xREL.v3

Patch 1.1.0

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:

GOG Galaxy: Open the "More" menu next to the Play button and choose Other -> Configure BATTLETECH.



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.

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