I'm not familiar with that mod, I'll have to take a look to get a better idea. However I did build this mod to make it as standalone as possible, so it could be used with pretty much any other mod. Most of the mod uses it's own independent files, but i do have some merges in order to clear out the "Blacklisted" tag on some vanilla mechs (SDLF mechs and a couple others), and for vanilla Lostech, as well as to remove the "spawn_poorly_maintained" tag on vanilla contracts that have it. So, it should work fine with BTE CE, but let me take a look at what all that mod is doing and I'll reply back if I see anything that looks like a problem.
Alright, I loaded up BTE with Elite Forces plus the EF Hardcore add-on and everything loaded cleanly. I ran through the logs and didn't see any failures or errors, and I started up a game and dropped into a mission just fine. So, you should be good to go to use EF with BTE without issue from what I can tell.
I just wanted to say that I love the added difficulty of the mod, and it's really made the game more interesting. But is there any way to easily turn off the cloaking mechs and vehicles? I just think that whole idea wasn't well thought out by HBS... Giant stompy mechs, I can suspend disbelief. Invisible giant stompy mechs, not so much.
Greetings! Glad you are enjoying it! Good question actually. So, I don't know of a way to separate the ECM effects from the "invisibility cloak" visual effect. It may be possible, but I would have to investigate and experiment to find out. IF I do find a way, I'll will post it here. The only thing i can think of off the top of my head, would be to just add "Blacklisted" tags to all the mechdefs for mechs that carry ECM gear. Elite forces introduces 3 new ECM mechs: RVN-1X1, RVN-1X2 and PXH-1bX. I believe there is only one ECM mech in vanilla that is not blacklisted by default: RVN-1X.
For the three EF mechs, they are in the BATTLETECH/Mods/EliteForces/elitemech directory. Just go to each mechdef and add "Blacklisted" where the existing tags are (use Notepad or Notepad++ and just save, not "save as" when done). Note: each tag must have a comma after it, unless it is the last tag in the list. Just look at the tag list before you modify it and you will see what I mean.
As for the vanilla RVN-1X, make a copy of the mechdef_raven_RVN-1X thats in the \BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\mech directory and place it into the BATTLETECH/Mods/EliteForces/elitemech directory then add the "Blacklisted" tag to that new copy of the mechdef file.
Some Additional news: Elite Forces is now also par tof the Expanded Arsenal (v. 2.0) Mod! If you use Expanded Arsenal, the base Elite Forces (v. 1.6) mod is included with that mod as of ver. 2.0. You can get the newest version of Expanded Arsenal here: https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/635
~~~ I would like to give a special thanks to Nexus user Hongooi2 for all their help testing v 1.6 of Elite Forces and providing a lot of excellent input and guidance! Thank you, all your help was greatly appreciated and will not be forgotten! ~~~
Version 1.6 of Elite Forces is a bit of a redesign of the Elite Forces mod that adds new features, fix bugs/issues, and improves the overall EF mod experience. Previous versions of Elite Forces provided a potentially very harsh and punishing early game experience. This version, among other things, addresses that issue in particular by making the early game a bit more survivable. However, for those of you that want to retain the previous gameplay of a high difficulty across all skull/difficulty ratings, there is an available option with the addition of a "hardcore add-on" pack. Details of this add-on and all new features and fixed are detailed below:
New features and fixes for Elite Forces v. 1.6 -Aces High-
- From this point forward there will again be one full feature release version of the EF mod, and an add-on pack that can be used for those that want an even more hardcore experience. (more details on that below)
- The features of this mod should now be scaled bit better to the difficulty/skull ratings of the game's procedural contracts. Elite Forces pilots and mechs will still enter the game starting at difficulty 3 (1-1/2 skull), however the quantity starts a bit more sparse then before. Dedicated lance formulation has changed, so players won't generally face dedicated lances that are packed with 4 Elite pilots in 4 Advanced Mechs in the early game. However, due to randomness of the dynamic pools and lance generation, this could still potentially happen! The occurrence of these forces will be more and more common as contract difficulty increases. This should improve the experience of those starting new games/careers, while still increasing the overall difficulty. Even in this case though, you will be feeling the full brunt of Elite Forces as you get into the upper difficulties. The exception to this behavior is with the inclusion of the optional "Hardcore Add-on Pack" (below).
