# BATTLETECH LIVE - BATTLETECH Update 1.8 and Heavy Metal Paid Expansion Release Notes - Product: BATTLETECH (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/battletech) - Vendor: Harebrained Schemes - Date: 2019-11-21 - Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/637090/view/1625166014494709488 - Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/battletech/releases/2019-11-21-live-battletech-update-1.8-and-heavy-metal-paid-e What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog. Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'. --- - **added** — Added Marauder (75 Tons) BattleMech with Lance Command Module that decreases damage taken by it and its allies and boosts Called Shots - **added** — Added Warhammer (70 Tons) BattleMech with Optimized Capacitor Feeds that increase the damage of all equipped Energy weapons - **added** — Added official mod support using ModTek format with external mod locations and new mod management UI in the main menu - **added** — Added two new maps: Jumbled Karst and Boulder Field - **added** — Added over 40 new contracts including new recurring allied and enemy NPCs and new contract variants - **added** — Added new mercenary travel events - **added** — Added star map weapon store filters to view planetary industry by type - **added** — Added new Mech Viewer with close-up rotatable view and paint pattern customization in the Mech Lab - **added** — Added new mercenary company crests drawn from notable Inner Sphere factions - **changed** — Rebalanced stores and LosTech items, making weapons and equipment finding more straightforward and increasing LosTech item power - **added** — Heavy Metal expansion includes 7 classic BattleMechs, 1 new HBS Original BattleMech, 8 new weapon systems, and a linked Flashpoint campaign - **changed** — Save games become unavailable if active mods are uninstalled or disabled Thank you for playing BATTLETECH! Release 1.8 is now available! This release contains a number of content additions, cool new features, official mod support, as well as bug fixes and optimizations. We have also released the Heavy Metal paid expansion. Both 1.8 and Heavy Metal have French, German, and Russian localizations. ##### Release 1.8 Notes, 11/21/2019 **1.8 HIGHLIGHTS:** 2 free classic BattleMechs: Marauder and Warhammer, mod support, over 40 new contracts, 2 new maps, new events, performance optimizations, and more… See details in the “New Free Features & Content” section below. **BATTLETECH: Heavy Metal expansion now available:** Heavy Metal contains 7 classic BattleMechs, 1 brand new “HBS Original” BattleMech, 8 new weapon systems, and a new linked Flashpoint campaign that brings you face-to-face with two legendary characters from BattleTech lore! Purchase the Season Pass to get a deal on all three BATTLETECH expansions (Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, and Heavy Metal)! BATTLETECH update 1.8 and the Heavy Metal paid expansion are available now for Steam, GOG, and Paradox Plaza on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. **Note for Paradox Plaza users:** After purchase of the Heavy Metal expansion, you will need to be logged in within the game in order to see Heavy Metal content. **Where to find your new Heavy Metal paid expansion content: **All new ‘Mechs have been added to the general pool for spawning enemy lances, and all of them can be found in the stores of planets controlled by different factions. New weapon systems can be reliably found in various stores using our new star map filters (see below). **Please note: new weapons systems are not available in skirmish mode (including multiplayer). **As an added bonus, starting a new Career Mode will prompt you with an offer from your MechTech Yang to give you a new Heavy Metal ‘Mech and some weapons that “fell off the back of a freighter.” A different batch of items will be available every time you start a new career. We hope you enjoy our latest BATTLETECH releases! -- HBS **IMPORTANT:** Additional note for players who mod various game files… **Guess what? Modding is now officially supported!** What does that mean (other than this repeated release note warning can finally go away)? See details in the “New Free Features & Content” section below. ##### New Free Features & Content - **Classic BattleMechs** - **MARAUDER (75 Tons)** - perhaps the most iconic 'Mech in BattleTech, known for its ability to hang back and snipe from a distance. Its **Lance Command Module** decreases the damage taken by it and its allies and gives a boost to Called Shots. - **WARHAMMER (70 Tons)** - known for dealing devastating particle cannon strikes, it exists to destroy other 'Mechs quickly and efficiently. Its **Optimized Capacitor Feeds** increase the damage of all equipped Energy weapons. - **Official Mod Support **- With this release of BATTLETECH, we are introducing official mod support to the game and now support the ModTek format that the modding community is currently using. Mod locations are now external to the game, making them more portable and less prone to Steam interference and breakage. We’ve also added new mod management UI to the main menu to streamline mod use. **As usual, use mods at your own risk. Some mods may not work at launch. In-game modding tools are not included. ** - Formalized mod installation location and process - We have included documentation on where to find mods, how to add/delete mods, and links to the BATTLETECH modding community. - Simpler mod injection process - The current approach effectively requires a mod for mod support to be enabled. Our version will integrate the mod loading process into BATTLETECH, allowing modders to focus more on mod generation rather than mod loading. - Support for most existing mods with minimal changes to their existing data format - Save game mod awareness. Save games that include active mods become unava _[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/637090/view/1625166014494709488]_