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Lynx7725

Second Lieutenant
2 Badges
Apr 6, 2018
186
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  • BATTLETECH - Beta Backer
  • BATTLETECH - Backer
Mostly to consolidate Mod Talks here.

Starting off, and I'd edit this as I go along, I'm looking at the VersionManifest. It already has >2x the items that the Beta VersionManifest has, so... that's a lot of things to go through.

=====
Here, I insert something that I wrote further down the thread that you guys should be aware of:

Be very careful about deploying mods.

The issue I've found while working on my mods is.. best describe with the following:

1. Say you worked out the necessary to introduce a new mech or a new weapon into the game. It works and you can see it in the Skirmish game, and can use it to equip other mechs in the Mechlab. You make up a whole bunch of new mech builds and saves them in the game.

2. A few days later, you decide to rework some aspect of the mod, and for some reason, needed to remove the mech/ weapon. You code up your new work perfectly and loads up the game, and try to go into Skirmish or MechLab.

3. The game goes into stunlock. Checking the logs, you see things like this:

Data.DataManager [ERROR] LoadRequest for THI_WD_Weapon_LaserPulse_Medium of type WeaponDef has an invalid manifest entry. Any requests for this object will fail. (Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/DebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 51)

Data.DataManager [ERROR] LoadRequest for THI_WD_AmmunitionBox_LBX10C of type AmmunitionBoxDef has an invalid manifest entry. Any requests for this object will fail. (Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/DebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 51)

4. Try as you might, you can't get the game to go into Skirmish/ Mechlab. You are now faced with the option of a reinstall, which will wipe your campaign progress.

The reason for this (IMO) potentially dangerous behaviour is that when you modify a mech build and save it, the game save it into the internal DB or some save file that we don't currently have any idea where it is. That isn't bad, it's a good thing. It lets us save our favorite broke builds to repeatedly bring up to beat people over the head with.

The bad thing, and unknown to most of you, is that whenever Skirmish or Mechlab starts up, it does a basic verification check against ALL saved builds, and start generating warnings such as the above when they find mech builds that doesn't work. The worse part is that it doesn't ignore these, but goes into stunlock.

Since these builds are not in JSON and is actually likely in a DB somewhere, we can't manually remove these entries. The solution I went with (since it's my mods and I know what the heck I did), was to reinstate the missing entries that the system is complaining about, and try the Skirmish and Mechlab. Once those are working, I go through the entries and delete any that contains the bad material. And then I can remove the unwanted Manifest entries. If that sound like a lot of work, yes it is.. well actually not that bad since I have certain habits. But that's because I know the crap that I'm working on.

But imagine if you are a basic user who heard of this great mod and you download but found it not as great as you felt it to be. You remove the mod and then the whole game locks up on you. You reinstall and lose all progress in the main game. How'd that make you feel about the mod creator?

Also, bear in mind MP Skirmish needs both clients to be on the same basis. That usually implies players would add/ remove mods regularly.

I know putting this up can have a chilling effect on mods, but you guys do need to know this before too many mods are released and people start having games that freeze up on them. So think carefully how you want to handle a case when your mod has to be removed from an installed game.

=====

Back to the original OP:

Let's get going then.

Mech Assets:

Going through the VersionManifest, it looks like they cleaned up their models somewhat. Naming convention are maintained so some odd cases like Cataphract head missiles, Commando missiles had their name changed. In some cases mods will have problems because they are referring to previous names.

Otherwise, the old names look to match, so I'd guess 70%, 80% of old mods should work? Trying to chase down the last few is going to be a pain though.

Looks like all AMS assets are removed.

Some new weapons assets, like the Atlas Gauss, are added.

Catapult LRMs in the first and second slots in Beta are now SRM. If you are using those assets specifically, might need to update.

Oddly, Jager still missing arm energy mount 1s. Strange, that one.

Quickdraw CT assets had been reworked, some new oddity there. Be careful when reusing BETA code for Quickdraw.

All BETA Raven assets are removed. Makes sense.

Also, it looks like Beta AP weapons are still keyed to Energy and Ballistic types. That used to cause problems. Have to test to see whether that still cause problems.

Other assets:

A lot of turret assets are added, a lot of weapons options. I'd have to look at them separately.

More vehicular assets. From the assets: APC, Bulldog, Demolisher, Galleon, Leopard (obviously), Manticore, Mobile HQ, Schreck, Scorpion (treads not legs), Striker, Swiftwind, Union.

.... why is there an asset for "SLDF drone"?

Weapons Effect:

OH HO! Gauss weapon effect.
OH HO!! ER and pulse laser effects.
AC10 and AC20 also get single shot versions.

Mood Settings:

Basically all the BETA mood settings have been ditched. Maybe we can still salvage the old files for use.

UI stuff: A lot. Some interesting. But.. a LOT. Skipping over to mod stuff...

Skills underwent a revamp so quite different from Beta. Basics are the same though.

Ammo: Yay they left in AMS ammo. Thanks HBS! Unfortunately, they renamed the ammo boxes so likely existing mods would break.

