37 post(s) tagged with "release"

This very minor release just fixes some position issues in Blackout maps.

For detailed documentation, visit the Mission Control Website.

NOTE: This release is only to officially release out the two hotfix files that were in the MC discord for over half a year. If you already have those there is no need for you to download this release.

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Blackout: Badlands Map - Phase 2 Event 2 invading lance units spawn on top of each other when Random Spawns is off
• Blackout: Badlands Map - Player spawns lance units spawn on top of each other with Random Spawns off
• Blackout: Lowlands Map - Phase 2 Event 2 invading lance units spawn on top of each other when Random Spawns is off

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

This update is just a mod.json and two contractTypeBuild files update.

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • mod.json
• Copy and overwrite:
  • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/story2_badlandsparched.jsonc
  • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/story7_lowlandsspring.jsonc

NOTE: There was no dll rebuild for this release so the version on that still says v1.5.1. This is not an issue.

Hey guys!

Today I’ve released v1.4 of ConverseTek.

For those of you who don’t know what ConverseTek is, it’s the tool I developed for creating and editing BT dropship conversations (1-on-1s with the crew and conference room) and released in Summer 2018.

You can grab the new release from the Github ConverseTek v1.4 Release.

As part of this update I rewrote / ported the project to Typescript and updated a lot of the badly outdated dependencies. In the process I’ve improved lots of areas of code since I was forced to touch almost every single file. This makes the project easier to work with so it makes it easier to improve.

Before I get onto the new features and improvements I need to mention the elephant in the room / the outstanding big issue and how it’s now been fixed.

#Corrupted Conversations / Bad Data (The Ugly Big Elephant)

Ever since CT was created it had a risk of corrupting a conversation file - sometimes in obvious ways and other times in very subtle ways. Any modder who has used it would probably scream in rage any time they realised this happened (and it was particularly sneaky as it would always look fine in CT - just break in BattleTech itself). This bug was due to an original assumption I made when I originally developed the tool and one I only realised was wrong when I was stopping development on the tool. Fast forward to a year and a half after the last release and this issue is now fixed in v1.4 (it should have been fixed years ago but that's life). An important note to modders who might still have corrupted conversation files from previous CT usage - v1.4 can fix those for you if you open it up and re-save them.

It also fixes all other issues around bad conversation data, for example, old text showing up in copied / moved nodes even after the copied text was changed in CT.

With that said, onto the nice new features.

#Quicklinks / Favourites

The user experience of opening up your workspace folder that contained conversations was horrible. It started you off in your root drive view and didn’t help you save time to navigate back to your conversations. If the user’s conversations were deep in a drive then that meant a lot of clicking. Really annoying stuff.

Now you have some typical quick links that you’d expect (Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, Favourites). You can also right-click any directory and favourite it. This adds a blue favourite icon to the directory navigator that you can click to go straight to.

#Dialogue Tree Zoom

Large conversations means a ton of prompt nodes (blue) and response nodes (yellow). When it gets so large, like in vanilla conversations, it gets incredibly difficult to figure out where all the conversation nodes are that you’re trying to look at.

You now can use CTRL + mouse wheel to zoom in and out to give yourself a better feel for the conversation (or it can help people who need the text a bit bigger to read).

#Node Details Drag Expand

Actions and Conditions are vital to making good conversations, yet, the viewing area for those is too small compared to the data-dense functionality often needing to be displayed.

You can now drag and expand the node details area to give yourself a lot more space for actions / conditions / node details and writing dialogue. This often will give users the ability to view all (or most) of the actions and conditions on a node (or reduce the scrolling to a minimum).

#Delete Conversation

You can now delete conversations from within CT. Pretty simple but useful.

#Re-enabled Dragging Response Nodes to Other Nodes

In earlier releases of CT you were able to drag and drop response (yellow) nodes from their parent prompt (blue) node to anywhere else in the conversation. Due to the realisation this caused some nasty bugs the feature was limited to allowing only dragging/reordering within the same prompt node.

Since all the conversation corruption bugs are fixed I re-enabled this feature - so you can now move response nodes to other prompt nodes.

#Other fixes and changes

There are a good few other fixes and changes but I’ll leave this post here. If you’re interested in the full changelog check out the ConverseTek github release page and the github milestone for v1.4

#In Closing

Tools for the community often go overlooked but are critical for the health of mods and modpacks. This update took me a month of my free time (developing on it almost every single day when I had spare time during that month) so I honestly hope you enjoy and appreciate the new improvements. Don’t be quiet and please let me know what you think. It was a good update to work on.

Thanks guys.

This release fixes a single bug mentioned below that caused an infinite spinner when returning from a contract that didn't have MC running on it.

The full release diff can be at the v1.5.1 pull request.

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Data Cleanup: RestoreFromCopy cleanup approach caused infinite spinner when MC was not allowed to run
  • When Mission Control wasn't running for a contract the data backup wasn't running. When the contract ended the data backup caused an infinite spinner because there was no data to restore and MC errored.

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

This update is just a dll and mod.json update.

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

This release introduces a lot of new features and fixes some important bugs. It adds a lot more content for the existing custom contract types, adds a dialogue system that works with the combat dialogue for much more control and allows player pilots to talk in contracts. One of the main reasons for this release is to prepare the contract type build formats for the upcoming Mission Control Designer.

All website documentation has been updated to reflect all the new additions and changes so check there for specifics.

The full release diff can be at the v1.5.0 pull request.

#❗ Custom Contract Build Format Upgrade

As the Mission Control Designer is in a functional state I've been testing the Designer saving out the existing custom contract types (Duels & Blackout). For various reasons related to the Designer the existing custom contract type build files (files that are located under MissionControl/contractTypeBuilds) require an upgrade.

The upgrade is critical and must be done. - See the below Upgrade instructions on the process

#🚀 Features

• Blackout: Added 3 more contracts
  • Absent Witness
  • Prepared Grounds (written by Vantas Strider)
  • A Minor Royal Pain
• Blackout: Added to 3 new maps
  • Tyrlon (Highlands Fall biome)
  • Central Mountain (Desert Parched biome)
  • Lost World (Jungle Tropical biome)
• Solo Duel: Added to 5 new maps
  • Big Loch (Highlands Spring biome)
  • Red City (Martian Vacuum biome)
  • Tide Bay (Jungle Tropical biome)
  • City Centre (Urban HighTech biome)
  • Taiga River (Trunda Frozen biome)
• Duo Duel: Added to 5 new maps
  • Big Loch (Highlands Spring biome)
  • Red City (Martian Vacuum biome)
  • Tide Bay (Jungle Tropical biome)
  • City Centre (Urban HighTech biome)
  • Taiga River (Trunda Frozen biome)
• Dialogue: Added a dialogue system on top of the contract dialogue system for Combat
• Dialogue: Player Pilots Can Talk in Contracts
  • Anyone interacting with contract dialogue CastDefs / selectedCastDefId can now select Player lance pilots to talk
  • Provided manual (castDef_TeamPilot_1), true random (castDef_TeamPilot_Random) and bound random selection of Player lance pilots (castDef_TeamPilot_Random_1 or castDef_TeamPilot_Random_BoredPilot)
• Dialogue: Commander can be used as a CastDef regardless of if dropped in the Player lance
  • Can be used if the Commander is on the dropship or in the Player lance
  • Can be used with castDef_Commander
• Dialogue: Dialogue can reference Commander, Speaker, Bound or Position Player Pilots
  • Some pilots can be accessed in the dialogue, e.g. ({MC.PlayerLance.TeamPilot_Random_2.UnitName}, {MC.PlayerLance.Speaker.DisplayName}, {MC.Commander.DisplayName})
• Dialogue: Conditional dialogue - the ability to show dialogue on certain conditions
  • Supports checks against Employer or Target Faction Type
  • Supports checks against Employer or Target Name and Short Name
  • Supports tag checks against all tag scopes (Pilot, Commander, Company, System) and a new custom Encounter tag scope that is fresh for every contract
  • Supports multi-conditional checks ({{condition1} AND {condition2}}, {{condition1} OR {condition2}})
  • Supports random percentage chance checks
• Dialogue: Modifications - the ability to modify the game
  • Supports adding tags to all tag scopes
  • Supports removing tags from all tag scopes
• Dialogue: Formatting - the ability to change text style
  • Supports formatting text to different cases (ToUpper, ToLower, ToUpperFirst, ToAlternating, e.g. [MC.Format.ToUpper.{TEAM_EMP.FactionDef.Name}])
  • Helps fix vanilla BT annoyance with Faction names starting lowercase so faction names can now be correctly used at the start of sentences.
• Per-Contract Override - Additional Lances - Support Enabling / Disabling UseDialogue
  • Allows modders to remove the Ally mission start dialogue for AL lances at a contract level
• Per-Contract Override - Additional Lances - Support Custom Objective Names
  • Allows modders to provide custom names for the Enemy AL lances
  • Fewer objective names can be provided than AL lances and if the names aren't enough it fallsback to the default names
• Per-Contract Override - Additional Lances - Support CastDef
  • Allows modders to provide a custom CastDef id and that Cast will speak the mission start dialogue for Ally AL lances
  • CastDef id can be a Mission Control dynamic CastDef id as mentioned in the new Dialogue features
• Per-Contract Override - Additional Lances - Support Custom Dialogue
  • Allows modders to provide custom dialogue for the Ally AL lance to speak at the mission start dialogue
• Additional Lances - Code API access
  • Allows modders to link against Mission Control and access the Additional Lances feature functionality
  • Modders can provide a lance count, list of LanceOverrides or MLanceOverrides and optional objective name overrides
  • This will override every other AL lance approach
  • Usable only for procedural contracts and not available for Flashpoints and Story contracts
  • Accessed through MissionControl.Instance.API
• Metrics
  • Added a way for other mods to access some Mission Control data
  • Accessed through MissionControl.Instance.Metrics
  • Currently supports Additional Lance counts per encounter/contract