- Ace pilots have been added to the game. Ace pilots have a more skills than elite pilots, and they also have buffs and abilities that improve their combat performance. Ace pilots should be more rare than elite pilots, and they are not in the random, dynamic pilot pools. Ace pilots will only be called by some of the new EF lancedefs. However, when Ace pilots are called, they will only spawn in Advanced Mechs.
- New abilities and buff sets for Ace pilots have been added.
- EF Lancedef formulations has been reworked. The formulations of EF lancedefs will scale better with difficulty from lances starting with one Elite pilot in an Advanced Mech leading 3 random pilots in vanilla mechs, up to 4 ace pilots in 4 advanced mechs at upper difficulties. Lance formulations are now also designed for much more variation in specific pilot/mech compositions.
- Added 9 new advanced mech variants
- fixed some build issues and errors with a number of the Advanced mechs
- Build optimization pass across all advanced Mechs, this should improve the performance of a number of advanced mechs.
- Major cleanup pass on EF json files fixing numerous errors and issues causing some EF jsons not to be called, or work properly.
- Reworked some of the Advanced mech builds, in particular swapping some upgrades (gyros and cockpit gear) that made Advanced Mechs a bit too difficult to deal with at lower difficulties (in particular hit defense gyros and injury resist cockpits)
- Advanced turrets are now properly added into the mod (unique json files that don’t overwrite vanilla turrets). Approach bases carefully!
- Removed "Blacklisted" tag from vanilla game lostech and DLC weapons (as well as some other pieces of vanilla gear), so they are now lootable.
- Removed "Blacklisted" tag from vanilla SLDF and the Grand Dragon DRG-1G (these will now appear randomly in "the wild")
- Fixed Blacknight BL-6b-KNT heat sink distribution. Moved extra heatsinks (6) from legs and distributed them to other, valid locations.
<hr>
## Hardcore Add-on Pack
For those of you that want the full original Elite Forces style gameplay, although with an even more intense experience, the Hardcore add-on is for you! I only recommend this add-on if:
1) You are playing in the end game and you want to be able to play light and medium mech contracts that are normally low difficulty. You have a lot of advanced equipment and experienced pilots, but you are tired of only playing heavy and assault mechs and at this point low difficulty/skull contracts are just too easy to be fun. ...or
2) You are starting a new campaign/career and you really love pain and frustration! You desire the impossible and want a serious challenge from the start! ***NOTE: If you do this I recommend spending some time in 1/2 to 1 skull contracts to build up some pilot skill. Starting level pilots have a rough time vs Elite pilots but they will be totally outclassed against Aces.
The Hardcore Add-on opens the flood gates and provides for the following:
- 99 additional lancedefs added to the random dynamic pool, across all difficulties starting at Difficulty 3 (1-1/2 skulls). Even at low difficulty, these added lancedefs can contain a full lance of advanced mechs and Elite/Ace pilots.
- 40 additional pilots defs for the randoms dynamic pools and dedicated EF lancedefs, starting at D3.
- Turrets can pull Elite pilots from the pilot pool
- Aces will be more common
- 6 new Advanced Mech variants
- No more reduced strength lances. All vanilla contracts that call for forces adding the "spawn_poorly_maintained_xx" SpawnEffectTags, will have this tag removed. Mechs in the lances called on in these contracts will be full strength.
- To install just unzip the add-on into the Elite Forces Mod folder. If you want to customize your experience, just install the specific files/folders you want.
I just wanted to post an update and let you all know that I am hard at work on the next version of Elite Forces. Currently I am in the testing/tweaking phase and am making a lot of progress. This is next version (v.1.6) will be a major update. I am adding some new features and doing a big cleanup pass that will address a lot of bug fixes, typos, errors and more. Here are some of the highlights:
~I will be going back to a single version and it will be a standalone version that should work fine with any mod that doesn't modify vanilla game equipment. Elite Forces advanced Mechs/vehicles/turrets only use equipment that is available in the vanilla game (including dlc), changes to vanilla gear could effect advanced mech/vehicles/turrets loadouts. Advanced turret files will be mod unique (not gamefile overwrites), Clearing the reduced strength tag for mission generated forces from vanilla missions will be merged properly (again not overwriting the vanilla files)
~Ace pilots added with their own special ability packages. Elite level pilots will also get a slight buff. Additionally ace and elite pilots will slightly improve moral and initiative of any lance they are part of.
