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About this mod
This mod adjusts weapon ranges to be a bit closer to what I would consider reasonable for more realistic combat, allowing for more tactical placement of allies and choices of terrain positioning for the player.
I created the mod to suit my own play style, but other players may find it interesting.
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I have posted two mods. The WeaponRange version simply increases the range and velocity of weapons, with some tweaks to the damage falloff by range. The WeaponsAndEquipment version does what is listed below. Please activate only one of them at any time.
This is a mod I have been messing around with for a while now, and is compatible with DLC4. The last time I published anything for this, the game didn't even have proper mod support, and the old version on this site has not worked for some time. I am currently running a campaign with YAML and a bunch of other mods, and it seems to play fine. I am sharing it in case some others might find it interesting to try, but expect that Battletech purists will not like the changes, since they stray far from tabletop rules. I mean no disrespect with this mod toward Battletech experts, it's simply adjusted to how I want the combat to feel.
What it does: Increases the range of all weapons in the base game. All weapons have revised damage performance. Many weapons have also had their weight adjusted to what I personally prefer for loadout building. I also adjusted chassis upgrades to have greater effect.
Lasers: All SB, which I'm now calling Sustained Burst, lasers now fire as long as the trigger is held and heat is not exceeded. Variants like the standard and Pulse types still fire in bursts, as in the base game. Chemical lasers now deliver very high damage during their burst, but also generate very high heat. All lasers have had their damage increased. Clusters of smaller lasers equaling the tonnage of single larger ones will exceed the damage of the latter, but at a higher heat cost, and reduced range.
PPCs: Increased velocity, range, and higher damage.
Flamers: Increased range.
Machine Guns: Increased range.
Autocannon: Increased velocity and range, higher damage. Much lighter weight for AC2s, and reduced weight in general. Corrected the vanilla behavior of 4 shots for UAC5, when the animation and sound are for 3. Total damage for the burst remains the same.
Rifles: Greatly increased velocity, high upfront damage for their tonnage, long reload time.
Gauss: Increased velocity and damage, reduced weight.
LRMs: Increased velocity and range, very high damage, tighter spread, 1/4 the ammunition per ton.
SRMs: Increased velocity and range, very high damage, tighter spread, 1/2 the ammunition per ton.
Stream missiles can be single fired. They will fire the same number of missiles over time as burst versions, but offer more control over how many shots are fired at a target. I find it works very well for the player, since you can be extremely efficient with missile use, but AI fighters tend not to shoot nearly as much as they should, as with all weapons. You may want to issue the burst types to AI lancemates to attempt to increase their damage output a bit.
I also reduced the weight of some equipment, notably heat sinks, probes, and ECMs.
How Does it Play?: All units will shoot at enemies from much longer ranges. Combat at up to 1 km feels like short range, and it is possible to engage targets at over 2 km if sensors and visuals allow it. You should definitely run an enhanced zoom mod with this. Damage is punishing, and many battles will require the player to use very fast hit and take cover tactics while seeking good positions to fire from. A number of light 'mechs that would be trivial in the base game can inflict significant harm, especially the SRM and PPC armed types. Missile armed vehicles can be a major threat if not quickly dealt with. Igors deliver punishing fire from long range. Speed and maneuverability are important, as slow 'mechs exposed in the open are vulnerable to taking excessive damage. I find that faster 'mechs with high mounted weapons closer to the cockpit like the Champion are excellent, since they can quickly move to hull down positions and fire accurately without having to expose too much of the chassis.
Issues: The only significant issue I have noticed so far is that my weight reductions make all stock designs underweight. I have not had the time to go through all the variants and adjust their default loadouts to take advantage of the changes. No variant is worse than stock, but they could all be better. AI units who are armed with lasers that offer continuous fire will continuously miss or hit without correcting their aim or having it broken, except by LOS, depending on whether the game decided they missed or hit that shot. In my testing, this feels like a minor issue to me. If you can live with those issues, it plays fine.