#⚡ Improvements

• Custom Contract Types: Build File Format Updated
  • The custom contract type build file format is updated as built by the Designer
• Solo & Duo Duel: OpFor Moves To Engage Before Contact
  • Previously, the OpFor duelists would sit at their spawn point until contact was made, then they would move to engage the player
  • This led to a boring situation where the player would just jump the enemy
  • Now the OpFor moves to engage the player similar to how the player would move at the start of the contract
• Extended Boundaries - Support use of only MapId
  • Previously, you could provide only ContractTypeName or provide ContractTypeName and MapId but you couldn't only provide MapId
  • You can now provide only MapId if required
• Blackout: Fixed bad turret placement in Phase2 base in Story7 map
  • Often the turrets would destroy the buildings they were meant to protect
• Additional Lances: Follow AI is restricted to Additional Lance lances
  • Previously, the FollowAI would be injected into the Core behaviour tree and Follow orders would be sent to all lance units that had the Employer tag
  • This correctly didn't affect things like Escort units or Defend Base engineers as they didn't use the Core AI behaviour tree
  • Now, the AI Follow order is sent to any lance units that have both Employer and AdditionalLance tags - so only the AL lances
  • This change purely keeps Mission Control's Follow AI influence to where it's required
• Data Cleanup: Added new method for cleaning up data from Mission Control
  • This new method is now default
  • The old method can be turned on instead if there are some unforseen compatibility issues with other mods in the community
  • In settings.json, there is a new setting under Misc/ContractOverrideDataCleanupMethod
    • RestoreFromCopy is the default and the new cleaning method. It takes copies of LanceOverrides and ObjectiveOverrides and restores them after combat
    • ScrubData is the old method. It scans through the contract override and removes anything MC added.
• Contract Type Builder - Added DurationType property to OccupyRegion Objective

#🔧 Changes

• Contract Type Builder - Refactored SetStateResult result to SetStatusResult
• Contract Type Builder - Refactored SetStateAtRandomResult result to SetStatusAtRandomResult

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Additional Lances: Ally units Follow AI was breaking after initial contact with enemies
  • If an initial encounter was made and at least one enemy unit was destroyed, then contact lost - then the ally AL Follow AI wasn't stripping out dead units for visible/detected enemy checks so the ally AL would always think there were enemies nearby and never return to follow mode
  • Now, dead units are not considered valid for visible/detected enemy checks
  • Now, ally AL lances will return to follow mode correctly after contact is lost
• Custom Contract Types: Metadata was using wrong heights when plots changed
  • Mission Control's custom recalculation of the metadata (based on BT's algorithm) was running before the custom contract type plots were enabled/disabled
  • This would cause the metadata heights to not always be correct in plot areas that were different to the existing vanilla metadata

#📝 Documentation / Website

• Added a Dialogue System feature page
• Added a Metrics feature page
• Updated Per-Contract Overrides feature section with new Additional Lances settings
• Added ContractOverrideDataCleanupMethod to the Settings feature page
• Added Additional Lance API section to the Additional Lances feature page
• Added information on MapId only overrides for the Extended Boundaries feature page
• Fixed incorrect information in SetTeamByLanceSpawnerResult and SetTeamByLanceSpawnerGuidResult result pages
• Refactored SetStateResult result to SetStatusResult
• Refactored SetStateAtRandomResult result to SetStatusAtRandomResult
• Fixed incorrect information in CompleteObjectiveResult result page
• Fixed incorrect information in EncounterObjectiveMatchesState conditional page
• Fixed incorrect information in ObjectiveStatuses conditional page
• Fixed issue with latest LastPass Chrome plugin with the website causing empty space to appear near the top of the page
• Added DurationType to OccupyRegion objective page

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

This update is just a dll and mod.json update.

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

#Copy and Overwrite Example Per-Contract Override Files

• Copy and overwrite config/Contracts to config/Contracts folder

#Copy new CastDefs

• Copy and overwrite overrides/cast folder to overrides/cast folder

#Copy new Blackout contracts

• Copy overrides/contracts/blackout/Blackout_AMinorRoyalPain.json to overrides/contracts/blackout
• Copy overrides/contracts/blackout/Blackout_AbsentWitness.json to overrides/contracts/blackout
• Copy overrides/contracts/blackout/Blackout_PreparedGrounds.json to overrides/contracts/blackout

#Add ContractOverrideDataCleanupMethod setting to the settings.json

• Edit the Misc section and add to the bottom of that section:

"ContractOverrideDataCleanupMethod": "RestoreFromCopy"
Copy

#Copy new portraits

• Copy and overwrite spirtes/Portraits folder to spirtes/Portraits

#❗ Update Custom Contract Type Build Files

There are many changes within the custom contract type build files and the EncounterLayer files that need to be addressed in this update. I'll explain the easiest method that I recommend.

#Easiest (RECOMMENDED) Method

Everyone should use this approach to upgrade the contract type and encounter layer files.

• Delete your contractTypeBuilds folder and copy in the new v1.5 release contractTypeBuilds folder
• Delete your overrides/encounterLayers folder and copy in the new v1.5 release overrides/encounterLayers folder
• (BTA modpack, and any modpack with their own custom contract types) Recreate your Hero Duels (or other custom contract types you've made)
• (Any modpacks that edited the old contract type build files) Remake the old changes to the new contract type build files

#Harder (NOT SUPPORTED) Method

If you decide to take this approach it is NOT SUPPORTED by Mission Control (and CWolf). The only reason you'd take this approach is if you made extensive changes to the previous custom contract types and you didn't want to lose these changes. NOT RECOMMENDED.

• Rename all contractTypeBuilds in your modpack to be the same as the new contractTypeBuilds
• Copy over new contractTypeBuilds files for SoloDuel, DuoDuel, Blackout into their respective sub-folders
• Rename all overrides/encounterLayers files to be the same as the new contractTypeBuilds

NOTE: For any non-MC custom contract types the names of the your own custom encounterLayers must take the same format and link to the contract type build files. The reason for this is for Designer compatibility. The format is:

• build file: [mapname]_[biome].jsonc, for example centralmountain_desertparched.jsonc and mountainhold_lunarvacuum.jsonc

• encounterLayer file: encounterLayer_[contracttype].[mapname]_[biome].json, for example encounterLayer_blackout.centralmountain_desertparched.json and encounterLayer_blackout.mountainhold_lunarvacuum.json

• Compare each and every contract type build file and apply the diff changes manually (allows you to keep your custom)

This release fixes a bug in Extended Lances and one in Additional Lances.

