LosTech Mod 08 for DH4.2 file

Install: Place the contents of the 08 folder inside your Darkest Hours 4.2 installation

v08 partial changelog

BUGFIX
- Added special virtual XXL engine Thor-W variant. This prevents an ammo bug in mission 4 of Xenocide campaign since its variant number was unused in the mod.

GRAPHICS
- Fixed some Capellan portraits having display color glitches when under ingame palette.

- Correction in the colors of vehicle crews (IS blue and white/Clan black and gold - capellans reddish and gold -sorry, no greens available-)

- Fixed IS LRM-15 and IS LRM-20 icons.

SFX

- Added a flashing effect to the portraits of pilots that can Call Airstrikes.

- Modified ingame original interfase (proof of concept) -> To be Liao interfase
- Modified ingame expansion interfase (proof of concept) -> To be Clan interfase

- Added animated palette buttons when active

MISC ORDER
- Reordered Clan weapons and separated from IS weapons in the list.

BUYFILES
- Finished separating Clantech
- Now all 2nd refusal war in Solo missions is in full clantech
- Characteristics: Rizzen pilots + some of Nemo's
- Resource Points: 1.100.000

- Finished separating Liao tech
- Many missions are now in Liao tech
- Recource Points: 900.000

NEW VEHICLES

- Replaced buyable Capellan Ontos Assault Tank loadout
- Replaced buyable Capellan Condor loadout
- Added Capellan Minelayer
- Added Capellan Minesweeper

- Added Clan Refit Truck
- Added Clan Minelayer
- Added Clan Minesweeper

VEHICLE BALANCE
- Fixed exceedingly powerful Saracen/Saladin hovertank which didn't conform to Tabletop stats.

- Modified Bulldog. AI version downgrades Capacitor+SnubPPC to a regular SnubPPC, but adds armor (Fuel Cell canon version). Player version is optimized.

- Pegasus tank rebalanced; AI version back to 15 tons. Player version has more armor.

WEAPON BALANCE

- AP gauss DPS improved about 10% since it was much worse than SRM-2 ; price and BV lowered

- Autocannon 5/10/20 ammo increased around 10-20%; since ammo packs are now shared between all types of AC/s, this was necessary for Ultra ACs to not be so bad.

- Regular ACs are now better and can compete with other AC types. Normal AutoCannons are now lighter than Ultra autocannons, as in the tabletop game.

- Extra ammo point added to Railgun ammo.

- Clan Streak SRM now have +25 range for a maximum of 100, as in tabletop they are longer ranged than IS ones. However, they recharge slower and now will not fire within 12 minimum range (basically absolute point blank)

TURRET BALANCE

LRM turrets fire 33% faster (they fire LRM-20 from LRM-15) but resist 25% less (25 from 33 hp). Now you are better off killing them than ignoring them.

NEW MECHS
- Added Clan's Fire Falcon Omnimech. This 'mech (in canon and in the game) was the base for the IS Stiletto; as such, it reuses its graphics. Only Clan 25 tonner, fills a unique niche.
-- However, its graphics may be slightly altered later thanks to the upcoming PAK wizardry, which may also allow to add Mad Cat Mk.II and Atlas IIc.
-- I may also use this to change arms to differentiate A, W and J variants in all chassis, so they are visually distinct.
-- This is also necessary to "fix" the lower max internal structure.

NEW COMPONENTS
- Added IS ST/SRM-4 (Cycle completion)
- Added Clan SRM-4 (Cycle completion)
- Added Light Machinegun Array (Cycle completion)

- Added Clan Rail Cannon (Medium range lighter railgun)

LOADOUTS
- Changed STO-W to use the new Light MG arrays.
- Corrected loadouts to reflect ammo changes.

AIRSTRIKES
- Created the Airstrike brains.

