[Mod Release] SLDF Royal Divisions

[Dialcaliper]

SLDF Royal Divisions

V1.5.1.0 is Out for better compatibility with BT1.5.1 and other updated mods (CommunityAssetbundle and CustomAmmoCategories)

Now with more mechs, more weapons plus custom encounter contracts and Shops/itemCollections revisions.

Welcome to “SLDF Royal Divisions” (hosted on NexusMods)

Contained in this mod are 68 mech variants of Battletech 2750 Vintage including SLDF "Royal" Division Mechs, as well as additional Star League/LosTech variants from the SLDF Regular Regiments, as well as a few from the "Great Houses" (aka Successor States). Additionally, I've included Additional Unique/Hero variants. The variants also incorporate all the necessary Star League "LosTech" weapons and equipment, which is included in this mod (or already present in the HBS game), as well as a suitable system of workarounds to represent things like full engine double heat sinks and a few variants with XL engines.

I have also completely redone the 4 Royals from HBS to be closer to tabletop "canon" chassis weights and loadouts and converted them to use the double heatsink system.

This mod is was created with ModTek v0.7.0 which are *Required*. It is based on a "Vanilla" Mechlab - MechEngineer and Roguetech are not supported and will not work with the variants as provided in the mod.



Required mods:

ModTek v0.7.0

The variants make use of the following mods:

Community Assetbundle hosted by LadyAlekto, contributions from many modders
WeaponRealizer by janxious (for Lostech Weapons)
CustomAmmoCategories by KMission (for Lostech Weapons)
JK_Variants by JustinKase
Rarity Tags for Factions by JustinKase for Encounter module
Skirmish Inventory Unlock - if you want to take all of the LosTech mechs for a spin quickly and easily in skirmish mode
MechResizer v1.0.0 by janxious (Marauder and Rifleman II rescaling).

I'd like to put out a thanks to @JustinKase, @bloodydoves, @SolhamaJoe, @B4ckF1sh, @Colobos @janxious, @Mpstark and @LadyAlekto for all their hard work advice and examples.

 

[Justin Kase]

Beautiful work on this Brings some really nice 'Mechs to the table - hopefully with what @Amechwarrior is working on with the FP missions, we can have some hidden cache style missions!!

 

[unclecid]

This and the night star mech mod are so much cool it hurts

Now I want to do a career mode as descendants of a rogue sldf unit last seen in the periphery during the ACW.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Beautiful work on this Brings some really nice 'Mechs to the table - hopefully with what @Amechwarrior is working on with the FP missions, we can have some hidden cache style missions!!

The potential for Flashpoints is definitely exciting. I'm already working on some basic contract missions I can slip in that will bring an occasional LosTech unit into play. Definitely thinking of more possibilities.

 

[unclecid]

hmm....take @CWolfs Mission Control plus @Dialcaliper SLDF and maybe we can occasional get a SLDF unit as allies.

 

[TLRoff]

BIG MASSIVE SEAL OF APPROVAL OF THIS MOD.. Like why aint you running it... This is one of those "if you run no other mods, run this one.". It's really that good!

Like serious major kudo's

I run this with AldathsZeroWigthMods, Industrial systems, BD's ANH,ASN,ARC, and RFL mechs Clol's HTM, STH-SAM, Kitfox pirate Mauler Raven Summoner Pirate Vulkan Wolfhound, Handy industrial weps Handy shps and weapons pack (I've manually removed the fluid guns.. sorry lads they were not in the TT..) Helm core downing. HotD mechs, JK's mechs varients etc. Panic system and the usual raft of mods (weapon relizer, wep resizer etc.)

It fits the core game far better than any other of the mod packages out there and doesn't mess with core weapons balance which is a big plus as that means it'll stay compatible with any future DLC and expansions.

I wish that harebrained had decided to go with a full on tabletop mech lab and TT rules but they chose not to for their own reason. (and I'd bet real money I'd disagree with those reasons.. I tend to go with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it") Had they a lot of mod makers creating stuff from the tt game to plug into the computer game would be far easier to do.. of course, that may have been why things were done as they have been. They couldn't make iit to much different how ever or folks wouldn't recognize it as battletech which is an issue that the mechcommander games had. Right setting but never really quitte felt like battletech. Even the best that modders could do never really was able to make it fit.