The full release diff can be at the v1.4.2 pull request.

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Additional Lances: Elite lances always being used
• Extended Lances: Pilots from EL lances that are expanded are default pilots instead of LanceDef pilots if autofill is not allowed
  • This issue would only happen if the EL lance wasn't in autofill mode
  • For any additional units that get expanded from a LanceDef with a pilot would fallback to default
  • Pilots filled from the UnitSpawnPointOverrides that existed in the contract lance units would fill correctly

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

This update is just a dll and mod.json update.

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

This release fixes some bugs related to the newly upgraded Extended Lances.

The full release diff can be at the v1.4.1 pull request.

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Extended Lances: Lances with 0 unit spawn points broke map loading
• Extended Lances: A team's skipped lances could sometimes skip processing for all lances in that faction

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

This update is just a dll and mod.json update.

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

This release introduces Extended Lances version 2, a major upgrade to Extended Lances, and some minor bugfixes.

The full release diff can be at the v1.4.0 pull request.

#❗ Extended Lances v2 Upgrade ❗

As many of the features and fixes are related to EL - I'm drawing attention to it here. Some of the below fixes and improvements for EL v2 are covered below in the main changelog too.

• Extended Lances v2 Upgrade
  • Extended Lances has been given a major upgrade. There were some fundamental issues and limitations with EL that preventing some modders achieving the results they wanted. Now EL should have fewer bugs and more flexibility.
  • Backwards compatible
  • Extensively tested

#🚀 Features

• Extended Lances: Support all other Teams
  • EL now supports TargetAlly, EmployerAlly, HostileToAll, NeutralToAll
  • This feature is on by default so modpacks might want to consider game balance
  • Support can be individually turned off in the settings.json in the EL section
  • Can be individually overridden with per-contract overrides
• Extended Lances: Provide a way to force EL to allow specific LanceOverride set ups
  • A new settings.json property called ForceLanceOverrideSizeWithTag which controls this behaviour
  • When a LanceOverride (lance in the contract json) has this tag in its lanceTagSet/tagSetSourceFile then it will force EL to spawn this exact defined lance
  • lanceTagSet/tagSetSourceFile is not used in BattleTech so it's been adopted for this feature
• Extended Lances: Provide a way to force EL to allow specific LanceDef set ups
  • A new settings.json property called ForceLanceDefSizeWithTag which controls this behaviour
  • When a LanceDef has this tag in its LanceTags/tagSetSourceFile then it will force EL to spawn this exact defined lance
  • LanceTags/tagSetSourceFile is not used in BattleTech so it's been adopted for this feature
• Extended Lances: AutofillType setting
  • When EL autofills lances it has to decide how to handle units that are defined as empty (mechDef_None, vehicleDef_None)
  • A new settings.json property called AutofillType which controls this behaviour and it has two settings:
    • RespectEmpty is the legacy and still the default behaviour. When a LanceOverride or LanceDef has empty units defined (e.g. mechDef_None, vehicleDef_None) then it will respect those and not autofill them.
    • FillEmptyis a new autofill behaviour. When a LanceOverride or LanceDef has empty units defined (e.g. mechDef_None, vehicleDef_None) then it will autofill and replace them so units will spawn in those slots.
• Extended Lances: AutofillStartingFromContractDifficulty setting
  • A new settings.json property under ExtendedLances called AutofillStartingFromContractDifficulty
  • To aid in a fairer early game, you can now control when Extended Lances autofills units in lances that are below the faction's EL LanceSize by setting a contract difficulty (real difficulty - not UI/visible difficulty) to start autofilling from
  • This does not affect LanceDefs that fill up to the faction's LanceSize themselves (e.g. modpack Clan LanceDefs up to 5 or 6 etc)
  • For those who don't want this feature - set it to 1
• Extended Lances: AutofillUnitCopyType setting
  • At times EL needs to copy units to create a varied and interesting lance when autofilling it up to the Faction Size (or any overridden size). In this case EL tries to copy a 'Tagged' lance so to use this tagged UnitSpawnPointOverride and leverage the tags to provide variation. If there are no 'Tagged' lances available to copy it will use the defined behaviour in AutofillUnitCopyType in the settings.json.
  • A new settings.json property called AutofillUnitCopyType which controls this behaviour and it has two settings:
    • FirstInLance - The legacy behaviour. It would pick the first unit (index 0) and copy it (giving it new identify/clearing custom names etc)
    • RandomInLance - The new behaviour and is now the default behaviour. It picks a random unit from the Lance to copy (giving it new identify/clearing custom names etc)

#⚡Improvements

• Extended Boundaries: Ambush Convoy - Reduce increase from 30% to 20%
  • Previously Ambush Convoy boundary increased by 30%. As players sometimes struggle to catch the convoy if the Random Spawn algorithm places them too far away the boundary increase is now reduced slightly to 20%

#🐛 Bug Fixes

• Extended Lance: LanceOverrides with fewer units than a selected LanceDef didn't populate all LanceDef units
• Extended Lances: LanceDefId being direct reference only added one extra lance instead of EL number
• Random Spawns: Blackout - Opposing Force Orientation Was Wrong
• Additional Lances: Incorrectly handling lanceExcludedTagSet
  • MC AL lances incorrectly added lanceExcludedTagSet to the lanceTagSet. This would cause incorrect lance selection behaviour for MC AL lances with tags
• Vanilla: When BT copies LanceDefs it didn't maintain the LanceTags 'tagSetSourceFile' data
  • When BT copies LanceDefs it would never maintain/preserve the tagSetSourceFile property. Since this property is never used in the game it isn't a problem, however, Since ELv2 uses it - it has been fixed

#📝 Documentation / Website

• Added ModTek v2 information in the setup page
• Added per-contract override page
• Added settings.json override with settings.modpack.json and settings.user.json in the settings page
• Added SwapPlacement type EncounterStructure subtype node information in the contract builder API nodes area
• Added CombatState type DisablePilotDeath subtype node information in the contract builder API nodes area
• Updated Extended Lances information for version 2
• Removed HBS mod loader information

#🆙 Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • config/Contracts/My_Contract_ID_Example.json
    • config/Contracts/My_FP_Contract_ID_Example.json

Add the following to your settings.json:

#Under ExtendedLances add:

"EnableForTargetAlly": true,
"EnableForEmployerAlly": true,
"EnableForHostileToAll": true,
"EnableForNeutralToAll": true,
"AutofillType": "RespectEmpty",
"AutofillUnitCopyType": "RandomInLance",
"AutofillStartingFromContractDifficulty": 3,
"ForceLanceOverrideSizeWithTag": "mc_force_extended_lance",
"ForceLanceDefSizeWithTag": "mc_force_extended_lance",
Copy

and update to have mc_no_extended_lance:

"SkipWhenExcludeTagsContain": ["mc_no_extended_lance", "no_extended_lance"],
Copy

#Under ExtendedBoundaries/Overrides add:

{
  "ContractTypeName": "AmbushConvoy",
  "IncreaseBoundarySizeByPercentage": 0.2
}
Copy

This release fixes a major bug relating to v1.3.1 breaking the MC pathfinder system.

The full release diff can be at the v1.3.2 pull request.

#Major Bug Fixes

• Random Spawns: Broken pathfinder due to optimisations

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

This release focuses on compatibility enhancements and some minor bug fixes.

The full release diff can be at the v1.3.1 pull request.

#Bug Fixes

• Duo Duel: Fixed broken player pilot death prevention system
  • Fixed FestiveCouple's player pilot death prevention system again
  • This wasn't fully fixed in v1.3.0 for FestiveCouple
• Additional Lances: Fixed Support Lance objective starting at '2' instead of '1'

#Improvements

• ModTek v2 Support: Added support for ModTek v2
• Improved Deferred Loading of Assets
  • Older system didn't care what else was loading. Now properly checks to fit itself in between other assets loading
• Improved CAC Compatibility
  • Fixed a very rare situation where loading of assets by MC could deadlock loading careers or skirmish

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel/DuoDuel_FestiveCouple.json

This release fixes various bugs and adds various enhancements.

