Enjoy! The new artillery style is very *different* but quite fun. I used it extensively in testing (roughly 9 play sessions over 3 weeks with multiple tubes on every mission) and found it to be fun if a little tricky to adapt to.
Thanks BD! I personally mourn my Monster with twin Longtoms headcapping from 1700m, but respect the decision. I love the ever-evolving nature of BTA 3062. Time to reevaluate my strategy!
Thank you Bloodydoves. I have played BTA in the past however I’m enjoying a heavily modified BEX playthrough atm. I just installed the latest sub mods for BEX, and they now use a two turn artillery feature like this one. I appreciate the video, it explains some things they are doing ( though I’m not sure they did all the changes you have). It’s nice to get an idea how the new artillery features are working in game. I will still need to investigate the BEX version a little more but I just wanted to thank you for posting this video which gives me an idea how artillery is being remolded. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Sounds neat! I'd hazard that the BEX submod is using CustomAmmoCategories just like BTA is and they set their artillery weapons to the multi-turn functionality as well. It'll be fundamentally the same mechanic, though precise numbers might shift around of course. Have fun with the BEX playthrough! It's a great mod.
@@realbloodydoves I’ve talked with mcb who is the author of CAC-C which is the CustomAmmoCategories that BEX uses. He said it’s not part of his mod but will be in the next release. Kierk’s Expansion mod is using a modified version to instill the new Artillery model in conjunction with mcb’ mod. Not sure how I feel about the new mode but I’m gonna give it a shot and see how it goes. Thanks again for the video!
BloodyDoves consistently surprises me with how clever and direct his solutions are to issues that, at the outset, seem to be zero sum games. Both arty are allowed to exist, both are still effective, and the new mechanic gives a genuinely useful tactical tool without trivializing what came before. Good work!
> ArrowIV > nuke still retained > aoe actually bigger than it used to be sign me up For real though, definitely looks like an interesting update. I've always had "that one arty guy" but maybe this might be worth adding a buddy for extra arty shenanigans. Thanks!
Oh man this is great! Thanks for this. I had my whole B lance Artillery mechs before update. Now may need to rethink, which is good! Can you move and then shoot the new Artillery? If not, I imagine mechs like Kit Fox really need to stay back!
I love the mechanic but its strongly situational in my eyes you need to have the right mission/terrain for it to be worth putting arty mechs in the drop squad. Ive only had the misfortune of trying them in early missions where its mostly lights/mediums so they just scurry out of the way but im looking forward to doing some builds especially since I allied with davion and found a monstrous vehicle with two TWO long toms at 130 tons in the faction store. HERE COME THE SUN DO DO DO DO... AND ANOTHER ONE DO DOOT DO DOO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
So this is cool and all but there is 1 problem with it in terms of balance. Since the damage of the 2 turn weapons is so huge now this is technically a buff to artillery IF you can still make the old 1 turn shooting work. And you can totally do that by abusing initiative. If I take a clan mech with omnipods that can mount a longtom and then try to push its initiative as high as possible (like Timber Wolf affinity, quirks, command console, battle computers, shielded stance, blooddoves and so on) i can basically still 1 turn fire kinda (as in no time for the enemy to react). Just reserve your action to the last phase, plan your shot, next turn you act first before all enemies because of your high initiative = BOOM. The enemy did not have any way to avoid or move and they take double damage now basically. This basically makes covoys one shots almost :D
What you described here is not a bug but a feature. You put a TON of effort into making one specific unit good with one specific gun and lo and behold, that unit was good with that gun. I see this as a victory of player tactics and properly functioning mechanics.
I picked up this mod a few days ago after watching some let's plays of it. This one change to make artillery from a 1-turn process (the way the game was designed to function) into a now 2-turn process (aim at the enemy -> watch the enemy leave the circle in the direction they were going to anyway, effectively making it meaningless on top of doing 0 damage) has convinced me to drop the mod entirely. I'll go play something else.
I'm not really a fan of the fact that the Tag is no longer available for the lrms Because you were able to use this thing a lot to make Missile weapons more accurate It's just part of the history of BattleTech that lrms and other weapons were made more precise as a result If you have marked them Regarding the artillery changes, I'm excited to see what happens. I'll try it out and then give my feedback
I decided to focus TAG mostly on the artillery in order to encourage an arty-focused playstyle. LRMs are powerful enough and have plenty of support as it is.