My only objection is the same one i have with Jl's mod and that is to do with command cockpits, DCC etc. These item are too powerful for the scale of the game. It's not that the bonuses are OP, it's that 4 bonuses on a single piece of equipment is OP, even though it's fixed equipment. The other issue is they cannot be destroyed. These special items need to be if not destructible, damageable and critable DCC's of any kind should be hideously expensive to repair if damaged. They power they give the player needs to off set a little.. Damage to a command mech cockpit should potentially wipe out any profits from a mission just to repair it.

Anyway, my thoughts. A very very nicely done mod. My only note of issue is command cockpits, but our mod maker is building from JK's work obviously and it's understandable. Had he been working them up on his own I suspect they wouldn't be quite as potent.

 

[unclecid]

@TLRoff
when the pilot ejects or the head is destroyed the DCC is wrecked and not recoverable.
at least this is how it has been for me for quite awhile now.

 

[TLRoff]

I'm assuming the command cockpit for JK mod is the one your thinking of. That one can be wrecked... it seems it can also be salvaged but being a 2 slot cockpit, you cannot refit it to a mech that previously had one or any other mech.... It's... annoying. The work around is to just go into JK mod find the file for the cockpit in the upgrades folder and change it to a one slot system.. Then it can be recovered/refitted, but then of course you can add it to any mech. Being able to easily customize the game tends to make it.. tooo easy.

really, if anyone want to cheat their way to victory just take the kerensky variant of the ON-K. seriously beastly

 

[Justin Kase]

Anyway, my thoughts. A very very nicely done mod. My only note of issue is command cockpits, but our mod maker is building from JK's work obviously and it's understandable. Had he been working them up on his own I suspect they wouldn't be quite as potent.

Actually, the Command Consoles are a toned down version of the stuff GT originally sent me to use

The idea was that they were Dual Cockpits, allowing for a 2nd MW in the 'Mech - essentially granting the extra HP, visbility, etc.

They should be destroyed when that location is destroyed, and not be able to be swapped into anything other than a DC 'Mech (due to the 2 slot requirement, and the DC 'Mechs having the extra slot.

I'm not opposed to downgrading them a bit - but would prefer a broader community feedback on what others want to see

 

[Justin Kase]

I'm assuming the command cockpit for JK mod is the one your thinking of. That one can be wrecked... it seems it can also be salvaged but being a 2 slot cockpit, you cannot refit it to a mech that previously had one or any other mech.... It's... annoying. The work around is to just go into JK mod find the file for the cockpit in the upgrades folder and change it to a one slot system.. Then it can be recovered/refitted, but then of course you can add it to any mech. Being able to easily customize the game tends to make it.. tooo easy.

really, if anyone want to cheat their way to victory just take the kerensky variant of the ON-K. seriously beastly

Well, if you break the restriction, allowing it to be on any 'Mech, I am not sure what to tell you - it is a powerful bonus, and not meant to be used with anything/everything Just modify it to your liking to make it less potent.

If you would like to make it harder - use the Rarity mod and you'll only see them for their relevant factions, and even then you will likely be a bit hard pressed to find/capture one.

 

[Dialcaliper]

@TLRoff, @unclecid

Concerns about the command cockpit are noted. I went from JK’s two slot system to the “fixed” just to make it nonremovable, but as you noted, that makes it repairable. Once JK has the rarity system cover the LosTech stuff, it should become a whole lot more rare - they will either be treated more like rare LosTech, or (if JK gets the Era system working) optionally consistent rarity with 2750 which (esp Royals) is still a pretty small fraction of the Mechs out there. Right now every Mech has a roughly equal chance to appear, no matter how rare it should be.

In other words, it should become sufficiently challenging to actually recover a LosTech Mech. (Especially if you salvage them unequipped).

Regarding the mechs in the “unique” folder, yes some of them are gratuitous or totally unbalanced) (Kerensky, Rifleman III, LAM) intentionally. Soon they will be blacklisted as “hero” mechs by default (you can go in and change that manually if you want), but the intent is that they will be available for custom modded missions or custom flash points rather than random spawns (I mean, Aleksandr Kerensky got around, but there’s only supposed to be one of him in the whole galaxy - you’re not supposed to find his Mech just lying around or in the hands of some pirate)

 

[TLRoff]

Nicky's Orion.. yea and fun as it is (very fun very very fun OP, but fun, and can be argued to not be cannon..)