~Better early game, gameplay. the goal is difficult, even hard but still fun and not overwhelming and frustrating. (especially due to the addition of new ace pilots)
~Changes in force compositions to hopefully mesh well with player pilot stats through the difficulty levels.
~Cleanup pass on the Advanced Mechs. General file cleanup, error corrections, fixed a few bad builds, and I also did a build optimization pass on all advanced mechs. I will be including a few new variants as well.
~General json file cleanup pass across all mod files. Cleaning up a variety of errors and typos to the files themselves.
~I will be providing a hardcore difficulty/content "add-on" providing a package of many new lancedefs that can be added across the difficulty spectrum, giving more variety to the Elite Force opposition forces, flooding the dynamic pools a bit. In particular this addon will add many new lancdefs to the lower difficulty tiers. This add-on is for late game players that want to play light/mediums mech forces, but want more, tougher opponents at those difficulties, or for those players that really just like to be punished and want a hardcore early game challenge.
~In addition, I have some exciting news that Elite Forces will also soon be integrated in into the Expanded Arsenal mod that is currently being updated as well by Nexus user hongooi2! Elite Forces will still be available independently, but if you are looking for an even bigger challenge and more additional content , we will have you covered there too :-) I'll provide a link to that mod as soon as they are ready to go with their new release.
Anyway, thanks for playing Elite Forces! More news on the new release soon!
Haha I was hoping for something evil! Unfortunately I was never able to get the AI to use the Mech mortar, so I took that advanced version out. That would have been interesting! (maybe I'll continue trying to figure that out...)
Thanks for the complement, I really do appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoy it, I do to! haha
I've been busy in the RL lately, but I'm still here! I'm starting on the next version release which will, at the minimum, address a few bugs that have been recently reported. Also i like the idea @carlossf mentioned about mech quirks, so I'm strongly considering adding quirks to the advanced mechs. I need to investigate a bit though because if I do add quirks, I don't want to over do it.
Hmm.. hey maybe I should add few unnamed ace pilots to the pool that have their own specials for the occasional rude surprise??
Anyway, thanks for playing my mod, glad you are all enjoying it!
I actually like that idea, but am not familiar with BEX. I'll have to download it and see what they are doing and how they are doing it. Sounds like that could be something cool for the next release! I'll definitely consider this.
Wanted to post something here because maybe I'm seeing a bug and maybe I'm seeing an interaction between mods. I'm running Elite Forces (not the standalone) and Expanded Arsenal. So far the HCT-3FX1 and *I think* the GRF-4NX mechs are overweight, and not by a small amount.9 tons in the case of the Hatchetman. It could be colliding equipment definitions, I suppose, but while I play around with it I thought I'd put something here in case it's a known issue.
Love the mod, though. I haven't had to work this hard for minor victories in a long time. The game is challenging again.
EDIT: At least part of the problem is that Expanded Arsenal overwrites Gear_Actuator_Coventry_X65-Standard to be 2 tons, while the base game has it at 0 tons.
I'll take a look, and see about maybe tweaking the loadouts on those two a bit in some way. Yeah the advanced mechs are all built with "vanilla" game gear so any mod that modifies vanilla gear could potentially cause issues with these Mechs.
Just wondering, is there is a limitation in the mod, or in the game, that stops lostech gear from showing up as loot? After killing several MAD-2RX's and WHM-7AX's, I haven't seen any of their ER MLs in the loot list. I'm getting plenty of +++MLs though, so I know rare salvage is available.
I have all of the DLCs including Heavy Metal, and I can buy ER MLs in the black market no problem.
Sorry for the late response, been busy with real life lately!
