't appear in random lances?
* While testing my variants in Skirmish, I've noticed that the "Random" Lance setting actually does throw in new variants from time to time (unsure if rarity affects this) without needing to have anything in the MDD. It does this by utilizing the Lance jsons.
* The "Detail/Description" sections on Mechs (and also weapons/equipment) are best with as few sentences as possible. If writing an entire paragraph it starts to overlap other details in the UI. However, "Yangs Thoughts" (not sure if there is a way to rename this) can have way more added to it, so I've been writing quite a bit of cool things and Easter Eggs for this section.
-> Also specific syntax behavior like <b></b> can be used which bolds the lettering, other syntax may be able to be used for italics and underlining, or linking to "lore" jsons.
* The whole 10 engine heat sinks thing HBS has setup is going to be more problematic than realized, since those Mechs that only have DHS in the engine will be entirely obsoleted and not work very efficiently in combat. Overall "10 Engine HS" is more trouble than its worth. I have found no setting that switches the engine sinks to DHS.
Other Notes:
- After I release my mod, not sure what to call it, working title "YAVM" - Yet Another Variant Mod, I might add some of Lynx's and JK's variants (with your permissions of course) as an 'optional' thing with minor differences
- One reason this has taken me so long is that my description/detail sections tend to go in the history of each 'Mech or who made it/fields it kind of thing. So I intend to add those extras to JK and Lynx's variants if people want different note sections, etc.
- After this variant project I am going to move on to creating a separate Heat Sink fix mod (correcting the engine heat sink issue noted above which is going to take a long time to manually complete on every 'Mech, using the invisible item method)
@Justin Kase Sorry I didn't get back to posting yesterday. So one of the ones that would fit your mod would be the HBK-4SP (3025). I'll PM you later my Zeus-6Y files.
Hopefully I can get around to releasing what I have tonight, we'll see.
Other things I've noticed while adding variants:
* The Urban has default rarity of "0" - I've never seen an Urban at all in my vanilla BT campaign. I was under the initial impression "0" meant common and "1" as uncommon, but 0 might be the Off switch altogether so it doesn't appear in random lances?
* While testing my variants in Skirmish, I've noticed that the "Random" Lance setting actually does throw in new variants from time to time (unsure if rarity affects this) without needing to have anything in the MDD. It does this by utilizing the Lance jsons.
* The "Detail/Description" sections on Mechs (and also weapons/equipment) are best with as few sentences as possible. If writing an entire paragraph it starts to overlap other details in the UI. However, "Yangs Thoughts" (not sure if there is a way to rename this) can have way more added to it, so I've been writing quite a bit of cool things and Easter Eggs for this section.
-> Also specific syntax behavior like <b></b> can be used which bolds the lettering, other syntax may be able to be used for italics and underlining, or linking to "lore" jsons.
* The whole 10 engine heat sinks thing HBS has setup is going to be more problematic than realized, since those Mechs that only have DHS in the engine will be entirely obsoleted and not work very efficiently in combat. Overall "10 Engine HS" is more trouble than its worth. I have found no setting that switches the engine sinks to DHS.
Other Notes:
- After I release my mod, not sure what to call it, working title "YAVM" - Yet Another Variant Mod, I might add some of Lynx's and JK's variants (with your permissions of course) as an 'optional' thing with minor differences
- One reason this has taken me so long is that my description/detail sections tend to go in the history of each 'Mech or who made it/fields it kind of thing. So I intend to add those extras to JK and Lynx's variants if people want different note sections, etc.
- After this variant project I am going to move on to creating a separate Heat Sink fix mod (correcting the engine heat sink issue noted above which is going to take a long time to manually complete on every 'Mech, using the invisible item method)
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IIRC Urbies have a specific OFF switch when it comes to selection in random missions. So, you don't see them. Otherwise they'd overrrun the place.
Just stack 10 Engine HS in first to double up, and then subtract/ add accordingly. Would pretty much be sorted. The issue is the invisibility -- Mechlab broke that unfortunately. I'm still looking for a fix, but priority not quite there.
Feel free. Not as if you can't make up your own version of them anyway.
What is the attribute for "urbie off" then? Maybe urbie off can be applied to other things lol.
@GenTask Yeah - please feel free to use whatever you like - it isn't like I invented the 'Mechs
I know what you mean about Yang - I didn't do every 'Mech in my mod, but a number of them have comments from Yang (some that give rather candid thoughts about the variant, others where he goes off on a tangent and doesn't really provide anything helpful).
I kind of like the YAVM - simple and easy Looking forward to seeing your work man!
Hmmm, I thought the HBK-4SP didn't show up until ~3039 based on the rarity tables. But I guess the manual shows it as earlier than that - thank you!
For the UrbanMech - it has a unique tag "unit_urbie" that I think precludes it from a lot of encounters.
It is a shame that the chassis heat sinks thing isn't activated as part of the game - that would have made it so much easier.
I know what you mean about Yang - I didn't do every 'Mech in my mod, but a number of them have comments from Yang (some that give rather candid thoughts about the variant, others where he goes off on a tangent and doesn't really provide anything helpful).