History: Abandoned in a star system on the way out of the inner sphere during the exodus. Recovered by Formial Kurita, Keeper of the house honor for house kurita, and presented to Theodore Kurita upon his graduation from Sun Tsu just prior to the 4th war.. The Order of 5 Pillars rebuilt Kerensky's Orion to its original specs.. Theodore took it with him to his assignment with the Legion of Vega where it either went done in combat with a fellow by the name of Olivera at the controls. I'm not quite sure of its current state, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's still out there in service with someone by 3100

And I'm driv'n the silly thing...

 

[TLRoff]

PS, looking forward to your next update. Also what ever you do do not use the "pirate" version of the clan mechs.. they're a little... overly strong
I have a 35 ton clan chassis set up with nothing by melee weps small lasers and flamers.. leg and arm mods to improve stab damage out put and keep it from ripping it's own legs off in a DFA. Last 3 DFA's all ended up with crushed cockpits... I gotta give it a good name...

Plans sound good.. yep will definatly be watching for the next up date

 

[Dialcaliper]

@TLRoff

Go figure - in 1000 years there will still be “fanbois” building replica rides. (Btw, Technically the Orion is General Aleksandr’s. His son Nicholas piloted a clan-spec Atlas II)

I’m not really a fan of the clans or clan-tech, so I won’t be going that direction. My first goal is to add extremely rare LosTech mechs to the 3025/3028 setting, much like the way HBS has it currently, but to make sure it shows up rarely in the Opfor, not just for the player. More available than it “should” be, but only to make things interesting. I think my goal is that in a typical campaign/career playthrough on salvage 4/5 parts you might be able to build 1 or 2 LosTech spoilermechs (to go with the two campaign rewards), not a whole company before you complete the campaign/career mode. Working with @Justin Kase to make this a possibility with the rarity tagging. Essentially I want to keep with the rarity level HBS has in 1.3, but add to the opfor as well

Second goal will be to use JK’s rarity tagging to make an appropriate 2750 setting. Star League tech was still pretty rare before the succession wars, especially outside the SLDF (which still used a lot of pre-LosTech equipment and units in the regular regiments). Even within the SLDF, Royals were only 16% of the forces.

The other reason I like 2750 tech is that with some later exceptions, the mech designs are “upgraded” with a couple advanced chassis stuff, plus partial to full advanced weaponry. A few non-royal designs don’t even rock double heatsinks or any advanced weapons, are some are nothing more than a single upgrade (FF or Endo Steel) plus DHS. There’s a nice spectrum of tech levels.

Contrast to 3050/clan era designs, which are all pimped out with everything (Endo/FF Armor, XL Engines, advanced weaponry), and 3025 tech is getting more or less obsolete.

 

[XTRMNTR2K]

Like I said on Nexus: WOW, that's a lot of LosTech! It's great to see this realized. It must've taken many hours to put all these variants - and equipment - together. And the Rarity Tag thing makes all of this even better. Having SLDF-era variants show up as part of the OpFor on rare occasions should've been part of the main game, IMHO.

For my mod XLRP I started making SLDF mechs as well, though these are (apart from fixing the vanilla ones) only the SHD-2Hb, WVR-7H and ZEU-5S so far.

So I wanted to ask if you would consider giving me permission to integrate your variants (and equipment, unless already present) with XLRP, which also means modifying them for MechEngineer. XLRP also has WeaponRealizer integrated, so functionality for the weapons requiring it should pretty much remain the same.

(Sorry if this is getting annoying - I wasn't sure if you'd already seen my comment on Nexus or not.)

In any case, keep up the great work! I can't wait to see what you'll come up with in future updates.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Like I said on Nexus: WOW, that's a lot of LosTech! It's great to see this realized. It must've taken many hours to put all these variants - and equipment - together. And the Rarity Tag thing makes all of this even better. Having SLDF-era variants show up as part of the OpFor on rare occasions should've been part of the main game, IMHO.