The full release diff can be seen here

#Bug Fixes

• Story Support: Fixed Boundary Detection Issue
  • Improved how the boundary game object is grabbed for boundary related processing
• Duo Duel: Fixed broken player pilot death prevention system
  • Fixed YearlyTussle and FestiveCouple's player pilot death prevention system
• Additional Lances: Fixed cases where direct LanceDef references failed
  • Sometimes if a direct LanceDef was used and it was not already loaded in memory it would fail and not grab it from the file system
• Contract Types: Fixed various non-critical spelling mistakes in Blackout, Solo Duel and Duo Duel

#Improvements

• Additional Lances: Added a per-contract override to manually specify the Additional Lance(s) dropping
  • This acts as a middle ground between dynamic AL and custom contract types. You can use a per-contract override for your contract and manually specify the dropping ally and enemy Additional Lances
• Additional Lances: Support higher than difficulty 10 for config files
  • MC used to only look for AL config difficulty1.json up to difficulty10.json. Now it has unlimited search for difficulties.
• Additional Lances: Added Drop Weight Influence maximum influence caps
  • Added an absolute max value for Drop Weight Influence Enemy and Ally settings that an influence value can go to.
• Contract Type Builder: Improved 'Mount On' positioning
• Contract Type Builder: Added custom MC trigger support for Dialogues
• Contract Types: Added optimisation for contract selection related to custom contract types

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • config/Contracts/My_FP_Contract_ID_Example.json
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/common.jsonc
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/mountainhold_lunar.jsonc
    • contractTypeBuilds/DuoDuel/common.jsonc
    • contractTypeBuilds/SoloDuel/common.jsonc
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel/DuoDuel_FestiveCouple.json
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel/DuoDuel_YearlyTussle.json
    • Edit settings.json (and/or your settings.user.json / settings.modpack.json overrides) with the following:

#Add the following under the AdditionalLances/DropWeightInfluence block

"EnemySpawnInfluenceMax": 0.9,
"AllySpawnInfluenceMax": 0.9,
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Specific for RT modpack

Since you had an early release with the Drop Weight Influence maximum - no need to change your custom config for that feature.

This is a minor bug fix release for some edge case bugs.

#Bug Fixes

• Infinite Loading: Contracts with Abandoned Flashpoints
  • If a Flashpoint was abandoned then it still remains the ActiveFlashpoint in the game. Due to this an assumption I made causes a crash as an abandoned flashpoint doesn't have any active contracts

#Improvements

• Exposed Lance Divergence check values in the settings
  • Required for support amongst the various modpacks as one solution doesn't fit all

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • Edit settings.json (and/or your settings.user.json / settings.modpack.json overrides) with the following:

#Add the following Misc block under the top-level Spawners block

"Misc": {
    "LanceSelectionDivergenceOverride": {
      "Enable": true,
      "Divergence": 20
    }
  }
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Specific for RT modpack

For RT modpack authors, or any modpack that uses custom high difficulty value lances like RT, use this block instead (or experiment with much higher divergence values):

"Misc": {
    "LanceSelectionDivergenceOverride": {
      "Enable": false
    }
  }
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This is the first release after my break. This fixes a few issues that have been hanging over me since I was away.

This release fixes some annoying broken functionality such as MC Flashpoint support, adds MC Story support, adds improvements and fixes various bugs.

#Minor Features

• Bigger Drops: Support extra player lances in Story & Restoration contracts
  • A new settings.json property called EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForStory which controls this behaviour
• Story Support: Support the full set of MC features in Story & Restoration contracts
  • A new settings.json property called EnableStoryOverrides exists. When this is enabled MC will look into each settings.json feature section for the EnableForStory property to decide if a feature should be running in Story & Restoration contracts
  • Incorporated a fix by @mcb5637. Thanks.
  • Using these features will severly unbalance the Story and I will not provide support

#Improvements

• Blackout: Changed the 'Trap' event in Phase 1 to reduce evasion by 2 instead of 3
  • Players take less of an evasion hit from the trap
• Better Skirmish Control
  • You can now use MC with Skirmish without the debug / quick skirmish rules (this means no longer spawning right next to each other)
  • A new settings.json property called EnableSkirmishMode which controls if this MC Skirmish ruleset is running
  • DebugSkirmishMode still exists and will spawn you next to the enemy for tests. It will also show the 'Quick Skirmish' button if enabled, and takes precedent over EnableSkirmishMode
• Vanilla: Support Story Flashpoints to be failable
  • Previously when failing a Story Flashpoint you would see the 'Restart', 'Load Save' or 'Exit Game' menu
  • You now can safely fail the contract
  • If for whatever reason you don't want this behaviour then you can use the setting "NeverFailSimGameInFlashpoints": false in the settings.json

#Bug Fixes

• Flashpoints: Fixed Flashpoint support not working
  • Fixed EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForFlashpoints not working at all
  • Fixed EnableFlashpointOverrides and the respective EnableForFlashpoints property not working at all
  • I'm aware of the workaround using contract-specific overrides and this is no longer needed to workaround this issue anymore
• Additional Lances: Fixed broken drop weight influence setting
  • The 'DropWeightInfluence` was broken and always thinking the player was dropping a lance heavier than the contract
  • This would effectively scale up the difficulty of the enemy Additional Lances dropping against you
  • Some modpacks were using a patched version of Mission Control I released to fix this issue since Sept 2020
• Vanilla: Fixed issue with certain contracts preventing the dropship UI appearing after failing them
  • This happened with a contract using Contract_IgnoreMissionResults in the OnContractFailureResults section
  • It would run vanilla code that was broken
• Infinite Loading: Fixed a rare issue where no suitable lance could be selected when loading a contract/combat
  • Thanks for the fix @Haree78

#Deprecations

• EncounterRules.GetPlayerLanceChunkName() will be removed in the future. Use EncounterRules.GetPlayerLanceChunkGameObject(GameObject encounterLayerGo) instead
• EncounterRules.GetPlayerLanceSpawnerName() will be removed in the future. Use EncounterRules.GetPlayerSpawnerGameObject(GameObject chunkPlayerLanceGo) instead

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/common.jsonc
    • Edit settings.json (and/or your settings.user.json / settings.modpack.json overrides) with the following:

#Add EnableSkirmishMode property above DebugSkirmishMode and set to 'true'

Enables the new Skirmish encounter ruleset

"EnableSkirmishMode": true,
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#Disable DebugSkirmishMode property

Disables the 'Quick Skirmish' button and disables the debug encounter ruleset that spawns you next to the enemy lance. Ideal use for this is for testing.

"DebugSkirmishMode": false,
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#Add the following properties after EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForFlashpoints

"NeverFailSimGameInFlashpoints": true,
"EnableStoryOverrides": false,
"EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForStory": false,
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#Add EnableForStory in every feature section under EnableForFlashpoints property and set to 'false'

Do this for:

• RandomSpawns
• HotDropProtection
• AdditionalLances
• ExtendedLances
• ExtendedBoundaries
• DynamicWithdraw

"EnableForStory": false,
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This is the final release of Mission Control by me, CWolf. It was a hard decision to make but after two and a half great years modding BattleTech - I've decided it's time for me to move on. Thank you all for the support and I'm glad you've enjoyed what Mission Control grew into. It's not without its faults but I'm very proud of the work I accomplished here.

Keep enjoying BattleTech and destroying your way through the Inner Sphere! Take care - it's been a pleasure. Signing off.

This release adds some balance and fixes.

#Improvements

• Blackout: Changed the 'Trap' event in Phase 1 to reduce evasion by 3 instead of reduce it down to 0
• Solo/Duo Duels: Some duels now prevent pilot death where the contract lore/story makes sense, there are:
  • Solo Duel - All Eyes On
  • Solo Duel - Life Lesson
  • Duo Duel - Festive Couple
  • Duo Duel - Yearly Tussle

#Bug Fixes

• Settings: Hot Drop Protection for Flashpoints didn't work
• Per-ContractID Overrides: Specific contract overrides worked for enabling features but not disabling them from defaults

#Custom Contract Type Builder

• New Result: ModifyLanceEvasionTicksByTag allows you to increase or reduce all tagged units' evasion by a set amount
• New Node: DisablePilotDeath combat type node allows disabling of pilot death and, optionally, pilot injury during a contract if used

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • MissionControl.pdb
    • mod.json
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/common.jsonc
    • contractTypeBuilds/SoloDuel/common.jsonc
    • contractTypeBuilds/DuoDuel/common.jsonc
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel/DuoDuel_FestiveCouple.json
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel/DuoDuel_YearlyTussle.json
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel/SoloDuel_AllEyesOn.json
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel/SoloDuel_LifeLesson.json

This release fixes broken skirmish and broken mechlab due to MC v1.1.0 changes.

