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One of the planned features is the expanding the star map to include additional canon systems, both corewards (North) to include more of the Inner Sphere, and anti-spinwards (West) to add the Rimward Periphery.

This is the current work in progress.


Next update should include the Coreward systems (north, around 50 worlds)
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and they'll include several major canon worlds such as Andurien, New Syrtis, Taygeta, Grand Base and Betelgeuse. The Inner Sphere and major Periphery worlds will also properly reflect their habited/unhabited status by turning on/off the faction colors, and using the canon 3025 faction ownership. This effectively gives the star map a Swiss cheese effect, but to me it helps the player deciding which systems are worthwhile to visit.

And the next stage of map expansion will have a greater impact, with more than 100 star systems, anti-spinwards (left). It will add the remainder of the Magistracy of Canopus worlds, all of the Marian Hegemony and Astrokazky. In reality this is not a part of the Hyades Rim region but it should be properly called by its canon name of 'Marik Marshes'.
 
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Time for some exciting news!

As announced a while ago, the 16 new/planned Flashpoints are all a part of the same story, consisting of several mini-campaigns. The Here Might Be Dragons flashpoint that ends one of the mini-campaigns already revealed a part of this story and the power plays in the Hyades Rim. And more will be progressively related as the nine remaining FPs came out. At the same time, the release of the Rimward Periphery map made the whole playing ground a lot bigger, which by itself already resulted in a reassignment of planned Flashpoints, and a likely future increase on its number from 16 to 21. And the new star map will also result in more minor factions being added.

With these two steps in progress, it's time to add two final future features that were long planned since this mod's beginning: replacing the Argo with the Leopard at start and make a full replacement of the base campaign. Or, in other words, this mod will be now designed as a new Campaign mode, rather than an expansion to Career mode, with the new flashpoints being used to tell its story. This will have major implications to game play experience and the Hyades Rim story.

Alternate History

The divergent point from the canon timeline is that during the events in Coronation Day, both Raiju and Kamea Arano miss the DropShip that is supposed to carry them but Madeira betrays their location to House Espinosa and Raiju is killed attempting to escape while Kamea is captured. With control of the Council through gifts and threats, the Directorate conducts a kangaroo court of Kamea and, in exchange for Madeira's support, her death sentence is suspended rather than executed, to avoid turning her into a martyr. House Arano is disbanded and their possessions divided among the other houses, while Kamea is allowed to go to exile and join a mercenary company, as long as she never gets herself involved again in Aurigan politics.

Three years later, the Aurigan Reach founds itself at peace under the new regime. The leaders of several noble houses were replaced by more compliant family members under the pressure of House Espinosa, while plans to replace the Coalition with the Directorate were dropped although in reality Lord Espinosa has near absolute power by controlling the council. Which has lessen the need for open repressive measures in order to keep power, and avoids the popular resentment that fueled Kamea's Arano Restoration.

Discredited by Espinosa's propaganda and with no Canopian support, Kamea has now joined the Leopard and your crew as MechWarrior and Farah has joined her in exile after being harassed and prosecuted by Espinosa's secret police. Madeira was able to stay in his family's estates in Guldra, but only by stepping out as his house's representative in the Council, as Lord Espinosa doesn't trust him because of his former support to Kamea. Disgraced by events, Kamea turns to depression and anger, while the company's debts are piling up and the banks are after the DropShip.

Until Interstellar Expeditions contacts the company and offers it a long-term contract to explore the Hyades Rim and that's the start of the new campaign.
 
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Holy cow!

Your ambition never ceases to amaze and we get all the benefit from it.

21 new FP is just staggering.
 
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Your ambition never ceases to amaze and we get all the benefit from it.

21 new FP is just staggering.

