/BattleTech-3025-HyadesRim

BattleTech 1.9.X compatible - requires all DLCs. Work in progress.

GNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

BattleTech 3025 Hyades Rim 

BattleTech 1.9.X compatible - requires all DLCs. Work in progress.

Slavish adherence to a formal ritual is a sign that one has nothing better to think about. - Natasha Kerensky, Blood Legacy.

It is 3024 and Lady Kamea Arano has been exiled instead of presumed dead as in the original campaign. After Kamea and the Commander are rescued by the survivors of Markham's Marauders during House Espinosa's coup, they have joined the company in search for mercenary work in the Rimward Periphery. But as the Fourth Succession War approaches, powerful forces are now threatening to destroy the entire Aurigan Reach unless Kamea can save her realm and reclaim her throne. Work in progress.

Public repository: Hyades Rim - https://github.com/Hobbes74/Battletech-3025-HyadesRim

Discord server (discussions and feedback) - https://discord.gg/zgeQrnV

Patreon (donations not required but welcome) - https://www.patreon.com/Hobbes74

Features
* A new BattleTech story and Campaign mode, consisting of forty-three new flashpoints and forty-four new events telling an alternative history of the Arano Restoration where Kamea Arano wasn't presumed killed as ComStar's cover-up story claims (a.k.a. original campaign). Instead, she was exiled and the company entered the service of canon BattleTech figures such as Interstellar Expeditions and Chandrasekhar Kurita and the real events of the Aurigan campaign were suppressed.

* Thirty-seven original flashpoints released, campaign mode only: You On The Run, Exodus, Evil Eye, The Periphery Is A Harsh Mistress, The Mad Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Here Might Be Dragons, Jinxed, It Came From The Rim, Death's Mask, God Mecha, Amaris Legacy, Tales of 1001 BattleMechs, The Man Comes Around, Danse Macabre, Rogue Star, Putting Out A Fire, A Country Too Far, Paradise City, Kiss Them For Me, Bandit Kingdoms and Petty Tyrants, The Magistrate, Flesh For Fantasy, Heads Will Roll, Backdoor Man, Dark Forest, Horse Latitudes, Stranger In A Strange Land, Dark Horse, Kerensky's Ghost, Comanche Moon, Question Of Faith, Speak Of The Devil, Otaku, Dreams of Nagayan Mountains, Legend Killer, Wilderness and Vortex.

* Six more campaign flashpoints are being written for part three of the new campaign: Sword Of The Restoration, Ghost Riders In The Sky, Unnatural Selection, Barbarians At The Gates, Atomic and The Eyes Of Truth.

* A optional 'Periphery Tales' campaign consisting of 52 mini-flashpoints, simultaneous with the main story.

* Optional - Community Asset Bundle 3025 integration, includes Bombardier, Chameleon, Champion, Charger, Clint, Crockett, Crusader, Dervish, Devastator, Emperor, Exterminator, Falcon, Firebee, Firefly, Gladiator, Guillotine, Hermes, Hermes II, Hoplite, Hornet, Hussar, Icarus II, Imp, Lancelot, Linesman, Longbow, Lynx, Mackie, Marauder II, Merlin, Mongoose, Nighthawk, Nightstar, Ostroc, Ostscout, Ostsol, Ostwar, Pillager, Sentinel, Shootist, Spector, Starslayer, Stinger, Talon, Talos, Thorn, Thug, Thunderhawk, Titan, Toro, Valkyrie, Wasp, Whitworth, Wolfhound and Wyvern 'Mech models and canon variants.

* New story includes a total of 135 new contracts rewritten from the originals, 152 new crew conversations and 295 additional lore descriptions, and is divided into three parts, each with its own subarcs.

* The vanilla FPs are included in the new Campaign as independent mini-campaigns, except for the Black Widow mini-campaign but still appears on Career mode.

* 473 new playable star systems, adding all of the Taurian, Canopian and Marian worlds plus several Deep Periphery systems, with the star map extended in all directions to also include more Davion, Liao and Marik systems, as well as other Periphery realms. All of the new systems' descriptions have been written to reflect the 3025 BattleTech era.

* 102 new events that include crew deaths, a parrot, JumpShip issues, and assorted oddities, all part of living during a difficult period and region of space, with wars flaring up all the national sentiments.

* 58 original factions, canon and new, with their own leaders, allies/enemies, contracts and 'Mech/vehicle variants. Ally/fight pirate gangs, corporations, regional powers and bandit kingdoms in both campaign and system contracts.

* 80 new cast characters, several with new artwork.