#Bug Fixes

• Skirmish: Fixed broken skirmish due to lack of testing after contract specific overrides were introduced
• Mechlab: Fixed broken mechlab due to asset bundle work for save game fixes.

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • MissionControl.pdb
    • mod.json

This release fixes a broken Additional Player Units / Bigger Drops integration in MC v1.1.0.

#Bug Fixes

• Bigger Drops: Fixed broken integration from MC v1.1.0.

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • MissionControl.pdb
    • mod.json

This release focuses on better Flashpoint support, better configurability of MC and various features and bug fixes.

This upgrade has some breaking configuration changes. For upgrade instructions, see below the changelog.

Tracked by Milestone - v1.1.0

#Major Features

• Flashpoints: Custom contract type support
  • This allows modders to make use of any custom contract type such as Blackout, Solo Duel and Duo Duel in flashpoints.
• Flashpoints & Normal Contracts: Per contract MC feature overrides
  • This allows modders to specify specific settings (e.g. 2 enemy and 1 ally Additional Lances) per specific contract
  • Supports both MissionControl/config/Contracts and MissionControl/config/Flashpoints folders for file management for big modpacks. By default only Contracts is used for both.
• User & Modpack Settings Overrides
  • Modpacks can create a settings.modpack.json and players can create a settings.user.json settings file to ease upgrading MC versions.
  • Load order is settings.json then settings.modpack.json then settings.user.json. With the last values overriding earlier.

#Minor Features

• Limited Save Support: Added limited save recovery for loading combat saves that would get stuck loading due to MC issues
  • Loading a combat save is not supported. This is to help players on ironman mode who saved, loaded and now are stuck with a broken save. DO NOT DO IT.
  • Fixed an issue where Additional Lances spawned in the map wouldn't load.
  • MC will load the contract but all MC features are disabled. Try to finish the contract, or withdraw.
• Flashpoints: Bigger Drop Support: Allow turning on additional player mechs for flashpoints without the other MC features

#Changes

• Follow AI: Changed default follow behaviour to LanceOrder instead of HeaviestMech
  • This means the AI will follow your player slot #1 mech. If that dies it follows slot #2, and so on.
• Escort Convoy: Hunter lance is now limited to spawn to be within 13 and 20 hexes of the extraction zone.
  • Previously it spawned anywhere beyond around 8 hexes so could spawn the other end of the map or a bit too close.
• Blackout: Phase 2 invading lance spawned too close to the buildings they were trying to destroy
  • Lance now spawns between 13 and 20 hexes away instead of between 8 and 16
• Settings: Renamed some settings to be clearer. See the upgrade instructions for more details.

#Bug Fixes

• Reward Screen Softlock: Fixed a situation where if the player restarted a mission, and the previous attempt had an enemy Additional Lance, when the contract was completed the reward screen would soft lock due to dirty contract data for objectives
• Contracts Screen Infinite Load: Fixed another bad vanilla method situation where, in rare situations, the contracts screen would get stuck on the loading screen due to limited selection of biomes/factions/contract types/contracts.
• Dynamic Withdraw: Feature was running in situations it shouldn't.

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • MissionControl.pdb
    • mod.json
    • config/Contracts folder
    • Edit settings.json with the following:

#Change DisableIfFlashpointContract property to EnableFlashpointOverrides and set to 'false'

Readability change and, if enabled, looks at the EnableForFlashpoints value in each feature section of the settings.

"EnableFlashpointOverrides": false,
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#Add EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForFlashpoints property

Allows for enabling the additional player mechs (e.g. Bigger Drop support) in Flashpoints without enabling all the other MC features.

"EnableAdditionalPlayerMechsForFlashpoints": false,
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#Change HotDrop section to HotDropProtection

Readability change to prevent people thinking this section controls 'hot drops' when it only controls the protection when a hot drop occurs.

"HotDropProtection": {
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#Add EnableForFlashpoints for each major feature section

This is only taken into account if EnableFlashpointOverrides is true.

Add to:

• RandomSpawns
• HotDropProtection
• AdditionalLances
• ExtendedLances
• ExtendedBoundaries
• DynamicWithdraw

"EnableForFlashpoints": true,
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#Remove DisableIfFlashpointContract from AdditionalLances section

Delete it.

#Reverse the positive/negative sign for the two below skull DropWeightInfluence settings

This is a readability change to fix the non-intuitive set up from previous versions.

"EnemySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullBelow": -0.1,
"AllySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullBelow": 0.1
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#Change Target under FollowPlayer section to LanceOrder

"AI": {
  "FollowPlayer": {
    "Pathfinding": "Alternative",
    "Target": "LanceOrder",
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This release fixes a vanilla infinite contracts screen issue relating to original HBS code and restrictive contracts involving lack of faction selection and system restrictions, and a quick skirmish bug.

For upgrade instructions, see below the changelog.

Tracked by Milestone - v1.0.5

#Bug Fixes

• Contracts: Fixed infinite loading screen when faction and system restrictions conflicted with some contract types and contracts (Thanks a lot for the help Pode, Granner and Quiller with debugging this)
• Skirmish: Fixed map loading exception when allies dropped with you

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json

This release fixes lots of very important bugs and adds some enhancements to Mission Control. One very important late addition to the patch is that the ally lance Follow AI has been fixed. If you've previously disabled them or not used them because how useless they were - it's time to try them again!

Please take the time to read through the changelog as there's some very good fixes in this patch! Enjoy!

For upgrade instructions, see below the changelog.

Tracked by Milestone - v1.0.4

#Minor Features

• Additional Lances: AL lances are now taken into account before the contract autocompletes.
  • If you want to exclude a contract from this behaviour you can specify it in the settings.json under ExcludeFromAutocomplete
• Bigger Drops: Support for maxNumberOfPlayerUnits higher than 4 added
  • Allow Bigger Drops to restrict a contract to, for example, 5 or 6 units

#Changes

• Dynamic Withdraw: Reduced the maximum distance the extraction zone can appear from the player lance from ~17 hexes (400 meters) to 12 hexes (288 meters).
• Blackout: Decreased event phase 2 turret event trigger wait from 3 rounds to 2 rounds
• Blackout: Story Map 7 - Changed event phase 1 ambush camera position from medium to high to better see the droppods arrive
• Blackout: Changed the trigger condition for event phase 1 from the whole lance to requiring only 2 lance members
• Blackout: Changed contract balance
• Assassinate: Assassination target's extraction zone will now always spawn at least 20 hexes (480 meters) away from the target's spawn position

#Bug Fixes

• AI: Follow AI - Fixed broken pathfinding to player
  • No more useless allies! Woooo!
• Contracts: Fixed a broken vanilla contract generation method causing infinite contract screen loads
• Contracts: Fixed a broken vanilla contract generation method causing custom contract type contract spam
• Loading: Fixed MDD SQL error caused by encounter loading which resulted in a frequent black screen on load to main menu for players on HDD drives instead of SSDs.
• Blackout: Blackout specific ally lance dialogue didn't play
• Blackout: Fixed issue where contracts wouldn't end correctly if the player destroyed the ambush lance before the friendly turrets activated
• Blackout: Fixed event phase 2 invading lance not having a random spawn rule set up correctly
• Blackout: Story Map 7 - Fixed orientation of event phase 1 invading lance
• Blackout: Story Map 7 - Fixed orientation of event phase 2 ambush lance
• Additional Lances: Contracts will now not autocomplete when AL lances are still active (except for those specified in the config.
  • By default DefendBase and FireMission
• Additional Lances: Finally fixed comma based locales causing the AL reward to be 100 times expected amount
• Logs: RecomputePathing exceptions will no longer appear after a contract has loaded
• Solo / Duo Duel: Various spelling mistakes and dialogue tweaks (thanks @CargoVroom)

#Custom Contract Type Builder

• New Result: TriggerResultAtRandom allows you to specify multiple children results and one will be selected at random when this TriggerResultAtRandom result is triggered
• New Result: IgnoreChunks allows you to specify multiple chunk guids. When this result is triggered it will iterate over all chunks specified and set the Chunk to Completed and any objectives as Ignored

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout folder
    • dialogue folder
    • overrides/contracts/blackout folder
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel/SoloDuel/SoloDuel_AllEyesOn.json
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel/SoloDuel/SoloDuel_ChallengeAccepted.json
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel/SoloDuel/SoloDuel_CorneredRevenge.json

Replace the settings.json section IsPrimaryObjectiveIn

"IsPrimaryObjectiveIn": ["SimpleBattle", "CaptureBase"],
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Add to the settings.json section AdditionalLances

"ExcludeFromAutocomplete": ["DefendBase", "FireMission"],
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Modify the settings.json value for MaxDistanceForZone

"MaxDistanceForZone": 288,
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Add to the settings.json section FollowPlayer under AI

"TimeToWaitForPathfinding": 60,
"TicksToWaitForPathfinding": 20
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This release fixes a small but important bug in one Blackout contract.

