New Development Snapshot 0.50.0 for MegaMek, MegaMekLab, and MekHQ

[Hammer]

Hi Everyone,

It's here at last: 0.50.0! this is again one of the largest releases we've ever done.  Our standard release notes have changed and there is a lot in these notes.  We assume that, as BattleTech players, everyone always reads all the notes. 😊

Lets start with a couple of important reads:

Prepare for the transition to java 17 upcoming changes and how to stay updated

next

Pre-Release Notes for 0.50.0-Development.

Since you've read the links above, you know about Java 17, the new unified release, and the tar.gz file transition and are ready for it. Something else to be aware off is we've had to increase the memory that the programs need to run:

• MegaMek upped to 4 GB of RAM
• MegaMekLab stays at 1 GB of RAM
• MekHQ now needs 4 GB of RAM

With the serious technical stuff out of the way, here is just a small look at what's changed!
MegaMek

• Numerous bug fixes, including what we believe are final fixes for SimFire issues.
• Enhanced markers for hit, drifted, and missed artillery and bomb attacks.

• Implemented the ability to place and carry cargo objects (currently for Mechs and ProtoMechs only). Capture the flag anyone?
• Ammo Autoconfig anyone?

Here's an update on our favorite Sociopath - Princess


After spending a lot of time at Blackjack, she’s now mastering the art of scouting. Her new heat mapping feature helps her predict enemy moves, even under double-blind conditions. She’s really getting a handle on using double-blind now!

She’s also become more cautious in hazardous terrain. On low-gravity maps, she avoids pushing units beyond safe movement limits, while on high-gravity maps, she’s careful with jumping to prevent potential mishaps. She’s finally recognizing the risks of Deep Snow and Rubble too.

Additionally, Princess is becoming more adept with other hazardous terrains like Magma, Swamp, Mud, and Water. She’s now ensuring that units avoid unnecessary danger in these environments. Water movement has improved for UMU and Submarine Infantry units, though transitioning in and out of water still has its challenges.

Beyond terrain navigation, Princess has gotten smarter about weaponry too. The latest update introduces semi-intelligent and randomized munition selection. Princess now checks enemy team compositions for different unit types, armor, and capabilities like high speed or ECM, and even factors in available support for guided munitions. She’s prepared for both day and night conditions.

Princess is also adjusting her settings so now her dialog’s sliders have clearer titles, and her Bravery sliders are finally labeled right.

MegaMekLab

• Improved record sheet shading.
• Record sheets now display in the unit viewer.

MekHQ

• Expanded and developed the Education Module
• Added execution and jettison options for prisoners, marking the first steps toward implementing a war crimes rating that will impact unit ratings.
• Improvements to Autoawards and Turnover & Retention
• Enhanced Force Generator role functions.
• Updated handling of divorce, pregnancy, and death events.
• Added random personality functionality (no gameplay impact yet).
• Updated presets, with StratCon now considered out of Alpha and into Beta.
• Starting to depreciate the FMMr (Field Manual: Mercenaries-Revised) rules and converting to Campaign Ops rules where applicable.
• We've changed how Unit Card/Rating display and they update weekly now.

Java 17 is now Required
Starting with version 0.50.0-Development, Java 17 is REQUIRED. For more detailed instructions, check our updated guide to Updating to Adoptium (Eclipse Temurin Open Source Java). Make sure to read the directions carefully, especially Step 6. We'll continue using Java 17 until Fall 2026. Versions beyond Java 17 are not officially supported.

Single/Unified Package Release
We've transitioned to a single, unified package for our releases. This means a single download contains files for all supported operating systems. For more details see MegaMek ‐ Single Unified Package Release

Important Change: We've Transitioned to .tar.gz Files
We are now using `.tar.gz` files for downloads, which are more efficient and consistent across different systems.

Why Use .tar.gz Files?

• Unified Packaging: Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Efficiency: Better management and compression of files.
• Compatibility: Supported by most modern OSs and third-party tools.