@@realbloodydoves problem I've got with this is it's not nearly remotely lore accurate or real to life accurate to how these systems work. artillery generally uses spotting not laser designated marking like missiles and bombs do as an optional tracking mode for TARGETING ONLY, and when it does have such it should be PINPOINT accurate to the point of literally direct hitting moving vehicles. just shooting a laser targeting pointer which is what a tag system is shouldn't do anything to any arty outside the arrow missile systems. acid on the other hand would certainly do this to armor and artillery that you've set up to have smart directed explosion munitions might have a slight effect on this but that shit's lostech and unlikely to be used on artillery of all things. only ones I can see using the TAG system that way are clanners and while not lore accurate comstar related factions might use something like that. to those of us in the know this is like saying my laser pointer makes things explode better......it doesn't......just saying.
So does this mean that TAG no longer provides a general to-hit bonus? So it's not at all useful if you are not using artillery/aoe weapons? I'm not really making use of artillery in my current career, so I want to know if I should plan to pull that off the units that have it and replace it with something else.
I can't say I like the artillery changes. The multi-round TTI isn't as much fun as the same-turn boom boom. I wish this was a toggle I could turn on/off.
Took me a while to find this and now I finally have an explanation for what the hell happened to the artillery. I hate it. It's awful. But, I suppose the way it was the arty was more than a little OP. Being able to set entire grid squares on fire on demand if not exactly on target made it absurdly easy to cheese fights. I am the proud owner of BloodyDoves' own KGC-BD thanks in large part to a Schiltron and a LT-MOB-25 with help from a HAE-OP refitted as a mortar platform. If the ai wasn't dumb as a box of rocks I am not sure I would have survived BTA Calling. With these new changes, I am reasonably sure I would have had my ass handed to me given I was a bit shy of the firepower that was being brought to bear in that mission. As much as I hate this change, it will force me to fill those arty slots with something else most of the time.
Uh, to be frank, I have no idea. I don't know how RT is doing artillery or how they balance anything. I don't really interact with that aspect of RT these days.
Interesting changes, I think this is a reasonable adjustment to artillery. I'm currently having a field day with my Shiltron Prime setting the place ablaze. It does feel a touch overpowered 😅 Absolutely loving this mod btw, I think this stands as my favourite mod I've ever played and that's going against anything I've played in XCOM 2.
@@realbloodydoves To add to this, I've been loving the 'beacons' and the 'Strafing run'. With your blessings, could I do a video on how to use them? It would be a tutorial essentially. They have been incredibly valuable and based on comments on my current run, potentially underutilised. The info would be based on the BTA 3062 wiki and my own experience. If you're not okay with this, that is totally fine, it's your creation! I will no doubt play whatever rendition of this in a year or so from scratch to enjoy all the further updates really.
@@Chimpy13 Happy to have someone making some content for BTA! It's a small game and community, having someone out there making some content is something I'll *always* be a fan of.
I am new to the mod, and still just getting into 3 skull missions, but it seems the Arrow IV in particular is extremely under-performing. As in less than half the DPS of LRMs. Even trying to reserve to the last round and locking enemies to slow their initiative, it's a simple damage issue. Not sure the damage boost is enough to compensate for half as many turns in the fight, especially with the normal (and justified) issues with stray shots and inaccurate fire.
This isn't released yet, so yeah, the video is unlisted right now as I still work out the kinks in the system before releasing the system to the BTA Ecosystem.
@@realbloodydoves It's still very unlisted 3 months later. Should probably list it. There are a few people asking this question because Tex has been doing a playthrough. Me being one of them, hah.
Sorry to bother you doves. But your moderator Wulfbanes is being a dick in the discord. Yeah i somewhat deserved the ban but he was also out for me the MINUTE i joined the discord. please check him hes not doing you any favors if he goes off the rails on some random user because I'm not sunshine and rainbows 100% of the time. Sorry to bother you this way while your on vacation but the discord seems to be the only way to contact you and if he power trips and bans you then i can't contact you about professional conduct and antagonizing people.
This won't end well. I doubt he would be receptive to someone posting stuff like this publicly, particularly given that you seem to be aware that your behavior was questionable. No one is expected to be 'sunshine and rainbows' 100% of the time, but no one gets banned for that ever anyway so that's a bit disingenuous to put that out there. What they get banned for is being inappropriate.