* 600+ new contracts and variants added, including pirate, IE and Periphery flavored.

* 700+ new BattleMech variants added to fight as Opfor, can appear equipped with Infernos, ECM, plus other LosTech surprises.

* All the 'Mech quirks of the Heavy Metal DLC can now appear on any 'Mech model (only certain factions will use them).

* 23 new vehicle variants, called 'technicals', only used by pirate factions.

* 77 canon variants of the vanilla 'Mechs, nearly all of the 3025 era and SLDF variants.

* 24 new turrets, several equipped with artillery pieces.

* 33 new BattleMech upgrades, all based on the 'Mech quirks of the Heavy Metal DLC.

* Pilot backgrounds now also include Kurita Noble, Steiner Noble, Marian, Circinus, Lothian, Illyrian and Deep Periphery.

* Career mode has nearly everything from above available, except for the story missions/flashpoints.

Balance and Story Changes
* The new story is divided into three parts and is several times bigger than the vanilla campaign, and does not reuse any (or nearly) of the original conversations, contracts, dialogues, etc.

* The new campaign reuses the procedural contracts in a way that you'll never fight again in the same combination of biome and mission type twice. The same applies to the original story missions, which have been also extensively rewritten to be used in the new story.

* For most of the campaign you'll use the Hysteria (Leopard), and only get the Argo at the end of part 2, with the Question Of Faith campaign flashpoint.

* Several of the new campaign flashpoints have consecutive deployments. This was done to increase the challenge of having to run multiple operations with limited assets, and for story telling proposes, the flashpoint conditions usually involve fast operations. Certain flashpoint choices can reduce the number of consecutive deployments or allow you to use third-party 'Mechs.

* The original flashpoints of the five Inner Sphere factions are optional to play during the campaign, and will immediately precede the 4th Succession War. They're also played sequentially, starting from the lowest difficulty.

* On campaign, JumpShip access to the Inner Sphere is limited, and depends on you unlocking letters of marque from the Successor Lords (which also unlock their faction FPs).

* More terrain variety - in the original game each contract (like One Man's Art) can only appear at a certain system difficulty and certain campaign milestones. Those limitations have been removed, allowing for a greater terrain variety during regular contracts.

* The special equipment of the Marauder has been nerfed, with the Called Shot ability reduced from a 33% maximum to 25%, and the 10% damage reduction only applying to the Marauder, not the whole lance.

* Stores/Black Markets have been changed to restore the appearance of LosTech to before the Heavy Metal DLC was released. Since it's 3025 it is only possible to find Star League tech era in former SLDF systems and it's impossible to find full SLDF 'Mechs for sale. And the appearance of 3025 'Mechs in stores has also been reduced or replaced by pirate variants in black markets.

* Opfor pilots levels can vary, being possible to encounter pilots with a different skill levels than the contract's difficulty; there's also a chance some of them might be immune to headshots, in order to balance the player's Called Shot ability.

Disclaimer
* The objective of this mod is not a total overhaul of the base game, but the opposite: to keep it as unchanged as possible while expanding it with new and original material, based on the canon BattleTech universe.

* This is Work In Progress - expect bugs (and please report them on the Hyades Rim Discord - link above).

* The story and its characters are a mixture of both BattleTech canon and fan fiction and the writing contains vulgar language, personal insults, fictional slurs, drug/alcohol consumption, sexual references, lack of morals and physical violence. If you're legally underage and/or offended by any of these, do not play any of the BattleTech games or this mod.

Requirements
* ModTek 0.8.0.0 or 2.0.0.X - https://github.com/BattletechModders/ModTek

* ExtendedConversations, by CWolf https://github.com/CWolfs/ExtendedConversations (already bundled with Hyades Rim)

* Flashpoint, Urban Warfare and Heavy Metal DLCs

Installation
* Unzip the folders to the /Mods folder created as part of ModTek's installation guidelines and activate it on the Mod List.

