Please read the mod description and any relevant articles before asking any questions or posting any bug reports. I will not answer questions that could be answered by reading the mod description.
Please check the mod requirements before downloading.
Please note that this mod will probably make fighting the Black Inferno faction more difficult - most of the added Black Inferno variants have rapid-fire ACs with incendiary ammo, inferno missiles, or flamers. My advice is that if you see an enemy mech with a -1NF designation, keep your distance and eliminate it before it can spike your heat.
If you enjoy this mod, please consider taking some screenshots with ansel and uploading them, or uploading screencaps of your builds using these mechs.
MECH ROADMAP Black Inferno - 23 variants implemented. Solaris Factions VEST Solaris Arms - Melee Weapons Triple F Restaurants - speedy delivery Jump Jet Fuel - Jumpjets, obviously High Impact Ballistics - 24 variants implemented. Bullhead Armour - Ferro, Modular Armour Musclebound Myomer - 22 variants implemented. Earthwerks - Electronic Warfare, Plasma Weapons Ironclad Systems - Rifles, Rockets, Chem Lasers Ledoux Enterprises Novatech - 26 variants implemented. Starfall Corp - 27 variants implemented. Vanguard Industries - Rapid fire ACs, SRMs Mercenary Factions The Bad Dream Blackhearts Brions Legion Crater Cobras Eridani Light Horse - Star League Tech Filthy Lucre Gray Death Legion - Lostech Greggs Longstriders Hansens Roughriders Harlocks Warriors Kell Hounds - Renaissance Tech Lindons Company McCarrons Armoured Cavalry Mobile Fire - LRMs Northwind Highlanders Thumpers - Artillery Waco Rangers Wolfs Dragoons - Clan Tech FEATURE ROADMAP Spawn Toggles - I need someone to make the blueprint to do this for me, because I can't make sense of blueprints. Second pass adding post 3055 variants for each faction. Faction Heroes - need to learn how to make custom skins first. Faction skins - again, when I learn to make custom skins. YAISM submod. YACM submod. Submods for other mech mods, if I get given access to the source files for those mods.
I know this is a tall order, but could you make the MOD with separate packs for each faction? Or release the source files, so people can remove the variants they don't want?
At the moment my main focus is on getting all of the arena sponsors done, to fix the issue with vanilla arena spawns where you see nothing but Crusaders and Longbows (seriously, the vanilla spawnlist for arenas is over 50% Crusaders and Longbows). As I add more factions, the amount that any single variant is seen will decrease, so ones people don't like will be easier to just ignore.
I will however at some point soon investigate whether doing spawn toggles is possible, which would mean learning how to do mod options (this is my first mod, so currently all I know how to do is make mech variants). IF spawn toggles is feasible, and I can actually find how to do it, I will add spawn toggles for all of the mechs. It is surprisingly difficult to find out how to do anything in the mw5 editor - even the video guide I followed for making mech variants left out a lot of key information that I had to ask around on discord to find out. For most things you have to find the person who knows how to do that and hope they have the time to explain it, or figure it out manually.
Currently I don't know of any YAML mech variant mods that do spawn toggles for individual mechs, so I don't yet know how feasible it is.
Subdividing the mod into separate faction files would be a nightmare, as it would mean having 32+ files in the downloads tab, and would take a lot of work in the editor to set up, so I probably won't be doing that. Maybe I could feasibly subdivide into just Black Inferno, Mercenaries, and Solaris Sponsors.
Yet Another Mech Lab has somewhere on his code how to make UnitCards go to the year 9999, so they don't spawn in the current year. I guess the problem is more about creating the User Interface and variables for each UnitCard as more mechs are added, a lot more tedious work, and more Unreal Engine crashing nonstop. Some users had asked me the same thing, so I just released the Unreal Engine source code for them to do whatever they wanted. MDA, Loadout, and UnitCards can be transferred without problem from one MOD/directory to another by just dragging or copying their files on Windows Explorer, but some other files like MDL, and HPS actually have reference paths of other files on them, so they have to be manually written if they change directory. Sorry to ask such stuff; I just didn't like Pirates having mechs with good tech (from the alternative spaws of Black Inferno), so I would get rid of those.
Some about Javelin with 4x 10rockets. I thin they need some another weapons like ssrm, because if there a full arena of this mechs after first shot it starts to be just shooting range.
Well, they have AI roles that should bring them into close range if using TTRulez AI Mod (I often see mechs with the role I gave them getting into punch-ups with enemy mechs even if they do have long-range weapons), which is generally an automatic part of any load order (there is no compelling reason to ever not use TTRulez). Have added TTRulez to the recommended modlist. I won't be changing the JVN-MBM1 to use SSRMs, because it is a 3015 introduction mech and I want to generally respect the intro dates on equipment (the Black Inferno get some lostech because of who they are, but solaris sponsors generally won't get it until the appropriate re-introduction date), and the JVN-MBM2 which has a later intro date has 4 SSRM2s anyway.