@@Mythryl12 it's literally the only way to contact him. He came after me when i wasn't breaking any rules and then banned me afterward for "Arguing" which is a great rule not easy to abuse at all. if he doesn't want this stuff public he should have more then one avenue of contact
@@MrBubblebox That last part just isn't true. He doesn't owe people multiple avenues of contact, and he's entitled to go on vacations. No one is entitled to immediate feedback, and the lack of immediate feedback doesn't validate less appropriate ways to get your point across. You do you, feel free to ignore my advice since I'm just basically some random internet person; but I'm telling you that taking this public on a completely different platform is very likely to get you the opposite reaction you are hoping for.
@@Mythryl12 I never once said he shouldn't go on vacations neither did i ask for immediate feedback. follow up blatant lies with "you do you" is disingenuous especially since you as you just admitted are just some random Who are you why are you sticking your nose in something that does not concern you acting like I'm an idiot who isn't aware youtube is probably the worst platform for this.
Clever way of giving us "old" and "new" Arty options.
It felt like a good compromise position. We'll see how it plays for users.
As an artillery lover, I look forward to exploring this strange new world. Thanks for all the work you do on this fantastic mod.
Enjoy! The new artillery style is very *different* but quite fun. I used it extensively in testing (roughly 9 play sessions over 3 weeks with multiple tubes on every mission) and found it to be fun if a little tricky to adapt to.
Thanks BD! I personally mourn my Monster with twin Longtoms headcapping from 1700m, but respect the decision. I love the ever-evolving nature of BTA 3062. Time to reevaluate my strategy!
Gotta keep you on yer toes!
Gauss Rifles with FCS
Thank you Bloodydoves. I have played BTA in the past however I’m enjoying a heavily modified BEX playthrough atm. I just installed the latest sub mods for BEX, and they now use a two turn artillery feature like this one. I appreciate the video, it explains some things they are doing ( though I’m not sure they did all the changes you have). It’s nice to get an idea how the new artillery features are working in game. I will still need to investigate the BEX version a little more but I just wanted to thank you for posting this video which gives me an idea how artillery is being remolded. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Sounds neat! I'd hazard that the BEX submod is using CustomAmmoCategories just like BTA is and they set their artillery weapons to the multi-turn functionality as well. It'll be fundamentally the same mechanic, though precise numbers might shift around of course.
Have fun with the BEX playthrough! It's a great mod.
@@realbloodydoves I’ve talked with mcb who is the author of CAC-C which is the CustomAmmoCategories that BEX uses. He said it’s not part of his mod but will be in the next release. Kierk’s Expansion mod is using a modified version to instill the new Artillery model in conjunction with mcb’ mod. Not sure how I feel about the new mode but I’m gonna give it a shot and see how it goes. Thanks again for the video!
BloodyDoves consistently surprises me with how clever and direct his solutions are to issues that, at the outset, seem to be zero sum games. Both arty are allowed to exist, both are still effective, and the new mechanic gives a genuinely useful tactical tool without trivializing what came before. Good work!
I try! Sometimes I even do a good job! (Not often though :D)
> ArrowIV
> nuke still retained
> aoe actually bigger than it used to be
sign me up
For real though, definitely looks like an interesting update. I've always had "that one arty guy" but maybe this might be worth adding a buddy for extra arty shenanigans. Thanks!
I heard the words "more damage" and "Long Tom" in close proximity.
I am happy.
Ha ha, enjoy!
thanks for another great update!
Enjoy! :D
Just wanted to hop on and say hi since I just hired you as my new Mechwarrior in my Battletech game.
Cool! Hope I don't let you down too bad!
Oh man this is great! Thanks for this. I had my whole B lance Artillery mechs before update. Now may need to rethink, which is good!
Can you move and then shoot the new Artillery? If not, I imagine mechs like Kit Fox really need to stay back!
You cannot move on the turn you complete the attack sequence. You can move on the turn you target the attack.
Hey BD, WHATS THE SOUND OF ARTILLERY?
Uh.... boom?
Question BD - What about arty with things like lrms etc, can you still fire those turn 1, then turn 2 arty?
