Gameplay Changes

The list of changes are in no particular order.

# Gameplay Changes and Goals

While Classic BattleTech (CBT) and other TableTop (TT) Lore accuracy is preferred and initiates many of our balance decisions, it is not the goal.

Our current guiding principle is to provide a balanced experience with UNLIMITED diversity: this means that players should never feel compelled to play one style of mech because it is the "meta". The dev team will always be attacking imbalances from all sorts of angles, in both Combat Game and Sim Game.

From a high-level overview, in order to achieve the varied experience, the vast gulf in tech levels in CBT has been squashed down, so not only is clan-tech not overpowering, even primitive weapons remain viable options in the end-game. Light mechs have many CBT rules brought in to buff their strengths, while operating slow, weapon-heavy Assault mechs can become a large economic burden and bait for airstrikes.

Civil discussion is always welcome on our [Discord], but ***understand that the dev team is building the balanced experience that it sees, and is not your personal game studio.*** Poor behavior will be met with equal grumpiness.

As the team always gets a million suggestions and ideas, some of the more common ones that the team receives are Not Likely to happen as the team have already decided against it.

# Combat Game Changes Summary

* **TRUE RNG!** Unlike in the base game, where hit chances are manipulated, no aim correction will occur. You either hit or you miss, the game doesn't hold your hand.
* Melee has been buffed but Melee and DFA now have variable penalties for missing.
* AI is now more aggressive and will try to outmaneuver you as a lance. Expect a lot of back shots into your 'Mechs if you give them the chance. They will also push their heat hard, and try to spike your own heat.
* Morale is now affected by everything that happens during combat, even negatively, and Inspired grants a +2 accuracy at 75 morale. Morale is also capped at 150 in combat, max starting cap in combat is 100.
* Vigilance is more expensive, up to 35 morale points per pilot.
* Precision Strike is now Called Shot, allowing you to spend 10 Morale to do a called shot at higher (+6) difficulty. Your target will also move back 1 initiative phase.
* Increased radar and vision range.
* Moving incurs a flat accuracy penalty. Sprinting and jumping incur cumulative accuracy penalties (the more you move, the less accurate you are).
* Can shoot after sprinting.
* Evasion is more powerful, and is no longer removed when being shot at.
* Accuracy and stability penalties for sustaining damage.
* Elevation grants an escalating accuracy bonus and to hit penalty by 1 per 35 units.
* Obstructed targets are harder to hit and incur a -10% damage penalty.
* Indirect fire has a +8 to hit penalty and incurs a -20% damage penalty.
* Increased maximum heat combined with reduced overheat thresholds.
* Overheating incurs an escalating penalty to accuracy and movement as well as escalating chances to shutdown or having your ammo explode. The more consecutive turns you spend overheated, the higher the penalties and chance of shutting down or exploding.
* Pilots can panic and eject! Continue pounding someone until they bail out or watch in horror as your legged ace gunner punches out after a barrage from the other side! Panic levels also have an effect on accuracy!
* **PLAYABLE TANKS!** You heard right. More details below.

## Fire Modes, Ammo Switching & Custom Ammo Components

There is now Custom Ammo supported, so HMGs, LMGs, MRMs, LBXs, RACs and other weapon systems now have their own ammo types. And with Custom Ammo, you can now use different ammo when firing your weapons. Switch between ammos with Left Click on a right side of weapon slot in combat HUD.

These are all features of Custom Ammo Components, and parts of this mod has taken over what was formerly handled by AIM.

## Heat Effects and Overheating

Heat is handled very differently in Roguetech (compared to the unmodded game). We recommend you read the Heat Effects page to learn more about all of the differences, but this section will provide a summary:

* Heat now follows Classic BattleTech extended heat scale table.
* Heat damage is soft-capped, so the marginal effect of each additional point of heat damage decreases.
* The Heat Damage Threshold Indicator in the UI has a different meaning in Roguetech vs. the base game. Keeping your mech below that threshold is now important for different reasons, including the potential for immediate mech shutdown, pilot injury, ammunition cook-off, and when the smoked brisket in the BSW-P is ready to eat.

## TAC - Through Armour Critical

* Deal critical damage if your armour is compromised or if the weapon hits hard enough!
* By standard TT rules, TAC was introduced to balance certain vehicles and 'mechs from being too robust, and make damage to still be able to affect them.
* It's a real life addition taken to TT and RT, inspired by real physics.
* There is an in-game armour called **Spall Liner** which will lower the chance of TAC being done on your 'mechs (and OpFor too). Build smart.
* Thickness defines the strength something can easily punch through, while shards defines how likely the hit causes spall to cause damage.
* Note: AOE damage does not cause TACs, regardless of how hard they hit. A direct hit from weapons with AOE damage may still cause a TAC at the location of the direct hit. Commonly, this is caused by a direct hit from heavy artillery.

