Help Sought in Changing the Starter Lance for the Campaign

[Zolotaya]

I have tried searching for info on how to change my starting lance for the Restoration Campaign.

I found the SimGameConstants.JSON found in;
SteamApps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\simGameConstants

and following the simple instructions on the Steam post, I found both: Commander; "StartingPlayerMech" and Lance; "StartingLance".

I also found the base game mech list in: SteamApps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\mech

What I have failed to find is the mechs that are gated behind the Heavy Metal DLC, and thus am not sure how to replace the blackjack with a phoenixhawk and the spider with an assassin.

I am a novice player in skill, so I do not wish to mess with the game, other than to change the starting lance to include the phoenixhawk and the assassin in place of the blackjack and spider respectively.

I tried looking at the mod selection in the game menu but it just had an enable checkbox for a sample mod; which i don't even know what the sample mod does. So I exited that and came here.

I appreciate any assistance given and thank everyone in advance.

 

[Mordray]

I don't have the update yet myself, however, what I am going to do is use a Unity Assets Bundle Extractor, to crack open the asset file and snoop around for the exact information I need.

 

[stjobe]

The Phoenix Hawk is

mechdef_phoenixhawk_PXH-1
mechdef_phoenixhawk_PXH-1K​

The Assassin is

mechdef_assassin_ASN-21
mechdef_assassin_ASN-101​

As a side note, an easy way to find these is to load up the whole data folder (e.g. SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data) in Visual Studio Code and just search for parts of the name - the assets themselves are hidden, but the names are used in various places so shouldn't be too hard to find.

 

[Mordray]

Never heard of Visual Studio Code till now... been using Notepad++... I'll have to check that out.

 

[unclecid]

The Phoenix Hawk is

mechdef_phoenixhawk_PXH-1
mechdef_phoenixhawk_PXH-1K​

The Assassin is

mechdef_assassin_ASN-21
mechdef_assassin_ASN-101​

As a side note, an easy way to find these is to load up the whole data folder (e.g. SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data) in Visual Studio Code and just search for parts of the name - the assets themselves are hidden, but the names are used in various places so shouldn't be too hard to find.

you can also get them and more from github

@HBS_Mouse posted this in his mod document thread:


HBS Hosts DLC design data here:

• https://github.com/caardappel-hbs/bt-dlc-designdata

 

[Zolotaya]

Thank you @Mordray , @stjobe and @unclecid.

 

[Vonbek]

@Zolotaya, this is a screencap of the github repo.

All Mechdefs in this.

 

[Mordray]

<snips>awesome stuff...</snips>

Damn! I had no idea this resource existed. Thank you. This will save me a lot of time.

 

[Zolotaya]

I got everything working, and I am now enjoying my new campaign.

Thanks again for everyone's help.