Yeah, let's dial down the hype ;)

Some clarifications:
* Without additional FPs to the 16 already planned, phases 1 and 2 of the campaign each have 7 flashpoints each, with phase 1's FPs almost completed. Then the last phase is still in design process but it will be 2-3 flashpoints max; at this point the 5 additional FPs I previously mentioned are suspended because of the work involved, so no 21 flashpoints;
* The base game's flashpoints will also be active during the campaign;
* Phase 1 takes place in the Hyades Rim, phase 2 in the Magistracy of Canopus;
* You're stuck with the Leopard until the end of phase 2 you get a flashpoint to finally recover the Argo;
* The more people the merrier, specially during conversations! Farah is now a part of the Leopard, along with Kamea and Madeira, Kamea also appears as one of your starting MechWarriors;

And a couple images from tests
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21 or not, the hype is real. ;)
 
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Hyades Rim version 5.9.0 released with the Canopian Ruins map expansion!
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Important!
* Delete the previous HyadesRim version folder before installing;
* Delete the .modtek or HBS folder to clear the mod cache before starting the game;
* If you have an existing Career using the RimwardPeriphery mod (which has been discontinued due to several issues) you can continue playing it as long as you keep this mod;
* There's still several Marik/Marian systems unfinished, so expect more updates soon!

Next version (6.x.x) will bring the new Campaign mode, which will include all the current original Flashpoints (and remove them from Career mode).

Change log (version 5.9.0)
* Added: new Canopian Ruins map region, a.k.a. Marik Expanses, with the Magistracy of Canopus and the Marian Hegemony, work in progress;
* Added: 19 new factions, including the Marian Hegemony, Niops Association, Brotherhood of Randis, Shervanis Caliphate, Duchy of Andurien, four corporations and 10 new pirate bands;
* Added: 11 new Royal canon variants for the base BattleMechs without any Star League variant;
* Changed: starting random lance in Career now use only the pirate variants;
* Changed: renamed and moved to the Outer Rim the Ina, Parian, Menion and Megaris systems. The changed dimensions added by the new systems of the Canopian Ruins caused that Taurus can't be reached because of those added systems;
* Removed: around 30 backer pilots since their portraits are now used for the leaders of the new factions;
* Fixed: bugs on ARC-I and one of the UNKs
* Fixed: Cicada swarms happen because of corrupt database, after install/reinstall it's always required to the .modtek folder or the HBS folder, according to another modder; readded the /debug settings with "addDynamicNotFactionTagForUnits" as true;
 
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And another update on current work. Version 6.0.0 is coming along nicely, been working on it the entire summer, and it should be released as soon as everything is finished. The initial version will include:
* New Campaign - two years after the Espinosa coup, Kamea escaped alive into exile instead of presumed killed during the DropShip explosion and is working as a merc with the player's company. It will be an alternative/unofficial version of the original story, including many new elements and reusing the original assets.
* New Story - learn the truth behind the Arano Restoration while traveling throughout the entire Rimward Periphery, with three new priority missions and nine original flashpoints (and more of both to come), plus new events.
* New Contracts - all procedural contracts, original and new, may now appear with maximum tonnage restrictions for the player. All the contracts may now appear in all system difficulty levels.
* New Star Map - discover new 253 playable systems, adding all of the Taurian, Canopian and Marian worlds, plus several Deep Periphery systems.
* New Factions - ally/fight new 41 factions, including pirate gangs, corporations, regional powers and bandit kingdoms.

The new campaign mode will also bring a number of important changes to the flashpoints:
* All the base game's FPs will also appear in new Campaign mode, but with a new format. They'll still appear on Career without any changes.
* All the new FPs made for the Hyades Rim will be moved from Career to Campaign because their content is linked to the story of the new campaign.
* All standalone FPs will be removed, with the exception of Periphery Is A Harsh Mistress, which will remain available as a teaser.

No ETA on this yet because there's still a ton of tiny details to finish for the initial release. And the new campaign will only include parts 1 and 2, with parts 3 and 4 still being written and to be released in the future.
 
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There are several really good mods out there, but I don't think I would still be playing BT if it wasn't for you.

/Salute!
 
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This looks really amazing. Can I ask for a clarification?

You mention now that the new flashpoints will be Campaign only. So will any of the flashpoints included here still be available in Career mode, and if yes how many is that exactly?

Still looking very much forward to this. :cool:
 
This looks really amazing. Can I ask for a clarification?

You mention now that the new flashpoints will be Campaign only. So will any of the flashpoints included here still be available in Career mode, and if yes how many is that exactly?

Still looking very much forward to this. :cool:

The mod currently has 7 original Flashpoints available on Career.

On the next version, all of them will be moved to Campaign (except for the first FP, The Periphery Is A Harsh Mistress, which will keep its standalone version that can be downloaded and played separately on Career).