TAC chance is dynamically calculated, read more at: Critical Hit

## Skill Based Initiative

This mod makes the initiative order more random. Instead of 5 phases to each round, there are 30. At the start of each round, each unit's initiative in the phase is determined randomly. The basic roll will be between 6 to 12, though these bounds are influenced by several factors. Lighter mechs have a better bounds, while Assault mechs will have these bounds reduced. The Tactics and Piloting skill of the MechWarrior influence this range. Injuries, knockdowns, and various other battlefield conditions also play a part in determining the unit's place in the initiative order.

The practical effect of these changes is that novice Mechwarriors (low tactics or piloting skill) will typically act later in the round, even if they pilot light mechs. Highly advanced pilots have a better chance to act early in the round, even if they are in heavier Mechs. However the fickle hands of RNGesus plays a critical place, and you may find your well-placed battle plan undone by a set of poor initiative rolls!

This mod divides mechs into 10 ton categories instead of the light/medium/heavy/assault system. 20-25 ton mechs are slightly faster than 30-35 ton mechs. 80-85 tons mechs are faster than 90-95, which are faster than 100. Though randomness can hide this effect, the effect is there, offering a small bonus to pilots of lighter units.

Battlefield conditions that impact your place in the initiative order include:

* Pilots with injuries suffer an initiative penalty between -4 to -7. High Guts ratings reduce this penalty to a minimum of -1 to -4. Pilots with additional health pips (from high guts ratings) will ignore one injury per additional health pip before feeling these effects.
* Mechs that are knocked down suffer an initiative penalty equal to their Guts injury bounds in the turn they are knocked down. On subsequent turns they suffer a -6 penalty, reduced by 5% for each point of piloting skill (rounded down). A mechwarrior with piloting skill 6 reduces this penalty by 30%, to -6 \* 0.70 = -4.
* Mechs with a missing leg or vehicles with a missing side count as crippled and suffer an initiative penalty of -13. This penalty is reduced 5% for each point of piloting (rounded down). A mechwarrior with skill 5 reduces this penalty by 25% to -13 \* 0.75 = 9.
* Mechwarriors with the High Spirits tag gain a +2 initiative bonus. Mechwarriors with the Low Spirits tag suffer a -2 initiative penalty.
* Mechwarriors that are Inspired by Morale or Fury gain a bonus between +1 to +3.
* Any chassis or component that modifies the BaseInititiative of the unit should be honored. This value is normalized against the expected values for the weight classes (light=2, medium=3, heavy=4, assault=5).
* Units that are attacked in melee suffer an initiative penalty. For every 5 tons of difference between the attacker and target, the target suffers a -1 init malus if the attacker is heavier. If the target is heavier, they will only suffer a -1 penalty. Units with the Juggernaught skill (AbilityDefGu5) will multiply this malus by a small amount. This penalty is cumulative so a target that's repeatedly attacked by multiple heavy units can be reduced to the lowest initiative level. This penalty is reduced by the 0.05% for each point of Guts the pilot has.
* Units that reserve lose a random amount of initiative, between 2 and 7 phases.

## Mech Sensor Icons

Cosmetic that adds floating icons near the Mech that point out the big targeting buffs and debuffs.

## How do targeting, visuals, and sensors work? My brain hurts.

Mine too. Low Visibility is the mod that provides the bulk of the changes and you can head over to that page for a longer summary. In a nutshell, chance to hit relies on the big 3 concepts (detailed guides linked):

1. Accuracy modifiers. Can come from weapons, terrain, etc. Fairly similar to HBSBT, but RT just piles on more stuff to affect this. Additionally, RT has tweaks to both show and use a more realistic 2d6 distribution.
2. Electronic Warfare that covers Sensors, ECM, Stealth, and more. No Sensors is a debuff that results in a large -7 chance to hit. Enough stacking ECM jamming can result in absolutely pathetic chances to hit. Like the time 4 command bunkers with their turret-boosted Angel ECMs spawn almost on top of each other and your entire lance took 4 rounds just to kill the first one. </salt>
3. Visibility, or how well you pilot can see what they're shooting at. **Fog of war is not directly representative of Pilot's actual Line of Sight vision**, and both are different from a weapon's Line of Fire. No Visuals is a debuff that results in a large -5 chance to hit. Yes, it's possible for an enemy Mech to John Cena your sorry pilot.

There is a Known Issue where auras (ECM/ECCM/etc.) are only calculated after movement, and the accuracy numbers in the weapon panel during movement preview are likely wrong.

