Another month, another build. Also we’ll be doing a livestream this Wednesday (the 15th) at 3-5pm on youtube to celebrate the 3-year anniversary of the Kickstarter. Come hang!

Changelog:

Highlights

• module editor enabled, experimentally. This basically a mini visual novel maker that can stitch combats together with downtimes & narrative beats.

• can upload and download modules to and from mod.io
• placeholder portraits for the new stock pilots, from the kickstarter backer rewards
• added distance ruler tool (holding shift, same as the editor)

Content

• a bunch new ability FX
• another batch of new portrait assets: skin colors, tattoos & face smudges, hats, jewelry
• added cataphract and engineer NPC tokens
• new sound fx & music mixes
• Added “eject pod” fx for downed lancers and certain NPCs.

Character Sheet / Roster

• automatically remove unaffordable licenses/talents/cbs/frames
• buttons to randomize callsign/name
• increase character limit for barks (from 64 to 128)
• fix npc character sheets not having name/callsign
• pilot roster entries are collapsible (we still might go back to list view, but this should make it less noisy)
• fix creating duplicate “custom pilots” sections when creating pilots from the category + button

Mechanics

• can siege ram setpieces

• vlad doesn’t don’t dismember self when using crack shot or grappling

• fix symbiosis switch control situational action not showing up

• remove arcing from siege cannon direct fire

• minotaur correctly loses all its speed when entering engagement with other characters; it doesn’t count as larger when it’s initiating the engagement

• minotaur can pick up the payload (previously, it was not able to enter the minotaur’s space due to localized maze lol)

• annihilation nexus centered on a drone doesn’t trigger your own turrets & correctly enables the followup protocol attack

• can apply Leadership dice to attacks you make from drones

• predator/prey concepts can use variant actions like thrown (but so can predatory logic now)

• can puppet systems allies through other allies

• held image only triggers at the start of other mech turns, not drones

• fix dusk wing explosions not catching nearby units/playing the explosion fx

• fix: hunter lunge fails to trigger drag down damage

• fix weapon type restrictions (and lack thereof, respectively) for seeking payload and avenger silos

• don’t autoconsume all lockons when attacking with a launcher from a monarch

• fix cable winch drag only working when starting adjacent

• grease monkey III charge no longer resets whenever you spend any repairs

• prototype weapon charges are only rerolled on full repairs

• multiple Open Channels no longer can affect the same character

• a bunch of fixes having to do with the ghoul nexus; it now overwatches from where it is instead of trying to do so from the unit & can recall it

• lockbreaker doesn’t lock out UNCLE weapons

• not locked out of lockbreaker movement forever if you ever decline it

• post-attack lockbreaker happens after followup aux attacks

• can lockbreaker a skirmish from an overcharge action

• fix deep well heat sink priority so it affects type 1 flight system

• balor self perpetuating repairs during downtimes; not just at combat starts. Full repair beats actually full repair.

• drake fortress CP provides knockback immunity to all sources + correctly ignores brace restrictions

• fix combat drill overkill heat not corresponding with its bonus damage

• fix infinite range attack glitch when you have to disambiguate targets for a melee attack

• fix teleporting while going in a straight line causing you to teleport individually for each step

• soft-cover setpieces grant soft cover when you fire through them instead of only when the target is standing within them

• invading allies no longer clears hidden since it doesn’t count as an attack

• can move payloads when dazed, but no longer stunned

• Jericho cover no longer gives hard cover to itself

• Rider units (latch drone, mule harness) do not take fall damage when their host carefully climbs down a cliff.

• correctly reapply buffs when a kit is repaired (e.g. ultra siege armor resistance)

• oasis wall doesn’t deploy on tiles you’re currently occupying for size 2+ units

• fix escort+extraction not extracting the payload // triggering victory.