For my mod XLRP I started making SLDF mechs as well, though these are (apart from fixing the vanilla ones) only the SHD-2Hb, WVR-7H and ZEU-5S so far.

So I wanted to ask if you would consider giving me permission to integrate your variants (and equipment, unless already present) with XLRP, which also means modifying them for MechEngineer. XLRP also has WeaponRealizer integrated, so functionality for the weapons requiring it should pretty much remain the same.

(Sorry if this is getting annoying - I wasn't sure if you'd already seen my comment on Nexus or not.)

In any case, keep up the great work! I can't wait to see what you'll come up with in future updates.

Sorry I haven’t responded - I’m not against you integrating it, but two things:

The behavior of how I integrated WR as optional is a little funky - the base mechdefs for mechs with UAC5, LB10-X and have vanilla equipment installed, which is then replaced by the WR mod folder when it’s enabled. The Snub PPC variants are only in the WR folder, and the uniques currently require WR to be installed.

Second thing is that I will be coming out with a new version soon with the added functionality In mentioned that takes advantage of JK’s rarity mod. Currently they will not spawn at all in the OpFor when the rarity mod is installed (on purpose), until I add the new files. I’m also trying to fill out weapon variants a bit

So you might want to wait a bit before you get too into trying to convert the current version.

 

[TLRoff]

*goes all fan boi for a moment and sqees while slapping hands*

Now tall I need is a good primitive tech mod for stuff that I feel kinda shoulda been with the HBS release considering the location and era. Along the line of mining, logger mechs construction and hearder mechs (still megafauna on some of these worlds!) . I know someone has to be working on something like that for the vanilla game. They gotta they gotta.

Noth'n quite so normally merc work as a corporate contract to face down . err, engage in hostile negotiations with the local farmers coop fielding their harvester and work mechs against players in the early going. Using the industrial equipment mods you can put together mechs you just don't wanna even let into melee range.

Anyone know if there is one.. I've been digging but only bits and pieces to be found.

 

[Dialcaliper]

*goes all fan boi for a moment and sqees while slapping hands*

Now tall I need is a good primitive tech mod for stuff that I feel kinda shoulda been with the HBS release considering the location and era. Along the line of mining, logger mechs construction and hearder mechs (still megafauna on some of these worlds!) . I know someone has to be working on something like that for the vanilla game. They gotta they gotta.

Noth'n quite so normally merc work as a corporate contract to face down . err, engage in hostile negotiations with the local farmers coop fielding their harvester and work mechs against players in the early going. Using the industrial equipment mods you can put together mechs you just don't wanna even let into melee range.

Anyone know if there is one.. I've been digging but only bits and pieces to be found.

This is the only one I know about that has the equipment, but I haven’t seen anyone actually make the industrial mech variants.

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/355

 

[XTRMNTR2K]

Sorry I haven’t responded - I’m not against you integrating it, but two things:

Thanks a lot for the quick response!

The behavior of how I integrated WR as optional is a little funky - the base mechdefs for mechs with UAC5, LB10-X and have vanilla equipment installed, which is then replaced by the WR mod folder when it’s enabled. The Snub PPC variants are only in the WR folder, and the uniques currently require WR to be installed.

Ah, that makes sense. I had a quick look at the files but didn't notice it to be honest. May I ask how you did it?

Oh, and it most likely won't be a problem since I would need to replace the already existing weapons with ones from XLRP (like UAC5, LB 10-X AC, Artemis IV Missiles, etc. ) as well as some of the stock variants with their quirky manufacturer counterparts (or even +/++ ones, where appropriate). So it would mostly be a partial rebuilt anyway (especially due to the way fixed equipment like FF armor and Endo-Steel need to be added to the ChassisDef in MechEngineer).

Second thing is that I will be coming out with a new version soon with the added functionality In mentioned that takes advantage of JK’s rarity mod. Currently they will not spawn at all in the OpFor when the rarity mod is installed (on purpose), until I add the new files. I’m also trying to fill out weapon variants a bit

So you might want to wait a bit before you get too into trying to convert the current version.

That's what I thought, so I will wait for now.

Do you reckon the next release will be okay to convert?

 

[i64man]

@ xtramntr2k do you plan to incorporate this mod or make it compatible with your mod?