Heat Sinks and Jump Jet names changed, so basically BETA mods should break. Gotta recode them all. So are weapon names.

Taking a break to get some chores done. Back later.
 
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The SLDF Drone is a new vehicle type.

Feel free to click on the spoiler ;)

These appear during a mid to late game mission. They are hover vehicles defending a base.
 
Effect as in graphics/particle effect? Or effect as in additional weapon effect (like how the PPC gives an accuracy malus to the enemy)?
Weapons animation effect. In BETA, Gauss didn't have an effect; most of us went with PPC. Gotta go try out at some point.

The SLDF Drone is a new vehicle type.
Feel free to click on the spoiler ;)
These appear during a mid to late game mission. They are hover vehicles defending a base.
Thanks, that's good to know.
 
Continuing tonight's examination, I'm looking at jsons, starting with ammo and ammo boxes.

Also to be useful, keeping a list of component tags for items here:
  • component_type_stock
  • component_type_lostech
Ammo types looks much the same as Beta, but Ammo Boxes have significantly more parameters in the json. Modders should review if they are using ammo boxes of a new type.

MG appears to be changed from Beta, which impacts ammo box contents. Will have to adjust.

Hmm odd. MG Ammo bin has this line:

"DisallowedLocations" : "All",

Obviously, if this works, then it's bad news. Anyone hit issues adding MG ammo bins yet? HBS might want to take a look.

(To be continued.)
 
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SLDF Drone is probably a spoiler in the game. If you look in the artbook there is artwork for it - I'm not entirely sure if it's something new they made it or if it's based on something in lore. I don't think it's a Hi-Scout Tracked Drone, since that's not SLDF.

@Lynx7725

Are you able to determine if the game is still giving straight 10 engine heat sinks to every 'Mech in the game? I'm wondering if there is any other way around this so we can give each Mech its proper amount of engine heat sinks, so they are not oversinked or undersinked, depending on weight and engine size, plus adding the correct externals. I remember that you made a modded heatsink to get around that, which was weightless and had "-1" on it.

All I know is that the chassisdef also has this on it:

"Heatsinks": 0,

But I never tried anything with it. Right now, most of the Mechs are not really Stock and do not conform to Record Sheets due to this. The urbanmech, for example, has one heat sink in its right leg when it should have 8 external heat sinks (2 in each leg, 2 in each torso, 1 in cockpit).

I'm wondering if the heatsink setting in the chassisdef might be a way around this. So for the UrbanMech, it should be "Heatsinks": -8, and if this works how I think it should, that cuts the 10 by default in engine to 2?
 
I'd just want to point out at this point, I hadn't even played the game yet. I've just been looking at jsons and excel. In fact, I was just about to start the game when I saw the latest in this thread and had to respond. xD

The chassisdef heatsink param is known from Beta, and we tested it then; it didn't do anything. Part of the work coming up is to do retesting, so yeah, I'd go try roasting some Lolcust for SCIENCE.

As for getting the engine heat sink issue to go away, yes, I've solved that in Beta 2, so that's not an issue if the problem still exists here. Not too worried about it -- I'm more concerned that I just spent an hour updating various values in the THI heatsinks def files that never appeared in Beta at all.
 
I'd just want to point out at this point, I hadn't even played the game yet. I've just been looking at jsons and excel. In fact, I was just about to start the game when I saw the latest in this thread and had to respond. xD
Sidetrack a bit. Now that I’ve gotten some missions under my belt, I have to say this:

Battletech: the Game of trying not to win so badly that you lose to the bank.

Doesn’t help that on the first Mission, the blackjack got a torso blown off, and is still currently being repaired. (Pilot already recovered) really doesn’t help that I boneheadedly queued two other Mechs for mod work behind it, leaving me to face a Marik raid of 8 units with a Lolcust and a Spider....
 
Sidetrack a bit. Now that I’ve gotten some missions under my belt, I have to say this:

Battletech: the Game of trying not to win so badly that you lose to the bank.

Doesn’t help that on the first Mission, the blackjack got a torso blown off, and is still currently being repaired. (Pilot already recovered) really doesn’t help that I boneheadedly queued two other Mechs for mod work behind it, leaving me to face a Marik raid of 8 units with a Lolcust and a Spider....

My best advice for this: Always keep the Black Jack in the far rear of your battle line.
 
Hey all, I just figured out to make custom emblems work!

sYGzLZr.png


I think I'll create a separate thread for it since the instructions are quite lengthy and add to the wiki.
 
I am laughing so hard right now that I think I need to take a break from the forum for a few hours ;)
 
I think I remember people talking about a json file that determines the scale of mechs and vehicles. I wanted to scale up the vehicles a little bit, but forgot what file it was in. Anyone here know which one it is?
 
I'd check if I knew what file it was in :p
 
I wouldn't mind scaling them down just a touch as well. Same with the Vehicles - to make them a bit more in scale with the buildings.
 