No, if you begin an artillery attack it locks out other weapons until the artillery is done.
I love the mechanic but its strongly situational in my eyes you need to have the right mission/terrain for it to be worth putting arty mechs in the drop squad. Ive only had the misfortune of trying them in early missions where its mostly lights/mediums so they just scurry out of the way but im looking forward to doing some builds especially since I allied with davion and found a monstrous vehicle with two TWO long toms at 130 tons in the faction store. HERE COME THE SUN DO DO DO DO... AND ANOTHER ONE DO DOOT DO DOO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
So this is cool and all but there is 1 problem with it in terms of balance.
Since the damage of the 2 turn weapons is so huge now this is technically a buff to artillery IF you can still make the old 1 turn shooting work.
And you can totally do that by abusing initiative.
If I take a clan mech with omnipods that can mount a longtom and then try to push its initiative as high as possible (like Timber Wolf affinity, quirks, command console, battle computers, shielded stance, blooddoves and so on) i can basically still 1 turn fire kinda (as in no time for the enemy to react).
Just reserve your action to the last phase, plan your shot, next turn you act first before all enemies because of your high initiative = BOOM.
The enemy did not have any way to avoid or move and they take double damage now basically.
This basically makes covoys one shots almost :D
What you described here is not a bug but a feature. You put a TON of effort into making one specific unit good with one specific gun and lo and behold, that unit was good with that gun. I see this as a victory of player tactics and properly functioning mechanics.
I picked up this mod a few days ago after watching some let's plays of it. This one change to make artillery from a 1-turn process (the way the game was designed to function) into a now 2-turn process (aim at the enemy -> watch the enemy leave the circle in the direction they were going to anyway, effectively making it meaningless on top of doing 0 damage) has convinced me to drop the mod entirely. I'll go play something else.
I'm not really a fan of the fact that the Tag is no longer available for the lrms Because you were able to use this thing a lot to make Missile weapons more accurate It's just part of the history of BattleTech that lrms and other weapons were made more precise as a result If you have marked them
Regarding the artillery changes, I'm excited to see what happens. I'll try it out and then give my feedback
It's just not that helpful to carry around a C3 Master every time you want to mark something
I decided to focus TAG mostly on the artillery in order to encourage an arty-focused playstyle. LRMs are powerful enough and have plenty of support as it is.
@@realbloodydoves problem I've got with this is it's not nearly remotely lore accurate or real to life accurate to how these systems work. artillery generally uses spotting not laser designated marking like missiles and bombs do as an optional tracking mode for TARGETING ONLY, and when it does have such it should be PINPOINT accurate to the point of literally direct hitting moving vehicles. just shooting a laser targeting pointer which is what a tag system is shouldn't do anything to any arty outside the arrow missile systems. acid on the other hand would certainly do this to armor and artillery that you've set up to have smart directed explosion munitions might have a slight effect on this but that shit's lostech and unlikely to be used on artillery of all things. only ones I can see using the TAG system that way are clanners and while not lore accurate comstar related factions might use something like that.
to those of us in the know this is like saying my laser pointer makes things explode better......it doesn't......just saying.
So does this mean that TAG no longer provides a general to-hit bonus? So it's not at all useful if you are not using artillery/aoe weapons? I'm not really making use of artillery in my current career, so I want to know if I should plan to pull that off the units that have it and replace it with something else.
TAG is *just* an artillery support piece now, it no longer provides a general accuracy bonus.
@@realbloodydoves thanks!
How does this effect the FASCAM deployment from arrow 4s and other rocket arty , do the mines do more damage, spread out more ?
Nah, the FASCAM works the same as it always has.
I can't say I like the artillery changes. The multi-round TTI isn't as much fun as the same-turn boom boom.
I wish this was a toggle I could turn on/off.
Sadly, there is not. But luckily, you have the Artillery Cannons that can still do that!
Took me a while to find this and now I finally have an explanation for what the hell happened to the artillery.
I hate it. It's awful.
But, I suppose the way it was the arty was more than a little OP.
Being able to set entire grid squares on fire on demand if not exactly on target made it absurdly easy to cheese fights.
I am the proud owner of BloodyDoves' own KGC-BD thanks in large part to a Schiltron and a LT-MOB-25 with help from a HAE-OP refitted as a mortar platform.