My mod doesn't modify the loot, or loot system in any way , outside of the fact it does cause a lot more of it to drop due to the Advanced Mechs. So, saturation of loot may be part of the issue. I did spend some time trying to tweak the way the loot dropped, but never had a lot of of luck with it. As i have more time, I'll try to spend some more time seeing if there is anything I can do about it. But whatever restriction there is, seems to be due to how the game itself works.
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Is this compatible with BTE CE?
I'm not familiar with that mod, I'll have to take a look to get a better idea. However I did build this mod to make it as standalone as possible, so it could be used with pretty much any other mod. Most of the mod uses it's own independent files, but i do have some merges in order to clear out the "Blacklisted" tag on some vanilla mechs (SDLF mechs and a couple others), and for vanilla Lostech, as well as to remove the "spawn_poorly_maintained" tag on vanilla contracts that have it. So, it should work fine with BTE CE, but let me take a look at what all that mod is doing and I'll reply back if I see anything that looks like a problem.
Alright, I loaded up BTE with Elite Forces plus the EF Hardcore add-on and everything loaded cleanly. I ran through the logs and didn't see any failures or errors, and I started up a game and dropped into a mission just fine. So, you should be good to go to use EF with BTE without issue from what I can tell.
Enjoy!
Glad you are enjoying it! Good question actually. So, I don't know of a way to separate the ECM effects from the "invisibility cloak" visual effect. It may be possible, but I would have to investigate and experiment to find out. IF I do find a way, I'll will post it here. The only thing i can think of off the top of my head, would be to just add "Blacklisted" tags to all the mechdefs for mechs that carry ECM gear. Elite forces introduces 3 new ECM mechs: RVN-1X1, RVN-1X2 and PXH-1bX. I believe there is only one ECM mech in vanilla that is not blacklisted by default: RVN-1X.
For the three EF mechs, they are in the BATTLETECH/Mods/EliteForces/elitemech directory. Just go to each mechdef and add "Blacklisted" where the existing tags are (use Notepad or Notepad++ and just save, not "save as" when done). Note: each tag must have a comma after it, unless it is the last tag in the list. Just look at the tag list before you modify it and you will see what I mean.
As for the vanilla RVN-1X, make a copy of the mechdef_raven_RVN-1X thats in the \BATTLETECH\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\mech directory and place it into the BATTLETECH/Mods/EliteForces/elitemech directory then add the "Blacklisted" tag to that new copy of the mechdef file.
Forces (v. 1.6) mod is included with that mod as of ver. 2.0. You can get the
newest version of Expanded Arsenal here: https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/635
# Elite Forces v 1.6 -Aces High-
## Design Notes
~~~ I would like to give a special thanks to Nexus user Hongooi2 for all their help testing v 1.6 of Elite
Forces and providing a lot of excellent input and guidance! Thank you, all your
help was greatly appreciated and will not be forgotten! ~~~
Version 1.6 of Elite Forces is a bit of a redesign of the Elite Forces mod that adds new features, fix bugs/issues, and improves the overall EF mod experience. Previous versions of Elite Forces provided a potentially very harsh and punishing early game experience. This version, among other things, addresses that issue in particular by making the early game a bit more survivable. However, for those of you that want to retain the previous gameplay of a high difficulty across all skull/difficulty ratings, there is an available option with the addition of a "hardcore add-on" pack. Details of this add-on and all new features and fixed are detailed below:
New features and fixes for Elite Forces v. 1.6 -Aces High-
- From this point forward there will again be one full feature release version of the EF mod, and an add-on pack that can be used for those that want an even more hardcore experience. (more details on that below)
- The features of this mod should now be scaled bit better to the difficulty/skull ratings of the game's procedural contracts. Elite Forces pilots and mechs will still enter the game starting at difficulty 3 (1-1/2 skull), however the quantity starts a bit more sparse then before. Dedicated lance formulation has changed, so players won't generally face dedicated lances that are packed with 4 Elite pilots in 4 Advanced Mechs in the early game. However, due to randomness of the dynamic pools and lance generation, this could still potentially happen! The occurrence of these forces will be more and more common as contract difficulty increases. This should improve the experience of those starting new games/careers, while still increasing the overall difficulty. Even in this case though, you will be feeling the full brunt of Elite Forces as you get into the upper difficulties. The exception to this behavior is with the inclusion of the optional "Hardcore Add-on Pack" (below).