• Can try to break grapples from harpoon cannon & lasso

• assassins mark is no longer shared between all assassins

• engineer turrets aren’t affected by engineer’s impaired status

• hard AI round cap on mobile printer being used multiple times per round

• fixed berserker doing fall damage to itself when harpooning a larger character

• fix witch’s Blur never applying

• Hive’s Razor swarm is no longer a character (again? I stg I’ve fixed this before)

• charged slash should no longer be used on allies ++ have the AI make the choice if the AI gets targeted in some other way (eg player-controlled ronin)

• fix breacher thermal charge sometimes not moving because it tries to either target the line on the way there or some unreachable final target

• scout rebound scan correctly auto-hits allies

• scout pathfinder boost correctly consumes rxn

UI/Graphics

• new combat start/new round/combat resolution banners

• don’t offer to consume leadership dice for bonus damage when you can’t deal bonus damage with the attack
• fix stabilize heal option desc when at full hp
• fix meltdown causing the game to hang out for like 10 seconds afterwards. punched up/fixed meltdown camera shaking
• fix “immune to knockback!” spam when targeting grav gun
• numerous positioning fixes for stationary fx like shields
• aoe lines and cones can target spaces outside of their elevation range, but the AOE tiles themselves get filtered out later. warn if doing an AOE attack with no targets.
• heavy gunner rank 3 shows laser pointer at both of its targets
• duck the music when in the pause menu
• fixed NPC cloaking field aura size
• brought default mech colors into new color systems
• remove duplicate confirmation for eye of horus
• show Action = NONE actions in the gearbar, for informational purposes (autogun, autopod)
• show limited charges in glossary tooltips again (asura)
• fix sentinel drone warning showing at too many tiles
• only ask to confirm canceling portrait maker if no changes were made
• can retry failed battles
• fix water block being too tall in map previews
• setting input keys no longer fails if it would clear another control
• fixed bug where zooming out sometimes made hologram units totally disappear
• can cancel/zoom in/zoom out while mouse is over the void
• fix Control score sometimes not updating correctly
• change cursor shape when hovering over texture buttons like Back
• fix overcharge icon resetting to start after the fourth
• full repair clears “melted down” state and lets your mech start showing up in the UI again
• maybe(?) fixed errant black squares on crt-filter UI elements
• can advance through dialogues by pressing space in addition to clicking screen
• adjust cloaking field fxe to be less seizure-y
• add terrain information to the distance investigator
• defense net doesn’t spam text on units moving within

Editors

• add “rename unit” event

• “Use” zone event: flag to make “use” zone actions reusable, can specify what units are permitted to take the action

• Can add and remove lancers to modules via trigger.

• add module trigger that modifies a unit’s sitrep tags

• Added extraction event to just remove a unit from the map, with flags to skip fx/logging

• combat start is now the default trigger event, sorted the list alphabetically

• Terrain getting damaged can trigger triggers

• change faction unit counter to skip drones (so restock drones don’t prevent elimination victories)

• added 5-person conversation layouts

• be able to add conversation lines after the selected one, and playtest from the last selected line

• Fix crash on pasting line breaks into a conversation line

• fix behind-choice word bubbles blocking choices

• added a “handshake” stage direction for conversations

• add summary text entry to combat tool, which can be used for the intro banner playing

• re-enable unit save-as button in combat editor

• resizing map no longer fills in the lowest elevation with blocks

• unit palette has a search bar, bigger sprite buttons, and lists deployables/markers with their name instead of a blank image

• Added missing localizations for the new setpieces+doodads (crate, crates, consoles, etc)

• removed “my_first_map” as the default map when you open the editor for the first time; instead, highlight the “new” button

• add “downloads” list to the editor file lists (alongside “user” and “stock”)

• don’t fit the beat dropdown to longest beat name

• dialogue blocks can stay available after being run

• fix landscape block previews not having their side textures shown

• No longer able to level up freely during full repairs within a module; show warning mark when there are unallocated choices for a pilot.

• Beat dioramas will fall back to camera start zones // center of map if there’s no mech slots

• image media can be webp/jpg in addition to png

Internals

• instead of making a ton of “_savefile” combats and littering the user directory, added an option to the pause menu that explicitly saves combats that we don’t already have (so, given a only an Instant Action/editor savefile, you can still extract the map into your own editor)
• refactored how mechs are assigned available sprites/meshes internally to set us up for easy modding-in of new graphics in the future
• F11/F12 no longer win/lose combats; added them as console cheats instead