For upgrade instructions, see below the changelog.

Tracked by Milestone - v1.0.3

#Bug Fixes

• Blackout: Unknown Cause didn't spawn an occupying lance in one of the second event phase events

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • mod.json
    • overrides/contracts/blackout/Blackout_UnknownCause.json

This release fixes mainly around Blackout contract type bugs and solo/duo duel contract type balances.

#Bug Fixes

• Blackout: Contracts Heavy Static and Unknown Cause would sometimes not complete successfully
• Blackout: Fixed Dynamic Withdraw feature not working
• Blackout: Various dialogue fixes (Thanks @NickAragua and Cargo)
• Solo/Duo Duel: Fixed issue with vehicles spawning
• Solo Duel: Fixed OpFor selection being too strong/weak
• Additional Lances: Yet another attempt to fix the locale reward issue being 100 times higher than it should
• Additional Lances: Reworked DropWeightInfluence to be more inline with the proposal by the RT team
• Extended Lances: Fixed difficulty modifications being processed too late

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • contractTypeBuilds/Blackout/common.jsonc
    • overrides/contracts folder and overwrite all

#Replace settings.json section DropWeightInfluence with

"DropWeightInfluence": {
  "Enable": false,
  "EnemySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullAbove": 0.1,
  "AllySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullAbove": -0.1,
  "EnemySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullBelow": 0.1,
  "AllySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkullBelow": -0.1
},
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This release fixes a Linux and Mac issue with v1.0 loading custom contract types.

#Bug Fixes

• Fixed path issue for Linux and Mac

#Upgrade Instructions

This is a MissionControl.dll and mod.json replacement only.

This release adds a new custom contract type, 9 new contracts, expands duel contract type biome support and lots of quality of life features and bug fixes.

1.0.0 has been a big release for me. I feel with the maturity of Mission Control it warrants the 1.0.0 versioning. This release contained over 24% of the commits in the entire mod and you'll see why below in the changelog. A huge amount of effort has been put into opening up the contract type system to allow other modders to create new and interesting contract types for the whole community to enjoy. Hopefully people will take advantage of this.

Thanks for staying with me on this journey over the years (first release was on the 18th November 2018 with the first code saved on the 11th September 2018). I know there's still issues with the spawner but I feel, as whole, Mission Control has greatly improved the BattleTech experience. I hope you all feel the same way.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think of Blackout, the new contract type.

For upgrade instructions, see below the changelog.

#Major Features

• Heavily expanded the custom contract type builder (check API docs on MC's website)
• Contract Types: Added new custom contract type
  • Blackout - A point of interest of your employer has gone dark and they're sending you in to investigate. A low intel situation with different situations each time you play.
    • Contains new non-vanilla map logic.
    • Includes new ally chatter specific to Blackout
• Contracts: Added 3 contracts for Blackout
  • Dug in Deep
  • Heavy Static
  • Unknown Cause
• Contracts: Added 3 contracts for Solo Duel
  • All Eyes On
  • Challenge Accepted
  • Cornered Revenge
• Contracts: Added 3 contracts for Duo Duel
  • At High Noon
  • Last Minute Replacements
  • Yearly Tussle
• Maps: Added 4 maps/biomes to Blackout
  • frostyslopes map on tundra biome
  • mountainhold map on lunar biome
  • story2 map on badlands biome
  • story7 map on lowlands biome
• Maps: Added 3 more maps/biomes to Solo Duel and Duo Duel
  • deathvalley map on desert biome
  • story3 map on lunar craters biome
  • story6 map on frozen poles biome
• AI: Follow AI - Added alternative pathfinding for 'Follow Player' AI
  • Configurable in settings.json with the new Alternative being the new default with Original being the v0.4.6 version
• Additional Lances: Alternative spawn calculation system
  • Off by default
  • Variable enemy/ally lance drops based on player drop skulls/difficulty level
  • settings.json under DropWeightInfluence

#Minor Features

• Additional Lances: Option to indepedently disable allies and/or enemy lances
  • settings.json as DisableAllies and DisableEnemies
• Additional Lances: Option to disabe/enable objective markers under certain conditions.
  • This allows the AL objective to be hidden to make the contract more unpredicable.
  • settings.json as HideObjective and ForceDisplayOfHiddenObjectiveIfPrimary
• Additional Lances: Added a MRB influence for lance selection
  • For example, MRB_Level:4 to spawn specific lances for MRB level 4
  • Or, MRB_Rating:200:300, to spawn when MRB rating is between 200 and 300
• AI: Follow AI - Fixed broken vanilla method call.
  • NeutralToAll units (and maybe others) were being identified as enemies for 'Follow AI' pathfinding. This might have caused some situations where the allies stopped following the player.
• Random Spawns: Exposed the boundary 'buffer' zone
  • This is where a lance is allowed to spawn (beyond X and within Y distance) when using the SpawnLanceAtEdgeBounadry spawner profile.
  • settings.json under the SpawnLanceAtEdgeBoundary section
• Extended Lances: Added a system to skip extending a lance by exclude tags
  • Skip if they have a set tag under their lance lanceExcludedTagSet in the contract override JSON
  • settings.json as SkipWhenExcludeTagsContain
• Extended Lances: Added a system to skip extending a lance by tags
  • Skip if they have a set tag under their lance lanceTagSet in the contract override JSON
  • settings.json as SkipWhenTaggedWithAny and SkipWhenTaggedWithAll
• Extended Boundaries: Increased the boundary size for SimpleBattle and mapGeneral_desertDam_aDes map

#Changes

• Solo/Duo Duels: Enforced weight limits on all contracts lower than difficulty 8
• Solo/Duo Duels: Prevented vehicles from spawning

#Bug Fixes

• Additional Lances: ExcludeContractTypes didn't work correctly and was using the wrong setting. It was picking up the ExtendedLances one instead.
• Additional Lances: Comma based decimal locales caused rewards to be much higher than intended
• Random Spawns: Fixed one cause of Defend Base and Destroy Base sometimes spawning you in the wrong location, or in the enemy base
• Random Spawns: Added a set distance the player must spawn beyond on Destroy Base (roughly 16 hexes away)
• Contract Types: Custom contract types weren't being picked up for ExcludeContractTypes or IncludeContractTypes settings
• Droppods: Fixed a vanilla bug where droppod animations and effects sometimes weren't synced up in position to the actual drop pod and landing mech/vehicle

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you (using the below guide)
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs, or you're a modpack author:
  • Delete from your MissionControl folder
    • contractTypeBuilds folder
  • Copy into your Mods/MissionControl folder:
    • MissionControl.dll
    • mod.json
    • contractTypeBuilds folder
    • dialogue/AllyDrop.json
    • overrides/cast
    • overrides/contracts/blackout folder
    • overrides/contracts/soloduel folder
    • overrides/contracts/duoduel folder
    • overrides/enums folder
    • overrides/encounterLayers folder
  • Edit settings.json with the following:

#Add to AdditionalLances section

"HideObjective": true,
"ShowObjectiveOnLanceDetected": true,
"AlwaysDisplayHiddenObjectiveIfPrimary": false,
"MatchAllyLanceCountToEnemy": false,
"DropWeightInfluence": {
  "Enable": false,
  "GlobalEnemyChanceToSpawn": 0.05,
  "GlobalAllyChanceToSpawn": 0.8,
  "EnemySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkull": 0.1,
  "AllySpawnInfluencePerHalfSkull": -0.1
},
"DisableAllies": false,
"DisableEnemies": false
Copy

#Add to ExtendedLances section

"SkipWhenTaggedWithAny": ["lance_type_solo"],
"SkipWhenTaggedWithAll": [],
"SkipWhenExcludeTagsContain": ["no_extended_lance"],
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#Add to ExtendedBoundaries/Overrides section

{
  "MapId": "mapGeneral_desertDam_aDes",
  "ContractTypeName": "SimpleBattle",
  "IncreaseBoundarySizeByPercentage": 0.55
}
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#Add to AI/FollowPlayer section

"Pathfinding": "Alternative",
Copy

#Add to the top level

"Spawners": {
  "SpawnLanceAtEdgeBoundary": {
    "MinBuffer": 100,
    "MaxBuffer": 200
  }
}
Copy

This release adds BT 1.9 support.