- Ace pilots have been added to the game. Ace pilots have a more skills than elite pilots, and they also have buffs and abilities that improve their combat performance. Ace pilots should be more rare than elite pilots, and they are not in the random, dynamic pilot pools. Ace pilots will only be called by some of the new EF lancedefs. However, when Ace pilots are called, they will only spawn in Advanced Mechs.
- New abilities and buff sets for Ace pilots have been added.
- EF Lancedef formulations has been reworked. The formulations of EF lancedefs will scale better with difficulty from lances starting with one Elite pilot in an Advanced Mech leading 3 random pilots in vanilla mechs, up to 4 ace pilots in 4 advanced mechs at upper difficulties. Lance formulations are now also designed for much more variation in specific pilot/mech compositions.
- Added 9 new advanced mech variants
- fixed some build issues and errors with a number of the Advanced mechs
- Build optimization pass across all advanced Mechs, this should improve the performance of a number of advanced mechs.
- Major cleanup pass on EF json files fixing numerous errors and issues causing some EF jsons not to be called, or work properly.
- Reworked some of the Advanced mech builds, in particular swapping some upgrades (gyros and cockpit gear) that made Advanced Mechs a bit too difficult to deal with at lower difficulties (in particular hit defense gyros and injury resist cockpits)
- Advanced turrets are now properly added into the mod (unique json files that don’t overwrite vanilla turrets). Approach bases carefully!
- Removed "Blacklisted" tag from vanilla game lostech and DLC weapons (as well as some other pieces of vanilla gear), so they are now lootable.
- Removed "Blacklisted" tag from vanilla SLDF and the Grand Dragon DRG-1G (these will now appear randomly in "the wild")
- Fixed Blacknight BL-6b-KNT heat sink distribution. Moved extra heatsinks (6) from legs and distributed them to other, valid locations.
<hr>
## Hardcore Add-on Pack
For those of you that want the full original Elite Forces style gameplay, although with an even more intense experience, the Hardcore add-on is for you! I only recommend this add-on if:
1) You are playing in the end game and you want to be able to play light and medium mech contracts that are normally low difficulty. You have a lot of advanced equipment and experienced pilots, but you are tired of only playing heavy and assault mechs and at this point low difficulty/skull contracts are just too easy to be fun. ...or
2) You are starting a new campaign/career and you really love pain and frustration! You desire the impossible and want a serious challenge from the start! ***NOTE: If you do this I recommend spending some time in 1/2 to 1 skull contracts to build up some pilot skill. Starting level pilots have a rough time vs Elite pilots but they will be totally outclassed against Aces.
The Hardcore Add-on opens the flood gates and provides for the following:
- 99 additional lancedefs added to the random dynamic pool, across all difficulties starting at Difficulty 3 (1-1/2 skulls). Even at low difficulty, these added lancedefs can contain a full lance of advanced mechs and Elite/Ace pilots.
- 40 additional pilots defs for the randoms dynamic pools and dedicated EF lancedefs, starting at D3.
- Turrets can pull Elite pilots from the pilot pool
- Aces will be more common
- 6 new Advanced Mech variants
- No more reduced strength lances. All vanilla contracts that call for forces adding the "spawn_poorly_maintained_xx" SpawnEffectTags, will have this tag removed. Mechs in the lances called on in these contracts will be full strength.
- To install just unzip the add-on into the Elite Forces Mod folder. If you want to customize your experience, just install the specific files/folders you want.
I just wanted to post an update and let you all know that I am hard at work on the next version of Elite Forces. Currently I am in the testing/tweaking phase and am making a lot of progress. This is next version (v.1.6) will be a major update. I am adding some new features and doing a big cleanup pass that will address a lot of bug fixes, typos, errors and more. Here are some of the highlights:
~I will be going back to a single version and it will be a standalone version that should work fine with any mod that doesn't modify vanilla game equipment. Elite Forces advanced Mechs/vehicles/turrets only use equipment that is available in the vanilla game (including dlc), changes to vanilla gear could effect advanced mech/vehicles/turrets loadouts. Advanced turret files will be mod unique (not gamefile overwrites), Clearing the reduced strength tag for mission generated forces from vanilla missions will be merged properly (again not overwriting the vanilla files)
~Ace pilots added with their own special ability packages. Elite level pilots will also get a slight buff. Additionally ace and elite pilots will slightly improve moral and initiative of any lance they are part of.
