Year 3 Kickstarter changelog

Lancer Tactics

The report card took up all the available airtime for this month’s update, here’s the changelog broken out into its own post:

Highlights

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

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  • 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) alt text

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

  • soft-cover setpieces grant soft cover when you fire through them instead of only when the target is standing within them
  • fix symbiosis switch control situational action not showing up
  • remove arcing from siege cannon direct fire
  • vlad using crack shot no longer shreds itself
  • 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 its frame trait)
  • 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 teleporting while going in a straight line causing you to teleport individually for each step
  • fix: hunter lunge fails to trigger drag down damage
  • fix weapon type restrictions (and lack thereof, respectively) for seeking payload and avenger silos
  • invading allies no longer clears hidden since it doesn’t count as an attack
  • 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
  • can move payloads when dazed, but no longer stunned
  • don’t autoconsume all lockons when attacking with a launcher from a monarch
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • fix deep well heat sink priority so it affects type 1 flight system
  • 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 escort+extraction not extracting the payload // triggering victory.

UI/Graphics

  • new combat start/new round/combat resolution banners

  • alt text

  • 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

Editors

  • added a “handshake” stage direction for conversations alt text

  • 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 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
  • Add terrain-damage trigger hook
  • added 5-person conversation layouts
  • 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
  • be able to add conversation lines after the selected one, and playtest from the last selected line
  • 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 moments can stay available after being run
  • Fix crash on pasting line breaks into a conversation line
  • fix landscape item previews not having their edge decorations
  • fix behind-choice word bubbles blocking choices
  • change faction unit counter to skip drones (so restock drones don’t prevent elimination victories)

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
Year 3 Kickstarter report card