If the ai wasn't dumb as a box of rocks I am not sure I would have survived BTA Calling.
With these new changes, I am reasonably sure I would have had my ass handed to me given I was a bit shy of the firepower that was being brought to bear in that mission.
As much as I hate this change, it will force me to fill those arty slots with something else most of the time.
How does that differ from the Roguetech version? To be honest this looks better at first glance
Uh, to be frank, I have no idea. I don't know how RT is doing artillery or how they balance anything. I don't really interact with that aspect of RT these days.
Interesting changes, I think this is a reasonable adjustment to artillery. I'm currently having a field day with my Shiltron Prime setting the place ablaze. It does feel a touch overpowered 😅
Absolutely loving this mod btw, I think this stands as my favourite mod I've ever played and that's going against anything I've played in XCOM 2.
Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying it!
@@realbloodydoves To add to this, I've been loving the 'beacons' and the 'Strafing run'. With your blessings, could I do a video on how to use them? It would be a tutorial essentially. They have been incredibly valuable and based on comments on my current run, potentially underutilised. The info would be based on the BTA 3062 wiki and my own experience.
If you're not okay with this, that is totally fine, it's your creation! I will no doubt play whatever rendition of this in a year or so from scratch to enjoy all the further updates really.
@@Chimpy13 Of course! Go right ahead with your tutorial, I welcome all such content!
@@realbloodydoves Thanks it means a lot you approve! The versatility it adds its incredible!
@@Chimpy13 Happy to have someone making some content for BTA! It's a small game and community, having someone out there making some content is something I'll *always* be a fan of.
Was this inspired by the way MW5 does its arty? (the red circles all over the place)
Don't think so.
I am new to the mod, and still just getting into 3 skull missions, but it seems the Arrow IV in particular is extremely under-performing. As in less than half the DPS of LRMs. Even trying to reserve to the last round and locking enemies to slow their initiative, it's a simple damage issue. Not sure the damage boost is enough to compensate for half as many turns in the fight, especially with the normal (and justified) issues with stray shots and inaccurate fire.
Unlisted?
This isn't released yet, so yeah, the video is unlisted right now as I still work out the kinks in the system before releasing the system to the BTA Ecosystem.
@@realbloodydoves It's still very unlisted 3 months later. Should probably list it. There are a few people asking this question because Tex has been doing a playthrough. Me being one of them, hah.
Whoopsie doodle! Fixed that, it's public now. Enjoy! Sorry about that, thought I flipped it to public.
Mannnn this mod is already super hard, now you give the AI artillery?
The AI has had artillery for years and years, this just changed how the mechanic works is all.
Sorry to bother you doves. But your moderator Wulfbanes is being a dick in the discord. Yeah i somewhat deserved the ban but he was also out for me the MINUTE i joined the discord. please check him hes not doing you any favors if he goes off the rails on some random user because I'm not sunshine and rainbows 100% of the time.
Sorry to bother you this way while your on vacation but the discord seems to be the only way to contact you and if he power trips and bans you then i can't contact you about professional conduct and antagonizing people.
This won't end well. I doubt he would be receptive to someone posting stuff like this publicly, particularly given that you seem to be aware that your behavior was questionable. No one is expected to be 'sunshine and rainbows' 100% of the time, but no one gets banned for that ever anyway so that's a bit disingenuous to put that out there. What they get banned for is being inappropriate.
@@Mythryl12 it's literally the only way to contact him.
He came after me when i wasn't breaking any rules and then banned me afterward for "Arguing" which is a great rule not easy to abuse at all.
if he doesn't want this stuff public he should have more then one avenue of contact
@@MrBubblebox That last part just isn't true. He doesn't owe people multiple avenues of contact, and he's entitled to go on vacations. No one is entitled to immediate feedback, and the lack of immediate feedback doesn't validate less appropriate ways to get your point across. You do you, feel free to ignore my advice since I'm just basically some random internet person; but I'm telling you that taking this public on a completely different platform is very likely to get you the opposite reaction you are hoping for.
@@Mythryl12 I never once said he shouldn't go on vacations neither did i ask for immediate feedback. follow up blatant lies with "you do you" is disingenuous especially since you as you just admitted are just some random
Who are you why are you sticking your nose in something that does not concern you acting like I'm an idiot who isn't aware youtube is probably the worst platform for this.