~Better early game, gameplay. the goal is difficult, even hard but still fun and not overwhelming and frustrating. (especially due to the addition of new ace pilots)
~Changes in force compositions to hopefully mesh well with player pilot stats through the difficulty levels.
~Cleanup pass on the Advanced Mechs. General file cleanup, error corrections, fixed a few bad builds, and I also did a build optimization pass on all advanced mechs. I will be including a few new variants as well.
~General json file cleanup pass across all mod files. Cleaning up a variety of errors and typos to the files themselves.
~I will be providing a hardcore difficulty/content "add-on" providing a package of many new lancedefs that can be added across the difficulty spectrum, giving more variety to the Elite Force opposition forces, flooding the dynamic pools a bit. In particular this addon will add many new lancdefs to the lower difficulty tiers. This add-on is for late game players that want to play light/mediums mech forces, but want more, tougher opponents at those difficulties, or for those players that really just like to be punished and want a hardcore early game challenge.
~In addition, I have some exciting news that Elite Forces will also soon be integrated in into the Expanded Arsenal mod that is currently being updated as well by Nexus user hongooi2! Elite Forces will still be available independently, but if you are looking for an even bigger challenge and more additional content , we will have you covered there too :-) I'll provide a link to that mod as soon as they are ready to go with their new release.
Anyway, thanks for playing Elite Forces! More news on the new release soon!
Congrats on an awesome job!
Haha I was hoping for something evil! Unfortunately I was never able to get the AI to use the Mech mortar, so I took that advanced version out. That would have been interesting! (maybe I'll continue trying to figure that out...)
Thanks for the complement, I really do appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoy it, I do to! haha
take care
Thanks!
I've been busy in the RL lately, but I'm still here! I'm starting on the next version release which will, at the minimum, address a few bugs that have been recently reported. Also i like the idea @carlossf mentioned about mech quirks, so I'm strongly considering adding quirks to the advanced mechs. I need to investigate a bit though because if I do add quirks, I don't want to over do it.
Hmm.. hey maybe I should add few unnamed ace pilots to the pool that have their own specials for the occasional rude surprise??
Anyway, thanks for playing my mod, glad you are all enjoying it!
I am playing it with bex, there's a way to put the quirks of the mechs in the Elite versions?
I actually like that idea, but am not familiar with BEX. I'll have to download it and see what they are doing and how they are doing it. Sounds like that could be something cool for the next release! I'll definitely consider this.
Thanks for the idea!
Love the mod, though. I haven't had to work this hard for minor victories in a long time. The game is challenging again.
EDIT:
At least part of the problem is that Expanded Arsenal overwrites Gear_Actuator_Coventry_X65-Standard to be 2 tons, while the base game has it at 0 tons.
I'll take a look, and see about maybe tweaking the loadouts on those two a bit in some way. Yeah the advanced mechs are all built with "vanilla" game gear so any mod that modifies vanilla gear could potentially cause issues with these Mechs.
Just wondering, is there is a limitation in the mod, or in the game, that stops lostech gear from showing up as loot? After killing several MAD-2RX's and WHM-7AX's, I haven't seen any of their ER MLs in the loot list. I'm getting plenty of +++MLs though, so I know rare salvage is available.
I have all of the DLCs including Heavy Metal, and I can buy ER MLs in the black market no problem.
My mod doesn't modify the loot, or loot system in any way , outside of the fact it does cause a lot more of it to drop due to the Advanced Mechs. So, saturation of loot may be part of the issue. I did spend some time trying to tweak the way the loot dropped, but never had a lot of of luck with it. As i have more time, I'll try to spend some more time seeing if there is anything I can do about it. But whatever restriction there is, seems to be due to how the game itself works.
Thanks!