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs:
  • Just copy the new MissionControl.dll and mod.json into your Mods/MissionControl folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you

#Major Features

• Added BT 1.9 support

This release focuses on fixing bugs introduced by v0.4.4.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.5

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs:
  • Just copy the new MissionControl.dll and mod.json into your Mods/MissionControl folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you

#Changes

• Additional Lances: Reduced the lance reward from 150% to 75%.

#Bugs Fixed

• Original Flashpoints: MC runs for original flashpoints regardless of the settings.json option. This doesn't affect Heavy Metal flashpoints.

This release focuses on fixing critical bugs introduced by v0.4.3. Mainly fixing the broken campaign, flashpoints and skirmish.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.4

For detailed documentation, visit the Mission Control Website.

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs:
  • Just copy the new MissionControl.dll, cast/Portraits.json and mod.json into your Mods/MissionControl folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you

#Bugs Fixed

• Campaign / Flashpoints: MC breaks regions logic in campaign and flashpoints. This resulted in completely broken logic in the contracts.
• Skirmish: MC completely broke the loading of Skirmish
• Additional Lances: Portrait config was not set to use the new portraits introduced in v0.4.3

This release is part 2 of a big drive to reduce bugs in Mission Control. It fixes some long standing bugs and annoyances players have.

This turned out to be a much bigger release than I had intended and brings in 27 bug fixes, gameplay balances and minor features.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.3

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs:
  • Back up your old MC folder
  • Move your old MC folder out of your mod folder
  • Move the new MC folder into your mod folder
  • Manually make the changes back
  • If you prefer the old balance of lances, copy your entire config/AdditionalLances folder back to the new MC mod folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you

#Minor Features

• Additional Lances: Added an option (MatchAllyLanceCountToEnemy) to 'match' ally lance count to the rolled enemy lance count. This is off by default but can be turned on in the settings.json.
• Additional Lances: Added an option (IsPrimaryObjectiveIn) in the settings.json to specify if the enemy AL lance(s) should be a primary objective or not.
• Additional Lances: Added better friendly lance portraits (Thanks @17783 / Spectre)
• UI: Added an update notification. When a new version of MC is released the Main Menu will show a notification. This can be disabled in the settings.json.
• AI: Follow Player - Exposed TargetZoneRadius setting in the settings.json. This specifies the target zone the following mech will try to enter before not following anymore. If this zone is left, they will try to follow again.

#Changes

• Load Times: Decreased on average between 30% - 50%
• Additional Lances: Lower tonnage lances can now spawn for higher difficulty contracts (since v0.4.2 only the same class of lance [e.g. heavy, assault] would spawn for the difficulty level).
• Additional Lances: Reduced max lances to 1. MC is just too brutal at times. This can be edited back under the configs MissionControl/config/AdditionalLances/ if you want it harder again.
• Additional Lances: Substantially increased bonus payout from 20% to 150%. This is to try and offset the huge Company cost to fighting extra lances like the repairs, new mechs and pilot recruitment costs.
• Extended Boundaries: Increase specific boundary size for contract type & map combinations
  • Capture Base with mapGeneral_frigidSteppes_iTnd
  • Capture Base with mapGeneral_icyOutpost_iGlc
  • Simple Battle with mapGeneral_highPeak_iGlc
  • Fire Mission (all of them)
• Extended Boundaries: Increase default boundary increase from 20% to 30%
• Rescue: Added a minimum distance to objective check for the player lance spawn
• Hot Drop Protection: Changed evasion pips from 4 to 6 (effectively a change from 40% to 60% evasion) if the starting drop is within enemy detection range
• AI: Follow AI - Reduced 'should sprint' range from 200 to 120 units. This means the following unit should keep up better with the player mechs

#Bugs Fixed

• Random Spawns: Fixed issue where mechs wouldn't be able to move after spawning (stuck in one place from spawn)
• Random Spawns: Fixed issue where mechs would spawn in rocks or buildings
• Random Spawns: Fixed a few issues that could cause long loads
• Random Spawns: Fixed the Array out of Bounds errors when testing for valid spawn points
• Random Spawns: Fixed issue where the map 'plot' (point of interest) could not be found to orientate spawns on for the map mapGeneral_gridLock_uTech (and possibly others who shared the same map set up)
• Random Spawns: Fixed issue where the pathfinder mechs would trigger any Region they entered causing an error
• Extended Boundaries: Setting the sub-override IncreaseBoundarySizeByPercentage was not read. This is a similar issue as v0.4.2 but for the contract type & map Overrides section instead.
• Extended Boundaries: Customised size position can be wrong causing key points outside of boundary (same bug as in v0.4.2). Should be properly fixed now.
• Localisation: Fixed a possible issue with locales that don't use period / fullstop for their decimal place. An error would occur when loading a map with an Additional Lance reward
• Additional Lances: Fixed issue where if the player restarted a contract 3 or more times then no more AL lances would spawn (friendly or enemy)
• Additional Lances: Fixed issue where Heavy Metal campaign contracts would allow Mission Control to run (and Bigger Drops). There's a setting (DisableIfFlashpointContract) in the settings.json to allow for MC to run in flashpoints but it's off by default.

This release is part 1 of 2 for a big drive to reduce bugs in Mission Control.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.2

#Upgrade Instructions

• If you're using MC without a modpack and none of your own changes, just delete the MC folder and move the new one into your mods folder
• If you're using MC without a modpack but you've made some of your own changes to the configs:
  • Back up your old MC folder
  • Move your old MC folder out of your mod folder
  • Move the new MC folder into your mod folder
  • Manually make the changes back
  • If you prefer the old balance of lances, copy your entire config/AdditionalLances folder back to the new MC mod folder
• If you're using MC as part of a modpack, let the modpack authors update MC for you

#Changes

• Balanced Additional Lances for every difficulty level.
  • No enemy lances on very low difficulty contracts
  • Lances that appear should now be lower than your lance level so to not overload players
  • Higher levels are roughly the same as before
  • Default fallback lance is now a light lance instead of a range between light up to assault
  • Removed example MC lance configs that did nothing but resulted in using the fallback. This could lead to a case where a 1/2 skull contract would give you two enemy assault lances (yikes! sorry guys!)
• AI: Follow AI can now be configured.
  • Can decide the follow logic (HeaviestMech or LanceOrder)
  • Can decide when to stop using this AI (OnEnemyDetected, OnEnemyVisible, WhenNotNeeded [previous default])
  • Can decide how far away from the target the AI should only sprint to catch up

#Bugs Fixed

• Additional Lances: Units used to sometimes spawn inside each other. This was harmless for player units in player units but issues could occur with allies and enemies. If droppods were involved there was often a mess on the floor afterwards and a dead mech
• Story / Restoration contracts: MC was running for Restoration contracts since v0.4.0. This has now been prevented and is a similar fix that went in for Story contracts in v0.4.1.
• Extended Boundaries: Setting IncreaseBoundarySizeByPercentage was not read. This meant there was no way to manually change the boundary size.
• Extended Boundaries: Custom sizes, including the default of 20% increase, caused some contracts to have extraction points and other important locations to fall outside the boundary.
• AI: Follow AI has been improved. Now, the Follow AI no longer runs when a condition is met (defaults to OnEnemyDetected). This means the allied units will actually fight instead of ignore combat.
• AI: Various contract types were missing Follow AI for important reasons. This could sometimes cause the AI to do nothing. This was reworked to allow the AI to run in all contract types.
• Encounters: Fixed the cause of SaveSpawnPositions errors