## Overhauled Melee System

* Melee now has proper hit locations and types
* Majority of your Weapons may fire during Melee Attacks
* Punches hit the upper locations of a mech and prevent arm mounted weapons from firing
* Charge is a devastating melee attack at sprint distance that deals damage based on weight and distance, no weapons may fire
* Kicks allow to target a mechs legs and prevent leg mounted weapons from firing
* Physical Melee weapons have unique pro's and con's, use a Mace to ruin their stability or go Headhunting with Swords

## LAM Rework

All LAMS are now a unit class of their own, capable to transform between Flight and Mech Mode

!!WARNING!!

Old LAM items will be completely deprecated and removed over time. LAM's require to be stored and readied again to be updated to new defaults. To compensate, old LAM items have received a buff to their value to recuperate costs.

* LAM have their own structure, engine and armor parts
* LAM have access to unique weapons and equipment

When in LAM Mode

* Unaffected by Ground
* Walk and Run speed count for Movement
* LAM Turbines Add walk Speed in LAM Mode
* LAM's can engage their Afterburner. Allowing extremely long range jumps at extreme heat costs
* LAM's can Melee VTOL

When in Mech Mode

* They act like a normal BattleMech
* No more massive jump distances
* Turbines run slightly cooler than standard JJ

## ECM/EWS Redesign

* See changes at Guides/Electronic Warfare

## Difficulty Scaled Building Health

* Building health scales to difficulty rolled, should help keep buildings up for more than a single salvo late game.

## Manual Deployments

* A Option to chose where you want to drop your forces in Battle

## Overhauled Weapons Crit System

* Depending on weapontype and size, they can receive multiple crits before being destroyed

## Resupply Vehicles

Some vehicles have a special ability that allows them to roll up to a mech, restock its ammo, and occasionally some armor, too. Just the thing to deal with that pesky third lance of enemies that shows up in the middle of a one-skull contract, not that I'm bitter.

# Sim Game Changes Summary

* Starter 'Mechs are selected depending on your staring Faction.
* Your starting lance is randomly assigned from between 210-240 tons and 3-6 'Mechs (including your starter choice, so choose wisely).
* Playing on Company Strength, difficulty is determined by the strength of your Alpha team - the combined C-Bill value of your most expensive 'Mechs defines your available contracts. The number is determined by how many Mechs you are able to launch.
* Your 'Mechs' value defines all aspects of their economy: the cost for maintenance, fueling, arming, and readying your 'Mechs all depends on the value of their chassis and equipment.
* Having a high tech Gauss Rifle is harder to maintain than a crappy old Heavy Rifle, and fielding some Prototype 'Mech is costlier then fielding a mass-produced Centurion, for example.
* Changing armour takes time and costs more.
* You can use Shift+Click to change armor by a single digit each time.
* Shift/Ctrl + Click allows you to sell 10/100 pieces of gear at once.
* Assemble 'Mechs from pieces of similar chassis but expect them to be broken shot up pieces Yang slapped together. Keep only those you want and need, scrap pieces for money and sell your salvage.
* Your monthly morale resets now to 10 plus your Argo bonuses, in order to create a greater incentive to invest into recreational facilities.
* Your funding levels grant you a bonus or penalty to your Med and 'Mech tech levels - pay more and everyone works harder.
* Pilots will be fatigued after a battle. While they can still be deployed, they will be operating with reduced skills and abilities until they recover. Also, pilot upgrades in the barracks won't be available until they return to active duty. Plan accordingly!

## MASSIVE DIFFICULTY OPTIONS

* The new game start and the ingame difficulty settings now include pretty much everything you can think of.

## Reworked Pilot Skills and Quirks

* You now have a choice of 2 Abilities at Skill level 5 and 8
* Level 8 Skills are Active Cooldown Based options
* Earn Unit Affinities with Mechs and vehicles by using them for longer battles
* Training pods reduce and prevent affinity decay
* Your Commander now has Quirks!
* Commander Background equipment is granted at day 2

## Mech Engineer

Engine Cores have a number next to them referred to as Engine Rating. This number, divided by the Mech's tonnage, will give you the Mech's base walk speed in number of hexes covered. Ratings that are in between each "level" may improve sprint speed.

Engine Mods can provide a number of bonuses for trade offs. Most common are the Light engines (Light, XL, etc.), where extra torso space is traded for a lower engine weight.

## Lance Spawner

Lance spawner adds a layer of RNG behind the skull rating, causing missions to vary slightly in difficulty depending on lances spawned.