Operating System	Native .tar.gz Support	Recommended Method	Alternate Extraction Method
Windows 11 (version 22H2 and later)	Yes	Use third-party tools: 7-Zip, WinRAR, WinZip	Use File Explorer: Right-click the `.tar.gz` file, select "Extract All"
Windows 11 (versions before 22H2)	No	Use third-party tools: 7-Zip, WinRAR, WinZip	Use Command Prompt with `tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz`
Windows 10 (version 1803 and later)	No	Use third-party tools: 7-Zip, WinRAR, WinZip	Use Command Prompt or PowerShell with `tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz`
Windows 10 (versions before 1803) & Earlier Versions	No	Use third-party tools: 7-Zip, WinRAR, WinZip	N/A
macOS (starting from Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah, March 2001)	Yes	Built-In Tools: Use Finder's built-in Archive Utility, or The Unarchiver	Use Terminal with `tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz`
Linux (all major distributions)	Yes	GUI's built-in unarchiver	Use Terminal with `tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz`

A Few Reminders
Setting Up a Custom User Data Directory for MegaMek, MegaMekLab, and MekHQ
How to use the Custom User Data Folder

The Milestone System Summary
Details on the replacement of the Stable/Development approach are available here.

State of the Universe (January 19, 2024)
If you haven't read the State of the Universe, please do so. It's packed with relevant information.

MekHQ Campaign Update Instructions

To ensure the integrity of your MekHQ campaign, follow these steps when updating between versions:

• Complete ongoing contracts, save, and exit the program.
• Backup your campaign and custom files.
• DO NOT COPY MegaMek saves or preference files from different versions.
• Update MekHQ to the latest version. Keep each version in its own folder.
• Load your save file and advance the game by one day.
• Re-save custom presets.
• Exit and restart MekHQ.

Social Media
Join our official MegaMek Discord. We're also part of Everything BattleTech and Classic BattleTech Discords. Follow us on Facebook: MegaMek BattleTech and MegaMek.
Contributing
Interested in contributing? Find out how here.
Change Logs (Release Specific) and Download Links
For this release the change logs are too large for the forum, please see them at the download links provided.

MegaMek Change Log 
Download

MegaMekLab Change Log 
Download

MekHQ Change Log 
Download

Thanks!

PS: If you made it this far I'm going to assume you read Pre-Release Notes for 0.50.0-Development.

[Hammer]

Holding for announcements.

[johnboyjjb]

Bad link to education module:
https://github.com/MegaMek/mekhq/blob/master/MekHQ/docs/Personnel%20Modules/Education%20Module.pdf

Your link currently sends one to turnover - which is close enough. But I thought you'd like the right link.

[Hammer]

Bad link to education module:
https://github.com/MegaMek/mekhq/blob/master/MekHQ/docs/Personnel%20Modules/Education%20Module.pdf

Your link currently sends one to turnover - which is close enough. But I thought you'd like the right link.

Thanks!

[BairdEC]

Ooh.... Random merc company names!  Thanks to whoever coded that bit!

[BATTLEMASTER]

Ooh.... Random merc company names!  Thanks to whoever coded that bit!

Right?  I feel like I suck at naming my merc companies.  This feature is pretty helpful with that!

[Iceweb]

I did a little work on the discord on generating the random merc names.  It was a fun project.  Sadly I had to step back from it before it got very far and I didn't do any coding on it.  I might still have my google sheet of the initial names we came up with around somewhere.

Anyways I'm glad its a liked feature

[Sir Chaos]

I did a little work on the discord on generating the random merc names.  It was a fun project.  Sadly I had to step back from it before it got very far and I didn't do any coding on it.  I might still have my google sheet of the initial names we came up with around somewhere.

Anyways I'm glad its a liked feature

Yeah, I think I´ll get a lot of mileage out of that. So far, almost all my merc units were called either Chaos Legion, Lightning Strikers or Hired Blades. Time to shake it up a little.

[Rift_Knight]

Finally, Option to negotiate Salvage! Yhippe!!! Impressive work to all the Devs. Many thanks. 1000 "Who's Line is it Anyway" points to all of you. 