Recommended Additional Mods (all optional, not required)
* Community Asset Bundle - requires downloading and installing the CAB (https://discourse.modsinexile.com/t/community-assets-bundle-cab/115) or the full version, then activating it and the CAB3025-HyadesRim add-on on the Mods screen at start;
* Inner Sphere Map (https://github.com/Morphyum/InnerSphereMap) by Morphyum - bundled with Hyades Rim, to activate select it on the game's mod screen. 
* Navigation Computer by mpstark, makes travel easier, https://github.com/BattletechModders/NavigationComputer
* Colorful FlashPoints, by JWolf612, https://github.com/wmtorode/ColourfulFlashPoints
* BattleTech Performance Fix by m22spencer, https://github.com/m22spencer/BattletechPerformanceFix (SEE BELOW)

Known Issues
* BattleTechPerformanceFix has a known bug that sometimes prevents a contract to be completed when all objectives are fulfilled - it can be overriden by enabling debug mode and using it to end the contract. But if you experience the bug it might be advisable to disable the mod during the before the contract, if possible;
* When playing FPs on the Leopard, there's a visual glitch (a.k.a. 'löyly') after any conversations with the DropShip's bridge and other areas. This has no effect on gameplay can be solved by saving and reloading the game.
* A saved star map won't update when new mod versions are released that change it, so system tags and black market markers might become inaccurate with future mod updates. 
* Occasionally the campaign might freeze if you've just completed a story mission (non-FP) right before getting the end of the month report. This appears to be a Unity bug, for safety always end the month if you're on its last day before starting the flashpoint (FIXED?).

Credits
* Story author and developer: Hobbes;
* CastSprites and conversation textures artwork: DarkKhaos;
* Additional writing: Camicon_Dachass (Liao systems);
* Text editing: ComStar Grammar Police (DarkKhaos, MarkDey and Tetro75), Ministry Of Bob (Hantta, SanchoPanzer and unclecid) and commiehunter;
* Playtesters: TL_Warlord_Roff, stormfather, Lobo das Estepes, Hantta, MarkDey and SanchoPanzer, dogwart and commiehunter;
* Bug reporting: taintedloki, 1apetus, mystictiger, nowater, samian, Midicow, Thalion, phearless047, Oldtimer, Silber, l33tn3ss, Thalion, veryinky, LordTyrranus, kasdikana, Frenzier, RedKitsune, UlfrStrongarm, Khairus, GeniusSaj, Ichthyos, don_zappo, SaintBomber, DEADWEIGHT, stormfather, f.abel, Cla, Camicon_Dachass, Sancho Panzer, Azymorath, CatLady, MarkDey, unclecid, A. vak, Stahlseele, ALE999, CryptoDan, Wpmz, CertainNanomachineSenator, Ballonmann, FrozenPear, Spartakus, FoolsGold, TheHolyLancer, TotallyNotEvil, AAAHGaming, St Up Nr, jemy000, Travesty, Questionable Life Decisions, Alexander, T-squared, Jade CAT, Matt, PetrCS, Miggles;

All canon BattleTech content is property of its franchise, owned by Catalyst Games, and the BattleTech videogame and DLCs are owned by Paradox Games.

Contributions/Tools:
* ModTek, by several authors (MIT license): https://github.com/BattletechModders/ModTek
* Logo Replacement mod by Mpstark (MIT license) -  https://github.com/BattletechModders/LogoReplacement
* ConverseTek, conversation editor by CWolf (MIT license) - https://github.com/CWolfs/ConverseTek
* Extended Converstations mod, by CWolfs (MIT license) - https://github.com/CWolfs/ExtendedConversations;
* Inner Sphere Map mod, by Morphyum, changed to use the Hyades Rim star map and factions (GNU GPL License) - https://github.com/Morphyum/InnerSphereMap
* Community Asset Bundle 3025, by several - https://discourse.modsinexile.com/t/community-assets-bundle-cab/115 
* MegaMek, by several, for the coordinates of several connecting systems - https://megamek.org/;
* Banner images taken from the sourcebook The Periphery, 2nd Edition;
* Corporation logos taken and adapted from Sarna.net;
* Sarna.net for being an amazing source for all things BattleTech related;
* Mordel.net for the stats used in the canon 'Mech variants;
* All the people behind the previous mods and those that provided help/feedback on Discord and the forums: LadyAlekto, Morphyum, Justin Kase, Granner, starscream, Dialcaliper, Necromis, bloodydoves, Owca, Oldtimer, JaimeWolf and the whole BattleTech modding community.

This mod is released under a GNU GPL license, see the included LICENSE file for additional details.

Donations:
As I've discussed over the years on the Discord server after several requests, I have created a Patreon page for all my personal mods (https://www.patreon.com/Hobbes74) and including Hyades Rim with the permission of the content creators, namely @DarkKhaos who has contributed all the new character artwork. You can also donate directly through Paypal.

Regardless of donations, all of my work will always be for free to download and play and is released with a open source GNU GPL license. 

If you contribute through Patreon you also have the option of adding your personal touch to the mod by including your own BattleMech variant and star system.

Thank you!