The reason for this change is simple: all of the FPs belong to the same story and are meant to played in a semi-random sequence, plus the story is big enough to have implications for the entire BattleTech universe.
 
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View attachment 629627
Version 6.0.0 released at Nexusmods!

Features
* A new BattleTech story and Campaign mode, consisting of original story missions and flashpoints, based on an alternative history where Kamea is exiled rather than presumed killed and the company enters the employ of Interstellar Expeditions;
* Nine original story missions and flashpoints released (campaign only): You On the Run, Exodus, The Periphery Is A Harsh Mistress, The Mad Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Here Might Be Dragons, Jinxed, It Came From The Rim, The Death's Mask and God Mecha and more planned for parts 3 and 4 of the new campaign;
* Nine new events that include crew deaths, a parrot, JumpShip issues, and assorted oddities;
* 253 playable systems, adding all of the Taurian, Canopian and Marian worlds, plus several Deep Periphery systems, with the star map extended in all directions;
* 40+ original subfactions, canon and new, with their own contracts and 'Mech variants. Ally/fight pirate gangs, corporations, regional powers and bandit kingdoms;
* 600+ new contracts and variants added, several rewritten from the vanilla ones with a Periphery flavor;
* Tonnage restrictions - all procedural contracts, original and new, may now appear with maximum tonnage restrictions for the player. All the contracts may now appear in all system difficulty levels;
* 300+ new BattleMech variants to fight as Opfor, can appear equipped with Infernos, ECM, plus other LosTech surprises;
* 22 new vehicle variants, called 'technicals', only used by pirate factions;
* 50+ canon variants of the vanilla 'Mechs, nearly all of the 3025 era and a few SLDF variants;
* Setting and tech follow the 3025 starting date;
* Career mode has nearly everything from above available, except for the story missions/flashpoints;
* Otherwise, keeps everything else unchanged from the vanilla game.
 
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Wow, indeed.

So wish that HBS had hired him back when they were still involved. Amazing to see what one unpaid modder can do.
 
Future Plans
Now that parts 1 and 2 of the new campaign are finally implemented, here's the final development plan:
1) Complete part 2 - requires 1 flashpoint + 1 story mission + conversations + events.
2) Implement part 3 - whole or most of the map will be unlocked and playable, 5-6 new flashpoints, 1-2 new story missions, plus the vanilla flashpoints will be available. This will mainly take part on the left side of the map.
3) Implement part 4 - still a lot undecided on a lot of items but will mainly consist of new story missions. This will be the end game.

There's still some work related to 'Mechs, vehicles, star systems and factions but after version 6.0.0 it consists mainly of details. The main work now will be storytelling to complete the campaign and the mod.
 
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@HBS_HighCommand you all really oughta check out this alt-history mod of the Arano campaign when you have some free time.
it really is brilliant.
 
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Update.

Version 6.1.4 is available at Nexusmods and it integrates all the previous Hyades Rim content (flashpoints, contracts, events, etc.) into the new campaign. It also updates to the Hysteria (Leopard) most of the base game's events that normally would only appear after the Argo is acquired. Many thanks to everyone who are helping with the playtesting and editing, which has allowed for such progress.

The last image shows the status of my current campaign, where the Taurians went into full 90 days lockdown to the Periphery Pox pandemic and I refused the ATC's payment demands for JumpShip service to most of the Periphery. The star map may look quite limited at the end of part 2 of the new campaign, but it's only temporary.

Because in the upcoming part 3, which is now in full development, most or nearly all of the new star map will be unlocked, especially the Canopian region, where part 3 of the new campaign will take place, with more new flashpoints, campaign missions, events, etc. And with it, a new employer and more on the story, as well as the DLC flashpoints becoming available on the new campaign, and finally at the end of part 3, the player finally getting the Argo, in preparation for the last part of the story.

Stay tuned ;)
 
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FYI~ Hyades Rim (v6.1.5) did not load using the built-in HBS Mod loader on my Mac running Catalina on a clean install of the game with all DLCs. I wonder if anyone has played this campaign on a Mac...
 
FYI~ Hyades Rim (v6.1.5) did not load using the built-in HBS Mod loader on my Mac running Catalina on a clean install of the game with all DLCs. I wonder if anyone has played this campaign on a Mac...

Anything on the logs?
Can you try with ModTek?