### Company Difficulty Special Challenge

The Company Difficulty setting combined with Lance Spawner, can push difficulty all the way up to a theoretical designed maximum equivalent to 12.5 Skulls. In development testing, the equivalent of 10.5 Skulls seems to be the maximum observed.

## Playable Tanks

* Players can now field, buy and salvage tanks!
* These have received a complete overhaul to be completely inline with CBT rules to the last kilogram
* You can now drop up to 12 units at 800 tons (argo upgrades permitting), with 4 of these being restricted to tanks
* Tanks cannot be modified but they offer new tactical options or just sheer firepower
* Toggle in Mechlab between Vehicle and Mechbay

## Complete Overhaul of the Shops System

* Shops now have 3 components:
	+ -All shops now stock basic equipment (a mix of introtech weapons, upgrades/heatsinks, ammo, engine cores) in expanded quantities alongside small amounts of uncommon ammo and special slot upgrades (e.g. bolt on weapons) with medium or large population planets offering a wider selection than small population ones.
	+ As you gain rep, the shops will adjust (only on planet change. Stores are static until you change). At liked rep, you'll see a small number of new tanks (succession wars era) added to the stores, at friendly levels; the faction will sell you some mech parts and at honoured rep; they will offer a random mech for sale (both the mech and the mech parts will also be succesion wars era vintage). Please note that this depends on planet tags so a small population planet will only offer extra tanks, but more populous planets will offer the full range of gear.
	+ The 3rd component in the new shop system is planet tags. These largely remain the same for the moment, but manufacturing planets will sell 2 random advanced (as in post Helm Core tech) tanks and mining will sell 2 random Succession Wars era tanks.
* Shops now stock dlc mechs/mech parts if you own/install the relevant dlc (e.g. flashpoint might put a Crab in your shop)
* Installing the Piratetech mod will now offer rare piratetech in the system stores of the major Pirate factions (Valkyrate/Oberon/Circinus/Tortuga) and some piratetech vehicles/mechs in their faction stores.
* Faction shops now exist for all factions. These will stock a selection of advanced tanks and mechs/mech parts alongside things like xl engines or endo steel and other upgrades.
* Several factions do have slightly different stores/faction stores. WoB and Comstar will stock SLDF Royals in their faction store and occasionally non Royal SLDF mechs in their system stores.
* Clans will sell Royals and Second Line mechs alongside mostly SLDF era weapons/ equipment in their stores. Clan tech and weapons will be more common as you advance in rep. Faction stores for the clans will sell Omnimechs in place of standard mechs.
* The Deep Periphery factions such as New Delphi will have smaller stores representing their lower tech levels. They will also be tilted towards a mix of introtech equipment and primititve weapons alogside early mechs and tanks.

## Ammo and Coolant Costs

* Using ammo and cooling your mech now costs money.
* Ammo and Mechs are assigned cost modifiers to their costs based on class, rarity, and other factors.
* Before this change, these costs was baked into upkeep costs and didn't scale well across the spectrum. While this change specifically targets mech costs, it should have the effect of making the early game easier to stave off bankruptcy, while reducing the CBill flood in the end game.

## Pilot Injuries

Pilots can be injured in a variety of ways, each with varying severity and imposing various penalties in combat. For more details, see the documentation for 'Tis But A Scratch (TBAS).

## WarTech (Offline remake)

* GAW was a code nightmare. WarTech IIC is now newly released. It is incompatible with existing saves.

## Other Notable Changes

* Performance fixes, massive improvements to almost everything!

# Live Changes in Tuning

While development and balancing is always ongoing, the changes listed here have launched recently and are being actively tuned with frequent changes pushed out over hotfixes. There may be wild breaks and definitely wilder changes as tuning and tweaking is being done to find the right balance. Fret not, if devs are not answering questions on discord, it's because they're hard at work fixing that last thing they broke.

## AI Rework

* Yes, we know it does stupid things.
* It's being worked on.
* Tooling has passed initial phases of testing. Some additional work needs to be completed.

# Upcoming Changes

These are changes that are currently in active development. They're not ready for the limelight, but the general idea has been hashed out. These details are subject to change, or even removal if the desired outcome doesn't pan out.

## Human Resources

* Pilots will need to be paid more than the token amount in vanilla, and will scale differently as their skills improve.
* Crews can be hired to fill out that huge honkin' colony ship. Crews provide bonuses to Tech and Med, but there might be some contract drama involved.

## BA rebuild

* BAs gonna actually function like squad, instead of a funky mech.

## Quadruped Mechs

* Yea, that's right. 4-legged mechs.
* Mostly done, modellers being whipped as hard as possible.

## Boats

* Because KMission asked: "Are you doubting me?"