[Abydos]

There appears to be an issue with the Company Generator. I left almost everything on default, without touching the number of support personnel, and I left the option "Pool Assistants" toggled on. Upon creation I noticed my Unit Reputation rating was being docked -5 for lack of MechTechs, even though the generator hired 12 and was supposed to bring their astech pool up to full strength. I only had 66 astechs, and I had to manually bring the pool to full strength.

This caused me to have to wait an entire month (week?) at game start in order for the reputation to correct itself. Edit: Also, the generator needs to take whoever it assigns as unit commander and apply the skill rolls that CamOps requires on page 34 for the unit Command Rating. Otherwise, this also has to be done manually and would still require the user to wait a month (week?) for the reputation to update.

[Illiani]

Hi, thanks for getting in touch. Currently our company generator is still using the same home brewed system that has been in place for the past couple years. We are looking to update it, but as with all things that takes developer time.

Regarding your MekTech and Astech issue, that’s likely caused by a legacy code issue that we’re aware of and will be having a fix in 50.01

[Abydos]

Thanks for the reply and info! Something else I noticed, and you might be aware of, is that the generator created light & medium lances that were 5 tons over their weight class according to AtB rules. They were getting assigned Medium & Heavy lance icons respectively, and I'm assuming the scenarios generated for them would put them up against much stronger forces due to this (especially the light lance).

[Illiani]

So pure AtB is effectively deprecated at this point. We’re not planning to get rid of it entirely, but the plan is to gradually replace it with official CamOps rules, with StratCon handling the scenario generation.

[Abydos]

Yeah, I'm using StratCon. I just assumed that scenario generation would get affected by lance weights being over a certain amount, like AtB's would. If StratCon scenarios are just based on pure BV and individual mek weight, that allows for much more freedom in lance design.

[Hammer]

Stratcon balances by BV. But in the current versions we are mid-project around how that balance works. Currently it's can generate swarms of units rather than a balanced mix of units.

[Abydos]

I'm currently playing a 3035 campaign, and in every battle the OpFor is choosing Tandem-Charge missiles for their SRMs. This tech is extinct during the succession wars, and is highly advanced during the Clan invasion. I have the MegaMek options "Tech Level" set to Experimental, but "Allow Extinct Equipment" unchecked. The only way to stop having to manually configure each enemy unit to remove them is to set the tech level to Advanced and then auto-configure the bot forces. However, they then replace them with Smoke missiles (not that great of a choice). I think Tandem-Charge missiles are the only ones they're choosing out-of-era.

[Illiani]

We’re aware of the issue and working on a fix. If you set the tech level to Advanced it should mitigate the issue

[McSlayer]

So My biggest concerning question is...

Does 50.0 Still have the Bug, "I can't shoot if you are shooting Bug", where almost everything you calculated during the firing phase gets wiped out and reset, so you have to calculate your firing orders all over again... Is this Fixed in 50.0?

[Hammer]

So My biggest concerning question is...

Does 50.0 Still have the Bug, "I can't shoot if you are shooting Bug", where almost everything you calculated during the firing phase gets wiped out and reset, so you have to calculate your firing orders all over again... Is this Fixed in 50.0?

Should be fixed.

[bblaney]

Hey guys when using MekHQ to modify a mech, the game keeps freezing.

Just so ya know!

Thanks!

[Illiani]

That seems to be fixed in 50.01 (coming soon).

[bblaney]

That seems to be fixed in 50.01 (coming soon).

Thanks!

[txsoldier94]

I'm not able to deploy units on the StratCom map.

When I have imported units from previous campaigns, I am able to deploy units. But whenever I build a unit I get no option to deploy.

[RaozSpaz]

I'm not able to deploy units on the StratCom map.

When I have imported units from previous campaigns, I am able to deploy units. But whenever I build a unit I get no option to deploy.

What kind of contract are you on. One of the contract types controls your deployments entirely.

[txsoldier94]

I'll look when I get home.