Mount/Swarm

== Using Mount/Swarm ==
In order to mount or swarm, activate the appropriate component ability, then select either a friendly (to mount) or enemy (to swarm) within range. By default the range within which you can mount/swarm is equal to the longest of walk/sprint/jump distance. Likewise, in order to dismount or stop swarming, activate the same component ability and then select the unit the BA is mounted to/currently swarming. Dismounting must be done at the start of the BA activation, and once dismounted the BA can move/attack as normal.
Selecting the Mount/Swarm ability when the unit is already mounted/swarming will auto-select the unit you are mounted to; now just click Confirm to dismount/stop swarming. Selecting the Mount/Swarm ability when not mounted/swarming will display indicators showing valid targets for mounting and swarming. Swarm targets will all display the standard "melee target" indicator. Mount targets will get an icon.
Attempts to mount a friendly unit are always successful. Attempts to swarm an enemy unit make a simplified melee roll to determine success. If unsuccessful, the BA will be deposited in the same hex as the unit they attempted to swarm. On both a swarm success and failure, a floatie will be generated indicating success or failure. Attempts to mount or swarm always end the BA activation, and must be conducted before the BA attempts to move.
BA that is either swarming or mounted is noted in the "carrier" unit's armor paperdoll, as well as the current armor/structure of the BA mounted to a specific location. The individual suits of the BA squad are always distributed "evenly" across a mech in the following order: CT, CT-R, RT, RT-R, LT, LT-R for mounts (only a single squad can be mounted), and CT, CT-R, RT, RT-R, LT, LT-R, LA, RA, LL, RL, HD for swarms. Multiple squads can swarm a mech simultaneously, and will double-up on locations as needed. For vehicles the order is Front, Rear, Left, Right, Turret for both swarms and mounts. Incoming attacks targeting the "carrier" have a 33% chance of impacting the BA suit mounted to that location instead of the "carrier", with excess damaging transfering through the BA to the carrier.
If the mech chassis location where BA is mounted is destroyed, any BA mounted to that location has a 33% chance of also being destroyed except when the swarming BA is responsible for destroying that location. If the entire unit to which BA is mounted is destroyed, any BA mounted to that unit has a 33% chance of also being destroyed except when the swarming BA is responsible for destroying the unit.
Once BA is swarming an enemy, they cannot do any other actions on their activation. The only options are to either activate the mount/swarm ability again (and thus stop swarming the enemy), or to end their activation ("Done" button). If you choose "Done", the BA will fire all active weapons at the unit they are swarming automatically.
The AI will also attempt to use Swarm against you. If an AI unit has BA (dictated by AI_BattleArmorSpawnChance, BattleArmorFactionAssociations and the unit has either HasBattleArmorMounts or InternalBattleArmorSquadCap > 0), some very ugly AI behavior patches should try to get the AI to move closer to your units. Once within a certain range, the AI BA will dismount from its carrier and attempt to swarm you if you're within range. If not, it'll just attack like a normal unit. Units with mechdef tag defined in DisableAISwarmTag will not swarm, regardless of equipment.
=== Pre-mission squad mounting ===
As of v3.1.2.0 you can now pre-assign battle armor squads to be mounted to specific carriers before a mission starts (well, technically right when the first round starts but shut up). All units should be present in drop slots and have pilots assigned before attempting to match squads to carriers. In order to assign squads to carriers, shift-click a squad. Both it and all potential carriers will show a dark gray overlay. Next, shift-click the desired carriers. Both the squads and carriers will both change their overlay color to one of the colors defined in the BAMountPairColors setting. If a carriers can carry multiple squads, all squads assigned to that carriers will share the same overlay color. To "reset" an assignment, simply remove the squad and carrier from their dropslots, and then add them back to their drop slots if desired. Backing out of the contract screen will likewise reset all pairings. I really shouldn't need to say this, but if you are reloading a pre-mission autosave, you will need to reassign all squads to their carriers.
If you are using CustomUnits' manual drops feature, it doeesn't matter where you assign the squads to deploy, they will magically teleport to their assigned carriers.
When a squad is selected in the lance config screen, a reminder text for shift-click to assign is displayed below the mech widget. The specific text can be set using the BAMountReminderText setting.
=== Firing Ports ===
Carrier units that have firing ports will allow mounted BA to fire at enemies within range while they are mounted. Units so mounted will have the same LOF level as the carrier unit.
==== Garrisons - new in v3.0.0.0 ====
BA can now occupy buildings. Each building can only hold a single squad of BA because reasons. Because getting the AI to shoot at the damn building is a pain in the ass, I've chosen to allow the AI to target the BA squads directly; however BA squads garrisoned in buildings get incoming damage redirected to the building. If such damage is sufficient to destroy the building, overflow damage does not impact the BA squad. Likewise, when garrisoned the building itself will recieve bonus structure points in the form of (squad.Structure + squad.Armor) x GarrisonBuildingArmorFactor. If the building is destroyed with the BA still occupying it, they take their chassis DFA self-damage to each location, and receive any effects defined in OnGarrisonCollapseEffects. If players choose to voluntarily exit the garrisoned building, they will exfil to the last position they occupied before entering the building (usually an adjacent hex, but it depends what the pathfinding did when they moved to occupy). Holding ctrl while clicking "dismount" from garrison will make the squad exfil to the roof of the building! I make no guarantees that they will be able to move or do anything once there, since not all roofs are flat!
The AI cannot garrison; this is strictly a player gimmick.
Category:Guides