- Gave Reyna pilot airstrike abilities and desc.
- Gave Nimo pilot airstrike abilities and desc.
- Created Spot Drone pilot for Capellan Confederation. Has the lowest stats.
- Gave Firestorm the Airstrike ability and desc. Only default pilot affected.

- Gave Aerospace Spotter (IS) an airstrike ability; added AeroSpace TAG, removed one Large Laser.
- Gave Aerospace Spotter (Clan) an airstrike ability; added Aerospace TAG, removed one C ER Large Pulse Laser.
- Gave Aerospace Spotter (Capellan) an airstrike ability; added Aerospace TAG. It was already much heavier and didn't have paired weapons, so its OK.

- Added Clan Switfwind, which can call airstrikes. 15 tons vehicle. (maybe this will be reverted to 5 tons when I create Clan Pegasus)

- See also: airstrike changelog.

TEXT
- Added some missing descriptions.
- Corrected some incorrect strings.

- Changed the name of some weapons, for example, from Targeting Railgun, to Quantum Railgun (it actually reflects its "uncertainty" effect.

This prototype experimental addon for 08 LosTech will add aerostrike capabilities

- Ability to call airstrikes from any chassis to pilots NIMO and REYNA

- It also adds these capabilities to all types of player-controlled Aerospace Spotters
-- Aerospace Spotters conventional weapons weakened to compensate

***Install***
- Install MechCommander Darkest Hours 4.2

- Copy contents of this folder to your MechCommander install
- Overwrite anything

- Play solo mission, use NimoStar or Reyna pilots,
or buy AeroSpace Spotters - the last only available in select missions for now (example: Second Refusal War P2, P3)

***Mechanism***

AeroSpace Strikes are called with a special AI "tactic" which is embedded in an .abl brain file.

Warrior files call these brains in their first code line. The brains provide their behaviour. In time this leads to invoke the Airstrike tactic at specific times in their subroutine triggers.

***Notes***

- Calling airstrikes "Competes" with firing short range weapons, so pilots that call an airstrike from mechs will seldom, if ever, use their short range weaponry while doing so. The fact it sends them on retreat, putting them on unfavorable angles, doesn't help.

- The "Aerospace TAG" component doesn't really call an airstrike, its there to show which unit the Spotter is targeting at the time, and therefore, which is where will the airstrikes tend to fall (with delay). The effect is a line of small lasers that deal extremely low (0.01) damage each.

- The actual countdown to the strike seems to have somewhat more than three seconds. Only the last three seconds are graphically displayed.

- The "approaching" sound is not always heard.

- The max ROF for AeroSpace Strikes for a given unit may be one per two (2) seconds, which is pretty high - But given the retreat behaviour, such ROF is rarely achieved (a notable moment is when an enemy approaches directly to point blank on a corridor), with one ever 5-10 seconds being way more common. The unit also has to physically face the enemy in order to call an aistrike (turreted units face with their turret).
-- Even if this max rate is fortuitouisly (?) achieved, the high delay means the enemy triggering the attack will have already left the area of effect when it strikes.

- Even if the explosions appear sequential, the actual damage of the strike is dealt all at once, and is concentrated on the middle and not spread out in a line.

- Aerospace strikes, even with the custom pbrainSpot.abl AI file, are notoriously difficult to control. They may deal more damage to yourself than to enemies. Plus enemies tend to be spam, so normally the strikes may do more harm than good.

- The range for calling AeroSpace Strikes is always short, around "75", like the range of a short-ranged weapon. The different AI brains change behavioural patterns, not range of the actual strikes.
-- This makes them more dangerous still, as, unlike Long Tom cannons and similar area-effect weapons, there is no minimum range to prevent hurting yourself.

- Launching strikes tends to send your units in a brief auto-retreat, though they are not smart enough to resist going in there later before the actual attack falls, and be exploded anyways.

- The SpotterBrain.abl (and variations) was meant to be an AI unit. At such, if you use it in player controllable stuff, your units will be difficult to control.