Here's a new modding riddle:

In the Beta it was possible to set a Flamer's Ammo Category to "NotSet" to give infinite ammo like any Laser weapon, however this only seems to work for "Weapon_Flamer_Flamer_0-STOCK"

and will NOT work for

"Weapon_Flamer_Flamer_1-Hotshot"
and
"Weapon_Flamer_Flamer_2-Olympus"

JSON from STOCK Flamer
{
"Category" : "AntiPersonnel",
"Type" : "Flamer",
"WeaponSubType" : "Flamer",
"MinRange" : 0,
"MaxRange" : 90,
"RangeSplit" : [
90,
90,
90
],
"AmmoCategory" : "NotSet",
"StartingAmmoCapacity" : 0,
"HeatGenerated" : 10,

"Damage" : 20,
"OverheatedDamageMultiplier" : 0,
"EvasiveDamageMultiplier" : 0,
"EvasivePipsIgnored" : 0,
"DamageVariance" : 0,
"HeatDamage" : 10,
"AccuracyModifier" : 0,
"CriticalChanceMultiplier" : 1,
"AOECapable" : false,
"IndirectFireCapable" : false,
"RefireModifier" : 0,
"ShotsWhenFired" : 1,
"ProjectilesPerShot" : 1,
"AttackRecoil" : 0,
"Instability" : 0,
"WeaponEffectID" : "WeaponEffect-Weapon_Flamer",
"Description" : {
"Cost" : 20000,
"Rarity" : 0,
"Purchasable" : true,
"Manufacturer" : "Skylight",
"Model" : "Heat Damage Flamethrower",
"UIName" : "Flamer",
"Id" : "Weapon_Flamer_Flamer_0-STOCK",
"Name" : "Flamer",
"Details" : "Flamer weapons are unique in that they deal little physical damage but instead expel superheated plasma, applying substantial heat to their target. When done properly, this can hamper enemy return fire or even cause the targeted unit to shut down from overheating.",
"Icon" : "uixSvgIcon_weapon_Support"
},
"BonusValueA" : "",
"BonusValueB" : "",
"ComponentType" : "Weapon",
"ComponentSubType" : "Weapon",
"PrefabIdentifier" : "Flamer",
"BattleValue" : 0,
"InventorySize" : 1,
"Tonnage" : 1,
"AllowedLocations" : "All",
"DisallowedLocations" : "All",
"CriticalComponent" : false,
"statusEffects" : [

],
"ComponentTags" : {
"items" : [
"component_type_stock",
"range_close"
],
"tagSetSourceFile" : ""
}
}

The highlighted in orange is what I changed, the same exact values from Beta. Specifically setting it to NotSet causes the + and ++ weapon below to hang in this release. It will ONLY give the Circle of Doom error when attempting to "refit" a Mech in SP or MP.

{
"Category" : "AntiPersonnel",
"Type" : "Flamer",
"WeaponSubType" : "Flamer",
"MinRange" : 0,
"MaxRange" : 90,
"RangeSplit" : [
90,
90,
90
],
"AmmoCategory" : "NotSet",
"StartingAmmoCapacity" : 0,

"HeatGenerated" : 10,
"Damage" : 25,
"OverheatedDamageMultiplier" : 0,
"EvasiveDamageMultiplier" : 0,
"EvasivePipsIgnored" : 0,
"DamageVariance" : 0,
"HeatDamage" : 10,
"AccuracyModifier" : 0,
"CriticalChanceMultiplier" : 1,
"AOECapable" : false,
"IndirectFireCapable" : false,
"RefireModifier" : 0,
"ShotsWhenFired" : 1,
"ProjectilesPerShot" : 1,
"AttackRecoil" : 0,
"Instability" : 0,
"WeaponEffectID" : "WeaponEffect-Weapon_Flamer",
"Description" : {
"Cost" : 30000,
"Rarity" : 2,
"Purchasable" : true,
"Manufacturer" : "Hotshot",
"Model" : "Heat Damage Flamethrower",
"UIName" : "Flamer +",
"Id" : "Weapon_Flamer_Flamer_1-Hotshot",
"Name" : "Flamer +",
"Details" : "Flamer weapons are unique in that they deal little physical damage but instead expel superheated plasma, applying substantial heat to their target. When done properly, this can hamper enemy return fire or even cause the targeted unit to shut down from overheating.",
"Icon" : "uixSvgIcon_weapon_Support"
},
"BonusValueA" : "+ 5 Dmg.",
"BonusValueB" : "",
"ComponentType" : "Weapon",
"ComponentSubType" : "Weapon",
"PrefabIdentifier" : "Flamer",
"BattleValue" : 0,
"InventorySize" : 1,
"Tonnage" : 1,
"AllowedLocations" : "All",
"DisallowedLocations" : "All",
"CriticalComponent" : false,
"statusEffects" : [

],
"ComponentTags" : {
"items" : [
"component_type_variant",
"component_type_variant1",
"range_close"
],
"tagSetSourceFile" : ""
}
}