**Update (Feb. 20th, 2024)!**

Notable Updates:
- Significantly increased C-Bills rewarded for the ‘Mech Collector Career Path
- Increased C-Bills rewarded for the ‘Mech Hunter Career Path
- Improved distribution of C-Bills for the Equipment Collector, Treasure Hunter, Wardog, and Weapon Collector Career Paths
- Re-balanced and improved C-Bill distribution for various weapon and equipment types (Standard, RetroTech, and LosTech)
- Fixed progression errors NATIVE TO THE VANILLA GAME for the ‘Mech Collector Career Path
- Re-balanced progression for the ‘Mech Collector and ‘Mech Hunter Career Paths

As usual, please keep in mind that this mod is supposed to try and balance rewards between vanilla and YAML playthroughs (along with any other playthroughs that may benefit).

Enjoy! ^-^

- Masters

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Overview:
Rewards for this mod have been adjusted so that there is a greater focus on receiving rare weapons and LosTech, along with a lesser emphasis on rewarding C-Bills (as they are so easy to come by in a vanilla playthrough).

For general rewards, Primitive Weapons (being Rifles and Chemical Lasers) and Double Heatsinks get a particular boost to how commonly they are awarded due to how rare they are in the game, while Pulse Lasers, Extended-range Weapons, LBX Autocannons, and the Ultra Autocannon 5 – along with other LosTech – are also more likely to appear as rewards (though less than Primitive Weapons). In addition, MASC, Guardian ECM, and the Beagle Active Probe are equipment that is significantly more likely to appear (like Primitive Weapons – for the same reasons), while other equipment (such as EWECM, and the EW Active Probe) is more likely to appear as well (though, again, less likely than MASC, G-ECM, and the BAP).

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Specific Changes:
In particular, the Weapons Collector tree has been re-done so as to allow players to trade-in low-tier weapons for fewer, but better weapons across the board; acting as a sort of upgrade/recycling system. The higher the Cantina mission level, the greater the weapon requirements, and the greater the mission rewards (weapon tier level, and other applicable rewards (such as ammo and/or C-Bills).

For the ‘Mech Hunter and ‘Mech Collector trees, there have been various adjustments, as well. An example is that Crusader and Longbow have both been added, as they were both not included. (For those without the required DLCs for these ‘Mechs (4 and 5), you can skip these missions if they pop up.) Two notable ‘Mechs were removed from the ‘Mech Hunter tree: those being the Nightstar, and the Marauder II. Certain rare ‘Mechs have also had their requirements scaled down due to how rare they are, or when they spawn for the given Cantina mission difficulty (late game versus early game): such as (or certain variants of) the Flea, Commando, Raven, Wolfhound, Assassin, Champion, Cataphract, Black Knight, Hatamoto Chi, Annihilator, King Crab, and more. Lastly, certain ‘Mechs have been added for more variety in what ‘Mechs to collect or hunt down, as they were either omitted (when they would make fine choices to add), or they were common variants (a mistake).

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Note:
I highly recommend that many people – if not EVERYONE – installs this mod – not for my sake, but for the sake of the balance and utility of Cantina missions being improved. There are no perceivable drawbacks, and both vanilla and modded playthroughs will benefit from its improvements – the very least being the “weapon trade-in rewards/program”.

Also, this mod appears to be compatible with YAML; including one of its most – if not most – recent additions: its upgrade system. I have done testing and have seen no issues, although I have not done extensive-enough testing to know whether it is flawless or not. (Please let me know if there are any issues.)

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In Closing:
Surprisingly (or not), there are many mistakes: from experience not being rewarded; to Faction Standing not increasing; to upgrade progression giving improper levels of experience; and more. Re-balancing also had to be done to every reward, with every one being built from the ground up. (There are *hundreds* of entries. I made more than what was there originally, too, in order to improve things.) As a result, this mod took MANY TENS of hours to complete – possibly around fifty (50). It was a lot of (tedious) work, but I figured it was important enough to do in order for players to no longer have to experience some of the terrible balance the Cantina can have, in addition to having (hopefully) many strong improvements.

I hope you enjoy this mod if you choose to use it. May your Cantina missions and rewards be great if you choose to use this!

- Masters

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Instructions:

Using this mod will cause all previous Cantina missions to show up in a bugged state. This is normal, as all Cantina missions are new, and have no vanilla data to draw from.

In order to receive the new missions, simply delete all old Cantina missions, and travel to a new star system that has spawned with a new Cantina. All new missions can be selected from there, and will function correctly.

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Other mods by me!:
Alternate Flamer Visuals: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/847
Better Cantina Rewards: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/1005/
Dimmer Loot Beam: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/851
Enhanced Critical: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/848
Enhanced 'Mech Traits: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/910
Full-Spectrum Conflict Zones: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/1021
High-damage Critical: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/860
Improved Airstrike: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/850
Increased Enemy Difficulty: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/861
Increased Treefall Animation Rate ("The 'Timber' Mod!"): https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/852
Increased Warzone Rewards: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/849
Increased Warzone Rewards (Light): https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/854
Party Critical: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/866
Projectile-based Machine Guns: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/748
Re-balanced and Expanded Jump Jets: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/858
Re-balanced and Expanded 'Mechs: https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/1004
Re-balanced and Expanded Weapons (My main mod): https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/744

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I now have a Ko-fi!

Contribute here if you'd like to: https://ko-fi.com/altamasters1011 :)

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Installation Instructions:
To install, download the .7z file; extract the contents; open the resulting folder and cut the folder inside; and place (paste) into your MechWarrior 5 "Mods" folder within your video game library (please see the provided, simplified guide to locating the folder if you don't know where to find it). The remaining folder (the folder with the same name as the .7z file) can be discarded (deleted).

Please be aware that MW5 requires the player to select the mods they wish to activate within their own mod menu within the game (simply titled "Mods"), and then requires the player to restart the game for it to take effect. See information on load orders in case any conflicts occur, and both download and arrange the mods as you see fit; depending on the version of the game you have (Epic Games vs. Steam).

{Here are the general folder paths to follow to install the mod:
For Steam: <OSDrive>:SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries\MW5Mercs\Mods
For Epic Games: <OSDrive>:\Epic Games\Library\MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries\MW5Mercs\Mods
For Windows: <OSDrive>:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\MW5Mercs\Mods}