Love the idea of this mod, can’t wait to see it expand to more factions. Especially looking forward to the Mercs!
edit: when you say many of the loadouts will be invalid if you don't use YAWR does that mean it will actually break anything? Or just that mechs with YAWR equipment will be passed over and substituted for a different spawn?
You can use it without TKU - the Black Inferno spawns will probably show up in campaign missions (if they use procgenned spawns), and you can use either TKU or Better Mission Choices to get them to spawn missions in career. I am not sure if TKU actually uses Word of Blake spawns for its Word of Blake faction (it probably just uses Comstar spawns), but they are there in case a mod does actually use it. I can't make them spawn for Comstar as it would ruin the whole plausible deniability thing Comstar/Black Inferno have going on. If I find out a way to make them spawn for Comstar, but only at a later intro date (when Comstar becomes Word of Blake), then I will add them as spawns that way.
The other factions in the roadmap probably won't have as many variants as Black Inferno, though the Solaris ones will need a few, as the goal of adding them is to counteract PGIs weird decision to make the Solaris faction spawns be over 50% Crusaders and Longbows.
I think if you reach in the future the TKU mod author to make a patch to spawn your variants accordingly would be great, I think he would be happy to help you with that... TKU is kind of mandatory mod since it expands the map and factions in-game, and your mod when reaching enough variants for some factions, will also, become mandatory as well for making factions distinguishable with different kinds of variants.
No special compatibility patches should be required. As long as proper faction names are used in the mech's unit card for spawning rarity, the game will recognize that and match up the mechs with factions for spawning. The only "compatibility" required would be making sure the proper names are used; and I believe all of the factions listed are already in the vanilla game's faction registry.
17 comments
Please check the mod requirements before downloading.
Please note that this mod will probably make fighting the Black Inferno faction more difficult - most of the added Black Inferno variants have rapid-fire ACs with incendiary ammo, inferno missiles, or flamers. My advice is that if you see an enemy mech with a -1NF designation, keep your distance and eliminate it before it can spike your heat.
If you enjoy this mod, please consider taking some screenshots with ansel and uploading them, or uploading screencaps of your builds using these mechs.
MECH ROADMAP
Black Inferno - 23 variants implemented.
Solaris Factions
VEST
Solaris Arms - Melee Weapons
Triple F Restaurants - speedy delivery
Jump Jet Fuel - Jumpjets, obviously
High Impact Ballistics - 24 variants implemented.
Bullhead Armour - Ferro, Modular Armour
Musclebound Myomer - 22 variants implemented.
Earthwerks - Electronic Warfare, Plasma Weapons
Ironclad Systems - Rifles, Rockets, Chem Lasers
Ledoux Enterprises
Novatech - 26 variants implemented.
Starfall Corp - 27 variants implemented.
Vanguard Industries - Rapid fire ACs, SRMs
Mercenary Factions
The Bad Dream
Blackhearts
Brions Legion
Crater Cobras
Eridani Light Horse - Star League Tech
Filthy Lucre
Gray Death Legion - Lostech
Greggs Longstriders
Hansens Roughriders
Harlocks Warriors
Kell Hounds - Renaissance Tech
Lindons Company
McCarrons Armoured Cavalry
Mobile Fire - LRMs
Northwind Highlanders
Thumpers - Artillery
Waco Rangers
Wolfs Dragoons - Clan Tech
FEATURE ROADMAP
Spawn Toggles - I need someone to make the blueprint to do this for me, because I can't make sense of blueprints.
Second pass adding post 3055 variants for each faction.
Faction Heroes - need to learn how to make custom skins first.
Faction skins - again, when I learn to make custom skins.
YAISM submod.
YACM submod.
Submods for other mech mods, if I get given access to the source files for those mods.
I will however at some point soon investigate whether doing spawn toggles is possible, which would mean learning how to do mod options (this is my first mod, so currently all I know how to do is make mech variants). IF spawn toggles is feasible, and I can actually find how to do it, I will add spawn toggles for all of the mechs. It is surprisingly difficult to find out how to do anything in the mw5 editor - even the video guide I followed for making mech variants left out a lot of key information that I had to ask around on discord to find out. For most things you have to find the person who knows how to do that and hope they have the time to explain it, or figure it out manually.
Currently I don't know of any YAML mech variant mods that do spawn toggles for individual mechs, so I don't yet know how feasible it is.
Subdividing the mod into separate faction files would be a nightmare, as it would mean having 32+ files in the downloads tab, and would take a lot of work in the editor to set up, so I probably won't be doing that. Maybe I could feasibly subdivide into just Black Inferno, Mercenaries, and Solaris Sponsors.
Sorry to ask such stuff; I just didn't like Pirates having mechs with good tech (from the alternative spaws of Black Inferno), so I would get rid of those.
edit: when you say many of the loadouts will be invalid if you don't use YAWR does that mean it will actually break anything? Or just that mechs with YAWR equipment will be passed over and substituted for a different spawn?
The other factions in the roadmap probably won't have as many variants as Black Inferno, though the Solaris ones will need a few, as the goal of adding them is to counteract PGIs weird decision to make the Solaris faction spawns be over 50% Crusaders and Longbows.
Thank you for your hard work!