I kind of like the YAVM - simple and easy
Looking forward to seeing your work man!Hmmm, I thought the HBK-4SP didn't show up until ~3039 based on the rarity tables. But I guess the manual shows it as earlier than that - thank you!
For the UrbanMech - it has a unique tag "unit_urbie" that I think precludes it from a lot of encounters.
It is a shame that the chassis heat sinks thing isn't activated as part of the game - that would have made it so much easier.
My thought, which might be more on the HBS side than the mod side, is that salvage should be generic to the chassis, not specific to the variant.
That is, you just salvage, for example, WVR parts. When you have three, you can pick which variant you want to rebuild.
That way, no matter how many variants are added, the salvage never becomes impossible.
@GenTask Yeah - please feel free to use whatever you like - it isn't like I invented the 'Mechs
I know what you mean about Yang - I didn't do every 'Mech in my mod, but a number of them have comments from Yang (some that give rather candid thoughts about the variant, others where he goes off on a tangent and doesn't really provide anything helpful).
I kind of like the YAVM - simple and easy
Hmmm, I thought the HBK-4SP didn't show up until ~3039 based on the rarity tables. But I guess the manual shows it as earlier than that - thank you!
For the UrbanMech - it has a unique tag "unit_urbie" that I think precludes it from a lot of encounters.
It is a shame that the chassis heat sinks thing isn't activated as part of the game - that would have made it so much easier.
Yeah I mean it depends on if you're just going by year or rarity tables. Xotl's theorized availability of the 4SP was 0 in 3028, although the 3039 Unabridged lists (Intro) Succession Wars and the MUL says 3025. It's a tricky call. At best, way more rare than any Swayback.
I think I'm going to test out throwing that unit_urbie tag on things just to see what happens
Nice work with the mod, keep it up. Those two variants with less effective versions of standard weapons are neat, are there any other variants like that in the lore?
Before we get too far into making assumptions about rarity, this is what we have data on:
Sorry about the image, but this forums don't take tables well.
Looking at it there's definitely a trend. Lights generally starts at "1", Mediums "2", etc. Then you move common chassis one step down (Shadow Hawk 2H becomes a 1, Lolcusts becomes 0) and more exotic stuff goes up one step.
For my mod, my current intention is to plot by weight, then add one (making my variants rarer) and then adjust from there base on lore. That makes it harder to get my variants out (as it should be), and actually catching one of them would require (1) the right salvage contract, and (2) knowing how to catch Mechs. Yes folks, welcome to the era of PokeMech.
Sorry about the image, but this forums don't take tables well.
Looking at it there's definitely a trend. Lights generally starts at "1", Mediums "2", etc. Then you move common chassis one step down (Shadow Hawk 2H becomes a 1, Lolcusts becomes 0) and more exotic stuff goes up one step.
For my mod, my current intention is to plot by weight, then add one (making my variants rarer) and then adjust from there base on lore. That makes it harder to get my variants out (as it should be), and actually catching one of them would require (1) the right salvage contract, and (2) knowing how to catch Mechs. Yes folks, welcome to the era of PokeMech.
@Lynx7725 - that is a far simplier way to do it than plotting all the data from the Rarity Tables. Most everything I added in tended to be 4/5 range, so they should hopefully be rarer anyway. Other than the Locust 1E and the Uncommon Stalker variants in the 2/3 range.
Though, as I test the mod out, it seems like the Rarity is more for the stores than anything.
Wonder if it might be better to concentrate on LanceDef - maybe add in a new tag for 'Mechs that set the rarity levels.
Though, as I test the mod out, it seems like the Rarity is more for the stores than anything.
Wonder if it might be better to concentrate on LanceDef - maybe add in a new tag for 'Mechs that set the rarity levels.
Glad you enjoyed them. Gave it a bit more of a Periphery feel for me. There are a few others I have seen over time, I just have to find them again
If anyone points them out, and they are doable, I will add them
Yeah I mean it depends on if you're just going by year or rarity tables. Xotl's theorized availability of the 4SP was 0 in 3028, although the 3039 Unabridged lists (Intro) Succession Wars and the MUL says 3025. It's a tricky call. At best, way more rare than any Swayback.
I think I'm going to test out throwing that unit_urbie tag on things just to see what happens
Fair enough. I will add it in then.
Let me know how the Urbie test goes.
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What do you use to modify .csv files? Seems like everytime I edit it to add in the stuff that's in jk_weaponammo's csv additions thing the game won't load. I'm using openoffice and I'm not sure if there is any special format settings I should be using or something like that.
I really wanna have those fancy weaker variants.
Using the included versionmanifest.csv works fine, but that doesn't have the jk_weaponammo stuff in it (and neither does the metadatabase.db that's included I'd assume)
I really wanna have those fancy weaker variants.
Using the included versionmanifest.csv works fine, but that doesn't have the jk_weaponammo stuff in it (and neither does the metadatabase.db that's included I'd assume)