#Known Issues

• It's possible the changes to the AI have also affected the friendly convoy escort missions. If you see weird behaviour there please report it to me

This release fixes an important bug that crashed some story missions on load.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.1

#Bugs Fixed

• Fixed issue where some story missions would crash on loading due to contract type fallback support added in v0.4.0

This release brings in custom contract types with reuse of story map support.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.4.0

#Major Features

• Added a system to build contract types at runtime
• Added custom contract types
  • Solo Duel - A 1v1 fight in the arena showcased in the story mission ‘Showdown’
  • Duo Duel - A 2v2 fight in the arena showcased in the story mission ‘Showdown’
• Added 3 contracts for Solo Duel
  • A Taste for War
  • Life Lesson
  • Proxy War
• Added 3 contracts for Duo Duel
  • Double Trouble
  • Festive Couple
  • Words Hurt

#Minor Features

• Unknown contract type fallback ruleset - If an unknown countract type is encountered, a fallback contract type ruleset will be applied so access to the full MC featureset will still work for that contract type
• Added IncludeContractTypes and ExcludeContractTypes to RandomSpawns, HotDrop, AdditionalLances, ExtendedLances, ExtendedBoundaries and DynamicWithdraw settings.json options

#Bugs Fixed

• AI - Friendly turrets will no longer get the 'Follow Heaviest Mech' AI applied to them. This was causing issues where turrets wouldn't fire on the enemy if the player's heaviest mech was too far away. The turrets wanted to sprint after the player.
• Additional Lance Dialogue - Fixed spelling mistake

This release brings in BT 1.8 compatibility and some features and bugfixes. Sadly, I haven't been able to fix the spawn and load issues yet but I am working on it.

Tracked by Milestone - v0.3.2

#Major Features

• Added BattleTech 1.8 support
• Additional Lances: Added contract rewards for destroying Additional Lance enemy lances.
  • Read the AL documentation for the RewardsPerLance section. Default is 20% contract value reward.
• Extended Boundaries: Provided more control on the size of the encounter boundaries
  • Read the EB documentarion for how to control the boundary size.
• Added ability to prevent specific Additional Lance lance configs from autofilling with Extended Lance autofill
  • Read the AL documentation for the supportAutofill property.

#Minor Features

• Random Spawns: Provided a setting to turn off random spawns for the original map spawns (Additional Lances and Extended Lances will still spawn according to their spawn profile even with this turned to false)

#Bugs Fixed

• Quick Skirmish: Launching into a Quick Skirmish is now fixed. Thanks KMiSSioN
• Quick Skmirish: Completing a Quick Skirmish fight is now fixed.

BT 1.7 forced me to release early to bring in BT 1.7 support. Mainly adds support for this, plus some additional features and minor bug fixes. Any remaining v0.3.1 milestone items are pushed to v0.3.2.

#Major Features

• Added BattleTech 1.7 support
• Added 'Battle+ / Three-Way' contract type support

#Minor Features

• Additional Lances: Support added for mult-folder support under the MC/lances directory
• Additional Lances: Support madlibs for lance and unit tags for MC/lances configs

#Improvements

• Random Spawns: Made the search algorithm more efficient. It might help with load times a little.

#Bugs Fixed

• Random Spawns: Caught an error that occurs in the pathfinder when the nodes are out of index

This release adds major and minor features, improvements, and bug fixes.

#Major Features

• Extended Boundaries - Increases the map size to the maximum possible. Sometimes up to four times the size.
• Dynamic Withdraw - When withdrawing, a dynamic extraction zone is created that you must get your lance to before you can escape the mission
• Added 'Attack Defend' contract type support
• Added 'Fire Mission' contract type support

#Minor Features

• Extended Lances: Allowed for specifying a difficulty modifier to the faction to allow for individual lance selection tweaks
• Extended Lances: Added Better Base Defence compatibility

#Improvements

• Map loading times are improved again
• Prevented turret lances from being influenced by Extended Lances
• Reduced the amount of bad lance spawns where you're stuck on a hill / mountain but can move a little bit

#Bugs Fixed

• Fixed infinite load screen caused by Extended Lances
• Fixed Extended Lances adding bad spawns for the additional lance units
• Fixed a bug where Extended Lances couldn't handle a bad contract json usecase

This release focuses on bug fixing and stabilising Mission Control (as it's well known for its long loads and patchy spawn points).

#Improvements

• Map load times are much faster, even in a worst case situation.

#Bugs Fixed

• Fixed infinite load screen wait bugs
• Fixed unit spawns that didn't allow a unit to move
• Fixed units spawning on buildings (urban maps highlighted this bug)
• Fixed 'Follow Player' AI - Between BTv1.4 and BTv1.6.2 a tag was changed that broke this AI

This release focuses on BattleTech v1.6.2 compatibility.

#Major Features

• BT v1.6.2 Support

#Known Issues

• Quick Skirmish seems to sometimes launch with lances that have no weapons
• All existing bugs from previous version of MC still exist

This release focuses on BattleTech v1.4 compatibility.

#Major Features

• BT v1.4 Support

#Changes

• Disabled ExtendedLances by default to prevent a compatibility issue with Better Base Defense. You can enable it in the settings.json

This is the full release version of v0.2.0. Like the pre-release it fully supports v1.3 and Flashpoints.

#Major Features

• Extended Lances - Increase the size of a faction's lances allowing for clan stars (5 mechs) and reinforced lances / comstar demi-lances (6 mechs). Works for vanilla spawns and Mission Control spawns.
• Additional Lances Faction Rep - Allow faction reputation range to select which lance to use
• Additional Lances Elite Lances - Allow elite lances to be selected if allied or enemy with a faction
• Flashpoint options - Allow for disabling Mission Control entirely, or just disabling only Additional Lances for FPs
• Additional Lances Skull Lance Difficulty - Added a full initial set of lances to fit different difficulty levels
• Ally Lance Combat Dialogue - Added more dialogue than the sample amount in v0.2.0a
• Additional Lances Tonnage Restrictions - Ability to disable Additional Lances on various tonnage rules
• BT v1.3 / FP Support
• Ally Lance Combat Dialogue - Unique dialogue per contract type and MC contract type variations if you have an ally lance dropping with you.
• Additional Lances Skull Lance Difficulty - Additional Lances now take into account skull difficulty when selecting lances to drop into a contract.
• Additional Lances in Battle are Primary Objectives - This makes a lot of sense for a Battle as the contract sometimes would end seemingly at random when the original targets were destroyed.
• Hot Drop Safety Features - When dropping into close proximity of enemies hot drop safety features will take effect. In the settings.json you can modify these. It supports auto-guard, auto-evasion and an option to include the enemies in this protection mode too.

#Minor Features

• Added damaged lances to the Additional Lances selection
• Added more pilot names for combat dialogue
• Added more pilot portraits for combat dialogue
• Added option to turn ally drop combat dialogue off

#Changes

• Changed the Additional Lance keys from all uppercase to upper snake case.
• Tweaked the path finder checks for spawning to make it slightly more lenient on sloped spawns

#Bugs Fixed

• Skirmish would crash if ally combat dialogue referenced 'Commander' string replacement as no Commander exists like in the Sim Game
• Contract Loading Freezes - A few contract loading freezes were fixed
• Contract Loading Loops - A few contract loading loop issues were fixed
• Contract Loading Times Improved - Contract loading times are drastically improved
• Random Spawns Fallback Fixes - Fallbacks weren't always activated correctly and when they were used sometimes the lance orientation was incorrect.

This is the initial release for Mission Control.

#Major Features

• Random spawns based on contract type
• Additional lances. Enemy and ally lances will spawn based on contract type, biome type, percentage chances, maximum limits and lance configs.
• New AI - Follow Lance for allies on some contract type variations
• Quick Skirmish - New menu item on the main menu that uses last used skirmish lance for a singleplayer fight
• Mod Support - Allow other modders to submit their encounter rulesets for use in MC.