Compatibility: This mod should not break other mods, but if it does cause issues, try adjusting the load order of the mod with effects you prefer to after this one by either giving them a higher defaultLoadOrder, or my mod a lower number. You should be able to run it with mods that add new weapons, but the differences in weapon performance will likely make it a bad combination.
This is a mod I have been messing around with for a while now, and is compatible with DLC4. The last time I published anything for this, the game didn't even have proper mod support, and the old version on this site has not worked for some time. I am currently running a campaign with YAML and a bunch of other mods, and it seems to play fine. I am sharing it in case some others might find it interesting to try, but expect that Battletech purists will not like the changes, since they stray far from tabletop rules. I mean no disrespect with this mod toward Battletech experts, it's simply adjusted to how I want the combat to feel.
What it does: Increases the range of all weapons in the base game. All weapons have revised damage performance. Many weapons have also had their weight adjusted to what I personally prefer for loadout building. I also adjusted chassis upgrades to have greater effect.
Lasers: All SB, which I'm now calling Sustained Burst, lasers now fire as long as the trigger is held and heat is not exceeded. Variants like the standard and Pulse types still fire in bursts, as in the base game. Chemical lasers now deliver very high damage during their burst, but also generate very high heat. All lasers have had their damage increased. Clusters of smaller lasers equaling the tonnage of single larger ones will exceed the damage of the latter, but at a higher heat cost, and reduced range.
PPCs: Increased velocity, range, and higher damage.
Flamers: Increased range.
Machine Guns: Increased range.
Autocannon: Increased velocity and range, higher damage. Much lighter weight for AC2s, and reduced weight in general. Corrected the vanilla behavior of 4 shots for UAC5, when the animation and sound are for 3. Total damage for the burst remains the same.
Rifles: Greatly increased velocity, high upfront damage for their tonnage, long reload time.
Gauss: Increased velocity and damage, reduced weight.
LRMs: Increased velocity and range, very high damage, tighter spread, 1/4 the ammunition per ton.
SRMs: Increased velocity and range, very high damage, tighter spread, 1/2 the ammunition per ton.
Stream missiles can be single fired. They will fire the same number of missiles over time as burst versions, but offer more control over how many shots are fired at a target. I find it works very well for the player, since you can be extremely efficient with missile use, but AI fighters tend not to shoot nearly as much as they should, as with all weapons. You may want to issue the burst types to AI lancemates to attempt to increase their damage output a bit.
I also reduced the weight of some equipment, notably heat sinks, probes, and ECMs.
How Does it Play?: All units will shoot at enemies from much longer ranges. Combat at up to 1 km feels like short range, and it is possible to engage targets at over 2 km if sensors and visuals allow it. You should definitely run an enhanced zoom mod with this. Damage is punishing, and many battles will require the player to use very fast hit and take cover tactics while seeking good positions to fire from. A number of light 'mechs that would be trivial in the base game can inflict significant harm, especially the SRM and PPC armed types. Missile armed vehicles can be a major threat if not quickly dealt with. Igors deliver punishing fire from long range. Speed and maneuverability are important, as slow 'mechs exposed in the open are vulnerable to taking excessive damage. I find that faster 'mechs with high mounted weapons closer to the cockpit like the Champion are excellent, since they can quickly move to hull down positions and fire accurately without having to expose too much of the chassis.
Issues: The only significant issue I have noticed so far is that my weight reductions make all stock designs underweight. I have not had the time to go through all the variants and adjust their default loadouts to take advantage of the changes. No variant is worse than stock, but they could all be better. AI units who are armed with lasers that offer continuous fire will continuously miss or hit without correcting their aim or having it broken, except by LOS, depending on whether the game decided they missed or hit that shot. In my testing, this feels like a minor issue to me. If you can live with those issues, it plays fine.
Compatibility: This mod should not break other mods, but if it does cause issues, try adjusting the load order of the mod with effects you prefer to after this one by either giving them a higher defaultLoadOrder, or my mod a lower number. You should be able to run it with mods that add new weapons, but the differences in weapon performance will likely make it a bad combination.